Private Prison Case Study Essay

Private prison guards can be significantly undertrained and “unlike in the state sector, where new recruits undergo lengthy probation, training and induction officers…are deployed 'on the front line' almost immediately after commencing employment” (Taylor & Cooper pg.20) Private companies are willing to put their employees at risk of an attack and their facilities at risk of escapes if it means that costs will be saved. In a private prison in Scotland it was discovered that “the failure to report or the downgrading of incidents including assaults and discoveries of drugs, weapons or other banned items, or the falsification of statistics in order to prevent the prison from incurring fines, were systemic.” (pg.23) The lack of government oversight creates a hazardous environment in these private prisons. Regulations and rules are neglected and as this happens the facilities become more and more

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

In America today, there is a trend in corrections of taking the duty of running prisons out of the hands of state and federal authorities and contracting it out to private organizations. Along with the drift to privatization is a plethora of research pertaining to the subject taking many different approaches to analyzing the effectiveness. The majority of research focuses on one of three areas. The first questioning whether or not it is cost effective to make the switch. The second being the ethical problems that can and have risen from the privatization of prisons. The third being a wide painting of the change and the implications it has on society as a whole.

As the number of prisoners have constantly been rising at an exceedly fast pace, several governments around the world have embraced the use of private prisons. Private prisons are confinements run by a third party, through an agreement with the government. In the United States, it is estimated that there are over 1.6 million inmates, of that there are 8% that are housed in privately-operated prisons. While the other 92% are housed in the public prison system. Private prisons have existed since the 19th century. Their use increased in the 20th century and continues to rise in some states. When a government makes an agreement with a private prison, it makes payments per prisoner or vacancy in jail on a regular basis for maintenance of the prisoners. Privatization became involved due to the fact that prisons were becoming overpopulated. Public prisons contracted the confinement and care of prisoners with other organizations. Due to the cost-effectiveness of private firms, prisons began to contract out more services, such as medical care, food service, inmate transportation, and vocational training. Over time private firms saw an opportunity for expansion and eventually took over entire prison operations. However, now their security, how they treat the inmates, and their true cost effectiveness has come into question

In many of the contracts between private prisons and the state, prisons actually get a guarantee that their prisons will be filled up which mean more money to the company. In the Public Interest, an organization dedicated to high quality accurate research for the public, analyzed 62 contracts from private facilities and found that 41 of the contracts contained quotas. These quotas were occupancy requirements that the

Thesis: Private prisons actually exacerbate many of the issues they were designed to solve by incentivizing increased incarceration, and at the same time they produce lower value than regular prisons while ultimately costing more, such that private prisons should be abolished and incarceration should remain exclusively public.

Kalief Browder was 16 years old when he was arrested for stealing a backpack. After spending three years in prison awaiting trial due to his inability to post bail, Kalief was set free because of the insubstantial evidence to prosecute him. Being in a prison, and more specifically, isolation for around 800 days in total of his stay, had evident negative effects on Kalief. He spoke about how he had been affected by prison and he then committed suicide at the age of 22 (The Marshall Project). The American prison system persecutes felons, people of color, and those of a lower socioeconomic status.

In “We Tried to Make Them Offer Rehab…,” imprisonment on the rise leads the American prison system reaching maximum capacity. This leaves prisoners sleeping in irregular locations including “hallways, day rooms, gymnasiums, [and] sometimes even in bathrooms (Davlimar 270). With every space being occupied the best solution to this issue is private prisons. Throughout the article Cassandre Davilmar compares the public and private prison system. He compares numerous issues by talking about the harsh

Privatization of prison Overcrowding prisons, old facilities, and large budgets has been a growing major problem in our public correctional facilities. As our government needed to find a better way to build and maintain prisons, the government came to the idea and agreed with privately built prisons to save government and taxpayers money. These privatization of prison will encourage to cut corners, resulting in poor confinement for inmates and increase in incarceration. As these kind of contracts with the government are not seen as a promoting rehabilitation, or a way of reducing crime but it is a way of cutting cost. As prison are meant to punish, rehabilitate, deter crime, supervision of criminals and preparing offenders for re-entry into society.

Because of this fiscal pressure, governments are looking for alternatives to the public prison system. The predominant idea for reformation is privatization of prisons. Journals abound with responses to this idea including Ph.D. Gaes’s article in the National Institute of Justice Journal, L. Beaty’s article in The Case Journal, and R. Culp’s article in the Criminal Justice Policy Review.

There are many people who are critical of the US‘s prison sysetm; the idea of locking up those who commit crimes against a society simply to keep them from doing harm. Many say that more rehabilatation is necessary to improve these individuals and, therefore, society as a whole. What are some ways of doing this? Do you agree/disagree with this view and why? Is the prison system currently in place the best option for society? 2 pages, double spaced, 12pt. font.

The minimum security is federal prison camps adjacent to other federal prisons near military bases. Male prisoners who need only minimum security are set up in camps and those who will be transitioned [Passive voice] back into society and served their sentence will be set-up in a halfway house.

United States Prison System The U.S. prison system is a highly effective safety system with over 1700 prisoners across the U.S. and about 2.2 million prisoners that were incarcerated in just 2013 alone. This may sound excessive, but as Edmund Burke once said "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing." The U.S. prison system definitely doesn't do nothing. Furthermore, prisons across the nation serve as places where evil is fairly and adequately punished, as a place for rehabilitation, an example of an efficacious crime control strategy and deterrent to future offenders.

Privatizing prisons may be one way for the prison population to get back under control. Prisons are overcrowded and need extra money to house inmates or to build a new prison. The issue of a serious need for space needs to be addressed. “As a national average, it costs roughly $20,000 per year to keep an inmate in prison. There are approximately 650,000 inmates in state and local prisons, double the number five years ago. This costs taxpayers an estimated $18 billion each year. More than two thirds of the states are facing serious overcrowding problems, and many are operating at least 50 percent over capacity. (Joel, 1988)” Private prisons may be for profit, but if they can solve the issue of cost then it may be a

Crimes in prison have been a part of our prisons since prisons themselves have been developed. It is almost certain that the criminals who end up in an institution in the first place will commit crimes while incarcerated. Prisons have come a long way over the years and with trial and error they have discovered many effective ways to help drop crime rates. Mail is monitored and read on occasion and is a privilege for inmates that can be taken away. Though many of the new policies and procedures have been effective, it is the well- trained staff that keeps crimes down. Crimes in our prisons have been declining, having the proper staffing in these institution’s plays a crucial part in keeping crimes down.