The Governor's Office and Prison Privatization
Loading...
Authors
Magdzinski, Stephen
Issue Date
2007
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The placement for my Experiential Senior Individualized Project took place
within the George Romney Building in downtown Lansing, working in the Executive
Office of Governor Granholm. The program was an intensive, 40 hour/week, 11-week
internship called the Michigan Leadership Development Program. I worked as an
Economic Development intern for Tim Flanagan, the Economic Development Issue
Specialist, in the Constituent Services Division.
I never thought I would do any work in public service, especially in something as
high-exposure as the Governor's office. The work in the office involved answering
constituent calls, drafting letters and replies, coordinating Agency support, and keeping
up with all the state laws and regulations.
In addition to my economic focus, my other main area of work involved the
Department of Corrections. With the large appropriations to Corrections, I felt it relevant
to combine these two areas when working out a topic for my connections essay. I found
prison privatization was both relevant and important when looking at state budget
concerns and the effects on the economy.
With numerous legislative leaders calling for reforms and changes to the system,
privatization constantly came up as a viable alternative to a state-run corrections system.
Through my research, I found that privatizing the entire Michigan prison system is not
only unfeasible, but downright risky. The benefits of possibly saving money do not
outweigh the cost of turning prisoners into profit. It mainly comes down to liability and
constitutional matters, which limit the savings earned by privatizing.
Description
26 p.
Citation
Publisher
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder.