Record Details

Judicial Intervention into Prisons: Comparing Private and Public Prisons from 1990 to 2005

ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

Field Value
Title Judicial Intervention into Prisons: Comparing Private and Public Prisons from 1990 to 2005
Names Burkhardt, Brett C. (creator)
Jones, Alisha (creator)
Date Issued 2015-07-09 (iso8601)
Note This is an author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by the National Center for State Courts and published by Taylor & Francis in the Justice System Journal published online 09 July 2015. It is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0098261X.2015.1062738#.VaQRoEZy2Dl
Abstract A mid-20th century prisoners' rights revolution gave American prisoners unprecedented access to courts for exercising newly elaborated constitutional rights. The result was a tide of litigation brought by inmates and subsequent remedial court orders requiring corrections officials to improve conditions of confinement. It was in this context of aggressive judicial intervention into prison operations that the private prison industry emerged. Some early proponents of prison privatization claimed that the private sector could provide superior prison conditions and thereby reduce judicial intervention. This paper assesses this claim empirically. It uses data on state and federal adult correctional facilities from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to compare the prevalence of reported court orders among public and private correctional facilities in the United States from 1990 through 2005. Results from a series of logistic regression analyses reveal that privatization has had little effect on the likelihood of judicial intervention into correctional facilities.
Genre Article
Topic prison
Identifier Burkhardt, B., & Jones, A. (2015). Judicial Intervention into Prisons: Comparing Private and Public Prisons from 1990 to 2005. [Article in Press]. Justice System Journal. doi:10.1080/0098261X.2015.1062738

© Western Waters Digital Library - GWLA member projects - Designed by the J. Willard Marriott Library - Hosted by Oregon State University Libraries and Press