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Last edited Tue Aug 21, 2018, 03:26 PM - Edit history (1)

I have a MSW from a pretty good school and lots of experience. I was paid by one of the private prison groups (in this case, I was employed by them in their program dept - but the contract was only for the treatment program, the prison was run by the state) $29,500. That was just a few years ago.

I'm middle aged - so.....let's just say that the salary sucked.

But the bid went out by the state of FL and it was a game of 'how low can you go'. Yes, that had a lot to do with what happened. But if the state put the bid out and hired for quality (and paid for it) those terrible prison corporations (and they do suck!) would meet the obligation of the RFP. As it was, the bid that won the contract was the lowest.

So, they paid me no money. When they ran the prison, they paid the guards as little as they could, too.

From my experience, the issue of money is important - you're right. But the bigger problem is that when the RFP went out, treatment was low on the list. It was there (that's why we were there), but for sure the biggest mandate was 'safety and security.'

In the state prisons (public), the guards beat the inmates, berated them. (Absolute humiliation). The whole thing was terrible. The was no difference between one facility and the other (public vs. private) in terms of programs or guard abuse. (At least in my limited experience - and it was limited).

On the other hand, the guards made more working for the state- and staffing levels were slightly higher. And more guards makes the facility safer for the guards (especially) but also, probably, the inmates. (Not always, sometimes guards will let inmates beat the crap out of each other - so they don't have to deal with it --- or so, in their mind, a 'problem' inmate is dealt with.......you know, all kinds of weird stuff).

However, I do think there's some research to support lower violence levels in state run prisons.

But - imo - until we put money into the system and have a rehabilitation goal - the prisons will always suck.

In sharp contrast, the Federal prisons have TONS of programs. My guys didn't want to do their time there (they wanted gain time in the state prisons), but those that also had to do Federal time, were at least relieved that they could learn a trade or go to school.

Everyone in prison (everyone) wants to change. Not everyone will succeed, but if they all had opportunities to learn and get help (real help) with their post-prison transition, they for sure would do better.