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News > U.S.

US: Almost 4,000 Companies Profit from Prison Industry

  • The East Block for condemned prisoners is seen during a media tour of California's Death Row

    The East Block for condemned prisoners is seen during a media tour of California's Death Row | Photo: Reuters

Published 30 April 2019
Opinion

The list shows 3,900 companies in 12 different sectors that benefit from the different services ranging from healthcare, food services and supplies, to merchants that supply prison commissaries.

A non-profit advocacy organization has issued a new report for 2019 Tuesday which provides information on the corporations profiting from the prison industrial complex.

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The report published by the advocacy group Worth Rises, who states their mission as “dedicated to dismantling the prison industrial complex and ending the exploitation of those it touches,” has been keeping track of corporations that profit from sending people to prison.

The list shows 3,900 companies in 12 different sectors that benefit from the different services ranging from healthcare, food services and supplies, to merchants that supply prison commissaries.

Federal government agencies spend more than US$40 billion every year to pay thousands of vendors that serve prisons. According to Worth Rises, the report is reflects the reality of rapid commercialization around the incarceration industry.

Adding more corporations to the list is part of a push to expose the predatory practices of the for-profit prison industry, Tylek said.

"This year's edition expands on our original report with the addition of more than 800 companies," said Tylek. "In publishing this report, we continue to expose the multi-billion-dollar industry built off the vulnerable communities—disproportionately black, brown, and cash poor—targeted by the criminal legal system."The database was first published last year and listed 3,100 companies. Tuesday's update adds another 800 corporations to the list.

Bianca Tylek, executive director for Worth Rises, said in a statement that the report will make it harder for prison profiteers to operate without scrutiny.

"Before this report, many of the companies involved in the prison industrial complex flew below the radar, often intentionally to avoid the headline risk that comes with profiting off mass incarceration today," said Tylek. "This data brings these companies to light and equips advocates with the information needed to challenge them

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