What Good are Markets in Punishment?

Abstract

This paper challenges the attention given to prison privatization, suggesting the phenomenon is less significant than often asserted. It then shows how privatization is, however, part of an important trend in criminal justice generally, which is the marketization of knowledge and practice. Marketization involves the introduction of a market ethos so that public actors come to think of themselves and are judged in their jobs as business managers. A managerial culture has not brought about market efficiencies but has led to transformation in professional identity and organisational arrangements.

Keywords: privatization, prisons, punishment, managerialism, New Public management, markets