This paper has analysed the efficiency and effectiveness of the PFIs in relation to Alticourse. Alticourse represents one of the earliest prisons to be privatized in the UK, making it a better case for analysis. From the case analysis, the paper has established that PFPs are so far a major success in relation to PFI system. Private security companies provide efficient services compared to public prisons. Moreover, they outperform the public prisons in terms of quality and cost, saving the taxpayers a lot of money. The increasing prison population demands for the establishment of more PFPs, which calls for the government to invest in PFIs. Meanwhile, there are several demerits linked to the introduction of PFIs, but they are not substantial enough to call for the abolition of private prisons. Apart from the concerns over the efficiency of the private prisons, the system proves to be the future of incarceration in the UK. The analysis shows that having an adaptable staffing system has not only reduced the cost of operation, but also increased the relationship between staff members and prisoners. It directly influences the public to view the importance of having fewer prison personnel. However, the government is reluctant in expanding private prisons due to public concerns. But the incompetence of one company, such as G4S, does not warrant the closure of private prisons. Other private companies are doing well and so the government should base its actions on the merits of PFIs. The UK became the first country in history to use privately operated prisons. It started with the launch of Wolds in 1992 as the first prison to be managed by a private company. Wolds was built from public funds, but contracted to a private company for a peri... ... middle of paper ... ...in UK Prison Libraries." Library Trends 59.3 (2011): 427-445. Print. Croce, Raffaele, and Christopher Kaminker. The Role of Pension Funds in Financing Green Growth Initiatives. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2011. Print. Ekins, Sean, and Antony J. Williams. "Reaching Out to Collaborators: Crowdsourcing for Pharmaceutical Research." Pharmaceutical Research 27.3 (2010): 393-395. Print. English, Linda, and Jane Baxter. "The Changing Nature of Contracting and Trust in Public-Private Partnerships: The Case of Victorian PPP Prisons." Abacus 46.3 (2010): 289-319. Print. Gatti, Stefano. Project Finance in Theory and Practice Designing, Structuring, and Financing Private and Public Projects. London: Elsevier/Academic Press, 2010. Print. Godfrey, Barry, and David J. Cox. Policing the Factory Theft, Private Policing and the Law in Modern England. London: Bloomsbury Pub., 2013. Print.
The Justice Gap (2012) [online] “Privatising prisons a step too far”, Available at: http://thejusticegap.com/News/privatising-prisons-a-step-too-far/ [last accessed on 10th November]
Private prisons have a negative effect on states and local governments. Unfortunately, the number of private prisons has been increasing since their inception in 1983 causing further problems. For-profit prisons offer no real benefits and are bad investments for states. Furthermore, private prisons beleaguer communities with high turnover rates that hurt local economies. The demands of these institutions put an excessive burden on the local community’s infrastructure. Similarly, private prisons strain the county and city legal systems. More often than not, spin-off industries and economic benefits promised by the for-profit correction industry fail to appear. Additionally, private prisons are allowed to cherry pick the least expensive inmates, leaving the more expensive inmates for the state. A number of studies financed by the private prison industry give the misconception that they save states money. More importantly, the need to make a profit is an incentive for private prison industry officials to engage in nefarious activities.
... law, government supervisors and to the public through the political system available. (Austin and Coventry, 2001). The private prisons are also answerable to the insurers, investors, competitors and the stockholders. Competition from other competitors therefore acts as a better mechanism for control which is not experienced by public prisons. The problem of funding and allocating space efficiently in the prisons would decrease if there were better markets that sell, buy and rent the prison cells. The private prisons are based in such a way that they have introduced factories behind the bars allowing them to reduce their costs and allowing the inmates to earn some money and pay in their own way and give back to the community where they resided. The public prisons do this to some extent which however cannot match that of the private prisons. (Silverman and Ira, 2001).
