The movement toward privatization began in the 1980s and has grown at a rapid pace. By 2009, privately operated correctional facilities serving as prisons and jails held over 128,000 state and federal prisons across 33 states. State run prison systems have always contracted with private industries for food, psychological testing, training and recreational services. Companies such as Cornell Corrections, Corrections Corporation of America, Correctional Services Corporation, Wackenhunt Corrections Corporations and several other smaller companies operates private prisons. Most states corrections administrators utilize private companies to reduce overcrowding, lower operating expenses, and avoid lawsuits aimed at state officials and employees.
Many hurdles remain before the privatization movement can effectively provide large-scale custodial supervision. One those hurdles is the risk of correctional officers who are not subject to state laws restricting
…show more content…
One of those pros of privatization is it allows the government to pay only for the capacity as needed instead of assuming long term debt. Second, private companies offer state of the art correctional facility designs that are efficient to operate. Third, private prison operators construct a new correctional facility in half the time it takes to build a comparable government project. Fourth, private companies provide economic development opportunities by hiring and purchasing within local communities. The downside of the prison privatization is the inexperience of the private companies with key correctional issues. Additionally, there are very few private prisons available to choose from nationwide. Also, the government could also face the risk to dropping perform standards of the corrections function. Finally, another con to private prison is states developing dependency on privatization companies (Schmalleger & Smykla,