...A Critical Perspective on Prison Privatization April 6, 2015 A Critical Perspective on Prison Privatization Topic Statement: “Is the privatization of prisons for profit an ethical practice?” The topic of a country privatizing areas of industry is far from a novel idea, especially since the rise of capitalism. With the United States being widely considered the father of capitalism, it is almost expected to see the privatization of a key component of its judicial system, prison, becoming more and more common. Although the underlying function of a prison as a means of social reform has remained constant since its inception in 1750 BCE with the Babylonian Empire, externalities are beginning to influence a change in the governing bodies of penitentiaries (Roberts, 2006). With governments and taxpayers seeing the opportunities for cost savings, countries throughout the world are beginning to employ private operating models for their penitentiaries, with the U.S. being the primary driver of this change (Trivedi, 2014). Framework of the Issue A change in the operating sovereign of a prison, from federal to private, is controversial enough that the effects of this privatization have garnered the title of the Prison-Industrial Complex. The complex is a scholarly attempt to explain the intertwining of the profit-driven agendas of private prison companies and the correlated expansion of the US inmate population. Although cost savings for the government...
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...address criminal behavior have always influenced how and why society uses prisons. Prisons are intended to meet a variety of social goals, including incapacitation, deterrence, discipline, punishment or retribution, and rehabilitation or reformation. Some have argued that public prisons are better at all of the above while most support private prisons. The term prison privatization commonly refers to the policy of contracting out the management and operation of prisons and jails to private, for-profit companies. Prison privatization is a controversial issue, with ongoing debate over the ethics of delegating the punishment function of the criminal justice system to private actors, weather private prisons cost less to operate than public facilities, and if the quality of security and conditions of confinement differ between public and private prisons. In 2005, approximately 200 private correctional facilities operated in the United States, housing a total of 107,000 inmates. Four companies provide more than 90 percent of private prison capacity. About 6 percent of all state inmates and 14 percent of federal inmates are incarcerated in privatized facilities. The idea of privatizing prisons emerged in the 1980s as a policy remedy to the problem of growing incarceration rates, severe prison overcrowding, and constraints on increasing government funding of new prison space. Public investment in new prisons climbed eightfold from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, but was at or approaching...
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...juvenile offenders released from correctional facilities in Florida to explore the effects of facility management type (private for-profit, private nonprofit, public state-operated, and public county-operated) on recidivism outcomes and costs. The data provide detailed information on individual characteristics, criminal and correctional histories, judge-assigned restrictiveness levels, and home zip codes—allowing us to control for the non-random assignment of individuals to facilities far better than any previous study. Relative to all other management types, for-profit management leads to a statistically significant increase in recidivism, but, relative to nonprofit and state-operated facilities, for-profit facilities operate at a lower cost to the government per comparable individual released. Cost- benefit analysis implies that the short-run savings offered by for-profit over nonprofit management are negated in the long run due to increased recidivism rates, even if one measures the benefits of reducing criminal activity as only the avoided costs of additional confinement. Since its beginnings in the mid-1980s, prison privatization in the United States has provoked several rounds of congressional hearings and hundreds of articles discussing its philosophical, organizational, economic, and legal implications. At year-end 2001, privately operated facilities held over 6.5 percent of America’s total adult correctional facility population, representing more than 90,000...
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...Correctional System Budget Student’s Name Institution Introduction Different states in the United States are faced with the worst financial crisis in history. Declining revenues had led to forced cuts in almost all government functions among them being the correctional facilities which were considered off limits before this crisis began. The budgets of more than 26 state department of corrections have been significantly cut, and those that have not been cut are reducing their expenditure on non-core areas. The correctional departments faced with the budget cuts have all reduced operational costs as it is one of the easiest and quickest steps to take (Mears, 2010).Corrections departments all followed this path by reducing personnel costs, reducing beds and eliminating certain programs. The specific strategies that were adopted for such savings however differed. For example, Maine changed the way it provided medication to inmates and renegotiated its health contract with its healthcare provider. Even more controversial, some states reduced the amount of food given to inmates. An example is Georgia which reduced the meals given to inmates, but still provided the same calories. Other states including New York and Kansas stopped their planned technology upgrades and postponed their expenditure plans. However, the cost-cut measures that were employed by different states correction facilities included downsizing programs, closing facilities and reducing personnel costs. Downsizing...
