Privatization of Prisons in the US

This essay critically examines the privatization of prisons in the United States, exploring the arguments for and against the practice. It delves into the historical context, the financial implications, and the operational differences between private and public prisons. The essay highlights concerns about cost-effectiveness, recidivism rates, and the ethical considerations of for-profit incarceration. It concludes that private prisons, driven by profit motives, often fail to meet the goals of rehabilitation and public safety, suggesting that they should not be privatized.

Running head: PRIVATIZATION OF PRISONS IN THE US 1
Privatization of Prisons in the US
Nawaf T. Alharbi (215210763)
Prince Sultan University

PRIVATIZATION OF PRISONS IN THE US 2
Abstract
This research paper discusses an active debatable question at the moment that is whether or
not the prisons should be privatized in US. The country has provision for both the private as
well as the public prisons. But, the private prisons have led to various issues in the past. It is
time to consider these issues and think about them in more detail because the motive that they
are serving is very crucial for the country. The country should think deeply about the reasons
due to which the private prisons have failed to justify the reason of their existence and they
must try to find out ways to deal with this problem.
Keywords: Prisons, Private and public prisons

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Privatization of Prisons in the US
Nelson Mandela the President of South Africa once said “It is said that no-one truly
knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it
treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones” (Irwin, 2013). The United States has the highest
prison population in the world. There 2.2 million people incarcerated in the US in 2014
(Baker, 2015) which is 25% of the world’s prison population, but US holds only 5% of the
world population (Morrell, 2015). The prison population has increased considerably since
1980s, due to “tough-on-crime" laws and war on drugs policies adopted during the president's
Reagan administration (Morrell, 2015). Most of people are in prison because of the non-
violent crimes, and the long prison sentences are served for possession of microscopic
quantities of illegal drugs (Morrell, 2015). The CCA Company is the largest private prisons
owner in US and was founded in 1983 and it made 1.7 billion in revenue (Corrections
Corporation of America, 2015). In 2015, nearly one fifth of federal prisoners were held in for
profit facilities (www.aclu.org/) considering how many people in prison in the US. This gives
rise to the question that should United States end prisons for profit?
As per (Gill, 2016), private prison is that place where people are confined by a third party
who is contracted by the agency of the government and this prison is for profit prison. The
companies who establish the private prisons have to enter into a formal contract with the
government of the respective country regarding keeping the committing the prisoners in their
facility and in return, the government will pay them a particular monthly rate for each of the
incarcerated individual (Gottschalk, 2016). It is believed that when the private prisons get a
fee, they are likely to keep the prisoners for a longer time. The prisoners of private prisons

PRIVATIZATION OF PRISONS IN THE US 4
are found to serve longer sentences than that of their public counterparts (Jewkes, 2016). So,
it is questioned that whether the private prisons are a source of helping hand to the public
prisons or they are the source of money-making entities. One of any government's job is to
provide security, justice, and sense of safety to all of its citizens. Rehabilitation centers,
educational programs, and correctional facilities are some of the tools that they use to reduce
crime rate. Unfortunately, US use prison as way to fight crime more than the rehabilitation
centers and educational programs. A 2007 report on recidivism released by the US
Department of Justice found that strict incarceration actually increases offender recidivism,
while facilities that incorporating "cognitive-behavioral programs rooted in social learning
theory" is the most effective at keeping ex-cons out of jail (Rosen, 2015). According to (Cole,
2015), “private prisons can help the government in federal and the state level to save money”.
But, the facts show that the private prisons cost just as much as regular prisons. For example,
Arizona State’s own data indicate that inmates in private prisons can cost as much as $1,600
more per year, while many cost about the same as they do in state-run prisons. (Cabral,
2013). As stated by (Tanner, 2013), “private prison help to reduce crime rate”. Critics also
assert that private prisons have higher recidivism rates than public prisons (Tartaglia, 2014).
They attribute this outcome to a belief that the programming and counseling in a private
prison is not as robust or effective as it is in public prisons (Austin & Coventry, 2001). Only
10% of the prisoners are found to be helped by the tools of programming and counseling in
private prisons of US, which shows the effectiveness and use of these tools in the prisons
(Whitehead, 2014). When the tool to reduce the rate of crime is not effective in private
prisons, the crime rates cannot be reduced. Therefore, the Department of justice should end
private prisons in the federal and the state level, because they do more harm than good.
Based on these facts, it can be said that prisons should not be privatized in USA.

