As a result of the episode, the INS ended its contract with the private company. Other abuses included grabbing and pulling an inmate by his penis with pliers, and dragging inmates by their beards and pushing their heads into toilets. Although it paid low wages to guards, it paid handsome compensation to its top executives. Similarly, a recent news story revealed that Tennessee inmates infected with HIV or AIDS were being routinely transferred from CCA-run facilities to state facilities. 21 Prison privatization creates perverse incentives that will actually cost taxpayers more in the long run.
Private firms have no incentive to seek less expensive alternatives to incarceration.
In fact, private firms continuously lobby jurisdictions for greater prison construction and incarceration. The growing trend toward private prison construction and financing will only increase this growth incentive, pushing up corrections operating budgets in future years. Follows Escape of Inmates, The Spokesman Review, October 15, 1997.