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...Correctional System Budget Student’s Name Institution Introduction Different states in the United States are faced with the worst financial crisis in history. Declining revenues had led to forced cuts in almost all government functions among them being the correctional facilities which were considered off limits before this crisis began. The budgets of more than 26 state department of corrections have been significantly cut, and those that have not been cut are reducing their expenditure on non-core areas. The correctional departments faced with the budget cuts have all reduced operational costs as it is one of the easiest and quickest steps to take (Mears, 2010).Corrections departments all followed this path by reducing personnel costs, reducing beds and eliminating certain programs. The specific strategies that were adopted for such savings however differed. For example, Maine changed the way it provided medication to inmates and renegotiated its health contract with its healthcare provider. Even more controversial, some states reduced the amount of food given to inmates. An example is Georgia which reduced the meals given to inmates, but still provided the same calories. Other states including New York and Kansas stopped their planned technology upgrades and postponed their expenditure plans. However, the cost-cut measures that were employed by different states correction facilities included downsizing programs, closing facilities and reducing personnel costs. Downsizing...
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...Correctional System Budget Student’s Name Institution Introduction Different states in the United States are faced with the worst financial crisis in history. Declining revenues had led to forced cuts in almost all government functions among them being the correctional facilities which were considered off limits before this crisis began. The budgets of more than 26 state department of corrections have been significantly cut, and those that have not been cut are reducing their expenditure on non-core areas. The correctional departments faced with the budget cuts have all reduced operational costs as it is one of the easiest and quickest steps to take (Mears, 2010).Corrections departments all followed this path by reducing personnel costs, reducing beds and eliminating certain programs. The specific strategies that were adopted for such savings however differed. For example, Maine changed the way it provided medication to inmates and renegotiated its health contract with its healthcare provider. Even more controversial, some states reduced the amount of food given to inmates. An example is Georgia which reduced the meals given to inmates, but still provided the same calories. Other states including New York and Kansas stopped their planned technology upgrades and postponed their expenditure plans. However, the cost-cut measures that were employed by different states correction facilities included downsizing programs, closing facilities and reducing personnel costs. Downsizing...
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...The concept of the prison has existed for more than two thousand years. It probably goes back as far in time as practice of cannibalism, where victims had to wait for their turn in contributing to the chief course in the menu of their captors. Examples of prisons can even be found in the Old Testament when Joseph was incarcerated in Egypt. It was not until the 19th century that a clear shift occurred from corporal punishment to imprisonment. As societies prospered and the industrial revolution began, the formal prison system, as we know it today, developed. Throughout most of the world, the correctional system is administered by the state, and it is considered a key function that the government must fulfill: protect its citizens by guaranteeing the state of law while enforcing the judicial system. More than two decades ago, the United Sates and Great Britain began experimenting with privatization of their prison systems, outsourcing the management to private enterprises. Like most privatization issues, this topic has many supporters from the liberal economic philosophy, as well as many detractors that argue against profit seeking enterprises. The discussion promotes themes such as the ethical dilemma of the private sector “administering punishment”, selecting the correct metrics used to evaluate the performance of private sector versus public sector, disputes of what are “just and fair” services that the inmates are entitled to, among others. In the following essay we aim to bring...
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...The concept of the prison has existed for more than two thousand years. It probably goes back as far in time as practice of cannibalism, where victims had to wait for their turn in contributing to the chief course in the menu of their captors. Examples of prisons can even be found in the Old Testament when Joseph was incarcerated in Egypt. It was not until the 19th century that a clear shift occurred from corporal punishment to imprisonment. As societies prospered and the industrial revolution began, the formal prison system, as we know it today, developed. Throughout most of the world, the correctional system is administered by the state, and it is considered a key function that the government must fulfill: protect its citizens by guaranteeing the state of law while enforcing the judicial system. More than two decades ago, the United Sates and Great Britain began experimenting with privatization of their prison systems, outsourcing the management to private enterprises. Like most privatization issues, this topic has many supporters from the liberal economic philosophy, as well as many detractors that argue against profit seeking enterprises. The discussion promotes themes such as the ethical dilemma of the private sector “administering punishment”, selecting the correct metrics used to evaluate the performance of private sector versus public sector, disputes of what are “just and fair” services that the inmates are entitled to, among others. In the following essay we aim to bring...
