NCJ Number
114024
Date Published
1988
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) discusses the rapid growth of corrections expenditures and recommends the use of private sector prison industries as a way both of saving tax dollars and providing economic opportunities for business.
Abstract
Corrections is the fastest growing item in State budgets today, and correctional expenditures have risen 400 percent in the last decade. Taxpayers, including businesses, are actually the people who pay the prisoner's debt to society, in the costs of correctional facilities and programs, in the welfare checks to families of prisoners, and in the costs of crime to victims. Meanwhile, an estimated 90 percent of the inmates in State prisons are idle. Private sector prison industries can change this situation. Current industries assemble waterbed mattresses, produce industrial blueprints, sew clothing, harvest lumber, cut stone, and do data processing. These industries offer many advantages for businesses: drug-free workers, dependable workers, motivated workers, and efficiency comparable to that of free workers. Prison industries present public relations benefits, offer greater calm and stability for prisons, and benefit both taxpayers and offenders. NIJ is encouraging private sector prison industries.