Private Prisons in the United States, 1999: 

An Assessment of Growth, Performance, Custody

Standards, and Training Requirements

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Office of Research and Evaluation

320 First Street, NW

400 Building, Room 3006

Washington, DC 20534

March 2000

Scott D. Camp, Ph.D.

Gerald G. Gaes, Ph.D.

Contents

Guide to Abbreviations Used .......................................... ii

Executive Summary .................................................. iii

Introduction ......................................................... 1

Research Plan for the Analysis ......................................... 6

Census ............................................................. 8

Survey ............................................................. 9

General Characteristics ............................................ 12

Training Standards and Policy ....................................... 22

Custody Standards and Policy ....................................... 28

 Verification of Inmate Classification ................................... 30

Concluding Remarks ................................................ 31

References ........................................................ 35

Figures ............................................................ 37

Tables ............................................................ 39

Appendix 1: Growth and Development of the Private Prisons Industry ....... 93

by Douglas C. McDonald, Ph.D. and Carl W. Patten, Jr., Esq.

Abt Associates, Inc.

Appendix 2: List of Private Prisons Holding Sentenced Adult Inmates ...... 113

Appendix 3: Instrument used for the 1999 Survey of Private Sector

Training and Custody Standards ........................... 117
-iiGuide to Abbreviations Used

API Alternative Programs, Inc.

BOP Federal Bureau of Prisons

CCA Corrections Corporation of America

CCI Cornell Corrections, Inc.

CGI CiviGenics, Inc.

CSC Correctional Services Corporation

DM Dominion Management

FCI Federal Correctional Institution

MCS McLoud Correctional Services, LLC

MPC Marantha Production Company, LLC

MTC Management & Training Company

NIC National Institute of Corrections

NOCC Northeast Ohio Correctional Center

ORE Office of Research and Evaluation (BOP)

TCI Taft Correctional Institution

USP United States Penitentiary

WCC Wackenhut Corrections Corporation
-iiiPrivate Prisons in the United States, 1999: 

An Assessment of Growth, Performance, Custody

Standards, and Training Requirements

Executive Summary

This report addresses issues surrounding the growth in the private sector’s operation of adult,

secure facilities for sentenced inmates in the United States. It is also an analysis of private sector

standards in staff training, policy and procedure devoted to inmate security and custody, and some

of the important indicators of the quality of private prison operations. This report fulfills a

mandate from the U.S. Congress (pursuant to Public Law 105-277, Sec. 111).

Private sector firms have responded to the need for prison beds created by the rapid growth in the

jail and prison populations in recent years. This growth has generated tremendous opportunities

for entrepreneurs to build, own, and operate prisons. The two largest firms, Corrections

Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC) arose in the

1980s and rapidly expanded to provide care to more inmates in the United States than most State

systems. The private sector housed 69,188 inmates in 94 prisons on July 31, 1999. Private prisons

held 5.3 percent of the 1.3 million inmates under the jurisdiction of State and Federal

Governments at this time. This marked a significant increase from the end of 1997, when there

were 91 contracts that covered 37,651 inmates in 84 private prisons.

CCA held 37,244 inmates in 45 prisons in 1999—53.8 percent of the total number of inmates in

private prisons. WCC incarcerated another 19,001 inmates in 26 prisons—27.4 percent of the

total number of privately held inmates. CCA was responsible for more inmates than those held in

all but seven States and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). An additional nine State systems

had more inmates than the total reported for WCC, or 16 States altogether plus the Bureau of

Prisons. Together, CCA and WCC held 56,245 inmates, or 81.3 percent of the inmates held in

secure, adult, private prisons. 

Along with the opportunities generated by the rapid influx of prisoners into the private sector, the

private companies also experienced the challenges of operating rapidly expanding correctional

systems. In particular, the private companies had to recruit, train, and maintain adequate numbers

of correctional staff to operate their prisons. 
-ivSome evidence suggests that the private sector prison providers had problems in maintaining

adequately trained and experienced staff and that there were critical lapses in appropriate security

practices. Both major companies, CCA and WCC, had inmates escape from their adult prisons in

1999. CCA had three escape incidents in 1999 during which four inmates were able to breach the

perimeter and escape from secure facilities. CCA, and its subsidiary TransCor, also experienced

escapes when inmates were being transported, either for medical treatment or to a prison. There

were four such incidents in which five inmates escaped. WCC had two separate incidents in 1999

where one inmate in each incident was able to successfully escape from inside of a secure prison.

One of the WCC escapes was particularly relevant for the BOP, an inmate escaped from the Taft

Correctional Institution (TCI), which is operated by WCC for the BOP. Correctional Services

Corporation (CSC) had significant problems with the McKinley County Detention Center it

operated in New Mexico. There were two separate escape incidents in which nine inmates were

able to escape from inside of the facility. (CSC has since lost the contract to operate this facility.)

The Management & Training Company (MTC) also had one escape in 1999 in which three

inmates were able to escape from inside of a secure prison.

Private sector companies also experienced serious group disturbances in 1999, most of which

could be viewed as riots. CCA (five incidents), WCC (three incidents), and CSC (one incident)

experienced group disturbances in which chemical agents had to be used to control inmates,

and/or injuries resulted to staff members, and/or significant property damage occurred. In the

most tragic of these incidents, a correctional officer was killed at the Guadalupe County

Correctional Facility, which was operated by WCC for the State of New Mexico.

Research Plan for the Analysis

The U.S. Congress (Public Law 105-277, Sec. 111, Fiscal Year 1999 Omnibus Appropriations

Bill) required that the Director of the BOP initiate a study that “evaluates the growth and

development of the private prison industry during the past 15 years, training qualifications of

personnel at private prisons, and the security procedures of such facilities, and compares the

general standards and conditions between private prisons and Federal prisons.”

To fulfill this requirement, the Bureau of Prisons’ Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE), in

conjunction with subject matter experts within the BOP and the National Institute of Corrections

(NIC), developed a research plan with three major components: (1) a census of secure private

prisons for sentenced, adult inmates, (2) a survey of Government employees responsible for

administering the private prison contracts within agencies that utilized private prison bed space,
-vand (3) site visits to selected private institutions. This report covers the census and survey. A later

report will discuss the findings of the site visits.

Census

The census identified 94 different institutions that held sentenced, adult inmates for departments

of corrections in one of the 50 States, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, or the Federal

Government. Nine of the prisons had contracted with two or more jurisdictions to hold inmates,

meaning that, at the time of the census, there were 103 different contracts to hold adult inmates in

private prisons.

As of July 31, 1999, there were 69,188 adult inmates incarcerated in private prisons in the United

States. The majority of these inmates were identified by the respective jurisdictions as being

medium security, with 33,088 of the inmates, or 48 percent, so classified. The next largest

classification of inmates was minimum security with 35 percent (24,014) of the inmate total. For

the remaining inmates, 12 percent (8,103) were identified as low security, 4 percent (2,772) as

maximum security, and 2 percent (1,211) as having a different or no security classification. 

The private sector holds a lower percentage of high and medium security offenders than the public

sector. Other aspects of the custody classification of inmates held by the private prisons are less

clear, especially the experiences of the private sector in holding what the BOP classifies as an

inmate with medium security needs. There are differences between many State corrections

systems and the BOP in terms of classification criteria and nomenclature. As a result, in many

State systems, inmates who would be considered in the Federal system as low security risks are

classified as medium security risks.

Survey

The survey developed by the BOP’s ORE was distributed to contract administrators who were

responsible for administering the private prison contracts. Information was received for 91 of the

103 contracts identified, for a response rate of 88 percent.

The survey was designed around three basic sections. The first and longest section asked for

information about the respective training policy and standards in private and State-operated

prisons. The second section asked for basic information about custody policy and standards at

private prisons. The final section covered three major areas: general characteristics of the prison
-viand staff, information about the types of inmates housed at the prison, and data about the types of

inmate misconduct experienced at the prison.

The data reported here allowed the authors of the report to compare key staffing characteristics at

private prisons and BOP prisons. There was no attempt to collect information on pay and

benefits—generally it is expected that the pay and benefits of individual line staff in the Federal

sector surpass that in the private sector. This is not to say that overall staffing costs in the Federal

sector are necessarily higher than those in the private sector. In a cost analysis of the first year of

operations at TCI, Nelson (1999) found that the BOP would have operated TCI for less money

than WCC did, assuming that the BOP staffed TCI the way it staffed comparable Federal prisons.

WCC employed more staff than the comparable BOP prisons.

General Characteristics of Private Prisons

There were differences between the BOP and private sector prisons. The BOP reported lower

ratios of custody staff to inmates than most of the private prisons, but it reported comparable

ratios for total staff to inmates. It would seem that the comparable ratios of total staff to inmates

resulted from the BOP’s greater use of case management and program staff, although this issue

was not examined directly in the survey.

The BOP had a more stable workforce. The separation rates for custody staff at most private

prisons were much higher than the corresponding rates for BOP prisons. Where the average sixmonth separation rate for custody staff at BOP prisons was 4.4 percent and no BOP prison had a

rate greater than 9 percent, 95 percent of the private prisons had a separation rate that was equal

to or greater than 10 percent. In fact, almost half of the private prisons had a separation rate equal

to or in excess of 50 percent. The contract administrators noted that the separation rates at the

private prisons were higher than the corresponding rates at comparable public prisons operated by

their respective agencies. They further responded that the separations created staff shortages. 

Regarding inmate misconduct, there were lower hit rates for drug use in BOP prisons than in

many of the private prisons, although quite a few of the private prisons were doing very well on

this measure. The BOP had substantially fewer escapes from secure prisons than the private

prisons taken as a whole. The homicide rates for all BOP prisons and all private sector prisons

were very similar. However, it is worth remembering that secure BOP institutions had a higher

percentage of maximum security prisoners, and probably had a higher percentage of medium
-viisecurity prisoners as well. Due to the incompatibility in the survey question and the BOP data, it

was not possible to compare the assault rates effectively.

For the most part, the contract administrators rated inmate misconduct in private prisons as being

comparable to rates of misconduct in their own public prisons.

Training Standards and Policy

For employment requirements, public agencies were somewhat more likely to require initial

firearms, firearms refresher, and gang management training; initial and periodic custody training

seemed to be required at about the same levels. The small difference in training standards may be

attributable to the fact that the contract prison population represents, on average, lower security

and custody level inmates. 

Public and private agencies frequently used the same standards for the various kinds of training

either because the contract between the public agency and the contractor mandated the same

standards, or because the contractor adopted the public standards.

Training at the privately-operated prisons was primarily the responsibility of the private sector

employees, although the public sector also did a significant amount of the training. The number of

training hours was almost identical between the public agency employees and the staff at the

privately-operated institutions. 

The larger picture that emerged from this data is that private contractors were typically obligated

to use the training standards and policies of the public agencies. There was much more variation

from jurisdiction to jurisdiction than there was between the publicly and privately-operated

institutions within a jurisdiction. 

Custody Standards and Policy

The responses to this section of the survey showed that the private sector’s standards and policies

were typically a reflection of the jurisdiction governing the contract. The public sector maintained

responsibility for routine and intensive formal reviews of custody practices but often did these

reviews in conjunction with the private sector. The training and custody sections of the survey

demonstrate that the training and custody policies and standards of the privately-operated prisons
-viiiwere a reflection of the same standards and policies of the public jurisdiction responsible for those

contracts. 

Verification of Inmate Classification

A follow up phone call was made to contract monitors to establish whether the privately operated

facilities had procedures in place to verify the security classification level of the inmates they were

receiving from the public sector. Most facilities had procedures in place. The typical circumstance

was that inmates were classified by State experts and the private vendor used the State

classification system to verify that the classification level was appropriate.

Concluding Remarks

The private prison industry experienced phenomenal growth from its founding in the 1980s until

the present. While there have been changes in the types of inmates held in private prisons, most of

the experiences of the private sector have been with lower-risk inmates. The relative growth in the

private sector (that is, the increase in prisoners in comparison to the numbers previously held) will

probably not be as dramatic in the future as it has been in previous years. In fact, there is some

evidence that the growth in the U.S. prison population is slowing down. Nonetheless, there is

every reason to believe that growth in absolute numbers of inmates held in private prisons will

continue to expand, necessitating increased hiring and training of private prison staff. Many of the

factors driving the growth of the U.S. prison population—increased arrests and prosecutions,

mandatory minimum sentences, determinate sentencing/elimination of parole, less use of

probation—are the same factors that necessitate that a jurisdiction add prison capacity and

contract for some of those beds.

From the survey results presented here, there do appear to be some systemic problems that the

private sector must address. For example, the rapid turnover of staff perpetuates the situation in

which private prisons are operated by inexperienced staff. The large numbers of escapes from

private sector prisons, in comparison to the BOP, may be related to the lack of experienced staff

who are essential to operating safe and secure prisons. As anecdotally reported here and more

systematically in the Clark and Austin et al. reports, staff inexperience was evident in the

Youngstown situation, the New Mexico problems, the Colorado group disturbance, and the Taft

Correctional Institution incidents.
-ixAnother area that needs more probing is the staffing patterns at public and private prisons. The

custody staff-to-inmate ratio is generally higher at private prisons than in the BOP, suggesting

that private prisons may focus too many resources in this area. The total staff-to-inmate ratio of

most private facilities lies somewhere between the staffing levels of the Bureau of Prisons lowand medium-security prisons. Thus, the private sector’s overall staffing levels are comparable to

the BOP; however, since their custody staffing levels are higher, they probably use fewer program

and case management workers. This suggests that there may be fundamental differences in how

the private sector approaches custody.

The impetus for the use of private prisons in the United States was the promise of lower costs and

the need for additional capacity. In Australia and the United Kingdom, the motivation to privatize

was driven by these factors but was also propelled by prison reforms. In fact, some have proposed

that private prisons are places for experimentation, a test-bed for new approaches to

programming, management, and staffing. The competition that arises from the contrasting

approaches between the public and private sectors, according to this proposition, will promote

innovation and cross-fertilization of ideas and practices. While this proposition appears plausible,

there are factors that limit these possibilities.

Because of the inherent risk of corrections, private companies and State agencies that have

oversight obligations are unlikely to wander very far from standards and requirements that have

already been established in each jurisdiction. The survey results on training and custody standards

and requirements show that the private sector, even when there is no contractual obligation, has

adopted the standards and policies of their public sector counterparts. A different constraint upon

private operators involves jurisdictional requirements that cost savings must be demonstrated.

These requirements reduce the opportunities for innovation, especially in the private sector’s

flexibility to experiment with the management of human resources, the most costly part of prison

operations. One of the few alternatives the private sector has to save money and make a profit is

to suppress labor costs through direct measures such as restructuring pay and benefits. But,

reducing pay and benefits may result in high separation rates among staff.

The question that remains is whether there is sufficient room for the private sector to maneuver

and innovate when they are constrained by correctional standards and State cost containment

goals. Because of these types of restraints, in most jurisdictions, the privately operated prisons

become an extension of the public correctional agency.
-xThere are exceptions to the pattern of private prisons being extensions of the public sector that

contracts for their services. In Florida, for example, the contracting for private prisons is under

the control of an agency separate from the Florida Department of Corrections. The Bureau of

Prisons’ philosophy concerning contracting for private facilities is to provide a balance between

setting policy and encouraging innovation. The BOP structures its contracts, where feasible,

around performance goals instead of policy compliance. In other words, the Bureau contracts for

certain levels of output from the vendor, but the vendor is free to specify how they could achieve

the output goals when bidding for the contracts.

Nonetheless, the general practice in the United States is for private prisons to reflect the training

and security policies and standards of the agencies contracting for their services. There was much

greater variation between jurisdictions than there was between the public and private sectors

within a jurisdiction. The implication of this finding may be that the operations and standards of

the private sector are a reflection of the contracting jurisdiction whether the jurisdiction’s policies

and standards are good or bad, progressive or retrogressive. Thus, despite the fact that CCA and

WCC are large correctional entities, the operations at their facilities are more likely to be

influenced by the contract jurisdictions and local circumstances (e.g., labor markets, cost of living)

than they are by corporate policies and standards. Given the problems with escapes, disturbances,

and staff instability, many (though certainly not all) of the privately-operated prisons are

struggling to meet basic safety and security standards. This may be a reflection of the immaturity

of the private corrections sector. It may be alleviated if private operators can stabilize their

workforce and retain sufficient numbers of line and supervisory staff with sufficient correctional

tenure. Experienced staff can train the younger workforce and serve as models for that workforce.

It is important to distinguish between the standards and policies of a correctional system and the

manner in which they are implemented. Having sound policy is only the first step. Ensuring that

staff execute policy correctly is just as important. The survey methodology used in this report

could not measure how well privately-managed prisons operated on a day-to-day basis. That kind

of performance is assessed through systematic audits of all aspects of prison operations. The only

evidence we had from this survey were indicators of performance, such as escapes, drug use hit

rates, major incidents, and homicides. Based on those indicators, and on the high turnover rate of

staff at private prisons, it would appear that both the public and private sector managers need to

be vigilant in their monitoring of the day-to-day operations of privately-operated

prisons—certainly no less vigilant than they are about public sector performance. It is important

to note that this report is not an indictment of every privately-operated prison. The data represent

an overall picture.
-xiThis study brings to light several significant issues related to staffing, workforce experience, and

performance in the private sector. We believe that these issues should be addressed before the

private sector is allowed to take responsibility for the custody of more violent and sophisticated

prisoners.
-xii-
1Private prisons in the United States are not new phenomena. In the 19th century, some States entered into

agreements with private parties to lease the labor of inmates. In some of these agreements, the private party became

responsible for the housing and care of the inmates in addition to paying a fee for the labor of the inmate. This

system was subject to abuse and was fairly widespread. The convict lease system came to an end in 1923 during the

Progressive Era (Shichor 1995: 34-43). Under the current incarnation of private prisons, the opportunity for private

operators to benefit directly from the labor of inmates has been removed for the most part.

2Private prison operators hold a large number of adults in jails and detention centers in the U.S., such as

the illegal aliens incapacitated for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the pre-trial inmates held for

the U.S. Marshals Service. These facilities and inmates are not the focus of the present report which concentrates

on secure adult prisons, and Abt Associates did not attempt to collect information on these types of facilities.

1

Introduction

This report presents the growth in the private sector’s operation of adult, secure facilities for

sentenced inmates in the United States. It is also an analysis of private sector standards in staff

training, the development of policy and procedure devoted to inmate security and custody, and

some of the important indicators of the quality of private prison operations. This report fulfills a

request for information from the U.S. Congress (Public Law 105-277, Sec. 111).

The rapid growth in the jail and prison populations in recent years has generated tremendous

opportunities for entrepreneurs to build, own and operate prisons.1 The two largest firms,

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC)

arose in the 1980s and rapidly expanded to provide custody of more inmates in the United States

than most State systems. Abt Associates Inc., under contract with the National Institute of

Corrections (NIC), conducted a census of adult prison facilities in the United States and found

that the private sector housed 69,188 inmates in 94 different prisons on July 31, 1999 (see

Appendix 2).2 Private prisons held 5.3% of the 1.3 million inmates under the jurisdiction of State

and Federal Governments at that time. This marked a significant increase from the end of 1997,

the last time Abt conducted a census, when Abt determined that 91 contracts covered 37,651

inmates in 84 different private prisons (McDonald, Fournier, Russell-Einhorn, and Crawford

1998). A more complete history of the rise of private sector prisons is provided in Appendix 1 of

this report, written by Douglas C. McDonald and Carl W. Patten, Jr., of Abt Associates, Inc.

In 1999, CCA held 37,244 inmates in 45 prisons—53.8 percent of the total number of inmates in

private prisons. WCC incarcerated another 19,001 inmates in 26 prisons—27.4 percent of the

total number of privately-held inmates. CCA was responsible for more inmates than those held in

all but seven States and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. These comparisons are based on numbers

reported for the State and Federal systems on January 1, 1998, the latest date for which complete
3The seven States with larger populations in secure prisons were California (155,276), Florida (61,270),

Illinois (40,787), Michigan (42,388), New York (69,108), Ohio (47,808), and Texas (129,278). The Federal

Bureau of Prisons had 87,224 inmates in secure prisons.

4

In addition to the States listed in footnote 3, the following States had larger inmate populations than

WCC on January 1, 1998: Alabama (19,541), Arizona (23,484), Georgia (35,677), Missouri (23,645), New Jersey

(22,252), North Carolina (28,696), Pennsylvania (30,819), South Carolina (20,629), and Virginia (24,644).

2

data were available (Camp and Camp 1998: 6-7).3 An additional nine State systems were larger

than the total reported for WCC, or 16 States altogether plus the Bureau of Prisons.4 Together,

CCA and WCC held 56,245 inmates, or 81.3 percent of the inmates in secure, adult, private

prisons. 

As Harding (2000) has argued, private prison companies are not prison systems in the usual sense

of the term. To quote Harding (2000: 2): “This is a fundamentally erroneous concept, suggesting

status and autonomy as principal. Both CCA and WCC and each of the other operators are agents

of the State in the various jurisdictions” (emphasis in original). It is important in Harding’s

conceptualization of the relationship between the public and private sectors that the

State—although it has contracted for the care and well-being of prisoners—is still ultimately

responsible for ensuring that the care and well-being of the prisoners is provided through

regulatory and accountability mechanisms. 

In addition, there is another fundamental difference between private and public prison “systems.”

Unlike CCA or WCC, the BOP runs a system of prisons that are integrated by common laws,

policies, and practices. CCA and WCC, on the other hand, operate a series of prisons that are

extensions of other prison systems. To date, a private prison company has not operated an entire

prison system, although CCA and WCC have proposed in the past to operate the prison systems

in Tennessee and Florida (Harding 2000).

While we emphasize the difference between prison systems and private companies that operate

prisons, there are still some commonalities between them. As already mentioned, during a period

of growth, both must be capable of hiring and training staff to meet the demands of an increasing

population. Both must be capable of activating new facilities with a relatively immature

workforce. Both must make prudent decisions about using limited funds to best meet the needs of

the inmate population, while protecting staff and citizens. To the extent there is a corporate

approach, or perhaps even to the extent there is a corporate ethos in meeting these requirements,

private companies can be said to be corporate prison systems. 
3

The rapid influx of prisoners into the private sector brought challenges and opportunities. One of

the most significant challenges was the need to recruit, train, and maintain adequate numbers of

correctional staff that were necessary to operate the prisons they managed. 

Many of the concerns about private corporations and their staff capabilities came to a head in the

aftermath of the highly publicized escape of six maximum risk inmates, five of them convicted

murderers, from the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (NOCC) in July of 1998. In a detailed

and rare glimpse into the operations of a private prison, John L. Clark, the Corrections Trustee

for the District of Columbia, provided a detailed examination of the problems experienced by

CCA at NOCC during its initial operations. In addition to the much-publicized escapes, there

were two inmate murders and numerous stabbings and assaults, including assaults on staff.

Among his findings, Clark documented the lack of basic security practices and the inexperience

and inability of staff to handle difficult inmates (Clark 1998). Since the escapes, staffing and

procedural changes were instituted at NOCC, and the institution received ACA accreditation. 

WCC also experienced highly publicized problems in two of the prisons it operated in New

Mexico: the Lea County and Guadalupe County Correctional Facilities. The incidents at these

facilities are recorded in Table 1. At the request of the Special Advisory Group composed of New

Mexico State Senators, State Representatives, the State Corrections Secretary, and the State

Deputy Attorney General, a group of independent consultants were asked to examine the

operations in New Mexico public and private prisons in light of the problems experienced by the

New Mexico Corrections Department and WCC. The correctional consultants documented their

evaluation in a report submitted to the Special Advisory Group (Austin, Crane, Griego, O'Brien,

and Vose 2000). Among the types of problems documented, some were attributed to the New

Mexico Department of Corrections, such as lack of surveillance of gang activities and inequity in

housing conditions between the public prisons and the more Spartan private prisons. Other

problems were more likely to be found in the private prisons: problems with inadequate numbers

of staff, inexperienced staff, insufficiently trained staff (partly caused by difficulty in scheduling

access to the State training academy), and physical plant deficiencies in the facilities owned by

WCC. Richard Crane argued that part of the problem in operations at the two facilities originated

with the complicated contractual arrangements between the Corrections Department, the Counties

of Guadalupe and Lea, and WCC. To quote Crane (2000: 54):

In the end, the complex contractual arrangements, the unclear facility missions, the need for

prison beds, and the involvement of too many agencies and individuals in negotiations, resulted

in contracts which fall well short of industry standards and create significant security,

programmatic and fiscal implications for the State (p. 54).
5There were escapes and other major incidents at other secure facilities operated by the private companies,

but since these facilities are jails and detention centers, they were not relevant for or included in this report. Ryan

Sherman, Esq., a legislative aide for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, counted 38 escapes

that were reported in the media from all secure private facilities in 1999 (Sherman 1999). He also found reports of

26 escapes in 1998, 20 in 1997, 38 in 1996, and 20 in 1995.

4

Jerry O’Brien, a correctional consultant, conducted operational reviews at the Lea and Guadalupe

facilities. With regard to security issues, O’Brien listed a number of issues: tool control was in

“total disarray” and was being handled by the inmates (O'Brien 2000: 125); the security staffing at

the two contract facilities reflected an immature and untrained security workforce and even

inexperience at the supervisory level; there were recruitment and retention problems and “serious

shortfalls” in filling positions (O'Brien 2000: 124); there were serious gaps in search procedures to

find contraband; and there were deficiencies in intelligence gathering. O’Brien also found fault

with one of the facilities operated by the State of New Mexico, but not to the same degree as in

the privately-operated institutions. 

The Clark and Austin et al. reports should not be taken as evidence of problems in the entire

private prison sector. The reports were requested and issued because there were known problems

at these institutions, and they certainly do not reflect or represent all privately-operated prisons.

By the very nature of the reports, they provided intensive case studies of the prisons within which

specific incidents occurred rather than a more general assessment of the ability of the private

sector to operate safe and efficient prisons. There is other evidence, though, that private sector

prison operators continued to experience problems in operating their prisons in 1999.

Accounts reported in the press suggest that the private sector prison providers had problems in

maintaining adequately trained and experienced staff and appropriate security practices. Table 1

lists some of the more serious incidents at the private adult prisons that were reported in the

media for calendar year 1999.5 As can be seen there, both major companies, CCA and WCC, had

inmate escapes at their adult prisons in 1999. CCA had three escape incidents from the inside of

secure facilities in 1999 in which four inmates were able to breach the perimeter. CCA, and its

subsidiary TransCor, also experienced escapes when inmates were being transported, either to

medical treatment or to a prison. There were four such incidents involving the successful escapes

of five inmates. WCC had two separate incidents in 1999 where one inmate in each incident was

able to successfully escape from inside of a secure prison. One of the WCC escapes was

particularly relevant for the BOP as an inmate was able to escape from the Taft Correctional

Institution, which is operated by WCC for the BOP. Correctional Services Corporation (CSC)

had significant problems with the McKinley County Detention Center it operated in New Mexico.
6Secure prison is defined for purposes of this report as a facility with a secure perimeter fence or fences.

