Prisons becoming private institutions

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 14

Prisons becoming private institutions

Prisons have now become the latest target of free enterprise in America. Private companies are battling it out to win contracts to build and run United States jails, claiming that they can do the job more efficiently than the authorities. The Corrections Corporation of America has opened what it describes as “a 350-bed detention facility for undocumented aliens” in Houston, Texas. The $4 million prison has been built by the company to house the growing numbers of Latin Americans caught slipping across the

From

Mexican border. Under a contract with the Immigration Service, the aliens will be housed in Houston while their cases are examined. They will then be either released or deported. Corrections Corporation director Don Hutto, a former state prison boss in Virginia and Arkansas, calls the Houston jail a “turn-key project.” The company is financing, building, and operating the prison, and all the Immigration Service has to do is pay $24 a day for each

MARTIN BAILEY

alien held. Mr Hutto describes the prison as “a modern building which blends in with the industrial park where it is located.” The aliens will be held in 100-bed dormitories with “all the facilities of a jail, such as recreation, health care, and an Americanstyle cafeteria.” Security will be maintained by the company’s armed guards. “Private companies are able to offer a more efficient service in building and operating prisons than

in Houston, Texas

the authorities,” says Mr Hutto. He believes that it would have taken the Government up to five years to authorise and build the Houston jail, but Corrections Corporation has opened its gates within eight months of winning the contract. The Corrections Corporation of America, based in Tennessee, was started last year by some of the investors behind the giant Hospital Corporation of America, the country’s largest private hospital company, with a chain of several

hundred institutions. Corrections Corporation is now hoping to win two other local prison contracts. Rutherford County jail in Tennessee and Tasco prison in Florida are about to become private. Both jails have more than 200 inmates. With America’s rising prison population topping 400,000, Corrections Corporation is optimistic about the company’s prospects. Its finance director, Travis Snelling, says the firm is “on the cutting edge of a whole new industry.” Copyright — London Observer Service.