tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10214951.post2711125435432360697..comments2024-03-17T08:07:12.695-05:00Comments on Between The Lines: Prison sales challenge putting govt jobs ahead of peopleJeff Sadowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03972004592729833310noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10214951.post-85723493982522168432011-03-14T23:03:53.058-05:002011-03-14T23:03:53.058-05:00Dr. Sadow,
Some observations about your post on &...Dr. Sadow,<br /><br />Some observations about your post on "privatization" of prisons. As you alternately use the term "contracting," you agree that this is simple government contracting for performance of a government function. Government contracting has a set of problems you do not raise: oversight costs, design of RFP process, and design of RFP specifications.<br /><br />The Archambeault and Deis study has not been highly-regarded universally. For instance, Scott and Daggett, http://www.bop.gov/news/research_projects/published_reports/pub_vs_priv/camp_daggett.pdf (6/27/2005), pg. 7, "the limitations of this study are common in the literature." and "their research design treated the prisons as though they differed in only random ways when this was clearly not the case." Also see Greene, Judith, Comparing Private and Public Prison Services and Programs in Minnesota: Findings from Prisoner Interviews,Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Vol. II, No. 2, pg. 7, "Other researchers have heavily criticized various elements of their methodology, however."<br /><br />Bayer and Pozen found that private juvenile corrections facilities in Florida had a worse recidivism rate though more efficient operations. http://aida.econ.yale.edu/~pjb37/JuvCorrFac-Final.pdf <br /><br />One of the criticisms of the LSU study was assuming similarity in inmate populations. Pratte and Mahs found lower costs in private mixed and maximum security prisons and lower costs in public minimum and medium security prisons. They noted none of the cost differences was statistically significant. Quoted at pg. 77 in http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-12012004-093956/unrestricted/CHAP4DataAnalysis.pdf<br /><br />Camp and Daggett, id at pg. 26, concluded that the private prison did not perform as well as the three public prisons used for comparison.<br /><br />And prison contracts do not lend themselves to highly competitive bidding. There are few competitors; they pursue a long-term service contract rather than providing commodity supplies at a spot price; and the ratable items are forward-looking without adjusting for performance (bids are $ per inmate per day without consideration for outcomes). Additionally, as has been pointed out elsewhere, private entities put profit ahead of quality. Recidivism, I believe, is more driven by the quality of corrections services than by the cost incurred in providing those services. After all, the goal here is to protect the public both from harmful offenders and from reoffenders.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10214951.post-37427652794730891152011-02-25T09:37:25.416-06:002011-02-25T09:37:25.416-06:00Sadow,
You are, without a doubt, the biggest kook...Sadow,<br /><br />You are, without a doubt, the biggest kook POS anybody has ever read. What a joke!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10214951.post-67002198416894848592011-02-25T09:02:07.309-06:002011-02-25T09:02:07.309-06:00Why don't we just sell all the prisons to judg...Why don't we just sell all the prisons to judges and sheriffs and pay them based on prison population? That way, they can make more arrests, give longer sentences, and cash in while doing it.Landman of the Apocalypsehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11398585841170348856noreply@blogger.com