Private Prisons Essay

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

The bulk of the research was performed in the late 90s after many years had passed since the implementation of privatized prisons got a substantial boost in1988 (Austin, 2001). Much of the literature centers on the cost effectiveness of contracting out prisons. The main focus of the research is first and foremost, are they saving money by contracting out. Second, if they are saving money, is it enough money to justify the other problems that naturally accompany the for profit prisons model.

A prison is a building made up of hard, cold, concrete walls and solid steel bars in which individuals, known as inmates, are physically confined and deprived of their personal freedom. This is a legal consequence that is imposed by the government to lawbreakers as a punishment for a crime they have committed and for the protection of the community. A private prison is much like a public prison except people are incarcerated physically by a “for-profit” third party who has been contracted by a government agency. These private prisons enter into an agreement with the government, and the state pays a monthly amount for every prisoner who is confined in the private facility. In both public and private prisons, incarceration cannot be imposed without the commission and conviction of a crime. Even though public and private prisons may seem to be the same in several aspects and are used to serve the same purpose, there are numerous differences between the two. At one point the Obama administration opted to put an end to private prisons; on the other hand, the Department of Homeland Security and current President Donald Trump fought for them to stay in place. The U.S Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons will realize that keeping private correctional facilities in place is a huge mistake; therefore, will opt to phase out such facilities and will stick to housing inmates in the public state-run prisons.

In America, there are fundamental principles upon which our nation is built. Beliefs that all Americans naturally possess the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness seem all pervasive. Today in America, equality encompasses religion, sexual orientation, race, and everything in between. These values have become so intrinsic to the modern human condition that the mind shirks from the prospect of denying them to anyone. However, it seems that certain areas of American society have become exempt from the moral imperative that is upholding these basic and fundamental rights. It has become brutally obvious that private prisons have failed to respect the humanity of their inmates, which is why the United States Federal Government should

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.

In our nation’s history, the use of private prisons has played a major role in domestic slave trading. The 13th Amendment officially abolished slavery in 1865. However, due to the plain language of the 13th Amendment, it is be interpreted in a way that allows slavery so long as it is used as criminal punishment. The 13th Amendment reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Private prisons have been abusing and misusing this language for years. The Jim Crowe era, which implemented the “convict leasing” system, is a prime example of how private prisons have used prisoners

The idea of prison has been around for thousands of years and seems to be an integrated part of the human concept. We remove the people that disrupt society and we put them away or get rid of them. We, as a modern culture,

dilemma with public verse private prisons is observed by countries all over the world. Furthermore, in the article Doing well and doing good: The case for privatizing prisons the Australians discuss the possibility of privatization of their prisons. However, they take note of the American experience with privatization of the prisons. The characteristics that have been noted were that they were corrupt, morally bankrupt and secretive. Contrary to the before mentioned characteristics Ms. Glushko reported that the private institutions are less expensive, more accountable, transparent and innovative. Additionally, the review article The Social Order of the underworld what goes on in the US prisons should worry the UK states that just maybe the

This type of ownership and management of prisons, though not new, only began again in recent history in the 1980's. The reasons for this development of private prisons are threefold and these three trends converged in the 1980's: the ideological imperatives of the free market, the huge increase in the number of prisoners, and the increase in imprisonment costs (Smith, 1993). In this Reaganite era it seemed that private enterprise could do any job the government had been doing cheaper and more efficiently, including running prisons.

The United States government had been working closely with private prison corporations for over three decades. Private prisons were first constructed to help the U.S. government house an ever-expanding prison population, and to relieve the government of some expenses. Today, these privately owned facilities have stirred up controversy with the questionable results of their formation. While it can be difficult to compare private prisons to public prisons, several researchers conclude that private prison corporations are harmful to society in the United States because they hinder economic stability, establish systems that negatively impact prison staff and inmates, and

There are four main advantages that private prisons have over public prisons in today's society:

Authors Camp and Gaes perceived through this specific study that private prisons are important not only within the penal system because of their ability to accommodate accordingly for the addition for more inmate capacity quickly. This is important because through the private prison systems, contractors do not have to ask the government officials to authorize for necessities because of the flexibility that occurs within the operational demands. This is one positive aspect of the private prison system… the amount of flexibility the system intakes. This amount of flexibility allows the private prisons to have served well within accommodating the amount of needed beds within the system in a timely ordeal which allows for the prison to house more inmates. This study demonstrates this by proclaiming that within the first

Despite the cost-saving promises of private prison, some studies have shown the opposite effect and many others have not been able to show any difference. For example, one study by the U.S. General Accounting Office, show neither cost savings nor substantial differences in the quality of services between private and publicly run prisons (Schmalleger 448). Similar findings were shown in the report by the Justice Policy Institute, titled Gaming the System, which claimed to find none beneficial result regarding cost saving. Moreover, the report, Emerging Issues on Privatized Prisons by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, found that private prisons offer only modest cost savings; however, it was due because of some labor-related costs, such as, staffing

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

In an attempt to resolve prison overcrowding, a system of privatizing prisons was implemented. Private prisons are designed to alleviate some of the prison over-crowding by outsourcing their service to state run facilities that incarcerate criminals. The act of privatizing prisons is