Essay Prisons and Punishment PDF

Preview

Summary

Essay on prison privatization in comparison to public prisons ...

Description

CRITICALLY DISCUSS WHETHER PRIVATE OR STATE-RUN PRISONS ARE BETTER Renee Wells (16945227), Prisons and Punishment (CRIM781) WORD COUNT INCLUDING REFERENCE LIST: 2199

Lecturer: Antje Deckert Due Date: 24 September 2018, 12pm

Renee Wells

16945227

CRIM781

In the mid 1970’s a number of factors including, namely, the ‘War on Drugs’ had led to extreme incarceration rates in public prisons [ CITATION Val18 \l 5129 ]. In 1980 alone, the prison population in American prisons had increased by 5% and between 1969 and 1980 there was a 61% increase in the prison population [ CITATION Ber81 \l 5129 ]. The spike in the prison population caused overcrowding and thus difficulty to care for and provide adequate services and resources to prisoners [ CITATION Val18 \l 5129 ]. Concurrently, the rise of neo-liberalism encouraged the ‘freeing’ of the market, which meant that privatisation of assets became a prominent part of the economy [ CITATION Jul15 \l 5129 ]. Privatizing prisons was appealing due to the extreme costs that were being inflicted because of prison overcrowding and by contracting with private entities, the costs and duties of public prisons could be relieved [ CITATION Bre17 \l 5129 ].

Private prisons are prisons in which a contract has been made between a private entity and the government to run a prison facility for a certain period of time, for a set cost per prisoner which is generally lower than the cost of a state-run prison [ CITATION Jul15 \l 5129 ]. Staterun, or public prisons, are facilities which are owned and managed by the state or government, meaning the prisoners are under the legal power of the governing body [ CITATION Off18 \l 5129 ]. Both state-run prisons and private prisons are funded using taxpayers money, but state-run prisons are ‘not for profit’ facilities whilst private prisons aim is to maximise profit [ CITATION Jul15 \l 5129 ]. This essay will discuss whether state-run or private prisons are ‘better’. For the purposes of this essay, the factors used to analyse which system is ‘better’ will be cost effectiveness, service for inmates and accountability and transparency. It is important to understand that these are not all the factors in which can be used to determine which type of prison is ‘better’, but a select few that will be examined.

It is argued that privatization of prisons is more cost effective as private prisons are for-profit organizations and are in a competitive market, thus, will provide innovative and efficient practices to save costs [ CITATION Jam01 \l 5129 ]. Studies tend to have varying results; however, it would seem most studies conclude that there are little, to no, cost savings in private prisons as compared to state-run. One meta-analysis by (Lundahl, et al, 2009), found that overall, the average cost savings across a number of studies analysed was only 2.2%, in favour of private prisons. Another meta-analysis undertaken by (Pratt & Maahs, 1999) concluded that there were no cost savings in private prisons and the costs depend upon a number of individual factors that cannot be generalised. Contradictory to these metaanalyses, a report by (Moore & Seegal, 2002) found that private prison costs were 5-15% 1

Renee Wells

16945227

CRIM781

lower than state-run prisons. However, this study was funded by the “Reason Foundation” which is a right wing foundation that encourages a free market. This could possibly mean the source could be biased towards supporting private prisons as they play a role in the concept of a free market. It is evident that even through empirical data, there is controversy surrounding whether private or state-run prisons are cheaper [ CITATION Tra99 \l 5129 ]. It is important to recognize that there are multiple factors that vary between private and state-run prisons which should be considered that affect the ability to determine the true cost. Private prisons are designed for medium to minimum security prisoners which allows them to save costs by having less staff with lower level training and less pay. Facilities are also newer meaning that they can save security costs [ CITATION Jam01 \l 5129 ]. It may seem at a surface level private prisons boast lower costs but when investigated at further depth it is evident that private prisons are difficult to compare to state-run prisons due to the individual factors which vary between the types of prisons [ CITATION Uni96 \l 5129 ]. Therefore, it is difficult to determine which prison system is ‘better’ at cost efficiency, however, if using solely existing empirical data, there may be a slight cost saving achieved in private prisons.

