Private Prisons

Private vs. Public Prisons

The privatization of prisons dramatically changed the way prisons are run in the United States. They are suppose to be a way rehabilitate offenders but instead has turned into a way for big business to make money.

Cost

These private prisons were suppose to be a way for the state to save money but there is evidence that that is not the case. If there is money savings at all it comes from the building of the prison and labor. Also, they tend to pick lower costing inmates. Meaning they will pick the inmates who have less time to serve, are younger and have less health problems. These privately run facilities tend to have less expensive inmates and they pick the lower risk inmates to keep costs down. Also, the reason

Due to the multiple definitions of recidivism, there have been very few studies comparing recidivism rates is public and private prisons. The concept of recidivism can be defined as “the reversion or relapse to criminal acts of a acts of an offender who has been subject to punitive sanctions or rehabilitative treatment for previous conduct, such reversions or relapses can be measured as rearrest, reconviction, reincarceration, or even absconding” (Spivak). Also, it is hard to decide how long after release is considered recidivism so it’s difficult to use recidivism is a way to measure if a prison is successful. However, In a study conducted they found that inmates in private prisons were more likely to recidivate. They also found that inmates in private prisons serve more of their time in prison but the more time they serve in prison does not improve their post release performance

Private prisons experienced less overcrowding but that was because public facilities have less control over the level and nature of new admissions when private facilities have more control (Makarious). In terms of activities public facilities have more activities and federal prisons performed better than private prisons and public prisons had a higher number of inmates working (Makarious). The private prisons in this study were slightly better in treatment and education however, when state and federal prisons were looked at separately, federal prisons did better than both state and private prisons (Makarious). It was found that “publicly managed prisons tend to provide better skills training programs and seemed to generate fewer complaints or grievances” (Brownell et al). In terms of violence Private prisons are less likely to experience violence however the private prisons that do experience violence they had the highest rates of violence in all prisons. Private facilities had more inmate against inmate violence. (Lukemeyer). Also, the food services in private prisons were far worse than the food services in public prisons (Camp et al). Publicly managed prisons performed better in public safety (Brownell et al).. Health care is no different in private and public prisons and skills training is better in public prisons (Brownell et