States export prisoners for profit

The prison population in the United States grew 2.8 percent from July 2005 to July 2006. Well over 2.24 million mostly

working-class people are in prison today. Prisons are so overcrowded that state prisons are increasingly exporting inmates to other states.

Eight states are already exporting or will export prisoners. California transferred 40 prisoners to Mississippi last week and will soon transfer 8,000 more.

Inmates are often transferred to institutions run by private corporations that grow wealthy off the super-exploitation of prisoners. One-third of Hawaii’s 6,000 prisoners are held in private prisons in three different states.

Prisoners face many pressures—isolation from their families, lack of access to educational services, and other daily disruptions. In 1997, 60 percent were imprisoned more than 100 miles from their last place of residence.

Prisoners have not passively accepted these conditions. In April, 500 Arizona inmates in a privately run prison rebelled in reaction to the announcement of transfers to Indiana.