There are two main types of prison systems in the US: public and private. They vary in how they’re run and funded, the rehabilitation efforts they offer, the types of inmates they house, and the level of security each require. Compare private and public prisons to see what working in each would be like, as each of these factors affects the quality of jobs available for correctional officers.
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Private Prisons vs. Public Prisons
There are stark differences between public and private prisons. When it comes to overall comparisons, privately run prisons are often less likely to report data on inmate population, staffing, or where the budget was spent. The main difference between the two types of prisons comes down to money.
Each for-profit facility or institution houses people who violated the law. They are run by private, third-party companies rather than the state government, who runs traditional public prison. Private prisons receive their funding from government contracts and many of these contracts are based on the total number of inmates and their average length of time served.
This means that the more inmates these prisons can hold – with longer sentences – the more money they earn. The private companies of today that run prison facilities for the federal government house 8% of the US prison population, which is rising. America has the highest prison population in the world, with 2.2 million people in prison, and private prisons are criticized as only wanting that number to grow so they can rake in more money.
Public prisons, on the other hand, were the norm until the 1980s. They are owned and operated by local, state, or federal governments and function as non-profits. In this scenario, the government controls which prison inmates are sent to. The government also has the ability to release inmates early. Inmates are monitored and directed by state and federal guidelines, and operations are funded directly by the government. These prisons receive their funding from tax dollars, so public prisons are also required to make certain information about the prison available to the public in order to provide them with an idea of how the prison is operated and how well taxpayers’ money is used.
Private correctional facilities, in comparison, are not required to release information on how the money they receive is being used. Most private prisons are in the south and west, including both state and federal level offenders. They can accept or decline any offender they choose, and often choose to decline offenders who have medical conditions or mental health issues that make them costlier to house.
Research has shown that private prisons will usually choose less violent offenders because serious offenders require an increase in the amount of required security. Thus, public prisons hold more violent offenders and private prisons hold more nonviolent offenders; in fact, the majority of inmates in private prisons have committed non-violent drug-related offenses. While private prisons may be cheaper, they’re also known to be worse for inmate rights and have a higher need of qualified correctional officers.
History of Private Prisons
Private prisons made a comeback in the US during the early 1980s, when Thomas Beasley, Doctor R. Crants, and T. Don Hutto began the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). This company, the first private prison company in the world, decided to run prisons for a profit. Before this happened in the 80s, private prison systems were rare.
President Reagan’s War on Drug policies in the 1980s began to flood the prison system with inmates, and private prisons were created to alleviate issues like overcrowding that many public prison systems were facing. The CCA claimed their facility could operate a larger-sized prison with less staff than the public sector requires, instead opting to rely on electronic surveillance cameras. Private prisons were created to run at a lower cost than public prisons, cutting many other costs as well.
With the rising numbers of people getting arrested and given longer sentences for drug crimes, the number of private prisons rose dramatically. The number of private prisons increased from a total of five in 1998 to 100 in 2008. Due to the increase in private facilities, the CCA saw a 500% profit increase from the previous 20 years. The first private corrections company, the CCA (now known as CoreCivic), remains the largest today.
Inmates in private prisons often work, creating goods the companies can sell. Many legislators are not fond of private prisons because they create incentives that hinder rehabilitation and delay efforts to reform harsh sentencing laws or reduce prison population rates. Most private facilities, for example, have lock-up quotas that require a minimum number of inmates or the prisons risks paying penalty fees.
The Justice Department concluded in a review that private prisons were more dangerous and less effective at reforming inmates than facilities run by the government, leading to policy changes under the Obama Administration to phase out private contracts. However, the Trump administration reversed this directive in 2017, instead opting for harsher immigration and drug policies.
Private prisons also run many immigration detention facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which are often not included in the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports.
How Many Private Prisons are in the United States?
According to theSentencing Project, the nation’s highest number of inmates ever are jailed in private prisons. Problems that exist within the system will only improve with policy changes at the Department of Justice. A good first step would be rolling back the 2017 legislation aimed at increasing the length of time a person can be charged for drug and immigration offenses.
Private prisons incarcerated 121,718 people in 2017, which is 8.2% of the total state and federal prison population. According to theBureau of Justice Statistics, there were 1,430,800 incarcerated people total in the US at year-end 2019.
The states with the highest populations of people incarcerated in private prisons, which housed more than 20% of their overall prison populations in 2019 (BJS), include:
- Montana
- New Mexico
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
- Hawaii
Private Prison Statistics
- Private prison facilities housed 18% of the federal prison population and 7% of state prisoners in 2016 (BJS, ACLU).
