Private prisons have a negative effect on states and local governments. Unfortunately, the number of private prisons has been increasing since their inception in 1983 causing further problems. For-profit prisons offer no real benefits and are bad investments for states. Furthermore, private prisons beleaguer communities with high turnover rates that hurt local economies. The demands of these institutions put an excessive burden on the local community’s infrastructure. Similarly, private prisons strain the county and city legal systems. More often than not, spin-off industries and economic benefits promised by the for-profit correction industry fail to appear. Additionally, private prisons are allowed to cherry pick the least expensive inmates, leaving the more expensive inmates for the state. A number of studies financed by the private prison industry give the misconception that they save states money. More importantly, the need to make a profit is an incentive for private prison industry officials to engage in nefarious activities. Private prisons are correctional institutions ran by for-profit corporations. They claim to cost less than prisons ran by the state, while offering the same level of service. In fact, the Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison corporations, states that their business strategy is to provide quality corrections service while offering a better value to their government partners at the same time making a profit (CCA 2010). However, opponents of private prisons say they do not save states money because of their hidden cost. At any rate, more than a few states have found private prisons to be advantageous. For one reason, many states are facing massive deficits and are l... ... middle of paper ... ...e-new-american-gold-mine/>. Setti, Christopher. "Prisons and Their Effect on Local Economies: The Colorado Experience." University of Colorado, Denver 2001st ser. XLVII.3 (2001): 1-9. Print. Shapiro, David. Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration. Rep. New York: American Civil Liberties Union, 2011. Print. Smith, Abbe. "Undue Process." The New York Times 31 Mar. 2013: BR21. Print. Urbina, Ian. "Despite Red Flags About Judges, A Kickback Scheme Flourished." The New York Times 28 Mar. 2009: A1. Print. Wilder, Forrest. "Jailbait." TexasObserver.org. 20 Oct. 2006. Web. 12 Sept. 2013. . Yeoman, Barry. "Steel Town Lockdown." Mother Jones. May-June 2000. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
This paper will focus on the privately owned prisons in the U.S.A., compared to the government owned prisons, whether they are owned by the state and /or federal governments.
... law, government supervisors and to the public through the political system available. (Austin and Coventry, 2001). The private prisons are also answerable to the insurers, investors, competitors and the stockholders. Competition from other competitors therefore acts as a better mechanism for control which is not experienced by public prisons. The problem of funding and allocating space efficiently in the prisons would decrease if there were better markets that sell, buy and rent the prison cells. The private prisons are based in such a way that they have introduced factories behind the bars allowing them to reduce their costs and allowing the inmates to earn some money and pay in their own way and give back to the community where they resided. The public prisons do this to some extent which however cannot match that of the private prisons. (Silverman and Ira, 2001).
The United States is a nation with the largest prison population and crime rates in the world. When the governmental controlled facilities were in a deficit where they lacked funds and space could not house the inmates, private prisons were developed. Along with the solution of private of prisons, the controversy concerning the funding of health care, recovery and other expenses have been one of the fundamental concerns for the American Justice System. Both the private and public facilities came together and join a partnership where the government facility agreed to bear the expenses of healthcare and other medical exams, and the private facility would find spaces and funds to house inmates. However, to continuously gain profit, the sentencing
Private prisons receive a guaranteed large amount of money for what it costs to maintain each prisoner. There are about 18 different corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states in America. There are two major large corporations; Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, and together they control 75%. The CCA has an ultra-modern day prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia; where five guards on dayshift and two on night shift watch over 750 prisoners. In those prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for their “good behavior,” but for any infraction, they get 30 days added – which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost “good behavior time” at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons. The rise of prison privatization began in the 1980s, under the government control of Ronald Reagan and George W Bush Sr.; then reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street’s stocks were selling like hotcakes. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The CCA’s highest-paying private prison is in Tennessee, where the prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions.” At rates like these, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. In
Companies such as Corrections Corporation of America & GEO Group are selling their services as a worry-free solution to dealing with the incarcerated population, while saving money in the process. Some of the tactics private prisons use to save money are understaffing, not training staff, lax security measures and even allowing cable TV versus hiring more guards. These tactics do not work, as researchers from the U.S. General Accounting Office show “no substantial evidence” was found in proving that for-profit prisons conserve taxpayer dollars. In Arizona, prisons were privatized with one stipulation; it must save money. The state’s own data contradicted the idea, with the per-inmate cost in private prisons as high as sixteen-hundred dollars greater per diem, or three and a half m...
The proponents of private prisons contend that private prison are a necessity because the criminal justice system is in crisis and governments do not have the willingness to spend public money building new prisons. According to Adrian Moore, Mr. Moore is the Vice President, Policy of the Reason Foundation, and this statement was published online “Private Prisons, Quality Corrections at a Lower Cost.” For the website reason.org on April 1998 Moore holds a Ph.D. in Economics
There are over 2.3 million persons within the” Prison Industrial Complex”. The “Prison Industrial Complex" is used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry (Herzing, 2005). The interest of industry within the state prisons of Illinois has led to the selling of inmate healthcare rights to many private companies. The privatization of healthcare within the prison industrial complex is unconstitutional and perpetuates unethical treatment of persons who are incarcerated. These private companies are not being held accountable for the lack of treatment and negligence of providing services within state prisons.
