Privatization of Incarceration - still a bad idea
Not long ago, well, actually quite awhile ago, I blogged about the perverse incentives the privatization of incarceration creates. This week's news that Judges in Pennsylvania were involved in abusive sentencing for kick-backs from a private juvenile detention center (and here - nytimes) provides the latest and clearest case of such abuse.
How can we possibly continue with this approach to incarceration!?
Comments
On the Fence
I'm on the fence with this issue. On the one hand, you can imagine a government funded entity lacking that same efficiency you see in privately owned organizations. But at the same time, those that are privately owned could possibly cut corners in order to be more cost-efficient. With either side, it isn't completely guaranteed that all records are open to the public for scrutiny.
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OliviaB.
San Francisco DUI lawyer
Incentives not Efficiencies
Hi Olivia,
I'm not sure you read the post.
The issue (at least as I presented it) is not one of efficiencies in public vs private ownership, but rather the "perverse INCENTIVES" that private ownership brings with it. In the case I referred to, for example, the judges were provided an incentive for handing down inappropriately severe sentences and incarcerating juveniles in the form of kickbacks from the center holding the kids. In a public ownership scenario it seems to me such incentives would severely diminished.
It is the undermining of our judicial system in the form of unjust punishment, not management efficiencies that is my concern.
Regards,
mischa
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