his paper will seek to analyze the privatization of prisons in the American Criminal Justice Penal System. “Privatization” refers to both the takeover of existing public facilities by private operators and the building and operation of new and additional prisons by for-profit companies (Cheung, 2004). The developments of private prison were a huge result of mass incarceration in America. Therefore, this paper will first evaluate how private prisons are considered to be a solution to the problem of overcrowded prisons in the United States. Next, it will examine private prisons to investigate rather it was an enormous solution to the mass incarceration problem in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, it will seek to understand the idea that private prisons are less expensive to operate than public facilities operated by the state. Honestly, it will terminate the claim that private prisons cause an enormous economic growth, as development projects, in rural areas throughout the United States. Also, I will explain how the private prison industry has tremendously affected the black male and female rate of incarceration. Therefore, private prisons are not a feasible to the issue of mass incarceration; however, it does obstruct the reformation of mass incarceration by reinforcing the very same principles of the already faulty criminal justice system’s ideologies. Background/Literature Review The criminal justice system is always criticized for a range of issues concerning the injustices that has taken place throughout history and even today. Many political leaders and social activists have sought to reform the criminal justice system; however, some have realized that there are systematic barriers that inhibit reformation. Political ... ... middle of paper ... ...ntention that The New Jim Crow explores the implication of mass incarceration well due to the fact it illustrates how private prisons are not the answer to the criminal justice (Alexander, 2010). We have to mobilize in the fight to end the injustices that our people face in the United States criminal justice system. The exploration of private prisons in this paper helps me gain the knowledge that not all strategic partnerships have ethnical practices. The corporations that ban together in the prison industries are doing what benefits them the most. It made me wonder whether or not I should take advantage of an opportunity that could be financial gain. In reality making decisions in the business world are always going to receive some type of opposition. Therefore, the choice is often made without looking at many implications that can and will affect those around us.
Should prisons in the United States be for profit? How do for profit prisons benefit the United States? Would inmates rather be in private or public correctional centers? What kind of affects does this have on taxpayers? What are the pros and cons of profit prisons? These are many of the questions that are brought up when discussing for profit prison systems. There are different perspectives that can be taken when it comes to talking about for profit prisons. This paper will discuss some of the ways that the United States has started to become for profit and why it has happened. Finally, this paper will give an opinion of whether or not for profit prisons should be dominant over public facilities.
Even though restorative justice has many supporters, it also boasts numerous opponents as well. In response to a proposal for restorative justice, conservatives largely contest the idea in favor of a more “get-tough” on criminals approach. “According to conservative theory, human beings are obliged to curb their drive for self-gratification. Offenders are to be punished harshly in order to provide them with a moral lesson and to serve as a general deterrent” (Mantle, Fox, & Dhami, 2005, p. 20). Many citizens worry that with the advancement of restorative justice comes the loss of state and government power. Because formal court processes are usually avoided and communities execute their own “judge and jury” practices when a crime is committed, restorative justice is sometimes seen as a threat to traditional U.S. state and federal court systems. A reduction in the involvement of the American court systems is viewed as a “breakdown of traditional social and legal authority” (Mantle et al., 2005, p. 20). With “a culture that is becoming increasingly conservative and focused on security rather than personal freedom,” (Siegel, 2008, p. 194) many conservatives are resistant to a form of justice that gives more liberty an...
Question 1. Both Thomas Mathiesen and Stanley Cohen argue that alternative criminal justice responses that were presented after the 1970s were not real alternatives (Tabibi, 2015a). The ‘alternatives’ which are being questioned are community justice alternatives generally, and Restorative Justice specifically. The argument here is that Restorative Justice cannot be a real alternative because it is itself finished and is based on the premises of the old system (Mathiesen, 1974). Moreover, Restorative Justice is not an alternative, as it has not solved the issues surrounding the penal system (Tabibi, 2015a). Cohen (1985) supports this sentiment, and suggests that community based punishment alternatives have actually led to a widening and expansion
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.