Also, the facility must hold sentenced adult inmates in general population units. In the BOP, this excludes all

facilities that are designated as minimum-security prison camps, metropolitan detention centers, prison hospitals,

and metropolitan correctional centers. Secure prisons incarcerating sentenced adults include the security levels of

low, medium, and high.

5

There were two separate escape incidents in which nine inmates were able to escape from inside

of the facility. (CSC has since lost the contract to operate this facility.) The Management &

Training Company (MTC) also had one escape in 1999 in which three inmates were able to

escape from inside of a secure prison.

In contrast to this spate of inmate escapes from secure private correctional facilities, the BOP had

one escape in 1999. This was the first escape from a secure BOP facility since 1996. The BOP,

with 80,800 inmates in secure prisons in July of 1999, was almost 17 percent larger than the

combined inmate populations of all private adult prisons in July of 1999.6 Taken all together, the

private prisons had 18 inmates escape from inside of secure prisons in 1999, and 5 inmates who

were housed in secure prisons were able to escape while they were being transported elsewhere.

Private sector companies also experienced serious group disturbances in 1999. CCA (five

incidents), WCC (three incidents), and CSC (one incident) experienced group disturbances in

which chemical agents had to be used to control inmates, and/or injuries resulted to staff

members, and/or significant property damage occurred (see Table 1). In the most tragic of these

incidents, a correctional officer was killed at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility,

operated by WCC for the State of New Mexico.

In the BOP, seven incidents were classified as major disturbances in fiscal year 1999. All of these

incidents involved large numbers of inmates fighting among themselves, usually gang related. Four

of these disturbances required the use of gas, nonlethal munitions, or warning shots from guards

on perimeter towers to control the inmates. There were no serious staff injuries in any of the

seven incidents. Two of the group disturbances occurred at one institution, FCI Big Spring. In

one of the incidents, MK-9 pepper fogger (an aerosol that irritates the eyes and respiratory

system) was used by the disturbance control team to disperse the inmates. In the other incident at

FCI Big Spring, warning shots were fired before gas and sting ball grenades (nonlethal weapons

that release rubber pellets that “sting” the legs) were used to disperse the fighting inmates. Stun

munitions and sting ball grenades were used at USP Leavenworth to stop fighting inmates.

Finally, warning shots were fired to control inmates at USP Florence.
6

The capability of staff at private prisons has been openly questioned in some of the publicized

incidents. Following the group disturbance at the Crowley County Correctional Facility (which is

operated by CSC), John Suthers, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections,

noted that “staff was (sic) not as well trained as it (sic) could have been” in handling the

disturbance. Suthers promised that future contracts would place more emphasis upon “proper

training.” There have been other allegations, such as those made by some staff at the Kit Carson

Correctional Facility (operated by CCA), that staff separations and lack of training have caused

problems, but there is typically no hard evidence to support or refute such charges. 

There is further anecdotal evidence of staff problems—at least short-term problems. In the wake

of a food and work strike at TCI on August 25, 1999 (not listed in Table 1) and the group

disturbance at TCI listed in Table 1, the issue of staff experience came into question from the

private sector vendor. Contrary to WCC’s own (and proper) correctional practice, the top

executive staff directed activities from the institution compound, instead of from the command

center. In both instances, the executive staff felt that they needed to be on the compound with line

staff because of the youth and inexperience of the line staff (Andrews 1999: 2).

Research Plan for the Analysis

The U.S. Congress (Public Law 105-277, Sec. 111) required that the Director of the BOP initiate

a study that “evaluates the growth and development of the private prison industry during the past

15 years, training qualifications of personnel at private prisons, and the security procedures of

such facilities, and compares the general standards and conditions between private prisons and

Federal prisons.”

To fulfill this requirement, the Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE), in conjunction with

subject matter experts within the BOP and the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), developed

a research plan with three major components: (1) a census of secure private prisons for sentenced,

adult inmates, (2) a survey of contract officials within agencies that utilized private prison bed

space, and (3) site visits to selected private institutions. This report covers the census and survey.

A later report will discuss the findings of the site visits.

The BOP, through the NIC, contracted with Abt Associates, Inc. of Cambridge, MA for

assistance on the first two aspects of this project. Dr. Douglas McDonald of Abt Associates

conducted the census of adult, secure correctional facilities. Dr. McDonald also administered the
7A security audit is a risk assessment that is used to determine the likelihood of a significant safety or

security problem. It focuses on the potential for an inmate escape, staff or inmate injury, disturbance, or property

damage. The audit procedures were developed by the National Institute of Corrections. The audit covers such areas

as the institution's armory, contraband management, hazardous materials, searches, post orders, key control, tool

control, and perimeter security. The audit procedures are intended to clarify the factors that may increase or

minimize the risk of a significant security problem. These factors include:"...poorly designed policy; inadequate

procedures; overlooked standards; a facility design inappropriate to a changed inmate profile; inadequate training;

or lack of knowledge, complacency, or inattention of staff to the requirements of their position." (National Institute

of Justice, 1999: Introduction, p. 1)

7

survey that was developed by the Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) at the BOP to

institutions identified in the census. A copy of the survey instrument is presented in Appendix 3. 

Once Abt Associates produced the database corresponding to the completed surveys, the data

were turned over to the BOP for analysis by the ORE. The results of that survey are presented in

this report. Dr. McDonald also was asked to update the earlier description of the growth and

development of the private prison sector provided in the 1998 report, Private Prisons in the

United States: An Assessment of Current Practice (McDonald, Fournier, Russell-Einhorn and

Crawford 1998). This update, written with Carl W. Patten, Jr., appears as Appendix 1 of this

report.

The site visits were conducted to evaluate the extent to which the training and custody policies

were being implemented at the privately-operated institutions. A representative sample of private

institutions would require site visits to at least 30 institutions and would involve a great deal of

time and money. In lieu of that approach, it was decided that it would be more expedient to visit a

few institutions that represent the positive and negative exemplars of private corrections. The

selection of sites would be based on the data we received from the survey. This would be the only

opportunity to closely evaluate the consistency (or lack thereof) between the standards and policy

adopted by the private sector and the procedures and practices as they were being executed by

line staff and their supervisors. In order to evaluate the facilities, a security-custody audit was

chosen, since security and custody represent core elements of correctional practice.7

The NIC assisted the ORE in identifying an independent reviewer to accompany BOP personnel

on visits to the selected private prisons. Superintendent Joan Palmateer, currently the warden of

the Oregon State Penitentiary, formerly Chief of Security for the Oregon Department of

Corrections, accompanied BOP research and custody experts to share her expertise. This report

covers the census and survey. A later report will discuss the findings of the site visits.
8Most of the inmates, 4,741, that were reported to be low security risks were held in four different private

prisons for the BOP.

8

Census

The census conducted by Abt Associates identified 94 different institutions that held sentenced,

adult inmates for departments of corrections in one of the 50 States, Puerto Rico, the District of

Columbia, or the Federal Government. Nine of the prisons had contracted with two or more

jurisdictions to hold inmates, meaning that, at the time of the census, there were 103 different

contracts to hold adult inmates in private prisons. A complete list of the contracting jurisdictions,

the corresponding prisons, the location of the prisons (which is sometimes different from the

contracting State), the security level of the inmates being held at the facility, and the total number

of inmates being held can be found in Appendix 2. The list is sorted by the contracting

jurisdictions. 

As of July 31, 1999, there were 69,188 inmates incarcerated in adult, private prisons in the United

States. The majority of these inmates were identified by the respective jurisdictions as being

medium-security, with 48 percent or 33,088 of the inmates so classified. The next largest

classification of inmates was minimum-security with 35 percent (24,014) of the inmate total. For

the remaining inmates, 12 percent (8,103) were identified as low-security, 4 percent (2,772) as

maximum-security, and 2 percent (1,211) as having a different or no security classification (see

Table 2).8

The private sector holds far fewer high- or maximum-security inmates than the public sector. In

all of the public sector adult prisons in the United States, 11.7 percent of inmates received the

highest or maximum-security designation (Camp and Camp 1998: 18-19) compared with the 4

percent in the private sector. Other aspects of the custody classification of inmates held by the

private prisons are less clear, especially the experiences of the private sector in holding what the

BOP classifies as an inmate with medium security needs. Most private prison operators accept the

inmate custody classification provided by the contracting jurisdiction. Most States use different

classification instruments than the BOP, even using different custody classes. The custody

classification reported here, that of minimum, low, medium, and maximum, is based on the BOP

classification system. However, most States use a three-level system, whereby inmates are

classified as minimum, medium, or maximum/close/high. At least some medium-security State

inmates would be classified as low security in the Federal system.
9

The varying definitions of medium-security were illustrated in a small study conducted by the

BOP that appeared in the report Private Prisons in the United States (McDonald, Fournier,

Russell-Einhorn and Crawford 1998: 27). In that study, the appropriate administrators at three

Louisiana prisons (Avoyelles, which is operated by the State, and Allen and Winn, which are

privately operated) reported that 80 percent of the inmates held in their prisons were mediumsecurity. Ten percent were identified as maximum-security, and ten percent were minimumsecurity. However, when a team of BOP staff assigned initial inmate classification status to a

sample of the inmates at these prisons using the BOP classification procedure, only 33 percent

classified as medium-security, 10 percent of the inmates as high-security, 29 percent as lowsecurity, and 28 percent as minimum-security. According to the BOP classification standards, only

half of the inmates that the State classified as medium or higher security risk actually were at the

higher security levels, e.g., 90 percent were identified as medium or maximum by the State of

Louisiana standards as opposed to 43 percent according to BOP standards.

We expect that there are probably many differences between jurisdictions in establishing the

security risks of their population. We emphasize the relevance of the BOP’s security classification

system in this context because the Congressional mandate of this study asked for a comparison of

privately-operated prisons and those operated by the BOP. The best evidence we currently have is

that privately-operated prisons are primarily holding inmates at levels commensurate to the

Bureau of Prisons minimum- and low-security levels, with a significantly smaller percentage of

inmates at the medium and high (maximum/close) levels.

Survey

The survey developed by the BOP’s ORE was distributed to officials designated by their

respective corrections headquarters as contract administrators for the private prisons identified in

the Abt census. As noted previously, a copy of the instrument appears in Appendix 3. Information

was received for 91 of the 103 contracts identified, a response rate of 88 percent. The most

systematic sources of missing data in this report came from the District of Columbia and Puerto

Rico. Three private facilities were identified as holding inmates for the District, and none of the

D.C. contract administrators responded to the survey in time for inclusion into this report. The

District has since responded to the survey, and the data are available for future analyses. None of

the administrators identified for the four private facilities holding Puerto Rican inmates responded

to the survey. The other missing information on contracts was less systematic. Information was
10

not obtained for one of the nine contracts for California inmates, two of the four contracts for

Montana inmates, and two of the twenty contracts for Texas inmates.

The survey was designed around three basic sections. The first, and longest section, asked for

information about the respective training standards in private and State prisons. In particular,

efforts were made to uncover what training standards were followed in the private prisons and

comparable public prisons, how the respective standards compared, and whether the private

sector was allowed to determine its own standards or was required to follow standards prescribed

by the contracting agency. 

The second section of the survey asked for basic information about custody standards at private

prisons. Information was obtained about the source of the custody standards (ACA standards,

public agency standards, some other source, or some combination of sources), whether the public

or private agency implemented the standards, which party to the contract monitored the standards

on a daily and periodic basis, and how security technology at private prisons compared to

comparable public prisons. 

The final section of the survey covered three major areas: general characteristics of the prison and

staff, information about the types of inmates housed at the prison, and data about the types of

inmate misconduct experienced at the prison. Many of the most controversial issues in the use of

private prisons pertain to staff issues. In one sense, corrections is a service industry dependent

upon the quality and training of its supervisors and line staff. While institution design and

technology may increase staff efficiency, these are not substitutes for the daily personal

interactions between staff and inmates. 

The hiring and training of supervisory and line staff is probably the single most important factor

distinguishing the daily operations of private and public sector prisons. Labor expenses represent

between 60 and 80 percent of the costs of operating a prison. Assuming private prisons can be run

more cheaply than their public sector counterparts (a claim that has been questioned, c.f.

McDonald, Fournier, Russell-Einhorn and Crawford 1998: Chapter 3), the savings will most likely

come from lower wages and/or benefits, fewer staff, or both. This point has been made by many

other analysts (mostly self-avowed critics) of the private corrections industry (for example, see

Mobley and Geis 2000; Schlosser 1998).
11

Private corrections entrepreneurs such as Doc Crants, one of the founders of CCA, have openly

stated that savings can be created by driving down correctional labor costs (Crants 1991). The

resulting research question is “What effect will lower labor costs have on the quality of the

correctional product?” A systematic answer to this question involves assessing labor costs,

evaluating the quality of supervisory and line staff, and finally, measuring the indicia of

correctional performance. While we did not collect data on labor costs in this study, we were able

to collect information on staff turnover and a few indicia of correctional performance such as

inmate escapes, drug usage hit rates, and homicides. 

We are not aware of any hard data that have been collected on staff turnover prior to this study.

Researchers, such as Mobley and Geis (2000), have made theoretical claims in their analysis

devoted to dissecting problems with the operation of CCA facilities. These authors claim that

“CCA no doubt expects very high rates of staff turnover, meaning that CCA prisons may be

perpetually manned by inexperienced crews” (Mobley and Geis 2000: 31).

While we are not aware of any study establishing the importance of tenured staff, most

correctional professionals will claim that well-trained and experienced line staff are the most

essential resource of a correctional agency. Staff must learn how to cope with an inmate

population composed of individuals who range from reluctant wards to openly hostile and

belligerent antagonists. Staff must act as role models, teachers, and mentors to prisoners. They

must be able to resist inmate attempts at sophisticated manipulation as well as bribes and other

illegal overtures. Staff must protect the larger inmate society from the recalcitrant core of inmates

that is still committed to crime. An experienced, well-trained workforce has been taught to handle

inmate interactions in a professional manner, while guarding against inmate impropriety. If staff

are turning over at a high rate, this makes it difficult to teach and reinforce the essential values

and skills necessary to deal with the inmate population. A naive workforce could pose a danger to

inmates, staff, and the public. It is important to realize that the more violent and the more

recalcitrant an inmate population is, the more dangerous a naive workforce becomes. In the

language of corrections, institutions composed of inmates with higher classification risk levels are

the most problematic when being run by poorly trained or naive staff.

The data reported here allowed us to compare key staffing characteristics at private prisons and

BOP prisons. There was no attempt to collect information on pay and benefits—generally it is

expected that the pay and benefits of individual line staff in the Federal sector surpass that in the

private sector. This is not to say that overall staffing costs in the Federal sector are necessarily
12

higher than those in the private sector. In a cost analysis of the first year of operations at TCI,

Nelson (1999) found that the BOP would have operated TCI for less money than WCC did,

assuming that the BOP staffed TCI the way they staffed comparable prisons. WCC employed

more staff than the BOP at comparable prisons. In a separate cost analysis, Nelson (1998)

demonstrated that in one jurisdiction, Tennessee, benefits paid to private prison administrators

were much greater than the benefits provided to either private sector line staff or public sector

workers. 

To address the staffing issue, the data collection focused on uses and stability of staff. In

particular, we examined staff-to-inmate ratios and separation rates, two measures that are

generally regarded to be important in assessing prison operations.

The results of the survey are presented by section, starting with the third section.

General Characteristics of Private Prisons

Inmate Gender. Of the 84 private prisons, covering 91 contracts, for which data were returned,

72 or 85.7 percent of the prisons housed male inmates exclusively, 8 or 9.5 percent females

exclusively, and 4 or 4.8 percent both males and females.

Institution Security. Table 3 presents information about the physical security of the 84

institutions—not to be confused with the security risks posed by the inmates. Table 3 also lists the

total number of sentenced adult inmates held there, the number of custody staff, and the number

of all staff. Ratios that show the number of custody staff per 100 inmates and all staff per 100

inmates are also presented. Ratios could not be computed for seven of the prisons because of

missing information. For convenience, the table is sorted alphabetically by the facility name. Low-,

medium-, and maximum (high)-security prisons operated by the Bureau of Prisons are presented

in the table as aggregates for purposes of comparison. For example, the BOP low-security prisons

held 38,054 inmates, using 3,539 custody staff and 8,442 total staff.

Staff-to-Inmate Ratios. If the institutions are ordered by the highest to the lowest custody staff to

inmate ratio, then the data appear as they do in Figure 1. The Bureau of Prisons aggregates are

represented and labeled “BOP Low,” “BOP Med.,” and “BOP Max.” These lines represent the

average custody staff per 100 inmates for BOP low-, medium-, and maximum-security prisons
9The BOP uses a different terminology. Rather than maximum, the BOP uses high security to refer to its

highest security prisoners.

10Exceptions to this rule are the low security level facilities operated for the BOP: Taft Correctional

Institution, Eden Detention Center, Eloy Detention Center, and Big Spring Correctional Facility. The inmates held

at these prisons are assigned to the institutions using the BOP inmate classification system.

11The 1998 Corrections Yearbook also reports inmate to staff ratios for correctional officers and total

institution staff. We converted those ratios to the number of staff per 100 inmates so it was compatible with our

report. In 1997, there were 17.9 correctional officers per 100 inmates and 32.3 total staff per 100 inmates

averaging across all jurisdictions. Since the data were not reported by security level, and higher security prisons

tend to have higher staffing levels, we did not compare the average State staffing ratios to those we computed for

the private sector.

13

respectively.9 It is apparent from Figure 1 that most private prisons used more custody staff per

100 inmates than did the average BOP low-security prisons (9.3 custody staff per 100 inmates).

Of the 77 private prisons for which a ratio could be computed, only two facilities used fewer

custody staff per inmate than BOP low-security prisons. That is, BOP low-security institutions

ranked third lowest in custody staff use. For these rankings, there were 80 total ranks as there are

the 77 private prisons and the three BOP composites for low, medium, and maximum security

prisons. The respective rankings for BOP medium-security prisons (14.4 custody staff per 100

inmates) and maximum-security prisons (19.9 custody staff per 100 inmates) were 24 and 58.

Most privately-operated prisons use much higher custody staffing levels than the typical BOP

low- and medium-security institutions. It is only when you compare privately-operated prisons to

the highest BOP security level that you find custody staffing levels, on average, lower than the

Bureau of Prisons. It is worth mentioning one more time, since it is easy to lose focus, that the

best evidence suggests that inmates in low-security level BOP facilities are more like inmates in

privately-operated medium-security level prisons rather than the minimum- or low-security level

prisons operated by the private sector.10

If the data in Table 3 are reordered by the ratio of all staff per 100 inmates, from highest to

lowest, then the data appear as they do in Figure 2. BOP low-security level prisons still, on

average, appear to use fewer overall staff than a considerable number of privately-operated

prisons. The BOP low-security level institutions rank 24th from the lowest total staffing level. The

BOP medium-security institutions rank 63rd, and the BOP maximum-security institutions rank 66th

out of the 80 institutions. Thus, the total staff-to-inmate ratios for most privately-operated prisons

fall somewhere in between the total staffing ratios of BOP low- and medium-security prisons11. 
12Job separations in the BOP include resignations and terminations as well as retirements. Although the

private sector separations may include retirements, it is likely that the numbers of retirements in the private sector

were fairly low.

14

Staff Separations. Summarized data for staff separations at the 84 private prisons are presented in

Table 4. It is important to clearly understand what is meant by separation rate. The separation rate

is the number of custody staff who either voluntarily or involuntarily left their jobs in the 6 months

prior to July 31, 1999 divided by the number of custody staff in place at the facility at the end of

July 1999. The separation rate provides an idea of the percentage of staff at the prison who had to

be trained in the past 6 months, although not all of those new staff were necessarily still on the

job. Given the way the separation rate was computed here, it was possible for the separation rate

to exceed 100 percent because more than one person could be hired into and vacate the same

custody slot at a prison.

Correctional officers in their first year of employment are far more likely to resign than more

experienced officers. Given the fact that newly activating prisons almost always have a higher

percentage of new staff than more established prisons, it follows that newly activating prisons

have higher separation rates, all other things being equal. Therefore, the separation data in Table 4

are divided into newly activating prisons, those that did not operate prior to January 1998, as

identified in the 1998 Corrections Yearbook, and those that had been in operation prior to January

of 1998.

The separation rates presented for the private prisons in Table 4 are high in comparison to the

rates observed at the BOP during the same time period. In the period between February and July

1999, the BOP experienced 211 job separations among custody staff working at secure prisons.12

Given that there were 10,380 custody staff, the BOP had a separation rate of 4.4 percent for the 6

month period ending in July 1999. As can be seen in Table 4, only 3 private prisons, or 4.5

percent of the total, had separation rates that were anywhere near the overall BOP rate.

Therefore, 95 percent of the private prisons replaced and trained new staff at much higher rates

than the more stable BOP prisons, and this difference between the private sector and the BOP

existed both for new prisons that were activating during this period and “older” private prisons.

None of the BOP prisons had a separation rate among custody staff that was greater than 9

percent for this period. Of the private sector activating institutions, almost half had separation

rates that exceeded 50 percent of their staff. Even among private institutions that had been

established, 22.5 percent had separation rates that exceeded 50 percent in a 6 month period.
13As the data for this table are based upon contract administrator opinions, there are multiple responses for

the facilities that hold inmates from more than one jurisdiction. It is interesting to note that, with one exception,

the administrators from different jurisdictions who housed inmates in the same facilities were in agreement in their

evaluations of staff shortages created by custody staff separations.

15

Staff turnover for State jurisdictions is also reported in the 1998 Corrections Yearbook. The

average percentage turnover of correctional officers for all reporting States was 14.9 percent for

the entire year. To adjust this percentage to be comparable with the six-month period used in our

survey, we assume that turnover is constant throughout the year. Then approximately 7.5 percent

of correctional officers, on average, separate from the State corrections agencies in a six-month

period. It is not clear whether the separation rates reported for correctional officers in the 1998

Corrections Yearbook include retirements. The table which follows the correctional officer table

depicts staff separations for all staff. Those separations do include retirements and the overall

percentage for all State jurisdictions is 15.4 percent for the entire year. Thus, we assume the

separation percentage for all staff in a six-month period was 7.7 percent. These separation

percentages, whether for correctional officers or all staff, are lower than most of the private

prison separation percentages noted in Table 4.

Additional information about the separations of custody staff at the private prisons was solicited.

In particular, the contract administrators were asked whether custody staff separations created

shortages among custody staff at the respective prisons, whether the private facility had difficulty

in filling vacant positions, and how the turnover of custody staff compared to turnover in a

comparable public institution. 

As can be seen from Table 5, almost 64 percent of the contract administrators who responded to

this question claimed that the separations of custody staff created shortages at the private prisons.

This was most true for institutions that were newly activating. For these facilities, 73.2 percent of

the contract administrators for these facilities noted that separations of custody staff created

shortages. The problem was less severe at facilities that had been operating for a length of time.13

The data for how the separations of custody staff at private prisons correspond to comparable

public prisons are presented in Table 6. One of the first things to notice about this table is the

relatively high number of cases for which a comparison was not made by the respondents. Twenty

six respondents failed to answer this question, which is almost 29 percent of the respondents who

returned surveys. Of these missing cases, 6 of the contract administrators claimed that there were

no comparable public prisons within their agencies with which to compare the private prison. This
16

problem with missing data also was encountered for three other survey questions that asked the

contract administrators to compare the private prison to a comparable public prison. The results

presented later in the report for comparison of escape, homicide, and assault rates had about the

same number of missing observations. The missing data problem may indicate that the reason

there were no comparable public institutions in a jurisdiction was that the private sector was filling

a niche in the supply of facilities needed by the public sector. Thus, pre-release prisons, facilities

for women, or other specialized institutions may compose a significant portion of the private

sector market.

For those contract administrators who did complete the question, 47.7 percent of the total number

of respondents claimed that the separation rate of custody staff at the private prisons was higher

than the rate at a comparable public prison. There was slight differentiation by the activation

status of the prisons, as 42.9 percent of the respondents who answered for an operating private

prison claimed the private prison had a higher separation rate, as compared to 53.3 percent of the

respondents at newly activating prisons. What is most striking about the data in Table 6 is the low

number of respondents who claimed that the separation rate was lower at the private prison.

Overall, only 6.2 percent of the respondents provided this response. 

Given the custody staff shortages noted previously, the responses to the question about the

difficulty of filling staff positions were somewhat incongruent. Overall, 62.9 percent of the

respondents claimed that the institutions they oversaw had no difficulties in filling staff positions

(see Table 7). There was some difference between new institutions and old. A higher percentage

of administrators who oversaw newly activating institutions than older private prisons (42.9

percent versus 27.7 percent) claimed that the institution had some difficulty in filling staff

positions. Even though this question did not specifically focus on custody staff, it is difficult to

reconcile why custody staff separations should have led to custody staff shortages if there were no

problems in filling staff positions. What this could mean is that although turnover created staff

shortages, contract administrators thought that the private sector could always find candidates to

refill these positions. Thus, while turnover was problematic, there was an ample labor supply.

Drug Misconduct. One of the most reliable indicators of prison operations is the rate at which

inmates test positive for the use of drugs and alcohol. If substance use is prevalent, it indicates a

pattern of poor security practices within an institution. Random drug testing provides a snapshot

of the extent of a banned activity in the general population. For other types of prison misconduct,

the data include typically only those behaviors known or recognized by the prison administration,
14Twenty-seven contract administrators failed to respond to this question.

17

and what is “known” is subject to many types of influence including the seriousness of the offense

(most prison homicides are presumably known, where this is not as likely for less serious offenses)

and the efficacy of prison control measures. For example, to compare the extent of drug

misconduct at two prisons based on the rate at which inmates are convicted of drug offenses at

the respective prisons, it is necessary to assume that drug misconduct is both uncovered and

adjudicated with equal likelihood at both prisons, since it is extremely unlikely that all misconduct

is known or successfully prosecuted. When comparing rates of positive results for random drug

tests at different prisons, no assumptions about whether misconduct is discovered or adjudicated

at similar rates across jurisdictions are necessary.

