scholarly journals The Politics of Correctional Privatization in the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Burkhardt

Research Summary: Private correctional firms are political actors. They work to create favorable conditions to market their services. At the same time, they are constrained by external political forces, including political parties, social movements, and public opinion. This article reviews what we know about the reciprocal relationship between the private corrections industry and politics. Policy Implications: The review of extant research yields several implications for practitioners and policymakers. First, correctional privatization is not uniformly accepted, a fact that presents challenges for the industry and opportunities for critics. Second, punitive policies that appear beneficial to industry (particularly, those related to tough immigration policy) may in fact pose real reputational risks. Third, new forms of privatization—namely, social impact bonds—may prove more tolerable to the general public. Finally, consideration of political activity by private industry should not distract from political activity by public sector actors (e.g., prison guard unions).

Author(s):  
Valentina Patetta ◽  
Marta Enciso Santocildes

The social impact bond (SIB) is defined as a form of payment-by-results scheme combining governmental payments with private investments. This paper explores the motivations and implications of three third sector organisations (TSOs) participating in SIBs in Continental Europe. It offers an understanding of the involvement of TSOs in this type of scheme; and it shares insights about a context that is different from the United Kingdom and the United States – the Netherlands – which presents the opportunity to expand our knowledge about SIBs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper Kim

AbstractFunding for animal shelters is often a scarce resource, representing a major challenge affecting many shelter programs in the United States and beyond today. Funding issues and budgetary constraints are often exacerbated by the high rate of animal intake levels relative to adoption rates, the availability of resources to treat medical conditions, and funding for other related programs that may lower euthanasia rates, such as spay and neuter programs. This article proposes an alternative funding option for animal shelter programs using a unique social finance funding model incorporating public-private partnerships and social impact bonds. This social finance model is directly aimed at providing greater funding for animal shelter programs, while also increasing transparency and social impact outcomes. If utilized, the social impact bond model can complement and build upon (but not completely replace) existing funding sources that are critical to saving nonhuman animal lives while benefiting society at large.


2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110420
Author(s):  
James W. Williams

This article uses the case of “social impact bonds” (SIBs) to explore the role of social science methods in new markets in “social investment.” Pioneered in the UK in 2010, SIBs use private capital to fund social programs with governments paying returns for successful outcomes. Central to the SIB model is the question of evaluation and the method to be used in determining program outcomes and investor returns. In the United States, the randomized controlled trial (RCT) has been the dominant method. However, this has not been without controversy. Some SIB practitioners and investors have argued that, while this may be the perfect tool, the need to grow the SIB market demands a more pragmatic approach. Drawing from a three-year study of SIBs, and informed by Science and Technology Studies (STS)-inspired work on valuation and the social life of methods, the article explores RCTs as both a valuation technology central to SIB design and the object of a micropolitics of valuation which has impeded market growth. It is the relationship between, and the politics of, evaluation and valuation that is a key lesson of the SIB experiment and an important insight for future research on “social investment” and other settings where methods are constitutive of financial value.


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Mary Coleman

The author of this article argues that the two-decades-long litigation struggle was necessary to push the political actors in Mississippi into a more virtuous than vicious legal/political negotiation. The second and related argument, however, is that neither the 1992 United States Supreme Court decision in Fordice nor the negotiation provided an adequate riposte to plaintiffs’ claims. The author shows that their chief counsel for the first phase of the litigation wanted equality of opportunity for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as did the plaintiffs. In the course of explicating the role of a legal grass-roots humanitarian, Coleman suggests lessons learned and trade-offs from that case/negotiation, describing the tradeoffs as part of the political vestiges of legal racism in black public higher education and the need to move HBCUs to a higher level of opportunity at a critical juncture in the life of tuition-dependent colleges and universities in the United States. Throughout the essay the following questions pose themselves: In thinking about the Road to Fordice and to political settlement, would the Justice Department lawyers and the plaintiffs’ lawyers connect at the point of their shared strength? Would the timing of the settlement benefit the plaintiffs and/or the State? Could plaintiffs’ lawyers hold together for the length of the case and move each piece of the case forward in a winning strategy? Who were plaintiffs’ opponents and what was their strategy? With these questions in mind, the author offers an analysis of how the campaign— political/legal arguments and political/legal remedies to remove the vestiges of de jure segregation in higher education—unfolded in Mississippi, with special emphasis on the initiating lawyer in Ayers v. Waller and Fordice, Isaiah Madison


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEVIN ALBERTSON ◽  
CHRIS FOX ◽  
CHRIS O’LEARY ◽  
GARY PAINTER ◽  
KIMBERLY BAILEY ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 233264922098109
Author(s):  
Shannon K. Carter ◽  
Ashley Stone ◽  
Lain Graham ◽  
Jonathan M. Cox

Reducing race disparities in breastfeeding has become a health objective in the United States, spurring research aimed to identify causes and consequences of disparate rates. This study uses critical discourse analysis to assess how Black women are constructed in 80 quantitative health science research articles on breastfeeding disparities in the United States. Our analysis is grounded in critical race and intersectionality scholarship, which argues that researchers often incorrectly treat race and its intersections as causal mechanisms. Our findings reveal two distinct representations. Most commonly, race, gender, and their intersection are portrayed as essential characteristics of individuals. Black women are portrayed as a fixed category, possessing characteristics that inhibit breastfeeding; policy implications focus on modifying Black women’s characteristics to increase breastfeeding. Less commonly, Black women are portrayed as a diverse group who occupy a social position in society resulting from similar social and material conditions, seeking to identify factors that facilitate or inhibit breastfeeding. Policy implications emphasize mitigating structural barriers that disproportionately impact some Black women. We contribute to existing knowledge by demonstrating how dominant health science approaches provide evidence for health promotion campaigns that are unlikely to reduce health disparities and may do more harm than good to Black women. We also demonstrate the existence of a problematic knowledge set about Black women’s reproductive and infant feeding practices that is both ahistorical and decontextualized.


1983 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 12-13
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Mulkeen

American higher education has been molded by forces outside the educational community. From the Civil War through the mid-1970's our political leadership considered investment in education good for the economy and, therefore, good public policy. This link between schooling and the economic system developed as the United States moved from an agrarian to an industrial economy. Industrialization demanded skills that neither the family nor the church could provide, and tax-supported public higher education was to assist the transformation to an industrial society. The catalyst for this transformation came in 1862 with the passage of the Morrill Act establishing the land grant colleges. These new institutions emphasized the development of technical skills and the application of scientific principles to agriculture, industry and commerce.


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