• Tedesche@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think the article specifically says, but most prisons in the U.S. are privately owned. I can only imagine that’s more the case in Texas than it is the nation as a whole.

    • mrspaz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      According to this, Texas has ~7% of their prison population in private facilities. The national rate is ~8%.

    • Chaotic Entropy
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      1 year ago

      There’s an excessive perception that the US prison system is privately run. As terrible as the concept is, it is not as widespread as people think… however the US prison population is gigantic, so it still isn’t very small.

      “While the United States represents about 4.2 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 20 percent of the world’s prisoners.”

    • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not only are most US prisons not private, but I think the article was pretty clear that this was the result of decisions ultimately made by the state.

      State prisons are still shitholes, though.