Book Review - "Merchandizing Prisoners" by Byron Eugene Price
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Price spends the first part of the work outlining the debate and the merits to the premises of each side of the issue. As a philosophy major, I also found the references to Rousseau to be entirely helpful in understanding his point about legitimacy in punishment. "Cost is not the concern of those who draw on the spirit of Locke, Rousseau, and Hume; for them, punishment is an inherently public function. To remain valid and ethically meaningful, punishment must remain within the government...[this] is the only way punishment remains legitimate." Rousseau argued that only the punishment of the State was a legitimate punishment as that is one of the rights implicit in a State's sovereignty, thus in no way should a private entity take this sovereign right for fear of a private sovereignty which would then challenge the State. But Price adeptly recognizes that despite the warnings of scholars, some states are more worried about making their budget function than contracting away their sovereignty. He examines how cost-analysis studies are often misleading and both sides of the argument can skew the numbers to state that their side is the cheaper option. Another poignant moment in his explanation of the arguments was his statement, "the for-profit sector claims that competition is an economic advantage...This argument rests on the belief that for-profit operators, knowing they could be replaced if they fail to deliver, have motivation to provide quality service. The assumption is that the system has an abundant supply of competitors; however, this is definitely not the case in the for-profit corrections industry because, as stated, two companies own the majority of the private prisons."
After introducing the two sides of the argument, Price continues by explaining why he is against private prisons through the use of charts and graphs and other documented scholarly sources. One of the things I enjoyed the most about this work was the extensive bibliography that was used to research for this book. Not only does it give the reader a huge resource of other similar works to explore once Dr. Price's work as intrigued them to do so, but it also gives the skeptics a way to verify almost every claim in the book.
There are many instances throughout the book that were as captivating as the opening portion of the book that detailed the argument in a very concise and coherent manner. However, in the hope that you will read the work for yourself, I do not want to give away the many treasures I found throughout this book. I plan on keeping Merchandizing Prisoners on my bookshelf for years to come as it will remain a very useful resource for another ten years or more to come. I strongly encourage everyone to buy a copy for themselves, no matter if you are an expert or a novice with the history of prison privatization, as I guarantee you will learn many new facts and rationales for why exactly states privatize their prisons and why they should not.
You can buy this book in hardback from Barnes & Noble or Greenwood Publishing.
Posted by Andrew Strong at 25 January 2010, 1:58 PM 
Categories: history,book reviews,Miscellaneous
Tags: book Byron Eugene Price private prisons
Categories: history,book reviews,Miscellaneous
Tags: book Byron Eugene Price private prisons
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