Page 5 - 265 Billion News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The cost of running the criminal justice system is also enormous for the rest of us. state governments pour money into, spending an average of 5% of their local budgets on correctional institutions. the federal government spends a whopping total of $265 billion a year, essentially paid for by taxpayers. who's profiting from the billions of dollars being spent and where does all that money go? one answer i hear a lot. private prisons. the truth isn't what you might think. >> what is the percentage of private prisons in america? >> it's pretty small. basically they're stagnant around 6% of the t...

Making money off of it. >> the prison industrial complex could not exist without inmates. the entire prison industry would collapse without large numbers of people to incarcerate. to keep this $265 billion a year industry in place there needs to be a pipeline to provide a steady stream of new people. people who are dispensable. in the history of forced labor in americay those without power have often looked different from those in power. in america, those without power have often looked different from those in power. arresting those people who don't have power is the first step to filling jail...

Off the process, profiting off the process, but they're not driving it. >> so who is driving it? taxpayers spend $265 billion a year on the criminal justice system. still, the question remains, where does all that money go? >> so tell me what you do and where we are? >> i'm the american director of an association, the only one we're aware of that focuses exclusively on the men and women who operate and work in our nation's jails. right now, we're on the shelf

These people should not be in prison. it shockinging to me. and when the people are seeing the film and faced with it and the reality of it, i think that i hope that it will change people's minds and people will start to think about this issue. >> and it is also a business, and you help to tell that story? >> it is a big business. $265 billion a year in taxpayer dollars, and money earned by prisons and by jails across this country by vendors, and the food, and the medical industry, and i mean, it is a massive industry, and i think that people just are not aware and people don't think about it,...

Upwards for a call that would cost somebody 50 cents out here. >> i believe that this is another trap. when but your time incarcerated, you shouldn't have to wear something like this. >> reporter: in a prison system where $265 billion is spent every year to keep millions locked up, some don't expect to see major changes any time soon. >> business is booming. if there's no crying, they will -- no crime, they will create crime, create methods to lock you up because it's business, and they're good at it. >> reporter: ryan young, cnn, chicago. >> our thank you to cnn's ryan young there. the cnn fi...