Private Prisons Spend $45 Million On Lobbying, 
Rake In $5.1 Billion For Immigrant Detention Alone
By Aviva Shen
Think Progress
August 3, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/03/627471/private-prisons-spend-45-million-on-lobbying-rake-in-51-billion-for-immigrant-detention-alone/

Nearly half of all immigrants detained by federal
officials are held in facilities run by private prison
companies, at an average cost for each detained
immigrant is $166 a night. That's added up to massive
profits for Corrections Corporation of America, The GEO
Group and other private prison companies:

A decade ago, more than 3,300 criminal immigrants were
sent to private prisons under two 10-year contracts the
Federal Bureau of Prisons signed with CCA worth $760
million. Now, the agency is paying the private companies
$5.1 billion to hold more than 23,000 criminal
immigrants through 13 contracts of varying lengths.

CCA was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2000 due to
lawsuits, management problems and dwindling contracts.
Last year, the company reaped $162 million in net
income. Federal contracts made up 43 percent of its
total revenues, in part thanks to rising immigrant
detention. GEO, which cites the immigration agency as
its largest client, saw its net income jump from $16.9
million to $78.6 million since 2000.

As the AP explains, these remarkable profits come in the
wake of an equally remarkable lobbying campaign. In the
past decade, three major private prison companies spent
$45 million on campaign donations and lobbyists to push
legislation at the state and federal level. At times,
this money has gone to truly nefarious legislation. A
2011 report found that the private prison industry spent
millions seeking to increase sentences and incarcerate
more people in order to increase the industry's profits.
30 of the 36 legislators who co-sponsored Arizona's now
mostly invalidated immigration law - which would have
landed many more people in detention - received campaign
contributions from private prison lobbyists or
companies, including CCA and GEO. According to a report
released last year, CCA spent over $900,000 on federal
lobbying and GEO spent between $120,000 to $199,992 in
Florida alone during a short three-month span in 2011.
$450,000 went to the Republican national and
congressional committees, while Democrats received less
than half that number. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)
and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) were also among the private
prison lobby's top benefactors.

Private prisons have also been found guilty of abuses
ranging from understaffing facilities tobribing judges
to sentencing juveniles with minor offenses to
disproportionately long terms in privately-owned
correctional facilities. A recent report found a Georgia
prison run by CCA charges detainees $5 a minute for
phone calls while paying them just a dollar a day for
menial labor that keeps the facility running; immigrants
in civil detention centers have been exploited by the
same program.

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