Panorama · Season 33 · Episode 26

Prisons for Profit

Monday, September 16

British prisons are bursting at the bars, and now hold 8,000 more inmates than they were built for. But in the United States, where overcrowding is just as bad, local authorities have come up with a bold breakthrough. They're allowing private industry to build and run their prisons. The result, as Tom Mangold reveals, is startling. Everyone interested in the problem, from Wall Street financiers, who are already making money from prisons, to the 'lifers' serving time inside them, is now debating the issue in earnest. Are 'prisons for profit' a new curse, or a possible cure for the intractable problems of our jails?