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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:32 am
Time: 3:32 am
Results for correctional administration (arizona)
1 results foundAuthor: Isaacs, Caroline Title: Private Prisons: The Public's Problem - A Quality Assessment of Arizona's Private Prisons Summary: Arizona has enthusiastically embraced prison privatization, with 13% of the state prison population housed in private facilities (the 11th highest percentage in the nation). Motivated by a belief that private enterprise could build and manage prisons safely and at lower cost than the state, the legislature has mandated construction of thousands of private prison beds. Little was done over the years to test actual performance of private prisons or to determine their cost effectiveness. In the summer of 2010, three inmates escaped from the privately operated Kingman prison, killed two people, and shattered the myth that private prisons can keep us safe. Since that time, more evidence has come to light unmasking the truth about the private prison industry in Arizona: It is costly, plagued by security problems, and in some cases is violating state and federal law. State leaders have failed in their responsibility to protect the public, to provide adequate oversight of this industry, or to hold the corporations accountable for their failures. This report is the first of its kind in Arizona. To date, no independent analysis of the performance and quality of all private and public prisons has been undertaken. Such an analysis is long overdue, given that private prisons have operated in Arizona for decades, and the state has invested billions of taxpayer dollars into this industry. The people of Arizona have had little or no evidence that these prisons are safe, cost effective, or competent at fulfilling the job taxpayers pay them to do. When AFSC learned that the state had not properly monitored and reported on private prison operations since state law mandated it in 1987, AFSC undertook its own investigation into the private prison industry in Arizona. The Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) later announced that it would complete the statutorily-required biennial comparison review, which was released on December 21, 2011. The ADC study contains very little methodological information or supporting data, suffers from inconsistent data collection procedures, and overlooks important measures of prison safety. By contrast, AFSC’s report incorporates data that was omitted or deemed to be outside the scope of the ADC review, including security audits of private prisons before and after the Kingman escapes and data on six prisons operated by Corrections Corporation of America that are located in Arizona but do not contract with the state, putting them outside state oversight. In addition, AFSC’s analysis incorporates additional performance measures which have emerged as important aspects of the debate over prison privatization: recidivism, accountability, and transparency. The most common measurement of the effectiveness of a prison is its ability to reduce recidivism. Yet private prison corporations flatly refuse to measure their recidivism rates. The issues of accountability and transparency made headlines in 2010 when it was revealed that lobbyists for Corrections Corporation of America may have had a hand in drafting SB 1070, Arizona’s controversial anti-immigrant bill, which potentially represented millions of dollars in revenue for the corporation through lucrative immigrant detention contracts. Since then, more and more evidence has surfaced revealing the various prison corporations’ efforts to buy influence with state and federal governments, particularly through the involvement of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group whose members consist of elected officials and corporate lobbyists. ALEC holds conferences at exclusive resorts where legislators and corporate representatives draft model legislation that members introduce in their various home states. Yet this activity is not considered lobbying under many states’ law, and the reimbursements ALEC provides to legislators (and their spouses) for travel and lodging at these conferences are not reported as political contributions. Most importantly, AFSC’s analysis found patterns of serious safety lapses in all the private prisons for which data was available. Together, this data demonstrates a set of problems endemic to the industry that could lead to future tragedies like the Kingman escapes. Malfunctioning security systems go unrepaired for months, leading staff to ignore safety protocols. Under-trained guards combined with poor state oversight leads to assaults, disturbances, and riots. For-profit prison staff members are too often unprepared, or unwilling, to intervene in these events, and risk losing control of the facilities. Insufficient rehabilitation programs, educational opportunities, or jobs for the prisoners provide idle time for conflicts to brew. The result is facilities that are unsafe for the people living and working inside them, as well as the surrounding community. Regardless of differing political views, most Arizonans want the same thing from their prisons: Increased public safety. Yet the state has deliberately obscured information that would cast private prisons in a negative light. It is critical that the people of Arizona and our elected representatives have solid, objective data on which to base important decisions about the future of our prisons. Billions of tax-payer dollars and the safety of our communities hang in the balance. ADC cancelled the Request for Proposals (RFP) for 5,000 private prison beds in December 2011, but issued a new RFP for 2,000 private prison beds in early February 2012. The taxpayers of Arizona deserve an honest accounting of what we stand to gain and lose if we continue to follow the “tough on crime” mantra. This report offers new insights and original data that reveals the truth about for-profit prisons in Arizona. Details: Tucson, AZ: American Friends Service Committee-Arizona, 2012. 105p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 19, 2012 at http://afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/documents/AFSC_Arizona_Prison_Report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/documents/AFSC_Arizona_Prison_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 124189 Keywords: Correctional Administration (Arizona)Evaluative StudiesPrivate PrisonsPrivatization |