The New York Times reports on something that should really be obvious by now--private prisons don't save money:
“There's a perception that the private sector is always going to do it more efficiently and less costly,” said Russ Van Vleet, a former co-director of the University of Utah Criminal Justice Center. “But there really isn’t much out there that says that’s correct.”
Such has been the case lately in Arizona. Despite a state law stipulating that private prisons must create “cost savings,” the state's own data indicate that inmates in private prisons can cost as much as $1,600 more per year, while many cost about the same as they do in state-run prisons.
The research, by the Arizona Department of Corrections, also reveals a murky aspect of private prisons that helps them appear less expensive: They often house only relatively healthy inmates.
Private prisons don't save money, but they create an obvious and counterproductive profit motive that leads to policies that increase the prison population. Private prisons need more prisoners. While the most effective way to reduce prison costs is to "reduce the headcount," that is, the number of incarcerated. Private prison companies have a financial interest in doing the opposite. So whatever cost-saving private prisons might offer in the short run is swamped by their interest in making sure America imprisons more people, because otherwise they'd go out of business.
Incidentally, health care in prisons is in part such a major issue because long, harsh sentences ensures that people stay in prison into old age, and therefore become more expensive to care for.
