Privatisation Of Prisons: A Comparative Analysis Of Overcrowding And Healthcare In India And The United States
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 19
- 2 min read
Claremont Daniella, Christ University Pune Lavasa Campus
ABSTRACT
The proposed research paper addresses the concept of prison privatisation by comparing India and the United States with regard to two important issues, specifically, healthcare and overcrowding. The study aims at answering the question whether the involvement of privacies in the running of prisons can really bring the long-standing problems to the real solution, or it would submerge human rights and responsibility of the state. The privatisation of prisons dates back to 1980s in the United States because of the rising incarceration rates and the fact that the government could not manage to handle the overcrowding of the prisons and the rising cost of the prisons. This was geared towards streamlining it and removing the financial liability through privatization. The result has been ambivalent, however. Even though the examples of institutions that propose superior facilities and cost- effectiveness exist, the problem of inadequate healthcare, inadequate living conditions, and profit motives ethics has not been addressed. In India, the state prisons have made the institutions very much controlled in Prisons Act of 1894 and other state prison manuals in which nearly all the prisons are controlled by the state. Despite the efforts by the government and the judiciary to ease the situation, the Indian prisons continue to be congested with minimal medical services, understaffing and rehabilitation initiatives. This paper argues that full privatisation in India is unlawful and unconstitutional because imprisonment is seen as a sovereign and cannot be fully privatised, a middle way by using Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) would prove to be a more viable and ethical solution. The government could provide security and administration, but in non-core sectors, e.g. healthcare, vocational training, sanitation, and digital management, the role of the government could be played by private organisations. The paper concludes that, in order to reform the prison system in India, financial or structural changes might not be the answer and might not be enough to reform the system without the accountability and the good of inmates. It supports more moral and ethical commitment to further values of justice, human dignity, and rehabilitation, which should be the main ingredient of any correctional reform, whether governmental or otherwise.
Keywords: Privatisation of prisons, Public Private Partnership (PPP), Healthcare and Human Rights, Prison Overcrowding and Prison Reform, Comparative Legal Analysis.
