A qui profite la taule ? #DATAGUEULE 47

If crime won't pay, prisons will.
Hello.

66,270 prisoners for 57,841 spots
in 188 penitentiaries;

an occupancy rate of 114 %.
In 2015, French prisons seemed

to have a slight
overpopulation problem.

But this is not new. In 1987

the occupancy rate of the 178 jails
of the hexagon were already 160 %.

Fortunately, the Keeper of the Seals,
Albin Chalandon, had the solution:

in 1988, he launched "Program 13,000,"

a plan to add 12,824 new places in cells.

Convinced the private sector would
succeed where the state had failed,

he decided to open the vast
prison market to French companies.

After all, he had already privatized
highways in the 1970s.

Why not penitentiaries?

Welcome to prisons under
delegated management,

where the only function
is regalian.

The management, registry, and
surveillance of prisoners

remain in the state's hands.

Catering, dining hall, maintenance,
laundry, cleaning,

prisoner transportation,
familial visitation,

prison work, and even
professional training;

everything else becomes
a new market.

In 2004 a new contract appeared:
PPP (Public-Private Partnership.)

From that time forward, the
private provider

could even design
and build prisons.

This drew much interest.

In 2015, 54 prisons
were in delegated management,

which totals almost 49 %
of places in cells, vs. 36 % in 2009.

Quite a leap in number.

Two companies dominated
the sector:

Sodexo, with 34 prisons;
and GDF Suez, or Engie, with 16.

In 2008, Bouygues also
entered the dance.

Bouygues won the first
PPP contract:

This big name in construction gained
3 prisons within 3 years.

With a contractual obligation
lasting 25-30 years,

monies paid by the state
are lucrative.

Of the total 13 prisons run by PPP,

the state will pay 1.4 billion Euros
in rent by 2040, including interest.

The prison market is growing.

Since 2005, the prison population
increased by 21 %,

while the average sentence
increased:

8.6 months in 2006,
vs. 11 months in 2013.

More tenants, who stay longer:
every landlord's dream.

Contracts even specify
the state must pay a penalty

if the occupancy exceeds
120 %.

Well done.

The concern is,

while money given to prisons
in delegated management increases,

the funds to install new
prison policies are decreasing.

In 2008, the unchangeable expenses
in the prison administration budget

totaled 34 %.

Three years later,
they were 50 %.

Fewer funds for reintegration,
or for sentencing adjustments.

In addition, all changes
decided by the state

may be refused by
private managers,

if not included in
their original contract.

But the mainstay of private prisons,
is the USA.

Private prisons first began in 1984.

CCA and GEA, the 2 giants of the sector,
generate $3.3 billion per year.

A market that huge defends itself.

Between 2002 and 2009,

prison industry lobbying costs
increased by 165 %,

which influenced the adoption
of certain laws,

such as law SB-1070,
passed in 2010, in Arizona.

The law allowed the imprisonment,
for up to 30 days,

of undocumented foreigners suspected
of illegal immigration.

Between 2002 and 2009,

the federal prison population
in the U.S. private sector went up 37 %.

Yet, between 1990 and 2012,

the U. S. crime rate
had dropped by 45 %.

It became a necessity
to fill prisons.

U. S. private prison managers have a
contract which includes

an obligatory occupation clause.

The clause stipulates that prisons
must be full to between 80 to 100 %,

under pain of penalty,

no matter what the crime rate.

When prisons become a marketplace,

the Judge's hammer quickly transforms
to gold bullion.

Goodbye Justice, Hello Tragedy.

[Audio: Cash register bell.]