Historically our public buildings and prisons have been in a state of despair. I am not surprised to hear about the current dilemma we are faced with at this time. With the rising cost to maintain and repair the facilities and taxpayers not willing to pay more to house criminals, many states and correction facilities are looking at PPP or the privatization of Prisons to cure the never ending need for repairs, upgrades and expansions. A prime example is California’s prison crisis and the state’s ongoing budget crisis, which also demands immediate attention to reduce the unsustainable costs of existing operations. Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) offer an attractive option along with the idea of privatization of the workers and operations for many prison or correction facilities. The question is, what is best way to solve the maxed out, over budget system with …show more content…
Other ethical dilemmas in the partnerships can be the fact that the private company is issued bonds (that the public does not need to approve) and are paid the needed construction and operations funds up-front. The government also can sell existing buildings to raise funds. Therefore, It is to the advantage of the private company to keep the prison running and full long-term. The longer the contract the more money they make. This can possibly influence the decisions of inmates being paroled or transferred. The prisons become a money making, for-profit business and may not always be interested in meeting the goals of the justice system if it does not benefit them, which is the definition of a conflict of interest. These are all concerns to keep in mind when evaluating options for any prison or correctional facility in the State or County you
In conclusion, for profit prisons do just that, they look for ways to make a profit by cutting corners and providing less than adequate living conditions for inmates. This imposes a significant risk for many things such as, extreme overcrowding in the private facilities, lack of medical care, lack of nutritious meals, and decrease in the number of staff that are in the facilities. The staff get don’t get paid as much as they should for the amount of hours they put into the facilities also causing risks for the safety and security of the
Correctional program writing nowadays is at a level of efficiency that surpasses earlier outlooks. In territories all over the United States, there are several curriculums that use research-based curriculums to teach, instruct, and inspire inmates. Disappeared are the days of hit-or-miss execution of curriculums that seemed good, but over and over again just occupied time for the inmates. The previous evolution happened for several reasons (Corrections Today, 2010). The largest wake-up demands was the claim composed around thirty years ago. The statement made was not anything works in corrections systems, mainly rehabilitation. Even though this commonly revealed report was taken from its context, it did in detail carry some notice to the mystery that several penitentiaries were not operational as change
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.
... 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 goal of private prisons is to be more efficient and runs cheaper than the average public operated prisons. In a public prison, it cost a lot of money for the inmates to be taken cared of, so the plan was to have a prion that is not own by the government, but instead was owned by a owner who would guarantee to run their prison facility for less money, and still provide the same qualities and care as a public prison. However, that isn’t the case now. Private prisons are falling short on actually fulfilling those aspect and requirements. In fact it is relatively hard to determine if there is any difference in the qualities between a private facility and a public facility. The only difference so far is that a private prison is not own by the government and therefore it is more of a business own by an owner who most likely runs...
The proliferation of prison overcrowding has been a rising concern for the U.S. The growing prison population poses considerable health and safety risks to prison staffs and employees, as well as to inmates themselves. The risks will continue to increase if no immediate actions are taken. Whereas fighting proliferation is fundamentally the duty of the U.S. government, prison overcrowding has exposed that the U.S. government will need to take measures to combat the flaws in the prison and criminal justice system. Restructuring the government to combat the danger of prison overcrowding, specifically in California, thus requires reforms that reestablishes the penal codes, increases the state’s budget, and develops opportunities for paroles to prevent their return to prison. The following context will examine and discuss the different approaches to reduce the population of state prisons in California in order to avoid prison overcrowding.
Citizens are sold on the idea that criminals must be keep off the streets that the punishment must be harsh regardless of the crime, that three strikes and they are out. The justice system does not seem to focus on rehabilitation, rather in the punishment. The public constantly listens to slogans such as “protect our children”, “protect your rights”, and the public recognizes that maybe some of this laws, yet some of the harshest penalties have an ulterior motive. Can society endorse the fact that criminals should rot in jail, regardless of the crime? Think of the impact of an increased jail population on our taxes. For a moment consider the incarcerated population growing because of an increase in crime or
On an average nearly 688,000 prisoners are released back into society, and of which includes 433,000 prisoner's waiting for trial and convictions, and the remaining percentage of prisoner's are serving sentences for minor and non-violent crimes, although, in the attempt to ensure public safety. Prison overcrowding continues to be a grave concern to the safety and welfare of the general public in California today because consequently the percentage of juvenile offenders detained represents 12,000 for technical violations, and 3,000 juveniles are detained for status offenses costing the taxpayers on an average $31,286 annually, and currently, the number of offender’s incarcerated in State and Federal prisons today is an astounding 2.4 million
...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.
Proponents of the prisons-as-development strategy contend that prison jobs offer better wages and create more stability than the few industries that remain in non-metro America. Yet, critics cite higher crime rates and reduced property values as the social externalities and economic drawbacks that result from prison siting. Impact studies of prison-based development strategies, although far from conclusive, suggest that the truth may lie somewhere in the middle. However, it is also clear that the varied impacts this strategy has, both good and bad, are rarely if ever considered in the prison siting process. Nonetheless, the prison-as-development approach continues as a tactic to create jobs and to bring hope to the struggling communities of non-metro America.
Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means of punishment.
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
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague or correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exist in the majority of or state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numb...
Don Hutto, Tom Besley, and Dr. Robert Crants “wanted to invent an approach that benefited others and they wanted to do so while working in the govenement institution they valued. “(CCA 2013) The trio created the first private prison, brining “cost savings, technology and design innovations to government.” (CCA 2013) Corrections Corporation of America started in 1980, they industrialized the prison industry, they were able to “build, operate, design, finance, tailor solutions based on precise needs, population, budget, policies, and procedures of correctional facilities.”(CCA 2013) Not only did they industrialize the industry they specialized in the prison
The first issue that I would like to address is the overcrowding issues in prisons. In my opinion, overcrowding issues are the biggest issues in our correctional system that concerns every citizen. Running a prison required money, resources and manpower, with overcrowding issues, the government would have no choice but to increase the number of correctional facilities, privatized prisons and increasing manpower. According to (Levitt, 1996), “The incarceration rate in the United States has more than tripled in the last two decades. At year-end 1994 the United States prison population exceeded one million. Annual government outlays on prisons are roughly $40 billion per year. The rate of imprisonment in the United States is three to four times greater than most European countries.” (p.1). Overcrowding issues are not only affect prisons but the society as a whole as well. The reason is simply because prison population directly refl...