Pros And Cons Of For Profit Prisons

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For Profit Prison

Should prisons in the United States be for profit? How do for profit prisons benefit the United States? Would inmates rather be in private or public correctional centers? What kind of affects does this have on taxpayers? What are the pros and cons of profit prisons? These are many of the questions that are brought up when discussing for profit prison systems. There are different perspectives that can be taken when it comes to talking about for profit prisons. This paper will discuss some of the ways that the United States has started to become for profit and why it has happened. Finally, this paper will give an opinion of whether or not for profit prisons should be dominant over public facilities.
According to (Hoke, 2013) …show more content…

I feel as though the government should provide more money for programming in state facilities. In federal facilities there are numerous amounts of programming available to inmates to better themselves. If these types of programs were offered in the state facilities I believe there would be a huge decrease in recidivism rates. For example, in federal facilities multiple types of college or vocational courses are offered, so that inmates have trade skills upon their release. In state facilities that even offer college or vocational programming there are usually multiple stipulations that have to be met in order for the inmates to …show more content…

Overcrowding is a problem that is not only seen in for profit facilities, but in all facilities. If there was funding to provide more housing units for the inmates there would be less staff and inmate assaults. I feel that this is a huge negative factor in the for profit setting, it is bad enough that staff and inmate assaults happen as often as they do in state and federal facilities. If more staff are taken out of the equation, it increases the likelihood of staff and inmate assaults.
In conclusion, for profit prisons do just that, they look for ways to make a profit by cutting corners and providing less than adequate living conditions for inmates. This imposes a significant risk for many things such as, extreme overcrowding in the private facilities, lack of medical care, lack of nutritious meals, and decrease in the number of staff that are in the facilities. The staff get don’t get paid as much as they should for the amount of hours they put into the facilities also causing risks for the safety and security of the

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