Should Private Prisons Be Increased Social Problems?

Crime rates are down in America, yet there is an unproportionately large number of Americans incarcerated. This paper will delve into and examine this problem and how it is closely linked to private prisons and the issues surrounding them. While private prisons claim to be cost effective and well-run, evidence has shown that these profit-driven companies ignore ethical consequences by purposefully lengthening prisoners’ sentences, target certain groups for incarceration and maintain despicable living standards for the prisoners; ultimately, these prisons have caused more harm than good for the state.

Over the past few decades, the United States has witnessed a huge surge in the number of individuals in jail and in prison. Evidence suggests the mass imprisonment policy from the last 40 years was a horrible catastrophe. Putting more people in prison not only ruined lives, it disrupted families, prevented ex-prisoners to find housing, to get an education, or even a good job. Regrettably, the United States has a higher percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is increasing exponentially. The expense produced by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. Although people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. By researching mass incarceration, I hope to get society to understand that incarcerating an individual not only effects the family, but we will look at the long term consequences on society and how the United States can remain safe and, at the same time, undo much of the damage that results from large-scale imprisonment.

Today, more than 2 million Americans are incarcerated in either a state facility, federal correctional facility or a local installation (Batey,2002). Due to longer sentences, incorporating harsh sentencing guidelines, and mandatory minimum punishments (NeSmith,2015). With each inmate costing taxpayers an average of $30,000 annually. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 were increased sentences for a broad range of offenses, as well as establishing federal penalties for most murders and a large number of other crimes already subject to state law (Batey,2002). In addition to reducing the discretion of state judicial systems; as well as 85 percent of sentence satisfaction and establishing a mandatory life sentence for those convicted of three serious violent crimes or drug offenses (NeSmith,2015). .

According to Alex Tabarrok, privately managed facilities can have cost savings of 15-25% on prison edification and 15% on administrative expenses. Likewise, private prisons generate competition and exert pressure towards public prisons. They encourage public prisons to also innovate and lower costs. Other studies (Lundahl et al. 2009, page 392) argue, “prison privatization provides neither a clear advantage nor disadvantage compared with publicly managed prisons.”

There are many offenders within the criminal justice system, the political economy of the prison crisis in America has

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.

Private prisons do little to improve local economies. By all means, “the cost benefits of privatization have not materialized to the extent promised by the private sector. Although there are examples of cost savings, there are other examples in which such benefits have not been realized”(Austin 2001, 39). Furthermore, private prisons offer meager cost savings that stem from a reduction in labor-related cost (Austin 2001). On one hand, proponents of this industry say that private prisons are more cost-efficient. On the other hand, opponents say they are not cost-effective. Indeed, private prisons do save money in some respects. However, these savings come with hidden costs that make them irrelevant. Moreover, the proliferation of private prisons has had a negative effect on states and local governments. Rural areas in particular are drastically affected by private prisons. In fact, “increasing evidence suggests that by many measures prisons do not produce

Jacoby claims that America uses too many crimes for someone to go to prison, “Commit murder; go to prison. Sell cocaine; go to prison. Kite checks; go to prison.” (Jacoby, 1997, P. 1) There is a lot more people, with misdemeanor cases, that does not need to be in prison and that it cost a lot of money for prisons to tend for an inmate. In 1997 Jacoby states that, “the price of keeping criminals in cages is appalling -- a common estimate is $30,000 per inmate per year.”

As the amount of nonviolent drug offenders increases, so does the amount of prisoners in jail. With only 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. Between 1980 and 2013, the amount of people in federal prison for drug offenses has increased from 4,749 to 100,026, and the total federal prison population as increased almost 790 percent. To manage the sharp increase in the inmate population in recent years, the bureau that manages the federal prisons has resorted to putting two or three bunks in a cell, and converting recreational spaces into sleeping quarters. As the prisons become increasingly overcrowded, it hinders correction officers’ ability to do there job and ensure that inmates are kept nonviolent and facilities are in safe conditions. Without the proper supervision of law enforcement, prisons become extremely dangerous for both inmates and officers. And as the number of inmates rises, so does the cost to house all of them. According to the National Institute of Justice, the cost of building a prison ranges from $60,000 to $75,000 per inmate, with the average prison’s operating cost being about $60 per day per inmate. Where does this money to house prisoners come from you may ask? The answer is simple: the federal budget, which is largely funded by you, the average taxpayer. Along with the issue of increasing prison-housing costs, the rehabilitation programs available to inmates are usually the first

Prisons are expensive facilities to operate. Each year, California prisons house more than 100,000 inmates (Graves, “Fewer State Prisoners, Higher Cost Per Inmate”). While the number of inmates has been steadily decreasing, spending per inmate has skyrocketed to about $60,000 from $33,000 in 1995 (Dean, “CA Spending Per Inmate Rising Faster Than Spending Per Child”). That is about six billion dollars spent on prisoners alone. The government is wasting more and more taxpayer money on keeping inmates inside the prisons. With about 58% of ex-convicts returning to prison within

The United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the caged. In 2008, it was reported that one out of every one hundred adults living in America are incarcerated in a jail or a prison (Pew). The City and County Jails and the Federal and State Prisons overcrowding problems are getting wildly close to crisis conditions. Statics show that by 2011 the inmate population in the United States will increase by a whopping thirteen percent, which are more than one million seven hundred thousand inmates that will be incarcerated in the United States (Statistics). This will not only cost the states that are housing these inmates more money, putting our state budgets in more debt, but will also cost

The most enticing motive for privatizing prisons is its potential to save money allocated in the Federal Budget to prison systems, but how is this cost saving measure affected when corporations intend to profit off the backs of the incarcerated? “The cost to house a prisoner being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has risen from $80 per person, per day in 2004 to $166 today [in 2012], with the government refusing to provide details explaining the difference” (Magee). It is highly suspicious that the government’s drive to save money on prisoners subsequently resulted in the doubling of the cost to house someone incarcerated on immigration charges in less than ten years. Especially when the use of private prisons multiplied six times within the stated period. “A decade ago, more than 3,300 criminal immigrants were sent to private prisons under two 10-year contracts the Federal Bureau of Prisons signed with [Corrections Corporation of America] worth $760 million. Now, the agency is paying the private companies $5.1 billion to hold more than 23,000 criminal immigrants through 13 contracts of varying lengths” (Magee). This suggests a strong correlation between the use of private prisons and the increasing cost to house inmates. Despite the allocation of over half of the criminal immigrants detained into private

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 what scenario should the cost of harboring a convict surpass that of the education of a youth? According to a 2013 study by the Vera Institute of Justice, each of the fifty states in the US believe as such. The amount the government spent on housing a felon in Maryland alone averaged more than $35,000, about $25,000 more than the funds given for the education of a student. Why does the government set a value on the lives of those who contaminate society higher than those who want to advance and maintain it? Rather than paying more for this increasing demographic — who has filled the prison walls nearly eight times more in the last fifty years, there are different steps that the government, psychologists, and the education system can take to mend this growing predicament.

The following paper will examine two articles pertaining to prison privatization, and the reasons for advocacy for prison privatization, or for the opposition of prison privatization. Three authors write the first article examined the authors are Shaun Genter, Gregory Hooks, and Clayton Mosher. The article is entitled “Prisons, jobs and privatization: The impact of prisons on employment growth in rural US counties, 1997-2004” (Genter, Hooks, & Mosher, 2013). Richard Kish and Amy Lipton write the second article reviewed. The title of the article is “Do Private Prisons Really offer Savings Compared with their Counterparts?” (Kish & Lipton, 2013). This paper will discuss the economic costs for private prisons.