Therefore, they argued that the drive to fill new prisons with people were driven by the ideologies of racism and the pursuit of profit and money (Davis). Also, the prison industrial complex states that punishment is the result of economic and political structures as well as ideologies instead of trying to deter crime (Davis). It was stated that many corporations with global markets actually rely on prisons as a source of profit, not only in the United States but also in Europe, South America and Australia. The prison industrial complex is fueled by privatization because of how much privatization has changed areas such as healthcare and education which in turn has increased the presence of private corporations in the prison economy which has lead to the existence of private prisons.The private prison trends are “reminiscent of the historical efforts to create a profitable punishment industry based on the new supply of “free” black laborers in the aftermath of the Civil War” (Davis,
Mass incarceration did not occur in light of significant increments in wrongdoing but instead given a system of strategic decisions that the country has made. A similar straightforward answer will address the system question of how to stand up to the adverse effect of mass imprisonment on communities of shading (Mauer). Making this stride decreasing mass incarceration will efficiently affect these communities since they have disproportionally experienced the increments in captivity. Furthermore, for any individual who may stress, there is no proof to propose that a move far from the abnormal state of incarceration, which portrays the United States more than some other country on the planet, will bring about a considerable increment in wrongdoing. Another essential approach to address the issues for communities of shading is to lessen the own racial and financial isolation that keeps on causing problems for social life in the United States. In fact, going for this objective will put more noteworthy difficulties on policymakers and people in general alike. At last, an ideal approach to lessen the security outcomes and the impacts of increased cases of imprisonment and their resulting pessimistic has implications for people of shade is to decrease the rate of individuals being jailed and to make an all the more equitable
A private prison or for-profit prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically have contractual agreements with the governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in that private facility. Private prisons have been part of the system for quite some years now, specifically for involvement in corrections. Private for-profit prison management started rising in the 1980s, they represented a qualitative shift in the relation between corrections and private business. The question is there really a difference between private and public facilities, since the two are suppose to be different when it comes t cost and efficiency, also are the private facilities being run as a correctional facility at all?
Shockingly, there seem to be a few people who actually profits from keeping people in jails. The practice of mass incarceration who most see as a major problem in the United States of America is actually beneficial to some. The prison system in the United States who was create to keep dangerous criminals at bay is now a major source of profit for some private corporations. John W. Whitehead, attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute writes that, “ the flawed yet retributive American “system of justice” is being replaced by an even more flawed and insidious form of mass punishment based upon profit and expediency.” Some blame the war on drugs as the main reason for the mass incarceration; others blame racism. Although those components do play a major role in the affair, a closer look at at the mastermind behind the prison industrial complex suggest that the privatization of the prison system has become the main reason why mass incarceration exist so forcefully in the United States and is a crime against the people of the people of
Mass incarceration has caused the prison’s populations to increase dramatically. The reason for this increase in population is because of the sentencing policies that put a lot of men and women in prison for an unjust amount of time. The prison population has be caused by periods of high crime rates, by the medias assembly line approach to the production of news stories that bend the truth of the crimes, and by political figures preying on citizens fear. For example, this fear can be seen in “Richard Nixon’s famous campaign call for “law and order” spoke to those fears, hostilities, and racist underpinnings” (Mauer pg. 52). This causes law enforcement to focus on crimes that involve violent crimes/offenders. Such as, gang members, drive by shootings, drug dealers, and serial killers. Instead of our law agencies focusing their attention on the fundamental causes of crime. Such as, why these crimes are committed, the family, and preventive services. These agencies choose to fight crime by establishing a “War On Drugs” and with “Get Tough” sentencing policies. These policies include “three strikes laws, mandatory minimum sentences, and juvenile waives laws which allows kids to be trialed as adults.
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
According to the Oxford Index, “whether called mass incarceration, mass imprisonment, the prison boom, or hyper incarceration, this phenomenon refers to the current American experiment in incarceration, which is defined by comparatively and historically extreme rates of imprisonment and by the concentration of imprisonment among young, African American men living in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage.” It should be noted that there is much ambiguity in the scholarly definition of the newly controversial social welfare issue as well as a specific determination in regards to the causes and consequences to American society. While some pro arguments cry act as a crime prevention technique, especially in the scope of the “war on drugs’.
The definition of justice and the means by which it must be distributed differ depending on an individual’s background, culture, and own personal morals. As a country of many individualistic citizens, the United States has always tried its best to protect, but not coddle, its people in this area. Therefore, the criminal justice history of the United States is quite extensive and diverse; with each introduction of a new era, more modern technologies and ideals are incorporated into government, all with American citizens’ best interests in mind.
It's a huge challenge and it won't be easy to end mass incarceration but time has come, people are more determined and willing to take action. More and more people, experts and politician are taking notes and working to fix our broken system. let's make America a great country once again by putting an end to mass incarceration.
Prison was designed to house and isolate criminals away from the society in order for our society and the people within it to function without the fears of the outlaws. The purpose of prison is to deter and prevent people from committing a crime using the ideas of incarceration by taking away freedom and liberty from those individuals committed of crimes. Prisons in America are run either by the federal, states or even private contractors. There are many challenges and issues that our correctional system is facing today due to the nature of prisons being the place to house various types of criminals. In this paper, I will address and identify three major issues that I believe our correctional system is facing today using my own ideas along with the researches from three reputable outside academic sources.
Expanding numbers of privately run prisons is a highly controversial issue that has the potential for enduring global repercussions. Prison privatization occurs when a non-governmental third party is contracted by the government oversee the management of a prison. While potential benefits that may occur because of prison privatization has influenced its rapid growth in recent decades, pervading concerns about the running of private prisons cannot be ignored. In this essay, the history of prison privatization, its benefits, unique problems and its placement in New Zealand will be discussed to scrutinize what has become one of the most substantial changes in the framework of the contemporary prison system.