Of the 91 contracts for which information was provided, 74 required that the private sector

vendor conduct random urinalysis tests of the inmates. For the 17 contracts where random drug

testing was not required under the contract, 7 were with vendors who performed random drug

tests anyway. This meant that for 84 of the 91 contracts, random drug testing was conducted on

the inmates covered.

The data in Table 8 demonstrate that many of the private prisons for which respondents provided

assessments of drug tests results for the most recent month for which data were available had

favorable results.14 In the BOP, low-security prisons, on average, had a positive finding for

random drug tests of 0.6 percent in July of 1999. For medium- and high-security level prisons, the

respective rates in the BOP were 1.0 percent and 2.7 percent for this time period. 

In private prisons, 34 percent of the respondents indicated that the respective prison had hit rates

for banned substances of 0 percent. About 40 percent of private prisons had positive hit rates of 3

percent or above, and almost 20 percent of the private prisons had rates at or above 10 percent.

During July of 1999, 42 of the 68 BOP secure prisons in operation, or 61.8 percent, reported a

random UA positive result rate of 0 percent. Another 8.8 percent of BOP institutions (6) had a

positive result rate of 1 percent, while 13.2 percent of the institutions (9) had a 2 percent rate, and

16.2 percent of the institutions (11) reported a positive rate greater than or equal to 3 percent.

One BOP institution had a hit rate of 11 percent, but no other institutions had a positive rate for

random drug tests greater than 6 percent. 
18

If attention is restricted to BOP secure institutions with a security rating of low and medium (the

BOP security levels most comparable to the majority of private prisons), the rates at which drugs

were detected were even lower. Sixty-six percent of the 57 BOP low- and medium-security

institutions (38) had a positive detection rate of 0 percent. A positive rate of 1 percent was

observed in 7 percent of the institutions. A rate of 2 percent was observed in 14 percent of the

institutions. And a rate of 3 percent or greater was observed in 12 percent of the prisons. A

positive rate of 6 percent was the largest rate observed for low- and medium-security BOP

prisons during this month.

Respondents also were asked about practices at public prisons in their own prison system.

Seventy-nine of the 91 respondents answered that their agency conducted random drug tests in

comparable public prisons, 7 reported that drug tests were not conducted, and responses were

missing in 5 cases. The respondents also were asked about the hit rates for unauthorized

substances at a comparable public prison, but only 29 (32 percent) of the respondents provided

useable data. Since most of the data for this item were missing, it would be misleading to try and

analyze the responses to this question.

Escapes and Homicides. Escapes from secure prisons and homicides are uncommon but

extremely critical. However, fluctuation in escape and homicide rates may be deceiving. Take, for

example, the following hypothetical headline: “Homicide rate in local prison increases by 100

percent.” Such a headline is certain to capture the attention of readers. However, a 100 percent

increase would be produced by a change of 1 unit, from 1 murder per year to 2. Imagine how this

compares to another hypothetical headline: “Budget in local prison increases by 100 percent.”

Clearly, this latter 100 percent increase would not have been created by an increase of one dollar.

The reason for this rather pedantic point is that it is important to frame the context of the critical

nature of escapes and homicides when comparing numbers. Both for substantive and

methodological reasons, the numbers for escapes and homicides should be treated for what they

are: rare events, but escape data are sometimes treated as reflecting more common events and

thus subject to standard statistical treatment. Dr. William Archambeault, for example, compared

two private prisons and one public prison in Louisiana (Archambeault and Deis 1996). He found

that one of the private prisons experienced three escapes, the second private prison experienced

five escapes, and the public prison had no escapes. These escapes occurred over a period of 3 to 4

years. He performed a standard analysis of variance statistical test on these data and concluded

that there were no significant differences between the three prisons in terms of escapes. This
19

conclusion is only as sound as the appropriateness of the test, and there are good reasons not to

perform a statistical test in this case. Substantively, something differed in the practices between

the three prisons whereby inmates were able to escape from two of the prisons on multiple

occasions, but not the third.

The data in Table 9 demonstrate that the anecdotal evidence on escapes culled from newspaper

accounts agreed with the data collected in this survey, even though the 12-month time spans

overlap only for the first seven months of 1999. The anecdotal evidence covered January to

December 1999, while the data collected in the survey covered August 1, 1998 to July 31, 1999.

Where the media reports for 1999 revealed 18 inmate escapes from inside of secure prisons, a

simple tabulation of the data presented in Table 9 shows that there were a total of 23 escapes. All

of the escapes were from male prisons. The data also show that most of the prisons, 85 percent of

all private prisons, had no escapes during this time period.

Earlier, it was reported that the BOP had one escape from one facility during the 1999 calendar

year. This escape occurred within the time frame covered by the survey. There were 68 secure

Federal prisons in operation at the beginning of calendar year 1999. This means that 98.5 percent

of BOP secure prisons experienced no inside escape in 1999.

Data on homicides are presented in Table 10. As can be seen there, homicides occurred in only 3

of the male private institutions during the 12 months prior to and including July 1999. Homicide

data were reported for 80 of the 84 private prisons. The institutions for which homicide data were

available covered 63,124 inmates. There were 5 homicides reported at these facilities. The BOP

had seven inmate homicides at six different prisons. Stated differently, homicides occurred in 3.8

percent of the private prisons and 7.5 percent of the BOP prisons.

Another way to present homicide data is to calculate a rate per 5,000 inmates. In the BOP, there

were 80,800 inmates in secure prisons during July of 1999, and there were 7 inmate homicides.

That means that there were 0.433 homicides for every 5,000 inmates. In the private sector with

data covering 63,124 inmates and 5 homicides, the corresponding rate per 5,000 inmates was

0.396. The rates in the BOP and private prisons were close to one another. The slightly higher

BOP rate may well be related to the fact that the BOP confines significantly more high-security

inmates. In fact, only 3 of the 7 homicides occurred at a low- or a medium-security prison during

this 12 month period. Since there were 68,541 inmates in these facilities, the corresponding
20

homicide rate per 5,000 inmates was 0.219, a figure lower than that observed for the private

prisons.

Assaults. Cross-jurisdictional comparisons of assaults are difficult to make. Jurisdictions use

different reporting conventions and different definitions to distinguish simple and aggravated

assaults. Throwing a fluid on a correctional officer is a serious assault in some jurisdictions but

not others.

The data for serious assaults in the 12 months prior to and including July 1999 are presented in

Table 11. Thirty-eight of the 75 private prisons, or slightly over half, reported that at least one

serious assault had occurred over the course of 12 months. In all, there were 346 serious assaults

reported at private prisons. Computed as a rate, since there were 63,124 inmates for whom

assaults were reported, the rate of assaults was 27.4 per 5,000 inmates in the private prisons. In

the BOP for this time period, there were 267 assaults by inmates on another inmate where a

weapon was used. There were an additional 730 assaults of an inmate by an inmate where a

weapon was not used. Again, many of the assaults occurred at high-security BOP prisons. When

high-security prisons are excluded, there were 143 assaults on another inmate with a weapon and

548 assaults where a weapon was not used.

There is no direct correspondence between the survey question on serious assaults and the data

the BOP collects on inmate assaults. The private sector serious assault rate of 27.4 per 5,000

inmates is higher than the BOP assault rate when only assaults involving a weapon are chosen.

This is true whether the comparison is based on all secure BOP prisons (rate of 16.5 assaults per

5,000) or whether the comparison is based on low and medium security BOP institutions (rate of

10.4 assaults per 5,000). If, on the other hand, serious assaults encompass every assault, with or

without a weapon, then the BOP rate is higher than the private sector, whether based on all secure

BOP prisons (rate of 45.2 assaults per 5,000) or only low and medium security prisons (rate of

40.0 assaults per 5,000). Whether or not the private sector’s serious assault rate was higher or

lower than the BOP’s serious assault rate is ambiguous. The choice is left to the reader.

Victim Injury. To provide context to the Bureau of Prisons data, information about injury to the

victim is collected on serious assaults. In a recent study conducted by the Office of Research

(Gaes and Karacki 2000), it was found that most “serious violent incidents” do not result in injury

to the victim. When a staff member was a victim, 93 percent of the time there was no injury. Even

among inmate victims, almost half of all serious violent behavior had no associated injury. 
21

Comparison of Misconduct. The contract administrators who completed the surveys were asked

to compare the escape, homicide, and assault rates that they reported for the private prison they

oversaw with rates at a comparable public prison operated by their agency. These responses are

summarized in Tables 12, 13, and 14. As discussed previously, there were relatively large numbers

of missing responses for each of these tables, about a third of the responses in each table. For the

respondents who did provide an evaluation, their responses demonstrated that the escape,

homicide, and assault rates at private prisons compared very favorably to the respective public

prisons. For all three types of misconduct, at least 60 percent of the valid responses indicated that

the private prison misconduct rates were the same as the public prison rates. Another 30 percent

of the respondents noted that the private prison misconduct rates were lower than the comparable

public prisons, and very few respondents answered that the private prisons rates were higher than

the public prisons for any of the three types of misconduct.

Security Threat Groups. The contract administrators were asked about intelligence activities

relating to gang members and other members of security threat groups. As can be seen in Table

15, most of the administrators, 85.7 percent, reported that the agencies they worked for tracked

this information with an intelligence system. Of those States with intelligence systems, almost all

of them shared this information with the private contractors (91.7 percent) and obtained input into

the intelligence data from the private contractors (91.7 percent). 

Visiting Policies. The contract administrators were surveyed about the visiting policies in place at

the private prisons. They were asked to evaluate the policies at the private prison in comparison

to similar public prisons within their own agencies. As can be seen from Table 16, most of the

administrators (89.9 percent) claimed that the visiting policies at the private prisons were the same

as those at comparable public facilities. Only a small percentage of respondents said that the

visiting policies at the private facility were more lenient (4.5 percent) or more stringent (5.6

percent) than the public sector visiting policies.

Inmate Placement. Table 17 presents information on the restrictions, if any, placed on the types of

inmates sent to the private prisons under the terms of the 88 contracts for which data were

available for this question. For 33 of the contracts (or 37.5 percent), there were no restrictions on

the types of inmates that were sent to the affected private prison. Restrictions were in effect for

62.5 percent of the contracts. The most common restriction was for inmates with special medical

needs. Such inmates were not sent under the terms of 50 percent of the contracts. The next most
22

common restriction was for the “other” category (39.7 percent of the contracts), followed by

restrictions on high publicity inmates (22.7 percent) and gang members (14.7 percent).

Summary of General Characteristics Section

There were differences between the BOP and private sector prisons on several of the measures

examined in this section. The BOP reported lower ratios of custody staff to inmates than most of

the private prisons; however, the BOP used comparable staffing ratios for total staff to inmates. It

would seem that the comparable ratios of total staff to inmates resulted from greater use of staff

such as case management and program staff, although this issue was not examined directly in the

survey.

The BOP also had a more stable workforce. The separation rates for custody staff at most private

prisons were much higher than the corresponding rates for BOP prisons. The State contract

administrators surveyed also noted that the separation rates at the private prisons were higher

than the corresponding rates at comparable public prisons operated by their respective agencies. 

Regarding inmate misconduct, urinalysis hit rates were lower in BOP prisons than in many of the

private prisons, although quite a few of the private prisons were doing very well on this measure.

The BOP also had substantially fewer escapes than private prisons taken as a whole. The

homicides rates for all BOP prisons and all private sector prisons were very similar. However, it is

worth remembering that secure BOP institutions had a higher percentage of high- and maximumsecurity prisoners, and probably medium-security prisoners as well. Due to the incompatibility in

the survey question and the BOP data, it was not possible to compare assault rates effectively.

The contract administrators, for the most part, rated inmate misconduct in private prisons as being

comparable to rates of misconduct in their own public prisons.

Training Standards and Policy

In this section and in the next section on custody standards, we represent much of the data by

jurisdiction. It simply made more sense to represent the survey results by jurisdiction because of

the way the questions were asked. For example, at the time of the survey, the Oklahoma

Department of Corrections had six contracts, four with Corrections Corporation of America, and

one each with Wackenhut Corrections Corporation and McLoud Correctional Services. Question
23

1 asked about preemployment requirements for staff at the contract institutions and question 2

asked about the same preemployment requirements for staff at the public agency. Although there

could be six different responses for the different Oklahoma contracts, one might expect one

consistent response for the preemployment requirements for public employees of the Oklahoma

Department of Corrections. While there is a great deal of consistency in the responses associated

with questions about the public agencies, there are occasions when there were different responses

for a particular jurisdiction. There are logical reasons why this may have happened. Perhaps there

were different requirements for different kinds of institutions within a jurisdiction and the

respondent was making a logical comparison between the particular contract he or she was

evaluating and a similar public institution. If more than one person filled out this survey within a

jurisdiction, there also could have been differences in interpretation. These differences do not

seem to affect the substantive interpretation of the results of this survey. But rather than impose

our own interpretation on the responses, we present the results as they occurred, showing the

variation of responses within a jurisdiction.

Employment Requirements. We review the responses question by question and then draw general

conclusions at the end of the section. The first two questions, as already mentioned, refer to the

employment requirements imposed upon employees working for privately-operated prisons and

requirements for the public agency employees. As can be seen in Table 18, jurisdictions imposed a

number of different employment requirements for both privately contracted and publiclyemployed staff. In Table 19, these data are represented by jurisdiction. In each cell of the table,

the number to the left of the slash (“ / ”) represents the response for each of the contracts within a

jurisdiction. The number to the right of the slash represents the response associated with the

public agency of that jurisdiction. For example, looking at the Arizona row, one can see that the

State required an employee working for private contractors to have an NCIC check, local police

check, drug test, physical exam, a background interview, background investigation, and

psychological test. These same requirements were imposed upon the public sector employees as

well.

The last column in Table 19 compares the responses provided for the public and private sectors.

For the most part, requirements were the same for the private and public sector employees. There

was much more variation between jurisdictions than there was between the private and public

sectors within a jurisdiction. The only jurisdiction where the requirements were dramatically

different was Minnesota.
24

Use of Force. Table 20 represents the responses to question 3, which asked whether staff at the

privately-operated prisons had legal authority to use lethal and nonlethal force. With some

exceptions, staff at the privately-operated prisons were generally allowed to use deadly force,

pursue an escaping inmate off prison property, carry a weapon on escorted trips, and search

visitors. Carrying a weapon while at work was the least likely action to be authorized. The

jurisdictional breakdown (Table 21) shows that the pattern noted in Table 20 was particularly true

in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, and Texas. As Table 22 indicates, 82

percent of the responses indicated that staff at the privately-operated prisons had access to

firearms.

Initial Firearms Training. Questions 5 through 9 posed a series a questions about the kinds of

training custody staff received. Question 5 asked a series of questions about initial firearms

training. Of the 91 contracts represented in responses to this survey, 77 respondents (85 percent)

indicated that the staff at the private facilities had initial firearms training (Table 23). Of the 77

responding “yes” to initial firearms training, 64 (83 percent) indicated that this was a contract

requirement (Table 24). Thus, of 91 contracts, only 64 (70 percent) had requirements for initial

firearms training. A higher percentage of the respondents indicated that the public agencies

represented in these surveys, 28 different jurisdictions, were more likely to require initial firearms

training. Table 25 shows that 82 of the 91 responses (91 percent) indicated that firearms training

was a requirement for staff at the public agencies. This included 7 jurisdictions that either

indicated the question was not applicable or where the responses were missing. 

When one examines the responses to this question by jurisdiction (Table 26), every jurisdiction

had respondents indicating public employees had to receive initial firearms training. Several

jurisdictions, such as Texas, which had multiple contracts with private prisons, had a small

number of responses where the information was missing. Furthermore, a few Texas respondents,

and nobody else, indicated that public employees did not have to receive initial firearms training;

however, of the 18 Texas responses, 14 indicated public employees were required to have initial

firearms training. The Texas responses may indicate that some contract facilities have such low

custody requirements that weapons were not necessary, and there may have been no comparable

or applicable public agency facility.

Respondents to the survey were asked to compare the standards used by the public and private

agencies for initial firearms training. While there were 77 contracts that involved initial firearms

training, there were 72 responses to this question (Table 27). Those responding indicated that the
25

standards were the same in 53 cases (73 percent)—either because the contract required public

standards or because the vendor chose to adopt public standards. Most of the time, staff at the

privately-operated prisons provided the firearms training. The second most common method was

for public staff to provide the training at a public training facility (Table 28). Some jurisdictions

with more than one contract have adopted a uniform way in handling firearms training (Table 29).

For example, the BOP, Mississippi, and New Mexico had uniform policies regarding initial

firearms training. The BOP and Mississippi allowed the private vendor to do the training, while

New Mexico used public agency trainers. The corrections departments in Texas and Oklahoma

allowed the training to be conducted by either the private or public sector. Most jurisdictions

indicated that private and public sector employees had to have the same number of hours of

training (see Table 30).

Initial Training for Custody Staff. Questions 6, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, and 6e asked for the same series of

responses on initial training for custody staff. Every jurisdiction except one indicated that custody

staff at the private facilities were required to undergo training before or soon after their

employment (Table 31). Of the 90 contracts for which custody training was required, 86 (96

percent) had this requirement built into the contract (Table 32). Of the responses to the question

on whether the public agency also required initial custody training, two responses were either

missing or inapplicable. When we looked at the jurisdictional responses, every jurisdiction

indicated that initial training for custody staff was a requirement (data available upon request, see

summary in Table 33). Participants were then asked whether the standards for initial training for

custody practices were the same as or different from requirements for public sector employees.

The responses indicated that the standards were the same because of contract requirements (Table

34). The second most frequently used category was “other.” The exact responses are listed below

Table 34 in Note 1. For the most part, these responses either indicated the standards were difficult

to compare or the respondent gave a qualification to his or her response that the standards were

similar.

Question 6d asked who was responsible for providing initial custody training. The private

contractor’s staff were most likely to provide the training, followed by public sector staff (Table

35). We also analyzed this question by jurisdiction (Table 36). Jurisdictions that used the private

contractor to conduct training also used alternative training techniques. For example, Texas used

the public agency training facilities and the private sector’s personnel to train custody staff.
26

Table 37 represents the hours of initial custody training required by both the public agencies and

their contractors. For the most part, the side-by-side comparisons indicated that the public and

private sector employees were involved in roughly the same number of hours of training within

jurisdictions. There was much greater variation between jurisdictions than there was between the

public and private sectors within a jurisdiction. In some cases, jurisdictions required less than 50

hours, while others required more than 500 hours.

Firearms Refresher Training. Questions 7, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, and 7e focus on requirements for

firearms refresher training, which ensures that staff maintain their firearms skills. Most private

facilities required firearms refresher training (Table 38), and among those that did, this was

primarily a contract requirement (Table 39). The public agencies were only slightly more likely to

require firearms refresher training (see Table 40). Every jurisdiction responding to this survey

indicated that they required firearms training in the public sector; however, there were a few

jurisdictions in which there was some inconsistency noted in the responses. Although the majority

of respondents indicated firearms refresher training was required by the public agency, one or a

few respondents indicated that the public sector did not require it or the question was inapplicable

(data are available from the authors but is not presented in the tables). Respondents to this

questionnaire may have been using a public agency comparison standard that included non-secure

facilities that do not require perimeter security or firearms training.

The great majority of respondents (78 percent) indicated that periodic firearms refresher training

standards for private prisons were the same as the requirements for public institutions (Table 41).

Once again, the private sector assumed the primary responsibility for this kind of refresher training

(Table 42 and Table 43), while the public sector was the second most likely source of periodic

firearms refresher training. Most agencies and their contractors required 8 hours of periodic

firearms refresher training (Table 44), and there was very little difference between the public and

private sector.

Refresher Custody Standards Training. Questions 8, 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, and 8e refer to periodic

refresher training for custody standards. Periodic refresher training is important not only to

maintain the skills of staff but to inform them of changes to policy and introduce new techniques.

Every respondent except one (who didn’t know), indicated that the private contractors under their

jurisdiction required periodic refresher training for custody standards (Table 45). This was a

contract requirement 93 percent of the time (Table 46). Most of the respondents also indicated

that the public agencies also required periodic refresher training for custody practices (Table 47).
27

When these data were analyzed by jurisdiction, every jurisdiction indicated that the public agency

required periodic refresher training for custody practices; however, as was the case with the

firearms training, a few respondents indicated that the question was not applicable or that the

periodic training was not required by the public agency (data available from the authors and not

reported in the tables). Once again the respondents may have been making specific comparisons to

public facilities that were atypical of the majority of the institutions run by the public agency. The

standards for this kind of training were primarily those issued by the public agencies or those

public agency standards adopted by the contractor (Table 48). The private contractor’s staff were,

by far, the most likely to provide the custody practice refresher training (Table 49). In some

jurisdictions, multiple sources were used to accomplish the refresher training (Table 50). Most

jurisdictions required 40 hours of periodic refresher training on custody practices, whether it was

for the private or public sector employees (Table 51).

Specialty Training on Inmate Gangs. The last question in the training section of this survey asked

about specialty training regarding inmate gangs. Of course, this kind of training was most

appropriate in higher-security facilities, where gangs pose a much greater problem. About 59

percent of the contracts involved privately-operated institutions, where there was training for

managing inmate gangs (Table 52). When this kind of training occurred, it was only a contractual

requirement half of the time (Table 53). Of the contract-by-contract responses, only 55 percent

indicated that the public agency required gang management training (Table 54). The jurisdictional

data indicated that 9 of the 28 (32 percent) responding agencies did not require gang management

training (data by jurisdiction are available from the authors). Since private sector inmates still

tended to be lower-security prisoners, it is not surprising that gang management training was not

required for a large number of the contracts. The standards for gang management training were

most likely to be the public sector standards (Table 55), and the training was done primarily by

the staff at the privately-operated facilities (Table 56), although in some jurisdictions, training was

done by multiple sources (Table 57). Gang management training was typically 40 hours,

regardless of whether it was conducted by the private or public sector (Table 58).

Summary of Training Section

For employment requirements, public agencies were somewhat more likely than private

companies to require initial firearms, firearms refresher, and gang management training, while

initial and periodic custody practices training seemed to be required at about the same levels. The
28

small difference in training standards may be attributable to the fact that the contract prison

population represents, on average, lower security and custody level inmates. 

The standards used by the public and private agencies for the various kinds of training were more

likely to be the same, whether it was because the contract between the public agency and the

contractor mandated the same standards, or whether it was because the contractor adopted the

public standards.

Training at the privately-operated prisons was primarily the responsibility of the private sector

employees, although the public sector also did a significant amount of the training. The number of

training hours was almost identical between the public agency employees and the staff at the

privately-operated institutions. 

The larger picture that emerged from this data is that private contractors were typically obligated

to use the training standards and practices of the public agencies. There was much more variation

from jurisdiction to jurisdiction than there was between the publicly- and privately-operated

institutions within a jurisdiction. 

Custody Standards and Policy

A section of the survey addressed policies governing custody standards. The first question asked

about the standards used to govern custody practices at the private facilities. Not surprisingly, the

private facilities were using combinations of American Correctional Association (ACA) standards

and public agency standards (Table 59). When the responses are represented by jurisdiction

(Table 60), it is clear that most jurisdictions used combinations of standards produced by ACA,

the public agency, and other relevant jurisdictional standards.

The second question asked how custody policy was established. Table 61 depicts the responses to

this question. Custody policy was primarily developed by the private vendor, but it had to meet

standards set by the agency (42 percent). In 23 percent of the contracts, the private operators had

to adopt the public agency policy in its entirety, adopt the public agency policy with small

allowances for change (18 percent), or adopt some portions with the private contractor

developing the rest (15 percent). Thus, the private vendors were heavily influenced by the public

agency custody policy.
29

Many jurisdictions used various combinations of policy development requirements, especially

those with many different contracts (Table 62). California was an exception. All 8 of the

California contracts required the private vendor to adopt the public agency policy (with some

small allowances for change).

Contract monitoring is, of course, an important aspect of quality assurance, both for the private

and public agencies. Table 63 represents the answers to the question about who was responsible

for routine monitoring of actual custody practices to determine if standards were being followed.

The most common response, by far, was that both the public agency and private contractor were

responsible for monitoring (68 percent). Only 6 percent of the respondents indicated that only the

private agency was responsible, and the remaining 23 percent indicated that the pubic agency had

exclusive responsibility. 

Question 4 in this section asked who was responsible for intensive, formal reviews to insure that

the ongoing monitoring of custody practices was functioning properly. This question was used to

distinguish routine monitoring from intensive audits of custody policy and practices. Table 65

presents the summary of responses. It was equally likely that either the public agency exclusively,

or the public and private agency in concert, performed the intensive formal reviews. Both

represented 46 percent of the responses. Only 6 percent of the respondents indicated that the

private vendor was solely responsible for the intensive formal reviews. When this question is

represented by jurisdiction (Table 66), it is clear that some jurisdictions preferred to have public

employees perform intensive formal reviews, while others used both public and private staff to do

the reviews.

One claim made by advocates of privatization is that the private sector capitalizes on technology

more than the public sector. The last question in this section asked the respondents to compare

the level of security technology used at the contract facility and the most comparable public

institution. The responses appear in Table 67. In most cases, the security technology was rated to

be equivalent between the public and private facilities (70 percent). If there was a difference, it

favored the private sector, where 19 percent of the respondents answered that the private

institution had more advanced technology. Only 6 percent of the responses indicated that the

private-sector technology was inferior. Since many of the private facilities were newer than most

public facilities, the advantage the private sector held may be due to the fact that newer facilities

tend to have more security technology built into them.
30

Summary of Custody Section

The responses to this section of the survey showed that the private sector’s standards and policies

were typically a reflection of the jurisdiction governing the contract. The public sector maintained

responsibility for routine and intensive formal reviews of custody practices but often did these

reviews in conjunction with the private sector. The training and custody sections of the survey

demonstrate (not surprisingly) that the training and custody policies and standards of the

privately-operated prisons were a reflection of the same standards and policies of the public

jurisdiction responsible for those contracts. 

Verification of Inmate Classification

One of the criticisms of CCA noted in the Clark report was that there was no attempt by the

company to verify the security/custody status of the inmates they were receiving from the District

of Columbia. According to the contract, CCA was only supposed to house medium or highmedium security prisoners. In fact, the Clark report noted that “Until recently, NOCC never

developed a capacity for inmate classification and screening.” (Clark 1998:Executive Summary,

Page 1). Classification procedures have become so fundamental to the orderly running of most

correctional systems that they could be considered a prerequisite for a system to work well. 

