Well Kept: Comparing Quality of Confinement in a Public and a Private Prison

• NCJ Number: 128800
• Author(s): C H Logan
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 301 pages
• Grant Number(s): 86-IJ-CX-0062
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

A comparison of the quality of confinement was made between a privately operated women's prison in New Mexico, the State-run version of that prison the year before, and a Federal prison for women. The retributive philosophy of criminal justice defined eight dimensions of quality: security, safety, order, care (mostly medical), activities, justice, living conditions, and management.

Abstract

Based on data collected from institutional records and surveys of inmates and staff supplemented by qualitative data from survey comments and two site visits, the study uses 333 empirical indicators of the 8 dimensions of quality for the State and private prisons. Of these, 131 were available to evaluate the Federal prison. The private prison outscored its counterparts on six of the eight dimensions; the State prison scored higher on care and the Federal prison matched the private on justice. Although each type of facility met standards of good quality and each had its own strengths and weaknesses, the author concludes that New Mexico was able to improve the quality of confinement for female felons overall by contracting for corrections services. 4 appendixes