http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42197813/ns/business-us_business/t/boom-behind-bars/The private prison system runs parallel to the U.S. prisons and currently accounts for nearly 10 percent of U.S. state and federal inmates, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Those numbers rise and fall in response to specific policies, and CCA has been accused of lobbying for policies that would fill its cells — such as the increase in enforcement of regulations like the one that snagged Cardenas. Tougher policies have been good for CCA. Since the company started winning immigrant detention contracts in 2000, its stock has rebounded from about a dollar to $23.33, attracting investors such as William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, which is now its largest shareholder.
CCA has current contracts with ICE and other federal clients, as well as 19 state prison systems. Its largest competitor, the Geo Group, is slightly smaller, and together they account for more than $3 billion in gross revenues annually. The next-largest player, MTC, is privately held and does not disclose numbers, but the industry as a whole grosses just under $5 billion per year.
http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/perspectives/anti-immigration-hysteria-tied-to-the-private-prison-industry-1.1572422snip
Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed S.B. 1070 into law, and the legislation's principal architect, Russell Pearce, both have extensive financial ties to the private prison industry powerhouse Corrections Corporation of America, a company which stands to profit in the sum of millions if Arizona's "papers please" legislation is enacted.
CCA, one of the leading providers of detention and correction services in the country, holds the contract to imprison all federal detainees in the state of Arizona. S.B. 1070 would lead to more arrests on federal immigration charges, causing money to pour into the gargantuan coffers of the private prison industry and directly into the bank accounts of those who are financially tied to it.
Republican state senator Pearce submitted a draft version of S.B. 1070 to the American Legislative Exchange Council for revision months before the bill was introduced to the floor of the Arizona Senate. Pearce is one of 35 Arizona legislators who belong to this organization.
Two years prior, ALEC was the recipient of millions of dollars in contributions from CCA and Geo Group, two of the largest private prison companies in the state.
http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Private_Prison_Industry_Helped_Create_Anti_Immigrant_Law_in_Arizona_101101Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law wasn’t just the product of state Senator Russell Pearce’s effort to undo the “lawless” condition that illegal immigration has imposed on the nation. It was also driven by the private prison industry’s drive for profits.
According to an investigation by NPR, the legislation was drafted last December during a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of state legislators and large corporations and associations, including tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., ExxonMobil, the National Rifle Association and the largest private prison company in the U.S.: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). It was only afterwards that Pearce presented his bill to the state legislature.
With immigration detention considered an important new source of income, CCA made sure to be in the room when the bill was drafted. Once the legislation was introduced in January, 36 cosponsors signed on—30 of whom wound up receiving donations over the next six months from prison lobbyists or prison companies, including CCA, Management and Training Corporation and The Geo Group.
As for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who signed the bill into law on April 23, her spokesman, Paul Senseman, and her campaign manager, Chuck Coughlin, are both former lobbyists for private prison companies.
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