Private Prisons in the United States

Prisons are building where people are legally confined as a penalty for the crime they may have committed or a place where people are held while awaiting for trial. The use of such confinement as a form of punishment can be traced back to the medieval times when corporal punishment methods were used. Various scholars and penal reformers however tirelessly worked on reports that called for reforms and the change in punishment. It is such efforts that led to the abandonment of corporal punishment and in turn replaced it with incarceration.  This reform spread during the 17th and 18th centuries, criminals were confined in prisons across the entire United States and Europe (Margulies, 2016). As the use of prisons as a form of punishment became a common method, there were also various penal innovations over the continental Europe that also influenced the development of rival prison systems within the United State.

It is however in 1984 under the administration of President Ronald Reagan that the first for-profit prison was laid down in Tennessee. Private prisons emerged due to the War on Drugs through stringent policies that caused a lot of people to be incarcerated and the available government prisons could not contain the large numbers of prisoners. Prisons basically have four major purposes which are; retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Retribution is where the criminal receives punishment for crimes committed against the society. The criminal is thus deprived of their freedom as a way of making them pay for their crimes. Incapacitation is where the criminal’s ability to repeat future crimes is taken away. Deterrence on the other hand is where a punishment is administered as means of scaring the offender from repeating similar crime in future while rehabilitation is where the criminal is prepared for a generative life in the society by the time he or she will be fee from the prison.

Private prisons are usually run by the corporations with the corporation’s main goal aimed at making profit. It is the government of the United States that pays stipend to the private prisons that brings about such profits. Issues surrounding private prisons systems include but not limited to the arguments that private prisons systems are only profit oriented and it shows preference to profit over humanity, private prisons cut costs for the basic necessities of inmates’ disregard of their training programs, massive corruption, and the general poor safety conditions of prisoners and guards. This paper is therefore going to look at the issues of the private prison systems within the United States.

Unsafe Private Prisons

Reports suggest that private prisons services are usually unsafe as compared to public managed prisons (Williams, 2018). Despite the fact the private prisons are expensive for the states; they are usually unsafe to both guards and inmates. Such poor training of guards has seen incidences when prisoners are badly beaten and sometimes succumb to questionable circumstances. There are dangerous conditions within these prisons due to poor training offered to guards. There are also fewer guards in these prisons that cannot effectively contain the number of prisoners. The general health conditions of these prisoners are also usually unconducive to human health. Poor services within these prisons also bring about lack of oversight of inmates and staff’s healthcare. Mentally ill inmates and those prisoners that fall sick are usually overlooked and are therefore faced with the challenge of poor medical attention.

Profit Oriented Private Prisons

The other concerning issue surrounding private prisons system is that firms managing these prisons are only motivated by nothing but financial gain. They simply operate on the principle that more prisoners incarcerated equals more income for their business. Private prisons managements are thus seen as mostly making decisions that aim at maximizing profits at the expense of the rights and the general well-being of inmates. Such claims are supported by their inability to employ and keep qualified staffs, and the employed staffs are either poorly paid, undereducated, and are inadequately trained. Private prisons thus overlook the four fundamental functions of prison that involves; retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. These functions are thus replaced by the main aim of making profit where humanity is overlooked even to instances when inmates succumb due to lack of proper medications.

Corrupt Private Prisons

Private firms dealing in private prisons are viewed as being obsessed with profit and thus they tend to embrace corruption as a means of promoting their profits. It is argued that within the years 2002 to 2009, the private prison corporations used about 45 million US dollars to lobby for policies that favoured them (Joy, 2018). Such lobbies materialized when within that range there was an increase in private prisons by about 37 per cent. There are also many people that are being sent to these prisons with non-violent cases which under normal circumstances would not be in jail. There are also cases when the judgement on duration of stay of prisoners within these prisons is unfairly extended. Longer stay in prison will in turn mean more money to these private prisons. These prisons irrespective of profits they gain from their business do not have funds for the treatment of the incarcerated inmates since their profit is calculated on the number of prisoners they hold.

Private prison workers are also least paid as compared to their counterparts under the management of the state. The general living standards and training offered to these workers are also relatively poor in quality since they do their supervisions themselves. Therefore due to such lack of government oversight in the training of the workers, they tend to offer trainings that do meet the required standards. Private prisons are also suspected to be bribing presiding judges for more prisoners and with the possibility of being given maximum sentence.

Legal Issues

There are also legal issues where the Department of Justice has been calling for the closure of private prisons. The basis of such claims is that justice should not be administered through means of making profit. Such unfair administration of justice is seen by the Department of Justice as a mock to the lawyers and prosecutors hired by the convict’s family particularly when the victim is convicted. Another reason for the call of closure of these prisons is as a result of their corrupt dealings. There have also been instances when major corporations running these private prisons spend large amounts of money in an attempt to influence criminal justice policies which ensure that there is an increased dependence on private prisons. Such massive contributions of these firms with their interests attached to it are worrying and such acts of these private prisons’ investors could not be accepted by general public.

References

Austin, J. & Coventry, G.(2001). Emerging Issues on Privatized Prisons Bureau of Justice Assistance, Retrieved on Oct. 29, 2018 from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/181249.pdf

Joy, T. (2018). The Problem with Private Prisons,   Justice Policy Institute. Retrieved on Oct. 29, 2018 from http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/12006

Keller, J. (2017). Twenty-four numbers that explain America’s private prison problem Retrieved on Oct. 29, 2018 from https://psmag.com/news/twenty-four-numbers-that-explain-americas-private-prison-problem

Margulies, J. (2016). This Is the Real Reason Private Prisons Should Be Outlawed, Time. Retrieved on Oct. 29, 2018 from http://time.com/4461791/private-prisons-department-of-justice/

Op-ed (n.d.,). The problems with private prisons The Washington Post Retrieved on Oct. 29, 2018 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-problem-with-profiting-off-prisons/2017/02/26/43029c9c-fadf-11e6-aa1e-5f735ee31334_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d785d67e8c91

Williams, T (2018). Inside a Private Prison: Blood, Suicide and Poorly Paid Guards. The New York Times Retrieved on Oct. 29, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/us/mississippi-private-prison-abuse.html

Yankovich, D. (2015). Private Prisons Embrace Corruption to Boost Profits Huff Post News Retrieved on Oct. 29, 2018 from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-yankovich/be-careful-private-prison_b_8144860.html