Amazon Book Lists...

I've been meaning to look into the super-max prisons and new developments. When I was in college my professor derieded them for being inhumane, citing the fact that they were privately instead of government-run (is that true, or am I misremembering?). I'd like to say that prison abuses aren't unique to any one prison, as I think that dapper Zimbardo fellow showed us, and at least a private company can be held responsible in court more easily than the state...

Supermax prisons are often privately owned, constructed, and or staffed but that's not to say that they have free reign over their operation. "Private" prisons as we see them today are more like contracted out public utilities than they are truley private alternatives to state run enterprises. A private prison for example has no control over the laws it must enforce or inmates it must house. It's simply a tool of the state run justice system. I think you're right that a potential for competitive restraint is under realized in controlloing rigths violations within prison walls, but each case has particular nuances, so much so that I would feel uncomfortable broadly condemning or glorifying what we currently refer to as private prisons.