Brian Flomer

Elizabeth Kent
English Comp II
3 March 2016

Thesis Statement:
With this project I want to explain to the audience what private prisons are and how they
operate.

Outline:
I.

Working Title: The Cost for Incarceration

A. I chose this title because it illustrates what my paper is about, and
at the same time it makes the reader in seeing what it is about. Many of the other
phrases I wanted to use are already used as names for articles so I tried to think

II.

of something new and clever.

Working Introduction: Question
A. For the introduction to my paper I want to start it off with a
question of morality. I think this will make the viewers think about what
information is given to them and will make them informed and pay more attention
as to what is being read. I am hoping that starting the introduction of with a

III.

question will help catch the readers attention and make them want to read more.
Working Thesis:With this project I want to explain to the audience what private

prisons are and how they operate.

A. This is the main point I want to get across in this paper. I dont
necessarily want to convince someone whether the issue is wrong or right, but
just to put out to the reader that there IS an issue and they can make their own
informed decision about it. This is the simplest form of the thesis statement and I
IV.

hope to make it more in depth in the future.

Entry #1: Graph of Private Prisons vs Public Prisons

A. I want to start my paper off with a graph or the incarceration rate

of Private Prisons vs. Public Prisons over the course of a few years. I am hoping
that when then viewer sees the graph that they will see the increase in private
prisons and will want to know more about them.
B. I will either use the statistics from one of my sources to make the
graph, or I will look online to see if there is already a graph that I could use
V.

(which of course I would cite).

Entry #2: Diary of an Inmate
A. I want to write a small bit of a diary from the viewpoint of a
prisoner. I think this will help the audience get into the mind of the people that
private prisons really affect. I think this will make the discussion easier to see the
prisoners as people rather than just animals in a cage.
B. Im not for sure whether or not I will use any direct quotes from
any of my sources, but I do plan on using what a few of my sources say about
what life is like in a private prisons. I also want to use the diary to help point out

VI.

some of the flaws in the private prison system (like lack of training and abuse).
Entry #3: Obituary of an Inmate
A. This will be an obituary for the inmate from entry #2. I plan on
writing it from the perspective of the inmates family. I havent decided whether I
want it to be his mother or brother yet. I will hope that this will also humanize
prisoners to the audience.
B. I plan on using this to quote two of my sources on the negative
impacts of private prisons have on peoples lives. Sources: (Dolovich),

VII.

(Anderson)
Entry #4: Letter to the State
A. This part of the paper will be a letter to the State Government from
the family of entry #2 and #3 about the issue of private prisons.
B. I plan on using three of my sources that have reliable statistics

VIII.

about private prisons in this part. Sources : (Shapiro) , (Sanburn) , (Perrone)

Entry #5: Travel Brochure to Prison
A. I will use this part of the paper to lighten the mood and to
introduce some of the upsides that private prisons have.

IX.

B. For this part I will use two sources. Sources: (Anderson) , (Beiser)
Entry #6: Timeline of Private Prisons in the United States
A. For this part of the paper I will give a guideline on private prisons,
starting with the first and showing the increasing popularity of them. I plan on
going all the way to modern day.
B. For the timeline I will use three sources that discuss the increase
in private prisons, as well as the emergence of them. Sources: (Dolovich) ,

X.

(Beiser) , (Brickner)
Entry #7: Speech to the Public
A. This part of the paper will be a speech to the public from a
government official to the public regarding the issue of Private Prisons, as well as
the death of the inmate from entry #2 and #3.
B. In the speech I will discuss some of the conflicts and why it is hard
to do anything about the private prison system. I will use (Conflict) as a
source for this one.

Annotated Bibliography:
Source #1:
Anderson, George M. "Prisons For Profit." America 183.16 (2000): 12. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
This is a great source I can use to give the readers a better explanation on why the
private prison system is so bad. The source points out some of the flaws that private
correctional facilities have and some of the troubles that those flaws have had on peoples lives.
The source also does a great job at explaining how the private prisons work and how they
contract with the government. The source also discusses some of the arguments for why
prisons shouldnt be privatized. The source also talks about some of the upsides that private
prisons have on smaller towns. Overall, this source isnt very bias at all and would work great at
explaining some of the upsides of private prisons too.

