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Private vs. Public Prisons

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Title: Private vs. Public Prisons


1
Private vs. Public Prisons
  • A Meta-Analysis of Evaluation Research Studies

2
Issue
  • Costs of incarceration rising
  • Larger incarcerated population than ever before
  • Inconclusive evidence regarding cost savings of
    private facilities
  • Long term incarceration more common
  • Aging prison population

3
Research Design
  • Meta-analysis of 24 independent studies
  • Included 33 cost effectiveness evaluations
  • Results indicate that private facilities no more
    cost effective than public prisons
  • Institutional characteristics such as facilitys
    scale, age, security level strongest predictors
    of per diem costs

4
Debated Options
  • Privatization has become growth industry
  • Privatization movement increasingly supported
  • Some studies show private facilities less
    expensive
  • Some studies show private facilities more
    efficient
  • Economy of scale (buying in bulk)

5
Public Choice Theory
  • Market economy makes private market more cost
    effective alternative
  • Economy of scale
  • Bulk rate services cheaper
  • BUT, no real quantitative research conducted on
    this issue yet

6
Public Choice Arguments
  • Competitive free market
  • Big government discourages economic rationality
    and efficiency
  • Big government is undemocratic in corrections
    it forces citizens to accept inferior goods at
    elevated prices

7
Privatization in Corrections
  • More of a continuum
  • Public facilities do (or can) contract various
    services
  • Construction
  • Food service
  • Medical services
  • financing

8
Pro Privatization
  • Deteriorating conditions in public facilities
  • Increased violence in public facilities
  • Waste in public facilities
  • Crowding in public facilities 1.7 million as of
    1996
  • There has been an expansion of corrections-commer
    cial complex in recent years

9
Empirical Evaluations
  • Inconclusive
  • Private facilities fails to consistently provide
    more efficiency
  • Most evaluations have focused on small number of
    facilities
  • No large studies completed
  • Some researchers biased in favor of their
    privatization agenda

10
Present Study
  • Subjected literature to cost-effectiveness
    comparison of public v. private facilities
  • Unit of analysis was the independent study
  • Meta analysis good tool for comparing project
    with inconsistent results
  • Look for common statistical patterns
  • BUT poor studies can be grouped with good studies

11
Sample
  • National Criminal Justice Referencing Service
    electronic database
  • Only evaluations of adult male facilities
    included
  • Studies selected had to include
  • a reported measure of per inmate per day costs
  • Information on characteristics of facility itself

12
Results
  • Not favorable to public choice perspective
  • Ownership of a facility was not significantly
    associated with predictions of cost to house
    inmates
  • Consistent with privatization critics arguments
    the age of a facility is related positively to
    cost of housing inmate

13
Results Against Privatization
  • Age of facility related to cost of operation of
    facility
  • Security level related positively to cost of
    operation
  • Larger number of inmates cheaper operation
  • No empirical support for privatization

14
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