This is a comprehensive study of one of the most important contemporary issues confronting prison reform - prison privatization and human rights. It discusses privatization in its historical and ideological context, and in relation to United Nations standards and rules.

Prison privatization is rapidly spreading in many Western countries as governments seek to manage burgeoning prison populations within the constraints of a neo-liberal political agenda. But how is public well-being served when prisons are run for pofit? This volume discusses privatization in its historical and ideological context, and in relation to United nations standards and rules. It examines the adverse effects of private prisons on physical and sexual abuse, health care, education, training and rehabilitation, as corporations seek to maximize profits and describes the impact of cost-cutting on prison staff, paying special attention to the effect on women, children and minorities. It also offers a glimpse into the transnational spread of privatized incarceration, as developing nations, bound by IMF restrictions, are forced into the hands of transnational corporations to the detriment of local alternatives.

Preface - Sir Nigel Rodley Introduction - Alison Campbell 1. The Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex in the United States - Phillip J. Wood 2. Privatized Problems: For-Profit Incarceration in Trouble - Christian Parenti 3. The Problem of Prison Privatization: The US Experience - Jeff Sinden 4. Juvenile Crime Pays - But at What Cost? - Alex Friedmann 5. Lack of Correctional Services - Judith Greene 6. Private Prisons and Health Care: The HMO from Hell - Elizabeth Alexander 7. International Law and the Privatization of Juvenile Justice - Mark Erik Hecht and Donna Habsha 8. Prison Privatization: The Arrested Development of African Americans - Monique W. Morris 9. Prison Privatization and Women - Katherine can Wormer 10 Incarceration of Native Americans and Private Prisons - Frank Smith 11. The Use of Privatized Detention Centers for Asylum Seekers in Australia and the UK - Bente Molenaar and Rodney Neufeld 12. Worker Rights in Private Prisons - Joshua Miller 13. Get Tough Efficiency: Human Rights, Correctional Restructuring and Prison Privatization in Ontario, Canada - Dawn Moore, Kellie Leclerc Burton and Kelly Hannah-Moffat 14. Prison Privatization in the United Kingdom - Stephen Nathan 15. Prison Privatization Developments in South Africa - Julie Berg 16. Private Prisons: Emerging and Transformative Economies - Stephen Nathan 17. Women Prisoners as Customers: Counting the Costs of the Privately Managed Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre: Australia - Amanda George Conclusion - Andrew Coyle Bibliography Index