Private prisons in the United States, came about in the early 1980s when the war on drugs resulted in a mass wave of inmates, which led to the lack of the prison system’s ability to hold a vast number of inmates. When the cost became too much for the government to handle, private sectors sought this as an opportunity to expand their businesses through the prison industry. Since the opening of private prisons, the number of prisons and inmates it can hold has grown over the last two decades. With the rising number of inmates, profits have also substantially grown along with the number of investors. But what eventually became a problem amongst the private prison industry was their “cost-saving” strategies, which have been in constant debate ever
The justice system in the United States is supposed to serve justice to individuals who are have been harmed and punish those who have broken the law. There are some judges who have stock in GEO Corp. and the CCA, and when a criminal is in front of them for sentencing, instead of sending them to a state-run prison, they are sending them to private one’s which they have stock in. By having private prisons now an option for housing criminals, county judges are “helping” their communities by adding a huge surplus of income coming into their county, but have found a way to make more of their own money since they hold stock in these private companies.“ bonds issued for prisons since the late 1980s is approximate $90 million—a vast sum for a county with an annual budget of only $5 million,” (Abramsky, 2004). Many of these judges are making money off of their own cases that they are presiding over and are making money in a racketeering business, which is now in the millions of dollars.“ As a state, we have done a poor job of monitoring the program and have made no real attempt to find out what taxpayers are getting for their money.”(Epstein, 1). There are many states that are like the idea of private prisons because it helps bring revenue to their communities but have no idea of what is actually going on inside, and how only a few people are making money off of these private
At the forefront of the privatized prison debate is retention and rehabilitation. Using the name “corrections” in regards to our prison system has become ironic. Privatization of prisons works against this namesake goal of correction and rehabilitation for those in prison. Instead the goal now of prison is not to protect the public or help those incarcerated but instead to generate capital. Corporations CCA and GEO advertise to its investors the truth of high prison retention in making for great profits. When individuals leave and go back to prison after they get out because they are not capable of handling life outside of the system they have lived in so long
Frist off there is not evidences that the use of private prisons saves money. The use of private prisons dose have a positive impact in the state government staying in its budget. Private prisons help to lower some of the cost that the states have with prisons. If done correctly this could help the states to improve their economy. There are lots of ways that the private prisons try and same money. The article Durkheim, Punishment, and Prison Privatization shows some of the ways private prisons try and save money. The private prisons receive property tax abatements, tax rebates, and other benefits form the government. this helps the private prisons make money. When it comes to the employees of the of the private prisons the cheapest way is taken. On average the employees of the private prisons earn considerably less and have worse retirement packages their public counter parts. This has a negative effect on the economy because the workers aren’t going to be spending money because they don’t have any. The private prisons also look for the cheapest option when it comes to programs. This dose one or two things to the with the quality of the prison. The cheapest option can be to make sure that the prisoners do return to the prison. By focusing on this the quality of the prisons would be improved because people are not being rehabilitated. The insurance of prisoners becoming productive member
With the substantial increase in prison population and various changes that plague correctional institutions, government agencies are finding that what was once considered a difficult task to provide educational programs, inmate security and rehabilitation programs are now impossible to accomplish. From state to state each correctional organization is coupled with financial problems that have depleted the resources to assist in providing the quality of care in which the judicial system demands from these state and federal prisons. Judges, victims, and prosecuting attorneys entrust that once an offender is turned over to the correctional system, that the offender will receive the punishment in which was imposed by the court, be given services that aid in the rehabilitation to those offenders that one day will be released back into society, and to act as a deterrent to other criminals contemplating criminal acts that could result in their incarceration. Has our nations correctional system finally reached it’s critical collapse, and as a result placed or American citizens in harm’s way to what could result in a plethora of early releases of inmates to reduce the large prison populations in which independent facilities are no longer able to manage? Could these problems ultimately result in a drastic increase in person and property crimes in which even our own law enforcement be ineffective in controlling these colossal increases of crime against society?
The privatization of prisons and jails has led to mass incarceration, an issue that does not only effect those who are imprisoned, but also communities a whole. Prisons should no longer be private because it can create a need to put more people in jail for more profit. When money is an incentive, it can affect how law enforcement polices people. Also, when there are institutional biases against groups of people, and when individuals who work in law enforcement or related fields have biases, it can affect who is policed as well.
The main argument that those who are in favor of private prisons make is that they are cheaper to the taxpayers than regular prisons. “Researchers
Many believed that the US state’s soaring expenditures and special interest politics are pushing states towards record budget deficits, causing a lack of funding towards education, health care, the poor, and even state correction system (Petersilia 2008). It is paramount that out government find ways to utilized government spending wisely towards all the principles mentioned, even towards state correction systems. Our government needs to put individuals in place to analyze prison systems and find ways to resolve the issues with recidivism. From the data collected, the government could learn the best methods of utilizing funding towards innovative programs to help with reform and