President Obama's 400,000 deportations per year quota has resulted in a multi-billion dollar bill to the American taxpayer, to the benefit of the private prison industry.  It is estimated that the cost to taxpayers will exceed $2 billion dollars this year alone.

The Associated press reports the following:

In 2011, nearly half the beds in the nation's civil detention system were in private facilities with little federal oversight, up from just 10 percent a decade ago.

The companies also have raked in cash from subsidiaries that provide health care and transportation. And they are holding more immigrants convicted of federal crimes in their privately-run prisons.

The financial boom, which has helped save some of these companies from the brink of bankruptcy, has occurred even though federal officials acknowledge privatization isn't necessarily cheaper.

It should surprise no one that the private prison industry has given a combined $45 million to politicians and lobbyists at both the State and Federal level over the last decade.  You can count Debby Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla), chair of the DNC, as one of them.

Here is what a spokesman from Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has to say about it: "As a matter of long-standing corporate policy, CCA does not lobby on issues that would determine the basis for an individual's detention or incarceration."

Anyone buying that bridge?

Click here to read the article that was the source for this blog.