Dangers of Privatization

Given Texas’ ongoing budget shortfall, cuts in diversion and treatment programming, and use of criminal penalty enhancements, our prison and jail populations may grow. Some private companies are taking advantage of this opportunity to push for privatization of correctional facilities, with a long-term commitment to keep those facilities filled. These companies have an agenda that is based on their bottom line, not the best policies for Texas communities. They profit from incarceration, benefit from criminalization, and reap the reward of high recidivism. In short, they benefit from everything that will hurt communities in the long run.

Indeed, evidence shows that privatization leads to little if any real cost savings for communities, while harming facility staff and inmates, and undermining accountability and public oversight.

If Texas truly wants to reduce its corrections costs, stakeholders must reject any proposals that attempt to hand over control of facilities to private corporations. Instead, we must develop cost-saving strategies on the front end that reduce the need for expensive prison and jail beds through lowered crime. For example:

• Support all pretrial, defense, probation, diversion, and treatment recommendations outlined in other TCJC project pages.
• Provide trainings for judges and other system practitioners on best sentencing practices and diversion options.
• Make various low-level, nonviolent offenses non-jailable; instead, require only fine payments and/or community service. OR: Revise the value ladders for such offenses, specifically by increasing dollar values that were set nearly 20 years ago, 1993, for theft, mischief, or property offenses in light of inflation.

Texas cannot afford to wait until our jails and prisons explode, only to defer to the interests of private corporations who prioritize profits over public safety for our communities.

For more information on the privatization of prison operations and services, see TCJC’s Prison Privatization Policy Brief.

For a letter signed by TCJC, other advocates, and clergy in opposition to the privatization of Harris County’s Jail, click here.