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A 1996 report by the General Accounting Office, based on studies comparing costs of private and public prisons in five states, concluded there wasn't much evidence that private prisons help save money. Also a 1999 study by the Justice Department and the National Institute of Corrections of a Wackenhut-managed facility for the Bureau of Prisons in Taft, Calif., concluded that "the Taft privatization experiment will not save taxpayers money."(9 ). When savings can be shown they can be marginal. Researchers at Louisiana State University's School of Social Work, found Wackenhut's Allen Parish are just marginally cheaper $22.93 Vs $26.60 for a nearby government institution(10 ). Barry Holman, policy analyst with the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, said, "they haven't been successful at what they're doing, that they haven't done well from a financial-savings standpoint, and they haven't done well from prisoner-safety and public-safety standpoints." (11 ). A study in 2004 showed that private prisons received more than 600 million in government subsidies that don't get calculated into the states vs. privatization ratio (12). Research released in 2009 showed "that private prisons were no more cost-effective than public prisons…" (13 ). Other research in 2010 showed that there was no evidence that private prison were better for reducing recidivism rates, VS public prisons (14 ). |
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Private Prisons An Overview