Prisons earn more if recidivism cut

Based on a futurist article in the Economist entitled 'A Future History of Privatisation' by Norman Macrae (Dec. 21st '91).

'In some American private-enterprise prisons, the entrepreneurs who run them are paid more if their inmates do not recommit offences'

In some American private-enterprise prisons, the entrepreneurs who run them are paid more if their inmates do not recommit offences.

There should be lots of competing organisations offering 'if the state will pay us the £25,000 a year that it would otherwise cost to put this man in prison, we will try to reform him within the community in the following way. If he recommits an offence within a certain time, we lose our fee.' Sometimes that will require electronic tagging of the person concerned. If so, he or she should have some choice of which regime to agree to.

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