Editing Prison–industrial complex (section)

=== 1990s ===
In 1992, [[William Barr]], then [[United States Attorney General]], authored a report, ''The Case for More Incarceration'', which argued for an even further increase in the [[United States incarceration rate]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/139583NCJRS.pdf |title=Info |website=www.ncjrs.gov |access-date=February 11, 2019 |archive-date=May 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505054632/https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/139583NCJRS.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1994, President [[Bill Clinton]] signed the [[Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act]], the largest crime bill in U.S. history,<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news|last=John|first=Arit|title=A Timeline of the Rise and Fall of 'Tough on Crime' Drug Sentencing|language=en-US|work=The Atlantic|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/a-timeline-of-the-rise-and-fall-of-tough-on-crime-drug-sentencing/360983/|access-date=2017-10-23|archive-date=October 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023173817/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/a-timeline-of-the-rise-and-fall-of-tough-on-crime-drug-sentencing/360983/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36020717|title=Why is Clinton crime bill so controversial?|last=Lussenhop|first=Jessica|date=2016-04-18|work=BBC News|access-date=2017-10-23|language=en-GB|archive-date=October 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009224306/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36020717|url-status=live}}</ref> which directly allotted a $9.7 billion funding increase to prisons and introduced the [[three-strikes law]], assigning unprecedentedly long sentences (25 year to life minimum) to third-time convicts.

As the prison population continued to grow steeply throughout the 1990s, the profit margins of private prison corporations such as CCA and GeoGroup continued to increase.<ref name=":1" /> Throughout the 1990s, the CCA and GeoGroup were both significant donors to the [[American Legislative Exchange Council]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Mason|first=Cody|date=January 2012|title=Too Good to be True: Private Prisons in America|journal=The Sentencing Project|pages=12}}</ref> In 1995, Congress passed another piece of ALEC-influenced legislation, the Prison Industries Act, allowing corporations to pay prison laborers less than the federal minimum wage and divert the difference to constructing facilities for further prison labor.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dole|first=Robert J.|date=1995-09-27|title=S.1279 - 104th Congress (1995-1996): Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/senate-bill/1279|access-date=2021-11-24|website=www.congress.gov|archive-date=November 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124230144/https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/senate-bill/1279|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Thompson" />

By the end of 1999, the U.S. had a total incarcerated population of 2,026,596.<ref name=":31">{{Cite news|last=Beck|first=Allen J.|title=Bulletin: Prisoners in 1999|work=Bureau of Justice Statistics|url=https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p99.pdf|access-date=|archive-date=November 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127201334/https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p99.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> This included 71,206 prisoners held in privately operated facilities, accounting for 5.5% of state and 2.8% of federal prisoners.<ref name=":31" /> In 1999, nearly 43% of all sentenced inmates were African-American men, and an estimated 9% of African-American men in their late 20s were in prison.<ref name=":31" />