Interest in privatizing prisons started in the mid-1970s. A private prison is a correctional facility operated by an organization other than a government agency. The first private prison were opened in the early 1980s (Shichor, 1995). The United States faces a loss in the Vietnam War, gas and oil shortages, economic recession, and an increasing crime rate. People started to question and feel unsecure about the government after the Watergate Scandal. As the crime rate continues to grow, ideas would soon form that private firms could handle the inmates more effectively and at a cheaper cost to taxpayers. With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, capitalism was thought to be the solution to many problems because it was believed that an open market would force providers of any service to provide the best values. The major providers of private prisons are the Corrections Corporation of America (The CCA), and the GEO Group. The CCA was founded in 1983, …show more content…
When it comes to money, the main incentive of any business, including private prisons, is to make a profit. So making a profit goes ahead of inmate welfare. These private prisons may try to “cut corners” in order to save money. A more negative view of employee control in private prisons is that they can threaten the jobs, benefits, and tenure of public employees. The employees are severely less trained than their government counterparts. There is less incentive to do well because of the lower pay and less job security. This can foster corruption among staff. When it comes to ethics, private companies morally should not have this much control over human beings even though they are inmates. Private prisons usually house the best behaved offenders while refusing the troublesome ones. The poorly trained staff jeopardizes the safety of the facilities. There is an incentive to not use parole in order to keep inmates in longer (Logan,