Are private prisons ethical?

The U.S. Government Accounting Office, in fact, concluded that the cost difference between operating a private penal facility and a public one is small. Their very existence, moreover, raises an ethical issue: what are the implications of basing the operation of a prison on a purely profit motivation? read more

Although the operation of private prisons for adults raises serious ethical and moral questions, those that handle juveniles raise even more. As Ms. Fellner put it, all the problems that exist in running an adult prison are multiplied in managing one for children, because they need special care provided by people with special training. read more

I believe the ethical problems raised in requiring labor from the prison population are very different if it is the state, and not a private business, that is extracting that labor. Labor required by the state as a compensation to society has a certain reasonable justification. read more