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History of the penitentiary system
Goals of the prison system
Pros and cons of private prison
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The overall goal of correctional facilities can be broken down into three main functions which are retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation of the inmates. Today, there is much debate on rather private or public prison admiration is best to suit those goals. In a private prison the inmates are contracted out to a third party from either local, state, or federal government agencies (Smith 2012). Public prisons are where the government themselves house and supply the inmate’s basic needs with no third party involved. However, a large portion of the argument of private verses public prisons is over, which is best in achieving those goals more efficiently.
The idea of contracting out prisoners to a third party has been around in some form
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Hays contracted the ship out to the state to operate, but due to constant escape of the inmates the contract was canceled with Hays (Chaddock, 2014). A new contract with General James Estell and General Mariano Vallejo was created and eventually Estell became the sole owner of the contract. The state made a move to switch out the prison ship and build a prison on land (Chaddock, 2014). They bought 20 acres of land and contracted out the Waban prison to build the first cell block, which was done by the inmates. By 1857 Estell not receiving much profit turned his contract over the John F. McCauley. McCauley now in charge of the contract ignored inspectors and used cruel and unusual punishment on the inmates. The State Legislature than terminated McCauley 's contract. However, since the state took the prison by a “forced seized” McCauley sued the state. McCauley ownership over the prison was given back to him. The state then settled with McCauley by offering him $275,000 and the prison was taken back into state control (Chaddock, …show more content…
According to Cody Manson from The Sentencing Project, in the 1980’s privately ran prison began to make a comeback after President Nixon’s “War on Drugs” campaign (Mason, 2012). The prison system developed as massive overcrowding issues and thus reentered the private sector. In 1983 the Corrections Corporation of America, CCA, was established (Smith, 2012). They provided an intriguing “new” idea with hopes to solve the overcrowding problem. The CCA proposed a safer and cheaper method in housing inmates over governmentally ran felicities (Mason,
When envisioning a prison, one often conceptualizes a grisly scene of hardened rapists and murderers wandering aimlessly down the darkened halls of Alcatraz, as opposed to a pleasant facility catering to the needs of troubled souls. Prisons have long been a source of punishment for inmates in America and the debate continues as to whether or not an overhaul of the US prison system should occur. Such an overhaul would readjust the focuses of prison to rehabilitation and incarceration of inmates instead of the current focuses of punishment and incarceration. Altering the goal of the entire state and federal prison system for the purpose of rehabilitation is an unrealistic objective, however. Rehabilitation should not be the main purpose of prison because there are outlying factors that negatively affect the success of rehabilitation programs and such programs would be too costly for prisons currently struggling to accommodate additional inmate needs.
Studies have shown that the U.S prison systems are continuing to rise tremendously. Eliciting questions such as, what do we do to those who commit crimes? Since the 1970s, the United States
In the 1970s, prison was a dangerous place. Prison violence and the high numbers of disruptive inmates have led prison authorities to seek new ways to control prisoners. At first, prison staff sought to minimize contact with prisoners by keeping them in their cells for a majority of the day. As time went on, the prison authorities began to brainstorm the idea of having entire prisons dedicated to using these kinds of procedures to control the most violent and disruptive inmates. By 1984, many states began construction on super-maximum prisons.
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.
The past two decades have engendered a very serious and historic shift in the utilization of confinement within the United States. In 1980, there were less than five hundred thousand people confined in the nation’s prisons and jails. Today we have approximately two million and the numbers are still elevating. We are spending over thirty five billion annually on corrections while many other regime accommodations for education, health
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
today’s first private prisons. Initially being built to reduce overcrowding and cut cost from the regular
Prisons have been used as the way of punishment in the United States since its beginning. Throughout the history of prisons, convicts have been used as labor. The methods of labor, the number of laborers, and the arguments for or against has constantly been changing. From the early chain gangs to the prison industries of today, prisoners have been used as labor in the United States. When people think of chain gangs, they usually think of people in white and black stripes, being forced to work in a harsh environment. This was often true. Employees, also called “leasees”, were in charge of the inmates. They often treated the inmates brutally. The name “chain gang” probably comes from the fact that the inmates were chained together at the legs to reduce the chance of escape. (Reynolds 181) Inmates were often controlled by whips and other harsh disciplines and punishments. People argued that the treatment was just because of the increased chance of escape in chain gangs. (Reynolds 182) People also thought that the chain gangs would deter crime, but studies show that they failed to deter. (Brownstein 179) The living conditions were often unsanitary, crowded, and poorly constructed. (Reynolds 182) These bad conditions of the past have given the chain gang an extremely bad rap. The way people view chain gangs has changed several times throughout their history in the United States. The earliest history of chain gangs holds the cause for the bad views of them. The public sees chain gangs as a racist part of the old South. The first chain gangs began in England and the northern part of the United States during the eighteenth century. (Reynolds 180) Even though chain gangs were legal in alm...
Zito, M. (2003, December 8). Prison Privatization: Past and Present. International Foundation for Protection Officers. Retrieved from http://www.ifpo.org/articlebank/prison_privatization.html
“Rethinking prison control : New Incentives to Demand Improvement.” World and I Mar. 2002: 292. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Oct. 2013
The prison system in the United States was not always like it is today. It took mistakes and changes in order to get it to the point it is at. Some people think that prisons should still be being changed while others feel that they are fine the way they are. It is hard to make an argument for one side or the other if one does not know about the history of prisons as well as the differences between prisons structures and differences in prison management. Knowledge of private prisons is also needed to make this difficult decision.
“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.
Private prisons are not a new concept; they have been around since in the 1800’s with the first one being San Quentin located in California. In the 1980’s the prison populations were growing due to “tough on crime initiatives that led to an increase in harsher penalties and punishments for crime that were once seen as minimal” (Gordon & Price, 2012, p. 188). Cost also played a factor, by using private prisons it saved the taxpayers and state money that could be better used elsewhere like in fighting crime, health care or education. Private prisons were more of a business and they had the ability to use prison labor to make money to keep the prisons running. “Labor costs are controlled by reducing one or more of the following personnel cost
Within the last few decades, the prison population in the United States has given rise to the ever growing and expanding prison system. Due to public prisons being overcrowded and health issues being brought to light, a new way to house those that society deems to be a menace to the public must be found. The Federal Bureau of Corrections have had to find more creative alternatives to properly manage the health issue that is overcrowding, as well as reduce the cost of living of the inmates. in this paper I will identify the pros and cons of private prisons, and why they should be done away with.
Private prisons are not a new occurrence in America. The first jails and prisons in the country were all private entities run for profit. They were not concerned with operating as an institution, but only as a business model, charging the government and prisoners’ families for their keep (Ogle, 1999). The commercial model of using prisoners as free labor and making profits from punishment began around 1825 with prisoner lease programs where prisoners were leased out to business as workers (Jing, 2010). These programs didn’t end until 1940 with the Summers-Amhurst Act (Jing, 2010). The early private prisons failed either because they lost legitimacy due to corruption and abuse,