The hodgepodge of differing state jurisdictions, laws, and judicial systems magnifies the arbitrariness of a system which by any stretch of imagination needs to be uniform, fair and transparent if it is to satisfy the basic tenets of democracy. Such serious punishment as incarceration, deprivation of liberty, can only satisfy the requirements of justice in a democracy when it is meted out in a manner that represents the intentions and will of all the people.
That is why the Obama administration's recent announced termination of private federal prisons is an important, even if small, step in the right direction. The Justice Department's decision impacts on only 13 federal facilities, housing 22,000 of the country's 193,000 federal prisoners.
But those numbers do not fully reflect the influence that private prisons have had on the broader criminal-justice system. Since the introduction of for-profit private prisons in 1983, their lobbying groups have spent millions to influence both federal and state lawmakers to protect their business interests. Those interests are opposed to any changes to drug laws and sentencing, as well as immigration reform as hurtful to business.
Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company, said this in its 2005 annual report:
"Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities ... The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction and sentencing practices or through the decriminalisation of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. "For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them."
The perverse incentives created by for-profit prisons don't stop with political attempts to derail consideration of drug laws or immigration rules selectively discriminatory with minority groups. The prisons themselves are poster children of perverse incentives.
Profit motive is better satisfied when programmes that are designed to rehabilitate, not just warehouse, are eliminated. Education programmes known to decrease recidivism are necessarily eliminated, as are drug treatment programmes or any activity which might actually reduce the volume of "return customers". It goes almost without saying that for-profit prisons have no incentive to provide proper medical care for inmates' needs. It also follows that trained security personnel and staffing numbers are a luxury item unfavourable to the bottom line.
Deficiencies in medical care and security, leading to inmate deaths and more prison violence, eventually led to the decision to end private prisons for federal prisoners. The promise of lower costs turns out to be illusory.
For my money, as a citizen, the notion of profit and prison are incompatible.
Imprisonment, if it is to be administered, ought to be in the name of all of us, answerable to all of us. Its primary expectation is eventual restoration of the convicted to normal, productive life.
The primary goal of for-profit prisons is return to investors. The return of the convicted to her family upon completion of her sentence is secondary, of little practical importance in a profit/loss ledger. The larger expense, of for-profit prisons to the fabric of justice in a democracy is incalculable.
■Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.