- There are 1.6 million prisoners in US prisons, with 92% housed in public prisons and 8% housed in private prisons (Reason Foundation).
- The average cost of housing a medium security inmate in a public prison in 2010 was $48.42 compared to $53.02 in a private prison (Reason Foundation).
- 73% of detained immigrants were held in privately run facilities in 2017 (The Sentencing Project).
- An estimated 49% more violent incidents and guard assaults are reported in private prisons than public, and inmate on inmate assaults are said to occur 65% more in a private facility (US Department of Justice).
- In 2015, 67,442 prisoners in public prisons were held in solitary confinement, but private prisons don’t have to report this information (The Marshall Project).
- The average length of time a prisoner served in a public prison is less than half that of the average prisoner in a private facility (BJS).
- The private sector has the highest population of inmates in drug treatment over the public sector, with 28% of the population in private prisons vs 14% in public prisons.
- Today, one in five people is locked up on drug-related charges (Prison Policy Initiative).
- The public sector requires an average of 58 more pre-service training for their new officers than private facilities offer new hires, and the private sector has employee turnover rates near three times that of the public sector (US Courts.gov).
- Some states incarcerate more of their prison population in private facilities while 23 states don’t work with for-profit prisons at all. For example, New Mexico sends 40% of inmates into private facilities, but Texas has the largest private state prison population in the nation (The Sentencing Project).
- In 2015, the private prison powerhouses CCA and the GEO Group earned around $3.5 billion all together (Infogram) and over $4 billion in 2016 (Journalist’s Resource).
- A psychiatrist who investigated a Mississippi private prison found that inmates often dropped between 10 and 60 pounds, as they were severely underfed (The Salt Lake Tribune).
- The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sends around 400,000 undocumented immigrants to be detained in a private facility each year, which is increasing the need for private systems (Truth Out).
FAQs
Research shows that private prisons typically house less violent and serious offenders than public prisons, as this would increase the amount of security needed.
What is the difference between private prisons and public prisons? ›
Private prisons are contracted by the government, and owned and operated entirely by third-party firms. Public prisons, on the other hand, are owned and operated by the government, which will sometimes contract out certain aspects of the prison to third parties, but still manages the overall operation of the facility.
Do you think privatizing prisons is a good idea? ›
Privatizing prisons can reduce prison overpopulation, making the facilities safer for inmates and employees. Private prisons can transform the broken government-run prison system. Private prisons offer innovative programs to lower the rates of re-imprisonment.
Are private prisons less expensive and more effective than public prisons? ›
The results revealed that private prisons were no more cost-effective than public prisons, and that other institutional characteristics—such as the facility's economy of scale, age, and security level—were the strongest predictors of a prison's daily per diem cost. 1.
What are the pros vs cons of private prisons? ›
Prison privatization has both pros and cons. The pros include lower cost and better performance, and the cons include a for-profit prison that encourages extended confinement, less security, health care cuts, and a lack of transparency. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Why are private prisons more cost effective? ›
Private prisons are able to make profit by cutting prison staff which accounts for over 70% of prison expenses and paying staff a much lower salary with less benefits. Additionally cuts are made on maintenance aspects of these prisons.
Why should we keep private prisons? ›
Private prisons offer innovative programs to lower the rates of re-imprisonment. Recidivism is the tendency of those who have committed a criminal act to commit another criminal act, likely landing them back in prison.
Do we still use private prisons? ›
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The contract with the last private prison, McRae Correctional Facility, located in McRae, Georgia, ended on November 30, 2022. Throughout the years, the partnerships between the BOP and privately-managed prisons remained positive, while maintaining transparency and accountability.
What is the biggest problem with private prisons? ›
Private prisons are more dangerous than publicly run facilities. According to a U.S. Department of Justice study covering federal prisons, violent attacks by inmates on correctional staff were 163% higher in private than in public prisons, and inmate-on-inmate assaults were nearly 30% higher.
Do privatized prisons lead to more inmates? ›
Private prisons incarcerated 99,754 American residents in 2020, representing 8% of the total state and federal prison population. Since 2000, the number of people housed in private prisons has increased 14%. Harmful crime policies of the 1980s and beyond fueled a rapid expansion in the nation's prison population.
(2020) report on studies that demonstrate that recidivism rates in private prisons are between 16.7% (Spivak & Sharp, 2008) and 22% (Duwe & Clark, 2013) higher when compared to public prisons.
Why private prisons are damaging to the correctional system? ›
A 2016 report from the Justice Department found that private prisons regularly failed to ensure inmates were receiving medical care. They reported more than twice as many inmate-on-staff assaults as in state-run prisons, and reported a 28% higher rate of inmate-on-inmate assaults.
