Private Correctional Facilities Research Articles

On the Other Side of the Looking Glass: COVID-19 Care in Immigration Detention

Immigration Detention is a patchwork of public and private correctional facilities overseen by ICE, a federal enforcement agency. In June 2021, ICE detained 16,460 adults in 121 facilities in 38 states, frequently alongside pretrial and sentenced inmates and U.S. Marshals Service prisoners, under varying conditions ICE established with five different sets of detention standards, all of them based on corrections case law and in effect today. Detainees have not fared well in ICE’s custody, especially during the pandemic. In CY2020, ICE processed 137,749 detainees, tested only 80,200 for COVID-19 (58%), and recorded 8622 positive cases (11%) at over 100 facilities. Most testing positive for COVID-19—7687 (89%)—contracted the virus in ICE custody, including eight detainees who died. An additional 14,728 detainees (18%) had one or more conditions placing them at high risk for severe illness due to COVID-19 of which ICE only released 5801 (39%). This paper utilizes ICE data and documents on government websites to evaluate ICE’s approach to detention management and explore its impact on conditions of detention and how it impeded its readiness and response to the pandemic. It concludes with recommendations that ICE decrease reliance on detention and decriminalize its policies and practices.

Why Do States Privatize their Prisons? The Unintended Consequences of Inmate Litigation

The United States has witnessed privatization of a variety of government functions over the last three decades. Media and politicians often attribute the decision to privatize to ideological commitments to small government and fiscal pressure. These claims are particularly notable in the context of prison privatization, where states and the federal government have employed private companies to operate and manage private correctional facilities. I argue that state prison privatization is not a function of simple ideological or economic considerations. Rather, prison privatization has been an unintended consequence of the administrative and legal costs associated with litigation brought by prisoners. I assemble an original database of prison privatization in the United States and demonstrate that the privatization of prisons is best predicted by the legal pressure on state corrections systems, rather than the ideological orientation of a state government.

Youth male identities in a correctional setting

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to explore how incarcerated male youth in the Midwest region of the United States experience and construct masculinity within a private correctional facility. Interviews with 29 incarcerated male youth, explore how masculine identities are constructed, performed and challenged in this setting and provide a deeper understanding into how juvenile correctional spaces influence how male youth develop new resources for expressing their gendered identities and rely on traditional notions of masculinity that can encourage delinquent behaviour. Major findings from the interviews include the role of aggression and competition for youth in the facility, especially through sports, the expressed importance of criminal activity as a strategy for ‘being a man,’ the desire to meet masculine standards of self-sufficiency within families and work that motivates delinquent behaviour, and their perspectives on women which distinguish themselves as men. The current study contributes to the literature examining relationships amongst genders, provides a voice for male juveniles living in residential treatment facilities, and contributes to the theoretical frameworks exploring how gender is constructed and negotiated through micro-level interactions.

“Humane” Immigration Enforcement and Latina Immigrants in the Detention Complex

We explore the criminalization of Latina immigrants through the interwoven network of social control created by law, the justice system, and private corporations—the immigration industrial complex. Considerable scholarly research has focused on understanding the overtly coercive practices of deportation and the consequences for families and communities; less attention has been devoted to the social control mechanisms of detention facilities and “Alternative to Detention Programs” (ATD programs) operating in the United States. We know relatively little about the consequences for immigrant populations, especially of the purported “humane” practices in the enforcement apparatus. Based on existing documents produced by governmental offices, including Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol, Government Accountability Office, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, and private correctional facilities, we conducted semistructured interviews with 11 immigration lawyers who have access to women who are and/or have been detained, are in supervised ATD programs, are/were in deportation proceedings, or attempt(ed) to claim asylum. An examination of immigration confinement, especially the laws and policy decisions behind the exponential increase in these detentions, reveals important gender dynamics in these practices. The subtle and benevolence-signaling discourse evoking “family,” “motherhood,” and the care of children masks the harsh “business as usual” tactics that treat women and their children in ways indistinguishable from those used in the criminal justice system. We contend that this feminized and infantilized language functions to conceal widespread civil and human rights violations, physical and sexual violence, and mistreatment reproduced by the immigration detention system today.

