Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wooldredge, John
• Cochran, Joshua C.

Titel

Equal or not? Private versus public corrections services, programming, and climate

Ist Teil von

• Criminology & public policy, 2019-05, Vol.18 (2), p.295-321

Ort / Verlag

Hoboken: American Society of Criminology

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

PAIS Index

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Research Summary More rigorous comparisons of private and public corrections are needed to improve our understanding of the effects of privatization. We develop a three‐step procedure for assessing equivalence and then performance measures. To illustrate these arguments, we provide an empirical descriptive analysis of two private prisons and five structurally equivalent state‐run prisons in Ohio and document heterogeneity in resources, staff climate, and inmate behaviors. Policy Implications In our discussion and analyses, we underscore how comparability across private and public corrections should not be assumed. Comparisons should be focused on organizations with similar infrastructures and then systematically used to assess client needs and programming, client behavior, staff climate, and a diverse set of outcomes that bear directly and indirectly on clients’ well‐being. In so doing, researchers can better set the bar that privatization is supposed to reach or exceed. They can also conduct more credible impact assessments. Cost‐savings, for example, do not necessarily occur when contracted services do not match those offered through public corrections or when clientele differ dramatically between a private and a public organization.