WORTHINESS OF PRIVATE PRISONS

Worthiness of Private Prisons

Abstract

Our study sheds light on the topic that privately operated prison offers better cost efficiency and quality effectiveness. Our study has focused on secondary research. Evaluation studies on the cost-effectiveness of private versus public institutions have been inconclusive. Private prisons do seem cheaper to construct. David Shichor's evaluation of the existing research on private correctional facilities reveals “a somewhat lower cost and higher quality of services in private facilities.”

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Privatization4

US Prison4

Cost Effectiveness5

Opponents of Privatization7

Conclusion9

Worthiness of Private Prisons

Introduction

The private sector involvement in the state run activities is not a new phenomenon. Private industry used prison labor in several ways during the early nineteenth century. Our study sheds light on the topic that privately operated prison offers better cost efficiency and quality effectiveness. The contract labor system used prison labor to manufacture goods for private companies, which furnished tools and materials and supervised the work of inmates. In the piece-price system, contractors furnished raw materials and paid prisoners for the completed goods on a per piece basis (Herival, 2007). The convict lease system provided prisoners “on lean” to work in farming, construction, mining, and on plantations under the complete control of the lessee. It should be noted that this is not what private companies do today.

The private sector now provides prisoners' work programs, medical education, psychological services, financing for prison or jail construction; management and operation of prisons or jails. Private correctional corporations presently operate more than 280 correctional facilities that house about 100.000 adult offenders. Three companies operate most of the private correctional faculties: the Corrections Corporation of America, the CEO Group Inc. [formerly Wackenhut Corrections), and Cornell Companies. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) operates facilities with 69,000 beds in 63 correctional institutions. The CBO Group operates the facilities with a capacity of 40,000 beds, while Cornell Companies have 70 facilities that manage up to 10,000 adult and juvenile offenders in secure containment and community-based corrections. Privately operated faculties are generally located in the southern and western regions of the United States and include both federal and state offenders.

Privatization

The privatization of prisons started to grow in 1980 under the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but it reached its maximum growth in 1990 under the tenure of Bill Clinton, when the shares were sold on Wall Street. Clinton's program for reducing the federal workforce had led the Justice Department to subcontract the prisons to the private companies for imprisonment. Private prisons are one of the industry's most powerful businesses. 

There are about 18 companies holding 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. A private prison receives a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, regardless of the maintenance costs of the prisoner (Dikotter, 2002). According to the director of private prisons in Virginia, Rusell Boraas, the secret of exploitation low cost is to have a minimum number of guards for a maximum number of prisoners. The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards provides around all day and two night to 750 ...