Services for inmates can entail a range of different factors however for this essay, the discussion of ‘services’ will focus on healthcare, safety and security and inmate programmes. A meta-analysis undertaken by (Liebling & Ludlow, 2017) on the safety and security in private prisons as compared to state-run prisons found that private prison staff tend to ‘underpolice,’ meaning they do not effectively use their power. This increases the risk of violent incidents as prisoners feel they can get away with prohibited behaviours. The staff knowledge and training in private prisons was also found to be less competent and there was a higher staff turnover meaning staff generally do not have an adequate level of experience dealing with prisoners [ CITATION Bre17 \l 5129 ]. Prisoners in private prisons also reported having lighter but more disorganized experiences and were more likely to feel unsafe due to higher levels of violence. In contrast to this, prisoners in state-run prisons reported feeling that staff take a more ‘traditional’ approach to punishment which could be more violent and unjust. Safety aspects tend to perform better in state-run prisons, but each system has positives and negatives when dealing with safety and security [ CITATION Ali17 \l 5129 ]. Studies and data on private and state-run prison programmes (including work assignments and education) are conflicting as to which type of prison system offers more, and, better quality programmes. One study analysed, found that private prisons had better programmes 2

Renee Wells

16945227

CRIM781

available which lead to recidivism rates of private prison releases being much lower, at 17%, compared to 24% of state-run prison releases (Bales, et al., 2005). However, this study was later criticised for its small sample size and unequal comparison groups [ CITATION Jam01 \l 5129 ]. In contrast to this, another study undertaken by (Makarios & Maahs, 2012), found that state-run prisons actually provide better programmes such as education and work for prisoners to undertake in. Research is inconclusive, however there are concerns that private prisons provide less programmes as a way to save costs [ CITATION Jul15 \l 5129 ]. Although, because private prisons are competitive and must report on factors such as rehabilitation and recidivism rates, it has been suggested that more effort will be put into ensuring prisoners do not reoffend upon release (Bales, et al., 2005). Again, there is no conclusive answer as to whether private or state-run prisons provide better service in terms of programme availabilty as research is conflicting. Lastly, to look at quality of service for inmates, the healthcare aspect will be examined. Early studies suggested that private prisons provided better medical attention than state-run as they are seen critically under the public eye, their work is contract orientated meaning they must meet certain standards and they should have a higher desire to run efficiently [ CITATION Mat12 \l 5129 ]. However, in more recent studies it has been found that staterun prisons tend to perform better at healthcare than private prisons [ CITATION Mat12 \l 5129 ]. An issue with private prison healthcare is contracting. As private prisons contract out different services, health care can often be a service which is contracted to other companies. This can cause serious issues with consistency of medical care, quality of medical care and timeliness of medical care (Austin & Coventry, 2001). This was a commonly reported issue within the private prison sector. It was also reported that state-run prisons offered 29.3% more psychological and psychiatric programmes, 15.4% more substance dependancy programmes, and 13.5% more AIDS / HIV related programmes [ CITATION Val18 \l 5129 ]. From these statistics it is evident that state-run prisons offer far more comprehensive healthcare services than private prisons. However, looking at services overall, with the exception of healthcare, there tends to be little to no difference in the services provided by both state-run and private prisons. It is thought that because private prisons undertake a government function and are funded by tax-payers money, they should be held to the same accountability and transparency standards as a state-run prison, however, this is not necessarily the case [ CITATION Lib17 \l 5129 ]. Accountability and transparency will be the last factor which is discussed to analyse whether state-run or private prisons are better. Oversight and monitoring by the government of private prisons is difficult due to its secretive nature in which they will minimize the amount of information necessary to disclose. Private prisons, unlike state-run, 3

