Essay On Private Prison

The overall goal of correctional facilities can be broken down into three main functions which are retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation of the inmates. Today, there is much debate on rather private or public prison admiration is best to suit those goals. In a private prison the inmates are contracted out to a third party from either local, state, or federal government agencies (Smith 2012). Public prisons are where the government themselves house and supply the inmate’s basic needs with no third party involved. However, a large portion of the argument of private verses public prisons is over, which is best in achieving those goals more efficiently.
The idea of contracting out prisoners to a third party has been around in some form

Hays contracted the ship out to the state to operate, but due to constant escape of the inmates the contract was canceled with Hays (Chaddock, 2014). A new contract with General James Estell and General Mariano Vallejo was created and eventually Estell became the sole owner of the contract. The state made a move to switch out the prison ship and build a prison on land (Chaddock, 2014). They bought 20 acres of land and contracted out the Waban prison to build the first cell block, which was done by the inmates. By 1857 Estell not receiving much profit turned his contract over the John F. McCauley. McCauley now in charge of the contract ignored inspectors and used cruel and unusual punishment on the inmates. The State Legislature than terminated McCauley 's contract. However, since the state took the prison by a “forced seized” McCauley sued the state. McCauley ownership over the prison was given back to him. The state then settled with McCauley by offering him $275,000 and the prison was taken back into state control (Chaddock,

According to Cody Manson from The Sentencing Project, in the 1980’s privately ran prison began to make a comeback after President Nixon’s “War on Drugs” campaign (Mason, 2012). The prison system developed as massive overcrowding issues and thus reentered the private sector. In 1983 the Corrections Corporation of America, CCA, was established (Smith, 2012). They provided an intriguing “new” idea with hopes to solve the overcrowding problem. The CCA proposed a safer and cheaper method in housing inmates over governmentally ran felicities (Mason,