Prisons, Profits, Principles

Show #142 | Guests: Dr. Debra Satz, Stanford University, is the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society, Professor of Philosophy and Senior Associate Dean for the Humanities and Arts; Corene Kendrick, Staff Attorney, Prison Law Office | Show Summary: The Department of Justice is detaching from contracts with private incarceration companies. Prison activists laud the beginning of the end of prison profitization – but of course the practice isn’t restricted to the federal government. States and counties guarantee up to 90% capacity in the contracts they sign with private companies. When is a profit-centered model appropriate in a given market – and who gets to make that call? Is that a strictly philosophical consideration, or should it have real-world impact on market regulation? How do the answers play out in other democracies?