by Bradley Streeter

Created on: April 24, 2008

While I do not claim to be an expert on criminal justice, I do see the value of privatization in most areas traditionally thought to be the province of the state. With the right safeguards, the incarceration (and hopefully, rehabilitation) of criminals should be no exception.

The sentiment against privatization of government services is typically a gut reaction, an understandable resistance to change and an affirmation of the way things have always been done.

Just as in any contractual relationship, the key to a privatization effort is the realization of an effective manner of setting and monitoring the correct variables. There is no theoretical difference between contracting for prison services and contracting for housekeeping services. If safety is an issue, find a way to quantify and measure for safety. This is most likely accomplished by proxy (e.g. measuring the number of guards with a certain level of training).

There is absolutely no reason to believe that the state "cares" any more about civil rights than a corporation does. Citizens grant the state a monopoly on the use of force, which the state uses to pass and enforce laws. The state has no noble purpose. Those that make up the state have the express goal of pleasing their constituents. Likewise, those that make up a corporation have the express goal of pleasing their shareholders. Why is the idea that a corporation who has contracted with the state might abuse prisoners more appalling than the idea that the state might abuse prisoners? The profit motive? The profit motive is just as good a stick as it is a carrot. The state cares not whether a prisoner is abused. If such an indiscretion is found, the perpetrating employee is fired. There are more remedies against a corporation, including depriving the corporation of the dreaded profit for the actions of employees.

There are many examples of the privatization of traditionally state-provided services, some successful and others failures. The failures are due to ineffective contracting by the parties. The key to effective privatization is the key to any other commercial relationship. Define variables (or proxies for these variables) that can be measured and work them into the contract between the state and the service provider. There will likely be adjustments needed and the first run isn't likely to be perfect. But it's not like trial and error in the criminal justice system didn't get us to where we are today (which is, obviously, still far from perfect).

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