The Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, GA, happens to be largest detention center in the country.
It holds 2000 detainees, charging taxpayers up to $200 a night and producing yearly profits that hover between $35 and $50 million.
And the facility secures even MORE profit, through measures “that range from denying basic necessary services to detained immigrants to limiting access to their family members.”
“[The facility] charges inmates more than $5 a minute to make a phone call. To pay for this, inmates work in the facility and earn a whopping $1 a day. Five days of hard work gives them just enough time for a one minute phone call.
It is no wonder that private prisons have been instrumental in lobbying for anti-immigrant legislation, when these laws are allowing them to profit “close to $5 billion and their share prices are at an all-time high.”
Recent anti-immigration laws in Alabama (HB56) and Georgia (HB87) guarantee that neighbor facilities will have an influx of “product.” In the past few years, Correction Corporation of America has spent $14.8 million lobbying for anti-immigration laws to ensure they have continuous access to fresh inmates and keep their money racket going. In 2010, CEO Damon T. Hininger received $3,266,387 in total compensation.
This is going on right under our noses, and we, the taxpayers, are paying for it. In today’s economy, to have laws that are destroying our economy and further costing taxpayers millions of dollars for the deportation of hard-working immigrants we need, is beyond ridiculous.
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