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4 comments
For
sofiawells5y ago
By definition, private prisons (also called for-profit prisons) make a profit for each prisoner they shelter. This gives private prisons incentive to incarcerate more prisoners (including non-violent prisoners who should not be in prison) and keep prisoners incarcerated for longer than necessary.
Studies have also concluded that private prisons are less safe and have worse conditions than public prisons, largely due to cutting operational costs to increase profit.
https://ndsmcobserver.com/2020/09/abolish-private-prisons/
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Against
georgiebeddows5y ago
**tl;dr Private prisons have many economic, social and criminal advantages.**
Firstly, because private prisons are not tied down by governmental policies they are able to be quicker and more flexible in their decision-making process. Their practices may be easily changed and their system of operations can be made more efficient without the difficulties of specific protocols. By increasing the number of private prisons the strain of responsibility and resources are shifted from the government to private corporations allowing a reduction in taxes.
Socially, conditions of prisons can be ameliorated through the private system as, for example, in terms of population not only can private prisons better regulate population but they can also help relieve the population pressure from public prisons. Prison population is a huge struggle that governments are facing. For example, 'in California, the public prison system was operating at 137.5% of capacity before the Supreme Court required the state to begin reducing overcrowding.'
Finally, studies show that private prisons can reduce the rates of reoffending, even up to 50% in some areas. 'A study of a private prison in Arkansas tracked over 650 women who were released after they completed a re-entry program. After 5 years, only 1 in 5 of the women being tracked had committed another criminal offence.' And so, it is not true that private prisons should be banned.
Gaille, Louise (2017). '14 Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Prisons'. *ittana.org*. Accessible at: https://ivylearn.ivytech.edu/courses/833170/modules/items/17822187
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ywang5y ago
**tl, dr: the advantages of private prisons are mixed at best**
The so-called flexibility argument for private prisons can itself induce issues. Private prisons have no obligation to give public records or data. The lack of transparency has disadvantaged states in negotiating contracts with and keeping track of private prisons. States often sign contracts with private prisons without having a clear cost outlook. This problem cost the state of Florida $3.3 million over three years. In New Mexico, the state authorities could not verify a 10% overcrowding in several private prisons. [1] The flexibility argument for private prisons ignores the incentives of abuse from these private actors. When the system is “made more efficient,” one must ask the question of for whom, the private prison owners or the public interest? In most cases, the answer seems to indicate only the former.
Private prisons represent the wrong answer to the overpopulation of public ones. Research has indicated a significant issue of mass incarceration in the United States. The problem has negative fiscal, social, and emotional consequences. [2] Private prisons, however, seems the sole beneficiary of the problem. In other words, between two solutions to mass incarceration, criminal justice reforms can benefit the public, while private prisons enrich only the prison owners. Therefore, private prisons represent an inadequate solution to overcrowded public prisons.
Lastly, the public safety effect of private prisons is at least inconclusive. A study in Minnesota discovered a 22% increase in arrests and a 13% increase in conviction among private prison inmates compared to their counterparts. The study attributes the effects to the lack of programs and resources in private prisons due to their aim to cut costs. Therefore, I must ask whether the Arkansas study compared the statistics of private prisons with public ones. Without such a comparison, the rehabilitative benefits of private prisons remain pessimistic.
For these reasons, private prisons do not show significant benefits on any fronts.
[1]. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2017. "Private Prison: The Wrong Choice For Alabama". Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/com_policybrief_alabama_private_privatization_web.pdf.
[2]. American Civil Liberty Union. 2011. "BANKING ON BONDAGE: Private Prisons And Mass Incarceration". American Civil Liberty Union. https://www.aclu.org/banking-bondage-private-prisons-and-mass-incarceration.
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jsupim14y ago
Whether private prisons do, in fact, produce good vs bad outcomes is not that relevant to the question of whether they should be banned. Not only does this reasoning commit the utilitarian fallacy, but there is also another problem: it is difficult to establish a causal relationship between the property of being a private prison and the outcomes for prison populations.
Your argument seems to be:
1. Private prisons have such-and-such effects.
2. The effects are the only thing we should care about.
3. Therefore, private prisons should be banned.
Let's leave aside point (2), which I disagree with. Regarding (1), the effects you quoted are not necessarily caused by the fact that prisons are private. Rather, they might be caused by a confounding variable, which (i) might be shared between a subset of private and public prisons and happen to be more frequent in the former, (ii) might be possible to eliminate from private prisons without sacrificing their benefits. Specific incentives would be one type of such variable. Some public prisons might, in fact, have similar twisted incentives to private ones.
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