Abstract
This session, the Nebraska Legislature will again be considering a bill which, as introduced, gave the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (DCS) authority to contract with the private sector for incarceration of those persons committed to the Department's custody. The purpose of this Comment is to familiarize the reader with some of the problems posed by prison privatization in general and point out possible constitutional obstacles facing privatization in Nebraska. Part II of this Comment provides background on the magnitude of today's prison crisis and presents arguments most commonly propounded both for and against private prisons. Part III considers possible constitutional hurdles to privatization in Nebraska and suggests private prison legislation may well be an unconstitutional delegation of governmental authority. Part IV examines some of the policy implications of prison privatization and submits it would be imprudent to view private prisons as an appropriate solution to the nation's prison crisis. Part V explores the ideological propriety of private prisons and concludes, even absent constitutional problems, the legally sanctioned restriction of prisoners' liberty must remain wholly in public hands.
Recommended Citation
Stephanie Frazier Stacy,
Capitalist Punishment: The Wisdom and Propriety of Private Prisons,
70 Neb. L. Rev.
(1991)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol70/iss4/6