To assess whether the NOCC experience was an anomaly or a common practice among private

correctional agencies, questions were developed to find out what, if any, procedures were used by

private vendors to verify the security/custody status of the inmates they received from different

State jurisdictions. An analyst at Abt Associates made telephone calls to the contract

administrators and, when directed, made further calls to knowledgeable people who could answer

the questions. Table 68 lists the responses to the primary question: Do administrators at this

facility have a method of determining (or verifying) the security level of inmates they receive? Of

the 92 responses to this question (11 missing responses), 75 (81.5 percent) indicated that the

private vendor used procedures to verify the security level of inmates sent to their institution.

Table 68 also lists answers to the follow up question that asked the respondents to explain their

answer. As can be seen in Table 68, the most common response was that the State determined the

security level of the inmate, typically using a State-developed classification tool. It was the

responsibility of the private vendor to verify the status of that inmate by checking the

classification level once the institution received inmates and their documentation. The private
31

vendor used the State classification tool to verify the inmate’s status. In some cases, the State

took complete responsibility for security assignment and verification.

Thus, contrary to the NOCC experience, it seems that private vendors are using procedures to

verify the security status of the inmates assigned to their facilities. These findings also confirm a

broader theme in these data. Private vendors must develop expertise consistent with the

jurisdiction with which they contract. 

Concluding Remarks

The private prison industry experienced phenomenal growth from its founding in the 1980s until

the present. While there have been changes in the types of inmates held in private prisons, most of

the experiences of the private sector has been with lower risk inmates. The relative growth in the

private sector (that is, the increase in prisoners in comparison to the numbers previously held) will

probably not be as dramatic in the future as it has been in previous years. In fact, there is some

evidence that the growth in the U.S. prison population is slowing down. Nonetheless, there is

every reason to believe that growth in absolute numbers of inmates held in private prisons will

continue to expand, necessitating increased hiring and training of private prison staff. Many of the

factors driving the growth of the U.S. prison population—increased arrests and prosecutions,

mandatory minimum sentences, determinate sentencing/elimination of parole, less use of

probation—are the same factors that necessitate that a jurisdiction add prison capacity and

contract for some of those beds.

From the survey results presented here, there do appear to be some systemic problems that the

private sector must address. Particularly regarding staffing, the rapid turnover of staff perpetuates

the situation in which private prisons are operated by inexperienced staff. Experienced staff are

essential in operating safe and secure prisons. The large numbers of escapes from private sector

prisons, in comparison to the BOP, may be related to this phenomenon. As anecdotally reported

here and more systematically in the Clark and Austin et al. reports, staff inexperience was evident

in the Youngstown situation, the New Mexico problems, the Colorado group disturbance, and the

Taft Correctional Institution incidents.

Another area that needs more probing is the staffing patterns at public and private prisons. The

custody staff-to-inmate ratio is generally higher at private prisons than in the BOP, suggesting the

private sector is more invested in staffing patterns that emphasize security. The total staff-to-
32

inmate ratio of most private facilities lies somewhere between the staffing levels of the Bureau of

Prisons low- and medium-security prisons. Thus, our best evidence is that the private sector’s

overall staffing levels are comparable to the BOP; however, since their custody staffing levels are

higher, they probably use fewer program and case management workers. This suggests that there

may be fundamental differences in how the private sector approaches corrections.

The impetus for the use of private prisons in the United States was the promise of lower costs and

the need for additional capacity. In Australia and the United Kingdom, the motivation to privatize

was driven by these factors but was also propelled by prison reforms (see, for example, Harding

1997; Vagg 1994). In fact, Harding (2000) and others have proposed that private prisons are

places for experimentation, a test-bed for new approaches to programming, management, and

staffing. The competition that arises from the contrasting approaches between the public and

private sectors, according to this proposition, will promote innovation and cross-fertilization of

ideas and practices. While this proposition appears plausible, there are factors that limit these

possibilities.

Because of the inherent risk of corrections, private companies and State agencies that have

oversight obligations are unlikely to wander very far from standards and requirements that have

already been established in each jurisdiction. The survey results on training and custody standards

and requirements show that the private sector, even when not contractually obligated, has

adopted the standards and policies of their public sector counterparts. A different constraint upon

private operators involves jurisdictional requirements that cost savings must be demonstrated.

These requirements reduce the opportunities for innovation, especially in the private sector’s

flexibility to experiment with the management of human resources, the most costly part of prison

operations. One of the few alternatives the private sector has to save money and make a profit is

to suppress labor costs through direct measures such as restructuring pay and benefits. But,

reducing pay and benefits may result in high separation rates among staff.

The question that remains is whether there is sufficient room for the private sector to maneuver

and innovate when they are constrained by correctional standards and State cost containment

goals. Thus, in most jurisdictions, the privately operated prisons become an extension of the

public correctional agency.

There are exceptions to the pattern of private prisons being extensions of the public sector that

contracts for their services. In Florida, for example, the contracting for private prisons is under
33

the control of an agency that is separate from the Florida Department of Corrections. Also, the

philosophy concerning contracting for private facilities at the BOP is to provide a balance

between setting policy and encouraging innovation. The BOP structures its contracts, where

feasible, around performance goals instead of policy compliance. In other words, the Bureau

contracts for certain levels of output from the vendor, but the vendor is free to determine how

they can achieve the output goals when bidding for the contracts.

Nonetheless, the general practice in the United States is for private prisons to reflect the training

and security policies and standards of the agencies contracting for their services. As we noted

throughout the training and custody sections of the report, there was much greater variation

between jurisdictions than there was between the public and private sectors within a jurisdiction.

The implication of this finding may be that the operations and practices of the private sector are a

reflection of the contracting jurisdiction, whether the jurisdiction’s policies and standards are

good or bad, progressive or retrogressive. Thus, despite the fact that CCA and WCC are large

correctional entities, the operations at their facilities are more likely to be influenced by the

contract jurisdictions and local circumstances (e.g., labor markets, cost of living) than they are by

corporate policies and standards. 

Given the problems with escapes and disturbances documented here and the problem of staff

instability, many (though certainly not all) of the privately-operated prisons are struggling to meet

basic safety and security standards. This may be a reflection of the immaturity of the private

corrections sector, and it may be alleviated if the private vendors can stabilize their workforces

and retain sufficient numbers of line and supervisory staff with sufficient correctional tenure.

Experienced staff can train the younger workforce and serve as models for that workforce.

It is important to distinguish between the standards and policies of a correctional system and the

manner in which they are implemented. Having sound policy is only the first step. Ensuring that

staff execute policy correctly is just as important. The survey methodology used in this report

could not measure the extent to which practice fulfilled policy at private prisons on a day-to-day

basis. That kind of performance is assessed through systematic audits of all aspects of prison

operations. The only indicators of performance we had from this survey were the numbers

regarding escapes, drug use hit rates, assaults, disturbances, and homicides. Based on those

indicators, and on the high turnover rate of staff at private prisons, it would appear that both the

public and private sector managers need to be vigilant in their monitoring of the day-to-day

operations of privately-operated prisons—certainly no less vigilant than they need to be about
34

public sector performance. It is important to note that this is not an indictment of every privatelyoperated prison. The data represent an overall picture.

This study brings to light several significant issues related to staffing, workforce experience, and

performance in the private sector. We believe that these issues should be addressed before the

private sector is allowed to take responsibility for the custody of more violent and sophisticated

prisoners.
35

References

Andrews, R.D. 1999. “After Action Review—Food and Work Strike, August 25, 1999.” Taft

Correctional Institution, Taft, CA.

Archambeault, William G. and Donald R. Deis. 1996. “Cost Effectiveness Comparisons of Private

Versus Public Prisons in Louisiana: A Comprehensive Analysis of Allen, Avoyelles, and

Winn Correctional Centers.” Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

Austin, James, Richard Crane, Ben Griego, Jerry O'Brien, and George A. Vose. 2000. “The

Consultants' Report on Prison Operations in New Mexico Correctional Institutions.”

Special Advisory Group.

Camp, Camille Graham and George M. Camp. 1998. The Corrections Yearbook: 1998.

Middletown, CT: Criminal Justice Institute.

Clark, John L. 1998. “Report to the Attorney General: Inspection and Review of the Northeast

Ohio Correctional Center.” Office of the Corrections Trustee for the District of Columbia,

Washington, D.C.

Crane, Richard. 2000. “Monitoring of Guadalupe and Lea County Correctional Facilities.” Pp.

48-82 in The Consultants' Report on Prison Operations in New Mexico Correctional

Institutions, edited by J. Austin, R. Crane, B. Griego, J. O'Brien, and G. A. Vose: Special

Advisory Group.

Crants, III, Doctor R. 1991. “Private Prison Management: A Study in Economic Efficiency.”

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 7:49-59.

Gaes, Gerald G. and Loren Karacki. 2000. “Misconduct in Special Housing Units.” Federal

Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC.

Harding, Richard. 2000. “Private Prisons.” Forthcoming in Crime and Justice: A Review of

Research, edited by M. Tonry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Harding, Richard W. 1997. Private Prisons and Public Accountability. New Brunswick, NJ:

Transaction.

McDonald, Douglas C., Elizabeth Fournier, Malcolm Russell-Einhorn, and Stephen Crawford.

1998. Private Prisons in the United States: An Assessment of Current Practice. Boston,

MA: Abt Associates Inc.

Mobley, Alan and Gilbert Geis. 2000. “The Corrections Corporation of America: AKA The

Prison Realty Trust, Inc.” Forthcoming in Privatization of Criminal Justice: Past, Present

and Future, edited by D. Shichor and M. Gilbert. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.
36

National Institute of Corrections. 1999. “The Security Audit program: A ‘How To’ Guide and

Model Instrument for Adaptation to Local Standards, Policies, and Procedures.” U.S.

Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections, Washington, D.C. November.

Nelson, Julianne. 1998. “Appendix 1: Comparing Public and Private Prison Costs.” Pp. 1-34 in

Private Prisons in the United States: An Assessment of Current Practice, edited by D.

McDonald, E. Fournier, M. Russell-Einhorn, and S. Crawford. Boston, MA: Abt

Associates Inc.

Nelson, Julianne. 1999. “Taft Prison Facility: Cost Scenarios.” National Institute of Corrections,

Washington, DC.

O'Brien, Jerry. 2000. “Summary of Correctional Facility Security Review.” Pp. 115-265 in The

Consultants' Report on Prison Operations in New Mexico, edited by J. Austin, R. Crane,

B. Griego, J. O'Brien, and G. A. Vose: Special Advisory Group.

Schlosser, Eric 1998. “The Prison-Industrial Complex.” The Atlantic Monthly, December, pp. 51-

77.

Sherman, Ryan. 1999. “Private Prisons: Public Safety Threatened: A Summary of Recent

Escapes.” California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Shichor, David. 1995. Punishment for Profit: Private Prisons/Public Concerns. Thousand Oaks,

CA: Sage.

Vagg, Jon. 1994. Prison Systems: A Comparative Study of Accountability in England, France,

Germany, and the Netherlands, Edited by R. Hood. New York: Oxford. 
Institutions

Central Texa

West Tenness

Eloy Detenti

Guadalupe Co

Central ArizPrairie Corr

Marion Count

Lake City Co

Park County

Lockhart Wor

Cimarron Cor

Cibola Count

Bent County

Taft Correct

Bay Correcti

Pamlico Corr

Mountain Vie

Wilkinson Co

Southern Nev

Lee Adjustme

New Mexico's

East Mississ

McFarland Co

Dawson State

Charlton Cou

Bartlett Sta

Lea County C

Coffee CountSouth Centra

Moore HavenCleveland Co

South Bay Co

Willacy Stat

Hardeman Cou

Allen Correc

Desert View

Central Vall

Whiteville C

Winn Correct

Lindsey Stat

B.M. Moore C

Wheeler CounCrowley Coun

Golden State

Mesa Verde C

North Fork C

Brownfield I

Diboll Corre

Eagle Mounta

Eden Detenti

Huerfano Cou

Kyle Pre-Rel

Venus Pre-Re

Baker Commun

Otter Creek

Marshall Cou

Lawrencevill

Bridgeport P

Arizona Stat

South Texas

Great Plains

Bridgeport CCentral Okla

Davis Correc

Victor Valle

Delta Correc

Bradshaw Sta

Diamondback

Marion Adjus

Kit Carson CNorth Texas

Marana Commu

Big Spring C

Gadsden Corr

Promontory C

Mineral Well

Florence DWI

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Number of Custody Staff per 100 Inmates

Figure 1. Private Institutions Ordered by Their Custody Staff to Inmate Ratios

BOP Max.

BOP Med.

BOP Low
Central Texa

West Tenness

Central Ariz

Lake City Co

Prairie Corr

Cibola Count

Lockhart Wor

New Mexico's

Park County

Guadalupe Co

Marion Count

Cimarron Cor

Bent County

Southern Nev

Bay CorrectiEast Mississ

Lee Adjustme

Pamlico Corr

Mountain Vie

Taft Correct

Eloy Detenti

Moore Haven

South Bay Co

Diboll Corre

Kyle Pre-Rel

Lea County CDawson State

B.M. Moore C

Bartlett Sta

Cleveland Co

South Centra

McFarland Co

Marana Commu

Crowley Coun

Kit Carson C

Huerfano Cou

Bridgeport P

Brownfield I

Whiteville C

Wilkinson Co

Coffee Count

North Fork C

Lindsey Stat

Arizona Stat

Willacy Stat

Wheeler Coun

Hardeman Cou

Eagle MountaCharlton Cou

Gadsden Corr

Marshall Cou

Delta Correc

Venus Pre-ReMesa Verde C

Bridgeport C

Baker Commun

Marion Adjus

Allen CorrecNorth Texas

Otter Creek

Davis Correc

South Texas

Winn Correct

Central Okla

Desert View

Lawrencevill

Central Vall

Great Plains

Promontory C

Golden State

Diamondback

Bradshaw StaFlorence DWI

Eden Detenti

Victor Valle

Big Spring CMineral Well

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

Number of Total Staff per 100 Inmates

Figure 2. Private Institutions Ordered by Their Total Staff to Inmate Ratios

BOP Max.

BOP Med.

BOP Low

Institutions
Table 1. Serious Incidents at Private Prisons in 19991

Listed by Company and Date

Company Date Correctional Facility Incident Facility

Type

Brief Description

CCA 1/30/1999 South Central

Correctional Facility,

TN

Escape Prison An inmate, who confessed to first-degree murder in

1990, was able to escape with the cooperation of a staff

member. A female prison officer dressed the inmate as

an officer and helped him walk out of the prison.

CCA 3/19/1999 North Fork Correctional

Facility, OK 

Group

disturbance

Prison A dispute between a Wisconsin inmate and a

correctional officer in the dining hall spread to other

inmates, including inmates in a housing unit. Gas was

used to control the inmates. All inmates in the facility

are from WI.

CCA 5/20/1999 West Tennessee

Correctional Facility,

TN

Escape /

Attempted

Escape

Prison Four Montana inmates being held in a TN prison

attempted an escape. Two inmates were caught before

they could climb the perimeter fence, but two inmates,

one a convicted murderer, were able to complete the

escape. 

CCA 7/25/1999 In Transit, VA Escape Transport Two maximum security inmates, both convicted

murderers, who were being returned to a Virginia prison

after a court appearance in TN, were able to escape

from two CCA officers. The officers left the door to the

van unlocked while at a restaurant, and the inmates

were able to slip their leg irons and flee.

CCA 7/28/1999 Bent County

Correctional Facility,

CO

Escape Prison An inmate was able to escape from the prison, probably

by stowing away in a trash truck. Another inmate had

escaped from this prison two weeks earlier by hotwiring a prison van while working at a regional recycling

center.
Company Date Correctional Facility Incident Facility

Type

Brief Description

CCA 8/15/1999 Diamondback

Correctional Facility,

OK

Group

disturbance

Prison A disturbance started when correctional officers

attempted to stop two inmates from climbing a fence

separating two recreation areas. 25 inmates went on a

rampage with $400,000 in damage from fire, smoke,

and water resulting from 12 separate fires.

CCA 8/16/1999 Hardeman County

Correctional Facility,

TN

Escape Transport

from

Prison

While on a hospital visit, an inmate, convicted of

robbery, was able to escape by overpowering a officer

after the officer had released the inmate from

handcuffs. The inmate took the officer’s gun, a woman

hostage, and a car stolen from the hostage to flee down

an interstate highway.

CCA 8/17/1999 Torrance County

Correctional Facility,

NM

Group

disturbance

/ Assault on

staff

Prison Two officers were seriously injured in a disturbance that

involved about 290 inmates. One officer was in a coma

for four days. As many as 75 inmates were involved in

the disturbance, which may have been staged as a

cover for an aborted escape attempt.

CCA 1/1999

through

9/1999

Kit Carson Correctional

Facility, CO

Staff

misconduct

Prison Charges were made that up to 15 female officers and

nurses had affairs with Colorado inmates during the first

9 months of operation of this private facility.

CCA 11/17/1999 Pamlico Correctional

Facility, NC

Escape Transport

from

Prison

A convicted killer in North Carolina escaped from

officers who had escorted the inmate to a doctor’s

office in New Bern, NC.

CCA 11/30/1999 Whiteville Correctional

Facility, TN

Group

disturbance

Prison A disturbance started in the dining hall shortly after the

visiting Corrections Secretary of Wisconsin left the

dining hall. The facility holds WI inmates. The inmates

took 15 hostages, and 3 staff received minor injuries

during the incident. Tear gas was used to end the

disturbance.
Company Date Correctional Facility Incident Facility

Type

Brief Description

CCA 11/30/1999 Crossroads

Correctional Center,

MT

Group

disturbance

Prison A dispute over prison policies regarding televisions

escalated into a riot involving 49 inmates. The incident

was brought under control quickly with the use of tear

gas. Damages were limited.

CSC 3/5/1999 Crowley County

Correctional Facility,

CO

Group

disturbance

Prison The disturbance started in the dining hall when a

Washington state inmate hit a correctional officer with a

tray. The disturbance spread to two housing units,

where staff were able to control the disturbance with the

use of OC spray. While the incident started with

Washington state inmates, inmates from Wyoming and

Colorado also became involved in the disturbance.

CSC 9/5/1999 McKinley County

Detention Center, NM

Escape Jail2 Four inmates, including two murder suspects, were able

to escape from the facility by crawling through an air

vent. The sheriff was notified 1 hour and 15 minutes

later. The jail inmates were sent to the facility to keep

the inmate population at the Bernalillo County Jail

under a court mandated population cap.

CSC 11/26/1999 McKinley County

Detention Center, NM

Escape Jail Five inmates were able to escape from the facility by

climbing through a skylight. CSC claimed that the

facility is not structurally sound. As a result, the

company returned inmates, including some penitentiary

inmates from Montana, to their home jurisdictions. 

MTC 4/4/1999 Promontory Prison, UT Escape Prison Three inmates were able to escape from this minimum

security prison by cutting a hole in a fence with a file.

The facility functions as a pre-release center.
Company Date Correctional Facility Incident Facility

Type

Brief Description

TransCor 10/16/1999 In Transit, NM Escape Transport A North Dakota inmate, convicted of murdering a child,

escaped from a bus that was transporting him from ND

to the super-maximum prison in Organ, NM. The

inmate had concealed a cuff key on himself, unlocked

his restraints, and escaped through a vent on top of the

bus. The escape was not noted for 9 hours, and the NM

police were not notified for another 2 hours.

WCC 1/13/1999 Lea County

Correctional Facility,

NM

Inmate

death

Prison An inmate was found stabbed to death at the prison.

WCC said the stabbing appeared to be gang related.

This was the eighth stabbing and second such death

since the prison opened 6 months prior to this event.

WCC 4/6/1999 Lea County

Correctional Facility,

NM

Group

disturbance

Prison A group of 150 inmates rioted at this facility, producing

minor injuries to 13 staff members. The incident started

in the dining hall, but it spread to other parts of the

facility. At issue, in part, were religious demands of

Native American inmates.

WCC 6/18/1999 Lea County

Correctional Facility,

NM

Inmate

death

Prison An inmate was found stabbed to death in his cell. Two

rival gang members were suspected of the crime. This

was the third fatal stabbing at the facility.

WCC 8/11/1999 South Bay Correctional

Facility, FL

Escape Prison Two inmates, one convicted of murder and the other of

burglary and aggravated assault, were able to escape

from this facility.

WCC 8/12/1999 Guadalupe County

Correctional Facility,

NM

Inmate

death

Prison An inmate was murdered with a laundry bag filled with

rocks as he watched television.
Company Date Correctional Facility Incident Facility

Type

Brief Description

WCC 9/1/1999 Guadalupe County

Correctional Facility,

NM

Group

disturbance

/ Staff death

/ Inmate

assault

Prison There was a riot involving 290 inmates. A correctional

officer was stabbed numerous times by up to 9 inmates.

The riot was in response to efforts to lock down the

institution following the stabbing of an inmate.

WCC 9/6/1999 Taft Correctional

Institution, CA

Escape Prison A Federal inmate was able to escape the secure facility

by altering his appearance and walking out of the

institution with visitors following visitation.

WCC 9/7/1999 Travis County

Community Justice

Center, TX

Contract

revocation

Prison The state of Texas retook control of this prison. 11

former officers and a case manager were indicted on

criminal sex charges. They are charged with felony

charges of sexual assault and improper sexual activity

as well as misdemeanor charges of sexual harassment.

The state is also investigating fraud.

WCC 11/16/1999 Taft Correctional

Institution, CA

Group

disturbance

Prison Federal inmates broke windows, televisions, and tables

in a disturbance that started over issues with food

services. Damage was estimated at between $50,000

and $60,000. The staff used gas, nonlethal bullets, and

other nonlethal weapons to control about 1,000 inmates

who had refused to return to their housing units.

...........................................

Notes: 1. The incidents reported in this table are for the facilities listed in Appendix 1 only. Escapes and major incidents at jails, detention centers, and

juvenile facilities operated by the respective private prison companies are not included in this table.

 

2. Jails that serve principally in that function are not included in this study. The McKinley County Detention Center, however, held 72 sentenced,

medium-security inmates from Montana at the time the data were collected for this study (July 31, 1999).

Source: Published newspaper accounts.
Table 2. Private Prison Vendors Sorted by Number of Inmates

Company Number of

Facilities

Inmates

Maximum

Security

Medium

Security

Low Security Minimum

Security

None or

Other

Total

Corrections Corporation of

America

45 1,454

(4%)

21,580

(58%)

2,593

(7%)

10,632

(29%)

985

(3%)

37,244

(100%)

Wackenhut Corrections

Corporation

26 1,143

(6%)

8,218

(43%)

2,345

(12%)

7,126

(38%)

169

(1%)

19,001

(100%)

Management & Training

Corporation

8 29

(1%)

1,258

(24%)

295

(6%)

3,716

(70%)

0

(0%)

5,298

(100%)

Cornell Corrections, Inc. 4 0

(0%)

629

(18%)

2,282

(65%)

572

(16%)

22

(1%)

3,505

(100%)

Correctional Services

Corporation1

5 98

(4%)

554

(24%)

157

(7%)

1,536

(65%)

0

(0%)

2,345

(100%)

McLoud Correctional

Services, LLC

1 0

(0%)

599

(100%)

0

(0%)

0

(0%)

0

(0%)

599

(100%)

Marantha Production

Company, LLC

1 0

(0%)

0

(0%)

256

(50%)

256

(50%)

0

(0%)

512

(100%)

Alternative Programs, Inc. 1 0

(0%)

0

(0%)

175

(50%)

176

(50%)

0

(0%)

351

(100%)

Dominion Management 1 0

(0%)

250

(100%)

0

(0%)

0

(0%)

0

(0%)

250

(100%)

CiviGenics, Inc. 2 48

(58%)

0

(0%)

0

(0%)

0

(0%)

35

(42%)

83

(100%)

Total 94 2,772

(4%)

33,088

(48%)

8,103

(12%)

24,014

(35%)

1,211

(2%)

69,188

(100%)

Notes: 1. Correctional Services Corporation operates a facility in addition to the five listed in this table, the Crowley County Correctional Facility. That facility

is owned by Dominion Management. Inmates held in the Crowley facility that are under contract with CSC are listed in the inmate totals for CSC.