Are private prisons ethical? ›
Private prisons generate revenue by exploiting work in some of the most unethical conditions. And with their focus only on the bottom line of profits, many needs of prison life are often overlooked and underfunded.
Do more prisons reduce crime? ›
Today, a large body of research backs those early observations, concluding that jail time doesn't discourage criminals from future crime. People who are sent to prison often re-offend; they aren't deterred by their time behind bars.
Which of the following is an advantage of private prisons? ›
The benefits of private prisons include reducing overcrowding, cutting costs, and creating employment opportunities. The problem, however, is how private prisons make money.
Do private prisons make money? ›
In 2020, CoreCivic reported $1.9 billion in revenue, 82.2% of that coming from its private prison operations. Only 3.4% of CoreCivic's revenue was generated through “Community” contracts, such as the one it holds with CDCR. The majority of CoreCivic and GEO Group's revenues come from their private prison business.
Which states have the most private prisons? ›
Both Florida and Texas have the highest number of private prisons with a total of 7 each, compared to their 33 and 55 respective state prisons. Florida also has the highest estimated prisoner capacity in its private prisons with 9,945, followed by Arizona with 8,288.
How much money is saved with private prisons? ›
According to the study, it costs a private prison about $45,000 a year to house a prisoner, compared to the general cost of about $50,000 annually per inmate in a public prison, resulting in roughly $5,000 in savings per year.
How much money is spent on private prisons? ›
Key Statistics: Total U.S. government expenses on public prisons and jails: $80.7 billion + On private prisons and jails: $3.9 billion +
Are private prisons cost saving options for states? ›
In theory, as states delegate the operation of prisons to private companies, they should lessen their expenditures in comparison to the public prisons they replace and spend less overall on corrections. However, this result depends on the assumption of economic efficiency gains associated with private prisons.
New prison facilities should be built to handle the larger volume of inmates and alleviate overcrowding problems. As crime rates across the nation increase, demand for bigger prison facilities also increases. Prisoners are being let go early, without serving their full sentence, just to make room for new prisoners.
Who benefits from mass incarceration? ›
Private businesses that provide services (like food and healthcare, for example) to prisons and jails are making billions of dollars from mass incarceration—which sounds to us like a very strong incentive for them to make sure that millions of Americans keep getting locked up.
What is the main advantage of private service providers? ›
Private service providers have the ability to expand and contract quickly when needs change.
How many prisons in the US are privately run? ›
Facilities, 2019 – Statistical Tables
1,677 adult correctional facilities in the United States. 1 Of these, 111 were operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), 1,155 were operated by state correctional authorities, and 411 were privately operated (table 1).
Do private prisons increased incarceration rates? ›
We show that private prisons have a significant effect on aggregate state incarceration levels. Furthermore, the incarceration rate at the extensive margin increases with more private prisons for some crimes such as fraud, drug offenses, property crimes and weapons crimes.
When did private prisons become popular? ›
“For-profit” prisons in the United States date back to 19th Century California. However, the private-prison movement did not gain modern appeal until the 1980's.
What percent of US prisons are private? ›
Private prisons in the United States incarcerated 115,428 people in 2019, representing 8% of the total state and federal prison population.
What are the benefits of smaller prisons? ›
Smaller prisons often have more opportunities for privacy and autonomy, leading to less conflict. Prisoners recognize all these advantages too: prisoners often report that in smaller prisons they feel less stress, safer, and more respected by staff.
What are the ethical issues with private prisons? ›
Private prisons are unjustifiable according to most ethical theories and should no longer be used in the United States. Private prisons exploit their employees and inmates who are in their care for their own financial gain under the premise of saving taxpayers' money.
Are there private prisons in the US? ›
Private prisons in the United States incarcerated 115,428 people in 2019, representing 8% of the total state and federal prison population. Since 2000, the number of people housed in private prisons has increased 32% compared to an overall rise in the prison population of 3%.
Global spread. In 2013, countries that were currently using private prisons or in the process of implementing such plans included Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, South Korea and Thailand.
How has privatization impacted the criminal justice system? ›
An estimated 10 million Americans owe more than $50 billion from their involvement in the criminal justice system. Privatization throughout the justice system has exacerbated the cycle of mandatory fees, nonpayment, and consequent additional fees.
What are the 5 pains of imprisonment according to Sykes? ›
Sykes (1958/2007) argued that five fundamental deprivations charac- terized daily prison life, known collectively as the “pains of imprisonment.” These were the loss of liberty, desirable goods and services, heterosexual relationships, autonomy, and security.
