Prison privatization: An environmental catch-22

ABSTRACT The viability of prison privatization has been the subject of extensive arguments ranging from the legal and philosophical to the pragmatic. None, however, take an organizational behavior perspective, in which organizations are viewed as active entities, interactively engaged with their environment in order to thrive. Correctional organizations exist in an institutional environment; they were created to serve a set of socially embedded and legally supported beliefs for which we have no empirical basis. Private prison firms, however, must interact with two environments: the institutional environment of corrections and the competitive market environment of business. This situation creates significant conflict for such companies and raises questions about how they will respond to ensure their survival. As private correctional organizations are forced to comply with the survival requirements in both of these environments, they will face an “environmental catch-22”: Actions that they take to promote survival in one environment will violate requirements of the other, thus reducing the likelihood of their long-term survival.