Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce's views on race and immigration are too extreme not to be sincerely held. But that didn't stop him from checking in with the private prison industry before proposing the state's draconian SB 1070 law -- a law that, if it passes constitutional muster, is poised to help private prisons turn a tidy profit by increasing demand for institutions that can help the state house immigrants in detention.
According to an investigation by NPR, SB 1070 didn't take shape in Phoenix. It took shape at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., in a presentation before a coalition of business groups known as the American Legislative Coucil:
It's a membership organization of state legislators and powerful corporations and associations, such as the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., ExxonMobil and the National Rifle Association. Another member is the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country.
It was there that Pearce's idea took shape.
"I did a presentation," Pearce said. "I went through the facts. I went through the impacts and they said, 'Yeah.'"
Fast forward a few months:
At the state Capitol, campaign donations started to appear.
Thirty of the 36 co-sponsors received donations over the next six months, from prison lobbyists or prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America, Management and Training Corporation and The Geo Group.
By April, the bill was on Gov. Jan Brewer's desk.
Since the law essentially makes it illegal for someone who might be suspected of being in the country illegally (read: anyone Hispanic), legal immigrants and residents will be swept up as well, which just means that the demand for institutions that can house them will be that much larger.
The private prison system already introduces bad incentives into the policy-making process because people stand to make money from a more punitive, rather than a more effective prison system -- and in Arizona with SB 1070, we're seeing how that dynamic works as applied to illegal immigration. This isn't new; private prison companies have been in the business of detention for years -- but SB 1070, and the possibility that other states will follow Arizona's lead, is nothing short of a bonanza for an industry that profits from a harsh, ineffective immigration system.
Anyway, someone should clearly be asking CCA how they feel about defunding NPR.
