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The Pros And Cons Of Private Prisons

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Private prison began booming in the 1980s, under the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., however, it slowed down in 1990. When prison sales began to slow down in the 1990's, Clinton who was the acting president, wanted to cut the program but the Justice Department took over and began contracting private prison out to corporations again.
Private prisons are the largest business in the prison industry. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. (Conley, 2013 Para 3) Private prisons receive a secured amount of money for each prisoner. According to Russell Boraas, (2014) a private prison administrator in Virginia, “the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners.”
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For example the federal state, lease system and county governments pay private companies a fee for each inmate. Which means that they are able to keep prisoners as long as they want to keep their facilities filled. “Important evidence of the abuse that takes place behind the walls and gates of private prisons, it came to light in connection with a lawsuit filed by one of the prisoners who was bitten by a dog” pg. 96.

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He argues that privately contracted prisons reduce cost of corrections for federal and state budgets. Seiter explains how private and public corrections are not competitors but partners. Partners that “ are proud of the services they deliver and are committed to meeting the expectations of the taxpayer and public official responsible overseeing their work” (Seiter 419). Private prisons have the ability to buy the fundamental supplies, hire more staff to avoid overtime expense which lower the operating costs to run the prison and make more profit. Setier accurately states that over the past decade “ new growth in prison inmates is going to private prison” (419).

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Most of the correctional services and agencies before 1980 involved private sector providers. It provided services ranging from training and education to medical care and food to probation and parole services. From the time of John Augustus, most of the juvenile and adult halfway houses were provided by private for profit, private nonprofit, or charitable organizations. Due to the overcrowding of jails, many entrepreneurs in the private and private nonprofit sectors have become in the boom industry.

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With 105 prisons being public and 14 being private sector there have been long discussions and decisions being made to make numerous public sector run prisons, private. The quality of service provided by private prisons is being faced with criticism that quality is being reduced to improve efficiency. Michel Gove has to make sure he is being efficient with his finances to run public prisons as he is facing 40% budget cuts. This table shows how the private and public prisons budgets have been split over the past 5 years: The public sector figures for 2015/16 exclude budgets that will be added over the course of the year which includes the prison industries, contractors’, escorts and learning and skills. 2016 will be the first full year with the prisons and offender management system going through the new reformed system with a new budget of £3,230.414m programmes resource expenditure and a further £8.000m capital expenditure and a new focus of stabilisation of the system including finances and public value (Ministry of Justice, 2015) Justice Minister Jeremy Wright gave a statement to The Telegraph (2013) on private prisons that states: ”The cost of running our prisons is too high and must be reduced.

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Private prisons were constructed as a response to the overcrowding in federal prisons during the 1980s; many people speculate whether or not private prisons are good or bad. Critics argue that private prisons like any business are driven by profit, and prisons profit from the amount of criminals they are able to contain which gives the private prisons and their shareholders incentive to keep the prison population high and expenses low. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency estimates that over the next ten years state and federal expenditures on prisons will amount to $351 billion6. These government subsidies along with the support of private prison shareholders allow the prison industrial complex to keep their power and influence

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Mary Anne Batiz Dr. Pittaro Corrections 22 April 2017 Prison Privatization: Cost-Benefit Analysis Prison Privatization began around the 1980’s due to high incarceration rates creating more demand. Prison privatization is when prisons or jails are privately owned, rather than owned by the state or federal government. In the 1980’s, at the rate of overcrowding, the government could no longer supply the extra prisons needed for the incoming offenders. The CCA, Corrections Corporation of America, saw this as a business opportunity.

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Ever since For-Profit prisons started, jails have been overcrowded and are distributing inmates into prisons in neighboring states, such as Arizona, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Judges and the government only have one thing in mind. Profit. As a result of wanting more profit, judges are convicting more prisoners for petty crimes. Therefore, For-Profit prisons have more employees to make more products.

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In the documentary film Private Prisons, provides insight on how two private prisons industries, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group, generate revenue through mass incarceration. It is no surprise that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The United States represents approximately 5% of the world’s population index and approximately 25% of the world’s prisoners due to expansion of the private prison industry complex (Private Prisons, 2013). The number of people incarcerated in private prions has grown exponentially over the past decades. To put into perspective, the number of individuals increased by 1600% between 1990 and 2005 (Private Prisons, 2003).

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First, there are not enough staff to monitor the inmates in private prisons. The reason is because labor costs is controlled by reducing number of staff, wages, and fringe benefits. The reduce in staff has caused inmates to lose their lives. Secondly, many workers within these facilities are inexperienced with key corrections

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The privatization of the prison system has made it so that individuals who have committed a crime are no longer seen as people but as profits. Prisons receive more money and more laborers (which they grossly underpay) with the addition of new inmates, so it is in the best interests of prison corporations to increase the volume of prisoners as well as expanding the length of sentences. Private prisons started out as a cost-effective way to house inmates, but after yielding large investments and profits, they began lobbying for new and harsher punishments resulting in America having the highest levels of incarceration in the world. In 1984, the first private prisons were created, the founders claimed that the prisons funded by the government but run privately would cost considerably less than prisons run at the county, state, and federal level.

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By the government allowing corporations to buy, and build new prisons gave that much more of an incentive to keep the prisons flowing with inmates. According to Vicky Pelaez “Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one.” (6) Once you get trapped inside this prison machine they can and will work for cents a day.

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The root case of such high incarceration rates are due to the private prison corporation. In 2010, the two biggest Private Corporation, CCA and GEO group, made 3 billion in revue. The corporations gave out 3 million dollars every years for compensation packages to the top executives. Private prison corporations were created to help reduce the overcrowding in state prisons.

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The modern private prison first started and was established publicly in 1984 when Hamilton County, Tennessee had awarded the correction corporation of America (CCA) a contract to take over the facility. This was the first time the country had ever contracted out the complete operation of the jail to a private operator. The 1980s, brought in a new era of prison privatization. With a burgeoning prison population resulting from the “war on drugs” and prison overcrowding, increased use of incarceration and rising costs became increasingly problematic for local, state, and federal governments. Resulting from it all they had to begin expanding criminal justice system, private business interests saw an opportunity for expansion, private-sector

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It is a shocking truth that privatized prisons in America are getting paid for having a certain amount of inmates filling their beds. Between 1990 and 2009, the number of private prison inmates increased by more that 1600 percent and 65 percent of all private prison contracts pay private prisons a set amount of cash per prisoner. AZ, OK, LA and VA all have contracts that require 95% to 100% occupancy in private prisons at all times. When the prisons dont meet this percentage, they have to pay. Or in some corrupt and terrible situations the prisons pay members of authority to arrest and put people in their prisons so they dont have to pay and can get more money because their beds are full.

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(BBC, 2013). Juliet Lyon agreed, she claimed this would be “pouring taxpayers’ money down the prison building drain”. She added that this investment should be put into preventing crime and health care instead. She also said smaller local prisons are safer and better at reducing recidivism rates. Joe Simpson agreed and said the MoJ are choosing to overcrowd prisons to cut costs, over focusing on

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