Privately owned prisons

“Judith Greene, a criminal justice policy analyst and Open Society Institute Justice fellow, notes that prison privatization got its start in the 1980s, under the Reagan Administration. With the push to “get government off our backs,” prison privatization became a highlighted goal that promised to reform prisons, turning them into clean, well-run facilities operated at little taxpayer expense. For-profit prison shareholders would finance new prison construction, while private operators would find cheaper ways to house, educate and rehabilitate prisoners, market analysts promised.”

-Not with Our Money, http://www.notwithourmoney.org/02_about/colorlines.html