Private Prison Companies and Sentencing

Abstract

The use of private prisons in the United States to house federal and state inmates has added a voice to sentencing practice. This voice is unnecessary and should not exist as a concern in sentencing law and policy. Private prisons affect sentencing at the policy level through lobbying, networking, and by influence over judges’ sentencing decisions in individual cases. These methods of influencing sentencing are not always blatant, but they do exist. The United States should end the use of private prisons or adopt a hybrid model similar to that used in Europe to help quiet this unnecessary voice. However, eliminating the use of private prisons will not end the United States’ mass incarceration problem. Policy makers must address other causes of mass incarceration along with ending the use of private prisons. This paper will explore the history of private prisons in the United States, how private prisons influence sentencing, and potential solutions to end or improve the use of private prisons, while addressing the larger causes of mass incarceration. The suggested solution explored at the end of this paper is for the United States to develop and implement a hybrid model similar to that used in France, which eliminates completely private prisons, but still uses some private entities in the prison system. Eliminating private interests from the prison system entirely is unrealistic and unlikely given their long history of presence in the United States criminal justice system.

Keywords: private prisons, mass-incarceration, sentencing policy, for-profit detention, policy influence of private prison industry