Description
Book SynopsisThis book re-assesses the benefits and failures of competition, how public and private prisons compare, the impact of competition on the public sector’s performance, and how well Government has managed this ‘quasi-market’.
Trade Review"This is an intelligent, challenging analysis demonstrating very clearly what has been lost, in terms of making prisons more effective and more humane, by the abandonment of competition. Much the best history of the period I've read." Sir Martin Narey, first CEO of National Offender Management Service and adviser to the Secretary of State for Justice
"[A] detailed assemblage of data and studies....devastatingly critical" The Howard Journal
"Julian LeVay uses his former role as Finance Director of the Prison Service to give a wholly new analysis of comparative costs and of the impact of constant changes in competition policy." On Probation Blog
"Produces some fascinating insights...his work raises many of the issues that a wider enquiry needs to address and attempt to find answers to." John Tizard, National Association for Voluntary and Community Action
"A fascinating book relevant to all interested in politics. Its superb analysis of the development of private sector prisons provides an excellent case study demonstrating the weaknesses of our political system." Philip Wheatley CB, former Director General of the National Offender Management Service and former Director General of HM Prison Service
Table of ContentsOrigins; Development; Part 1: Immigration: two sectors, no competition; Evolution: juvenile custody; Part 2: Electronic monitoring: the Fall of Giants; The quasi-market: characteristics and operation; Comparing public and private sector services; Comparing quality of service; Part 3: Four prisons in trouble; Costing the uncostable (1): pensions; Costing the uncostable (2) : PFI; Comparing cost; Impact on the public sector; Opposition on principle; Part four: Probation: how not to do it; Conclusions.
