The Pros And Cons Of For-Profit Prisons

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

The economic components associated with maintaining and operating public prisons in the U.S. has become a prominent topic in recent years. Many anti-prison activist such a Angela Y. Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore contend that the involvement of private corporations and the prevailing social ideology have contributed to the radical expansion of prisons in America.

580). Gran and Henry (2007-2008) argue that evidence of efficiency in private prisons provides questionable support, in part because of difficulty in comparing private and government-run prisons. They also state that while private prisons may be less expensive to construct and operate, those cost savings may be “the result of cost cutting by the private firms” (p. 176). Arguments against private prisons are more ubiquitous and include the following: • “The necessity for detailed contract development, monitoring, and regulation will be so significant that it will eat up any savings achieved through privatization;” • “The government will retain its legal liability and therefore will be liable for actions of contractors over which it has only limited

Business’s that appear to be removed from the corrupt corporation of prison are ultimately expanding the prison industrial complex. Prison incarceration has become a multi-billion dollar industry that needs more than 2 million U.S. citizens to put into prison on any given day. This paper will be base for explaining how the PIC works and what really goes on behind all the barbed wire and armed guards. “The term ‘Prison Industrial Complex’ was first coined by either Eric Schlosser in 1998 or by Angela Davis in the same year, in order to examine the complex configuration compromised of the US prison system, multi-national corporations, small private business and the inmate population in the social and political economy of the 21st century United States “(Smith and Hattery 2). The prison system today seems to be a flawed one, where the smallest offences send people to years into either a private, state, or federal prison.

The want to maximize profits by cutting corners - at the expense of safety and decent conditions - contributes to higher level of danger in private prisons

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

From its early inception as a necessary aspect of modern society to its broken state that can be seen today, the American penal system has changed radically in recent history from an institution that performed the duty of safeguarding the public from those too dangerous to be left unsupervised to a business model concerned more with generating a profit for shareholders. With a 500% increase in inmates that is rivalled by no other country, the United States leads the world in imprisoning a fast-growing portion of its population. It is without a doubt that adverse changes in policy regarding imprisonment along with the formation and privatization of the prison industrial complex contributes substantially to the state of mass incarceration in the United States and will continue to shape its future for the years to come.

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.

Dina Perrone of Rutgers University and Travis C. Pratt of Washington State University compared the performance of private and government-run corrections facilities. When reviewing prisons in Louisiana and Florida, “the private prison had more escapes than its counterpart” (Perrone and Pratt 309). When comparing facilities in Tennessee, “the private prison had more injuries on staff and inmates than the public prison,” and when comparing two private prisons and one public prison in Florida, “[the] private facilities in this study also had a higher rate of assaults on staff than did the public facility” (309). Scott Camp and Gerald Gaes of the Federal Bureau of Prisons conclude, “Can the private companies find a way to pay these workers less, yet still maintain adequate skill levels or at least skill levels supplemented by technology? To date, the overall answer to this question is no,” (Camp and Gaes 17). Private prisons create unsafe working environments by cutting costs where funding might be needed the

As can be demonstrated and exemplified from the statistics, it argued that, from approximately 300,000 inmates during the 1970 to above 2.3 million today, that to end, America can now account for having 25% of the world’s prison population (Jing, 2010; Price and Morris (2012). This gave room for the private prison industry to evolve into what it is today, due to the vast increase of prisoners. Worth to mention is that private prisons have become a cheap and easy solution to the continued increase in prison population which has caused social, legal, health and humanitarian challenges for the government of the united-states. Jing, (2010) argues that the major objectives for the privatization for the government is to reduce overcrowding, efficiency

Corporate officials often have conflicting motivations to run these prisons and sacrifice the quality of care in their organizations in order to make a profit. A majority of the problems arising in private prisons is due in part to lack of government oversight and insufficient accountability. In addition to inadequate accountability, for-profit prisons hope to generate the greatest possible profit, and do this by any means necessary. Some will argue that the savings to the taxpayer is worth it, however the current data available clearly says otherwise.

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

Consequently, the conditions in many private prisons are terrible, and oversight is limited. (Edwards, 2005)” If corners were cut then the private prison would be cutting its own throat. Private prisons were seen as unfit to house inmates that were sent to prison because the prisoners could escape easier in a facility that was not run by the government.

In the United States Criminal Justice System, lies a social institution driven by ego-centric tendencies, yet receives little to no attention. This social institution is called Private Prisons and often comprised of policy makers, private correctional facility owners, and brokers and each thrive on greed at the expense of humans, specifically criminals. Another label for this type of social institution is called prisons for profit. In any case, this institution remains unchecked for its ego-centric thinking and behavioral issues. The act of privatizing prisons certainly warrants attention, since the institution is driven by ego-centric tendencies such as greed and encourages or rewards self-centered thinking and behavior through large scaled profits. What is more troubling, while these institutions continue to expand, human and social interest are devalued in terms of decreasing other types of reforms for criminal behavior. Furthermore, these practices are defended and justified by the social institutional values which can be found in their mission statements and on their stock exchange websites. Moreover, the self-centered thinking and behavior is normal and accepted in their line of business.

With the pressure to lower prices increasing more and more, some sources claim that the private prisons have exchanged the quality of service at prisons for cheaper alternatives. Prisons require a large amount of physical labor to keep running and in good shape, but this physical labor is expensive and in order to cut costs prisons are as understaffed as possible ( P ). Being extremely understaffed leads to larger problems within the prison