The Question of Whether Businesses Should Be Able to Profit

Essay

The question of whether businesses should be able to profit from prisons is one of the more polarizing issues within the corrections community. You are the mayor of a city on the eastern seaboard, which has a budgetary shortfall, and overcrowded jails. There is a bill that is about to come to your desk which proposes two solutions: that inmates in jails pay a daily fee, and one allowing a private company to take over an entire diversion program in exchange for "administrative fees" paid to the city. Write a speech detailing the problems with this approach, which also indicates an understanding for its rationale.