When a private prison company came to small-town Wyoming

The private prison industry is often held up as an example of the worst ills of mass incarceration. Reports of unsafe conditions, underpaid employees, and other cost-cutting measures have dogged private corrections for decades.

And yet the industry itself makes up only about 2% of the $182 billion that goes into incarceration in the U.S. every year. So why do these companies get so much flak? And what would closing down private prisons really mean for justice reform in the country?

In this episode, our reporters take you to Evanston, Wyoming, an old oil town near the Utah border. The county’s plan to build a private immigration detention center tells the story of the money that flows in and out of our prison system – and the moral dilemma it creates.

Episode 4 of a six-episode podcast series. Click here to listen.

• ← How do you ‘defund the police’ in Texas? Very carefully.
• Punishment or rehabilitation? Why America locks people up. →