The major goal of the Australian prison at the beginning of the 20th century was the removal of lawbreakers from their activities in society (King, 2001). The Australian legal system relies on deterrence (Carl et al, 2011, p. 119), that is, a system that has two key assumptions: (i) specific punishments imposed on offenders will ‘deter’ or prevent them from committing further crimes (ii) the fear of punishment will prevent others from committing similar crimes (Carl et al, 2011, p. 119). However it is not always the case that deterrence is successful as people commit crime without concern for punishment, thinking that they will get away with the crime committed (Jacob, 2011). Economists argue that crime is a result of individuals making choices
Private prisons in the United States, came about in the early 1980s when the war on drugs resulted in a mass wave of inmates, which led to the lack of the prison system’s ability to hold a vast number of inmates. When the cost became too much for the government to handle, private sectors sought this as an opportunity to expand their businesses through the prison industry. Since the opening of private prisons, the number of prisons and inmates it can hold has grown over the last two decades. With the rising number of inmates, profits have also substantially grown along with the number of investors. But what eventually became a problem amongst the private prison industry was their “cost-saving” strategies, which have been in constant debate ever
today’s first private prisons. Initially being built to reduce overcrowding and cut cost from the regular
Canada reached its utmost population rate in 2013, with 15,000 inmates; this is a drastic increase of 75% in the past decade. Incarceration rates are rapidly increasing as crime rates decrease. Upon release, former prisoners have difficulty adapting into society and its social norms. Criminologist, Roger Graef states that, "the vast majority of inmates, the loss of local connections with family, job, and home sentences them again to return to crime." Prisoners often result in lethargy, depression, chronic apathy, and despair, making them ultimately rigid and unable to assimilate back into the public. Depression, claustrophobia, hallucinations, problems with impulse control, and/or an impaired ability to think, concentrate, or remember are experienced by prisoners who are isolated for a protracted amount of time; research has indicated that prisons can cause amenorrhea, aggressive behaviour, impaired vision and hearing, weakening of the immune system, and premature menopause. With the lack of system programs, the constant violence, and the social isolation, the prison system fails to prepare prisoners for reintegration to society. Prisons do not provide the proper structural functionalism to rehabilitate former long-term prisoners into society.
Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.
A private prison or for-profit prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically have contractual agreements with the governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in that private facility. Private prisons have been part of the system for quite some years now, specifically for involvement in corrections. Private for-profit prison management started rising in the 1980s, they represented a qualitative shift in the relation between corrections and private business. The question is there really a difference between private and public facilities, since the two are suppose to be different when it comes t cost and efficiency, also are the private facilities being run as a correctional facility at all?
Longitudinal research has been conducted comparing the rate of violence in male and female prisons. It is important to do research on this topic because it does not only lead to the conclusion of where is violence prevalent, but focuses on other aspects as well. It focuses on the psychological, social, and sexual side of the inmate. This topic does not only focus on who has the highest rates of violence, but why does that sex have a higher rate. This topic looks deeper at the differences between male and female inmates and what causes them to have high rates of violence. Most people would say that male prisons have a higher rate of violence due to biological reasons. People tend to think that males are more aggressive therefore violence is prevalent in male prisons, yet there is a lot more to this idea.
Fenwick states…’Prison conditions have steadily deteriorated, while at the same time, prison populations have dramatically increased throughout the Western world, in many cases leading to unsustainable overcrowding. This has led, in turn, to further deterioration in conditions. These structural circumstances coincide with the rise and spread of the economic strategies associated with globalization, including reduction of state budgets and privatization of state functions. Not surprisingly, elements of the private sector seized on the opportunity for profit presented by this “crime-control/ fiscal-crisis contradiction.” (Fenwick, C. 2005).p.258.
Don Hutto, Tom Besley, and Dr. Robert Crants “wanted to invent an approach that benefited others and they wanted to do so while working in the govenement institution they valued. “(CCA 2013) The trio created the first private prison, brining “cost savings, technology and design innovations to government.” (CCA 2013) Corrections Corporation of America started in 1980, they industrialized the prison industry, they were able to “build, operate, design, finance, tailor solutions based on precise needs, population, budget, policies, and procedures of correctional facilities.”(CCA 2013) Not only did they industrialize the industry they specialized in the prison
Shelden, R. G. (1999). The Prison Industrial Complex. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from www.populist.com: http://www.populist.com/99.11.prison.html
This research proposal aims to examine the effectiveness of British prisons, a topic that seems to be omnipresent in the media and in public debate. Allison (2014) recently reported that suicide and murder rates in British prisons are at the highest level that it has been for years. In 2013, there were 199 prison deaths, which included four homicides and seventy suicides. Moreover, statistics gathered by the Prison Reform Trust suggest that the rises in prison suicide rates may be a result of mental health problems, with 26% of women and 16% of men being treated for mental heath problems prior to their prison sentence; and a massive 62% of men and 52% of women are classed as exhibiting a personality disorder (ibid). Therefore, these statistics alone justify an updated examination of the effectiveness of British prisons, but there are also other areas that require investigation.
2nd ed. of the book. USA: Penguin Books, Ltd. [Accessed 01 January 2014]. The Prison Reform Trust.