Managing the Crisis in Local Corrections: A Public-Private Partnership Approach (From American Jails: Public Policy Issues, P 227-239, 1991, Joel A Thompson and G Larry Mays, eds. -- See NCJ-165482)

• NCJ Number: 165496
• Author(s): N R Cox Jr; W E Osterhoff
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Nelson-Hall Publishers
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Given the various problems that have accompanied the privatization of corrections in the past, this chapter proposes public-private cooperation in the provision of corrections services as being the most effective strategy.

Abstract

Historically, private-sector involvement in corrections has produced both significant benefits and flagrant abuses. Local governments have been and continue to be resistant to institutional corrections privatization, while accepting private- sector provision of specialized and community-based correctional facilities, programs, and services. The private sector has shown neither superior performance nor sufficient safeguards to convince critics that privatization is appropriate for corrections. Privatization, by definition, requires government to surrender traditional services to the private sector; confrontation, therefore, is inherent in the process. On the other hand, if private-sector involvement is viewed as a continuum with opportunities for public-private cooperation and mutual benefit at various points along that continuum, confrontation may be diminished and an exploration of the most effective options may be pursued. For this to occur, both the private and public sectors must retreat from extreme positions to establish cooperation at the middle ground. The public-private partnership philosophy encourages continued governmental involvement, limits private-sector involvement to mutually acceptable services and programs, and provides government with implementation options that, acting alone, it does not have.