What if a private prison has a strike, goes bankrupt, or fails to meet contract terms?
Some public officials may ask what their recourse would be if a private firm operating their jail or prison suddenly stopped operating due to a strike or bankruptcy. They may also ask how they could fire a firm for failure to perform. Who would run the prison in such circumstances? Once again, the key to protecting the public interest lies in the terms of the contract. In more than 10 years of modern private prison operations, there has never been a strike at a private facility. Strikes do not occur at government prisons either, but correctional officers’ unions do engage in “job actions.” In every state save Hawaii, it is illegal for correctional officers to strike. It seems likely that those laws would apply to private correctional officers as well as government ones, with the government asserting a right to step in as it did with air traffic controllers. In any event, contracts should ensure that the firm is financially liable for costs incurred by the government if private correcti
