Prisons As Industry Essay

What is the around profitable industry in America? Weapons, oil and estimator technology all offer high rates of return, but there is probably no sector of the economy as abloom with m wizardy as the buck offstagely cultivate prison house industry. Prison industry in recent years has become a high-profit business and it competes with industries such(prenominal) as the oil and flub industry. The aim of this paper therefore is to examine the industry as a whole. In examining the industry therefore, there shall be a cursory analysis of well-nigh salient point vis--vis the prison industry. A very important fact is that the prison industry came about because of the congestion in the s foreveral(a) goernment-owned prisons in end-to-end the country. The demand for prisons seems to be ever increasing and the public prisons scattered all around the country are incapable of providing adequately for this. Nearly every prison in America is overcrowded and volition continue to be so if new prisons do not spring up. So therefore, the aim of the prison industry is to ground provisions for more space to keep dissidents at a lower cost than federal prisons can. In other words, reclusively owned prisons are queer because demand for prisons is high, while supply of prisons is low. That is what makes this industry so appealing. Thus, in private owned prisons are safe substitutes for federally run services. Therefore, this brings us to the issue of prison privatization. This involves the delegate of running state-owned prisons to private industries to manage. Thus, by using the private sector to build or manage prisons, many states believe that they can reduce costs.Privatization of prisons can tear various forms. This includesContracting out services This is the most common form of prison privatization. Currently, 39 states in the US hire private firms to provide such services as medical and mental health treatment, drug treatment, education, staff training, and vo cational training and counseling.Contracting out prison laborThis also is other means of privatizing prisons. By putting prisoners to work and paying inmates competitive wages, many private companies are reducing prison costs for the government by withholding earnings for taxes, room and board, family support, and victims compensation. Such employment also gives prisoners the skills and work experience that will prepare them for the job market when they are released from prison. anatomical structure and lease/purchasingMany states see private construction as a promising solution to the prison over crowding crisis. States normally finance construction by cash appropriations (a pay-as-you-go approach) or by issuing general obligation bondsThe points above are some of the ways by which prisons by various states in the US. In another vein, privatization of prisons can also occur at the federal level. For instance, the national Government of the United States recently proposed contrac ting with a private firm for a new 500 bed minimum-secure facility for illegal aliens.In addition, the Bureau has considered contracting for facilities to house special needs prisoners, such as juveniles, women, protective custody cases, and for prisoners needing medical services. However, the federal government is wary in contracting out the more mainstream prisoners such as those imprisoned in the Federal Correctional Institutions and the U.S. Penitentiary System.Nevertheless, the prison industry has raises certain questions. These questions must be answered before a deeper understanding and full grasp of the objectives of the industry can be achieved. The first question is that has the federal government abrogated its responsibility by privatizing prisons.In other words, Should the private sector be responsible for a function traditionally performed by the government sector? Evidence has shown that that prison privatization does not mean that the government relinquishes its respo nsibility. The government still would select the inmates to be placed in private prisons, choose the type of facility to be contracted out, oversee the contractors disciplinary practices and, most important, evaluate the contractors performance.Furthermore, another good question to be asked is whether service quality and flexibility is maintained or not? This is because some policy makers maintain that the quality of management in private prisons will tend to be high at first, because of competition and the desire to win contracts. However, they question the private sectors ability to sustain high-quality standards. This is not true of the prison industry because contracting standards are likely to improve over time as more firms enter the market and competition increases. biweekly bidding creates incentives for firms to improve constantly the quality and cost-efficiency of their performance.These above questions, among others, are some of the questions to ask in order to have an e nlightened grasp of the prison industry. Now, it is of compulsion to look at the history of prison industry. Historically, prison population started to grow in the United States in the 70s. Statistically, one out of every hundred adults is presently imprisoned.In order to curtail the unwanted rise in the number of inmates, larger sentences are being imposed on to act as encumbrance and other policies, which are known as the broken window. They have introduced the three strike policy which means that if you are convicted of any 3 offences you will receive life which is a very good deterrent. The state of Virginia applies this always, and has managed to slow the growth of the population (Bratton 2002). In addition, the government has tried to seek alternative modes of surd offenders instead of retaining them in the prison yards. Undauntedly however, the rate of offenders soars. This has gone a long way in boosting the prison industry. The industry is now frequently bigger than ev er before worth around 40 billion dollars a year. Due to the overcrowding in state prisons and federal prisons, which are on average 34% over designed capacity according to the BJS report, the prison industry has to rely on private prisons. Many states enjoy the companies taking on the task of building the prisons and applications programme the costs and just charging the state per inmate, as the state tends to be a lot more lenient to a convicted felon in order to economize bullion.So therefore, prison industry continues to soar high. Investors are now having good times because of their net profits from prison business. For example, the leading company in prison business, department of corrections Corporation of America, has made a tremendous success in the business. The revenue of this company rose by 81% in 1995 alone. Again, Investors in Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, another leading prison industry, have enjoyed an average return of 18 percent during the past quin years and the company is rated by Forbes as one of the top 200 small businesses in the country as of today.The list goes on an on. Ten years ago, there were just five privately run prisons in the country, housing a population of 2.000. Nearly, a score of private firms run more than 100 prisons with about 62,000 beds today. Thats still less than five percent of the total market, but the industry is expanding fast, with the number of private prison beds expected to grow to 360,000 during the next decade. This could be said to be the reason why a recent headline in USA Today which says that Everybodys Doin the Jailhouse StockIn view of this, the prison industry is now a lucrative business. In fact, almost 30 states in the US have 28 states have passed legislation making it legal for private contractors to run punitive facilities and many more states are expected to follow suit. God knows maybe one day, the prison industry will take over as the most lucrative and cost-effective business.To summarize it all, there are many reasons why America has incarcerated more of its population than any other country including China, which has a much greater population. The main reason is still the fact that the prison industry is being portrayed as a business and companies are making money from crime. Therefore, toughening of laws by both the federal and state governments does not help matter. Therefore, one can safely conclude that prison industry has come to stay. What is to be make now is for the government to tighten laws on the establishment of privately owned correction centers across the States. This would go a long way in ensuring that the privately owned prisons function effectively as their public counterparts. REFERENCESTonry M., 2004. Prisons and Imprisonment, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Pages 12062-1206.Walker, S., Spohn, C., Dolone, M., 2004. The Color of evaluator, Race Ethnicity, and Crime in America, 3rd Ed, Wadsworth Publis hing.Scalia, J., noble-minded 2001. Federal Drug Offenders, 1999 with trends 1984-99, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, U.S. Department of justice.Samaha, j., 2001. Criminal justice, 5th ed. Wadsworth publishing.Renshaw, B., December 1982. Prisoners 1925-1981, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, U.S. Department of justice.Harrison, P., November 2004. Prisoners 2003, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, U.S. Department of justice.