The correctional-industrial complex: Crime pays

This dissertation analyzes the impact that private sector companies have had on the policy process that has resulted in private sector companies owning and managing prisons and jails in America. It also examines the stages in the policy process that have contributed to the correctional industrial complex and who are the major players? The criminal justice policies of three ideologically divergent American presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and William Clinton have contributed to record increases in the number of American males who are under the management or control of the American criminal justice system in which African-American males are disproportionately represented. The specific policies examined are the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act (Reagan), the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (Bush), and The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Clinton). A comparative case study approach is used to examine the practical implications of these anti-crime policies on the private-prison movement in two states, Ohio and New York. This study also examines how the major participants in the policy making process in the states of Ohio and New York developed their attitudes, behaviors, and perspectives in relation to the prison privatization debate.; The comparative study design was selected as research strategy. The data was gathered by face-to-face and telephone interviews with those directly involved in the development and implementation of prison privatization policy. The findings of this research clearly demonstrate that a number of factors have influenced the decision to privatize prisons in America. Although it is difficult to quantify their impact or degree of influence, their combined effect has been enough to generate incredible momentum enabling private sector prison management companies to compete with state governments for lucrative prison contracts. In addition, new prisons are being used as a source of economic development in depressed areas in America, with local officials interested in stable "recession proof" jobs and sources of commerce that prisons and jails have been advertised as bringing to their communities.; There are a number of services in the correctional environment where the private sector can play a positive role. The private sector has proven to be very effective in providing medical and mental health care, food service, alcohol and drug treatment programs in the nations prisons. The private sector has proven to be more adept at innovation and experimentation and finding new ways to deliver services than the public sector because they don't have as much "red-tape" as the public sector. If the state and private sector work closer together to develop innovative approaches to incarceration and work towards a rehabilitative model, prisons in America can be more effective in providing prisoners with the support they need to become productive citizens once they are released back into the community.