PSA MEDIA RELEASE
November 26, 2009
For Immediate Use

Private prisons cost more and provide worse service

“Why does the government continue to ignore all the evidence that private prisons cost more and provide a worse service?” asks PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff

The government has this morning passed legislation enabling private companies to run prisons.

“We oppose prison privatisation because private prisons are more expensive and deliver a reduced service because they’re required to make a profit,” says Richard Wagstaff.

“We saw that the last time a National-led government privatised a New Zealand prison.”

Figures from the Corrections Department show that it cost the Australian company that managed the Auckland Remand Prison from 2000 to 2005, $43,000 per inmate to run the prison while Corrections operating costs per remand prisoner were $36,000.

The Australian company also provided a reduced service by refusing to admit prisoners after 6.30pm when its day shift staff went home. Now Corrections are running the prison again, prisoners are admitted at night when they arrive late from courts or after being transported from another prison.

“A survey of privately-run prisons in Britain showed they also provided a worse service than publicly-run prisons,” says Richard Wagstaff.

The survey conducted last year showed that 10 of Britain’s 11 private prisons ranked in the bottom quarter of a league table covering 132 prisons. The privatised prisons scored badly on security and maintaining order and control. Privately-run Peterborough prison was ranked the worst prison in England and Wales. It had a poor record for organisational effectiveness, decency and reducing re-offending.

“This is why prison governors in Britain have called on their government to re-think its policy of having private management of prisons,” says Richard Wagstaff.

“In the United States private prisons have higher re-offending rates and there are calls to abolish private prisons,” says Richard Wagstaff.

Figures from the National Crime Prevention Council, issued in September last year, showed inmates released from private prisons in the United States had higher re-offending rates (33%) than those released from public prisons (30%).

People in the United States are also questioning the morality of companies making money out of denying people their liberty and have formed the National Public Service Council To Abolish Private Prisons.

“Why is the government turning a blind eye to all the evidence showing profit-driven private prisons provide a worse service?” asks Richard Wagstaff.

“And why is the government ignoring the workers who run our prisons who oppose privatisation because of the negative impact it will have?”

The PSA surveyed its 2500 members, working for the Corrections Department, to get their views on privatising prison management. Of the Corrections staff who responded to the survey, 89% felt that privatising prison management would have a negative impact on our prison system. 72% had strongly negative views. 5.4% of the survey respondents had worked in privately owned or managed prisons.

“It seems the government is determined to privatise prison management because it’s driven by a desire to create profit making opportunities for the private sector at the public’s expense,” says Richard Wagstaff.

PSA Op Ed Prison Privatise Dom April 3 09 (pdf)

ENDS

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