American Enterprise Institute - Sad Reality

Excerpt: "Studies comparing private to public facilities in Louisiana show a five-year savings in operating costs of about 12.8 percent; Arizona reduced costs by about 13.8 percent, and in Florida, the state organization charged with monitoring private prisons found 3.5 percent savings in one year, 10.6 percent savings the next."

Mackinac Center for Public Policy - Prison Privatization: A Growing National Trend

Excerpt: "Some goods and services that governments provide — such as national defense and the judicial system — should remain the exclusive preserve of government. They are much closer to the economist’s definition of true 'public goods.' There is little if anything inherent in the operation of prisons, however, that should mandate they remain government-run facilities."

Reason Public Policy Institute - Privatization and Competition in Corrections

Excerpt: "States with less than 5 percent of their prison population in private facilities experienced a 12.5 percent increase in expenditures over the period studied, versus an 18.9 percent increase for states without private prisons. States that had turned over larger shares of their prison populations to private management experienced even greater savings: Expenditure growth was just 5.9 percent for this group over the period studied."