Private Correctional Corporations

Introduction and Statement of Purpose

Over the course of the past twenty years, the prison population in the United States has increased dramatically, creating a situation in which federal, state, and local prison facilities have been subject to overcrowding and its ill effects, fiscal constraints, and charges of ineptitude and ineffectiveness in service delivery and service outcome (Segal & Moore, 2002a). For government at all levels, prison overcrowding and budgetary shortfalls, combined with the reluctance of the public to provide adequate funding for prison construction or expansion, has necessitated the development of alternative strategies for incarceration (Segal & Moore, 2000b).

As of 2001, some 6.6 million people were under some form of correctional supervision, with prisons home to almost 1.25 million individuals (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002). Many others were on probation, released on parole or held in jails.

As a consequence, government has moved to privatize prison operation and management. Culp (The emergence of the problem, 1997-1998) noted that the privatization of government services is in part a cost-cutting strategy on the part of local, state and federal governments; it is also, in part, undertaken in recognition that certain public services may be improved through private sector participation and management. In the case of the criminal justice system, the trend toward prison pri

results when private and public facilities were compared (General Accounting Office, 1996). More recently, Segal (Do private prisons save money, 2002) compared 23 reputable studies of cost issues focused on private versus public prisons. These studies were performed either by a university or government entity and included studies focused on American versus Australian and United Kingdom private facilities. On average, these studies were seen by Segal (Do private prisons save money, 2002) as supporting a conservative estimate that private facilities operate at about 10 to 15 percent lower costs than do government facilities. Segal (Do private prisons save money, 2002) also identified six reputable independent studies that examined the quality of private adult correctional services in the United States and the United Kingdom. Overall, each of the studies found quality in the private prisons to be at least as high as is the case in government prisons. Perhaps more significantly, the American Correctional Association (ACA) offers independent accreditation designed to show that a facility meets nationally accepted standards for quality of operation, management, and maintenance. Of the 5,000 government and privately manage