Prison Privatization: The (Ir)Relevance of Accounting

Abstract

In 2008, the New South Wales ͑NSW͒ Government announced its intention to privatize two of the State's prisons. This was a significant change in policy, a move that was justified publicly on the grounds that it would produce significant cost savings. This paper explores the way costs have been referenced within the public discussion on prison privatization in NSW to provide a basis for the decision. Little externally verifiable evidence could be found to support the government's claim that the proposed privatization would save tax-payer funds; instead, this work shows how justifications based on costs became self referential, taking on a life of their own. Given that there is little "real" evidence to argue the government's policy was rational on cost grounds, this paper explores how references to costs in public debate can be used to justify and reinforce privatization decisions without significant critique.Social democracy's continuing philosophical claim to political legitimacy is its capacity to balance the private and the public, profit and wages, the market and the state.-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ͑2009͒

Unshackling Accounting in Prisons: Race, Gender, and Class

“…The research has exposed dsyfunctionalities and inhumanness of prison administration (Andrew, 2007(Andrew, , 2010(Andrew, , 2011Andrew & Cahill, 2009;Cooper & Taylor, 2004;Taylor & Cooper, 2008). Recognizing that "accountability in its modern manifestation has become a largely technical and instrumental process…accountability for prison policies and practices has an undeniable moral component that needs to be addressed" (Andrew, 2007, p. 877).…”

Accountability and Oversight of State Functions

“…This focus on the expedient and technical measures of efficiency, Armstrong (2003) argued, has displaced attention from the fundamental issues of prisons' moral worth and practical accomplishments (see also Coyle, 2005). The debate concerning accountability has never been framed in terms of accountability of regimes of punishment and prisons generally, and has instead had an overt focus on the critique of private operation of penal establishments (Andrew, 2010). The overwhelming emphasis on efficiency and procedural accountability has helped obfuscate the ethical and moral dilemmas of the infliction of punishment within state institutions.…”