Source #2:
Becker, Craig, and Amy Dru Stanley. "The Downside Of Private Prisons." Nation 240.23 (1985):
728-730. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

This source is very unique because it is so much older than all the other sources. This
source is from a magazine from 1985. The reason I picked this source is because many of the
topics and arguments discussed it are similar to the same ones that are discussed today. It
shows that many people have found that the private prison system has been a problem for a
while. I think that this source works great at explaining some of the vital problems about private
prisons, many of which are still relevant today. I hope that using this source will inform the
readers about how long this has been a problem for many people and raise their awareness to
it.
Source #3:
Beiser, Vince. "Jailing For Dollars." New Leader 80.8 (1997): 10. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
This source works well begins it discusses the emergence of the private prison system, as well
as the increasing popularity of them. It discusses the very first private prison, and then explains
why it has been increasing so rapidly over the past few decades. The source then explains
some of the reasons why private prisons can be considered bad, as well as some of the
questionable things that they do as a business. The source also gives statistics on the increase
of profits that private prisons have had from 1992 to 1996 to help reiterate the fact that private
prisons are becoming more popular.
Source #4:
Brickner, Michael, and Shakyra Diaz. "Prisons For Profit Incarceration For Sale." Human Rights
38.3 (2011): 14-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
This source will be used by informing the audience what private prisons are and also give them
a look at how they operate. This source is about a controversial topic, so it has some bias to it.
The article is mainly about how more and more states are using private prisons and its
increased popularity. The paper also focuses on the rise of private prisons, the power the private
prison lobby has with the government, and about how private prisons affect our society.
Both of the writers are a part of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. I will probably use
this topic a few times to address different aspects of the topic.

Source #5:
"Conflict of Interest." Editorial. America 07 Jan. 2013: Print.
This source is an editorial from the America Magazine. This source gives great information on
the current private prison source and some of the conflict of interests that is involved and make
the private prison system as popular as it is today. The strengths of this source is that it gives an
in-depth view of the current private prison system and gives some of the reasons on why the

private prison system has become as popular as it is. It gives excellent points on some of the
problems that private prisons face and how government corruption is also linked to private
prisons. This source does a great job of allowing me to introduce to the readers the way that the
private prison system operates and to give some insight to the connection with government
corruption. I see myself using this source as an introduction into the topic of government
corruption and the correlation with private prisons.

Source #6:
Dolovich, Sharon. State Punishment and Private Prisons. Duke Law Journal 55.3 (2005): 437
546. Print.
This source is part of an article written in the Duke Law Journal, which is a very prestigious and
well-respected law journal. The strengths of the source is that it help explains the current private
prison v. public-funded prison debate. It goes into detail about what the main points of the
debate are, as well as showing what each side believes. The source also goes on to explain the
history and emergence of private prisons and also addresses some of the moral factors of
privatizing prisons. The information allows me to enter many different types of conversation
because the source covers such a wide range of topics. I could enter into a conversation about
the emergence of private prisons, the moral factors of privatizing prisons, or about the main
debate points. I could see this source going into my essay in a few different places.

Source #7:
Lippke, Richard L. "Thinking About Private Prisons." Criminal Justice Ethics 16.1 (1997): 26.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
This source begins by explaining how many private prison companies exist as well as an
estimate of how much money they bring in annually. The source then goes on to explain the
reality of the crime vs. the punishment. This source is a little older, but it still does a great job of
getting the point across. I feel like I could use this source in a few different places to help
explain to the readers how the private-prison system has boomed since 1997. I think it will also
be a good source to point out that the private-prison system has been a problem for a while and
have concerned a large group of people in the past, and yet nothing has been done about it.
Source #8:
Perrone, Dina, and Travis C. Pratt. "Comparing the quality of confinement and costeffectiveness of public versus private prisons: What we know, why we do not know more, and
where to go from here." The Prison Journal 83.3 (2003): 301-322.
The strengths of this source is that it is written by two academic professors and is
published in a prison industry journal. Another strength is that this source has also been cited by
many other professors in various other research papers/journals. This source works great in my

paper because it allows me to give statistics about private prisons as well as statistics for publicfunded prisons. I see this source in my paper when I am comparing private prisons with publicfunded prisons. It will work well to give the audience a clear depiction of the difference between
the two and whether or not there is a cost-benefit for using private prisons.
Source #9:
Sanburn, Josh. "Privately-Run Prisons Hold Inmates Longer, Study Finds."Time 19 June
2015: Print.
This source is an article from Time Magazine. It is written by author Josh Sanburn on a study
done by the Wisconsin School of Businesss assistant professor Anita Mukherjee. The content
gives proven numbers to help the reader to understand some facts about private prisons vs
public-funded prisons. This source will be great to use to compare the difference between public
and private prisons. Although the source inherently takes a bias, its not directly expressed. I
believe that this source will allow me to enter a conversation because it opens up the topic of
comparing the two different prisons. I think this will be very beneficial for me because it will give
the readers a more unbiased view of the topic. This source will become a building block for my
argument because it will help illustrate the differences between the two types of prisons to the
readers.

Source #10:
Shapiro, David. "Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration." ACLU.
American Civil Liberties Union, 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 8 Mar. 2016.
This source goes into detail about how the current private prison system operates and gives
statistics about the incarceration rate in the United States compared to other countries. This
source goes on to give an explanation on how the private prison system is related to an
increase in the incarceration rate. The source also goes into detail with the current private
prison companies income as well as the percent of prisoners that they incarcerate. The source
also goes on to explain the increase in the privatization of prisons.