For-Profit Prisons should be Banned

Resolved: For-Profit Prisons should be Banned. The United States houses more prisoners than any other country in the world; this includes China, India, and Indonesia (the three other top countries, population-wise). We hold 5% of the world population, and 25% of the worldwide population of prisoners; in fact, nearly 1 out of every 100 people in the United States are in prison right now. For-profit prisons should be banned, because they abuse and mistreat their prisoners. They are not as cost-effective as we are led to assume, and they are insecure and under-quality. Private Prison - A prison that is owned by a business, as opposed to the government For-Profit - A business or organization whose purpose is to make money The government does not save money by employing private prisons. In fact, it spends more money on private prisons than government prisons. In 2010, the Arizona Auditor General stated "that it may be more costly to house inmates in private prisons" than public institutions. Indeed, after making adjustments to allow for a more accurate comparison, "rates paid to private facilities were higher for both minimum- and medium-custody beds"the two categories of beds for which the [Arizona Department of Corrections] contracts." In 2010, the Hawaii State Auditor stated that the state"s Department of Public Safety "repeatedly misled policymakers and the public by reporting inaccurate incarceration costs [for private prisons]." The Department used a "flawed methodology," "provide[d] artificial inmate costs," and engaged in "skewed cost reporting." In 2007, the Federal Bureau of Prisons failed to collect adequate data to determine whether private federal prisons were more or less expensive than publicly operated federal prisons. Private prisons mistreat and abuse their prisoners. Violence is a common occurrence in for-profit prisons, because they try to keep staff at a minimum to save money. Because of this violence, staff turnover is high. This results in inexperienced prison guards and staff, which lowers the treatment of prisoners even more. From the Court of Appeals by the state of Texas, a prisoner was beaten to death by a combination of a lock and a sock in a GEO prison, while the guards stood by and watched. The guards had also failed to conduct a standard pat-down, which would have found the weapon. The court case, for wrongful death, resulted in over $40 million being paid to the family. Professionals report that "EMCF is a cesspool. Prisoners are underfed and routinely held in cells that are infested with rats and have no working toilets or lights. Although designated as a facility to care for prisoners with special needs and serious psychiatric disabilities, EMCF denies prisoners even the most rudimentary mental health care services. Many prisoners have attempted to commit suicide; some have succeeded. One prisoner is now legally blind after EMCF failed to provide his glaucoma medications and take him to a specialist, and another had part of his finger amputated after he was stabbed and developed gangrene" (American Civil Liberties Union). "Private prison corporations have been the subject of numerous lawsuits stemming from charges of abuse, violence, negligence, wrongful death, and other factors related to mismanagement" (Elaine Rizzo, Ph.D., Professor of Criminal Justice & Margaret Hayes, Ph.D.). Wrongful death " mismanagement " negligence " violence and abuse. Private prisons mistreat and abuse their prisoners, and they should be banned, because of this violation of rights. Private prisons are insecure, and under-quality. The Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility said, prisoners in private prisons, "...live in unconstitutional and inhumane conditions and endure great risks to their safety and security" due to understaffing, violence, corruption, and a lack of proper medical care (Patsy R. Brumfield and John W. Cox). In 2001, a Florida grand jury found that CCA facility staff, including a nurse, "failed to demonstrate adequate health training," which contributed to the death of an inmate who swallowed several Ecstasy pills. The staff had failed to monitor Justin Sturgis, who died from lack of medical care (Cody Mason, programming associate at the Sentencing Project). The private prisons do not even take care of their own facilities. Such quality malfunctions include ""burned-out perimeter lights, other broken security equipment, and a lax, high-turnover culture in which MTC"s [Management and Training Corporation] green, undertrained staff and rookie supervisors ignored alarms, left long gaps between patrols of the perimeter, left doors leading out of some buildings open and unwatched, didn"t alert the state or local police until hours after the escape, and failed in all manner of basic security practices" (Bob Ortega and the Arizona Republic). In 2010, two escaped prisoners from a Management and Training Corporation (MTC) facility killed an Oklahoma couple, because the alarm was ignored by prison staff. Despite an admittance of negligent responsibility for the escapes, it took eight months and a threat to terminate MTC"s contract before the security defects were corrected by the company. In fact, escape rates are much higher in private prisons than otherwise. Throughout a given amount of time, the escape rate measurements of one private prison will be equivalent to 20 escapes in government prisons (Douglas C. McDonald, Ph.D., and Kenneth Carlson). Private prisons have lower rehabilitation rates than public prisons (and higher recidivism rates), because those such prisons make more money based off on the amount of crimes committed. The Minnesota Department of Corrections analyzed 1,766 inmates from private prisons after release and the same amount from public prisons after their respective release (3,532 in all). They used this data to construct 20 different kinds of models about recidivism and rehabilitation rates, and they all showed that the governmental prisons have better rates for both categories than for-profit prisons. In fact, 8 of these 20 models showed that private prisons had significantly worse recidivism and rehabilitation rates. The evidence presented in this study shows that for-profit prisons are less more effective in reducing recidivism. For-profit prisons should be banned, because they are insecure. They do not have the same quality standards as government prisons, and they are more expensive and costly. Private prisons mistreat and abuse their prisoners, and they therefore must be banned.