Private Prisons and Inmate Wellbeing in the United States

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

In the hope of finding a cost-effective solution to shrinking budgets and burgeoning correctional populations, the federal and state governments increasingly relied on outsourcing prison management. There is little reliable evidence, however, about the performance of private prisons compared to their public counterparts, especially with respect to inmate health and safety. Using two data sets collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, with information on both the individual and the administrative level, I propose to examine differences between private and public prisons on inmate victimization and health outcomes. Potential sources of bias will be addressed using propensity score matching to enable valid comparisons of inmates in private and public facilities. Matching only at the level of individuals, however, while the treatment assignment operates at the group level, may lead to incorrect inference. Following the rationale behind group-randomized trials in experimental studies, I will match both prisons and inmates to further reduce bias inherent to observational studies of causal effects. Preliminary analysis of the 2005 Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities suggests that private prisons offer fewer health resources but their inmates experience fewer instances of serious victimization compared to their public counterparts.

Author

• Valerio Bacak, University of Pennsylvania