Prison escapes

Many of you may not remember this, but 15 years ago six Utah inmates simply walked away from a private prison in Texas. Three of them, including a murderer, walked away in September of 1995, and three more, including two murderers, walked away in January 1996.
The company that ran that facility had said it would only house low-risk offenders, but obviously that wasn’t the case. And once the inmates escaped, the state of Texas didn’t know what to do. Technically, there were no laws at the time making it a crime to escape a private prison.

Now we have another high-profile private-prison escape involving Utah — this time in Arizona. Utah-based Management and Training Corp. is running that facility. Three inmates were able to cut their way through two fences, with the help of a fourth person outside, and simply walk away. They apparently could time the predictable movements of guards, and a siren malfunctioned.
Two of the four have been caught, but two more remain on the run. The escapees are believed to be responsible for the murders of a couple from Oklahoma, who were found dead in New Mexico.
I’m all for privatizing government services that lend themselves to savings through competitive bidding, but prisons need to remain under the direct control of state governments. Prisons are vital to public safety and therefore need to be accountable and open to scrutiny, not separated from politicians and taxpayers.
People wouldn’t think of privatizing their local police department. This is no different, even if public prisons end up costing more.