Punishment for Sale Private Prisons, Big Business, and the Incarceration Binge

Punishment for Sale is the definitive modern history of private prisons, told through social, economic and political frames. The authors explore the origin of the ideas of modern privatization, the establishment of private prisons, and the efforts to keep expanding in the face of problems and bad publicity. The book provides a balanced telling of the story of private prisons and the resistance they engendered within the context of criminology, and it is intended for supplemental use in undergraduate and graduate courses in criminology, social problems, and race and ethnicity.

Donna Selman is assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University. She contributed to the book Battleground: Criminal Justice. Paul Leighton is professor of criminology and criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University. He is coauthor of Race, Class, Gender, and Crime, and is the founder of StopViolence.com, a resource for non-repressive responses to violence prevention.