About the Book
Prison privatization is rapidly increasing in many Western countries. But how is public well-being served when prisons are run for maximum profit? Bringing together an accomplished group of writers and activists, Capitalist Punishment discusses prison privatization within its historical and ideological context, and in relation to international standard minimum rules developed by the United Nations.
Capitalist Punishment examines the adverse effects of private prisons on inmates related to physical and sexual abuse, health care, education, training, and rehabilitation. It describes the impact on prison staff, from whose salaries corporate profits are wrung, and of cost cutting in the design of facilities and allocation of personnel. Special attention is paid to the effect on vulnerable groups such as women, children, and disproportionately incarcerated minority and indigenous communities.
Revealing important links between neo-liberal policies locally and their global effects, Capitalist Punishment offers a disturbing glimpse into the transnational spread of privatized incarceration, as developing nations bound by IMF restrictions are forced into the hands of transnational corporations.
Contents
Contents
Introduction - Andrew Coyle, Alison Campbell and Rodney Neufeld
1. The Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex in the United States - Phillip J. Wood
2. Privatized Problems: For-Profit Incarceration in Trouble - Christian Parenti
3. The Problem of Prison Privatization: The US Experience - Jeff Sinden
4. Juvenile Crime Pays - But at What Cost? - Alex Friedmann
5. Lack of Correctional Services - Judith Greene
6. Private Prisons and Health Care: The HMO from Hell - Elizabeth Alexander
7. International Law and the Privatization of Juvenile Justice - Mark Erik Hecht and Donna Habsha
8. Prison Privatization: The Arrested Development of African Americans - Monique W. Morris
9. Prison Privatization and Women - Katherine van Wormer
10 Incarceration of Native Americans and Private Prisons - Frank Smith
11. The Use of Privatized Detention Centers for Asylum Seekers in Australia and the UK - Bente Molenaar and Rodney Neufeld
12. Worker Rights in Private Prisons - Joshua Miller
13. "Get Tough" Efficiency: Human Rights, Correctional Restructuring and Prison Privatization in Ontario, Canada - Dawn Moore, Kellie Leclerc Burton and Kelly Hannah-Moffat
14. Prison Privatization in the United Kingdom - Stephen Nathan
15. Prison Privatization Developments in South Africa - Julie Berg
16. Private Prisons: Emerging and Transformative Economies - Stephen Nathan
17. Women Prisoners as Customers: Counting the Costs of the Privately Managed Metropolitan Women‘s Correctional Centre: Australia - Amanda George
Conclusion - Andrew Coyle
About the Author
Edited by Andrew Coyle, Allison Campbell and Rodney Neufeld
Dr Andrew Coyle is the Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies, at King's College, London, and Managing Editor of Punishment and Society. He is the former Governor of a number of prisons in the UK: Greenock Prison, an establishment for long term adult prisoners; Peterhead Prison, which holds the most actively disruptive and difficult prisoners in the Scottish prison system; Shotts Prison, the main establishment in Scotland for male prisoners serving long sentences; and Brixton Prison, one of the main London prisons, which had previously had a long history of problems with over-crowding in poor conditions, suicides, escapes, high risk and mentally disturbed prisoners.
Dr Coyle has extensive international experience on prison matters, having visited prison systems in many countries as an expert consultant for bodies such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe.
