We all know how hard it is for government and state correction authorities to manage a prison, especially if it has a lot of prisoners inside. Although the people inside these prisons could be branded as criminals, they are still individuals who have rights. This is why as much as possible; Prison policies are required not to violate any part of Human Rights (Essex, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to address some questions about prison privatization, whether it would be a beneficial thing to do or not and its impact in case it will be implemented.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Prison Privatization
One of the purposes why private prisons are being constructed is to lighten the burden of Federal and state governments in managing usually very large networks of correctional facilities (POP, n.d.). This is actually one of its major advantages. Through the construction and proliferation of more private prisons, the government concerned could be relieved from the burden of managing a ballooning population of people that needs to be put behind the bars due to acts of felony and technically any act of crime. Another advantage of Prison Privatizations is that it could serve as another opportunity that practical investors and businessmen could seize because one of the potential reasons why a private prison would be established is money in the first place (POP, n.d.). According to past studies and analyses conducted about private prisons, it was found out that these prisons could help increase the efficiency in prison management and provide additional safety and justice value in prisons. Seriously, who would want to stay in an overcrowded prison? Besides, it is only realistic that a prison with fewer inmates would be easier to manage than a prison with a huge population.
There is one major disadvantage about prison privatization however and it is something about justice. Private prisons are only usually contracted by the government but it has nothing to do with its prison regulations and policies as long as it adheres to the standards because in the first place, it is owned by private individuals. So theoretically, private prisons could increase occurrences of bribing and other corrupt practices.
Possible Impacts of Prison Privatization
If ever prison privatization would be recommended by many states and it would already be a common practice, there are of course issues that could be raised and one of those issues have something to do with the constitutional rights of the inmates. It would be logical to think that with private prisons, the time that it would take to process appeals and cases will be longer since private prisons are only contracted by the government but are not in any way owned by public agencies. Also, whether the government will be able to supervise and facilitate all of the private prisons present in the country so that not a single one would violate the constitutional rights of the inmates is a question. Most likely, the government will have to put up another branch that will be in charge of monitoring the state and condition of inmates in private prisons.
Private Prisons in Democratic Societies
The democracy problem in prison privatization arises from the possible complication between global economic processes (for-profit purposes) and the local processes for democratic participation (Aman, 2005). One of the reasons why there are people who argue that for-profit private prisons have no place in a democratic society is globalization. These people are basically afraid of changes that could take place in their society because of fear it might affect them in a negative way. Clashes between political, personal and economic purposes, according to Aman (2005), are present and this is why even specific issues like prison privatization are being affected.
References
Essex. A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management. London: International Centre for
Prison Studues, 2009. Print.
POP. Incarceration in the United States. Privatization of Prisons. Accessed December 2011.
Available at http://privatizationofprisons.com/.
POP. Introduction to Prison Privatization. Privatization of Prisons. Accessed December 2011.
Available at http://privatizationofprisons.com/.
Aman, A. Privatization, Prisons, Democracy, and Human Rights: The need to extend to the
Province of Administrative Law. Indiana: Journal of Global Legal Studies, 2005. Print.
