That’s $1 a day in pay and $5 a telephone minute.
While CCA is collecting as much as $200 a day per inmate
in your tax dollars and CCA’s CEO is compensated $3,266,387
from your tax dollars.

Amanda Peterson Beadle wrote for ThinkProgress 16 November 2011,

Private Prison Charges Inmates $5 a Minute for Phone Calls While They Work for $1 a Day

Last year the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s


largest private prison company, received $74 million of taxpayers’ money
to run immigration detention centers.
Georgia, receives $200 a night for each of the 2,000 detainees it holds,
and rakes in yearly profits between $35 million and $50 million.

Prisoners held in this remote facility depend on the prison’s phones
to communicate with their lawyers and loved ones. Exploiting inmates’
need, CCA charges detainees here $5 per minute to make phone calls. Yet
the prison only pays inmates who work at the facility $1 a day. At that
rate, it would take five days to pay for just one minute.

They charge for food, too.

And remember,

CCA profits from anti-immigration laws, at taxpayer expense:

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, CCA 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 CCA CEO Damon
T. Hininger received $3,266,387 in total compensation.

Private CEO profit for public injustice.
Does that seem right to you?

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq