PRIVATE PUNISHMENT
When it comes to the business
of running prisons, there are pros and cons

By Kristin Bloomer
Special to the Chronicle

Lockhart, Texas miles south of Austin on Texas Highway 183, past dozens of
dusty, hardscrabble towns that boomed and went bust with the petroleum
industry, the little town of Lockhart is on the rebound.

The source of the newfound prosperity, residents say, is the Lockhart
Renaissance and Work Facility, the town's fourth largest employer. Located
in an industrial park next to a cookie factory, the flatroofed,
blueandwhite business looks a lot like an upscale WalMart.

But Lockhart is no discount store. Far from it. Lockhart is a private,
minimumsecurity prison run by Wackenhut Corrections Corp.part of a
growing, multimilliondollar industry that profits from the nation's
increasingly enormous inmate population.

It is also part of a new national conviction about convicts.

When the 1,000bed Lockhart lockup was proposed, locals didn't panic. They
were pleased.

"We were in the doldrums," says former City Manager Joe Michie. Michie says
the prison hired about 160 residents and brought a number of new businesses
to the town, population 9,205.

"The late 80s were hard on a lot of Texas towns," he notes. "The prison
sort of turned Lockhart around."

The promise of employment has made private prisons popular nationwide, if
not yet ubiquitous. So far, this country's 17 private prison companies have
built about 100 facilities that incarcerate an estimated 50,000 inmates, a
small fraction of the total population. California boasts only seven
private adult prisons, incarcerating about 1,500 prisoners in Baker,
Bakersfield, Live Oak, Seal Beach, Desert Center, McFarland and San Diego.

But private prisons have grown at four times the rate of public prisons,
and experts predict their numbers will triple by the year 2000, with
revenues topping $1 billion. The two largest prison companies, Wackenhut
and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), together own about 75 percent
of the market worldwide.

Fans of the new growth industry say private prisons restore failing
economies and relieve the overpopulation at public prisons. Competition is
good for the prison ~ industry, they say, adding that companies like
Wackenhut give better service and cut costs by 10 to 15 percent.

Critics, meanwhile, say private prisons offer a poor and even
dangeroussubstitute for already lacking public institutions. Private
prisons employ fewer guards per inmate, operate beyond the reach of most
public scrutiny and cannot easily be held to the minimal standards required
of public prisons, critics add. Some also fear that private prisons, with
the ready availability of cheap inmate labor, will steal jobs.

At Lockhart, for example, about 150 convicts pocket 85 cents per hour
making airconditioner valves and computer circuit boards, jobs once held
by 150 workers in Austin.
But while the controversy continues, the prison business is booming. The
number of people behind bars in the United States has tripled to 1.63
million in the past 20 yearseven as crime rates have remained fairly
steady, according to the Justice Department. The department attributes much
of the increase to tougher penalties for drug offenses.

The prison industry, eager to maintain this status quo, lobbies vigorously
in support of stiff sentencing laws. The industry needs crimeand more
importantly, punishmentto maintain profits.

And for their part, towns that once might have sued to keep prisons out are
scrambling to lure them in. In Texas, several towns last year stampeded for
12 new private and public lockups; some offered free countryclub
memberships to any top prison official who visited.

"The bottom line was we needed jobs. JOBS," says Karnes County Judge
Alfred Pawelek, whose Texas community warmly welcomed a 480bed private
prison that pays the county 25 cents per day per inmate.

Here's how privatized prisons work: The governmentlocal, state or
federaltakes competing bids from companies that will build and manage the
new lockup.

In return for the service of having its inmates housed, the government pays
the company a daily fee for each inmate. The company, in return, often
hires local people as prison staff.

How things operate otherwise is a matter of contention. While most states
require that private prisons be accredited by the American Correctional
Association, critics say ACA standards are minimal at best and that, in any
case, many private prisons fail to meet them

A 1995 investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for
example, found that immigrants at a private immigration detention center
run by Esmor Correctional Services were beaten, robbed and preyed upon by
poorly trained guards. The INS, which investigated the Elizabeth, N.J.,
facility after riots erupted there in June, 1995, found in one incident
that female detainees were forced to wear men's underwear with a question
mark drawn on the crotches.

That same year brought allegations of rape and assault at the privately run
High Plains Youth Center in Brush, Colo., which houses juveniles from more
than twodozen states. Investigators of the Rebound Corp. facility
documented "a consistent and disturbing pattern of violence, sexual abuse .
. . and administrative incompetence at every level of the program."

Critics, in addition, fear that private prisons which rely on full beds to
make buckstake subtle measures to keep inmates as long as possible. At
Lockhart, for example, Wackenhut officials decide when inmates should be
disciplined or given "good time" both factors considered by parole boards.
Inmates can appeal disciplinary actions to a public board, but the outcome
is not guaranteed.

But the critics' cries are not a big concern in places like Lockhart. Floyd
Wilhelm Jr., a realtor and an owner of Chisolm Trail Restaurant, likes the
lockup down the road. His barbecue rib joint is seeing lots more customers
with Wackenhut in town. Likewise, he's happily watched prison workers fill
oncevacant rentals.

"It's been positive," says Wilhelm. Leaning on the counter in his apron and
blue hat, he says he feels something one wouldn't expect from a man whose
business stands less than a mile from a thousand criminals. He feels more
secure.