The Pros And Cons Of Private Prisons

As prisons grow in size, governments look for new methods to aid in cutting costs and increase efficiency. Over the last decade government run institutions have been replaced with privately funded, for-profit prisons. Although it is cheaper for governments to run contract based institutions this mass industrialization of the prison system has seen many issues with corruption, decreases in efficiency and even mistreatment and exploitation of incarcerated individuals. The prison system should remain under government control and in this essay I will discuss the faults and errors of for-profit institutions and why this system should not be overseen by private corporations.

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.

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.

The number of privately owned prisons has grown, as has the imprisonment rate of Americans. “In 2005 more than 2.3 million Americans (or .7% of the US population) were incarcerated, in nearly 1700 state, federal, and private prisons, with many more under other forms of custodial supervision including probation and parole”(Smith and Hattery 2). “In 1980, only 474,368 citizens in the US were imprisoned, but in just a little over two decades, 2,042,270 people

For profit prisons are contracted out to the government to help hold convicted criminals. Private prisons are thought to help save money for states, it also helps with overcrowding. Since America incarcerates so many people they didn’t have space to put everyone. So, they started using private prisons. But private prisons can be more dangerous than public prisons. The conditions in private prison are not very good, and there have been many complaints about it. Some people think that inmates should not be sold for profit. The for-profit prison industry has two main corporations the Geo and the CCA.

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.

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

Studies conducted in the comparison of state owned and ran prison versus private prisons by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the cost-savings promised by private prisons “have simply not materialized.”

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

According to the table shown above, there are certain costs that private prisons incur in order to keep functioning. For example, the total tax payer cost in the state of New York is a quite bit higher than in other states. In New York the total tax payer cost is an estimated of $3.5 million. As mentioned before, the state of New York is where housing an inmate is one of the most expensive ones. As a result, tax payer pays a higher rate of taxes due to the number of inmates as well as the cost of housing one prisoner. That is, the larger the number of prisoners, the larger the amount of taxes.

"The most common rate is 90%, though some prisons are able to snag a 100% promise from their local governments" (Mathews 2). Contracts between the government and private prisons stating the minimum capacity rate of the jail, exist for all private prisons. Private prisons, or a facility for incarceration, run through a third party and have contracts with the government. This approach guarantees money for profit-seeking CEOs, causing them to effectively run as a business. However, the quotas these contracts call for present a problem because "[w]hile incarceration statistics have skyrocketed, crime rates have increased much more slowly" (Smith 3). The quota put forward by the private prison industry causes the rise of imprisonment rates. Because

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

My partner and I believe that we should ban prisons while our opponents say we should not. There are many reasons behind our case one being, private prisons also known as for-profit prisons should be banned because they are using the prisoners for labor. The Bureau Justice of Assistance formulated a case proving that “rather than the projected 20-percent savings, the average saving from privatization was only 1 percent.” A prisoner may have of broken a law but they deserve to serve their sentence with dignity. Prisoners are used as commodities to make profit. Private prisons run off of people going to jail and if they dont, the prisons dont make money. Private prisons are charging the government for cells that nobody is using in which their

With the amount of incarcerated people in the United States, for-profit prisons have been on the rise. With not enough beds in state prisons, we have been investing money into private prisons. There are many pros and cons of having third-party prisons. They hold around 200,000 of our prisoners. Two of the most common private prisons are Core civic and their website is http://www.corecivic.com/. Another popular prison would be Geo group and you can access their website at https://www.geogroup.com. Core Civic currently has 89 facilities and Geo group has 70 corrections facilities. In Nebraska, we do not have any private prisons at this time.

Private prisons are operated under there own guidelines and regulations so they have the option to accept or decline any type of offender. Typically, privately ran facilities do not usually accept offenders who are too costly to hold. These would include certain medical conditions, mental health issues, and dietary requirements that all increase the cost of housing a offender. Research shows that private prisons typically house less violent and serious offenders than public prisons as this would increase the amount of security needed.