Inmates held at the Crowley facility under contract with Dominion Management are listed in the Dominion Management row of the table.
45

Table 3. Staffing Levels

 

Facility Name Security

Level

Inmates Custody

Staff

Custody

Ratio1

All Staff All Staff

Ratio1

Allen Correctional Center Maximum 1,547 255 16.5 339 21.9 

Arizona State Prison West Low/Min 400 56 14.0 99 24.8 

B.M. Moore Correctional Center Low/Min 500 80 16.0 138 27.6 

Baker Community Corr. Facility Low/Min 250 36 14.4 55 22.0 

Bartlett State Jail Medium 928 174 18.8 254 27.4 

Bay Correctional Facility Medium 691 148 21.4 250 36.2 

Bent County Corr. Facility Medium 465 104 22.4 182 39.1 

Big Spring Correctional Facility Low/Min 2,059 230 11.2 346 16.8 

BOP Aggregate2 Low 38,054 3,539 9.3 8,442 22.2 

BOP Aggregate Medium 30,487 4,397 14.4 9,590 31.5 

BOP Aggregate Maximum 12,259 2,444 19.9 4,451 36.3 

Bradshaw State Jail Medium 1,683 212 12.6 324 19.3 

Bridgeport Correctional Center Low/Min 520 71 13.7 115 22.1 

Bridgeport Pre-Parole Transfer Fac. Low/Min 189 27 14.3 49 25.9 

Brownfield Intermed. Sanction Fac. Medium 245 38 15.5 63 25.7 

Central Arizona Detention Center Maximum 958 350 36.5 684 71.4 

Central Oklahoma Correctional Fac. Medium 735 99 13.5 152 20.7 

Central Texas Parole Violator Fac. Maximum 166 130 78.3 182 109.6 

Central Valley Comm. Corr. Fac. Medium 524 85 16.2 106 20.2 

Charlton County Prison Medium 1,000 188 18.8 232 23.2 

Cibola County Correctional Facility Medium 250 64 25.6 125 50.0 

Cimarron Correctional Facility Medium 961 248 25.8 378 39.3 

Cleveland Correctional Center Low/Min 520 90 17.3 141 27.1 

Coffee County Prison Medium 1,000 179 17.9 252 25.2 

Crossroads Correctional Center Medium 0

Crowley County Correctional Fac. Medium 943 149 15.8 246 26.1 

Davis Correctional Facility Medium 971 127 13.1 212 21.8 

Dawson State Jail Medium 1,415 274 19.4 395 27.9 

Delta Correctional Facility Medium 989 125 12.6 224 22.6 

Desert View Comm. Corr. Fac. Medium 532 87 16.4 109 20.5 

Diamondback Correctional Facility Medium 977 123 12.6 190 19.5 

Diboll Correctional Center Low/Min 518 80 15.4 147 28.4 

Eagle Mountain Comm. Corr. Fac. Low/Min 410 63 15.4 96 23.4 

East Mississippi Correctional Fac. Medium 499 100 20.0 160 32.1 

Eden Detention Center Low/Min 1,306 199 15.2 224 17.2 

Eloy Detention Center Low/Min 1,448 813 56.1 430 29.7 

Florence DWI Prison Low/Min 600 42 7.0 109 18.2 

Gadsden Correctional Facility Medium 791 78 9.9 181 22.9 

Golden State Comm. Corr. Fac. Medium 539 85 15.8 106 19.7 

Great Plains Correctional Facility Medium 812 111 13.7 162 20.0 

Guadalupe County Corr. Facility Medium 335 161 48.1 141 42.1 

Hardeman County Corr. Center Medium 1,951 324 16.6 460 23.6 

Huerfano County Correctional Fac. Medium 769 114 14.8 200 26.0 

Kit Carson Correctional Facility Medium 758 90 11.9 198 26.1 
Facility Name Security

Level

Inmates Custody

Staff

Custody

Ratio1

All Staff All Staff

Ratio1

46

Kyle Pre-Release Center Low/Min 520 76 14.6 147 28.3 

Lake City Correctional Facility Medium 339 100 29.5 178 52.5 

Lake Erie Correctional Institution Low/Min 0

Lawrenceville Correctional Center Medium 1,535 220 14.3 311 20.3 

Lawton Correctional Facility 1,840

Lea County Correctional Facility Medium 1,064 194 18.2 298 28.0 

Lee Adjustment Center Medium 482 98 20.3 150 31.1 

Lindsey State Jail Medium 1,008 163 16.2 252 25.0 

Lockhart Work Program Facility Low/Min 497 142 28.6 231 46.5 

Marana Community Treatment Fac. Low/Min 450 52 11.6 119 26.4 

Marion Adjustment Center Low/Min 561 70 12.5 123 21.9 

Marion County Jail Medium 397 119 30.0 165 41.6 

Marshall County Correctional Fac. Medium 990 142 14.3 225 22.7 

McFarland Community Corr. Facility Low/Min 200 39 19.5 53 26.5 

McKinley Adult Detention Center Medium 72

Mesa Verde Comm. Corr. Facility Low/Min 351 55 15.7 78 22.2 

Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Tran. Fac. Low/Min 2,085 170 8.2 300 14.4 

Moore Haven Correctional Center Medium 702 122 17.4 202 28.8 

Mountain View Corr. Institution Medium 527 109 20.7 163 30.9 

New Mexico’s Women’s Corr. Fac. Medium 319 64 20.1 136 42.6 

North Coast Corr. Treatment Fac. Low/Min 0

North Fork Correctional Facility Medium 1,057 165 15.6 265 25.1 

North Texas Inter. Sanction Fac. Low/Min 402 47 11.7 88 21.9 

Otter Creek Correctional Center Low/Min 535 77 14.4 117 21.9 

Pamlico Correctional Institution Medium 526 109 20.7 163 31.0 

Park County Detention Center Medium 83 24 28.9 35 42.2 

Prairie Correctional Facility Medium 708 236 33.3 355 50.1 

Promontory Correctional Center Low/Min 322 31 9.6 64 19.9 

Ronald McPhearson Corr. Center Maximum 600

Scott Grimes Correctional Center Medium 591

South Bay Correctional Facility Maximum 1,214 209 17.2 346 28.5 

South Central Correctional Center Medium 1,484 260 17.5 400 27.0 

South Texas Inter. Sanction Fac. Medium 444 61 13.7 96 21.6 

Southern Nevada Womens Corr. F. Maximum 490 100 20.4 185 37.8 

Taft Correctional Institution Medium 1,302 279 21.4 395 30.3 

Venus Pre-Release Center Low/Min 1,000 145 14.5 223 22.3 

Victor Valley Comm. Corr. Fac. Medium 512 66 12.9 87 17.0 

West Tennessee Detention Facility Maximum 199 124 62.3 178 89.4 

Wheeler County Prison Medium 1,000 160 16.0 236 23.6 

Whiteville Correctional Facility Medium 1,500 243 16.2 384 25.6 

Wilkinson County Corr. Facility Medium 898 184 20.5 228 25.4 

Willacy State Jail Medium 993 166 16.7 242 24.4 

Winn Correctional Center Maximum 1,544 250 16.2 328 21.2 

Notes: 1. Number of staff for every 100 inmates.

2. The BOP classifies facilities as minimum, low, medium, and high.
47

Table 4. Custody Separations by Activation Status

Six Month Activation Status1

Separation Operating Activating Total

Rate Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

0-9.9% 3 7.5 3 4.9 

10-19.9% 5 12.5 1 3.7 6 6.6

20-29.9% 8 20.0 6 22.2 14 19.7

30-39.9% 9 22.5 5 18.5 14 23.0

40-49.9% 6 15.0 2 7.4 8 11.5

50-59.9% 3 7.5 3 11.1 6 9.8

60-69.9% 3 7.5 5 18.5 8 11.5

70-79.9% 1 3.7 1 1.6

80-89.9% 2 5.0 1 3.7 3 4.9

>=90% 1 2.5 3 11.1 4 6.6

Total 40 100.0 27 100.0 67 100.0

Missing 17 

Notes: 1. Institutions included in this analysis and appearing in Corrections Yearbook 1998 were considered to

have been “operating” for at least the 1 and 1⁄2 years between Jaunary 1, 1998 (the date for Corrections

Yearbook 1998) and July 31, 1999. Institutions identified in this study but not appearing in Corrections

Yearbook 1998 are considered to be newly “activating.”

Table 5. Custody Shortages by Activation Status

 

Shortage

Activation Status 

Operating Activating Total 

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

Yes 26 55.3 30 73.2 56 63.6

No 20 42.6 8 19.5 28 31.8

Don't Know 1 2.1 3 7.3 4 4.5

Total 47 100.0 41 100.0 88 100.0

Missing 3
48

Table 6. Comparison of Private-Public Separations by Activation Status

 

Private Prison

Separation Rate

Activation Status 

Operating Activating Total 

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

Higher 15 42.9 16 53.3 31 47.7

Lower 2 5.7 2 6.7 4 6.2

Same 18 51.4 12 40.0 30 46.2

Total 35 100.0 30 100.0 65 100.0

Missing 26

Table 7. Filling Positions by Activation Status

 

Difficulty in Filling

Positions

Activation Status 

Operating Activating Total 

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

Yes 13 27.7 18 42.9 31 34.8

No 34 72.3 22 52.4 56 62.9

Don’t Know 2 4.8 2 2.2

Total 47 100.0 42 100.0 89 100.0

Missing 2
49

Table 8. Hit Rates for Unauthorized Substances

Males Females Both Total

Pos. UA Rate Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq % Cum. %

0% 15 28.8 7 77.8 22 34.4 34.4

1% 11 21.1 1 33.3 12 18.8 53.1

2% 3 5.8 1 33.3 4 6.3 59.4

3% 5 9.6 5 7.8 67.2

5% 3 5.8 2 22.2 5 7.8 75.0

6% 1 1.9 1 1.6 76.6

7% 1 1.9 1 1.6 78.1

8% 2 3.8 2 3.1 81.3

10% 3 5.8 1 33.3 4 6.3 87.5

11% 1 1.9 1 1.6 89.1

13% 2 3.8 2 3.1 92.2

15% 3 5.8 3 4.7 96.9

19% 1 1.9 1 1.6 98.4

20% 1 1.9 1 1.6 100.0

Total 52 100.0 9 100.0 3 100.0 64 100.0

Missing 27

Table 9. Escapes by Sex of Inmates at Institution

 

Number of

Escapes, Aug 98

– July 99

Sex of Inmates

Male Female/Both Total 

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

0 56 82.4 12 100.0 68 85.0

1 8 11.8 8 10.0

2 2 2.9 2 2.5

5 1 1.5 1 1.3

6 1 1.5 1 1.3

Total 68 100.0 12 100.0 80 100.0

Missing 4 
50

Table 10. Homicides by Sex of Inmates at Institution

 

Number of

Homicides, Aug

98 – July 99

Sex of Inmates

Male Female/Both Total

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

0 66 95.7 11 100.0 77 96.3

1 2 2.9 2 2.5

3 1 1.4 1 1.3

Total 69 100.0 11 100.0 80 100.0

Missing 4 

Table 11. Assaults by Sex of Inmates at Institution

 

Number of

Assaults, Aug 98

– July 99

Sex of Inmates

Male Female/Both Total 

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

0 29 45.3 8 72.7 37 49.3

1 12 18.8 12 16.0

2 3 4.7 3 4.0

3 5 7.8 5 6.7

4 2 3.1 2 2.7

5 2 3.1 2 2.7

6 1 1.6 1

1 9.1 2 2.7

7 1 1.6 1 1.3

10 1 1.6 1 1.3

11 2 3.1 2 2.7

14 1 1.6 1 1.3

16 1 1.6 1 1.3

23 1 1.6 1 1.3

25 1

1 9.1 1 1.3

29 1

1 9.1 1 1.3

31 1 1.6 1 1.3

38 1 1.6 1 1.3

68 1 1.6 1 1.3

Total 64 100.0 11 100.0 75 100.0

Missing 9 

Notes: 1.This institution houses only female inmates. There were four institutions that housed both males and

females. One of these institutions failed to report the number of assaults, and the other three reported no

assaults.
51

Table 12. Private Prison Escape Rate Compared to Public Agency

Private Escape

Rate:

Males Females Both Total

Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Higher 2 3.8 2 3.1

Lower 19 35.9 5 62.5 1 33.3 25 39.1

Same 32 60.4 3 37.5 2 66.7 37 57.8

Total 53 100.0 8 100.0 3 100.0 64 100.0

Missing 27

Table 13. Private Prison Homicide Rate Compared to Public Agency

Private Prison

Homicide Rate:

Males Females Both Total

Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Higher 1 2.0 1 1.6

Lower 19 37.3 5 71.4 1 33.3 25 41.0

Same 31 60.8 2 28.6 2 66.7 35 57.4

Total 51 100.0 7 100.0 3 100.0 61 100.0

Missing 30

Table 14. Private Prison Assault Rate Compared to Public Agency

Private Serious

Assault Rate:

Males Females Both Total

Freq % Freq % Freq % Freq %

Higher 1 1.9 1 1.7

Lower 17 32.7 3 60.0 2 66.7 22 36.7

Same 34 65.4 2 40.0 1 33.3 37 61.7

Total 52 100.0 5 100.0 3 100.0 60 100.0

Missing 31
52

Table 15. Intelligence Gathering on Gangs and Security Threat Groups

State or Contracting Jurisdiction Public Intel. System Private Access Priv. Contributes 

Alaska Yes Yes Yes

Arkansas Yes Yes No

Arizona Yes Yes Yes

Bureau of Prisons (Federal) Yes No Yes2

California Yes No Yes

Colorado Yes1 Yes Yes

Florida Yes Yes Yes1

Georgia No Not Applicable Not Applicable

Hawaii Yes3 Yes Yes

Idaho Yes Yes No

Indiana Yes Yes Yes

Kentucky Yes Yes Yes

Louisiana Yes Yes Yes

Minnesota Yes Yes Yes

Mississippi Yes Yes Yes

Montana Yes Yes Yes

North Carolina Yes Yes Yes

New Mexico Yes Yes Yes

Nevada Yes Yes Yes

Ohio Yes Yes Yes

Oklahoma Yes Yes1 Yes1

Tennessee Yes Yes Yes

Texas Yes1 Yes1 Yes1

Utah No Not Applicable Not Applicable

Virginia No Not Applicable Not Applicable

Washington Yes Yes Yes

Wisconsin Yes Yes Yes

Wyoming No Not Applicable Not Applicable

Total Yes 24 of 28 (85.7%) 22 of 24 (91.7%) 22 of 24 (91.7%)

Notes: 1. There was one administrator who stated No in response to this question. However, the other three

answered Yes.

 

2. Two of the four respondents for Federal contracts indicated that intelligence was provided to the

Federal system by the private contractor, and two reported that the private contractor did not provide

intelligence.

 

3. Two of the contract monitors for Hawaii reported Yes for this question and two reported No.
53

Table 16. Vendor vs. Agency Visiting Policies

Private Prison Visiting Policy: Frequency Percentage

Same 80 89.9

More Lenient 4 4.5

More Stringent 5 5.6

Total 89 100.0

Missing 2

Table 17. Restrictions on Types of Inmates Sent Under Contract

Restrictions on Type of Inmates Number Percentage*

No restrictions on inmates 33 37.5

No high publicity inmates 20 22.7

No special medical needs inmates 44 50.0

No gang members 13 14.7

Other types of restrictions 35 39.7

Notes: 1. Percentages do not add to 100 in this table as respondents were able to choose

as many restriction types as were applicable. The total number of respondents

that provided data was 88, meaning that information on three contracts was

missing.
54

Table 18. Training questions 1 and 2 . Which of the following requirements

must be satisfied by custody staff for employment at private and public

facilities?

Response

Private Contracts Public Facilities

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

None 0 0% 0 0%

NCIC1 67 74% 74 81%

Local/state police check 78 86% 69 76%

Credit report 20 22% 16 18%

Drug test 79 87% 73 80%

Physical examination 66 73% 64 70%

Background interview 68 75% 71 78%

Background investigation 67 74% 68 75%

Psychological test 22 24% 32 35%

Other 55 6% 9 10%

Don’t know 1 1% N/A N/A

Notes 1. National Crime Information Center.
Table 19. Training questions 1 and 2 by jurisdiction – Requirements for employment of custody staff

Jurisdiction NCIC

Check

Pr/Pb

Police

Check

Pr/Pb

Credit

Report

Pr/Pb

Drug

Test

Pr/Pb

Physical

Exam

Pr/Pb

Background

Interview

Pr/Pb

Background

Investigation

Pr/Pb

Psychological

Test

Pr/Pb

Other 

Pr/Pb

Don’t

Know

Pr

Compare

Pr/Pb

Alaska 1/1 1/1 1/1 N

1

/1 1/1 N/1 N/1 4/7

Arkansas N/2 2/N 2/2 2/N N/2 2/2 N/2 4/5

Arizona 3/3 3/3 3/2 3/2 3/3 3/3 3/3 7/7

Bureau of Prisons 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 3/2 8/8

California 8/8 8/8 N/8 N/8 8/8 8/8 N/7 4/7

Colorado 5/3 4/2 4/3 3/3 4/4 2/2 6/6

Florida 5/3 4/N 2/1 5/5 5/4 5/4 4/4 1/1 8/7

Georgia 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 6/6

Hawaii 1/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 3/4 8/8

Idaho 1/ N 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 6/5

Indiana 1/2 2/1 1/1 2/1 2/1 2/2 1/2 1/1 8/8

Kentucky 1/3 3/3 3/N 3/3 3/3 3/3 6/5

Louisiana 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 5/5

Minnesota 1/1 1/1 N/1 N/1 N/1 N/1 2/6

Mississippi 4/3 4/2 2/2 4/3 4/3 3/2 3/3 7/7

Montana 1/2 1/2 N/1 1 2/3

North Carolina 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 7/7

New Mexico 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/3 5/5

Nevada 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 4/4

Ohio 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 7/7

Oklahoma 4/4 6/4 1/1 6/5 6/5 5/4 5/4 7/7

Tennessee 2/2 2/2 N/1 1/1 2/1 2/2 5/6

Texas 7/11 17/17 6/3 18/17 12/6 8/10 11/10 1/N 2/6 9/8

Utah 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 6/6

Virginia 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 6/6

Washington 1/1 1/1 1/N 1/1 1/1 N/1 5/5

Wisconsin 2/2 2/2 2/N 2/2 2/2 1/2 6/5

Wyoming 2/2 2/N N/1 2/1 3/3

Notes 1. N stands for No Response.
56

Table 20. Training question 3. Are custody staff at this private facility legally

authorized to:

Clearly

Yes

Clearly

No

Unclear

Authority

Don’t 

Know m1

Use deadly force? 74 13 2 1 1

Pursue an escaping inmate off of prison property? 68 13 9 0 1

Carry a weapon while at work? 56 34 0 0 1

Carry a weapon on escorted trips? 73 14 1 3 0

Search visitors? 80 3 8 0 0

Notes: 1. Missing
Table 21. Training questions 3 by jurisdiction – Legal authorization

Use Deadly Force Pursue Escaping Carry Weapon at Work Carry Weapon on Trips

Jurisdiction Yes No Unclear Yes No Unclear Yes No Unclear Yes No Unclear

Alaska 1 1 1 1

Arkansas 2 2 2 2

Arizona 3 3 3 2 1

Bureau of Prisons 4 4 4 4

California 8 2 6 8 8

Colorado 5 2 3 4 1 4 1

Florida 5 4 1 5 5

Georgia 3 3 3 3

Hawaii 4 4 1 3 2

Idaho 1 1 1 1

Indiana 2 2 1 1 2

Kentucky 3 3 3 3

Louisiana 2 2 2 2

Minnesota 1 1 1 1

Mississippi 4 4 4 4

Montana 1 2 2 2

North Carolina 2 2 2 2

New Mexico 3 3 1 2 3

Nevada 1 1 1 1

Ohio 2 2 2 2

Oklahoma 5 3 2 5 6

Tennessee 2 2 2 2

Texas 14 4 16 1 1 6 12 14 4

Utah 1 1 1 1

Virginia 1 1 1 1

Washington 1 1 1 1

Wisconsin 2 1 1 2 2

Wyoming 2 2 1 1
58

Table 22. Training question 4. Do custody staff at this private facility have

access to firearms?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 75 82%

No 16 18%

Table 23. Training question 5. Are custody staff at this private facility required

to undergo initial training (i.e. before or soon after employment) for firearm

certification?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 77 85%

No 13 14%

Don’t know 1 1%

Table 24. Training question 5a. Is this training a contract requirement? (Only

for those responding ‘yes’ to question 5. Number responding ‘yes’=77)

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 64 83%

No 9 12%

Missing 4 5%
59

Table 25. Training question 5b. Does your public agency require initial training

for firearm certification for the public agency’s custody staff?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 82 91%

No 2 2%

Not Applicable/

Missing

7 7%
60

Table 26. Training question 5b. By jurisdiction – require initial firearm training

for public agencies.

Jurisdiction Yes No Not

Applicable

Missing

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2

Arizona 3

Bureau of Prisons 4

California 8

Colorado 3 2

Florida 4

Georgia 3

Hawaii 3 1

Idaho 1

Indiana 2

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 4

Montana 2

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2

Oklahoma 5 1

Tennessee 2

Texas 14 2 2

Utah 1

Virginia 1

Washington 1

Wisconsin 2

Wyoming 2
61

Table 27. Training question 5c. If both the public agency and the private

contractor for this facility provide initial firearm certification training, how do

these standards compare?

Response Frequency Percentage

Same: Because the contract requires same standards as public 48 66%

Same: Because Private contractor adopted public standards 5 7%

Different 7 10%

Don’t Know 2 3%

Other 10 14%

Table 28. Training question 5d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides

the initial training for firearm certification for custody staff employed by the

private contractor? (Circle all that apply)

Response Frequency

Publicly operated training facility also used by public sector 27

Same contractor that also trains public staff 3

Private contractor chosen by private companies 6

Private contractor’s staff 40

Other 14

No one provides training of this type 1

Don’t know 7
62

Table 29. Training question 5d by jurisdiction–Who provides firearms training?

Jurisdiction Public

Agency

Training

Public

Agency

Contractor

Private

Corporation

Contractor

Staff of

Private

Corporation

Other Don’t

Know

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2

Arizona 1 2 1

Bureau of Prisons 4

California

Colorado 1 1 4

Florida 5 1

Georgia 3

Hawaii 2 2

Idaho 1 1

Indiana 1

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 4

Montana 1

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2 2

Oklahoma 1 1 2 3

Tennessee 2

Texas 5 3 8 2

Utah 1

Virginia 1 1

Washington 1 1

Wisconsin 1 1 1 1

Wyoming 2
63

Table 30. Training question 5e. How many hours of initial training for firearm

certification are required for custody staff employed by the private contractor

and the public agency – by jurisdiction?

Jurisdiction Private Contractor Public Agency

Alaska 24 40

Arkansas 10 24

Arizona 16 16

Bureau of Prisons 8 8,9

California 50

Colorado 8,16,240 24

Florida 56,64,80 56,64,80

Georgia 24 24

Hawaii 8,40 60

Idaho 16 16

Indiana 40 60

Kentucky 23 23

Louisiana 8 6

Minnesota

Mississippi 12,48,81 48,60

Montana 8

North Carolina 16 16

New Mexico 52 32,52

Nevada Hours vary Hours vary

Ohio 24 24

Oklahoma 40 40,54

Tennessee 4 4

Texas 4,8,12,35,36 8,12

Utah 16 16

Virginia 16 40

Washington 8 16

Wisconsin 16,40 20

Wyoming 8,16 8,16
64

Table 31. Training question 6. Are custody staff at this private facility required

to undergo initial training (i.e., before or soon after employment) for custody

practices other than firearms training?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 90 100%

No 0 0%

Missing 1

Table 32. Training question 6a. Is this training a contract requirement?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 86 96%

No 4 4%

Table 33. Training question 6b. Does the public agency require initial training

for custody practices other than firearm training for the public agency’s custody

staff?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 88 98%

Not Applicable/

Missing

2 2%
65

Table 34. Training question 6c. If both the public agency and the private

contractor provide initial training for custody practices other than firearm

training, how do these standards compare?

Response Frequency Percentage

Same: Because the contract requires same standards as public 51 58%

Same: Because Private contractor adopted public standards 2 2%

Different 13 15%

Don’t Know 3 3%

Other1 18 21%

Missing 1 1%

Notes: 1. Difficult to determine whether standards are lower or higher.

Difficult to compare standards here – contractor is required to have state certified trainer.

Following response occurred 8 times: They are similar. However, staff in private CCF’s receive no training

in the exercise of arrest powers or in the use of weapons. All training is provided by California Board of

Corrections certified instructors .

Following response occurred 3 times: Contractor’s staff is required to complete Department’s Basic

Correctional Officer training class taught by Department staff.

Both meet ACA standards as established for adult correctional facilities.

We have developed our own policy which is in compliance with our contract as well as ACA standards.

Both meet ACA training requirements and private contractor is required to implement specific DOC

policies. However, they have the latitude of incorporating private contractor’s policy in other areas.

The private facility adheres to standards applied by the Texas Commission on Jail standards and Texas

Commission Law Enforcement Officer Standards Education (TCLEOSE).

The North Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility provides three weeks of training for custody staff.
66

Table 35. Training question 6d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides

the initial training for custody training other than firearm training for custody

staff employed by the private contractor? (Circle all that apply)

Response Frequency

Publicly operated training facility also used by public sector 24

Same contractor that also trains public staff 5

Private contractor chosen by private companies 7

Private contractor’s staff 53

Other 19

No one provides training of this type 0

Don’t know 2
67

Table 36. Training question 6d. By jurisdiction – Who provides custody

training?

Jurisdiction Public

Agency

Training

Public

Agency

Contractor

Private

Corporation

Contractor

Staff of

Private

Corporation

Other Don’t

Know

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2

Arizona 2 2

Bureau of Prisons 2 1 4

California 8

Colorado 1 2 5

Florida 5 1

Georgia 3

Hawaii 1 2 1

Idaho 1 1

Indiana 1

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 4

Montana 2

North Carolina 2 2

New Mexico 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2 2

Oklahoma 6 2

Tennessee 2

Texas 6 13 1

Utah 1

Virginia 1

Washington 1 1

Wisconsin 1 1 2

Wyoming 1 1
68

Table 37. Training question 6e by jurisdiction. How many hours of initial

custody training other than firearm training are required of custody staff

employed by the private contractor and the public agency?

Jurisdiction Private Contractor Public Agency

Alaska 160 320

Arkansas 190 216

Arizona 240 240

Bureau of Prisons 120,136,152 120,160

California 32,107 270

Colorado 32,40,104,160

Florida 160,466,480,504,530 160,466,480,504,530

Georgia 136 136

Hawaii 160,200

Idaho 42 42

Indiana 144 160

Kentucky 138 138

Louisiana 160 160

Minnesota 120

Mississippi 162,200,280 280

Montana 120 120

North Carolina 160 160

New Mexico 268 268

Nevada 160 160

Ohio 256 256

Oklahoma 12,120,160,210 320

Tennessee 120,136 120,136

Texas 80,120,160,196,200,228,2

40

228,240

Utah 520 520

Virginia 280 360

Washington 160 280

Wisconsin 160 260

Wyoming 120 80
69

Table 38. Training question 7. Are custody staff at this private facility required

to undergo periodic refresher training for firearm certification?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 77 85%

No 5 6%

Don’t know/ 

Not applicable

9 9%

Table 39. Training question 7a. Is this training a contract requirement?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 69 90%

No 6 8%

Missing 2 2%

Table 40. Training question 7b. Does the public agency require periodic

refresher training for firearm certification for the public agency’s custody staff?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 79 87%

No 3 3%

Missing 

Not applicable

9 10%
70

Table 41. Training question 7c. If both the public agency and the private

contractor provide periodic training for firearm certification, how do these

standards compare?

Response Frequency Percentage

Same: Because the contract requires same standards as public 50 71%

Same: Because Private contractor adopted public standards 5 7%

Different 8 12%

Don’t Know 2 3%

Other1 4 6%

Missing 1 1%

Notes: 1. Following response occurred 2 times: Difficult to compare the training component.

Not all private prison officers are required to qualify.

The private facility adheres to standards applied by the Texas Commission on Jail standards and Texas

Commission Law Enforcement Officer Standards Education (TCLEOSE).

Table 42. Training question 7d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides

the periodic refresher training for firearm certification for custody staff

employed by the private contractor? (Circle all that apply)

Response Frequency

Publicly operated training facility also used by public sector 19

Same contractor that also trains public staff 2

Private contractor chosen by private companies 10

Private contractor’s staff 51

Other 11

No one provides training of this type 0

Don’t know 1
71

Table 43. Training question 7d. By jurisdiction – Who provides refresher

training?

