Changing of the Guard: A Case for Privatization of Texas Prisons

1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD C. BRISTER
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Correctional Facilities ◽  
Private Prison ◽  
Accelerated Growth ◽  
Prison Industry ◽  
Correctional Privatization

The privatization of prisons is an idea whose time seems to have come in the United States. Although still a small fraction of the total number of correctional facilities and beds overall, the size of the private sector presence in recent years has increased rapidly. The present article reviews the historical record of correctional privatization in Texas and examines more recent data and issues in that state and elsewhere, to argue that the accelerated growth of the private prison industry is a change for the good.

Private Prisons and the Shift in Marketplace From the War on Drugs to the War on Terror

2018 ◽  
pp. 86-101
Author(s):  
Karina Moreno
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Support ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Private Prisons ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Private Prison ◽  
States Immigration ◽  
Immigrant Detention ◽  
Prison Industry

This paper outlines the emergence of a new marketplace in the United States, immigration detention, especially after September 11th. This phenomenon is not limited to the United States, but is also observable in other countries as the result of the globalized economy. This paper first explains how the private prison industry adapted from shaping harsh drug law sentencing during the War on Drugs to now sponsoring legislative bills that target immigrants, the new “cash crop” for the private prison industry. Because of the securitization of immigration governance, politics of fear are easily used to justify and build public support for a tough stance on immigration. The end result is that immigrant detention is a highly lucrative and record-breaking profitable enterprise for private prison corporations, with little accountability in its treatment of immigrants and with more and more power in sponsoring and shaping legislation beneficial to their bottom line. Implications now that Trump, who ran a very xenophobic presidential campaign especially hostile to Mexicans and Muslims, are discussed.

Private Prisons and the Shift in Marketplace From the War on Drugs to the War on Terror

2019 ◽  
pp. 260-275
Author(s):  
Karina Moreno
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Support ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Private Prisons ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Private Prison ◽  
States Immigration ◽  
Immigrant Detention ◽  
Prison Industry

This paper outlines the emergence of a new marketplace in the United States, immigration detention, especially after September 11th. This phenomenon is not limited to the United States, but is also observable in other countries as the result of the globalized economy. This paper first explains how the private prison industry adapted from shaping harsh drug law sentencing during the War on Drugs to now sponsoring legislative bills that target immigrants, the new “cash crop” for the private prison industry. Because of the securitization of immigration governance, politics of fear are easily used to justify and build public support for a tough stance on immigration. The end result is that immigrant detention is a highly lucrative and record-breaking profitable enterprise for private prison corporations, with little accountability in its treatment of immigrants and with more and more power in sponsoring and shaping legislation beneficial to their bottom line. Implications now that Trump, who ran a very xenophobic presidential campaign especially hostile to Mexicans and Muslims, are discussed.

Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data in the United States II

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred H. Cate ◽  
Beth E. Cate
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Reasonable Expectation ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Us ◽  
Sector Data

This chapter covers the US Supreme Court’s position on access to private-sector data in the United States. Indeed, the Supreme Court has written a great deal about “privacy” in a wide variety of contexts. These include what constitutes a “reasonable expectation of privacy” under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution; privacy rights implicit in, and also in tension with, the First Amendment and freedom of expression; privacy rights the Court has found implied in the Constitution that protect the rights of adults to make decisions about activities such as reproduction, contraception, and the education of their children; and the application of the two privacy exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

scholarly journals Corporate Defaults, Workouts, and the Rise of the Distressed Asset Investment Industry

2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Cumming ◽  
Grant Fleming
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
The United States ◽  
Corporate Restructuring ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

We examine the formation and growth of the distressed asset investment industry during the late twentieth century, with specific focus on the strategies of the leading firms. The distressed asset investment industry is dominated by firms based in the United States and is relatively concentrated, due in large part to early movers developing distinctive investment capabilities through participation in landmark transactions, relationship-specific resources, and exploitation of scale effects. We argue that the participation of these firms in the bankruptcy and corporate restructuring markets has resulted in private-sector workouts becoming more competitive and more efficient over the last thirty years, especially in the United States.

scholarly journals “Nobody gets out alive. This place just a big coffin”: On Death and Dying in American Prisons

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Raluca Andreescu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
The United States ◽  
Correctional Facilities ◽  
Joyce Carol Oates ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Social Death ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Civil Death

Abstract This article explores the manner in which the narratives in the Prison Noir volume (2014) edited by Joyce Carol Oates bring into view the limits and abusive practices of the American criminal justice system within the confines of one of its most secretive sites, the prison. Taking an insider’s perspective - all stories are written by award-winning former or current prisoners - the volume creates room for the usually silent voices of those incarcerated in correctional facilities throughout the United States. The article engages the effects of “prisonization” and the subsequent mortification of inmates by focusing on images of death and dying in American prisons, whether understood as a ‘social death,’ the isolation from any meaningful intercourse with society, as a ‘civil death,’ the stripping away of citizenship rights and legal protections, or as the physical termination of life as a result of illness, murder, suicide or statesponsored execution.

The North Caucasus in Contemporary U.S.-Russia Relations: Key Problems and Implications for the Future

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-166
Author(s):  
Maxim A. Suchkov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The United States ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The North ◽  
The Future ◽  
Boston Marathon ◽  
The U.S

The North Caucasus is a most significant but a least understood problem in contemporary U.S.-Russia relations. The United States as one of the prime pace-setters in the region shaped its own attitude towards Russia’s most volatile region. Over more than twenty years, Washington experienced at least three major stages in its “Caucasus strategy”, and each stage had its impact on the North Caucasus. Since the beginning, the two states stuck to conflicting narratives of developments in the region. With time, some of the assessments were re-evaluated, but some continue to impede cooperation on key security issues. The present article explores these phenomena and examines what implications major events like the 9/11 attacks, the Caucasus Emirate enlistment among top terrorist organisations, the Boston marathon bombings, etc. had for the U.S.-Russia joint efforts in fighting terrorism. It also assesses areas of potential disagreement in the North Caucasus between the two countries.

Compounding Racialized Vulnerability: COVID-19 in Prisons, Jails, and Migrant Detention Centers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew G.T. Denney ◽  
Ramon Garibaldo Valdez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Harm Reduction ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Correctional Facilities ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
Detention Centers ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Improved Sanitation ◽  
Immigrant Detention

Abstract Context: Carceral institutions are among the largest clusters of COVID-19 in the United States. As outbreaks have spread throughout prisons and detention centers, detainees have organized collectively to demand life-saving measures. Chief among these demands has been the call for decarceration: the release of detainees and inmates to prevent exposure to COVID-19. This paper theorizes the compounding racial vulnerability that has led to such a marked spread behind bars, mainly among race-class subjugated communities. Methods: We use journalistic sources and administrative data to provide an in-depth account of the spread of COVID-19 in American correctional facilities and of the mobilization to reduce contagions. We also use two survey experiments to describe public support for harm reduction and decarceration demands and measure the effects of information about (a) racial inequalities in prison, and (b) poor conditions inside migrant detention centers. Findings: We find that only one-third to one-half of respondents believe that response to COVID-19 in prisons and immigrant detention centers should be a high priority. We also find that Americans are much more supportive of harm reduction measures like improved sanitation than of releasing people from prisons and detention centers. Information about racial disparities increases support for releasing more people from prison. We do not find any significant effect of information about poor conditions in migrant detention centers. Conclusions: The conditions in prisons and migrant detention centers during the pandemic—and public opinion about them—highlight the realities of compounding racialized vulnerability in the United States.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document