WHY SHOULD WE LET COMPANIES PRIVATIZE PRISONS IN AMERICA? The prison industrial complex is an ever growing topic of discussion in the United States as the use of private prisons is becoming more prevalent for housing inmates. This is because as Richard Harbison states, “Private operators can design, build and operate a prison cheaper than the government, be it state or the federal government.” (Cohn) However this idea of saving money is a point of debate, because the United States currently has more inmates than any other country in the world, "perhaps half a million more than China" (Schlosser), we are constantly in need to continue to house more an more inmates and ways to pay for them. Over the last half century the rate of incarcerated individuals has gone from 110 per 100,000 people to a rate of 445 per 100,000 to even 1,100 per 100,000 among adult men (Schlosser). This large increase in the rate of incarceration is the biggest dertermining factor for the rise of private prisons in the US and because the United States has setup a system in which we are putting people in prison at a much faster rate than anywhere else in the world private prisons have become more and more acceptable.
PRIVATE PRISONS RIVATE PRISONS A private prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a local, state or federal government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with local, state, or federal government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with local, state, or federal governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in the facility. Today, the privatization of prisons refers both to the takeover of existing public facilities by private operators and to the building and operation of new and additional prisons by for-profit prison companies. The privatization movement can be traced to the contracting out of confinement and care of prisoners after the American Revolution.
As time passes are prisons are becoming over crowded forcing are government to create new sentencing options to deal with this problem. Instead of sending convicted offenders to straight to prison the government has come up with the following options for judges to choose from that would fit the crime best; they are absolute discharge, conditional discharge, a fine, suspended sentence, probation, conditional sentence, imprisonment, and intermittent sentences. First of all before the judge make a choice on a particular sentencing option they need to consider whether the sentence would be in publics best interest, which is because the main reasons behind corrections and the criminal justice system is public safety, and the second thing they would need to consider is if the offender is given a community sentence is he going to re offend and if he does would it be a violent crime.
Prison is used to custody people who violate against the law inorder to deprivale their liberty as a kind of punishment. Separate the law violated citizens from the society to maintain social order, deter others potential offenders from criminal behaviour, and also ensecure the public safety. Nevertheless most of the prisoners will reintegerate to society, we should give them an opportunity to reform, however how to prevent them from recidivate is a pressing issue among the world. In US, it contain the world highest incarceration rate, 7,308,200 up to 2008 were sent to prisons and jails. The report of recidivism rate are vay, in the 2009 Florida prison recidivism study which study the prisoners who were released from 2001 to 2008 showed the
Criminals who breach their early-release conditions, by failing to keep an appointment or committing another offence, can be recalled to jail. Enver Solomon, the author of the report, said: “The untold story of the record prison population is the large number of offenders who do not pose a threat to the public but are being dragged back to overcrowded, overstretched jails at great expense to the taxpayer.” His report calls on the Government to relax the national guidelines on when a prisoner should be “breached” for breaking licence conditions and make them less punitive. Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, accused the Home Office of setting up ex-prisoners to fail. She said: “Arrangements designed to be tough and fair
When a new prison leadership assumes command and institute a system through the numerous confidential staff he would bring into the organization, that is where the real problem on graft and corruption begins. The entire agency will be parcelled according to territory. One will take charge of the procurement, another with the dispensation of supply, while others will check on the list of celebrity prisoners wanting any direct line for assistance or whatever arrangements to be forged. There are those who would monitor if penal farms have surfeit in prison products, while the rest are seeking any other contracts to be bilked for possible considerations. Caterers, dealers and suppliers are oftentimes the target of these personalities.
A lot of people have proposed the privatization of correctional services in order to save tax money. However, critics feel that this action could serve to encourage the authorities to imprison more individuals, even those accused with petty crimes. Another one of the main disadvantages is that the overcrowding of jails appears to be exhaust government resources and thus the need for private prisons. Private facilities usually offer officials powerful tools to ensure the good conduct of all prisoners. The privatization can also act as a tool against the abuse of authority.
Cruel and Unusual Punishment Kristin Mara Southern New Hampshire University 1 June 2014 Graeme Newman’s theory of the “just and Painful” Graeme Newman’s book “Just and Painful” discusses the confusion on punishment in the prison system. He discusses that there should be corporal punishment but by design. There needs to be a structured system on how criminals pay their dues for the crime committed. A person accused of a vicious rape should not be equaled to someone who stole from a grocery store. But unfortunately when they are sent to prison they both are humiliated and somewhat tortured to the same degree.
We must insist on humane and more cost-effective methods of punishment and prison management. Prisoners and detainees in many local, state and federal facilities, including those run by private contractors, confront conditions that are abusive, degrading and dangerous. Soaring prison populations due to harsh sentencing laws—which legislators have been reluctant to change—and immigrant detention policies coupled with tight budgets have left governments unwilling to make the investments in staff and resources necessary to ensure safe and humane
- an incarceration rate unprecedented in U.S. History. Is incarceration in the US is one of the main forms of punishment for the commission of a felony and other offenses. When there are over a million people incarcerated throughout the United States, the ethical treatment of prisoner’s rights must be analyzed. Throughout the years many modifications have been made to accommodate inmates and preserve their human rights. We, as a society has done enough regarding this issue because the punishment don’t even fit the crime now.