Private prisons are detention centers run by for-profit enterprises, paid by the government. They are controversial, with opponents arguing that they lead to abuse and lobbying for harsher sentences, while proponents argue that they are more efficient and create jobs. Private prisons represent a small minority of the total number of prisoners in the US.
A private prison is a detention center operated by a private enterprise, also called a for-profit enterprise. Most prisons are public prisons. A private prison differs from a public prison because a private prison is not run by the government. Instead, the government pays a private company to run the prison.
The first known form of prison privatization in the United States took place after the Civil War, although that particular system shared little with the modern private prison. The system was known as held leasing. Essentially, private enterprises, such as farms or businesses, leased captives from the federal and state governments. Prisoners would then provide work for private businesses as if they were employees.
The subject of private prisons is controversial. Opponents of privatizing prisons argue that for-profit companies shouldn’t cater to inmates because they’ll have a higher likelihood of being abused and abused. Furthermore, opponents of private prisons argue that by privatizing prisons, companies are essentially making money when citizens go to jail. The longer they stay in prison, the more money the firm will make. Thus, opponents say, the private prison industry will help lobby for harsher sentences in order to serve its financial interests.
Proponents of the private prison industry argue that governments waste money on inefficient prisons and detention centers and that the system should be left to private enterprise. Private enterprise, it is argued, will have an incentive to be more efficient in order to make more money. This can also create jobs and lead to economic growth. This efficiency can benefit the government, and therefore the citizens, because less money is spent than the government to keep a certain number of prisoners in prison.
The number of private prisons represents a small minority. For example, as of 2010, there were an estimated 2 million prisoners in the United States, including those in state penitentiaries, local jails, and federal prisons, but only about 100,000 of those were in private prisons. There were fewer than 300 private prisons in the United States as of 2010.
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