Keturah Muhammad
Prison Privatization
Prior to the 1980s, private prisons did not exist in the US. In the 1980s, as a result of the War on Drugs by the Reagan Administration, the number of people incarcerated rose. This created a demand for more prison space. The result brought up the development of privative and the for-profit prison industry. [1]
In recent years, there has been debate over the privatization of prisons. Both publicly provided and publicly financed prisons operate under the supervision of the various Departments of Corrections that exist at the state and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In a study that used three comparable Louisiana medium security prisons, two of which were privately run by different corporations and the third was publicly run. The data from this study suggests the privately run prisons operated more cost-effectively without sacrificing the safety of inmates and staff. The study concluded that the privately run prisons had a lower cost per inmate, fewer critical incidents, a safer environment for employees and inmates, and a higher proportional rate of inmates who complete basic education, literacy, and vocational training courses. However, the publicly run prison outperformed the privately run prisons in areas such as fewer escape attempts, controlling substance abuse through testing, offered a wider range of educational and vocational courses, and provided a broader range of treatment, recreation, social services, and rehabilitative services.[1]
Supporters of the privation of prisons and jails including some corrections professionals, major financial brokers, and investors. They argue that the government has been doing a miserable job in its administration of correctional institutions. Costs have soared and prisoners are kept in conditions that cause them to often coming out worse than when they went in.
The private sector,