Upon entering the prison gates, an inmate has given up a crucial element of dignity. If anything, the state should take a more active role in improving our prisons, making sure today's sentenced can one day re-enter normal life. Private incarceration demonstrates a shamefully carefree attitude toward the plight of the most vulnerable. In the Lawrenceville Correctional Center, the new prison wardens will be the Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville. Time will tell how the company manages Virginia's first private prison.
Rehabilitation is subordinate.
By building a private prison, Virginia has reduced incarceration to a financially analyzed science. The state has withdrawn its responsibility to the inmates and has instead constructed a facility that lets go of one of the government's foremost responsibilities. We send our regards to Lawrenceville's first inmates. They will be the first in Virginia who will be constrained not by the society that condemned them, but by a corporation that state officials hope will save a little money. But we want to go a bit beyond the mundane reaches of technology.