Pros And Cons Of Privatization Of Prisons

Privatizations of prisons has been the center of criticism for the past few years, the main reason is that, prisoners are being “neglected and abused” by private firms who runs the facility. Over population in the prisons paved way to the privatization of prison systems in the United States. The first private prison in the world was first opened in an old motel in Houston, Texas in the early 1980’s. It was “pioneered by the Correction Corporation of America” financed by the “country’s second largest money management firm, the Vanguard Group which holds 14% of CCA stocks” (Bauer). Adam Benforado, author of Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Justice, had said, The influx of inmates over the last few decades has left prisons woefully overcrowded …show more content…
Being confined in a prison is a punishment. Our judiciary system determines what is the appropriate punishment depending on the crime that person committed. In order to divert and help prisoners cope with their lives inside, the facility offered various programs for them. In order to rehabilitate them, so that, when it is time for them to be release back to the society, they will be able live normally or even land a job to sustain their lives. In the same manner, they will able to comprehend, compare and be able to hopefully choose, the right path to follow. Unfortunately, that is not the case, although Benforado’s claim about diminishing prison funding is correct, I think the issue of “people behaving badly” inside the prison is not only because they have nothing to do, but it is because of many factors that are inevitably present in their midst. “Understaffing and undertrained” security officers on duty, scarcity of medicines, and poor nutrition are just a few reasons why people are behaving badly and in addition to that, they “use juveniles and illegal immigrants” to continuously fill in the vacant spaces, these is why privatization of prisons turned out to be a bigtime “money maker” and a huge failure to the government and the people, and therefor need to be …show more content…
The only people who are benefiting the privatization of prisons are the owners of these facility. We have to take consideration also of the employees and the inmates. What would be the outcome of these private firms in the long run, and how about the health and future of their employees, their future is unclear, since the private firm gives very low salary to its employees. These employees, once they get their experience can land a job in one of the government facility. Working in the government facility may have a low salary too, but I guess it is way better compared to private firms. The drawbacks that we need to face when private facilities will be closed is the “influx of prisoners, juveniles and illegal immigrants” back to the public and federal prisons again. I think the best and fast solution to these problem, is to expedite all minor cases. Illegal immigrants should be tried and deported back to their country of origin, to avoid further