The study found that when contracted correctional facilities exist within a State, the budgets for the State's public correctional systems are decreased by millions of dollars, leading to accrued savings through lower daily per inmate costs as a result of competition from the private facilities. This study examined different aspects of corrections to determine the effect of privatization on public correctional facilities and State and local budgets. The study looked at changes in the inmate population, the issue of overcrowding in public prisons, the imbalance between prison bed supply and demand, the expanding use of privately contracted correctional facilities, the options available to governments for dealing with the problem of prison overcrowding, the improvement in prison management and accountability with the use of private correctional facilities, and the lower costs resulting from the use of private prison contractors. Figures and endnotes