Details:
Private prison companies like CCA and The Geo Group approach cash-strapped states and offer to save them money by buying their prisons. However, evidence that private prisons save money is mixed at best. States pay a daily fee for each prisoner housed in a private prisons, and corporations set a number of beds (usually no less than 1,000) and an occupancy rate (usually around 90 percent) that states must meet or pay a fine for each empty bed. It is unbelievable that such deals are legal since they give states an incentive, other than crime, to keep people in prison
In the past 10 years, CCA has spent $17.4 million on lobbying. Between 2003 and 2012, it made $1.9 million in political contributions.
Source:
http://www.attn.com/stories/941/who-profits-from-prisoners
1912 - “Jim Thorpe Wins Decathlon and Pentathlon at Olympics” "Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nations, won the gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics. It was the first year that those events were held in the history of the modern Olympics. The accomplishments were just two in a career of great feats that ended in Thorpe being considered one of the most versatile athletes in American history. In addition to his track and field achievements, Thorpe succeeded at football, basketball and baseball."