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...Privizaitonal of prison bail system certain amount of money as bond return to you when you show for trail you have great you don’t big trouble. Pay the bail or await the trial in jail. You may say no big deal but for the many that don’t have the money the question becomes “what do you do, what do you do when the requested amount of money you don’t have and you can’t get it from any other means you have to go to jail. You have to spend time in the prison system or the county jail awaiting trial for a non-criminal offense. Of course some of us would love to take a train back to the beginning of the sentence when I said he was driving with a suspended license of course this wasn’t his first offense with such charge, then again it is a non-violent offense. And what he is left with is spending time in jail, yet Ryker’s Island, prison. Now if you can’t afford the bail, there are alternatives that you can choose….check this out::::::same URL for John Oliver just set it at 4:44 So was the system set up to accommodate the rich and persecute the poor or was it set to persecute the wrong doer period? Well a report in 2013 “40% held in custody inability to pay bail”…… Jail can do to you actual life what being the marching band can do to your social life, if you are in it for only a little while it can destroy you…simply destroy you…..better use in d.c. judges set bail only if they can afford it, if you can you go home if you can’t you still go home awaiting trial. This is call pre-trial...
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...contributed to the emergence of a market for private prisons in the U.S.? Discuss the relationship between politics, ideology, and private prisons. How can policy makers optimize the use of private prisons in the criminal justice system? Private jails, prisons and other type of correctional centers have an elongated history in the United States. This goes as far back as 1852 when San Quentin, which is currently state owned, was the first for-profit prison in the in the United States. A more recent reappearance in private prisons came in the wake of wide-spread privatization that took place during the 1980s. Prior to this, only some facets of prison management had been privatized, but overall management had still been held by federal and state authorities. Currently there are over 150 private jails, prisons and detention centers in the U.S. In combination with an overall privatization push by President Reagan, prison populations escalated during the "war on drugs" and prison overcrowding and rising costs became a controversial political issue. Private business stepped in to offer a resolution which resulted in the era of privately run prisons. Privately run prisons pledged increased business-like efficiency, which would result in cost savings and an overall reduction in the amount the government would have to spend on the prison system while still providing the same service. It was also hypothesized that privately run prisons would be held more accountable, because they could...
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...Corrections and Accreditation and Privatization paper Week Six Assignment CJS/230 Denise Sealey November 26, 2011 Axia College 1. Correction accreditation began in 1978 in affiliation with the CAC and ACA. Corrections have given opportunities to evaluate set standards and assists in correcting deficiencies. It measures the compliance with an accepted standard affiliated with the field (Foster, 2006). 2. According to the text correction accreditation is define by as the system of verification that correctional facilities comply with national standards promulgated by the American correctional association (Foster, 2006). 3. Accreditation follows a sequence of steps as follows: 4. 1. Reaccreditation assessment- an evaluation by a company to see how the prospect for accreditation before the formal one. 5. 2. Application status- Contract signed fees are determined 6. 3. Correspondent status- self evaluation report 7. 4. Candidate Status- awaiting an Audit 8. 5. Standard Compliance Audit- Organization is audited for compliance 9. 6. Accreditation Hearing- Formal review of the audit report 10. 7. Accreditation Status- this good for threes 11. 8. Reaccreditation- involves going through an audit and hearing again. 12. 9. The ACA insures that the jails are accredited 13. Professional development consists of Merit hiring meaning based on the candidates academic history will affect the selection process. Training Employees...
