Prison Privatization Essay

Private prisons are prisons that are operated by private companies under contract with the government. Prison privatization origins back to the to the early 1800s with the lease system. The lease system was a system of hiring out prisoners at a fixed rate per day to a contractor. Prisoners were transported to private parties where they would work and for exchange get food and supplies. In private privatization states would shift control to a private contractor because of the rising cost of a growing prison population. Prison privatization started in the United States in 1825 in the state of Kentucky. But they were not extensively used until the 1980s during the war on drugs. Private prisons became an alternative in the 1980s during the war on drugs when overcrowding in prisons was a big issue and there was a rising cost prisons.

The five types of prison privatization are contracting for services such as laundry and food services. Leasing of inmates and arranging them with Private Corporation is another type of prison privatization. This would lease inmates to private corporations to be used for labor, so they could produce goods and services. Another type of prison privatization is alternatives to prisons such as halfway houses and detoxification center. This way a person who can is mental or cannot function properly be put in a halfway houses and learn the necessary skills to go back into society. Another type of prison privatization is the maintenance and operation of existing prison or jail. This is a privatization in which they operate the existing prison or jail properly and maintain it well. The last type of prison privatization is building and maintenance of a new prison or jail. This prison privatization they build new prisons or jails to hold inmates and maintain the prison or jail properly. By building new prisons there would be less problems with overcrowding and more space to hold inmates