Private Prisons

Private Prisons

A few years ago in The Globe and Mail it was noted that a couple of the Maritime provinces were looking at the option of opening 'private prisons' and that "running prisons for profit has become big business in the United States..."("Canada Putting Private Jails on Trial," Kevin Cox, May 8, 1995). Recently in Ontario it was announced that "the province will seek proposals from private firms to run the 1,200-bed jail being built in Penetanguishene" (London Free Press, A. Artuso, "Private Prisons Costly Failures, U.S. Advocate Warns Ontario", May 20, 2000). Since that announcement one private "Super jail" facility has been opened in Penetanguishene. At this time, its measure of success or failure in Canada cannot clearly be determined. However, a few preliminary articles have been written expressing opposing viewpoints on the future viability of the "private prisons".

While the 'prison industry' has not developed rapidly in this country, it has grown elsewhere in the world and some U.S. corporations now operate prisons internationally. A 2002 report by the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition reflects the Colorado private prison experience. As well, a nationwide survey was undertaken by Scott Camp and Gerald Gaes - Growth and quality of U.S. private prisons: Evidence from a national survey Criminology & Public Policy; Jul 2002 - which compared private and federal institutions wherever possible. The full 50 page study and report compiled by these same authors entitled Quality of Prison Operations in the U.S. Federal Sector: A Comparison with a Private Prison gives an in depth analysis of the situation.

Articles on the subject are also easy to locate using various databases. For example, for a Canadian and U.S. business perspective use ProQuest (Quick links - Databases by Title) which will yield many pieces on the issues, the industry and the companies involved in incarceration activities (see e.g. "Privatizing Correctional Institutions: An Organizational Perspective", David Schichor, The Prison Journal, June 1999). For broader coverage and for international articles try Lexis/Nexis (e.g. "Creating Private Prisons Was a Criminally Bad Idea," in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 23, 2000). Ask for assistance in choosing and using the wide array of databases that are accessible.

There are many articles on the companies involved in this 'industry'' and the business goes far beyond simply putting up prisons and running them. For example, there are 'bed brokers' who match inmates in overcrowded areas with prisons elsewhere and manufacturers produce everything from security cameras to "body-orifice security scanners". In some cases, inmates also provide labor for the private sector (e.g. see "Boom Economy Taps Prison Labor: The Private Sector is Short of Workers, But Are Cellblocks the Right Place to Look", The Christian Science Monitor, May 25, 2000). Apart from articles one can also locate financial information about the public companies that operate in this sector. See Bloomberg for information about the companies.
For assessments of the "Offender Management Industry" for the years 1997-2000 see these useful reports from Investext which were done by First Analysis Securities Corporation". Report 1997, Report 1998, Report 1999, Report 2000 and Report 2001

Recent Articles

For your convenience, you will find below: 1) Selected Books; 2) Older Selected Canadian articles and 3) Selected Companies in the Industry.

Selected Books in the Western Libraries

New Book: Tabarrok, Alexander (ed.); Changing the Guard: Private Prisons and the Control of Crime DBW (2002)

You may also wish to see the FASC (First Analysis Corporation) Industry Outlooks on Offender Management available from
1997 - 2002
HV8665.F37

Christie, Nils
Crime Control as Industry: Towards Gulags, Western Style?
DBW stack HV8705.C4813 2000.

Edgell, Stephen.
Debating the Future of the Public Sphere: Transforming the Public and Private Domains in Free Market Societies.
DBW stack HD3842.E34 1995.

Harding, Richard
Private Prisons and Public Accountability
DBW stack HV8706.H37 1997.

Johnson, Robert
Hard Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison
DBW stack HV9471.J64 1996.

Logan, Charles H.
Private Prisons: Cons and Pros
DBW stack HV9469.L64 1990.

McDonald, Douglas C.
Private Prisons and the Public Interest
DBW stack HV9469.P75 1990.

Robbins, Ira P.
The Legal Dimensions of Private Incarceration
LAW stack KF9736.R63 1988.

Shichor, David
Punishment for Profit: Private Prisons/Public Concerns
DBW stack HV9469.S55 1995.

Stern, Vivien
A Sin Against the Future: Imprisonment in the World
DBW stack HV9443.S74 1998.

Tonry, Michael Ed.
The Handbook of Crime and Punishment
DBW stack HV6789.H25 1998.

United States General Accounting Office
Private and Public prisons: Studies comparing operational costs and/or quality of service: report to the subcommittee on Crime, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives

For a discussion of this report see "Private Prisons: A Question of Savings," by Nzong Xiong in the New York Times, July 13, 1997, p.5. For a very brief, earlier government report from the Rand Corporation see: Private Enterprise Prisons? Why Not? The Job Would be Done Better and at Less Cost., Peter Greenwood, RDL US7 RC12P6618. 1981.

Vagg, Jon
Prison Systems: A Comparative study of Accountability in England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands
DBW stack HV9640.5.V34 1994.

Selected Articles from the Canadian Press

Update - July 21, 2000

The province of Ontario has signed a $3.4 million deal with Casatta Ltd. of Kitchener to manage the York Detention Centre in Toronto. The firm reportedly runs youth facilities in Guelph, Cambridge, Burlington and Toronto. The article in which this is reported indicates that public sentiment seems to be against privately-run prisons, but that the government is quietly handing over the operations of such facilities. See, Tom Blackwell, "Private Firm to Operate Detention Centre," National Post, July 21, 2000, p.a16.

"Private prisons bad idea for Ontario, U.S. official warns"
The Canadian Press
Wednesday, May 17, 2000
"Group opposed to private superjail airs complaints at Ontario legislature"
The Canadian Press
Tuesday, April 11, 2000
"Jailhouse operators look to lock in profits: Investors disgruntled with private prisons' returns"
The Financial Post
Saturday, August 14, 1999
"Prisons are at risk"
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Friday, May 26, 2000
"Private prisons are a bad idea for Ontario, U.S. official warns"
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Thursday, May 18, 2000
"Tories plan more private superjails"
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Thursday, April 20, 2000
"Selling off the jails isn't legal"
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Tuesday, April 4, 2000
"Privatizing prisons wrong, council says"
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Tuesday, February 8, 2000
"Private prisons costly failures, U.S. advocate warns ontario"
The London Free Press
Saturday, May 20, 2000
"Private prisons called disaster"
The London Free Press
Thursday, May 18, 2000
"Private prisons 'don't work': British expert criticizes Ontario plan for new jails"
National Post
Monday, February 21, 2000
"Recidivism rates easily manipulated"
The Toronto Star
Friday, May 5, 2000
"Superjail 'model' for private prisons"
The Toronto Star
Thursday, April 20, 2000
"'You better be damned careful'"
The Toronto Star
Sunday, November 28, 1999
"Ball & chain"
The Toronto Star
Sunday, October 3, 1999
"Jailhouse blues ontario towns feel sense of betrayal as gov't leans to private-run jails"
The Toronto Sun
Sunday, April 2, 2000

Selected "Prison Companies"

Privately held:
Management Training Corp. (running the facility in Penetanguishene)
Casatta Ltd. (running the York Detention Centre in Toronto)

Publicly Traded: