There is an on going debate about whether prisons should be privatized or remain public institutions. The purpose of prisons is to rehabilitate those who have committed crimes, and to help them pay back their debts to society. However, allowing prisons to become private could result in a conflict of interest. “Privatization seeks to gain financial wealth from the incarceration of its offenders,” (Sycamnias, n.
d. ).When private prisons reduce the recidivism rates of their prisoners, they are “reducing their supply of profit producing customers” and therefore it is in the best interest of the private prisons “to not produce prisoners who have paid their debt to society, but ones who will continue to pay and pay on the installment plan,” (Sycamnias, n. d.
). However, there are benefits to private prisons. Private prisons can help with the problem of prison overcrowding and also save money (Ciamarra, 2006). Many prison facilities are operating at full capacity, which also raises concerns about safety.Allowing private agencies to develop prisons is one way to solve this problem. In addition because private prisons are less crowed they are easier to manage and usually able to provide better services in terms of educations, medical care, and treatment programs (Montague, 2001).
I believe that private prisons have the capability of being successful institutions if managed properly by an ethical company. They can help society by reducing the tax burden, help prisoners by providing better facilities, and services, and benefit prison workers by providing a safer work environment which will be less crowed, and therefore easier to manage.However, privatization of prisons could also be a national disaster if this opportunity falls into the wrong hands. What happens when greed takes over and these private companies end up running slave like facilities? After all it is in their best financial interest to keep the prisoners in prison. Can society trust these private companies to treat the prisoner in a humane manner? Should we believe that they would make an honest effort to rehabilitate these prisoners, and release those who have paid their debts to society?Will some prisoners remain locked up unnecessarily for petty crimes because their being in prison is profitable for the company that owns the facility? The thought of this is frightening.
I don’t know what the best solution is for the prison situation, but I do know that company greed can be dangerous. As a society, we must find a way to invest in our young people by providing them with a good education and job opportunities so that they will grow up to be responsible, hard-working citizens. If we can accomplish this, we will not need all these prisons. If we build more, and better schools now, them we can build less prisons later.
