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| Most ]s are operated by ] agencies. However, some private corporations have seen the potential for ] in owning and operating private prison facilities under ] to local governments. | Most ]s are operated by ] agencies. However, some private corporations have seen the potential for ] in owning and operating private prison facilities under ] to local governments. | ||
Revision as of 03:24, 25 June 2006
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Most prisons are operated by government agencies. However, some private corporations have seen the potential for profit in owning and operating private prison facilities under contract to local governments.
In the United States, private prisons are paid a per-prisoner, per-day rate by the contracting government agency. Private prison executives claim that when governments contract with private prisons, the taxpayers save money. A recent Arizona state study apparently indicates the opposite is the case.
The private prison industry is controversial. To provide prison services and make a profit, the private prisons find programs to cut. These can include medical programs, training programs for correctional officers, food quality, paying extremely low wages with marginal benefits and deliberate understaffing. Many have argued that the cuts in these programs are inhumane and counterproductive. Some have correlated the rise in prison violence, escapes and both prisoner and guard deaths in private prisons to a lack of adequate training for the private guards. While some contracts contain provisions for liquidated damages for failure to provide contracted services, they are infrequently enforced. Government monitoring has often been dismal and inadequate.
The private prison industry counter-argues that excessive regulations and government inefficiency are to blame for the massive costs of public prisons, and that private entities can provide the same services at a lower cost. In some isolated cases this has been true. However, the private prison industry in America – much like the public prison system – has been consistently shown to be less safe.
One major private prison company is Corrections Corporation of America. Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (which briefly operated as WCC) is now named GEO Group.
Importation of mixtures of prisoners from distant states has been particularly volatile. Between May and September 2004, for instance, massive riots in CCA prisons endangered employee, prisoner and public safety and caused signficant damage in Oklahoma, Colorado, Mississippi and Kentucky.
Many denominations have called for a moratorium on construction of private prisons, or for their outright abolition. These include Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, United Church of Christ and Presbyterian.
Despite the difficulties pervasive in the for-profits, a continuous flood of campaign contributions and Bush Administration anti-immigrant policies have caused a renascence in a shaky industry.
External links
- The all-volunteer Private Corrections Institute, a comprehensive source of information on the industry
- Corrections Corporation of America web site
- Barry Yeoman, Steel-Town Lockdown, Mother Jones