NCJ Number
205453
Date Published
April 2003
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether prisoners housed in private prisons under State jurisdiction can have a beneficial impact on the rate of growth in expenditures on publicly held prisoners.
Abstract
The authors hypothesized that States that house prisoners in private facilities would benefit from cost savings in the per diem cost of public prisons. Anecdotal evidence and research suggest that the privatization of prisons can allow for innovation, access to expertise, enhanced accountability, and improved quality. The cost savings generated by a system of privately run prisons stems from competition in the job market. It is the authors' contention that the prison systems of the future will be more pluralistic and will include both publicly and privately run facilities. Data were drawn from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which has compiled systematic information on private prisoners since 1999. Data were examined for the period 1999 through 2001. The dependent variable was cost per prisoner in public facilities and independent variables included the number of private prisoners, whether or not prisoners were housed in private prisons, overall government expenditures per capita, Department of Corrections per diem budget, and percent of prisons under court order. The main finding indicated that for the 3-year study period, States that housed some of their prisoners in private prisons experienced lower growth in the per diem rate of their publicly held prisoners. The average growth in the per diem rate of publicly held prisoners in States that did not house prisoners privately was 18.9 percent between 1999 and 2001. In comparison, States that housed at least some prisoners in private facilities experienced a 10.8 percent growth in the per diem rate of publicly held prisoners. States that housed under 5 percent of prisoners in private facilities experienced a 12.5 percent growth in per capita prison costs, compared with a 5.9 percent growth in per capita prison costs experienced by States that housed at least 20 percent of their prison population in private facilities. The authors caution that the latter findings are suggestive, but not statistically significant by conventional standards. Alternative explanations are offered for the findings, such as growth in government. The fundamental conclusion of the findings suggests that private prison facilities do have an affect on cost savings for publicly run prison facilities. Tables, footnotes