Prison Privatization Rhetorical Analysis

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Recommended: Pros and cons of prison privatization

The peer review article I chose, ‘Prison Privatization: Driving Influences and Performance Evaluation’, supports the argument that the negative effects of the privatization of American prisons are many. In alignment with the videos we viewed this week, this article provides more evidence and additional examples of the ways that prison privatization is not a good direction to take our correctional system.
The article discusses the current political climate of neoliberal and conservative policies that are pushing policies that justify the turnover from public management of prisons to private companies. Schultz looks at costs, recidivism, prisoner rights, and the quality of confinement in public versus private prisons. She shows that private prisons neither improve quality for prisoners or lower costs for the state as they were originally intended to do.
Prisons should exist to protect society and punish and/or rehabilitate offenders for their crimes. Privatization of prisons has changed prisons from being a public good into corporations that serve to earn a profit for their shareholders rather than benefit society. It is shocking to me that our society accepts this new direction for American corrections. Inmates have essentially become commodities in today’s market. P98 I agree wholeheartedly with Liane “Buffie” McFayden, a Colorado politician in the videos we viewed this week, when she commented on private …show more content…

Schultz argues that it is evident that private prisons cut employee salaries, benefits, and training to manipulate operating costs. P102-103 To increase profit, cuts are also often made to prisoner services (FROM BOOK p 153!) In 2010, state officials in Idaho found that “Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) delayed providing medications, administering immunizations, and providing mental health care services” to

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