Private Prisons Pros And Cons Essay

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Recommended: The United States prison system

Despite being one of the most developed countries in the world, America has the world’s highest incarceration rate (Bruening). Although some countries report misleading statistics of their prison population, and many simply do not have the resources to track and deal with criminals, this statistic is still shocking. So what’s wrong with the prison system? The biggest problem with prisons is the rehabilitation system. In the modern world, the main goal of prisons is to reform as many prisoners they hold as possible in order to eventually return the prisoners safely to society. That is the idea behind the parole system. However, even when prisoners are released to society, nearly half return within only three years ("Introduction to Alternatives …show more content…

This thinking is flawed. Private prisons would not exist if there was no potential for profit for their owners. If there is profit involved, this means that the prisons are being paid too much to house prisoners. State or federal prisons theoretically could be made to be just as efficient as these private prisons, with the added benefit that nothing is taken off the top as profit by a corporation. These private prisons do have a fairly large bargaining chip in that they provide relief for the overpopulated public prisons. The problem is that private prisons have no motivation to provide proper rehabilitation facilities/resources. Private prisons are paid based on how many inmates they hold, not how many they return to society (Trilling). This means that it is in their interest to keep lots of people in prison so that private prisons are always needed to control overpopulation. There are regulations and minimum requirements for these prisons, however there are few repercussions for prisons found violating these regulations. Once again, solving overpopulation would help the issue of private prisons. As more prisoners leave the system and less prisoners enter the system, the need for private prisons completely evaporates. If private prisons are still needed, then states could instead agree to pay them based on how many prisoners they rehabilitate and return to society, instead of how many they

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