Judicial Intervention into Prisons: Comparing Private and Public Prisons from 1990 to 2005

ABSTRACTA mid-twentieth century prisoners’ rights revolution gave American prisoners unprecedented access to courts for exercising newly elaborated constitutional rights. The result was a tide of litigation brought by inmates and subsequent remedial court orders requiring corrections officials to improve conditions of confinement. It was in this context of aggressive judicial intervention into prison operations that the private prison industry emerged. Some early proponents of prison privatization claimed that the private sector could provide superior prison conditions and thereby reduce judicial intervention. This article assesses this claim empirically. It uses data on state and federal adult correctional facilities from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to compare the prevalence of reported court orders among public and private correctional facilities in the United States from 1990 through 2005. Results from a series of logistic regression analyses reveal that privatization has had little effect on the likelihood of judicial intervention into correctional facilities.

White privilege, juvenile justice, and criminal identities: a qualitative analysis of the perceptions and self-identification of incarcerated youth

This study examines in-depth interview data from thirty male juveniles incarcerated in a private correctional facility in the Midwest. Comparing the perceptions and experiences of 14 white male youth with 8 Native American, 4 black, and 4 Latino participants, white privilege was reflected in responses involving perceptions of the self as a ‘criminal’. Youth of all races described the effect of correctional facilities on their self-identification as a ‘criminal’ and youth of color were more likely than white youth to report the feeling that other community members viewed them as criminal before and after being arrested. Overall these findings demonstrate the ‘clean slate’ that white youth begin with compared to youth of color. Ultimately, time spent in a correctional facility appears to liken white youth’s perception of themselves as criminals to the self-identification of youth of color. Policy implications include implementing alternatives to incarceration, such as community service requirements to reintegrate youth into the community and avoid the negative effect of incarceration on the identities of juveniles. For youth of color, reducing racial discrimination is necessary to end the self-fulfilling prophecy and the sense of being labeled a criminal by the community prior to incarceration.

Where Have All the (White and Hispanic) Inmates Gone? Comparing the Racial Composition of Private and Public Adult Correctional Facilities

A great deal of research has documented racial disparities in imprisonment rates in the United States, but little work has been done to understand the process by which inmates are assigned to individual correctional facilities. This article extends research on racial disparities in imprisonment rates to consider racial disparities in inmate populations across prisons. Specifically, it examines the racial pattern of inmate placement in privately operated and publicly operated correctional facilities. Analysis of American adult correctional facilities reveals that, in 2005, White inmates were significantly underrepresented (and Hispanic inmates overrepresented) in private correctional facilities relative to public ones. Results from multilevel models show that being privately operated (as opposed to publicly operated) decreased the White share of a facility’s population by more than eight percentage points and increased the Hispanic share of a facility’s population by nearly two percentage points, net of facility- and state-level controls. These findings raise legal questions about equal protection of inmates and economic questions about the reliance of private correctional firms on Hispanic inmates.

The Double Edged Sword of Prison Video Visitation: Claiming to Keep Families Together While Furthering the Aims of the Prison Industrial Complex

Each year, the United States (“U.S.”) spends billions to house the country’s massive prison population. The need to board over 2.3 million incarcerated human beings has U.S. correctional departments looking for ways to increase revenues and offset costs. According to these correctional agencies, one major expense is prison visitation. In order to reduce spending and alleviate safety concerns, U.S. federal, state, and private correctional facilities have turned to video visitation as an alternative to in-person visits.The use of prison video visitation systems started in 1995. Since then, many private telecommunications companies have professed to have the solution to correctional visitation problems. These companies promote video visitation as a cheap, safe, and easy alternative to in-person visits, as well as a profitable means of generating revenues. Government and private correctional institutions, buying into these endorsements, have reduced or completely eliminated face-to-face visits and installed video visitation systems within their walls. Under this structure, inmates use video stations in their cellblock to visit family and friends at corresponding video kiosks within the institution; or inmates visit loved-ones who are at home or elsewhere outside prison walls via computer Internet video visitation.In order to sell this method of visitation to the public, U.S. correctional agencies contend that video visitation helps to keep families together by allowing inmates greater contact opportunities with loved ones. In some regards, it may be argued that video visitation does assist in the preservation of family units. Inmates are often forced to serve time in prisons miles away from their homes, so outside visits are far and few between. Yet, through the use of in-home video visitation configurations, inmates are able to connect with relatives who reside hours away.At first glance, this visitation scheme may seem beneficial, but this Article argues that prison video visitation is a double edge sword. First, prison video visitation may help preserve family units while people are incarcerated, but the elimination of face-to-face visits robs inmates of much needed human contact with their children, spouses, and other family members. Second, almost all in-home prison video visitation systems exploit the relatives and friends of inmates because they charge excessive fees to visit. Third, the economic success of prison video visitation systems is contingent on the number of incarcerated humans. So, like other profiteering schemes of the Prison Industrial Complex (“PIC”), prison video visitation incentivizes incarceration: A decrease in the prison population has a corollary effect on million dollar revenues and corporate profits, hence compelling the need to detain more U.S. inhabitants.Consequently, this Article argues that face-to-face visitation should be the primary means of contact for families that visit at prison facilities. In order to accomplish this goal, inmates must be assigned to correctional facilities close to their homes if space is available and there is no proven risk to security. Additionally, if prison video visitation is utilized, any fees associated with its use must be regulated to insure that the financial expense is not exorbitant.