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...including law enforcement and the courts system. The criminal justice system will always be a significant part of social order. The world’s leader in incarceration is the United States. Prisons and jails operate around two philosophies of punishment vs. rehabilitation. The past tend was solitary confinement with no concern for inmate rehabilitation or any concern for the well-being of the inmates. Most of the increase has come from the changes in sentencing laws and policies, but not in the crime rates. These trends have stemmed in prison overcrowding and financial burdens on states to oblige a fast increasing penal system. The war on drugs sentencing policies resulted in an intense increase in incarceration for drug offenses. There was also the “Three Strikes and you Out” laws. Severe sentencing laws such as mandatory minimums are responsible for offenders to stay in prisons for a longer periods of time, also high recidivism rates. Woman in Federal and State prisons that have been incarcerated for drug offenses has increased. The women’s have histories of significant histories of physical, sexual abuse, HIV, and substance abuse. Even though violent crime has been coming down, the prisoners that are serving life sentences continues to grow (Carson & Sabol, 2012). With the prison populations increasing the new incentive is community corrections. Over the past decade the growth of offender populations has produced changes in the nature of punishment, which has an...
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...Correction Trends Evaluation Paper Angela Rosado CJA/394 Contemporary Issues and Future in Criminal Justice September 19, 2011 Christopher Manning Paper Correction Trends Evaluation The question at hand today is where and how is our correction system going to be in the future? But to understand and know how the future of our corrections will be, we must first understand the past and the present trends of corrections. In this paper I will discuss the past, present and future trends of corrections, I will analyze current and future issues facing prisons and prison administrators as well as the role/issues of alternate correction systems as a developing trend. Past Corrections In today’s society the jails and prison pretty much function in the same ways. The history of the State prisons began at the Walnut Street Jail in 1790, it was called the first American penitentiary located in Philadelphia, and the building had been operated as a city jail. Some of the same functions and principles were used in England, also these functions were used in the United States as early as the eighteenth century, in England during that time did very little when it came down to punishment. There was very little difference between the two correction systems in the United States, the punishment was significant, but it was very noticeable that the American’s corrections’ system difference in punishment, for example: the use of capital punishment. Therefore, when it came down to the death...
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...A Union Out of Control The California Correctional System which operates prisons in the state is broken and in dire need of reform but this can not be done because Correctional Officer’s union blocks any attempt to implement much needed reforms. So how does the State of California fix its broken prison system? The state must take on the Correctional Officer’s union and find a way to curtail and/or diminish its power. In laymen’s terms the state must break the union. This will be a very difficult task to undertake. This union is one of the most powerful unions in the state as well as the nation with very deep financial pockets for political action. First, we need to look at where and how the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) started and how they gained their power (“California Correctional Peace Officers Association”). The CCPOA started in 1957 and its membership was divided between itself and California State Employee Association. It was not until the early 1980’s when Don Novey was elected president of the CCPOA that he was able to unite different factions of the Correctional Department into one union. Under Novey’s direction during the 1980’s, the union spent a half million dollars on public relations campaign. Novey was known as an aggressive lobbyist who helped the union become very influential in Sacramento politics. The CCPOA had become one of the most powerful unions in the state (“California Correctional Peace Officers Association”)...
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...Punishment and Penitentiaries Punishment and Penitentiaries The History of Punishment The earliest history of punishment began when the founder of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, created the earliest code known as the Ur-Nammu back in 2050 B.C. In the Ur-Nammu code, there were clear statements about if a person does something, what he will have to pay. Usually the payment was in silver and in later years there were records that the death penalty was given to murderers. The Code of Hammurabi was written in 1750 B.C. By this code, the abiding principle was Talio, which had to do for mutilating or amputating the part of the body that had committed the crime. Under the Code of Hammurabi, the death penalty was awarded for crimes such as thievery, selling or receiving stolen goods, kidnapping, assisting fugitive slaves and for the sale of drink or even keeping a disorderly tavern. In the first five books of the Bible, Biblical punishments follow Hammurabi. In later eras, each civilization developed their set of codes and punishments to fit their needs and own beliefs. The Development of Prisons Until the late 18th century, prisons were used mainly for the confinement of debtors who could not meet their obligations, of accused persons waiting to be tried, and of convicts who were waiting for their sentences—either death or banishment—to be put in effect. Imprisonment, later, also became the means of punishing convicted criminals. During the 16th century, a number of houses...
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