Barack Obama has a weed problem

[woo me with science]

39. Federal Private Prison Populations Grew by 784% in 10 Year Span

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/tikkundaily/americas-corrupt-justice-system-federal-private-prison-populations-grew-784-10

America's Corrupt Justice System: Federal Private Prison Populations Grew by 784% in 10 Year Span

By David Harris-Gershon (@David_EHG)

From 1999-2010, the total U.S. prison population rose 18 percent, an increase largely reflected by the "drug war" and stringent sentencing guidelines, such as three strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentences. However, total private prison populations exploded fivefold during this same time period, with federal private prison populations rising by 784 percent (as seen in the chart below complied by The Sentencing Project):

This stark rise in private prison populations is partially due to increased contracts granted at the state and federal levels to behemoth prison companies such as Correction Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group. These companies claim - against available data - that they can run corrections facilities at lower costs.

However, whether such companies can save governments money is not the central issue. What's at issue here is the corrupt, immoral dynamic that fuels such contracts: the concept of treating inmates as commodities that must be grown for profit. Take, for example, the offer CCA made in 2012 to 48 states: We'll purchase and manage your jails, and in return you [the state] must promise to keep the jails at least 90 percent full.
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Additionally, for-profit prison companies engage in intense lobbying efforts that have been tied to many of our nation's most stringent sentencing guidelines, and lobby hard against the decriminalization of things such as marijuana....The financial motive to engage in such lobbying was clearly detailed in CCA's 2010 Annual Report (as prepared by The Sentencing Project):