Privatizing the Treatment of Criminal Offenders (From Clinical Treatment of the Criminal Offender in Outpatient Mental Health Settings: New and Emerging Perspectives, P 7-26, 1990, Nathaniel J Pallone and Sol Chaneles, eds. -- See NCJ-126044)

• NCJ Number: 126045
• Author(s): H W Demone Jr; M Gibelman
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: Haworth Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This overview of the privatization of the treatment of criminal offenders reviews the extent of such privatization, service contracts designed to meet multiple goals, the private sector's involvement in rehabilitation, the privatization of mental health services, the pros and cons of privatization, accountability, evaluation, cautions, and the expansion of contracts for correctional treatment services.

Abstract

A review of studies of the extent and nature of corrections privatization shows a trend toward more contracting for correctional services, including the human services elements in addition to construction, maintenance, and management. Privatization goals in all these areas are similar: to save money; reduce capital expenditures; provide more effective and efficient services; and bypass the rigidity, slowness, and unresponsiveness of public bureaucracies. Those skeptical of corrections privatization focus on the accountability issue, i.e., ensurance that correctional goals devised by public policymakers will be implemented by private contractors. This concern dictates that offender treatment can never be an exclusively private enterprise, but rather a sharing of public and private functions. This involves monitoring and evaluation under public auspices. This chapter outlines some essential cautions that both government and the private sector must observe in applying contracting theories and practice to corrections. 17 references