Renee Wells

16945227

CRIM781

can also shy away from open record requests for information due to their private entity status causing issues with transparency [ CITATION Lib17 \l 5129 ]. The perception may be that because private prisons are engaged in a contract with the state, they are more transparent as they are bound by contractual terms. Arguably, private prisons can find loopholes and take advantage of confidentiality clauses to conceal information and reports [ CITATION And14 \l 5129 ]. With the weakening of transparency behind private prison walls, this allows for accountability to also diminish. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the main way in which a prison is held accountable for internal occurrences. They are used to show how a prison is performing based on several factors such as security and violence [ CITATION Env04 \l 5129 ]. However, KPIs are not necessarily a true reflection of a prison performance. Results can often be tainted by factors such as not reporting incidents and falsifying reports, as those involved in the private prison management system may only be driven by attempting to reach KPI goals [ CITATION Jul15 \l 5129 ]. A private prison can be meeting all KPIs, yet still have high levels of violence, drug abuse and be treating prisoners inhumanely [ CITATION Env04 \l 5129 ]. One study recorded that there were 13% more assaults in private prisons than state-run and 9% more inmates were tested positive for drugs [ CITATION Jul15 \l 5129 ]. This shows that while a prison may be recording successful KPIs they are not necessarily being held accountable for all the issues such as violence that occur, as these statistics are only the recorded figures – the true figures may be much higher. It is evident from the discussion that accountability and transparency in private prisons is not as adequate as it should be and incidents are hidden or falsified to maintain a good reputation. Accountability and transparency may be a factor in which public prisons perform better in, however this does not necessarily mean that public prisons are better overall.

To analyse whether private or state-run prisons are “better”, this discussion looked at cost effectiveness, service for inmates and accountability and transparency of prisons. It is evident that in most areas, both state-run and private prisons perform similarly and thus based on research and data, it is evident that no one system is superior to the other. Both systems are flawed and have positives and negatives, but to analyse the issue in more depth, there would need to be more comparisons made between the prisons that would reflect on which is ‘better’.

4

Renee Wells

16945227

CRIM781

Reference List Austin, J., & Coventry, G. (2001 ). Emerging Issues on Privatized Prisons. Washington: Bereau of Justice Assistance. Bacak, V., & Ridgeway, G. (2018). Availability of Health-Related Programs in Private and Public Prisons. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 62-70. Bales, W. D., Bedard, L. E., Quinn, S. T., Ensley, D. T., & Holley, G. P. (2005). Recidivism rates of public and private state prison inmates in Florida. Criminology & Public Policy, 57-82. Bereau of Justice Statistics. (1981). Prisoners in 1980. Washington: U.S. Department of Justice. Burkhardt, B. C. (2017). Who is in private prisons? Demographic profiles of prisoners and workers in American private prisons. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice , 24-33. Headley, A., & Garcia-Zamor, J.-C. (2014). The privatization of prisons and its impact on transparency and accountability in relation to maladministration. International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education, 23-34. Liebling, A., & Ludlow, A. (2017). Privatising public prisons: Penality, law and practice. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology , 473-492. Lundahl, B. W., Kunz, C., Brownell, C., Harris, N., & Vleet, R. V. (2009). Prison privatization a meta-analysis of cost and quality confinement indicators. Research on Social Work Practice, 383-394. Makarios, M. D., & Maahs, J. (2012). Is private time quality time? A national private-public comparison of prison quality. The Prison Journal, 336-357. Office of Justice Programs. (2018, September 23). Terms & Definitions: State And Federal Prisoners And Prison Facilities. Retrieved from Beareau of Justice Statistics : https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tdtp&tid=13 Pratt, T. C., & Maahs, J. (1999). Are private prisons more cost-effective than public prisons? A meta-analysis of evaluation researh studies. Crime & Delinquency, 358-371.

5

Renee Wells

16945227

CRIM781

Segal, G. F., & Moore, A. T. (2002). Weighing the Watchmen: Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Outsourcing Correctional Services. California: Reason Public Policy Institute. Solomon, E. (2004). A Measure of Success: An analysis of the Prison Service's performance against its Key Performance Indicators. London: Prison Reform Trust . United States General Accounting Office . (1996). Private and Public Prisons. Washington: U.S. Government Accountability Office. Vay, J. L. (2015). Competition for Prisons: Public or Private? Bristol: Policy Press. Vilher, L. V. (2017). Private prisons and the need for greater transparency: Private Prison Information Act . Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law, 214240.

6...