Corrections

Prison privatization began when American citizens expressed concerns over high crime rates in the eighties (Gilliard, 1995).   State and federal legislative bodies reacted by enacting new laws outlining minimum punishments that included incarceration.   By increasing the likelihood of punishment, these measures also increased the number of inmates and their length of stay in the prison system.   As the prison population increased, Prisoner rights were affected, and overcrowding resulted.   Consequently, early release programs were designed, allowing many undesirable convicts to re-enter society and to commit crimes once again.   These early release programs were implemented largely to avoid acting on the necessity of building new prisons.   Unfortunately, the money needed for maintaining and building prisons was not available.   Therefore, society had to search for new solutions.   One solution was to privatize prisons.   This refers to private companies or organizations offering facilities and related services required to house prisoners. A concern of private prisons were the costs, as state and federal prisons were expected to save money by contracting with private prison companies (Seiter, 2014). Consequently, numerous inmates across the country are now housed in “for-profit prisons”.
The practice of privatization has received its share of criticism, with concern being expressed over the possibility of prison conditions deteriorating as the result of an effort to save money on the part of government (Logan, 1990). This carries an obligation to meet the basic needs of the prisoner. Thus, measures of health care, safety, sanitation, nutrition, and other aspects of basic living conditions are relevant. Furthermore, confinement must meet a constitutional standard of fairness and due process, so it is not just the effectiveness and efficiency, but also the procedural justice with which confinement is imposed (Logan, 1990).
In effect, the State of Louisiana created a field...