Proponents of privatization cite a number of advantages to private prisons, all of which rest on the assumption that private industry can respond quickly and cost-efficiently to the current pressures for more prison space. While privatization has worked well in other sectors of the economy, prisons carry out a task fundamentally different from other government services. These authors contend that the argument for the inherent efficiency of private prisons is seriously flawed, as prisons do not operate in a completely competitive free market. Privatization in corrections could easily expand the availability of prison space, which would encourage a continued, possibly unwise, reliance on imprisonment as a sanction.