Free Essay Examining Jail Privatization: Pros, Cons, and Societal Implications

Introduction

Jail privatization is the process in which private prisons agree with the government, where they take care of the inmates on behalf of the government. Through this, the government has to pay a certain amount of money to those private prisons to cater to each inmate (Burkhardt, 2017).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Pros and Cons of Jail Privatization

Pros

There are some benefits associated with jail privatization. The common pros are: that the process is simplified and helps to reduce government costs. Generally, private companies are paid less money by the government to take care of the prisoners, as compared to the fees that the government would have spent if they had to take care of the prisoners themselves. Simplicity comes with the consistency that the government is supposed to pay the private companies, to keep the operations running effectively. It is also easy for the government to do the math. Since different inmates are assigned c costs, It is the responsibility of the private organizations to do that and not the government. Private prisons useless costs than the government, simply because they do not adhere to all the rules that government prisons do. For instance, private prisons can pay their employees less money than government prisons (Burkhardt, 2017. Hence, this makes the government prefer paying private prisons to watch over their inmates. They also have improved living conditions and reduced rates of repeat prisoners. For example, from the report by the National Institute of Justice, it was revealed that private prisons have better living conditions as compared to public prisons.

Cons

As discussed in the pros, the government pays a certain amount of money to the private prisons, and for each intimate. It pays regardless of the amount being used to take care of the inmates. Private prisons can therefore take advantage of this initiative, by increasing the total admission of inmates as possible and using the minimum amount possible to take care of those inmates. Critics also claim that private prisons are cutting prices to make a monthly profit from the state truly. Critics argue that one of the reasons private prisons achieve this is by hiring only a limited number of guards with vast inmate populations (Burkhardt, 2017). Through this, such secret prisoners will maximize their profits. Furthermore, private prisons also earn more profit by adding more time to the completion of jail sentences for minor behavioural offenses.

Jails Should Be Moving Away From More Privatization

Our jails should not be moving towards more privatization. Spending time in prison is difficult, especially when someone has full control of other people's movements. However, when this control is combined with profit maximization, the process becomes worse. Most of the private prisons no longer match their social mission. Therefore, private prisons go for ways that will increase their profits without minding the welfare of the inmates (Smith, 2016). The lack of freedom for the inmates makes them feel oppressed and humiliated. Furthermore, the increase in jail privatization has increased the rate of racism in the country. Overall, the system of prison has disproportionately affected white and black people, and there is an overrepresentation of people of the colour in private prisons. Precisely, private prison organizations tend to house a specific type of people, thus acting as a proxy for racism. Despite the increased effort within the country to end discrimination, the increased rate of jail privatization is playing a significant part in working against this effort. Therefore, this is the best time to reduce the privatization of jails so as to enhance equality among all people (Smith, 2016).

References

Burkhardt, B. (2017). Private prisons explained. The Conversation. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://theconversation.com/private-prisons-explained-73038.

Smith, C. (2016). Why the U.S. Is Right to Move Away from Private Prisons. The New Yorker. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-the-u-s-is-right-to-move-away-from-private-prisons.