NCFCA Notes: Prison Jobs, Vouchers, & Justice

[June 24 update: federal prison policies topic was chosen]
Notes on economics of federal prison reform

The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction.

Since many homeschool families are skeptical of government management of education, it’s worth reflecting on government management of prisons. How are government prisons different from government schools? Public schools often have armed guards and somtimes metal detectors at entrances. Prisons and schools compel attendance for a number of years. Both state institutions promote behavior reform, learning/indoctrination, and sometimes rehabilitation.

Okay, maybe that’s a cynical way of looking at schools. But economists focus on institutional incentives and the incentives built into schools and prisons are less than ideal for consumers (whether students or prisoners).

Teachers unions and prison guard unions are the two most powerful lobbying forces in the California state legislature. Teachers unions oppose school choice (vouchers and tax credits), and prison guard unions oppose prison vouchers.

Prison vouchers? Sure! When convicted and sentenced, prisoners could receive a voucher good for any of a number of approved prisons. Maybe they’d like a room with a nice view and high rating on OrbitzPrison or PrisonBnB. Okay, I made up the OrbitzPrison and PrisonBnB part, but here is U Penn law review article Prison Vouchers.

School vouchers have been proposed as a way to bypass the political pathologies of school reform and improve school quality by transforming students and parents into consumers. What if we did the same for prisons—what if convicted criminals could choose their prison rather than being assigned bureaucratically?

Under a voucher system, prisons would compete for prisoners, meaning that they will adopt policies valued by prisoners. They would be more flexible as a constitutional matter – faith-based prisons would be fully constitutional, and prisons would also have increased freedom to offer valued benefits in exchange for the waiver of constitutional rights. As far as prison quality goes, the advantages of vouchers would plausibly include greater security, decent health care, and good educational and vocational opportunities – features that are also valued by prison reformers and have rehabilitative value.

Prison Vouchers 160 U. Pa. L. Rev. 779 (2012)

• Further discussion of prison vouchers.

Prisons should protect the rights of prisoners.
Prisoners shouldn’t be tortured or humiliated, of course, but by what right are prisoners denied the freedom to study, learn job skills, or engage in productive work? Earning income and gaining skills opens opportunities for legal employment after release. State and federal prison authorities are unlikely to know how to offer useful job skills and safe employment opportunities within their heavily regulated prisons.

Here is 2020 General Accounting Office review of Prison Industries

Federal Prison Industries is a government-owned corporation that seeks to provide marketable job skills to inmates. It sells inmate-produced goods and services, mostly to federal agencies…

The goal of this program is to help inmates in their reentry into society. However, we found that the Bureau of Prisons—which manages this program—has not reviewed its impact on recidivism (a person’s relapse into criminal behavior) in over 2 decades. We recommended that the Bureau evaluate the program and set a recidivism reduction goal.

Reducing recidivism seems a worthy goal for federal prisons. We can look to history, ancient and modern, to search for other perhaps better prison goals. Consider some history from “The rise of state-centered justice” by Daniel W. Van Ness:

It is surprising to most people that early legal systems which form the foundation of Western law emphasized the need for offenders and their families to settle with victims and their families. The offense was considered principally a violation against the victim and the victims family. While the common welfare had been breached, and the community there- fore had an interest and responsibility in seeing that the wrong was addressed and the offender punished, the offense was not considered primarily a crime against the state as it is today.

Update [June 24]: Cicero Institute posts on criminal justice and prison reform:

Committed to addressing the structural defects in America’s criminal justice system. The Cicero Institute reforms target and realign the incentive structures that underpin the justice system in order to create lasting, pervasive change.

Overview presentation on topic on YouTube is here. (and below)

Overheads in handout for presentation are here (pdf).

And the amazing Maine State Prison story, Making Goods Behind Bars from Reason magazine and Econ Update is here in pdf. Published in Econ Update for a past prison reform topic, it is a state prison story where a free market economy accidentally broke out, earning income and reducing prison violence. The lesson could be applied to federal prisons today.

Prison Entrepreneurship Program is another successful program showing how to improve the lives of prisoners, reduce recidivism, and engage those stuck behind bars.

PEP is dedicated to delivering the nation’s best outcomes in the prison re-entry field. We provide unparalleled resources and real-world values-based business skills to inmates so that once they are back in society they have the tools, skills and support structure to pursue healthy, fulfilling and productive lives.

PEP clients are immersed in a proven program comprised of one-on-one training with executive volunteers, business plan mentoring with seasoned professionals and a highly competitive business plan competition.