Private Prisons

The topic of this paper is private prisons and its contribution to the American criminal justice system. In order to cope with the problems of overcrowding in prisons and the escalating costs of building cells, public officials have transferred the responsibility of incarceration to private corporations. The growth of the private prison industry is based on the belief that corporations can improve cost efficiency of prisons by reducing expenses by 15 to 20 percent. According to Susan Hart of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) the largest prison company in the country, private firms are not as hampered by rules and procedures in obtaining supplies and construction as public organizations. In addition, private prisons also save on labor costs with the provision of lower wages and the absence of labor unions. The use of high technology such as video cameras, infrared security systems and heat detectors also diminishes the need for staff (Phinney, 1998a, pp. 2-3).

Although private prisons were touted as the cost-efficient panacea for the prevention of crime during the mid-1990s, they have lost their attractiveness amidst mounting problems and reduction in crime rates. The breakouts of violence and riots in several private prisons have triggered serious concerns about their capacity to perform the functions of guarding and rehabilitating offenders. For example, four inmates and a guard died in Wackenhut's New Mexico prisons in 1998 (Slevin, 1998, pp. 1-3). Northeast Ohio

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More significantly, local governments that have provided these subsidies have not attempted to determine whether the subsidies have exerted a positive impact on the local prisons (v-vi). The above discussion has shown that the use of private prisons has both advantages and disadvantages. Although some private corporations have relied on government subsidies to construct their prisons, many firm have been able to build prisons at low costs and manage them cost-effectively. Thus, they have contributed to the crime prevention effort by alleviating the pressure on overcrowded public prisons and governments. Financed primarily by investors, private prisons essentially reduce government funding for prisons (Phinney, 1998c, p. 2). Furthermore, the establishment of private prisons in certain regions has provided jobs and construction contracts to residents living in declining local communities. An integral part of the business plans of private prison companies is to build their facilities in such communities. For the communities that have lost their industries due to economic transitions and recession, the private prison companies hold out the promise of resurrecting their dormant economy (Phinney, 1998b, pp. 1-2; Phinney, 1998c, p

Category: Business - P