CL& 105

Privatized Corrections
Introduction To Corrections

William Fullam 6/7/2011

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Contents
Introduction The Mission Statement Corrections Corporation of America Resources Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 8

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Introduction

In the early 1960s, private business and personal housing was used to hold inmates released back into society. These were the first halfway houses, designed to hold ex-prisoners while they adapted and worked their way back into mainstream society. Two decades later the government had contracts all over the country with private halfway houses in housing the newly released adult prisoners. Juvenile detention centers were the next to privatize due to the rapid growth of the juvenile delinquency rate and the enactment of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Protection Act. The JJDPA, stopped the incarceration of juveniles with adult prisoners and forced the juvenile justice system to find new areas to house the juvenile offenders. Reform schools and other detention facilities were needed and private companies made themselves available. In 1984, the first privatized contract to house adult prisoners was made with the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). This small facility held only two hundred and fifty adults in the state of Tennessee. The idea was to help the government cut the cost for itself while keeping society safe from the inmates. In 1990, there were 9,000 inmates locked up in a private facility and by 2004, there was almost 100,000 inmates. A private prison is any secure correctional facility, operated by an organization other than the governmental agency and usually in a for-

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profit manner that contracts with the government to provide security, housing, and programs for adult offenders (Seiter (2008) pg 168. Corrections: An Introduction).

The Mission Statement

There is a purpose in having prisons. They are a place to hold the convicted criminals that are not capable of participating in society. There are goals of prisons; both state and federal prisons have missions and objectives to achieve those goals. The mission of the state prison system is created through the legislature. A common mission statement for prisons is to supervise criminal offenders during the period of their sentence, protect the public, and offer programs that assist in the rehabilitation of the criminals. The mission statement of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is To protect society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and that provide work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens (http://www.bop.gov/about/mission.jsp). There are two parts to both mission statements, to protect the inmate and treat them humanely, to secure them from society so they can do no more harm and to offer programs to help rehabilitate them self and become active members of society again. If there were no mission or goal for the prison system then there would be no chance for reform of the inmate. The recidivism rate would be higher than it already is and society would crumble with fear. These mission statements are goals that must be achieved so that there is some chance for security and rehabilitation of the inmate. It is very

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important to try and rehabilitate an offender, because without this treatment there would be no chance for them to return to society and be a productive member.

Corrections Corporation of America

The first facility the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) opened was in 1884, contracted through the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The facility was for the detention of immigrants waiting on a decision of their immigration case or deportation. Some six years later CCA opened its first medium security privately owned prison in Louisiana. The first maximum-security facility was the Leavenworth Detention Center in 1992. The U.S. Marshall Service contracted CCA to operate the facility. CCA has continued to grow in facilities and prison it either owns or operates, despite some controversial accusations and lawsuits. The mission statement for CCA has many components and goals; Safety and Security Dedicate every action to safe and secure correctional facilities. Through training, skill and courage protect our communities, individuals in our care and each other. Quality Provide excellent correctional services every day. Offer positive programs to help offenders. Accountability Hold ourselves responsible for every action accountability to our partners in government, to the taxpayers and to our inmates. Service-Driven Serve with pride and dedication. Be flexible. Be great problemsolvers. Deliver on our promises. Cost Effectiveness Provide honest, fair and competitive pricing to our partners. Deliver value to taxpayers. Teamwork Share, inspire and help one another daily. Communication Listen well. Share information. Speak honestly and openly with intent to improve our efforts. Innovation Think creatively and boldly

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(www.cca.com/about/cca-way/). Security is the main taproot of the privatized prison, since this is the only business these companies work with they can master the design of the prison to maximize security from escape, other inmates against other inmates and the security of the staff. One of the greatest features of CCAs security is in the architectural design. Unit management divided a facility into smaller, more easily managed housing units, modified authority to the frontline level, allowing staff to de-escalate and solve problems. Using teams, the staff develops a thorough knowledge of inmates and the housing unit, which guides decisions about custody and care. Frontline officers are also better prepared to prevent inmate incidents and suppress gang activity. CCA also has different types of security teams available such as; K-9 units, emergency and rapid response teams, security threat groups to handle gang riots and fights, and special operations response teams to handle natural disasters such as flooding. Other aspects of the BOP mission statement needed from privatized prisons is programs that offer rehabilitation. CCA offers a wide range of services to their inmates to include; academic education, addiction treatment, vocational training, life skills training, along with outside physical activities and pre release programs to help adapt to outside living. These and many more are major parts of the mission of the BOP. During the past decade, a large portion of the newspaper and magazine articles written about CCA have focused on issues of abuse, violence, mismanagement, litigation or financial distress. Past misdeeds have led to the questioning of its legality, the incarceration of prisoners for profit. The motivation of people in the business to keep inmates locked up. Since the conception of the new privatized prisons and the profits that are being made, there has been much lobbying by these corporations for tougher prison sentencing for lesser crimes. Some of the people that work for some of these companies are walking hand in hand with big government officials. One lobbyist for CCA was married to the speaker of the house. Some other

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questionable actions is that CCA pays their employees at a lower wage to make up for profit losses, this encourages the staff to work subpar and not perform their job to the standards of the BOP. In March 2010, The ACLU filed suit against CCA in Idaho because guards are not protecting inmates from other violent inmates.[16] Newspaper stories and lawsuits have accused CCA of letting detainees die in custody as a result of poor health care. In January 2009, the company paid $79,230 in a settlement to an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was injured in an automobile accident while being transported to Florence, Arizona. At least nine deaths occurred at a CCA facility in Eloy, Arizona As of December 1, 2010, the corporation was being investigated by the FBI for an incident at their prison in Idaho Correctional Center. A video released by the Associated Press that shows a prison inmate being beaten unconscious with guards watching not taking action. Rather than taking responsibility for the actions the corporation has condemned the release of the video as "an unnecessary security risk to our staff, the inmates entrusted to our care and ultimately to the public." It is unfortunate that people entrusted to the security of society and the prisoners violate that trust. Although this happened in a private prison situations such as this happens in nonprivate federal and state prisons. Overall, these private companies supply the security and opportunity to rehabilitate and the mission statement of the Bureau of Prisons are adhered to. There will always be people that find negative aspects and questionable conduct on all rights to the inmates but the government is finding that overall the BOP mission is fulfilled.

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Resources
1). http://www.cca.com/ 2). http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Corrections_Corporation_of_America&printable=yes
3). Seiter (2008), Corrections: An Introduction 2nd Edition 4). http://www.bop.gov/