To Be or Not to Be Committed: The Effects of Continuance and Affective Commitment on Absenteeism and Turnover Intent among Private Prison Personnel

Despite the recent burgeoning of the private prison industry, little research has focused on private prison personnel. This study attempts to help fill this research gap by examining the relationship between two distinct forms of organizational commitment, continuance and affective, and the withdrawal outcomes of absenteeism and turnover intent for personnel at a Midwestern U.S. private prison. Results of an ordinary least squares (OLS) multivariate regression analysis supported our prediction of an inverse relationship between affective organizational commitment and the withdrawal outcomes of absenteeism and turnover intent; however, contrary to our hypotheses, the analysis indicated no statistically significant relationship between continuance organizational commitment and these withdrawal outcomes, after controlling for custody position, gender, age, tenure, education, race, and supervisory status. Our results suggest that enhancing employees’ affective organizational bonds should be a priority for private correctional facilities because it has positive effects for both employees and the organization.

The Relationship between Job Stressors and Job Involvement among Correctional Staff: A Test of the Job Strain Model

AbstractMuch of the research on correctional staff over the past two decades has focused on how the job environment and demographic variables influence job stress and job satisfaction. The issue of job involvement has largely been ignored. As correctional employees are such an important part of corrections, understanding how job stressors affect job involvement is essential. An analysis of survey data from a private correctional facility in the US Midwest examined the effects of the relationship between the job stressors of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, and perceived dangerous of the job with job involvement. Multivariate analysis with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression indicated that role conflict and dangerousness of the job had significant effects on job involvement, but role ambiguity and role overload did not. It is hoped that this study will spark further research in the area.

Research Note – Strain-Based Work-Family Conflict and its Relationship with Perceptions of Distributive and Procedural Justice among Correctional Staff

Fairness and justice are valued concepts throughout the entire criminal justice system, and they do not resonate any less with employees in the field of corrections. Distributive and procedural justice, two dimensions of organizational justice, were postulated to have salient outcomes for correctional staff. While a growing number of studies have examined the effects of distributive and procedural justice, their effects have not been fully explored. Strain-based work-family conflict occurs when conflict at work spills over and has a detrimental effect on home life. Hierarchical regression analysis of two different surveys of correctional staff, one at a private correctional facility for juveniles run on behalf of the state and another at an adult public state-run correctional facility, indicated that both distributive justice and procedural justice had negative relationships with strain-based work-family conflict.

Examining the effects of stressors on organizational citizenship behaviors among private correctional staff: A preliminary study

Much of the research on correctional officers over the past two decades has focused on job stress, job satisfaction, the job environment and how demographic variables such as gender, race, health and family conflict have influenced stress and job satisfaction. Little attention, however, has been placed on organizational citizenship and its relationship to correctional staff. Using survey data from a private correctional facility in the Midwest, this article examined how the stressors of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload and perceived dangerousness of the job affected organizational citizenship behaviors. In multivariate analysis, role ambiguity was found to have a significant negative effect on organizational citizenship behaviors, and perceived dangerous of the job had a significant positive effect.

The Effects of Job Involvement on Private Correctional Staff: A Preliminary Study

Much of the research on correctional officers over the past two decades has focused on job stress, job satisfaction, the job environment, and how demographic variables such as gender, race, health and family conflict influenced stress and job satisfaction. Because correctional staff is such an integral part of corrections, understanding job involvement and its impact on correctional employees is important, yet it has received little attention in the literature. Using survey data from a private correctional facility in the Midwest, the authors examined the effects of job involvement on job stress, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, absenteeism, and turnover intentions. A multivariate analysis indicated that job involvement had significant effects on all the predicted outcome variables.

Producing Precarity: The Temporary Staffing Agency in the Labor Market

On the basis of fieldwork in a temporary staffing agency (TSA), I argue that while temp agencies may provide transitional mobility for jobseekers, in the long run the TSA systematically exploits and reproduces structural vulnerability in the labor market. The agency creates a core of permanent temporary workers separate from the periphery of surplus workers, such that the former is given priority in job allocation. The staffing agency can use alliances with institutions such as private correctional facilities to control its peripheral workers. At the same time, highly valued core workers also face precarious conditions when they are barred from job mobility and their wages are capped. The agency further reinforces precariousness during the moment of work by extending the agency’s surveillance to client sites.

