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New policies need some degree of legitimacy if they are to survive. Prison privatization represents a case of a policy that had to overcome initial perceptions of illegitimacy. For most of the 20th century, incarceration in the United States had been a governmental responsibility. But in the 1980s, governments at various levels began to allow private firms to run various types of correctional facilities. Privatization shifted an inherently coercive, traditionally governmental function—incarceration—to the private sector, where entrepreneurs could potentially build a profitable business. This paper examines the development of moral legitimacy granted to private prisons in the United States. Using data from four elite newspapers, it presents a general approach to measuring and tracking moral legitimacy. Findings reveal a positive relationship between the use of private prisons in public policy and their legitimation in public discourse; moral legitimacy grew with the industry over time, and it was highest in states with the most private prisons. The paper highlights both the importance and malleability of legitimacy