NCJ Number
182802
Journal
Current Issues in Criminal Justice Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: November 1999 Pages: 177-201
Date Published
November 1999
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This study compares and contrasts public and private prisons on a range of issues that include critical indicators of the efficiency and efficacy of introducing privatization into U.S. State correctional programs.
Abstract
The primary database for this study is a survey of 65 private prisons, which was conducted in December 1997. These findings were compared to the 5-year Census of State and Correctional Facilities administered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1995. Based on these data, comparisons are made between public and private prisons on a number of issues, including inmate characteristics; correctional facility characteristics, types of programs, and security level; prison staffing; and prison inmate violations and victimization. The study concludes that private correctional facilities tend to perform, for better or worse, at the same level as public facilities. Although they tend to house a higher proportion of minimum-security inmates in relatively new facilities, private facilities tend to have the same staffing patterns; provide the same levels of work, education, and counseling programs for inmates; and have the same rates of serious inmate misconduct as public facilities. The few credible impact studies also show few differences and more similarities between the two methods of operations. What apparently has evolved in the United States is a model for private prisons that essentially mimics the public model but achieves comparatively modest cost savings, at least initially, by making modest reductions in staffing patterns, fringe benefits, and other labor-related costs. There is no evidence that private prisons have a dramatic effect on how prisons operate. 10 tables and 35 references