There are many changes that have been taking place in the American landscape as it relates to correctional facilities over the last several decades (Austin and Irwin, 2012). These changes are likely to impact the way correctional facilities are dealt with. This paper highlights and discusses three likely trends in correctional facilities over the coming ten years.
One of the changes that has taken place over the last several decades has been the explosion of the local, state, and federal inmate populations in America (Austin and Irwin, 2012). This has meant that both the federal and state governments have had to direct more resources for prisons and incarceration and corrections now takes up more of states’ general fund budgets than ever before (Penal Reform International, 2015). These increases in spending are based on the increase in prison populations from the 1980s into 2010 ((Coyle, 2002).
Expansion of the federal and state prison populations required increased spending for capital infrastructure, the state and federal correctional employee workforces, and the administrative needs of the judicial system. Additionally, this has led to institutional overcrowding at the state and federal levels (Coyle, 2002).
The first trend in correctional facilities over the coming ten years is going to be an increase in the number of prisons or the size of prisons (or both) to combat overcrowding. According to the Penal Reform International (2015), there was almost a 20% increase in the number of correctional facilities that were able to hold more than 2,500 prisoners between just 2000 and 2005 and this number outpaced the growth of the number of smaller sized correctional facilities at that time.
Billions of dollars have been spent at local, state, federal level to construct prisons, in addition to capital costs there was debt servicing costs and operating costs. The private sector saw a market for prisons as many states could not maintain funding and construction schedules in line with increases in populations. As a result, private companies began to build prisons to specifications and will continue to do so (Penal Reform International, 2015). The second trend in the USA will be an increase in private prisons.
Private sector firms will continue to play a strong role in prison systems as the practice of contracting out custodial functions for detainees awaiting trial and convicted in the US has been taken over by private contractors in some states over the last three decades (Austin and Irwin, 2012). There are different ways in which this can play out in the future. In the US, it is projected that more private firms will take over the entire process as they will design and build prisons and then run them, as some private firms are doing now (Penal Reform International, 2015).
Some states may not want private firms to run the prisons completely and may choose another model where private firms finance the construction of the prison and then may take over the operation of peripheral functions such as healthcare, catering, and maintenance.
Finally, the third trend will be greater use of new technologies of control in prisons, particularly more reliance on technology for administration of prisons, plus inmates increasingly monitored by technology. So prisons can improve the lives of prisoners, increase the way in which the prison works, and increasing human contact, as well as trying to decrease costs using technology.
References
Austin, J., & Irwin, J. (2012). It’s about time: America’s imprisonment binge. Cengage Learning.
Coyle, A. (2002). Managing prisons in a time of change. London: International Centre for Prison Studies.
Penal Reform International (2015). Global Prison Trends 2015. Available online at http://www.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PRI-Prisons-global-trends-report-LR.pdf.
