Author: Andrew Coyle et al (ed.), 2003:

 ISBN 0932863353,

(Non-fiction/politics - 9/10)

The following review was contributed by:  Paul Lappen & CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's Reviews

Prison privatization has become a major public policy
issue over the last few years, in America and around
the world. Advocates say that private corporations can
run prisons better and cheaper than the state.
According to the contributors to this book, the
promise is much greater than the reality.

Prison corporations cut costs as much as possible,
affecting things like education and rehabilitation
programs for prisoners, staff salaries and training,
which leads to a high yearly turnover of guards. An
obstacle to greater privatization of prisons has been
the power of prison guard unions. The cost savings
don't go to the local government, but to the corporate
office, where executives draw huge salaries. On more
than one occasion, the state has had to take back
control of a prison from a corporation, because of
deaths in custody, or violations of prisoners' human
rights, including those of juveniles.

Blacks and Native Americans are in prison in numbers
far higher than their proportion of the general
population, because prison is a method of social
control more than a way to make the streets safer.
Private prisons make little or no attempt to
incorporate native traditions, like sweat lodges, into
the rehabilitation process. Putting prisons far away
from cities, or shipping prisoners to other states,
disrupts the family structure back home, leading to
more children growing up without one or both parents.
Women, and people with diagnosed medical conditions,
also do not get their needs taken into account by
private prisons.

This is an excellent book. The writing gets rather dry
and academic, so it will take some work on the part of
the general reader; by all means, stay with it. It is
well worth reading, for those involved with prisons
and for the general public.