Because businesses are often seen as being more economically
efficient than the government, governments often introduce the private sector
into traditionally state run services. The capacity to grow shareholder profits
whilst saving taxpayer money is presented as attractive especially in a time of
fiscal tightening. Competition does indeed motivate people and organizations to
perform well, because they lose out on revenue if they don’t.
However this ideological shift to convert public funds into
private profits can be damaging and often wasteful itself. This can especially
be seen in the case of prison privatization in various western countries, such
as the US, UK & Canada. One example is that in the UK, two of the companies
involved in prisons are being investigated for overcharging the government by
tens of millions of pounds.
Also prison privatization often delivers poor results and
dangerous services. Driven by profits and not social justice, corporations will
often pay low wages and hire inexperienced staff. They will have a higher
turnover of staff, meaning a lack of consistency and poor continuity of care
for prisoners.
A 2003 report in the UK found that despite some evidence of
good performance by privatized prisons, they performed less well in safety and
security with high levels of assaults. Prisoners also expressed concerns about
personal safety due to the experience of staff.
In 2012, it was reported that Canada’s only privatized
prison, in Ontario had poorer security, health care and recidivism rates than
public prisons of the same size.
The prisons may well be run more efficiently under
privatization but after they can’t get more efficient, the corporation will
still be seeking higher profits, such is their obligation to their
shareholders. Because the best interests of the business to keep prisoners in
the system for as long as possible- the employee’s jobs depend on keeping them
there, and the subsequent lobbying for longer prison sentences, will eventually
cost more money. Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest owner
of private prisons, made a pitch to 48 governors state run prisons, which
included an ‘occupancy agreement’- a clause demanding the state keep those
newly privatized prisons at least 90% full at all times. Occupancy agreements
are common practice within the private prisons sector.
They will also lobby
against progressive policies like decriminalizing marijuana, would cut back into
the corporations’ profits, as would measures aimed at reducing the system’s
racism, given incarceration rates for black people is 7 times that of white
people.
Furthermore, powers like having a right to detain, to remove
an individual’s liberty and to restrain, should only be exercised by public
servants- employed by the state, whose line of reporting runs straight to the
minister in charge of prisons.
