Privatizing Prisons: Rhetoric and Reality

Debro, Julius; James, Adrian; Bottomley, A. Keith; Liebling, Alison; Clare, Emma

doi:10.2307/2654536

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Dunham (1986) argued that some private facilities, in their efforts to reduce costs, could be violating prisoner rights. Furthermore, in his review of a book by James et al, Debro (1998) reported that a British study did not suggest that private prisons were more efficient, although they tended to be newer. Lappin et al (2005) evaluated the performance of private prisons between a federal facility maintained by Wackenhut and several BOP comparison facilities of equivalent design and security level that were constructed at the same time, housing similar types of inmates.…”

Section: Issues In the Privatization Of Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inmate Recidivism as a Measure of Private Prison Performance

Spivak

Sharp

2008

Crime & Delinquency

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The growth of the private corrections industry has elicited interest in the comparative performance of state and private prisons. One way to measure the service quality of private prisons is to examine inmates' postrelease performance. Current empirical evidence is limited to four studies, all conducted in Florida. This analysis replicates and adds to the Florida measures in a different state and enhances previous methods. It uses data for a large cohort of Oklahoma state prison inmates released between 1997 and 2001. Controlling for known covariates, multivariate survival analysis revealed comparative rates of reincarceration for inmates in multiple exposure and comparison groups. These results are unique among prior studies on this topic; private prison inmates had a greater hazard of recidivism in all eight models tested, six of which were statistically significant. Finding no empirical support for claims of superior service from private corrections, the authors discuss policy implications and prospects for future research.

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Section: Issues In the Privatization Of Prisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inmate Recidivism as a Measure of Private Prison Performance

Spivak

Sharp

2008

Crime & Delinquency

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Using Action Research to Improve Race Relations in Prisons

Ellis¹

2019

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

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Tackling racism in prisons has a relatively long policy, practice, and research history in England and Wales. However, clear evidence of success in reducing racism in prisons has been, and still is, difficult to find. This article is based on a unique study that was carried out either side of the new millennium (late 1999 to mid-2001), but no equivalent exercise has been repeated since. Due to a unique set of circumstances at the time the study was carried out, it became possible to employ an action research approach that required policymakers, practitioners, volunteers, and researchers to agree on: an emergent research design; implementation; intervention; and measurement. There are many forms of action research, but this study could best be defined as a “utilization-focused evaluation, which is particularly applicable to the criminal justice environment. This approach also included elements of participatory action research.” The emphasis here is to show how the action research approach can be both more systematic and more flexible than traditional social science approaches. This applies to both epistemological and research methods considerations, because, by combining theory and action, action research can provide a more viable way of ensuring that policy works in practice, and is sensitive to unique institutional exigencies. Throughout, discussion is contextualised using policy, research and methodology texts from the period when the research was commissioned, but given an overall methodological context by referencing more recent methodology text books. The article first outlines the context in which the action research study was commissioned, before providing a summary of the international research findings on race relations in prisons, from which key concepts for the project were initially operationalized. The chapter then explains how the specific participatory action research approach was selected as the most appropriate design, the extent to which the approach was successful, and why. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of findings and conclusions from this study for current policy and methodological approaches.

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Measuring Prison Performance: Government Privatization and Accountability. By Gerald G. Gaes, Scott D. Camp, Julianne B. Nelson, William G. Saylor (Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2004, pp223, £21.00pb.)

Liebling

2006

The British Journal of Criminology

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Privatizing Prisons: Rhetoric and Reality

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Inmate Recidivism as a Measure of Private Prison Performance

Inmate Recidivism as a Measure of Private Prison Performance

Using Action Research to Improve Race Relations in Prisons

Measuring Prison Performance: Government Privatization and Accountability. By Gerald G. Gaes, Scott D. Camp, Julianne B. Nelson, William G. Saylor (Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2004, pp223, £21.00pb.)

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