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In the 19th century, the Americans confronted the fact that the prisoners in the private prisons
were serving a longer period than that of the public prisons for the same offences. A report
from ‘Criminal’ mentioned that the profits of the private prisons are dependent on the lockup
quotas that are fixed by them and the reduction in the amount of the crime taxes (Feeley,
2014). Also, there were many contracts between the prisons and the government that stated
the requirement of 90-100% prisons to stay occupied (Kish, 2013). This implies that the
concept of private prisons is treated as a business in many parts of America. They don’t have
the aim of helping the government or the public prisons in solving their problems, but the
only aim that they have is to earn money from the government. Therefore, the prisons should
not be privatized.
For example, there were many states in US who were dealing with the public prisons that
were overcrowded, so they decided to keep the prisoners in the private prisons. But, it was
found that the prisoners ended up staying for a longer time and they were not given any
specific treatment or facilities that would have helped them in improving their mental
condition and influence them to stay away from the criminal activities. In another example,
(Rosen, 2015) found that, states can save money by using for-profit prisons. When the
prisons are run privately, the costs are saved and the operations become more efficient. But,
(Kish, 2013) have argued that the private prisons keep the cost inmates low and they also
send the prisoners to the public prisons if they feel that their cost of operation is going up and
they are not able to earn much profit. It has also been found that the promises that the private
prisons make regarding the costs savings are simply materialized (Feeley, 2014). The cost of
private prisons was more than that of the public prisons. The private prisons are driven by
the profit motive and hence they even refuse to accept the inmates who are costly for them to

PRIVATIZATION OF PRISONS IN THE US 6
keep (Whitehead, 2014). Indeed, the cost is much higher in the private prisons and they are
more violent than the public prisons. Their contribution to the increased mass incarceration is
also more (Tanner, 2013). Therefore, it can be said that the private prisons have issues with
the costs which cuts down their profit earning capacity.
According to (Rosen, 2015), “three murderers escaped the minimum/medium security
Kingman Prison in Arizona”. This was a private prison. Other cases have also been reported
where the prisoners have escaped from the prisons. The reason is that the patrols in the
private prisons are inadequate. The movement of the prisoners is also not taken care of (Kish,
2013). The false alarms ring and the procedure for screening the visitors are also inconsistent.
In my opinion, the private prisons are burden on the government because they have to
fund these prisons and they also have to monitor the working of such prisons. The above
examples and the expert opinion clearly states that the private prisons are influenced by the
profit earning motive and they cannot work for the betterment of the prisoners (Tartaglia,
2014). The prisons are calculative of their cost versus profit equation and when they face the
risks of higher cost, they tend to send the prisoners back to the public prisons (Tanner, 2013).
This shows that the private prisons are not run with safety and efficiency in mind and hence
they should not be privatized. This can be understood in a better way if the proof or any case
study for the same is studied.
Any entity successfully carries out its activities when it is able to become cost effective and
fulfill its motive of existence in true and genuine sense. Ideally, the expenses of the private
prisons are lower than of the public prisons (Whitehead, 2014) and this can help the state-run
prisons in saving money. But, in several cases, it has been observed that the private prisons
accepted those inmates who had low risk of maintenance ad safety and the ones with a higher
risk were sent back to the public prisons (Irwin, 2013). The reasons for this was, that they

PRIVATIZATION OF PRISONS IN THE US 7
wanted to keep their costs that they could incur due to the increased responsibility of dealing
with the dangerous convicts as more safety measures will have to be deployed, patrolling will
be more etc. (Cabral, 2013). This in turn, put more burden on the government as they had to
deal with the costs as well as they had to suffer from the hassle of giving houses to the high-
risk prisoners. The private prisons keep on trying to prove themselves as much cheaper
entities than the state-managed entities (Irwin, 2013). But, when the investigation was done to
find the truthfulness of this fact, it was found that the cost-cutting techniques used by the
private prisons lead to dangerous consequences for the prisoners as well as the government
(Cabral, 2013). For example, the investigation found that the staff of the private prisons was
not given adequate training regarding the safety of the prisons and the guarding of the
inmates (Tartaglia, 2014). Also, the study found that in comparison to the number of inmates,
the staff was very less. Therefore, it became very difficult to maintain the peace and order in
the private prisons.
In my opinion, the private prisons end up abusing the authority that they have been given by
the government and they also abuse their own agenda of existence. The main two-three
important expectations from the prisons are that they keep the prisoners in the jails with
proper and needed care, they maintain the safety and security of then prisoners and they give
proper assistance to them so that they do not come back to the jails (Cole, 2015). But in my
opinion, none of the agenda is found to have met as per the above case study. I believe that
the private prisons end up becoming a burden on the state owned prisons. They lead to
encouragement of corruption and injustice and therefore, the government should not privatize
them.

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In the beginning, we started by raising the question that should prisons be privatized in US or
not? From the above discussion, the answer of this question has become quite clear and valid.
The prisons should definitely not to be privatized because they work for the profit motive that
deteriorates the quality of the service that they are expected to deliver. Also, the rules and
regulations that are made for the prisons are not followed in a proper manner here. The
prisons safety, security and patrolling service is very poor which have led to many criminal
activities within these private prisons. Also, there is no development that is happening in the
prisons with respect to improvement in the quality of life or change in the mindset of the
prisoners, they are found to return back to these jails, which means that they are not properly
educated, coached and mentored in the jails so that they get encouraged to live a better life.
In the end I would like to say that private prisons are acting as a necessary evil for the
government as well as for the future of prisoners. Therefore, it needs to be monitored closely
and it needs to be properly regulated in some or the other way. There are many ethical and
moral problems in these private entities and something needs to be done for taking them out
of the issues and making them move in the right direction.

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