On August 18, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would stop using private prisons. Its research has shown that private prisons are not cheaper than public ones, and that private prisons registered far more security incidents. At the same time, countries like Mexico are about to start privatizing their prisons.

 Mirte Postema analyses the lessons learned from the DOJ’s findings and argues that if Mexico wants to really address the problems in its prison system, it would be better served to invest in its public institutions by creating stronger oversight and supervision mechanisms and to ensure that there is transparency about prison operations, rather than privatizing its prisons.

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