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Examples Of Profit Over Progress: How Private Prisons Increase Recidivism

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Alyssa Arellano Professor May English 1302-42218 March 1, 2024 Profit Over Progress: How Private Prisons Increase Recidivism Rates? A prison is a place where criminals are supposed to go to be punished for a crime that they have committed, but also where they are supposed to go through rehabilitation and become productive members of society. The original goal when creating these institutions was to make them with the intention of lowering the rate of and preventing recidivism, which is the tendency to re-offend. Prisons are supposed to be about rehabilitation, but unfortunately, that isn't the case in some private institutions. Private prisons, also known as for-profit correctional facilities, are institutions operated by private organizations …show more content…

Over the last 20-plus years, there has been a 5% increase in the population of private prisons, but the overall imprisoned population itself has not changed drastically (Budd). Private prisons are continually growing and profiting from the imprisonment of criminals, but to understand how or why, we must start with why they were created in the first place. Private prisons were created to address overcrowding and budget issues of the government facilities by offering a cheaper option to house inmates (Mukherjee). Many states and the federal government turn to private institutions to house their inmates when their facilities begin to overflow with new prisoners. This is considered beneficial to supporters of private prisons because it is cheaper per inmate per day to house them in a private facility and therefore saves the government money. However, since these private facilities are paid per diem for each bed filled and have little government regulations, this can create a conflict of interest as the private institutions are motivated by income and have no real incentives to prevent recidivism (Mukherjee

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