Question

6. Your class visits a local jail run by a private, profit-making company that detains county criminals and is paid with tax revenues. What kind of a good is this prison? Should the government contract private companies to run prisons, or run the prisons itself?

Answer 1

- Prisons are supposed to be a public good. I'm not sure if that's still true if the prison is private.

I say the govt should run prisons so you prob ought to get input from someone who says disagrees.

-Companies have a duty to their shareholders to make as much profit as they can. They have no duty to the tax payer. The part of your taxes that is allocated for prisons is supposed to pay for the welfare and rehabilitation of prisoners, equipment, salary, and benefits for staff, and the buildings. If the company's taking a profit, that money isn't going toward those items, which increases recidivism rates and overall costs of running the prison.

Answer 2

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

The kind of good of this prison is individual good. The government should be very prudent if it wants to contract private companies to run prisons because being private, these companies respond to the owners or stakeholders. They invested their money and have private interests or personal agendas in the business. And if we are talking of prisons and securities, I think the priority should be people or citizen's interest. So I like the government to run the prisons itself. The federal, state or local governments have the citizen's interest as a priority.