Record of the 22nd APCCA
Agenda Item Two
Outsourcing of Correctional Services
Introduction
Oral presentations to the conference, as well as the national papers, both revealed a wide range of opinions on this agenda item. It is apparent that nearly every nation and jurisdiction in the region engages in some level of outsourcing, or contracting out, of some correctional services, but there are significant differences between nations as to the extent of outsourcing and the motivations for pursuing this course. The aspect of outsourcing that provoked most interest and lively discussion at the conference was that of private prison management, and this provided an appropriate background to a presentation later in the day by the Managing Director of Australasian Correctional Management Pty Ltd, the largest private supplier of correctional services in Australia and New Zealand.
One exception to the proposition that all jurisdictions engage in some level of outsourcing is Cambodia which stated in its national paper that “outsourcing is not an effective option for the delivery of prisoner correctional services at this stage” because of the lack of financial resources available to the government and the competing priorities of health, education and infrastructure rebuilding. Another exception is Brunei Darussalam where the prisons department is seen as self-administered and self-sufficient, even though joint-venture projects may be acceptable. Also in Malaysia, the outsourcing of some correctional services is under consideration in response to staff shortages and budget constraints, but this has not been developed to a significant extent at this time. Similarly in Sri Lanka, the outsourcing of a number of different correctional services is under active consideration by a high powered team, but this concept has not yet been put into practice.
In most cases, however, outsourcing is becoming quite common. It is still a relatively new development, perhaps motivated by overcrowding or budget constraints, but in some cases it is highly developed and includes contracting the design, construction, financing and management of complete correctional institutions to private companies. In the latter cases, a major responsibility of public sector authorities is the supervision of the private companies through rigorous contract management.
Health Services
The outsourcing of health or medical services, including the provision of therapeutic programmes, seems to have become fairly common in the region. The national paper submitted by Singapore included a detailed analysis of the reasons for, and the benefits of, the outsourcing of the provision of prison medical services. The reasons included: acute shortage of public medical officers, the high turnover rate of medical staff, the lack of high quality medical staff and restructuring of public hospitals. The benefits identified included: better staffing, enhanced quality of service, greater cost efficiency, and improved public perception. Furthermore, the outsourcing allowed the department to concentrate on its core competencies of security and the provision of rehabilitation programmes. The Singapore paper also drew attention to the need for great care to be exercised in the preparation and administration of contracts for outsourcing.
In Hong Kong (China), the Correctional Services Department has for many years been working in collaboration with the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority to provide comprehensive medical and mental health services to all persons in custody. Medical officers working in prisons are seconded from the Department of Health. They make diagnoses, prescribe medications as required and they admit prisoners in need of nursing care or observation to in-centre hospitals which are staffed by correctional officers with nursing qualifications. Prisoners requiring specialist treatment and those who are seriously ill are referred to specialist clinics or public hospitals respectively. This manner of service provision minimises costs as the Department is not required to run full scale hospitals and yet prisoners receive the same level of health care as do citizens in the community.
Some Australian jurisdictions have moved even further towards the full outsourcing of all correctional health services by entering into contracts with specialist private companies for the provision of all medical, pharmaceutical, psychological and psychiatric services to all persons in custody. These arrangements seem to have generally gained the approval of the purchasers (the relevant governments) and the recipients of the services (the prisoners).
Canada, at the federal level, has also entered into contracts with the private sector for the provision of health services in its institutions. In the People’s Republic of China, as mentioned in the Discussion Guide, regional hospitals in the community are also responsible for the provision of health services to prisoners within their regions. (In its national paper for the conference, however, China interpreted outsourcing as a means of facilitating community involvement in the reform, education and resettlement of offenders. A similar interpretation was made by Vietnam.)
External Escorting of Prisoners
Singapore has arranged for the external escorting of low-security inmates to be undertaken by an external agency, and similar arrangements have been made in most Australian jurisdictions and in New Zealand. In these cases the replacement of corrections or police officers by private security companies has been shown to result in considerable savings to the relevant governments without significant reduction in efficiency or public safety.
Most Australian jurisdictions and the Correctional Services of Canada have contracted out the provision of education and training programmes for prisoners which were previously provided by either seconded or directly employed staff. Similarly in New Zealand, some literacy and numeracy educational programmes are contracted to the New Zealand Correspondence School, which is another government agency, but most of the specific services required under this arrangement are delivered by a private company.
Prison Industries
In Japan, a new agency, the Correctional Association Prison Industry Cooperation (CAPIC) has been established in cooperation with the Japanese Correctional Association (JCA) to improve efficiency and reduce costs by incorporating a private company management style. CAPIC is responsible for the purchasing of raw material and for the sale of prison products, while the government remains responsible for the actual manufacture of the products.
In many Australian jurisdictions, arrangements have been made for private companies to assist prison industries in a number of different ways. In its national paper Australia stated, “Private sector involvement in correction industry programmes ... provides an opportunity to significantly lift correctional industry performance and realise the infinite potential of correctional industries to contribute to inmate development [and] effective correctional centre management.”
Miscellaneous Support Services
A good example of the outsourcing of miscellaneous correctional services is to be found in the national paper submitted by Japan. This paper referred to the recent prison overcrowding and a simultaneous staff reduction plan prompted by the sluggish national economy. These matters have both caused significant problems. As a partial solution to these problems, the contracting out of a number of different aspects of correctional work has been undertaken. This was done in order to overcome staff shortages and to maintain appropriate standards of management. Examples of outsourcing in Japan included: some cleaning and gardening around prisons, driving official vehicles, translation and interpretation for foreign prisoners, the delivery of meals, night telephone duty, etc. In some institutions non-government personnel are employed as assistant officers to undertake these tasks.
The Correctional Service of Canada provides another example with contracts being entered into for the provision of a wide range of services including legal advice, consulting, engineering, informatics, translation, chaplaincy and the supervision and residential services for offenders on conditional release. (These services are in addition to education and health care which are also contracted out in Canada.) Similarly in Hong Kong (China), a wide range of services are contracted out including the use of consultants in specialist areas, and the provision of some aspects of senior staff training.
In New Zealand, the Department of Corrections funds the New Zealand Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Society to provide agreed reintegrative services to prison and remand inmates, parolees and their families. These services include arranging and transporting families to see their relatives in remand centres or in prison.
Security and Prison Management
At the national level in Canada, there is a firm commitment to the view that the government should maintain control of offenders in confinement, but at the provincial level there are some examples of privatisation in corrections. In the province of Ontario there is a 1200 bed maximum security institution and a youth detention centre which are both run by private companies. The views of the Correctional Service of Canada are echoed by Hong Kong (China) where it is suggested that even though the correctional system is operating in a climate of government downsizing and a rising penal population, the idea of private prison management is unlikely to gain public support.
In contrast to Canada and Hong Kong (China), in Australia five of the six states have private prisons and Australia has proportionately more of its prisoners in privately run institutions than any other nation in the world. The Australian paper says, “there is no doubt that the private sector can achieve efficiencies beyond that of the public sector”, but it also notes that the costs of monitoring contracts can be considerable and may even in some cases outweigh the savings that have apparently been achieved. In recent years in Australia there has been a slowing down of the movement towards privatisation as currently all of the state governments are controlled by the Australian Labor Party, and that party has generally been ideologically opposed to private prisons.
The Republic of Korea has also endorsed the concept of private prisons with the passage in January 2000 of the Establishment and Management of Private Prison Law, followed in May 2002 by the Ministry of Justice selecting a company to establish the first private prison. It is expected that this institution will open in 2005.
Conclusions
One of the recurring themes that emerged from the discussion of this agenda item was the need to reduce costs at a time when budgets were severely constrained, and many examples were given where this had occurred, but it was also pointed out by a number of delegates that there are higher priorities than saving money and these include the protection of the public by the maintenance of security and the provision of effective rehabilitation services. Thus, the outsourcing of correctional services may be seen as worthwhile if the end result is a clear improvement in the fundamental outcomes of all correctional work or there is no diminution of those outcomes but there is significant cost savings. Ideally, the most welcome types of outsourcing will achieve both of these goals simultaneously.