Private prisons are incarceration centers that are run by a for-profit company instead of a government agency. The companies that operate private prisons are paid a per-diem or monthly rate for each prisoner they keep in their facilities. In 2016 8.5% of the prisoner population was housed in private prisons. This is an 8% decline since 2000. Opponents of private prisons argue that incarceration is a social responsibility and that entrusting it to for-profit companies is inhumane. Proponents argue that prisons run by private companies are consistently more cost effective than those run by government agencies. In 2017 President Trump reversed an Obama administration directive to gradually reduce the number of contracts with for-profit prison operators, saying it would interfere with meeting the demands of the prison population. In January 2021 President Joe Biden signed an executive order which banned the Justice Department’s use of private prisons. In 2020 the Justice Department paid more than $945 million to private prison companies.
@ISIDEWITH4yrs
@ISIDEWITH4yrs
No, private prisons will sacrifice quality of care and rehabilitation services for profit
@ISIDEWITH4yrs
Yes, but they should be strictly regulated to prevent mismanagement and corruption
@ISIDEWITH4yrs
Yes, but eliminate contractual occupancy quotas
@98WK2ZJ1 day
If it would help then yeah
@98SRY34Independent7 days
No, but eliminate contractual occupancy quotas for government run prisons. Too many people are in U.S. prisons.
No, and privatized prisons should be abolished all together.
@98NSRDZ2wks
i dont have an opion on this
@98NDWHZ2wks
either way people make money, at least the private companies don't lie about it
Not much knowledge about this
@98G9DJC1mo
@98G9D6B1mo
No, private companies will be less accountable.
@98FNKJ71mo
No, private businesses should not profit off the punishment of criminals.
@98CFQ6G2mos
No, they are the government's property at that point and should stay that way until free, if given the opportunity.
Private prisons have no onus to want prisoners to leave. Ever. I see a huge conflict of interest here. And this hits home for me, I live 10 minutes from one.
@989M5G82mos
Licensed social workers should run prisons, or others that have degrees in psychology or sociology.
@989FQKF2mos
No, and reform public prisons too
Yes, so long as they are regulated to prevent mismanagement and corruption AND are focused on rehabilitation to limit re-offenders
@988Q29R2mos
Not unless they are providing rehabilitation services and documenting their recidivism rate.
No, and ban slave labor of prisoners.
@9862F5V2mos
No, but eliminate occupancy quotas and the importance of profit.
@9854KZB2mos
No one should operate a prison for profit.
@984XFB32mos
I believe that this could be very risky for the prisons. I mean, most prisons are filled with bad people, correct? But if we hand a company a prison, lots of things could go wrong. Let the officers, wardens, etc deal with their own prison.
Private companies can be more closer to the criminals and have a larger effect on them; it can lead them to change their ways. States can focus more on other things.
@9833Q422mos
Not that important either way.
@97XXBJB2mos
Private companies running their own prisons sounds pretty suss, but I can imagine that the government overseeing all of this work would be very costly and probably not executed at a high level. More likely, there should be high standards set by the government that then private prisons would have to obey and follow.
No, but they should be strictly regulated to prevent mismanagement and corruption.
@97X8SFX2mos
Yes, but should be strictly regulated to federal standards and guidelines.
@97X2S8J2mos
Regardless, a formerly private company working for the government is a public actor.
No, we should abolish current prisons and return to biblical imprisonment policies
No, private prisons continue to make revenue with repeat offenders so rehabilitation is not an incentive.
@97VRQ322mos
No, eliminate prisons altogether
@97TYQYZ2mos
Yes and switch to a tent city prison system to save money
@97TBGKL2mos
No, they may or may not provide a better quality of care. More importantly, the private prisons could be bribed by or side with the criminals or other dangerous organizations.
@97N7TM63mos
No, private prisons have poor conditions and are for profit organizations designed to be cheap labor and offers little to no rehabilitation.
@97MFZFX3mos
I think a little bit of both because you would have to do back round checks on every one so there will be no jail breaks or criminal escapes I also know that people get busies so there will not be enough people to run the prison.
@97LZWCT3mos
No. If the state can sentence them, then the state can incarcerate them.
@97HTKL73mos
No there should be a separate agency that runs prisons with citizen oversight and advisory with power to sanction questionable actions of prison personnel.
@97KJJT33mos
No and abolish all private prisons
@97KGX3M3mos
No, America has a mass-incarceration issue that thrives with the privatized prison system.
@97G3JRQ3mos
Prisons should not make a profit.
@97G6FMV3mos
Only if they are disincentivized from keeping recidivism rates high and incentivized to reform prisoners.
@97FTLXM3mos
Before deciding on public or private we should know what we actually want them to accomplish and have a way to measure success.
@97CQS543mos
There should be no private companies doing prisons. And prisons should not be for profit...!
@97CPRSD3mos
No, capitalizing the prison system is a bad idea and would make accountability more difficult.
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