Question

Discuss the ethical issues associated with private organizations running prisons in the U.S.

Answer 1

One of the results of Western capitalism has been the increasing pressure for the privatization of the criminal justice system. Although there has long been private or nonprofit involvement in corrections, a newer response has been to turn entire prisons over to private enterprise, or to pay private prisons to house state or federal inmates. Progressively, then, inmates once completely devalued as social junk are being valued as commodities to be sought after.

private prisons and cost-effectiveness, the strongest arguments for or against these facilities would rely on clear data and case studies. In the absence of much of this raw data due to the privacy of private corporations, analyses must rely instead on existing studies and general inferences based on business-models and key goals.

Nevertheless, the lack of unassailable economic data casts doubt on the argument that private prisons cost less. This doubt is further exacerbated by knowledge of private prisons’ financial structure, which must serve its investors first before it serves the federal or state government. When analyzing the costs and benefits of private prisons, one must examine the economic impact of private prison facilities on the general population.

The safety and security of private prisons is another concern. Shapiro says some studies have found that the level of violence is actually higher in private prisons.

"Private prisons have incentives to make money [and] to cut costs," he says. "One of the ways they do that is by slashing pay for staff, which leads to much higher rates of turnover."