Changing the guard : private prisons and the control of crime / edited by Alexander Tabarrok.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Tabarrok, Alexander.

Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prisons--United States.

Prisons.

United States.

Corrections--Contracting out--United States.

Corrections.

Corrections--Contracting out.

Privatization--United States.

Privatization.

Physical Description:

xi, 231 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oakland, Calif. : Independent Institute, [2003]

Summary:

Changing the Guard is an authoritative book on one of the most controversial aspects of criminal justice and corrections: the growing use of private prisons. When prison privatization began in the United States in the early 1980s, many policy analysts claimed it would increase costs, decrease quality and erode authority. Has it? This book brings together leading criminal justice researchers to tackle this and related questions: Does prison privatization make economic sense? What are the prospects for enlarging prison privatization? Changing the Guard also examines the broader questions that surround the prison privatization debate: What do we know about punishment and recidivism? How long must a prison sentence be to deter crime? Are too many people in prison or too few? Should legal reform take precedence over prison reform to ensure that privatization does not simply make the criminal justice system more efficient at abusing civil liberties and executing legal injustices?

Contents:

2 The Economics of Prisons / Kenneth L. Avio 9

3 Correctional Privatization in America: An Assessment of Its Historical Origins, Present Status, and Future Prospects / Charles W. Thomas 57

4 Prison Privatization and Public Policy / Samuel Jan Brakel, Kimberly Ingersoll Gaylord 125

5 Do We Want the Production of Prison Services to Be More "Efficient"? / Bruce L. Benson 163.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

ISBN:

0945999879

OCLC:

52753364