by Wayne Calabrese

About the author: Wayne Calabrese is president of Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, a private prison firm.

Editor’s note: This viewpoint is adapted from testimony Wayne Calabrese gave before the Little Hoover Commission Public Hearing on Prison Issues in Sacramento, California, on August 28, 1997.

Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to address the issue of prison privatization. My name is Wayne Calabrese; I am president of Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, with principal offices in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

The contracting out of the integrated design, financing, construction and operation of a correctional facility to the private sector began in the early 1980s. In 1997 there are more than 135 facilities and 85,000 prisoner places under private sector operation or construction around the world.

With 37 contracts in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, England and...