Private Prisons & Human Rights: Examining Israel\u27s Ban on Private Prisons in a US Context

This article users a human rights lens to examine prison privatization in the US. The analysis builds on the 2009 Israeli Supreme Court ruling against the privatization of prisons, which relied on the human rights theories of both decommodification and dignity. The Israeli interpretations of dignity, and decommodification theory as related to the privatization of prisons suggest that prison privatization results in the commodification of both the state and prisoner, through the improper delegation of governmental power, which results in an infringement of the prisoner\u27s human right to dignity. This argument is examined in the context of US statute and case law. A brief description of US state laws prohibiting the privatization of prisons is also presented. The result is a description of how the Israeli argument may extend to a US context