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November 9, 2009

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Editorial: Privatization isn’t right fit for prisons

Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002 | 8:43 a.m.

The Department of Human Resources will soon choose between two companies bidding to run the state's Summit View juvenile detention center in Clark County -- Securicor New Century of Richmond, Va., and Rite of Passage out of Minden. The company that once ran the facility, Correctional Services Corp., ended its contract last year after it was revealed that there had been escapes by inmates and that sexual relations had occurred between staff and inmates.

It's a shame that the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee blocked Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan to have the state run the juvenile detention center. Now the state will face again the dubious prospect of turning over an important government operation to the private sector. Privatization's failures are widespread, especially when it comes to running prisons, and we won't be surprised if history repeats itself yet again.

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