Jurisdiction Public

Agency

Training

Public

Agency

Contractor

Private

Corporation

Contractor

Staff of

Private

Corporation

Other Don’t

Know

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2

Arizona 3 1

Bureau of Prisons 2 4

California

Colorado 1 4

Florida 1 4

Georgia 3

Hawaii 3 1

Idaho 1 1

Indiana 1 1 1

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 4

Montana 1

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2 2

Oklahoma 2 1 2 2

Tennessee 2

Texas 5 3 9 1

Utah 1

Virginia 1 1

Washington 1 1

Wisconsin 1 1 1 1

Wyoming 1 1
72

Table 44. Training question 7e. How many hours of periodic refresher training

for firearm certification are required of custody staff employed by the private

contractor and the public agency?

Jurisdiction Private

Contractor

Public

Agency

Alaska 24 8

Arkansas 2 8

Arizona 16,40 16,40

Bureau of Prisons 8 4,8

California 8

Colorado 8,16

Florida 8 8

Georgia 8 8

Hawaii 8,40

Idaho 8 8

Indiana 8 8

Kentucky 4 4

Louisiana 8 5

Minnesota

Mississippi 8,12

Montana

North Carolina 8 8

New Mexico Hours vary Hours vary

Nevada 24 24

Ohio 8 8

Oklahoma 4,8,40 8,40

Tennessee 4 4

Texas 4,8,36 8

Utah 16 16

Virginia 8 8

Washington 4 8

Wisconsin 16 4

Wyoming 8,40 8,40
73

Table 45. Training question 8. Are custody staff at this private facility required

to undergo periodic refresher training for custody practices other than firearm

training?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 90 99%

Don’t know 1 1%

Table 46. Training question 8a. Is this training a contract requirement?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 84 93%

No 5 6%

Missing 1 1%

Table 47. Training question 8b. Does the public agency require periodic

refresher training for custody practices other than firearm training for the public

agency’s custody staff?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 82 90%

No 1 1%

Missing/

Not applicable

8 9%
74

Table 48. Training question 8c. If both the public agency and the contractor for

the private facility provide periodic training for custody practices other than

firearm certification, how do these standards compare? 

Response Frequency Percentage

Same: Because the contract requires same standards as public 50 61%

Same: Because Private contractor adopted public standards 6 8%

Different 7 9%

Don’t Know 4 5%

Other1 14 17%

Notes: 1. Difficult to determine whether the training contractor provides is comparable to the BOP training.

Difficult to compare the type of training.

Following response occurred 8 times: They are similar with exceptions.

Both meet ACA requirements. However, any additional training is at the discretion of the facility.

The private facility adheres to standards applied by the Texas Commission on Jail standards and Texas

Commission Law Enforcement Officer Standards Education (TCLEOSE).

Table 49. Training question 8d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides

the periodic refresher training for custody practices other than firearm training

for custody staff employed by the private contractor? (Circle all that apply)

Response Frequency

Publicly operated training facility also used by public sector 13

Same contractor that also trains public staff 1

Private contractor chosen by private companies 7

Private contractor’s staff 71

Other 13

No one provides training of this type 0

Don’t know 1
75

Table 50. Training question 8d. By jurisdiction – Who provides refresher

training for custody practices?

Jurisdiction Public

Agency

Training

Public

Agency

Contractor

Private

Corporation

Contractor

Staff of

Private

Corporation

Other Don’t

Know

Alaska 1

Arkansas

Arizona 3 1

Bureau of Prisons 4

California 8

Colorado 1 2 5

Florida 5

Georgia 3

Hawaii 4

Idaho 1 1

Indiana 2

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 4

Montana 1

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3 3 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2 2

Oklahoma 6 1

Tennessee 2

Texas 6 14 1

Utah 1

Virginia 1

Washington 1 1

Wisconsin 2

Wyoming 1 1
76

Table 51. Training question 8e. How many hours of periodic custody training,

excluding initial custody training, are required of custody staff employed by the

private contractor and the public agency?

Jurisdiction Private

Contractor

Public

Agency

Alaska 40 40

Arkansas 40 40

Arizona 40 40

Bureau of Prisons 32,40 40

California 40 40

Colorado 10,40

Florida 32,40 32,40

Georgia 40 24

Hawaii 40

Idaho 24 24

Indiana 40 40

Kentucky 40 40

Louisiana 40 40

Minnesota 40 40

Mississippi 40 40

Montana

North Carolina 40 40

New Mexico 40 40

Nevada 24 24

Ohio 40 40

Oklahoma 8,40 40

Tennessee 40 40

Texas 32,36,40,120 32,40

Utah 24 24

Virginia 40 40

Washington 40 20

Wisconsin 40 16

Wyoming 40 40
77

Table 52. Training question 9. Are custody staff at this private facility required

to undergo specialty training for managing inmates affiliated with gangs?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 54 59%

No 35 39%

Don’t know 2 2%

Table 53. Training question 9a. Is this training a contract requirement?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 28 50%

No 25 45%

Missing 3 5%

Table 54. Training question 9b. Does the public agency require specialty

training for managing inmates affiliated with gangs for the public agency’s

custody staff?

Response Frequency Percentage

Yes 50 55%

No 26 29%

Don’t know 2 2%

Not applicable/

Missing

13 14%
78

Table 55. Training question 9c. If both the public agency and the contractor for

the private facility provide specialty training for managing inmates affiliated

with gangs, how do these standards compare?

Response Frequency Percentage

Same: Because the contract requires same standards as public 24 60%1

Same: Because Private contractor adopted public standards 6 15%

Different 2 5%

Don’t Know 6 15%

Other 1 3%

Missing 1 3%

Notes: 1. Percentages do not total to 100% due to rounding error.

Table 56. Training question 9d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides

the specialty training for managing inmates affiliated with gangs for custody

staff employed by the private contractor? (Circle all that apply)

Response Frequency

Publicly operated training facility also used by public sector 20

Same contractor that also trains public staff 3

Private contractor chosen by private companies 6

Private contractor’s staff 56

Other 14

No one provides training of this type 0

Don’t know 1
79

Table 57. Training question 9d. By jurisdiction – Who provides training for

managing inmate gangs?

Jurisdiction Public

Agency

Training

Public

Agency

Contractor

Private

Corporation

Contractor

Staff of

Private

Corporation

Other Don’t

Know

Alaska 1

Arkansas

Arizona 2 1

Bureau of Prisons 3 1

California

Colorado 2 1 4 2

Florida 1 4

Georgia 3 3 3

Hawaii 4 1

Idaho 1 1

Indiana 1

Kentucky 2 1

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 3

Montana

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3 3 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2

Oklahoma 5 2

Tennessee 1 2

Texas 4 1 13

Utah 1

Virginia 1

Washington 1 1 1

Wisconsin 1 2

Wyoming 1 1
80

Table 58. Training question 9e. How many hours of specialty training for

managing inmates affiliated with gangs are required of custody staff employed

by the private contractor and the public agency?

Jurisdiction Private

Contractor

Public

Agency

Alaska 40 40

Arkansas 40 40

Arizona 40 40

Bureau of Prisons 32,40 40

California 40 40

Colorado 10,40

Florida 32,40 32,40

Georgia 40 24

Hawaii 40

Idaho 24 24

Indiana 40 40

Kentucky 40 40

Louisiana 40 40

Minnesota 40 40

Mississippi 40 40

Montana

North Carolina 40 40

New Mexico 40 40

Nevada 24 24

Ohio 40 40

Oklahoma 8,40 40

Tennessee 40 40

Texas 32,36,40,120 32,40

Utah 24 24

Virginia 40 40

Washington 40 20

Wisconsin 40 16

Wyoming 40 40
81

Table 59. Custody question 1. What standards are used to govern the custody

practices at this private facility? (Circle all that apply)

Response Frequency

ACA standards 74

Standards established for your public

agency

67

Other 26
82

Table 60. Custody question 1. By jurisdiction – What standards apply?

Jurisdiction ACA

Standards

Public

Agency Standards

Other

Standards

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2 2

Arizona 1 3 1

Bureau of Prisons 4 4 3

California 8

Colorado 5 3 1

Florida 5 3 5

Georgia 3 3

Hawaii 4 1 1

Idaho 1 1

Indiana 2 1 1

Kentucky 3 3

Louisiana 2 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 4 4 1

Montana 1 2

North Carolina 2 2 2

New Mexico 3 2

Nevada 1 1 1

Ohio 2 2

Oklahoma 5 3 2

Tennessee 1 1

Texas 14 16 5

Utah 1

Virginia 1 1

Washington 1

Wisconsin 2 2

Wyoming 2
83

Table 61. Custody question 2. Which of the following best characterizes how

custody policy is established?

Response Frequency Percentage

The public agency requires the contractor to adopt the policy of the

agency

21 23%

The public agency requires the contractor to adopt the policy of the

agency with some small allowances for change

16 18%

The public agency requires the contractor to adopt only certain portions

of the policy of the agency and the contractor develops the rest

14 15%

Private vendor develops its own policy but must meet standards set by

the agency

38 42%

Missing 2 2%
84

Table 62. Custody question 2. By jurisdiction – Which of the following best

characterizes how custody policy is established?

Jurisdiction Vendor Adopts 

Agency

Policies

Vendor Adopts 

Agency Policies 

w/ Changes

Vendor Adopts 

Some Policies, 

Agency Rest

Vendor

Develops Own

Policies

Missing

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2

Arizona 2 1

Bureau of Prisons 2 2

California 8

Colorado 2 3

Florida 1 4

Georgia 3

Hawaii 1 3

Idaho 1

Indiana 1

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 3 1

Montana 2

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2

Oklahoma 1 1 3 1

Tennessee 1 1

Texas 5 4 9

Utah 1

Virginia 1

Washington 1

Wisconsin 1 1

Wyoming 2
85

Table 63. Custody question 3. Who is responsible for routine monitoring of

actual custody practices to determine if standards are being followed?

Response Frequency Percentage

 Public agency 21 23%

Private vendor 5 6%

Public agency and private vendor are both responsible 62 68%

Ongoing monitoring is not required 1 1%

Missing 2 2%
86

Table 64. Custody question 3. By jurisdiction – Who is responsible for routine

monitoring?

Jurisdiction Public

Agency

Private

Vendor

Both Not

Required

Missing

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2

Arizona 3

Bureau of Prisons 1 2 1

California 8

Colorado 2 3

Florida 5

Georgia 3

Hawaii 3 1

Idaho 1

Indiana 1 1

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 4

Montana 1 1

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2

Oklahoma 1 4 1

Tennessee 1 1

Texas 1 17

Utah 1

Virginia 1

Washington 1

Wisconsin 1 1

Wyoming 2
87

Table 65. Custody question 4. Who is responsible for intensive, formal reviews

to insure that the ongoing monitoring of custody practice is functioning

properly?

Response Frequency Percentage

 Public agency 41 46%

Private vendor 5 6%

Public agency and private vendor are both responsible 41 46%

Intensive, formal review is not required 1 1%

Missing 2 2%
88

Table 66. Custody question 4. By jurisdiction – Who is responsible for formal

reviews?

Jurisdiction Public

Agency

Private

Vendor

Both Not

Required

Missing

Alaska 1

Arkansas 2

Arizona 2 1

Bureau of Prisons 1 2 1

California 8

Colorado 2 1 2

Florida 1 1 3

Georgia 3

Hawaii 4

Idaho 1

Indiana 1

Kentucky 3

Louisiana 2

Minnesota 1

Mississippi 1 3

Montana 2

North Carolina 2

New Mexico 3

Nevada 1

Ohio 2

Oklahoma 2 3 1

Tennessee 1 1

Texas 6 1 11

Utah 1

Virginia 1

Washington 1

Wisconsin 1 1

Wyoming 2
89

Table 67. Custody question 5. How would you rate the overall level of security

technology used at this private facility in comparison to the most comparable

institution operated by your agency?

Response Frequency Percentage

About the same 62 70%

More advanced 17 19%

Inferior 5 6%

Not applicable 2 2%

Missing 3 3%
90

Table 68. Do administrators at this facility have a method of determining (or

verifying) the security level of inmates they receive?

Jurisdiction Yes No Comments

Alaska 1 Alaskan monitors ensure proper classification

Arkansas 2 Private vendor required to use State classification

Arizona 3 State officials work at the prison site

Bureau of Prisons 2 Private vendor uses BOP system to verify classification

California 9 State officials make assignment and review cases

Colorado 5 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

District of Columbia 2 Classified by DC under BOP system; reviewed by vendor

using BOP system

Florida 5 Vendor uses Florida classification system to verify

security/custody needs

Georgia 3 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Hawaii 3 State uses private vendor classification system; vendor

verifies

For inmates in Oklahoma, State uses Oklahoma

procedures

Idaho 1 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Indiana 2 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Kentucky 2 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Louisiana 2 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Minnesota 1 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Mississippi 4 State assigns; vendor can request a reclassification

hearing

Montana 3 Private vendor required to use State classification for

inmates in Colorado; Uses Montana system in Montana

North Carolina 2 State officials make assignment and review cases

New Mexico 3 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Nevada 1 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system
Jurisdiction Yes No Comments

91

Ohio 2 State makes assignment; private vendor can recommend

reclassification 

Oklahoma 6 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Tennessee 2 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Texas 18 1 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system;

Only the State can change custody level; One facility is a

an institution for parole violators

Utah 1 Pre-release facility

Virginia 1 State makes assignment; private vendor verifies using

State system

Washington 1 Inmates located in Colorado; Colorado verifies

classification

Wisconsin 2 Wisconsin classifies inmates; private vendor selects from

a pool of classified inmates

Wyoming 2 Inmates located in Colorado; Colorado verifies

classification

Inmates located in Oklahoma; Oklahoma procedures apply
92
93

Appendix 1

Growth and Development of the Private Prisons Industry

by

Douglas C. McDonald, Ph.D.

Carl W. Patten, Jr., Esq.

Abt Associates, Inc.
1This essay is a revised and updated version of a chapter in McDonald, et. al., Private Prisons in the United States: An Assessment of

Current Practice (Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates Inc., 1998), pp. 4-33 (1998), which can be found on the Internet at

http://www.abtassoc.com/reports/criminal-justice/ES-priv-report.pdf. The survey data referred to here were collected by Abt Associates Inc.; we are

grateful to Stephen Crawford and Cassie Bacani of Abt Associates for their work on this survey. This project was funded by a grant from the National

Institute of Corrections, cooperative agreement number 99K38GIK9. We are grateful to the National Institute for its generous support. 

2A longer discussion of this history can be found in Douglas McDonald, “Private Penal Institutions,” in Michael Tonry (ed.), Crime and

Justice: A Review of Research (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992); “Introduction,” in Douglas McDonald (ed.), Private Prisons and

the Public Interest (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990); and Aric Press, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Private Prisons in the

1980s,” in McDonald (ed.), Private Prisons and the Public Interest, pp.19-41.

3W.S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law, Vol. 4, 3rd ed., (London: Cambridge University Press, 1922-24), p. 397; A. Crew, London

Prisons of Today and Yesterday (London: I. Nicholson & Watson, 1933), p. 50; Blake McKelvey, American Prisons: A History of Good Intentions

(Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 1977), pp. 197-216.

94

Growth and Development of the Private Prisons Industry1

Douglas C. McDonald

Carl W. Patten, Jr. 

Abt Associates Inc. 

This chapter offers a thumbnail portrait of correctional privatization. Its focuses on the practice of contracting

with state and federal correctional agencies to hold prisoners, mostly convicted, who would otherwise be in

government operated prisons. It begins with a brief history of the industry since the mid-1960s and a

discussion of why private prisons emerged. It then describes several different constellations of public/private

involvement in owning and operating prisons, where privately operated facilities are located, and their

experience with housing higher-security inmates.

A Short History of Correctional Privatization

The phenomenon of private prisons and jails came into the public eye in the mid-1980s, when the fledgling

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) offered to take over the entire State of Tennessee’s troubled prison

system, with a 99-year lease from the state, for which it would pay $250 million dollars. CCA would, in

return, house the state’s convicted prisoners for a negotiated per diem payment. Moreover, it would guarantee

that the prisons would meet the standards set by a federal judge, who had earlier found the state’s correctional

system to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution because of the conditions of confinement in its prisons. The

state refused, but the offer ignited widespread press attention and public debate.

Despite the apparent novelty of the idea, privately operated correctional facilities were not new in this country.2

Private imprisonment had been common in earlier centuries in both England and the United States. By the

beginning of this century, however, governments nearly everywhere had assumed responsibility for

imprisonment and most other criminal justice functions.3 By mid-century, the notion that governments were

responsible for the administration of justice, and especially imprisonment, had become so well entrenched that
4American Bar Association, Report to the House of Delegates (Chicago, IL: American Bar Association, February 13, 1989), p. 3; John J.

DiIulio, Jr., “The Duty to Govern: A Critical Perspective on the Private Management of Prisons and Jails,” in McDonald (ed.), Private Prisons and

the Public Interest, pp. 172-177; Ira P. Robbins, The Legal Dimensions of Private Incarceration (Washington, DC: American Bar Association,

1988), p. 44.

5Philip B. Taft, Jr., “The Fiscal Crisis in Private Corrections,” (Part I), Corrections Magazine VIII, no. 6 (December 1982), 27-32.

6Biannual Census of Public and Private Juvenile Detention, Correctional, and Shelter Facilities (Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the

Census, 1989 census).

7Camille G. Camp and George M. Camp, Private Sector Involvement in Prison Services and Operations (South Salem, NY: Criminal

Justice Institute, 1984).

8Matthew J. Bronick, The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Experience with Privatization (Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Prisons,

March 1989).

95

many argued that imprisonment is an “intrinsic” or “core” function of government.4 But even though state

responsibility for imprisonment was well established, contracting continued for a variety of services associated

with imprisonment, including facility management and operation, albeit confined to various niches of the

juvenile and adult correctional systems. Private, mostly not-for-profit charities and organizations had played a

long and distinguished role in operating facilities for juvenile offenders. Indeed, the private Society for the

Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents established the first house of refuge in New York City in 1825. By the

mid-nineteenth century, private cottages had been established in several states.5 During the 1960s, the number

of privately operated juvenile facilities began to grow rapidly. By the time a national census of juvenile

correctional facilities in the United States was conducted in 1989, the number of privately operated facilities

had grown to 2,167, compared to 1,100 public ones.6 The private facilities were very different from the public

ones, however. Most were small community-based group homes or halfway houses, whereas most of the

government facilities were training schools and detention centers.

In the adult correctional system, private firms had long been contracting with federal and state governments to

provide a variety of specific services to correctional facilities, such as food services, maintenance, education,

vocational training, health care, prison industries programs, and counseling.7 Such contracting received little

attention because it did not seem to pose fundamental questions about the state’s authority to incarcerate

prisoners. Nor were questions raised when the Bureau of Prisons began in the late 1960s to contract with

private firms to operate community treatment centers, halfway houses to which federal prisoners were

transferred prior to being released or paroled.8 These were outside the mainstream of secure prisons.

The private sector began to approach that mainstream in 1979 when the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization

Service (INS) began contracting with private firms to detain illegal immigrants pending hearings or deportation,

some of whom had finished terms in state or federal prisons, in secure confinement facilities. These contracts

provided the seedbed for the contemporary private imprisonment industry in the United States, as several of the

now-significant players in the industry started with them. This includes CCA, a Tennessee-based firm that

incorporated in 1983 and opened its first detention center in Houston, Texas, the following year. Wackenhut,

Inc., a long-established private security firm, entered the private imprisonment business when it won a contract

to build a detention facility outside Denver, Colorado, for the INS. Similarly, the Correctional Services
9

Joint State Government Commission, Report of the Private Prison Task Force (Harrisburg, PA: General Assembly of the

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, March 1987).

10U.S. House of Representatives, Privatization of Corrections: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the

Administration of Justice of the Committee of the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, First and Second Sessions on

Privatization of corrections, November 13, 1985, and March 18, 1986. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1986); John Peterson,

Corrections and the Private Sector: A National Forum (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1988),

Conference Proceedings.

11American Bar Association, Report to the House of Delegates (Chicago, IL: American Bar Association, February 13, 1989).

12Douglas McDonald, “Private Penal Institutions,” in Michael Tonry (ed.), Crime and Justice: A Review of Research (Chicago, IL:

University of Chicago Press, 1992).

13Charles Thomas, Private Corrections Project (Gainesville, FL: Center for Studies in Criminology and Law, University of Florida,

November 18, 1999) http://web.crim.ufl.ed/pcp/. It is unclear whether Dr. Thomas and his associates included facilities other than secure adult

correctional facilities. The title of the chart which displays this information is entitled “Rated Capacities of Private Facilities by Geographical

Location.” Similar charts from previous years counted the number of secure private adult prisons. However, there is no description of exactly what

the term “secure private adult prisons” includes.

96

Corporation (formerly ESMOR) won a contract in 1989 to operate a immigrant detention facility in Seattle,

Washington. 

These developments drew little attention, but this changed in 1985 and 1986 when governments began to

contract with private firms to operate secure facilities that functioned as county jails and state prisons. In

1985, CCA contracted with Bay County, Florida, to operate its jail and with Santa Fe County, New Mexico in

1986, to operate its jail. In January 1986, U.S. Corrections Corporation opened a 350-bed prison in St.

Mary’s, Kentucky to hold sentenced prisoners for the state. At approximately the same time, a small privately

operated facility was opened in rural Cowansville, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia government

arranged to transfer 55 inmates from the District’s overcrowded jails to it. Their arrival created an uproar. 

Local residents came together and patrolled the streets with shotguns, fearing escapes. A prison reform group

in Philadelphia learned of this and successfully petitioned the state legislature to declare a moratorium on

privately operated prisons in that state.9

These events set off a nationwide debate about the legality, propriety, and desirability of private imprisonment. 

Congress held hearings in 1986; the National Institute of Justice convened a conference; and many criminal

justice professional associations took a stand. The latter included the American Federation of State, County,

and Municipal Workers (opposed), the National Sheriff’s Association (opposed), the American Correctional

Association (cautious support), and the American Bar Association (which asked for a moratorium pending

further study).10 The American Bar Association (ABA) study concluded that delegating operating authority to

private entities posed ?grave constitutional and policy problems.”11 This debate did not stop correctional

privatization in its infancy, however. By the end of 1989, there were 44 secure private facilities in this country,

housing about 15,000 prisoners.12 According to the estimates developed by Charles Thomas and his associates,

dated November 18, 1999, the total number of private facilities in the United States has grown to 162 private

facilities.13

Comparisons between conditions prevailing in 1986 and 1996 give some measure of the rapid growth

experienced in this industry. The number of beds in privately operated facilities in operation or under
14Charles Thomas, Diane Bolinger, and John Badalamenti, Private Adult Correctional Facility Census, Tenth Edition (Gainesville, FL:

Center for Studies in Criminology and Law, University of Florida, 1997). These annual census of privately operated facilities use similar rules for

including facilities in each. Generally, they include only “secure” facilities. 

151996 data from Nzong Xiong, “Private Prisons: A Question of Savings,” The New York Times, July 13,1997; 1997 data from Alex M.

Singal and Raymond F. Reed, An Overview of the Private Corrections Industry: Industry Analysis, (Baltimore, Md: Legg Mason Wood Walker,

Inc., July 16, 1997), p. 12. Singal and Reed estimate the “revenue power” of the industry to have been about $1 billion in mid-1997; we have not

attempted to determine the actual revenues received by year-end.

16On June 30, 1997, a total of 1.2 million persons were held in state and federal correctional facilities, and 570,000 in local jails. As

discussed below, the private industry’s current share of the state and federal market is slightly larger, about 5.3 percent.

17Media General Financial Services (December 20, 1999) http://www.stocksheet.com/goto/?Ticker=whc.

18Corrections Corporation of America. Printed in “company news on-call” (April 20, 1998) http//www.prnwswire.com/cgibin/stories/pl?ACT=105&STORY=/www/sto.../000063474.

19Media General Financial Services (December 20, 1999) http://www.stocksheet.com/goto/?Ticker=pzn.

97

construction in the U.S. increased at an average annual rate of 45 percent during this period. Few of these beds

were empty: the occupancy rate of all private adult facilities averaged 96 percent during 1996. In 1987, there

were about 3,000 prisoners in such facilities. By 1996, the number had soared to more than 85,000. During

1996 alone, the number of prisoners increased 30 percent.14

As a result of these trends, the private corrections industry experienced explosive growth: from about $650

million in 1996 to about $1 billion in 1997.15 Wall Street and individual investors were impressed with these

growth statistics and with the apparently bright prospects for future growth (private facilities had less than 3

percent of the “market share” of prisoners held in state and federal prisons and in local jails in the United

States).16 Stock prices of the four publicly traded firms at that time saw sharp price appreciation, providing

these companies with access to substantial amounts of cash to finance further expansion.

However, 1998 and 1999 witnessed stark changes in the private corrections industry. First, the structure of the

industry changed. In February of 1998, Correctional Properties Trust was created, and in September of 1998,

Prison Realty Trust was created. Both of these companies are Real Estate Investment Trusts (or REITs). Both

were formed to develop and buy correctional facilities. The major tenant of Correctional Properties Trust is

Wackenhut Corrections, and the primary tenant of Prison Realty Trust is CCA. Furthermore, the core

management structure of these REITs is substantially similar to the core management of their primary tenants.

Second, investors have not been as kind to the private corrections industry in 1998 and 1999 as they were in

1996 and 1997. Although revenues and net income have generally continued to rise, stock prices have fallen

sharply. In December of 1997, Wackenhut’s market capitalization was approximately 610 million dollars. By

December of 1999, that number decreased to 225 million dollars.17 Before CCA merged with Prison Realty

Trust, CCA projected that the combined company’s market capitalization would be approximately 4 billion

dollars.18 As of December 20, 1999, Prison Realty Trust’s market capitalization is less than 25 percent of that

figure at 814 million dollars.19
20Tatge, Mark, Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Employees criticize privately run prison,” (August 30, 1998).

21Ibid.

22Ibid.

23The Beacon Journal, “Widow suing owner of Youngstown private prison” (September 16, 1998).

24The Legal Times, “Proposed Prison Elicits Mixed Reactions (September 6, 1999), p. 3.

25Ibid.

26Ibid.

