I recently had the opportunity to appear on HuffPost Live, The Huffington Post’s new Internet-based video streaming network, to discuss how federal and state policymakers partner with private prison operators (video embedded below).
The idea of partnering with for-profit operators can be challenging to some, however it is important to note public sector agencies (and their employees) don’t work for free. In fact, as the host of this program notes, they share many of the same incentives as for-profit prison operators. Meaningful criminal justice reform seeks to change these incentives and move towards performance-based outcomes on critical metrics like inmate education, recidivism reduction and more. My colleagues Adrian Moore and Leonard Gilroy outlined this new approach, dubbed Corrections 2.0, in a study of the same name available online here. Well-structured public-private partnerships also allow accountability through rigorously enforced contracts.
For more of Reason Foundation’s work on corrections and criminal justice, see the Prisons and Corrections Research Archive online here.
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