Preview

The Arguments Against Private Prisons

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
642 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Arguments Against Private Prisons
The private prisons industry is growing quite rapidly, and many have questioned their intentions. Those who are against the private prisons say that profit purely drives them and that they will do whatever it takes to make sure they turn a profit each quarter. The first key argument that they mention is in regards to the safety aspect of the private prisons since they tend to hire improperly trained employees. Followed by the dependency problem that could result from having private prisons take over the housing of the state's and federal governments inmate population. The supporters believe that the private prisons help the states and federal government out by relieving the stress and financial responsibility that come along with the housing
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Private Prison System Summary
    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Private Prison System Summary

    It is through this particular study on the private prison system by Burkhardt and Jones that sociologists and even criminologists realize the historical importance of the private prison systems. Established within the early 1980s, the introduction of the private prison systems became as a technique to reducing the amount of litigation and judicial oversight demonstrated to the inmates within the federal prison systems. The private firms (prisons) were established in order to provide superior conditions (as public systems) while also decreasing the amount of lawsuits by inmates. It is because of their promise to demonstrate and uphold superior conditions within their systems that the amount of private prisons grew from roughly 67 established…

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    'Programs Not Profits' By Donald Cohen
    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages

    'Programs Not Profits' By Donald Cohen

    The article written by Donald Cohen talks about how Americans, citizens and policy makers alike, feel that the privatization of prisons is worsening the criminal justice system. The article stated about a consensus that mass incarceration is not safe nor beneficial for our communities. This conflicts with the interests of corporations, such as CCA and GEO, who would benefit in the increase of incarceration rates. Private prison corporations currently play a part in multiple aspects of the criminal justice policy process. A new campaign called ‘Programs Not Profits,’ is advocating for the money that go to private prisons and investing it in more job training, substance abuse treatment, and mental health care. ‘Programs Not Profits’ is only one…

    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Pros And Cons Of Private Prisons
    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Pros And Cons Of Private Prisons

    When people think of prisons, they imagine that the occupants inside deserve to be there. That a person is doing their time for a crime committed. When it comes to privately owned prisons, the time doesn’t always fit the crime.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cjs/230
    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cjs/230

    Prisons, unlike jails, confine felons sentenced to longer then a year to serve their sentence within the facilities. They are operated by state governments but the Federal Bureau of Prisons also houses federal offenders in Federal penitentiaries. Since its establishment of prisons within the United States, over-crowding has always been a growing problem in both state and federal prisons. Since the beginning of the first state penitentiary in America, which was Walnut Street Jail led by Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia in 1790, officials and scholars have always been looking for more humane and reformed alternatives to punishments for criminals. Through the years state prisons have found ways of making the penitentiaries more humane and reformed through public work services and other forms of labor. In the 1930s, state prisons developed prison work camps in which inmates would be made to work various labor jobs as “slaves of the state”. Today prisons are much different where they do offer labor programs in some states, prisons are more for reforming the criminals through educational and religious programs. As well as work there is also the variety of security levels for prisons present today which are: Maximum-security prisons, Close high-security prisons, Medium-security prisons, Minimum-security prisons, and Open-security prisons. Most state prisons have multilevel prisons to house various levels of securities depending on the offender. State prisons aren’t the only one that has history throughout the years, as there is also Federal prison. Congress passed the “Three Prisons Act” in 1891, establishing the Federal Prison System implementing the first three prisons: USP Leavenworth, USP Atlanta, and USP McNeil Island. Throughout the years of federal prisons…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    prison privatization policy
    • 2129 Words
    • 14 Pages

    prison privatization policy

    References: (1) Austin, James and Garry Coventry. 2001. Emerging Issues on Privatized Prisons. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance.…

    • 2129 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Flaws And Effects Of Prison
    • 1505 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Flaws And Effects Of Prison

    In the book, A place to Stand, by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Baca writes about prison and how being incarcerated can have impact on a person and their family. With the most beautiful, strong and poetic language, Baca tells us the story of all the people who faces difficult times in order to find their place in the world. Baca always felt like he had no place to stand in society because, all of his life he was put down by his family and friends. From the age of five Baca experienced his dad and uncles going in and out of jail from being addicted to alcohol. Baca knew he would eventually end up in jail sooner or later because that’s what he had experienced all of his life. Baca writes, “Whether I was approaching it or seeking escape from it, jail always defined in some way the measure of my life” (3). Baca felt that his life would always head in the wrong direction because of his family issues. Baca shows being in prison can cause a lot of emotional impact on a person’s life, as well as affect the community.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Private Prisons Case Study
    • 3185 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Private Prisons Case Study

    Privately owned prisons began to emerge in the mid-1980s. These prisons emerged because of the ideological imperatives of the free market, the huge increase in the number of prisoners, and the substantial increase in imprisonment costs. (1) Proponents of privatized prisons put forward a simple case: The private sector can do it cheaper and more efficiently. Corporations such as Correction Corporation of America and Wackenhut promised design and management innovations without reducing costs or sacrificing quality of service. (1) Many interest groups comprised of correctional officers, labor works, and a few citizen groups strongly oppose the privatization of the prison system. I will identify four of these groups that oppose private prisons,…

    • 3185 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Pros And Cons Of Prison Privatization
    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Pros And Cons Of Prison Privatization

    Although private prisons tend to house mostly minimum-security inmates, the findings from this report suggest that private prisons operate much the same as public facilities. Private prisons offer only modest cost savings, which are basically a result of moderate reductions in staffing patterns, fringe benefits, and other labor-related costs. No evidence was found to show that the existence of private prisons will have a dramatic effect on how none-private prisons…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Private Prisons Pros And Cons
    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Private Prisons Pros And Cons

    First, we have the safety concern that critics bring up when the topic of private prisons is mentioned. Secondly, we have the dependency issue they bring up when talking about data relating to the industry’s growth in the last decade. Finally, we have the issue of keeping inmates locked up in order for the private prisons to make more money. Since private prisons are in the business of making money, they are always tempted to cut corners to turn a greater profit each quarter. They do this by hiring people who are not properly trained when compared to a staff member who is employed by a publicly prison ran by the state. In fact “private prison employees receive 58 hours less training than their publicly employed counterparts” (Mason). A nationwide study found that “assaults on guards by inmates were 49 percent more frequent in private prisons” (Smith). The study also saw that inmate-on-inmate assaults were “65 percent more frequent in private prison” (Smith). Given these statistics, those who are critics of private prisons have a valid reason for concern. These statistics allow for critics to show that there is a strong possibility that the lack of training given by private prisons. Leads to a higher risk of violence within the prison walls. Since their staff members are not adequately trained to handle the duties they are required to perform on a day to day basis. Furthermore, dependency is an issue…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    How Prison Overcrowding Affects State Budgets
    • 3377 Words
    • 14 Pages

    How Prison Overcrowding Affects State Budgets

    Prison overcrowding poses as a threat to security and personnel. When prison are overcrowded budgets have to be cut, therefore some people whom work for the department lose their jobs, take pay cuts, and the closing of some facilities are inevitable. There are some precautions that lawmakers and the Department of Corrections have taken in order to help with prison overcrowding and budgets. A lot of departments are investing in private prison to house inmates. This has become quite popular lately within the Department of Corrections. This does help with the overcrowding of the prisons but it hasn’t been proven that it helps out with the budget overall. That would depend on which private prison you’re using and their cost for housing inmates. Some states are ordering that prison reduces is prison population to no more than 137.5% of its designed capacity. By reducing it to no more than 137.5% of its designed capacity it saves the state money and in return helps with the state budget. A lot of community corrections facilities are being closed or the number of inmates being serviced by the community corrections is an all time low. When the community corrections have a low amount of inmates in the program they are more likely to be eliminated. Earlier we discussed how two community correction centers were scheduled to reopen…

    • 3377 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Private Prison Research Paper
    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Private Prison Research Paper

    Private prisons scattered across the country house tens of thousands inmates. The companies behind some of the largest private prisons claim they are lifting the weight of taxpayer dollars funding federal prisons. In a billion dollar industry, many find it hard to believe that they’re not working for their own best interest. Humans rights organizations across the country have challenged the corporations behind the industry. These groups argue that this system doesn’t work to rehabilitate prisoners, but rather set their inmates up for failure; reaping in more profit for themselves.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Is The True Purpose Behind The Creation Of The Private Prison System?
    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What Is The True Purpose Behind The Creation Of The Private Prison System?

    Since the early 1980’s the private prison system in the United States has expanded immensely. This is mainly due to lobbying between corporations and politicians including big investors gaining record high profits within Wall Street. Through such lobbying this movement has been baptized as the Prison Industrial Complex where the main goal is making money by sending individual bodies to the confinements of the prison system. With the U.S. prisons housing approximately more than 2 million inmates through the federal, state and private prison systems, we must ask ourselves; What is the true purpose behind the creation of the private prison industry and how it’s affected on our society?…

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Private Prisons
    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Private Prisons

    As state budgets throughout America become tighter because of rising costs, many are looking at private prisons as a way to reduce the cost in detaining inmates. Just like everything else in America there has to be a debate about it. There are those that are for the privatization of prisons and those that are against it. James A. Fagin introduced this topic in his text book CJ2013; he discussed the major selling point of private prisons, and the problems that states are faced with.…

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Benefits Of Private Prisons
    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Benefits Of Private Prisons

    For a long time, private prisons have brought a lot of questions to the people in general about wondering if it’s useful and they still exist nowadays. The industry of this type of prisons is considered expensive, dangerous and unsuccessful for the prisoners which leads the people to think it’s not worth having those prisons.…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Pros And Cons Of Prisons
    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Pros And Cons Of Prisons

    In society today, it is commonly known that crime rate has increased dramatically by the years. This is where many of us look for ways to solve such issue. It is the last place anybody would want to be in. but unfortunately we have hundreds of thousands of them, if not millions around the world. Thousands in just the United States, Those are prisons. Just hearing that word makes us think bad things right away. Murder, theft, violence, and everything bad that happens in this world. We live in a world where prisons and jail are very important and almost every country, state, county, or city must have at least one. Prisons now are much more crowded than they were 20 years ago. The number of inmates in just the United States has doubled between the years of 1992 and 2011. The question many of us should ask ourselves is why do we need prisons? Are prisons effective in any way? Are prisons causing economic issues? Are prisoners getting proper treatment while incarcerated?…

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More