What is Privatization in criminal justice?

Privatization in criminal justice refers to a shift to private ownership and control of criminal justice services.

The term is often used to refer simply to contracting out services, which takes place extensively in many countries today; for instance, in the form of various prison services provided piecemeal by private vendors. Taken to its fullest extreme, however, privatization entails private-sector control over all the decisions regarding the use of resources devoted to the protection of persons and property.

Many criminal justice services are privatized because the government lacks the means to carry them out. For example, private bail bondsmen help enforce the laws requiring those released on bail to appear for trial. If the defendant disappears, the bondsman may hire a bounty hunter to find them and bring them back.

The bondsman also has a monetary incentive to make an accurate assessment as to the defendant's likelihood of jumping bail; if he declines to grant a bond to an individual who would have shown up to trial, then he loses business, but if he grants bail to a person who jumps bail, then he suffers a financial loss. The government does not have such incentives built into its decisionmaking mechanisms for pretrial release.