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Poor Oversight
One of my constant gripes about the private prison industry is the lack of oversight and transparency. Briefly, private prisons in all but 2 states are not required to comply with public records / Freedom of Information laws, as they are private entities. Many have argued that, because the industry performs an inherently governmental function, that it should be subject to the same sort of transparency that the government must abide by. Which is certainly a reasonable argument.
The natural consequence of the opacity of the industry is a weak oversight structure. If the public cannot review information about the way a private prison operates, then that public is ill-equipped to challenge issues that arise within the prison. Which brings me to this quick link from The American Independent. The title pretty accurately sums up the main point; “Expanding Private Prison Industry Benefits From Weak Oversight Structure.” It’s a really well-written and detailed article that lays out the problem in better terms than I can. Enjoy!
3 Comments
There should be no oversight, because THERE SHOULD BE NO PRIVATE PRISON INDUSTRY, nor should our massive public prison system exist in its current form.
Often times we need to recognize that when we seek to ‘reform’ an evil system, we implicitly validate that system.
Imka, I couldn’t agree more. However, I think abolition of the industry is still a long ways off on the horizon, so in the meantime I’d like to see some entity hold this industry accountable for the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who have suffered because of it. I obviously don’t want to further validate the system; in fact, i think with increased oversight, we could achieve quite the opposite. I literally cannot recall one piece of research performed on the industry that has been favorable, save for the research funded by the industry itself. every single statistical or qualitative measure studied regarding the industry demonstrates that private prisons are terribly inefficient and inhumane investments. i hope that with increased oversight, more politicians and social leaders would come to fight against the industry.