The title of this investigation derives from the name of a book written by this author, which opens with a reflection inspired by Psalm 10, an ancient plea against injustice and abuse of power. In that passage, the psalmist denounces how the powerful oppress the most vulnerable with apparent impunity while justice seems absent. The reference is not presented in a theological sense, but rather as a metaphor for a system that, in the author’s analysis, reproduces historical patterns of exclusion and abuse.
The present work gives journalistic expression to that broader concern through investigative reporting and documentary analysis. Its purpose is to examine and bring public attention to a privatized correctional model that, according to the author’s investigation, has expanded in recent decades in ways that disproportionately affect economically disadvantaged and historically racialized sectors of American society. The issue extends beyond prisons alone; it involves governmental contracts, minimum occupancy clauses, investment funds, stock market activity, and legislative lobbying mechanisms that, according to the investigation, have contributed to transforming detention into a highly profitable commercial sector.
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Over the course of three years of investigation from November 2022 through 2025, data were compiled from official reports, witness accounts, judicial records, and academic studies. According to the analysis presented, the research identified what the author characterizes as a structural contradiction: while violent crime rates in the United States have declined substantially over the past three decades, with the Pew Research Center documenting an approximate 49 percent decline between 1993 and 2022, and the FBI reporting additional declines in 2023 and 2024, the incarcerated population has remained at historically elevated levels, contributing to the country’s position as one of the nations with the largest incarcerated populations in the contemporary world.
According to a report cited from Prison Policy Initiative, the United States currently maintains one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, approximately 541 individuals per 100,000 residents, reflecting an incarcerated population of roughly 1,808,100 people. Of that total, approximately 8 percent, or 96,370 individuals, are reported to be under the jurisdiction of private entities. As of March 2025, according to figures cited in the investigation, that population includes approximately 14,000 individuals in private local jails, 6,000 in juvenile detention facilities, 34,000 in ICE and Office of Refugee Resettlement custody, 19,000 in federal Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Marshals facilities, and 81,000 in privately operated state prisons, according to sources cited in the manuscript, including Encyclopedia Britannica and Prison Policy Initiative.
These figures, according to the author’s analysis, underscore the significant role of the private sector in correctional management, particularly in immigration detention, and the possibility of further expansion in 2025. The investigation notes that ICE has announced plans to more than double detention capacity through expedited contracting with CoreCivic and GEO Group, supported by approximately US$45 billion in extraordinary funding under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also referred to as the Big Beautiful Bill, a budget reconciliation package advanced as a major legislative initiative during President Donald Trump’s second term and signed into law on July 4, 2025.
Racial disparities remain a central theme in the analysis. According to figures cited in the investigation, in 2021 African Americans and Latinos collectively represented more than 56 percent of the incarcerated population despite comprising less than 34 percent of the general population, a disparity that some analysts and scholars have interpreted as reflecting contemporary forms of institutional inequality.
The phenomenon, according to the author’s analysis, extends beyond correctional institutions alone, affecting community cohesion, family stability, and civic participation. More than 4.4 million citizens with criminal records have reportedly lost voting rights, a condition that disproportionately affects African American and Latino communities. The investigation characterizes this as a form of structural harm in which punishment functions not solely as a response to criminal conduct, but also as part of broader systems of economic accumulation and social control.
This book does not seek to justify criminal conduct or minimize individual accountability. It recognizes the legitimacy of proportionate legal consequences for violations of law. However, it raises a fundamental objection to the commercialization of punishment and argues that incarceration should not function as a mechanism for private dividend generation. According to the author’s analysis, as long as financial incentives remain tied to filling detention facilities, principles of justice and equity risk being subordinated to corporate economic interests.
The purpose of this work is twofold. On one hand, it seeks to contribute to public and academic debate regarding the correctional system in the United States, offering material relevant to discussions in criminal justice, human rights, and racial studies. On the other, it seeks to document stories that, in the author’s view, have remained underexamined within broader institutional discourse. This is not presented as a formal academic thesis in the strict sense, but rather as a work grounded in documentary research and directed toward broad critical analysis.
The central thesis is clear in the author’s presentation: the privatization of punishment represents a profound distortion of the ideal of justice. Addressing its consequences, according to this analysis, requires more than technical reform; it would require structural transformation aimed at eliminating economic incentives linked to deprivation of liberty. The author argues that justice should not be commodified and that human suffering should not become a source of private profit.
The historical interpretations, policy analysis, statistical references, and conclusions expressed in this publication are attributed to the cited investigative work of the author and the documentary sources referenced therein. They are presented as part of public-interest journalism, academic discussion, and policy analysis. This publication does not assert as independently adjudicated fact any allegation of illegality, misconduct, or wrongdoing by any specific institution, corporation, public official, or private actor unless such findings have been established by competent governmental authorities, judicial determinations, or independently verified documentary evidence.
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