Report: Private Prisons Are Skimming the "Best" of Incarcerated People with Lowest Needs to Keep Costs Down

Date:  12-15-2017 Oregon study also found that private prison staff are mostly women of color who earn less money than female staff in state and federal prisons

An Oregon State University professor says his comparative study of prison demographics also supports critics who claim private prisons “skim the best inmates with the lowest needs in attempt to minimize costs.” The study found that inmates in for-profit institutions serve disproportionately shorter sentences than those incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Private prison staff are disproportionately women of color and receive “poor compensation” compared to employees of incarcerated state and federal populations according to a study published this month in the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. The study author, Brett C. Burkhardt, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at Oregon State University’s School of Public Policy, compared the demographics of private prison inmates and employees to those in state and federal prisons, based on 2005 data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities—the most recent figures available. Continue reading here.