Captive Market: The Politics of Private Prisons in America

A novel explanation for state prison privatization: that they do so to limit legal and political accountability for inmate lawsuits.

One of the most controversial developments in the American criminal justice in the last few decades has been the development of the modern private prison industry. While there are many explanations proffered for the adoption of this policy--including partisanship, economic stress, unionization, and lobbying efforts by private prison firms--none fully explain why states privatize their prisons. In Captive Market, Anna Gunderson proposes a novel explanation for why states adopt this policy. She shows that states privatize prisons to limit legal and political accountability for inmate lawsuits, an unintended consequence of the legal rights revolution for prisoners. Evidence from an original dataset and interviews with private prison companies, government officials, and advocacy groups suggest that growing prisoner lawsuits are a significant driver of prison privatization in the United States. With over 160,000 inmates currently held in private facilities across the country, it is vital to understand the causes of this rise and the nuances of private prison policy, one with significant consequences for the American criminal legal system. An eye-opening account of an industry that many are aware of but few know much about, this book will reshape our understanding of the fundamental nature of the American carceral state.

ISBN-13: 9780197624142

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 06-24-2022

Pages: 208

Product Dimensions: 9.19(w) x 6.06(h) x 0.45(d)

Series: Studies in Postwar American Political Development

Anna Gunderson is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Louisiana State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Just Like Selling Cars, Real Estate, or Hamburgers
1.1 Private Prisons Enter the Market
1.2 Continuing Controversies
1.3 The Growth of the Carceral State and Carceral Governance
1.4 Looking Ahead

Chapter 2: Profit in American Corrections
2.1 Private Interests and Carceral Institutions
2.2 Modern Private Prisons
2.3 Existing Research and Limited Data
2.4 A Source of New Data on Private Prisons

Chapter 3: The Rights Revolution and Prison Privatization
3.1 The Judiciary's "Hands-Off" Attitude and Slaves of the State
3.2 The Rise of Mass Incarceration
3.3 Inmate Lawsuit Growth and Private Prisons
3.4 What About Successful Lawsuits?
3.5 Accountability and Privatization

Chapter 4: Inmate Lawsuits and Private Prisons
4.1 Data: Private Prisons and Inmate Litigation
4.2 Lawsuits and Other Explanations for Privatization
4.3 Instrumental Variables Estimation
4.4 Accountability and Privatization in Context

Chapter 5: Do Private Prison Firms Respond to Successful Prison Litigation?
5.1 The Obama DOJ and Private Prisons
5.2 Investors and Company Stock Performance
5.3 Private Prison Firm Stocks and Politics
5.4 Event Study Methodology
5.5 Successful Lawsuits Prompt Company Caution

Chapter 6: Captive Market
6.1 You Send a Check and Send a Prisoner
6.2 It's Like Comparing Atrocity to Atrocity
6.3 As Long as They're Functioning, That's Fine
6.4 They Are Always Going to Have a Place
6.5 Metastasis of the Larger Cancer of Mass Incarceration

Appendices Show More