Prison Privitization CJUS 530

Prison Privitization CJUS 530

1. Briefly summarize the history of private prisons in the United States and advise their current status and/or popularity.

Private entities housing, transporting and caring for convicts have existed in North America prior to the inception of the United States. Records first indicate that prisoners convicted under English law were transported and administered by private entities. The prisoner trade ended with the American Revolution but prisoners of the war would see the continuance of privately administered incarceration. Private involvement with criminals of the state would remain up until the late eighteenth century with the increase of government involvement of penal incarceration and the increase of governmentally funded prisons. Shortly after the establishment of government mandated prisons, the prison system was burdened with a rise of prisoners on behalf of a growing population and an increase in population densities around major cities. A lack of prisoner housing, and the increased cost of caring and confining prisoners, led the government to allow private entities to oversee prisoners. Though the cost of housing prisoners was favorably offset by privately run facilities, news of scandals and poor conditions amongst private facilities would prompt the government to completely oversee penal incarceration in the United States. This decision would slowly erode in the twentieth century which witnessed thirteen of the states turning over government run facilities to private entrepreneurs. During this time, privately run prisoner housing and care costs would be offset even further by the proliferation of prison labor. One such instance is the creation of the “Convict Lease System” where prison labor was sold to other private and governmental institutions (Riccucci, 2012). This was most prolific during the Reconstruction period in the Southern states where cheap labor had been significantly reduced by slavery abolishment. The continued focus on profits in...

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