Rapid growth in prison populations and incarceration rates produced pressures both to provide alternatives to institutionalization and to change the traditional methods of delivering correctional services. Starting in the 1970's, governments increasingly turned to the private sector as a means of providing a variety of mandated services at the lowest possible cost. In the criminal justice system, the Corrections Corporation of America was the first private company to obtain contracts to manage local jails and Federal facilities. Private corrections firms have grown rapidly and been evaluated positively by contracting units of government. Opposition has been weakest when privatization has focused on the management of new facilities and strongest when they have focused on the transfer of existing facilities from public to private management. Thus, future demand for private corrections services may be less intense if cost considerations reduce the demand for additional correctional facilities. Nevertheless, correctional privatization offers many benefits and will continue to be an alternative means for providing an essential public service. Footnotes