Monday, December 31, 2007
Jails and Prisons - Privatization
In 1995 America was spending approximately $112 billion each year to operate the nation's entire criminal justice system; in 1985 it was $40 billion and in 1982 it was $9.1 billion. There is more money spent on prisons and jails than on education in some areas of the country. In New York, the Correctional Association reported that between 1988 and 1998 it spent $761.3 million on corrections, while during the same time period, New York's spending on state and city colleges dropped by $615 million. The Rand Corporation estimates that for every $1 million spent incarcerating repeat offenders in California, it prevented only sixty-one serious crimes, whereas the same amount spent on high school graduation incentives prevented 258 serious crimes. One of the solutions many states have fallen back on in an effort to save money is private prisons.
Privatization refers to the transfer of traditional responsibilities from the public sector to the private sector. Privatization is not an original evil, "historically, all prisons were private endeavors which gradually came under the control of government", but the current trend towards privatization is motivated by slightly different goals than it was historically. Privatization today is both a new capitalistic opportunity for the wealthy and a solution to overcrowding in jails and prisons. Three trends in the criminal justice arena converged in the 1980's to create the prison industrial complex: The ideological imperatives of the free market; the huge increase in the number of prisoners: and the concomitant increase in imprisonment costs. In some cases, government will consider privatization in an effort to reduce the overall cost of corrections, but since the genesis of the private prison in this current criminal justice era, research has been conducted that fails to support the idea that private prisons will save money.
Privately operated prison facilities held 86,626 inmates and the largest drop was among inmates was in the state of Texas. Proponents of privatization argue that accountability will be increased by privatization, whereas opponents argue that the result will be that private contracting agencies will actually be insulated from public scrutiny. Opponents argue that private prisons might selfishly reduce costs at the expense of the inmate's rehabilitation and living conditions. Both have good arguments, but there needs to be more research done on the quality of care within private prisons.
Prisons all across America are "Cashing in on tight labor markets and public disenchantment with rehabilitation programs". Wall Street is cashing in on crime by urging investors to invest in the major corporations involved in the private prison business such as Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut Corrections. For-profit businesses are also making money off of labor within prison walls. In many prisons, prisoners are leased out to companies for minimum wage work and some state laws are being passed to encourage and even require prisons to become involved in profit making enterprises. In Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, a law called Measure 17, passed in 1994, requires that work programs within prisons be run "to achieve a net profit". This is good for the companies that participate in programs like these across America, because it can cut a corporation's payroll costs by 35 percent.
The privatization of the prison industry concerns many who are worried about crime generating profits for big businesses. Their doubts are not entirely unrealistic, but the prison-industrial complex is not the real concern. To assume that companies could, or would desire more prisoners behind bars because it means more profits for them is paranoid. As an article in the Atlantic Monthly by Eric Schlosser titled "The Prison-Industrial Complex" points out: The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy.It is a confluence of interests that has given prison construction in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum. It is composed of politicians, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; and private companies that regard the roughly $35,000,000,000.00 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market.
One outspoken critic of the private prison industry Phil Smith has said that, "By reducing the number of repeat offenders, they are in effect reducing the supply of profit producing 'customers'". This is one of the often voiced concerns regarding prisons for profit, but along the same type of reasoning, a person could also say that it is more profitable for doctors and pharmaceutical companies to keep people sick in order to retain customers and generate profit. Or perhaps, it would be better to use drug and alcohol treatment facilities as a comparison to the private prison industry. Having worked in the treatment business for quite some time I have heard it said that it would be better for business if recidivism rates remain high, therefore private treatment facilities must want people to remain sick. My common response to people who make this type of comment is that there will never be a lack of drug addicts and alcoholics to treat in America, and although my job depends on people's addictions, my intention to help them get better is driven by basic human compassion and not profit. The same can be said for the prison industry; crime will always happen and there will never be a lack of criminals to incarcerate, or even better, to rehabilitate.
Privatization refers to the transfer of traditional responsibilities from the public sector to the private sector. Privatization is not an original evil, "historically, all prisons were private endeavors which gradually came under the control of government", but the current trend towards privatization is motivated by slightly different goals than it was historically. Privatization today is both a new capitalistic opportunity for the wealthy and a solution to overcrowding in jails and prisons. Three trends in the criminal justice arena converged in the 1980's to create the prison industrial complex: The ideological imperatives of the free market; the huge increase in the number of prisoners: and the concomitant increase in imprisonment costs. In some cases, government will consider privatization in an effort to reduce the overall cost of corrections, but since the genesis of the private prison in this current criminal justice era, research has been conducted that fails to support the idea that private prisons will save money.
Privately operated prison facilities held 86,626 inmates and the largest drop was among inmates was in the state of Texas. Proponents of privatization argue that accountability will be increased by privatization, whereas opponents argue that the result will be that private contracting agencies will actually be insulated from public scrutiny. Opponents argue that private prisons might selfishly reduce costs at the expense of the inmate's rehabilitation and living conditions. Both have good arguments, but there needs to be more research done on the quality of care within private prisons.
Prisons all across America are "Cashing in on tight labor markets and public disenchantment with rehabilitation programs". Wall Street is cashing in on crime by urging investors to invest in the major corporations involved in the private prison business such as Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut Corrections. For-profit businesses are also making money off of labor within prison walls. In many prisons, prisoners are leased out to companies for minimum wage work and some state laws are being passed to encourage and even require prisons to become involved in profit making enterprises. In Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, a law called Measure 17, passed in 1994, requires that work programs within prisons be run "to achieve a net profit". This is good for the companies that participate in programs like these across America, because it can cut a corporation's payroll costs by 35 percent.
The privatization of the prison industry concerns many who are worried about crime generating profits for big businesses. Their doubts are not entirely unrealistic, but the prison-industrial complex is not the real concern. To assume that companies could, or would desire more prisoners behind bars because it means more profits for them is paranoid. As an article in the Atlantic Monthly by Eric Schlosser titled "The Prison-Industrial Complex" points out: The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy.It is a confluence of interests that has given prison construction in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum. It is composed of politicians, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; and private companies that regard the roughly $35,000,000,000.00 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market.
One outspoken critic of the private prison industry Phil Smith has said that, "By reducing the number of repeat offenders, they are in effect reducing the supply of profit producing 'customers'". This is one of the often voiced concerns regarding prisons for profit, but along the same type of reasoning, a person could also say that it is more profitable for doctors and pharmaceutical companies to keep people sick in order to retain customers and generate profit. Or perhaps, it would be better to use drug and alcohol treatment facilities as a comparison to the private prison industry. Having worked in the treatment business for quite some time I have heard it said that it would be better for business if recidivism rates remain high, therefore private treatment facilities must want people to remain sick. My common response to people who make this type of comment is that there will never be a lack of drug addicts and alcoholics to treat in America, and although my job depends on people's addictions, my intention to help them get better is driven by basic human compassion and not profit. The same can be said for the prison industry; crime will always happen and there will never be a lack of criminals to incarcerate, or even better, to rehabilitate.
Labels: incarceration, prison
