The Next Frontier in Prison Privatization

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http://www.nationofchange.org/next-frontier-prison-privatization-1344172844

Jamaican-born cultural theorist Stuart Hall once said that “you don’t need to have a fight about privatization, [so long as you] erode the distinction between public and private.”

Goldman Sachs’s most recent philanthropic foray into the rehabilitation of youth offenders surely brings Hall’s portension to life.

Goldman Sachs—the fifth largest U.S. financial institution—recently announced its intention to invest $2.4 million in MDRC (Manpower Research Demonstration Corporation), a non-profit social services provider overseeing a program housed at New York City’s Rikers Prison aimed at reducing the recidivism rate among male inmates aged 16 to 18 by ten percent over the next four years. Mayor Bloomberg’s personal foundation—Bloomberg Philanthropies—has agreed to chip in another $7.2 million.

Recidivism refers to the rate at which prisoners re-enter or return to jail/prison three years or less after their release. The recidivism rate at Rikers currently stands at 66 percent and far outstrips the New York state average, which has hovered around 40 percent for the last decade.