Evaluating Private Prisons: Comparisons, Competition and Cross-fertilization

Abstract

Following the opening of the first privately managed prison in the UK, Wolds Remand Prison, the authors were commissioned to conduct a comparative evaluation. Studies in the USA and Australia suggest that, compared with similar prisons in the public sector, privately managed prisons appear to operate at lower cost, without any significant reduction in the quality of provision. However, regimes of equal quality are to be found in the public sector, showing that privately managed prisons have no monopoly on innovation or good practice. Reviewing the argument of Harding (1997) that privatization is intended to have a ‘cross fertilization’ effect on the whole prison system, it is difficult to disentangle the effects of other changes on prison conditions and regime delivery. It seems more likely that it is the new competitive ethos and the introduction of managerialist techniques that have impelled prison managers to economise, innovate and often match the achievements of the private sector.