Should Prisons Be Privatized Argumentative Paper

Introduction:

Private prisons which are also known as for-profit prison is a place of custody where individuals are kept with the help of a third party in collaboration with government intervention. By the term privatisation, we mean any modification towards service of people from the public towards private. In another term, it is shifting powers from the hand of a government to private owners. With the shift of power also shifts the function and responsibilities. The term privatization has a number of forms. One of them is private prisons. Privatization can take various methods. In the method of privatizing prisons, the government becomes the investor who gives the complete authority of policy-making and assuring quality to the third party, who becomes the owner. Thus the third party provides services to the government gaining the ownership to the assets. One might ask what the purpose of a private prison is when there are already public prisons. One of the purposes of a private prison is earning a lot of money by the shareholders and another establishment. However, public prisons as compare to private prisons are beneficial because public prisons are inexpensive, and prisoners are appropriately engaged. Thus, keeping the advantages of public prison in mind, here in this paper, I argue that prisons should be not be privatized.

History of Prison system:

For us to debate whether to go for or against public and private jailing system, we need to know in order about the past trends toward prisoners. If we study the history of the US, privatization of prison came into being in the 1980s. For example, “The phenomenon of private prisons and jails came into the public eye in the mid-1980's, when the fledgling Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) offered to take over the entire state of Tennessee's troubled prison system, with a 99-year lease from the state, for which it would pay 250 million dollars. CCA would then charge the state a per diem fee for housing the state's prisoners. The company would also guarantee that the prisons would meet federal standards of which the state was in violation. The state refused, but this ignited widespread press attention and public debate. (Gregson, 2000)” Though it wasn't a new concept in the history of the US because even before many prison-related activities were carried out at local levels. However, in the recent time government, herself is after providing the services to the citizens. For example, during the middle of the 18th century, private corporations were awarded by the state legislation the power to operate and manage Louisiana first state jail, New York and sing-sing in reformatories. The above mentioned former privatized prisons served as a model for the rest of the states until prison privatization became a norm. The thought of earning a profit for the state drove these prisons.

Public prisons are far better than private prisons.

Private prisons are profit-driven. Therefore, the intention to earn lots of money can put public interest in danger, hence making them less safe as compare to public prisons. For instance, “The corporations running private prisons inevitably claim that they are saving the government money, but their true focus is on protecting their bottom lines” (Joy, 2018). Therefore, mostly in private prisons, facilities are less, few employees are hired who are less trained. Similarly, privatizing prisons rises questions to both legal and public policies. How about if in private jails personal rights are violated, for example, injured, or any murder case appears, who then will be liable to this action, the government or the profit-driven establishments? Privatization of jail should be outlawed because it leads to very maximum violation of human rights.

Advocates of prison privatization are of the view that private jails have incentives to oversee their prisoners justly, and are quick to modifications in demand more effectively as compare to public jails. Not only is this but they are as answerable for justly running the system as any other public employee. I would oppose this as a fallacy. Reports about the actions of private prisons are of the opinion that, “A 2016 Justice Department report found that they were more violent than government-run institutions for inmates” (Burkhardt, 2017). Maybe in some circumstances though jails are well-organized when they are run privately, that will limit government say regarding conditions of prisons, the laws, or how should one run prisons. If private owners are answerable to no one but themselves, they become the rulers, no matter how unjust.

The private sector provides its correctional officers fewer salaries as compared to the public. Another reason why private prison is not a good idea is that salaries and training level of working persons in these sectors comparatively are very less to the public sector. For example, “In 1998, the private sector paid officers $15,919 to $19,103. This range represents a difference of $3,184. During this same year, public prisons paid their officers $21,246 to $34,004. This range represents a difference of $12,758. Thus, the private sector paid new officers approximately $5,327 less than did the public sector while offering less advancement in salary, with the difference in maximum salaries being $14,901”. (Blakely, 2004).

The facility of the security level of private prison differs from the public. Many reports suggest the comparison between both the prisons have major differences and they came to the conclusion that public prison was more secure in comparison. For example, “The study concluded that the private facilities operated at lower costs per inmate than the public prisons.” (Acevedo, 2017). Necessary guards and security as compared to public prisons aren't hired and trained in private prisons because of the low expenditure per inmate. Profit prisons are money driven, and any money they make goes only to their corporations and by compromising with the security of the prisoners only, can the profits of the corporations be preserved.

Conclusion:

Prison privatization compromises the health and safety of the prisoners. They aim to gain profit as much as they can. This is the reason why they are always under pressure of keeping their budget at low cost. Keeping budget low directly affects the health of prisoners due to eating low nutritious food. Not only this but also their room condition including unhygienic toilets, uniform, bed sheets are of poor quality. This is the reason why prison should be made public so that the government can take the responsibility of the citizens. Security of prisoners are not guaranteed: Many cases and studies have shown that inmates have been easily able to escape from prison due to poor security. Also, studies have also shown that those places where prisoners have easily escaped did not have the necessary guards and security. For example no Lack of CCTV camera. This could also mean that in private prison no proper training is given to the guards so that money could be saved. This makes private prison less trustworthy.

Private prisons are income driven, so the purpose to earn lots of money can put public interest in risk, hence creation them a less safe environment as compared to public prisons. Consequently, mostly in private prisons, facilities are less, few employees are hired who are less trained. The private sector provides its correctional officers fewer salaries as compared to the public. Another reason why private prison is not a good idea is that salaries and training level of working persons in these sectors comparatively are very less to the public sector.

Citation:

Acevedo, Alexis, "Inmate Death in Private and Public Prisons" (2017). CUNY Academic Works

Blakely, C. R., & Bumphus, V. W. (2004). Private and public sector prisons-A comparison of select characteristics. Fed. Probation, 68, 27.

Joy Tara “The Problem with Private Prisons” (2018). Justice Policy Institute

Joseph Shannon Gregson “Comparing Public and Private Prison Systems” (2000)