Study: Private prisons lead to fewer jobs in rural areas

Researchers say the economic benefits of prisons often don't materialize for rural communities. That's according to a new paper by Northwest sociologists. In fact, they found communities with private prisons fare worse than they did before.

Washington State University sociologist Gregory Hook says rural areas that opt to build prisons, even courting them with tax breaks, have one main goal in mind: jobs.

“You know, you look across the way and you say 'Oh there's a prison. Fifty people have a job there. So that's 50 new jobs in my community.' … Only it's not.”

Hook and his colleagues previously found that prisons don’t contribute much to economic growth. But their latest research suggests privately run prisons built in the ‘90s have had a negative effect.

“What that means is, when a new prison comes, there's actually fewer jobs, not more, in the end.”

Hook doesn't know why exactly. Factors may include the effect on the local business climate, added competition from cheap inmate labor and the low pay scale for private prison officers.

Idaho has two privately operated facilities, including the state’s largest prison south of Boise. They were built too late to be included in the study.

The paper will be published in the journal Social Science Research.

On the Web:

Study: Prisons, Jobs and Privatization (Washington State University)

Oregon's prison privatization "experiment" (Oregon Dept. of COrrections)

Prisons in Idaho (Idaho Dept. of Correction)

Copyright 2013 NW_News. To see more, visit http://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/.