WELL KEPT - COMPARING QUALITY OF CONFINEMENT IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC PRISONS

Quality of confinement is compared among three women's prisons: private, state, and federal. Defined along eight dimensions, quality of confinement is measured using 333 indicators derived from institutional records and surveys of inmates and staff. A comparative Prison Quality Index summarizes the results for each prison on each dimension. While all three prisons are regarded as having been high in quality, the private prison outperformed its governmental counterparts on nearly every dimension.