Current status of prison privatization research on American prisons and jails
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12776386 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gerald G Gaes (Florida State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 269-293 |
| Publication date | 2019-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Criminology & Public Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1538-6473 • E-ISSN: 1745-9133 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1745-9133.12428 |
| OpenAlex | W2945227146 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 20 |
Research Summary Private companies manage 8.4% of the U.S. prison population and 5.4% of the jail population. On average, the costs and quality of privatized facilities seem to be about the same as publicly operated prisons, but the lack of high‐quality studies limits a strong inference. Although states with increases in prison privatization have lower public‐sector costs, this may be a result of strong cost controls, not of their level of privatization. An increase in recidivism seems to occur for people placed in private facilities. This assertion is based on the findings of several studies in which regression controls are used and on only one study in which a strong counterfactual design is applied. Finally, there is no evidence that prison privatization was responsible for the dramatic growth in incarceration that peaked in 2009. Policy Implications Because many jurisdictions will continue to use privately operated facilities, it is incumbent on them to create monitoring mechanisms to ensure high‐quality services and efficient use of resources. In this article, I suggest many ways in which research findings can contribute to a better assessment of prison and jail performance promoting accountability for both the private and the public sector
Accountability · Assertion · Business · Counterfactual thinking · Criminology · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Political science · Population · Prison · Private sector · Private sector involvement · Public economics · Public sector · Quality (philosophy · Recidivism · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology
“If we don’t take them off our streets, they’re going to continue to prey on innocent people.”
Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States
Is government escaping blame? the effect of contracting and victim attributes in a prisoner transportation experiment
Simplifying Reality
Private Versus Public Incarceration
Jail incarceration across the U.S
Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Content Validity of the Measuring the Quality of Prison Life Survey in Serbia
Hands-Off or Hands-On? Examining the Effect of Court Orders on Inmate Misconduct
Toward a political sociology of privatized punishment
Privatized jails
Caught
The McDonaldization Thesis
The influence of prisons on inmate misconduct
The McDonaldization of society
Hierarchical linear models
The Limits of Privatization
Cheap on Crime
Recidivism of Public and Private State Prison Inmates in Florida
Prison Privatization in Florida
Entrepreneurs of punishment
Prison Privatization
Private Prisons
| Citations per year | 1.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |