PFI Prisons Essay
In order to keep the public peace, the existence of the prisons are necessary. Criminals are isolated from the society and educated to return there safely. However, most of the prisons are unaccepted by people, because their image would be like this; all criminals are wearing the same clothes, performing the same movements, sometimes punished by the officer, and always trying to escape, so it is dangerous to get close there. Moreover, prisons are said to have many socially problems, such as criminals’ human rights, their excessive number, their recommitment, and the relationship with its area. Recently, however, new type of prison is appearing. That is, so-called ‘PFI Prisons.’ The word of ‘PFI’ stands for ‘Private Finance initiative’: private companies take initiative of the business, which the government had been done before. By applying this new
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system, it will change and solve the image and problems of prisons, as it rules three main principles; public-private partnership, the recovery of the criminals, and the coexistence with local communities.
This essay is going to explain why and how those principles works.
Seeing the history of PFI prisons, the first policy, the cooperation between the government and the private sector, was established so as to avoid the devotion of criminals’ human rights. In Japan, PFI itself was introduced in 2004, and started with the facility of the school lunch or the hot spring. After several years, that of prison was about to introduced. However, the government was reluctant to carry out the plan; is it really Okay to confide with the security aspect, or do the citizens agree with this idea? At this very time, one serious trouble had occurred;in 2002, three criminals were killed by the prison officers in Nagoya. This case was reported to the every direction and criticized greatly, as everyone had a question that whether the prison officer has the right to do anything he or she wants and
criminals have no human rights. Moreover, it was uncovered that there was a possibility that more than a hundred of criminals were killed, which that case having been the trigger of the research of the prison system. In order to reconstruct it, the government held a meeting and decided one thing: ‘in order to protect the criminals’ human rights, managers who are not only the government employees but also the private citizens are essential.’ PFI was chosen to this measure, making the prison system as never had. The government only take the responsibility which restrict the human rights of the criminals, such as imposing the punishment and permitting the parole. Other parts are provided by the private companies; food and clean services, security system, vocational trainings, and so on. By separating roles as above, private citizens have no worry about the treatment of the criminals since they just need to work as a common, and officers there are expected to have more responsibilities to treat criminals as caring about outsiders’ eyes. To sum up, the first aim of this project was to protect human rights of the criminals.
The second policy is the recovery of the criminals; as this measure, interesting educational programs are created. At the time PFI prison project was started, the crime number was increasing and increasing. No matter how much they increase, prisons cannot refuse accepting them. As a result, the number of the criminals per one person officer got bigger and bigger. Compared to the other countries, the figure of Japan is almost twice as bigger according to one survey. This might be one reason that the case above had occurred because the officers could not afford the time or vitality to treat each criminals. The solution for this problem is , of course to make more prisons is the easiest way, but it costs enormous sum. However, one research discovered an important fact; only 39 percent of the criminals were the first offenders; the average number of the crime was 3.6, and the greatest number was surprisingly 25. It is clear that not making another prisons but changing the educational program and making criminals recover to the society effectively costs smaller, and is much more worth to the society and also criminals indeed. Therefore, PFI prisons began to start some new characteristic programs. One example is to ‘raise guide dogs.’ For ten month, criminals raise and teach puppies to be the guide dogs, which helps blind people. By raising puppies, criminals are expected to feel the pleasures to be reliable, to be helpful, and to achieve something. In fact, after finishing this project, some criminals said that he thanked to his family for the first time, that he first understood how hard and wonderful it is to raise kids. Another program is to experience the market just like real one. Criminals experience the process of the employment, and get money according to their skills. Separating their payments according to the ability would stimulate their desire to improve skills, and those skills would be helpful when finding jobs after leaving the jail. As a proof, 85 percent of the participants have not commit the crimes again, that is, they had succeeded to go back to the society. The reason why people turns to be the criminals might be that they want to be received and get attention from others, or they have no stable payments so that they are poor, and pushed to commit a crime for money. Since not the government but the private companies are managing those educational programs, some new effective programs can be served in PFI prisons.
The third policy is the coexistence with local communities; because of the two points, equipments of PFI prisons and their economic benefit to the area, they are accepted by people there. Prisons are thought to be annoying facilities through the ages, as people are anxious about the runaways and the bad atmosphere around them. Owing to the two points above, however, they are not unaccepted. The first point is that the facility was built to have easy interaction with local people. In the site of the appearance, PFI prisons are constructed to fit with the landscape there. Most of the normal prisons are surrounded by the high concrete walls in order to avoid criminals run away, but instead of such disturbing object, infrared radiation and strengthened glass are used. Moreover, each criminals take an GPS tag with them so that prisons can figure out where they are. Thanks to those high technologies, people can see inside of the prison and this fact would be helpful for them to receive it. Furthermore, not only the appearance but also the contents have features. It contains a visitor center, a dining hall, and even a nursery school, which will promote the interactions. Another point is that PFI prisons influence the economy of their areas. Since private companies provide criminals’ daily necessities, such as food and clean services or security system, there would be more and more opportunities for people to be employed. In addition, prison officers and their families would live in its area. This means the population there increases, not only adults but also children are included. From this point of view, local governments are expecting PFI prisons to be the plan to revive the area. In fact, more than 50 local governments applied to the first site, among them were having serious problems of depopulation. For those areas, introducing this facility would be the last and the best plan for stopping population drain, since it is relatively a big business and would not be closed down forever. For these reasons, we can said that PFI prisons are succeeding to coexist with its area.
Seeing those three policies, public-private partnership, the recovery of the criminals, and the coexistence with local communities, PFI prisons are trying to solve the problems that the normal prisons are troubling. By private companies taking initiative of their management, it can protect the human right of the criminals, decrease the number of the second-offenders, make them revived to the society, interact with local people, and benefit to the local areas. Moreover, companies themselves can grow; it is big and almost permanent business, and they will enhance their skills or devise new ones. Considering those merits, PFI prisons would be the most effective way to improve the situation of the prisons, criminals, and our society.
system, it will change and solve the image and problems of prisons, as it rules three main principles; public-private partnership, the recovery of the criminals, and the coexistence with local communities.
This essay is going to explain why and how those principles works.
Seeing the history of PFI prisons, the first policy, the cooperation between the government and the private sector, was established so as to avoid the devotion of criminals’ human rights. In Japan, PFI itself was introduced in 2004, and started with the facility of the school lunch or the hot spring. After several years, that of prison was about to introduced. However, the government was reluctant to carry out the plan; is it really Okay to confide with the security aspect, or do the citizens agree with this idea? At this very time, one serious trouble had occurred;in 2002, three criminals were killed by the prison officers in Nagoya. This case was reported to the every direction and criticized greatly, as everyone had a question that whether the prison officer has the right to do anything he or she wants and
criminals have no human rights. Moreover, it was uncovered that there was a possibility that more than a hundred of criminals were killed, which that case having been the trigger of the research of the prison system. In order to reconstruct it, the government held a meeting and decided one thing: ‘in order to protect the criminals’ human rights, managers who are not only the government employees but also the private citizens are essential.’ PFI was chosen to this measure, making the prison system as never had. The government only take the responsibility which restrict the human rights of the criminals, such as imposing the punishment and permitting the parole. Other parts are provided by the private companies; food and clean services, security system, vocational trainings, and so on. By separating roles as above, private citizens have no worry about the treatment of the criminals since they just need to work as a common, and officers there are expected to have more responsibilities to treat criminals as caring about outsiders’ eyes. To sum up, the first aim of this project was to protect human rights of the criminals.
The second policy is the recovery of the criminals; as this measure, interesting educational programs are created. At the time PFI prison project was started, the crime number was increasing and increasing. No matter how much they increase, prisons cannot refuse accepting them. As a result, the number of the criminals per one person officer got bigger and bigger. Compared to the other countries, the figure of Japan is almost twice as bigger according to one survey. This might be one reason that the case above had occurred because the officers could not afford the time or vitality to treat each criminals. The solution for this problem is , of course to make more prisons is the easiest way, but it costs enormous sum. However, one research discovered an important fact; only 39 percent of the criminals were the first offenders; the average number of the crime was 3.6, and the greatest number was surprisingly 25. It is clear that not making another prisons but changing the educational program and making criminals recover to the society effectively costs smaller, and is much more worth to the society and also criminals indeed. Therefore, PFI prisons began to start some new characteristic programs. One example is to ‘raise guide dogs.’ For ten month, criminals raise and teach puppies to be the guide dogs, which helps blind people. By raising puppies, criminals are expected to feel the pleasures to be reliable, to be helpful, and to achieve something. In fact, after finishing this project, some criminals said that he thanked to his family for the first time, that he first understood how hard and wonderful it is to raise kids. Another program is to experience the market just like real one. Criminals experience the process of the employment, and get money according to their skills. Separating their payments according to the ability would stimulate their desire to improve skills, and those skills would be helpful when finding jobs after leaving the jail. As a proof, 85 percent of the participants have not commit the crimes again, that is, they had succeeded to go back to the society. The reason why people turns to be the criminals might be that they want to be received and get attention from others, or they have no stable payments so that they are poor, and pushed to commit a crime for money. Since not the government but the private companies are managing those educational programs, some new effective programs can be served in PFI prisons.
The third policy is the coexistence with local communities; because of the two points, equipments of PFI prisons and their economic benefit to the area, they are accepted by people there. Prisons are thought to be annoying facilities through the ages, as people are anxious about the runaways and the bad atmosphere around them. Owing to the two points above, however, they are not unaccepted. The first point is that the facility was built to have easy interaction with local people. In the site of the appearance, PFI prisons are constructed to fit with the landscape there. Most of the normal prisons are surrounded by the high concrete walls in order to avoid criminals run away, but instead of such disturbing object, infrared radiation and strengthened glass are used. Moreover, each criminals take an GPS tag with them so that prisons can figure out where they are. Thanks to those high technologies, people can see inside of the prison and this fact would be helpful for them to receive it. Furthermore, not only the appearance but also the contents have features. It contains a visitor center, a dining hall, and even a nursery school, which will promote the interactions. Another point is that PFI prisons influence the economy of their areas. Since private companies provide criminals’ daily necessities, such as food and clean services or security system, there would be more and more opportunities for people to be employed. In addition, prison officers and their families would live in its area. This means the population there increases, not only adults but also children are included. From this point of view, local governments are expecting PFI prisons to be the plan to revive the area. In fact, more than 50 local governments applied to the first site, among them were having serious problems of depopulation. For those areas, introducing this facility would be the last and the best plan for stopping population drain, since it is relatively a big business and would not be closed down forever. For these reasons, we can said that PFI prisons are succeeding to coexist with its area.
Seeing those three policies, public-private partnership, the recovery of the criminals, and the coexistence with local communities, PFI prisons are trying to solve the problems that the normal prisons are troubling. By private companies taking initiative of their management, it can protect the human right of the criminals, decrease the number of the second-offenders, make them revived to the society, interact with local people, and benefit to the local areas. Moreover, companies themselves can grow; it is big and almost permanent business, and they will enhance their skills or devise new ones. Considering those merits, PFI prisons would be the most effective way to improve the situation of the prisons, criminals, and our society.