How can prisons be improved? ›
Solutions
- On the front end, by reducing the number of people who needlessly enter prison in the first place;
- On the back end, by shrinking the existing prison population by allowing prisoners who have proven they are ready to re-enter society the opportunity to transition out of confinement; and.
Recidivism rates in the U.S. are some of the highest in the world with almost 44% of criminals released returning to prison within their first year out.
Does solitary confinement lead to recidivism? ›
Statistics indicate that prisoners who have spent time in segregation are more likely to reoffend than those who have served their sentences in general population. If you include prisoners who are released directly from solitary to the streets, the numbers – and the adverse effects – skyrocket.
Do prisons make communities safer? ›
"Despite its widespread use, research shows that the effect of incarceration as a deterrent to crime is minimal at best, and has been diminishing for several years. Indeed, increased rates of incarceration have no demonstrated effect on violent crime and in some instances may increase crime.
Why is there corruption in prisons? ›
Corruption in prison usually occurs because of three factors: coercion, recruitment, or emotional blackmail. Sometimes an inmate will use coercion and threaten a prison official or their family if he or she does not comply and smuggle contraband into the prison.
Why are prisons so unsafe? ›
Overcrowding is a huge problem many prisons face because handling a large number of volatile inmates at once can lead to many altercations. Other factors, such as a shortage of guards and inmates possessing weapons, can create further opportunities for violent incidents to occur.
Are private prisons more effective? ›
Research shows that private prisons typically house less violent and serious offenders than public prisons, as this would increase the amount of security needed.
Injuries and abuse are the top reasons inmates sue private prisons. Other reasons may include becoming ill or injured due to negligence on the part of prison administration or staff. How you handle these kinds of incidents in a private prison is severely limited by the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
Is the privatization of prisons a good or bad thing? ›
When states turn to private prisons, the number of criminals incarcerated rises and the length of sentences increases.
Do prisons make society better? ›
Recidivism, Employment, and Job Training
First, imprisonment discourages further criminal behavior. We find that incarceration lowers the probability that an individual will reoffend within five years by 27 percentage points and reduces the corresponding number of criminal charges per individual by 10 charges.
Do prisons make criminal behavior worse? ›
In addition, longer prison sentences were not associated with reduced recidivism. In fact, the opposite was found. Longer sentences were associated with a 3% increase in recidivism. An analysis of the studies according to the risk of the offender also did not show a deterrent effect.
Why do prisoners want to stay in jail? ›
As a result, many inmates prefer their stays in prison given the more regular life, the greater availability of programs, and better facilities. Indeed, many repeat offenders will ask for prison time rather than time in jail followed by probation if given the option.
What are the advantages of public prisons? ›
Pros of Public Prisons:
- Cost Effective: One of the most significant advantages of public prisons is that they are much more cost-effective than private prisons. ...
- Improved Conditions: Public prisons are subject to strict regulations and standards, which help to ensure that inmates receive adequate care and treatment.
Federal prisons are generally safer than state prisons and they keep inmates that are of a less violent and dangerous nature. The main differences between federal prison and state prison are set forth in the table below. Note that prisons (both federal and state) are different from jails.
What are the bad things about private prisons? ›
Privately operated facilities have a significantly lower staffing level than publicly operated prisons and lack MIS support. They also report a significantly higher rate of assaults on staff and inmates.
What are the failures of private prisons? ›
A 2016 report from the Justice Department found that private prisons regularly failed to ensure inmates were receiving medical care. They reported more than twice as many inmate-on-staff assaults as in state-run prisons, and reported a 28% higher rate of inmate-on-inmate assaults.
What is the main reason for private prisons? ›
A private prison is a corrections facility run by a private, for-profit company. The primary role of private prisons is to reduce the problem of overcrowding in the public prison system.
As of 2021, the state of Florida had the highest number of prisoners held in private prisons in the United States, with a total of 11,712 prisoners, followed by Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Arizona. 17 states did not have any prisoners held in private prisoners in that year.
What's the worst federal prisons in the United States? ›
USP ADX Florence houses male inmates in the federal prison system deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control, including prisoners whose escape would pose a serious threat to national security.
Which US state has the most federal prisons? ›
Texas is home to the greatest number of prisons and jails in the USA. With 313 prisons it has 110% more places of incarceration than colleges.
Do federal prisons have air conditioning? ›
There is currently no federal requirement for temperatures inside of state jails and prisons. While some prisons have air conditioning, many do not, especially at the state level.
Why prisons should be abolished? ›
This renders prison an extremely inhumane cage in which to lock people. As prisons principally deprive people of their dignity, they should be abolished. Paradoxically, prisons have also been shown to generate more crime7. This happens both for ex-convicts and people from the prisoners' communities.