Creating a Positive Workplace Experience: The Issue of Support from Supervisors and Management in Shaping the Job Stress, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment of Private Correctional Staff

The number of private correctional facilities operated by corporate security businesses has increased rapidly over the past 30 years. There has been a parallel increase in literature, both pro and con, comparing the efficiency and effectiveness of private and public prisons; however, employees of private correctional facilities have been largely ignored. This is a serious oversight in light of the fact that employees are the backbone of these facilities. Organizational support is an aspect of the work environment that may have significant effects on employees. Supervisory support and management support are the two dimensions of organizational support. Multi-variate analysis found that both forms of organizational support are important. Specifically, supervisory support and management support were found to have negative effects on job stress and positive effects on job satisfaction and organizational commitment among employees at a private correctional facility.

The Impact of the Work Environment on Prison Staff: The Issue of Consideration, Structure, Job Variety, and Training

Correctional staff are instrumental in ensuring the success of any correctional institution; therefore, investigating how the work environment impacts correctional workers is essential. To determine the effects of supervisory consideration, supervisory structure, job variety, and perceptions of training on correctional staff job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, data from a survey of staff at a Midwestern private correctional facility were examined. The Ordinary Least Squares regression results indicate that each of the work environment factors had a significant impact on one or more of the three outcomes. Specifically, supervisory consideration and perceptions of training decreased job stress. Supervisory consideration, job variety, and perceptions of training had positive effects on job satisfaction. Finally, supervisory consideration, supervisory structure, job variety, and perceptions of training had positive relationships with organizational commitment.

I Want to Know and I Want to Be Part of It: The Impact of Instrumental Communication and Integration on Private Prison Staff

ABSTRACT The number of private correctional facilities has increased rapidly during the past twenty years. While there is a growing body of literature on private correctional facilities, most of the focus has compared the efficiency and effectiveness of private versus public correctional institutions. The impact of the work environment on private prisons has been rarely studied. Staff are the most valuable resource for any correctional organization; hence, it is important to study how the work environment shapes the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment levels of private prison staff. Two important work environment factors are instrumental communication and integration. This study examined the effects of instrumental communication and integration on the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of staff at a Midwestern private correctional facility. Using the survey response of 160 respondents, it was found that both instrumental communication and integration had significant effects on job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

Correctional Services Corporation v. Malesko: Boss, “They Can’t Hurt You Now”

Over the past 20 years, issues surrounding the privatization of various services within correctional settings have been revisited in the United States and internationally. Almost without question, the motivation for implementing privatization of various services within a correctional setting (if not the entirety of an institution, for example) is by nature fiscal. The area of corrections has been the subject of much debate and growth regarding privatization. Yet the newest dawn of the private prison has left many questions unanswered. The answers will likelybe found through litigation on the federal level, and most of the questions will likely deal with issues of liability and culpability. This article focuses on the recent Supreme Court case ofCorrectional Services Corporation v. Malesko (2001). This case addressed the use of afederal civil rights remedy, a Bivens action, against a private correctional facility. As such,the case opinion helps to settle some of the issues surrounding the liability of private correctional institutions as well as generate policy considerations significant to correctional management.

The Search for the Frugal Grail: An Empirical Assessment of the Cost-Effectiveness of Public Versus Private Correctional Facilities

The privatization of corrections has become a growth industry in the United States. Privatization advocates often argue from a "public choice" theoretical perspective, holding that private entities will be more efficient providers of correctional services than their public counterparts (i.e., the "efficiency hypothesis"). This contention, however, has not been empirically demonstrated due to certain methodological limitations such as the selection of model facilities, inadequate sample sizes, and a lack of sophisticated statistical controls. This paper seeks to remedy these empirical problems surrounding the efficiency hypothesis by examining a nationwide census of public and private facilities for juveniles. The results indicate that, on the whole, private correctional facilities for juveniles are no more cost-effective than public facilities; yet, specific types of private institutions (low security, non-detention center-type facilities such as halfway houses and shelters) tend to be more cost-effective under private management.

Punishment for profit: private prisons/public concerns

Introduction A Historical Review of Private Prisons Conceptual and Theoretical Issues Legal Issues Contract and Monitoring Issues Economic Issues Quality Issues Management and Personnel Issues Empirical Evaluations of Private Correctional Facilities Further Considerations