Public Over Private: Monitoring the Performance of Privately Operated Prisons and Jails (Private Prisons and the Public Interest, P 130-154, 1990, Douglas C McDonald, ed. -- See NCJ-127372)

• NCJ Number: 127378
• Author(s): M Keating Jr
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: Rutgers University Press
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This analysis of the issues of accountability in relation to the private management of correctional institutions emphasizes that the expanding experimentation with private prisons needs to be accompanied by effective efforts to hold private providers of correctional management services accountable for the services they provide.

Abstract

Proponents of privatization argue that it permits rapid and flexible responses to overcrowding, while opponents express concern regarding control and accountability regarding finances, services, and standards. Monitoring mechanisms include contract reviews, document reviews, direct inspections and analyses of operations and facilities, financial audits, accreditation, court-appointed masters, and administrative mechanisms such as ombudsmen and grievance procedures and commissions. In addition, frequent, continuous public scrutiny is one of the most useful means for preventing prisoner abuse in correctional institutions. Finally, another approach to accountability might be for the small number of court-appointed correctional masters to form a private corporation to monitor private prison and jail operations.