A Solution

I listed a small sample of the current problems with the Federal penal system in my last blog. I hope there were enough stats to communicate the idea that our system is broken and in need of repair.

There are multiple possible solutions for the state of the federal penal system, but I want to focus one of the most exciting/divisive solutions out there: Privatized Prisons.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance produced a 90 page monograph about the history, concept and actual effectiveness of privatized prisons. I spent a few hours reading it and have summed it up in a few paragraphs. In case you're wondering, I actually enjoyed sifting through it and can't wait until some policy nerd reads my stuff one day.

First of all, prison privatization isn't what we think of when we first hear the term.

"Privatization in correctional services can assume a number of institutional characteristics. For instance, the most common form of privatization in corrections is the contracting out (or outsourcing) of specific services that entails a competition among private bidders to perform governmental activities." BJA

I had visions of trans national corporations buying prisons and using the inmates as a workforce to produce cheap goods. Apparently this is not the case in the majority of private correction facilities. Another thing to keep in mind is that private prisons currently make up less than 5% of the market.

The basic pros and cons of the argument are simple:

Pros Private Prisons: 1. provide construction as needed in order to reduce government debt. 2. produce facilities in half the time it takes the government. 3. provide economic devlopment. 4. create competition that lowers costs

Cons Private Prisons: 1. may become monopoly in the system through ingratiation, favortism. 2. have financial motivation that is opposite the end goal (i.e. production is the machine so they want to keep the parts working-inmates) 3. procurement is slow, inefficient and open to risk

I kid you not. That is basically the gist of the argument posed by the Fed. The history of privatized prisons was fascinating, but not integral to the argument. It should suffice to say that private prisons have been around since the 15th Century and were commonplace until the 1900s.

Summary
So, what's all the fuss about? Proponents of privatized prisons claim that they will reduce costs by up to 20%. The BJA found that private prisons actually only save 1% of costs and this was due mostly to lower labor costs.

Victory for the egalitarians? I think not. This is simply a summary of the argument put forth by the BJA. Who knows what their motivations are?

In an attempt to continue an objective investigation, I'm going to check out a few arguments from the two biggest private corrections companies: The Corrections Corporation of America owns 54.1% of private prison action while the Wackenhut Corrections Company owns 25.1%.

The Verdict
Theoretically: the argument can still be made for privatized prisons. Statistically: the BJA says there's not much reason to continue this discussions. Ethically: we'll discuss that after a few more posts.