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CHINA
Changi Prison Complex
Singapore
February
7, 2003
THERE is a property business in Singapore
with an annual operating budget of more than $200
million, more than 13,000 captive tenants, steady demand, and good growth prospect. And if Singapore
follows the trend in the US
, it could soon be up for grabs. In fancy American terms, this business
is called 'outsourced correctional services'. In Singapore
, it is simply taking over the management of the
billion-dollar Changi prison complex. Singaporeans conditioned to think of
prisons as a government monopoly can hardly envisage Changi
in private hands. Well, they should look at America
. Kentucky
blazed a trail in 1985; today, there are more than 150 for-profit
prisons in 30 American states, as well as the District
of Columbia and Puerto Rico
. In all, they house 123,000 inmates, some 7 per cent of the total,
and rake more than US$1 billion a year in revenue. Activists have railed against
companies such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut
Corrections capitalising on crime and human
suffering. But CCA is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and investors
have long considered it as just another business venture, one whose niche is
to subcontract a specific type of government work because it can do it better
and cheaper. (The Business Times Singapore)
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