Despite recent wins, media coverage and auditor skepticism may not be enough to keep the growth of private prisons in check for the long run. But you can help.

For decades, the he-said, she-said has worked in the favor of the private prison operator. They said that they’d be cheaper. They said that they would be more efficient. They said that recidivism would go down. And yet, despite little evidence that any of that is true, their stocks go up.

Do ‪private prisons‬ actually save money? We don’t have the ‪data‬ to answer that question, and if the industry gets its way, we never will.

With the summer heat approaching, we look at the process inmates go through for relief before resorting to rioting - the ways you can question operations near you.

With few opportunities to voice their experiences, inmates offer their own insights into prison culture through their complaints. But between record-keeping and paperwork control, access makes them a hard resource to look at until its too late.