NCJ Number
147568
Journal
American Journal of Criminal Law Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Dated: (Winter 1994) Pages: 325-334
Date Published
1994
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This book review focuses on privatization in correctional institutions and associated cost, quality, labor, business, and legal issues.
Abstract
Book chapters, authored by university professors, private and public prison operators, and prison consultants, provide information on the prison industry and its interface with the private sector. Specific chapters look at the history of prison privatization, cost advantages of privatization, the view of some that private prison conditions are inhumane due to lack of government supervision, the view that competition among private firms to build correctional institutions will stimulate quality, concerns of organized labor and business over the impact of prison-made goods on the free market, and the issue of whether private prison inmates have constitutional protections. The book includes a case study comparing public and private prisons. The critique contends that the book lacks convincing arguments against privatization and provides inadequate treatment of prison overcrowding in the context of privatization.