98

Negative publicity towards the market leaders in this industry has contributed significantly to these declines in

market capitalization. In May of 1997, CCA signed a contract with the District of Columbia to provide 900

beds in the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio—a medium-security facility. In October,

the agreement expanded to 1,700 beds. By the end of July, 1998, however, twenty inmates had been stabbed,

two were killed and six escaped from the facility in broad daylight.20 Two major failures by CCA contributed

to these catastrophes. First, CCA failed to supply a sufficient number of, and adequately trained, staff. For

example, where CCA had one corrections officer assigned to watch two pods housing 128 inmates, an Ohio

prison would have assigned four guards.21 Furthermore, guards armed with shotguns were never trained to use

a firearm.22 Second, the medium-sized facility housed maximum-security inmates that preyed on mediumsecurity inmates. This lack of training and the housing of maximum-security inmates are the basis of a 110

million dollar lawsuit filed by India Chisley, a widow of a Washington, D.C. medium-security inmate who was

killed by a maximum-security inmate at the Youngstown facility.23 

Wackenhut also received much public attention when troubles arose in one of its New Mexico facilities. The

Lea County Correctional facility, located in Hobbs, New Mexico is owned and operated by Wackenhut

Corrections. This 1,500 bed, medium-security prison opened in May of 1998. By July of 1999, the facility

had three fatal stabbings and six non-fatal stabbings, a disturbance involving 170 inmates and a missing gun

report. Furthermore, two cases of cover-ups of excessive force by guards have led to officers being fired or

disciplined.

Smaller firms have also received their share of negative publicity. For example, at the Santa Fe County (NM)

Jail, operated by Cornell Corrections, guards were accused of sexually assaulting inmates; three guards were

found to have slipped through Cornell’s background check with felony convictions; and a plumber working at

the jail was fired for smuggling cocaine into the facility.24 Also, an inmate was severely injured by guards

trying to subdue him when he was shot in the groin with a bean-bag pellet.25 Cornell has also encountered

negative publicity in Pennsylvania. It plans to locate a prison in Clearfield County, but residents have

contested the construction because of the sullied reputations of privately operated prisons as well as the fear of

having inmates in their backyards.26
27McDonald (ed.), Private Prisons and the Public Interest, p. 4.

28Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions on December 31, 1983 (Washington, DC: Department of

Justice, 1986), Table 16.

99

Why the Private Prisons Industry Emerged

The contemporary private imprisonment industry owes its emergence to several dynamics, other than the

obvious fact that entrepreneurs saw business opportunities and seized them. One was the desire of many

government correctional agencies to expand their capacity quickly. For example, the INS, faced with the need

for more beds to house illegal aliens, turned to private firms to design, build, and operate detention facilities. 

This could be done quickly, using funds budgeted for detention operations, rather than waiting months or years

for a capital appropriation to be requested and approved.

For cities and counties, contracting for private imprisonment resolved certain problems peculiar to local

governments. In Bay County, Florida, for example, the county commissioners were displeased with the pace at

which the independently elected sheriff was making improvements to the local jail, which had been found by the

state to be in violation of established standards. The commissioners turned to the Corrections Corporation of

America, which promised to make the necessary improvements quickly and to get the state off the county’s

back within a matter of months. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, the county had built a larger jail than it needed,

resulting in a higher per prisoner expenditure than anticipated. County officials decided that it would be more

economically advantageous to contract with a private firm to operate the facility and to pay only for the space

used, leaving the rest of the facility to be used for housing prisoners in other “markets”— for example,

prisoners from other counties that lacked sufficient bed space or federal prisoners being transported by the U.S.

Marshals Service.

Different dynamics created business opportunities for the private sector in state governments. Beginning in

1973, the nation’s state and federal prison population began growing rapidly, and by 1986, it had almost

tripled, growing more than fifteen times faster than the general population. To accommodate the increase from

1985 to 1986 alone—about 43,000 additional prisoners—seven new medium-sized (500-bed) prisons were

needed each month.27 Governments did not build facilities quickly enough to handle this flood of prisoners, and

severe overcrowding became the norm. By 1986, all but seven states were operating their prisons in excess of

95 percent capacity; 38 were either full or above capacity; and seven states exceeded capacity by more than 50

percent. The federal prison system was also operating at somewhere between 27 and 59 percent above

capacity. Throughout the nation, prisoners were sleeping in hallways, day rooms, gymnasiums, sometimes

even in bathrooms, or were doubled up in small cells. 

Overcrowding exacerbated another serious problem: a large proportion of the nation’s penal facilities were

outmoded and even obsolete by contemporary standards. A government survey conducted in 1983 found that

half of all state and federal prisons in operation at the time were more than 35 years old and a substantial

number more than a hundred.28 Only about one-fifth of all state and federal prisons had been accredited by the
29Jan Chaiken and Stephen Mennemeyer, Lease-Purchase Financing of Prison and Jail Construction (Washington, DC: U.S.

Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1987). 

100

Commission on Accreditation for Corrections. The confluence of these dynamics resulted in a spate of lawsuits

challenging the constitutionality of the conditions under which prisoners were being confined. By mid-1988, 39

states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands were operating prisons and jails under

court orders to remedy unconstitutional conditions. Several states were even forced to release prisoners ahead

of time to bring occupancy levels down to mandated levels. 

Correctional administrators found themselves in a difficult position, unable to stanch the flow of prisoners and

constrained in the ability to build more prisons quickly. Following the passing of Proposition 13 in California

in 1978, expenditure controls or revenue restrictions were placed on many state and local governments. Federal

aid to state and local governments had also been shrinking since 1980. By 1986, the general revenue sharing

program was dead, leaving many local governments without any federal assistance. Many state governments

were reaching their debt ceilings and were unable to issue more bonds to finance prison construction. Even

though voters were supporting legislation to send more criminal offenders to prison and for longer times, they

often voted down prison construction debt proposals.

Turning to the private sector to provide new prison beds was an attractive solution to many governments facing

debt restrictions. If a private firm financed, constructed, and operated a new prison, payments to the firm by

governments for housing the state’s prisoners could be charged against operations budgets, rather than capital

budgets, thereby avoiding any need for increasing debt. Some jurisdictions relied on a variant of this

arrangement: private corporations (usually not-for-profit) were brought into being, operating on behalf of a

government, which would issue bonds to finance the construction of a new prison that would then be leased to

the state. Lease payments could be paid using government operating funds, and the state’s corrections

department could operate the facility as if the state owned it outright.29 

To this day, the market for private imprisonment is largely confined to the provision of new beds in state and

federal prisons, rather than takeovers of existing government operated facilities. Although privatization came

onto the public stage with the Corrections Corporation of America’s bid to take over Tennessee’s prisons in

1985, such a transfer of assets has occurred only once. Effective January 30, 1997, CCA acquired a twentyyear lease on the District of Columbia’s Correctional Treatment Facility for which it pays $233,000 a month. 

CCA also has a twenty-year contract to operate the facility.

The growth and development of the private imprisonment industry received important support from broader

political and ideological developments in the mid-1980s. On both sides of the Atlantic, in the United States and

in Great Britain, conservative governments held sway and launched concerted attacks on the institutional

structures and ideology of the welfare state. “Privatization” initiatives gained influential proponents, although

the opportunities in this country were fewer, largely because governments here hold fewer assets that can be

privatized and because a wide variety of services funded by governments had long been delivered by private

contractors. Despite this, the public landscape in the United States was combed in search of targets for
30President’s Commission on Privatization, Privatization: Toward More Effective Government (Washington, DC: President’s

Commission on Privatization, 1988).

31The arguments in support of this belief are offered in, for example: E.S. Savas, Privatizing the Public Sector: How to Shrink

Government (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1982); Stuart Butler, Privatizing Federal Spending: A Strategy to Eliminate the Deficit

(New York, NY: Universe Books, 1986); James K. Stewart, “Costly Prisons: Should the Public Monopoly Be Ended?” in Patrick B. McGuidan and

Jon S. Pascale (eds.) Crime and Punishment in Modern America (Washington, DC: The Institute for Government and Politics of the Free Congress

Research and Education Foundation, 1986), pp. 365-388; President’s Commission on Privatization, Privatization: Toward More Effective

Government (Washington, DC: President’s Commission on Privatization, 1988).

32John D. Donahue, The Privatization Decision (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1990).

33American Bar Association, Report to the House of Delegates, unpublished document (Chicago: American Bar Association), p. 4.

34American Federal, State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSME) AFL-CIO, Passing the Bucks: The Contracting Out of Public

Services. (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, 1984).

35George Cable, “The Convict Lease System,” in The Silent South (Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith, 1969).

101

privatization or contracting, and prisons were identified by some as promising opportunities for expanding

private sector involvement.30

For a variety of reasons, the belief emerged that contracting for services, including correctional services, was

superior to direct government provision.31 Private firms were said to be more efficient as they are not mired in

the “red tape” that encumbers public agencies, especially in procurement and labor relations. Private managers

can hire and fire without the constraints of civil services and restrictions on creating budget lines for new

employees; labor can be disciplined and reassigned with far greater ease in the private sector, especially if

labor is not unionized.

Another purported advantage of the private sector was its greater efficiency in the face of competition. 

According to this line of argument, public agencies have monopolies on services, and few incentives exist to

discover and implement ways of improving efficiency. Shielded from the demands of the marketplace, public

managers may not strive for greater productivity but for maintaining their positions by avoiding risks. 

Government positions and agency budgets, once established, are difficult to reduce because constituencies are

created inside and outside government that press legislatures for continued funding. In contrast, competition in

the private marketplace, and the risk of losing money or going out of business, supposedly stimulates the search

for increased efficiency. 

Critics of privatization have challenged these beliefs, however. For example, Donahue argues that there is little

room for technological innovation in prisons because of their labor intensive nature.32 Others argue that the

high priority given to maximizing profits creates incentives to minimize costs, which may lead to reductions in

service quality.33 Critics also point to examples of flagrant overcharging by contractors to state and local

governments for shoddy goods and poor services.34 Some opponents of privatization in corrections point to the

dismal experience with the convict leasing arrangements that pervaded the South during the Civil War decades. 

The conditions of those privately operated facilities were generally appalling, and the death rates in them were

considerably higher than in public prisons.35
36However, the study does include Texas State Jails, which hold state inmates.

102

State and Federal Experience with Private Prisons

This survey focuses on privately operated prisons, rather than jails or detention centers. That is, we examine

privately operated secure confinement facilities that are most equivalent to secure confinement facilities in state

or federal prison systems and which contract with the correctional agencies in the surveyed jurisdictions to

provide prison space. In contrast with jails, prisons are designed to hold inmates for longer terms and have a

variety of programs for the inmates. We exclude from our purview the following: all privately operated

facilities that function as jails;36 detention centers for illegal immigrants or others; facilities operating under

contract with the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, or local

governments; all privately operated non-secure facilities; and all juvenile facilities. 

To identify the subset of privately operated facilities that most closely correspond to state or federal prisons, we

conducted a survey in 1998 in which we mailed questionnaires to the heads of all correctional agencies in all

states, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the

U.S. Virgin Islands. (Hereafter, these governmental entities are referred to as “jurisdictions.”) This survey

asked these correctional agencies to identify all privately operated facilities that were under contract on

December 31, 1997 to hold prisoners under their authority. Fifty-three of the 55 agencies surveyed responded. 

Twenty-eight jurisdictions reported having a total of 91 active contracts on that date, with 84 different private

facilities. (The number of contracts exceeded the number of private facilities because some facilities contracted

with more than one political jurisdiction.) These facilities held a total of 37,651 prisoners at year end 1997.

This survey undercounted by an undetermined amount both the number of such facilities and the number of

prisoners in them at year-end 1997. This occurred because we asked for facilities that had contracts with

departments of corrections. We overlooked the fact that some departments lacked contractual agreements with

private firms and relied on an intergovernmental agreement to transfer prisoners to a public correctional agency

in another state, which did have such a contract. Two departments provided information about privately

operated facilities that held prisoners so transferred, but several did not, limiting their answers to the question

that we posed to them.

In 1999 we conducted another survey for this study of classification and training standards and procedures. 

This questionnaire obtained information about 1) the location of the facility; 2) the contractor; and 3)

classification information about the inmate population and the physical security of the facility on July 31, 1999. 

Unlike the 1998 survey, it omitted questions about the total number of inmates and ownership of correctional

facilities; however, it explicitly asked for information about any facility holding sentenced adult prisoners and

not just those facilities with which they contracted. This survey asked respondents to exclude community based

facilities, which we define as facilities at which 50 percent or more of the inmates are regularly permitted to

depart unaccompanied for educational release and rehabilitation. All of the 55 surveyed government agencies

responded to the survey. These 94 facilities held a total of 69,188 prisoners
103

Table 1

Number of Prisoners in Privately Operated Facilities on July 31,

1999, by Government Entity Having Jurisdiction Over Prisoners.

State

Total prisoners under government’s

jurisdiction in privately operated

facilities

on July 31, 1999

 Total prisoners under 

government’s

jurisdiction at

 year end 1998

Alaska 717 4,097

Arkansas 1,191 10,638

Arizona 1,450 25,311

California 3,514 161,904

Colorado 2,621 14,312

Florida 3,737 67,224

Georgia 3,000 39,262

Hawaii 1,183 4,924

Idaho 250 4,083

Indiana 890 19,197

Kentucky 1,578 14,987

Louisiana 3,091 33,227

Minnesota 50 5,572

Mississippi 3,376 16,678

Montana 316 2,734

North Carolina 1,053 31,811

New Mexico 1,718 4,985

Nevada 490 9,651

Oklahoma 5,295 20,892

Tennessee 3,435 17,738

Texas 15,122 144,510

Utah 322 4,391

Virginia 1,535 28,560

Washington 250 14,161

Wisconsin 2,557 18,451

Wyoming 197 1,571

BOP 6,115 123,041

Washington, DC 1,596 9,949

Puerto Rico 2,539

Total 69,188 853,861

Note: The Abt Associates 1999 survey did not ask for the total number of prisoners for which the

jurisdictions above were responsible. Thus, we used December 31, 1998 data as an

approximation.

Sources: Abt Associates Inc. 1999 survey of state and federal correctional administrators.; Beck and

Mumola, “Prisoners in 1998," Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, August, 1999, p. 3.
37This number differs dramatically from that reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in its 1995 Census of State and Federal

Correctional Facilities (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997). This census identified 29 privately operated secure confinement

facilities, holding 12,534 inmates. This discrepancy does not reflect simply a four-year difference in data collection points. Rather, it is a result of

different inclusion rules in the Abt Associates and the Bureau of Justice Statistics censuses. The former asked correctional officials to report on all

facilities under contract to hold their prisoners, whereas the BJS census asked correctional officials to exclude private facilities in which fewer than 50

percent of the prisoners were from state or federal agencies. Correctional officials may have been unable to make that determination effectively,

especially because many facilities accept prisoners from a number of different federal or state agencies and no single agency may know the total

state/federal share.

104

on July 31, 1999.37 This included all prisoners under the correctional authority of these surveyed jurisdictions

who were held in privately operated secure facilities (whether by direct contracts or through intermediary local

governments). This represents 5.3 percent of the nation’s 1.3 million prisoners held by state and federal

correctional agencies at this time.

Of the 69,188 inmates held in private prisons in this country, most of these (55,022) were held in the political

boundaries of the jurisdiction responsible for those inmates. (This does not include the 6,115 federal prisoners

held in private facilities.) A small number (8,051) were held in facilities located in

other states. These included, most notably, 2,557 prisoners from Wisconsin held in Oklahoma and Tennessee;

1,596 prisoners from the District of Columbia held primarily in Ohio; and 1,183 inmates from Hawaii held in

Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee facilities. Also worth noting are Oklahoma and Colorado. On December

31, 1997, Colorado and Oklahoma held 1,008 and 933 prisoners, respectively, in private prisons located

outside of the political boundaries of these states. By July 31, 1999, these jurisdictions relied on private

prisons that were located within their political boundaries.

Contracting for Secure Confinement

Twenty-six states reported having contracts with private firms on July 31, 1999, to house prisoners, in addition

to the District of Columbia, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. These 29

jurisdictions reported having a total of 103 active contracts on that date, with 94 different private facilities. 

(The number of contracts exceeded the number of private facilities because some facilities contracted with more

than one political jurisdiction.) The survey indicated that certain jurisdictions have far greater experience in

contracting with private firms for secure beds than others (Table 2). The Texas Department of Criminal

Justice reported having 20 active contracts on July 31, 1999 for secure imprisonment services (excluding

contracts with six privately operated jails). The State of Florida reported five active contracts on that day;

Oklahoma reported six; California reported nine.
105

Table 2

Number of Active Contracts for Secure Confinement on July 31, 1999, by

Contracting Jurisdiction

Alaska 1 New Mexico 3

Arkansas 2 North Carolina 2

Arizona 3 North Dakota 1

California 9 Ohio 2

Colorado 5 Oklahoma 6

Florida 5 Oregon 0

Georgia 3 Tennessee 2

Hawaii 4 Texas 20

Idaho 1 Utah 1

Indiana 2 Virginia 1

Kentucky 3 Washington 2

Louisiana 2 Wisconsin 2

Minnesota 1 Wyoming 2

Mississippi 4 Federal Bureau of Prisons 4

Montana 4 District of Columbia 3

Nevada 1 Puerto Rico 4

Total Contracts 103

Source: Abt Associates Inc. 1999 survey of state and federal correctional administrators.

Characteristics of Privately Operated Prisons

This section describes, in summary fashion, those privately operated prisons that were reported to be

contracting with state and federal correctional agencies on July 31, 1999. This includes information about the

landscape of the private sector, the geographical location of the facilities, ownership, reported levels of physical

security, and numbers and proportions of prisoners classified according to the risk they pose.

Industry Concentration

Two firms—CCA and Wackenhut—continue to dominate the market. Holding 77 of all 103 reported contracts

with state and federal agencies that were active on July 31, 1999, the market share of these firms has increased

from 67 percent (as of December 31, 1997) to 75 percent. CCA had 51 active contracts with state or federal

correctional agencies, Wackenhut 26. (This reflects the dominance of these two in contracting with all
38However, the 1998 study did not include IGA contracts.

106

governments generally, not just state and federal.) The market share of these firms rose 5 percent and 3

percent, respectively, since December 31, 1997.38

Long dominated by a few big players, the industry appears to be experiencing still further consolidation, as well

as some diversification. Smaller firms are being acquired by larger ones, and some are developing new

capacities—such as drug treatment services—to augment their “core” capabilities. Firms that have been

focusing on the adult corrections market are also moving into juvenile corrections.

Where Private Prisons are Located

Most of the privately operated prisons holding state or federal prisoners in this country are located in the West

and in the South (Table 3). Texas is home to the most such facilities by far—22. California is the state next

most populated with such facilities, having 10 within its boundaries. Oklahoma has eight, and New Mexico

has six. The remaining jurisdictions have five or fewer private facilities that hold state or federal prisoners.

Table 3

Number of Private Facilities Contracted by State and Federal Correctional

Agencies, by State of Location on July 31, 1999

Arkansas 2 Mississippi 4

Arizona 5 North Carolina 2

California 10 New Mexico 6

Colorado 5 Nevada 1

District of Columbia 1 Ohio 3

Florida 5 Oklahoma 8

Georgia 3 Puerto Rico 4

Indiana 1 Tennessee 4

Kentucky 3 Texas 22

Louisiana 2 Utah 1

Minnesota 1 Virginia 1

Total Facilities 94

Source: Abt Associates Inc. 1999 survey of state and federal correctional administrators.
39For example, the Industrial Development Authority of Brunswick County owns Lawrenceville Correctional Center on behalf of

Brunswick County.

107

Facility Ownership

Of the 94 facilities that contract with state or federal correctional agencies to house their prisoners, 39 are

owned by governments (Table 4). Fifty-five others are owned by the management firms that operate the

facilities or by other private entities. With respect to the private owners, two points are important. First,

several of the privately owned facilities are only nominally private, as they have been created by governments to

own the facility on behalf of the government.39 Second, CCA and Wackenhut are absent from this list. As

stated above, CCA merged with Prison Realty Trust. As a result, all of the properties owned by CCA are now

owned by Prison Realty Trust. Wackenhut has transferred its properties to Correctional Properties

Trust—another REIT.

On December 31, 1997, 50 facilities were in the hands of 19 private owners. CCA owned 16 of those facilities

and Wackenhut owned 5 —that is, 32% and 10% respectively. On July 31, 1999, 13 private entities owned 55

facilities. Of the facilities owned by private organizations as of July 31, 1999, Prison Realty Trust owned 27

and Correctional Properties Trust owned 8. That is 49% and 15% respectively. Not only has there been a

sharp trend of ownership consolidation, but Prison Realty Trust seems to have created this trend almost singlehandedly. 

Table 4

Number of Privately Operated Facilities, by Ownership on July 31, 1999

Private Owners Facilities

Prison Realty Trust 27

Correctional Properties Trust 8

Cornell Corrections, Inc. 3

Corrections Services Corporation 4

Management and Training Corporation 4

Civigenics Incorporated/Fenton Securities 1

Marantha Production Company, LLC 1

Industrial Development Authority of Brunswick Co. 1

Delta Correctional Authority 1

Louisiana Corrections Facility Corporation 2

Mooreland Corporation 1

Wilkinson County Industrial Development Authority 1

Hardeman County Correctional Facility Corporation 1

Subtotal Private Owners 55
Table 4

Number of Privately Operated Facilities, by Ownership on July 31, 1999

Private Owners Facilities

108

Government Owners

Arkansas 2

Crystal City, OK 1

Bexar County, Texas 1

Brownfield, TX 1

Eden, TX 1

Florida 5

Hinton, Oklahoma 1

Mississippi 2

Marion County, IN 1

Ohio 1

Puerto Rico 4

Tennessee 1

Texas 15

Utah 1

Federal Bureau of Prisons 2

 Subtotal Government Owners 39

Total 94

Source: Abt Associates Inc. 1999 survey of private facility operators.

The Private Sector’s Experience with Medium and High-Security Prisoners

As discussed above, the private sector got its start outside of the correctional mainstream, in community-based

or less secure facilities. In recent years, however, increasing numbers of facilities are designated as offering

higher levels of security. This section examines the experience of the private sector in managing criminals who

pose high security risks. It also explores the relevance of this experience with respect to managing federal

prisoners. 

Prisons differ according to their physical security. Minimum security institutions often lack secure perimeters. 

Medium security prisons have secure perimeters—often two fences with a bank of razor wire between them or,

in older facilities, high concrete walls ringed with razor wire and fences. Maximum security prisons typically

have secure perimeters and guard towers, in which armed officers are posted. There are many variations in

these general configurations, and classification of the physical security also depends on the architecture of the

housing units and the procedures that are followed inside the prison.
109

Some private facilities have the physical characteristics to meet ACA standards for medium and higher security

facility ratings. As shown in Table 5, the distribution of private facilities categorized by physical security are

highly concentrated in the medium and minimum categories. Each category holds 47% of the private, secure

facilities that hold federal or state inmates among these jurisdictions. The number of maximum/close/high

security facilities rose sharply between December 31, 1997 and July 31, 1999. At the end of 1997, only 1

private, adult, secure facility was categorized as maximum (South Bay Correctional Facility in Florida,

operated by Wackenhut). On July 31, 1999, there were four more, located in Arizona, Colorado, New

Mexico, and Tennessee.

Table 5

Physical Security of Privately Operated Facilities on July 31, 1999

Number Proportion

Maximum/Close/High 5 5%

Medium 44 47%

Minimum 44 47%

Other 1 1%

Total 94 100%

Notes: 1. Respondents attributed multiple physical security categories to one facility. To these

facilities we assigned the physical security classification according to the highest

proportion of inmates it held by custody level.

2. The facility classified as “Other” is a Minimum/Medium facility. The inmate population

is not segregated into individual classification groups.

Source: Abt Associates Inc. 1999 survey of state and federal correctional administrators.

Operating medium and high security prisons is not the same as managing medium and high security prisoners,

however. Almost all correctional agencies classify prisoners according to the risk that they pose to staff, to

other inmates, and to the public. One common convention is to use a three-tiered classification: minimumsecurity, medium-security, and maximum-security (sometimes called “high-security” or “close supervision”). 

Many jurisdictions use procedures employing objective criteria rather than subjective assessments to classify

prisoners. 

The Abt Associates survey of correctional agencies asked respondents to report the numbers of prisoners in

each of the privately operated facilities under contract with that agency, by the prisoners’ security

classifications. Forty-eight percent of all prisoners held in privately operated prisons under contract with these

governments on July 31, 1999 were classified as medium-security; 4 percent were maximum-security, and 46

percent were minimum/low security (Table 6). Compared to all prisoners held by state and federal prisons
40Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995 Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities (1997).

110

operated by public employees, the private sector has a disproportionate number of minimum security prisoners

and few maximum security ones. On June 30, 1995 (the most recent data available), 20 percent of all prisoners

housed in all state and federal prisons were classified as maximum-security, 39 percent medium-security, and

33 percent minimum security.40

Table 6

Classification of Prisoners’ Custody Levels in Confinement Facilities

Privately-Operated (1999) All State and Federal (1995)

Maximum/Close/High 2,772 (4%) 201,996 (20%)

Medium 33,088 (48%) 404,256 (39%)

Minimum 32,117 (46%) 337,779 (33%)

Not Classified 740 (1%) 39,302 (4%)

Other 471 (1%)

Total 69,188 992,333 

Notes: The Abt Associates Inc. survey counted prisoners in custody in privately operated state and federal correctional agencies on July 31,

1999. 

The BJS census counted prisoners in custody on June 30, 1995 and includes unsentenced prisoners. Numbers do not sum to total

shown here; data computed from that reported as shown in BJS Census. The BJS census includes all prisoners in custody in

confinement facilities (i.e., not community-based) in state and federal correctional agencies. These include a small number of

privately-managed facilities.

Sources: Abt Associates Inc. survey of state and federal correctional administrators; and Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995 Census of State and

Federal Correctional Facilities (1997), Table 13.

To further characterize private facilities’ experience with more dangerous prisoners, surveyed correctional

administrators were also asked if they send violent offenders to the privately operated facilities with which they

contract. Administrators replied that this was done in 63 of the 91 total contracts that were active on

December 31, 1997. They did not report the number or security classification of the violent offenders actually

placed in private facilities. 

