Editorial: Take tough look at privatization’s woes

Friday, Jan. 4, 2002 | 9:03 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility, which is run by a private company, is experiencing financial trouble. Corrections Corp. of American has a three-year contract with the state Department of Corrections to operate the prison, but it contends that it's losing too much money. One option under consideration is for the company to still run the prison, but have someone else provide the costly medical services for inmates. The Department of Corrections also is considering bringing in another company to run the prison.

Once again we see that privatization, which during much of the 1990s was predicted to be the wave of the future for government, has demonstrated instead that it's but a shell of what it promised to be. In addition to the state women's prison experiencing financial difficulties, last year the company that ran Summit View youth prison in Southern Nevada ended its contract with the state two weeks after the Sun began investigating the conditions at Summit View, which included a number of security breaches, escapes and even female staff members having sex with inmates.

The cost savings and better services touted by privatization's proponents just aren't being created -- in Nevada and, for that matter, elsewhere in the nation. The Nevada Legislature bears responsibility for creating this mess, and it's long overdue for legislators to pull the plug on these projects that are doing more harm than good. Privatization simply doesn't work in law enforcement -- and it's time state legislators finally got the message.