Are Private Correctional Corporations Meeting the Challenge?
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 privatization has not been controversial, with debate over the propriety and the legality of contracting out correctional services to the private sector. Numerous studies, to be discussed below, have attempted to determine whether or not privatization of correctional institutions has resulted economies of scale (i.e., cost-efficiency), improved rehabilitation and prisoner care, better public policy, and sound correctional practice.
Culp (The emergence of ...