The private sector’s experience with higher risk prisoners is not fully described in Table 6, however, for several

reasons. First, classification procedures vary from one jurisdiction to another, and a prisoner classified as

“medium security” in one may be classified as minimum in another. (Indeed, some respondents to the Abt

Associates survey had difficulty conforming to our requested categories of minimum, medium, and high

security.) Second, prisoner classifications are not static. Rather, each prisoner’s security rating may change
111

throughout his institutional career, depending upon his behavior, among other things. That is, prisoners may be

classified as medium security, for example, but may be housed in lower security facilities by virtue of their

sustained good behavior. Indeed, it is not uncommon for maximum security prisoners to be placed in lower

security institutions and then subsequently be reclassified to medium security (or they may simply keep their

initial designation). Prisoners classified as medium-security, therefore, may include persons who pose

substantial risk as well as those seen as posing relatively little risk. Some respondents reported that the private

facilities were used to house “better” inmates, although others reported that the most troublesome prisoners

were transferred to private facilities. It is difficult to know, therefore, whether the medium-security prisoners

held in private facilities were equivalent, as a whole, to the populations of medium-security prisoners in the

same jurisdiction’s government facilities. 
112
113

Appendix 2

List of Private Prisons Holding Sentenced Adult Inmates, by

Contracting State, as Identified on July 31, 1999*

*Several private prisons held inmates from multiple jurisdictions 

and appear the corresponding number of times in this list.
Contract State Facility Name Location State Contractor Maximum Medium Low Minimum NoClass Other Total Inmates

AK Central Arizona Detention Center AZ CCA 311 189 0 214 3 0 717 

AR Scott Grimes Correctional Center AR WCC 7 358 226 0 0 0 591 

AR Ronald McPhearson Correctional Center AR WCC 109 117 374 0 0 0 600 

AZ Marana Community Treatment Facility AZ MTC 0 0 0 450 0 0 450 

AZ Arizona State Prison - Phoenix, West AZ CSC 0 0 0 400 0 0 400 

AZ Florence DWI Prison AZ CSC 0 0 0 600 0 0 600 

BOP Eloy Detention Center AZ CCA 0 2 756 6 684 0 1,448 

BOP Taft Correctional Institution CA WCC 0 38 620 644 0 0 1,302 

BOP Big Spring Correctional Facility TX CCI 0 0 2,059 0 0 0 2,059 

BOP Eden Detention Center TX CCA 0 0 1,306 0 0 0 1,306 

CA Baker Community Correctional Facility CA CCI 0 0 125 125 0 0 250 

CA Leo Chesney Community Correctional Facility CA CCI 0 0 98 98 0 0 196 

CA Mesa Verde Community Correctional Facility CA API 0 0 175 176 0 0 351 

CA Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility CA MTC 0 0 205 205 0 0 410 

CA McFarland Community Correctional Facility CA WCC 0 0 100 100 0 0 200 

CA Central Valley Modified Community Corr. Facility CA WCC 0 0 262 262 0 0 524 

CA Golden State Modified Community Corr. Facility CA WCC 0 0 269 270 0 0 539 

CA Desert View Modified Community Corr. Facility CA WCC 0 0 266 266 0 0 532 

CA Victor Valley Modified Community Corr. Facility CA MPC 0 0 256 256 0 0 512 

CO Park County Detention Center CO CGI 48 0 0 0 35 0 83 

CO Bent County Correctional Facility CO CCA 14 369 0 82 0 0 465 

CO Huerfano County Correctional Facility CO CCA 15 430 209 115 0 0 769 

CO Kit Carson Correctional Facility CO CCA 32 425 229 72 0 0 758 

CO Crowley County Correctional Facility CO CSC 43 268 157 78 0 0 546 

DC North East Ohio Correctional Center OH CCA 0 666 0 666 0 0 1,332 

DC Torrance County Detention Facility NM CCA 88 43 4 0 0 0 135 

DC Central Arizona Detention Center AZ CCA 0 129 0 0 0 0 129 

FLP Gadsden Correctional Facility FL CCA 0 161 0 630 0 0 791 

FLP South Bay Correctional Facility FL WCC 917 220 0 74 3 0 1,214 

FLP Bay Correctional Facility FL CCA 0 526 0 165 0 0 691 

FLP Moore Haven Correctional Center FL WCC 0 451 0 251 0 0 702 

FLP Lake City Correctional Facility FL CCA 52 167 0 120 0 0 339 

GA Coffee County Prison GA CCA 0 649 0 338 0 13 1,000 

GA Wheeler County Prison GA CCA 0 618 0 363 0 19 1,000 

GA Charlton County Prison GA CCI 0 629 0 349 0 22 1,000 

HI West Tennessee Detention Facility TN CCA 67 0 0 0 0 0 67 

HI Central Oklahoma Correctional Facility OK CSC 0 86 0 0 0 0 86 

HI Diamond Back Correctional Facility OK CCA 0 372 0 0 0 0 372 
Contract State Facility Name Location State Contractor Maximum Medium Low Minimum NoClass Other Total Inmates

HI Prairie Correctional Facility MN CCA 0 658 0 0 0 0 658 

ID Cibola County Correctional Facility NM CCA 0 120 0 130 0 0 250 

IN Marion County Jail IN CCA 0 397 0 0 0 0 397 

IN Diamondback Correctional Facility OK CCA 0 493 0 0 0 0 493 

KY Lee Adjustment Center KY CCA 0 208 0 274 0 0 482 

KY Otter Creek Correctional Center KY CCA 0 0 0 535 0 0 535 

KY Marion Adjustment Center KY CCA 0 0 0 561 0 0 561 

LA Allen Correctional Center LA WCC 0 1,547 0 0 0 0 1,547 

LA Winn Correctional Center LA CCA 0 1,544 0 0 0 0 1,544 

MN Prairie Correctional Facility MN CCA 0 50 0 0 0 0 50 

MS Delta Correctional Facility MS CCA 0 989 0 0 0 0 989 

MS Wilkinson County Correctional Facility MS CCA 450 424 0 24 0 0 898 

MS Marshall County Correctional Facility MS WCC 0 990 0 0 0 0 990 

MS East Mississippi Correctional Facility MS WCC 66 407 0 26 0 0 499 

MT West Tennessee Detention Facility TN CCA 43 41 0 42 0 6 132 

MT Central Arizona Detention Center AZ CCA 19 59 0 34 0 0 112 

MT McKinley Adult Detention Center NM CSC 0 72 0 0 0 0 72 

MT Crossroads Correctional Center MT CCA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

NC Pamlico Correctional Institution NC CCA 0 526 0 0 0 0 526 

NC Mountain View Correctional Institution NC CCA 0 527 0 0 0 0 527 

NM New Mexico's Women's Correctional Facility NM CCA 30 230 0 44 15 0 319 

NM Lea County Correctional Facility NM WCC 16 1,038 0 10 0 0 1,064 

NM Guadalupe County Correctional Facility NM WCC 0 335 0 0 0 0 335 

NV Southern Nevada Womens Correctional Facility NV CCA 172 172 0 146 0 0 490 

OH North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility OH CGI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

OH Lake Erie Correctional Institution OH MTC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

OK Great Plains Correctional Facility OK CCA 0 811 0 1 0 0 812 

OK Davis Correctional Facility OK CCA 0 971 0 0 0 0 971 

OK Cimarron Correctional Facility OK CCA 0 961 0 0 0 0 961 

OK Central Oklahoma Correctional Facility OK MCS 0 599 0 0 0 0 599 

OK Lawton Correctional Facility OK WCC 0 1,840 0 0 0 0 1,840 

OK Diamondback Correctional Facility OK CCA 0 112 0 0 0 0 112 

PR Ponce Prison - Adults PR CCA 0 897 0 25 0 0 922 

PR Guayama Correctional Center PR CCA 42 895 0 32 0 0 969 

PR Bayamon Correctional Facility PR WCC 28 305 0 74 0 0 407 

PR Ponce Prison - Young Adults PR CCA 25 169 0 47 0 0 241 

TN South Central Correctional Center TN CCA 75 442 0 967 0 0 1,484 

TN Hardeman County Correctional Center TN CCA 19 632 0 1,300 0 0 1,951 
Contract State Facility Name Location State Contractor Maximum Medium Low Minimum NoClass Other Total Inmates

TX Diboll Correctional Center TX MTC 0 0 0 518 0 0 518 

TX B.M. Moore Correctional Center TX MTC 0 0 0 500 0 0 500 

TX Kyle Pre-Release Center TX WCC 0 0 0 520 0 0 520 

TX Venus Pre-Release Center TX CCA 0 0 0 1,000 0 0 1,000 

TX Central Texas Parole Violator Facility TX WCC 0 0 0 0 0 166 166 

TX South Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility TX CSC 0 0 0 444 0 0 444 

TX Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility TX CCA 0 0 0 2,085 0 0 2,085 

TX Lockhart Work Program Facility TX WCC 0 0 0 497 0 0 497 

TX Brownfield Intermediate Sanction Facility TX CCA 0 0 0 0 0 245 245 

TX North Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility TX WCC 0 0 0 402 0 0 402 

TX Bridgeport Pre-Parole Transfer Facility TX CCA 0 0 0 189 0 0 189 

TX Lindsey State Jail TX WCC 0 137 0 871 0 0 1,008 

TX Bartlett State Jail TX CCA 0 414 89 425 0 0 928 

TX Bradshaw State Jail TX MTC 29 89 90 1,475 0 0 1,683 

TX Travis County Community Center TX WCC 0 435 0 558 0 0 993 

TX Lockhart Renaissance Facility TX WCC 0 0 0 496 0 0 496 

TX Cleveland Correctional Center TX WCC 0 0 0 520 0 0 520 

TX Bridgeport Correctional Center TX WCC 0 0 0 520 0 0 520 

TX Dawson State Jail TX MTC 0 1,169 0 246 0 0 1,415 

TX Willacy State Jail TX WCC 0 0 228 765 0 0 993 

UT Promontory Correctional Center UT MTC 0 0 0 322 0 0 322 

VA Lawrenceville Correctional Center VA CCA 0 1,535 0 0 0 0 1,535 

WA Crowley County Correctional Facility CO DM 0 250 0 0 0 0 250 

WI North Fork Correctional Facility OK CCA 0 1,057 0 0 0 0 1,057 

WI Whiteville Correctional Facility TN CCA 0 1,500 0 0 0 0 1,500 

WY Crowley County Correctional Facility CO CSC 38 108 0 1 0 0 147 

WY Central Oklahoma Correctional Facility OK CSC 17 20 0 13 0 0 50 

Total Inmates 2,772 33,088 8,103 24,014 740 471 69,188 
117

Appendix 3

Instrument used for the 1999 Survey of Private

Sector Training and Custody Practices
1999 Survey of Private Sector Training 

and Custody Practices

(Name of Private Prison Surveyed)

Survey Instructions

This survey was requested of the U.S. Department of Justice by Congress. It contains questions about

(1) the training provided to custody staff, (2) custody practices, and (3) general characteristics of the

staff and inmates at this private facility. We ask that you complete it and mail it to us by November

17, 1999.

Please note the following:

! Please complete one survey form for the privately operated facility referenced above.

! In some cases, the questions ask for comparable information about similar facilities operated by

your agency. Comparable facilities are those of the same security level, which hold the same

security level of prisoners. The questions about facilities operated by your agency are included

to provide a context for your contracting practices.

! If you are not able to answer a question but know who can, your effort to obtain the

information from that person would be greatly appreciated.

! Please complete and mail these surveys via overnight mail, if possible, to Cassie Bacani by

November 17th.

Cassie Bacani

Abt Associates Inc.

55 Wheeler Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

Tel. (617) 349-2581

Fax (617) 349-2610

Thank you for responding to this survey. This information will be of great value to our ongoing

efforts to assess the quality and effectiveness of private correctional facilities for Congress. If you

have any problems responding to the questions in this survey, you are encouraged to contact Cassie

Bacani at Abt Associates between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (eastern time).
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 1

Training. This section asks for information about initial training and periodic refresher training. 

Initial training refers to the type of training provided by correctional agencies to new custody staff

before or shortly after they start work at a correctional facility. Generally speaking, initial training

occurs once during the career of a custody staff member. Periodic refresher training is provided to

custody staff on a repeated basis, typically (although not necessarily) on a yearly basis. Custody staff

refers to those staff, both supervisory and not, who primarily protect the safety of the public, staff, and

inmates. Please use these distinctions when answering the following questions.

1. Which of the following requirements must be satisfied by custody staff for employment 

at this private facility? (circle all that apply)

1. None 

2. NCIC (National Crime Information Center)

3. Local/state police check

4. Credit Report

5. Drug Test

6. Physical Examination

7. Background Interview (including self-report of illegal and other undesirable acts) 

8. Background Investigation (verification of applicant provided material)

9. Psychological/Personality Suitability Test

10. Other, please specify 

11. Don’t know

2. Which of the following requirements must be satisfied by custody staff employed by 

your agency? (circle all that apply)

1. None

2 NCIC (National Crime Information Center)

3. Local/agency police check

4. Credit Report

5. Drug Test

6. Physical Examination

7. Background Interview (self-report of illegal and other undesirable acts)

8. Background Investigation (verification of applicant provided material)

9. Psychological/Personality Suitability Test

10. Other, please specify 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 2

3. Are custody staff at this private facility legally authorized to:

Clearly Clearly Unclear Don’t 

Yes No Authority Know

use deadly force? 

pursue an escaping inmate off 

of prison property? 

carry a weapon while at work? 

carry a weapon on escorted trips? 

search visitors? 

4. Do custody staff at this private facility have access to firearms?

 

1. Yes

2. No 

3. Don’t know

Initial Training: Firearms

5. Are custody staff at this private facility required to undergo initial training (i.e., before or 

soon after employment) for firearm certification?

1. Yes (Continue with Question 5a.)

2. No (Skip to Question 5b.)

3. Don’t know (Skip to Question 5b.)

5a. Is this training a contract requirement?

1. Yes

2. No

5b. Does your public agency require initial training for firearm certification for the 

public agency’s custody staff?

1. Yes (If Yes and Question 5 is Yes, then answer Question 5c.)

2. No (Skip to Question 5d.)

5c. If both the public agency and the private contractor for this facility provide initial 

firearm certification training, how do these standards compare?

1. They are the same because the contract requires the same standards that 

apply to the public correctional agency.

2. They are the same because the private contractor chose to adopt public 

agency standards.

3. The standards are different. 

4. Don’t know

5. The above choices are inadequate. Please explain in your terms.

 

 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 3

5d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides the initial training for firearm certification for

custody staff employed by the private contractor? (circle all that apply)

1. A publicly operated training facility that also trains public-sector custody staff.

2. The same contractor that your public agency uses to train public-sector custody

staff.

3. A different private contractor chosen by the private prison contractor.

4. Private contractor’s staff.

5. Other, please specify 

6. No one provides training of this type at this facility.

7. Don’t know

5e. How many hours of initial training for firearm certification are required of custody staff

employed by

 the private contractor? 

 the public agency? 

Initial Training: Custody

6. Are custody staff at this private facility required to undergo initial training (i.e., before 

or soon after employment) for custody practices other than firearm training?

1. Yes (Continue to Question 6a.)

2. No (Skip to Question 6b.)

3. Don’t know (Skip to Question 6b.)

6a. Is this training a contract requirement?

1. Yes

2. No

6b. Does the public agency require initial training for custody practices other than 

firearm training for the public agency’s custody staff?

1. Yes (If Yes and Question 6 is Yes, then answer Question 6c.)

2. No (Skip to Question 6d.)

6c. If both the public agency and the private contractor provide initial training for 

custody practices other than firearm training, how do these standards compare?

1. They are the same because the contract requires the same standards that 

apply to the public correctional agency.

2. They are the same because the private contractor chose to adopt public 

agency standards.

3. The standards are different. 

4. Don’t know

5. The above choices are inadequate. Please explain in your terms.

 

 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 4

6d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides the initial training for custody training other

than firearm training for custody staff employed by the private contractor? 

(circle all that apply)

1. A publicly operated training facility that also trains public-sector custody staff.

2. The same contractor that the public agency uses to train public-sector custody

 staff.

3. A different private contractor chosen by the private prison contractor.

4. Private contractor’s staff.

5. Other, please specify 

6. No one provides training of this type at this facility.

7. Don’t know

6e. How many hours of initial custody training other than firearm training are required 

of custody staff employed by

 the private contractor? 

 the public agency? 

Refresher Training: Firearms

7. Are custody staff at this private facility required to undergo periodic refresher training 

for firearm certification?

1. Yes (Continue with Question 7a.)

2. No (Skip to Question 7b.)

3. Don’t know (Skip to Question 7b.)

7a. Is this training a contract requirement?

1. Yes

2. No

7b. Does the public agency require periodic refresher training for firearm certification

 for the public agency’s custody staff?

1. Yes (If Yes and Question 7 is Yes, then answer Question 7c.)

2. No (Skip to Question 7d.)

7c. If both the public agency and the contractor for the private facility provide periodic training

for firearm certification, how do these standards compare?

1. They are the same because the contract requires the same standards that apply 

to the public correctional agency.

2. They are the same because the private contractor chose to adopt public agency

standards.

3. The standards are different. 

4. Don’t know

5. The above choices are inadequate. Please explain in your terms.

 

 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 5

7d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides the periodic refresher training for firearm

certification for custody staff employed by the private contractor? (circle all that apply)

1. A publicly operated training facility that also trains public-sector custody staff.

2. The same contractor that the public agency uses to train public-sector custody staff.

3. A different private contractor chosen by the private prison contractor.

4. Private contractor’s staff.

5. Other, please specify 

6. No one provides training of this type at this facility.

7. Don’t know

7e. How many hours of periodic refresher training for firearm certification are required 

of custody staff employed by

 the private contractor? 

 the public agency? 

Refresher Training: Custody

8. Are custody staff at this private facility required to undergo periodic refresher training for

custody practices other than firearm training?

1. Yes (Continue to Question 8a.)

2. No (Skip to Question 8b.)

3. Don’t know (Skip to Question 8b.)

8a. Is this training a contract requirement?

1. Yes

2. No

8b. Does the public agency require periodic refresher training for custody practices 

other than firearm training, for the public agency’s custody staff?

1. Yes (If Yes and Question 8 is Yes, then answer Question 8c.)

2. No (Skip to Question 8d.)

8c. If both the public agency and the contractor for the private facility provide periodic

refresher training for custody practices other than firearm training, how do these 

standards compare?

1. They are the same because the contract requires the same standards that apply 

to the public correctional agency.

2. They are the same because the private contractor chose to adopt public agency

standards.

3. The standards are different. 

4. Don’t know

5. The above choices are inadequate. Please explain in your terms.

 

 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 6

8d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides the periodic refresher training for custody

practices other than firearm training for custody staff employed by the private contractor? 

(circle all that apply)

1. A public agency-operated training facility that also trains public-sector custody staff.

2. The same contractor that the public agency uses to train public-sector custody staff.

3. A different private contractor chosen by the private prison contractor.

4. Private contractor’s staff.

5. Other, please specify 

6. No one provides training of this type at this facility.

7. Don’t know

8e. How many hours of periodic custody training, excluding initial custody training, are required

of custody staff employed by

 the private contractor? 

 the public agency? 

Specialty Training: Management of Inmate Gangs

9. Are custody staff at this private facility required to undergo specialty training for managing inmates

affiliated with gangs?

1. Yes (Continue to Question 9a.)

2. No (Skip to Question 9b.)

3. Don’t know (Skip to Question 9b.)

9a. Is this training a contract requirement?

1. Yes

2. No

9b. Does the public agency require specialty training for managing inmates affiliated 

with gangs for the public agency’s custody staff?

1. Yes (If Yes and Question 9 is Yes, then answer Question 9c.)

2. No (Skip to Question 9d.)

9c. If both the public agency and the contractor for the private facility provide specialty 

training for managing inmates affiliated with gangs, how do these standards compare?

1. They are the same because the contract requires the same standards that apply to the

public correctional agency.

2. They are the same because the private contractor chose to adopt public agency standards.

3. The standards are different. 

4. Don’t know

5. The above choices are inadequate. Please explain in your terms.

 

 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 7

9d. Even if not required, who, if anyone, provides the specialty training for managing inmates

affiliated with gangs for custody staff employed by the private contractor? 

(circle all that apply)

1. A public agency-operated training facility that also trains public-sector 

custody staff.

2. The same contractor that the public agency uses to train public-sector 

custody staff.

3. A different private contractor chosen by the private prison contractor.

4. Private contractor’s staff.

5. Other, please specify 

6. No one provides training of this type at this facility.

7. Don’t know

9e. How many hours of specialty training for managing inmates affiliated with gangs 

are required of custody staff employed by

 the private contractor? 

 the public agency? 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 8

Custody Practices. This section asks for information about policies governing custody practices

at this private facility and the oversight process involving custody practices.

1. What standards are used to govern the custody practices at this private facility? 

(circle all that apply)

1. ACA standards

2. Standards established for your public agency

3. Other, please specify 

2. Which of the following best characterizes how custody policy is established?

1. The public agency requires the contractor to adopt the policy of the agency.

2. The public agency requires the contractor to adopt the policy of the agency, 

with some small allowance for changes.

3. The public agency requires the contractor to adopt only certain portions of the 

policy of the agency and the contractor develops the rest.

4. Private vendor develops its own policy but must meet standards set by the agency.

3. Who is responsible for routine monitoring of actual custody practices to determine if 

standards are being followed? 

1. Public agency

2. Private vendor

3. Public agency and private vendor are both responsible.

4. Ongoing monitoring is not required.

4. Who is primarily responsible for intensive, formal reviews to insure that the ongoing monitoring

of custody practice is functioning properly? 

 

1. Public agency

2. Private vendor

3. Public agency and private vendor are both responsible.

4. Intensive, formal review is not required.

5. How would you rate the overall level of security technology used at this private facility in

comparison to the most comparable institution operated by your agency?

1. About the same

2. More advanced

3. Inferior
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 9

General Characteristics. This section asks for information about the general features of the

physical security at this private facility, the number and types of inmates housed at this private

facility, and the types of misconduct at this private facility. 

 

Some questions ask for data on July 31, 1999. If these data are unavailable, then use data

from the most recent month for which data are available.

1. How many inmates under the jurisdiction of your agency were housed at this private 

facility on July 31, 1999? __________

2. Was the number of inmates at this private facility constant over the past year, or did the

number vary substantially?

 

1. Number was fairly constant

2. Number increased over the course of the year

3. Number decreased over the course of the year

4. Number fluctuated greatly over the course of the year

3. How many staff of all kinds were employed at this private facility on July 31, 1999? 

__________ 

4. How many custody staff were employed at this private facility on July 31, 1999?

__________

5. Which of the following designations best describes the physical security of this private

facility?

1. low/minimum physical security

2. medium physical security

3. maximum physical security

6. On July 31, 1999, what percentage of the inmates from your jurisdiction in this private

facility were classified as

 low/minimum security? 

 medium security? 

 maximum/close/high security? 

 other? 

 not classified 

7. What is the sex of the inmates housed by your agency at this private facility?

1. Male

2. Female

3. Both male and female (what percentage are male? ______) 
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 10

8. Does the contract with the public agency require that the private contractor conduct random

urinalyses of inmates for drugs?

1. Yes 

2. No

9. Does the private contractor at this private facility conduct random urinalyses of 

inmates for drugs? 

1. Yes

2. No (Skip to Question 10.)

3. Don’t know

1. If the contractor does test at this privately operated facility, what percentage of the

random tests in the most recent reporting period returned positive results for an

unauthorized substance? ____________

2. Was this higher or lower, on average, than what was reported in earlier periods?

1. Higher

2. Lower

3. Don’t know

10. Does your agency conduct random urinalyses of inmates at comparable publicly 

operated correctional facilities?

a. Yes

b. No (Skip to Question 12.)

11. What percentage of the random tests in the most comparable publicly operated facility on

July 31, 1999 returned positive results for an unauthorized substance? ___________ 

12. How many inside escapes occurred (between August 1, 1998 and July 31, 1999) from this

private facility in which an inmate under the jurisdiction of your agency was able to exit

from a secure perimeter? __________

13. How does the rate of inside escapes from this private facility compare to rates at 

similar prisons operated by your agency having comparable security levels over this

 same time period?

1. The rate of inside escapes at this private facility was higher.

2. The rate of inside escapes at this private facility was lower.

3. The rate of inside escapes were about the same at this private facility and the public

prisons.

14. How many homicides occurred at this private facility involving inmates under the 

jurisdiction of your agency between August 1, 1998 and July 31, 1999? ______
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 11

15. How does the rate of homicides at this private facility compare to rates at similar prisons 

operated by your agency?

1. The rate of homicides at this private facility was higher.

2. The rate of homicides at this private facility was lower.

3. The rate of homicides were about the same at this private facility and 

the public prisons.

16. How many serious assaults, excluding homicides, occurred at this private facility 

involving inmates under the jurisdiction of your agency between August 1, 1998 

and July 31, 1999? __________ 

17. How does the rate of assaults, excluding homicide, at this private facility compare to rates at

similar prisons operated by your agency?

1. The rate of assaults at this private facility was higher.

2. The rate of assaults at this private facility was lower.

3. The rate of assaults were about the same at this private facility and the comparable

public prisons.

18. How many custody staff at this private facility were dismissed or resigned during the 6 

months ending July 31, 1999?

______ Resigned 

______ Dismissed 

______ Total (please provide if you do not know one or both of the 

components above) 

19. Did the number of custody staff who were dismissed or quit during the past 

6 months create staffing shortages at this private facility?

1. Yes

2. No

3. Don’t know

20. How does the turnover of custody staff created by resignations and dismissals at this 

private facility in the past 6 months compare to turnover at the most comparable institution 

in your agency over the same time period?

1. The turnover was higher at this private facility.

2. The turnover was lower at this private facility.

3. The turnover was about the same at this private facility.

21. Does this facility have difficulties in filling vacant positions?

1. Yes

2. No

3. Don’t know
(Name of Private Prison Surveyed) 12

22. Does the contract/agreement with this private facility provide for a time period within which

the private contractor must fill a vacant position? If yes, what is that time period?

1. Yes

2. No

23. Does the public agency have a systematic intelligence system to track gang membership and

other security threat groups?

1. Yes (Go to Question 23a.)

2. No (Skip to Question 24.)

3. Don’t know (Skip to Question 24.)

If yes,

1. Does the private contractor have access to the public agency’s intelligence data on

gang membership and security threat groups?

1. Yes

2. No

3. Don’t know

2. Does the private contractor provide data to the public agency’s intelligence system?

1. Yes

2. No

3. Don’t know

24. Are there limits on the type of inmates designated to this private facility in comparison to

similar public prisons operated by your agency? (circle all that apply)

1. No

2. Yes, this private facility does not receive high publicity cases.

3. Yes, this private facility does not receive inmates with special medical needs.

4. Yes, this private facility does not receive inmates who are gang members.

5. Yes, other types of inmates are excluded for reasons other than those given.

25. Are the visiting policies at this private facility the same as comparable public prisons

operated by your agency?

1. Yes

2. No, the policies at this private facility are more lenient in providing visitor access. 

3. No, the policies at this private facility are more stringent in providing visitor access.