Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States

It is a well-known fact that the United States has a very high prison population compared to other countries, and that it is particularly the private prison industry that has been thriving. This industry is based on a for-profit ideology that aims to save money by cutting costs wherever possible, an...

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Autor principal:	Karoline Marko
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	forensic linguistics private prisons recidivism safety costs violence Communication. Mass media P87-96
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/19fa54b7fcb64064b26e26f82de9e2d6
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:19fa54b7fcb64064b26e26f82de9e2d62021-11-05T14:44:30ZServing the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States2297-900X10.3389/fcomm.2021.672110https://doaj.org/article/19fa54b7fcb64064b26e26f82de9e2d62021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2021.672110/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2297-900XIt is a well-known fact that the United States has a very high prison population compared to other countries, and that it is particularly the private prison industry that has been thriving. This industry is based on a for-profit ideology that aims to save money by cutting costs wherever possible, and that, based on their profit-orientation, has no interest in rehabilitating offenders, since they make money with every incarcerated person. This paper investigates these issues from a linguistic perspective and takes a corpus of texts collected from the websites of the two largest private prison corporations in the United States (CoreCivic and The GEO Group) as a starting point for a corpus-assisted discourse analysis. The corpus comprises a total of 25,386 words and the analyses reveal that while both companies discursively background issues of violence, recidivism, and costs, they place a focus on the safety and security of their facilities and on their reentry programs for inmates. Thus, it is argued that the investigated corporations shift the discursive focus away from a negative discourse centering on violence and recidivism to a positive discourse centering on reentry and safety, which actively counters the findings that several researchers and journalists alike have revealed.Karoline MarkoFrontiers Media S.A.articleforensic linguisticsprivate prisonsrecidivismsafetycostsviolenceCommunication. Mass mediaP87-96ENFrontiers in Communication, Vol 6 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	forensic linguistics private prisons recidivism safety costs violence Communication. Mass media P87-96
spellingShingle	forensic linguistics private prisons recidivism safety costs violence Communication. Mass media P87-96 Karoline Marko Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States
description	It is a well-known fact that the United States has a very high prison population compared to other countries, and that it is particularly the private prison industry that has been thriving. This industry is based on a for-profit ideology that aims to save money by cutting costs wherever possible, and that, based on their profit-orientation, has no interest in rehabilitating offenders, since they make money with every incarcerated person. This paper investigates these issues from a linguistic perspective and takes a corpus of texts collected from the websites of the two largest private prison corporations in the United States (CoreCivic and The GEO Group) as a starting point for a corpus-assisted discourse analysis. The corpus comprises a total of 25,386 words and the analyses reveal that while both companies discursively background issues of violence, recidivism, and costs, they place a focus on the safety and security of their facilities and on their reentry programs for inmates. Thus, it is argued that the investigated corporations shift the discursive focus away from a negative discourse centering on violence and recidivism to a positive discourse centering on reentry and safety, which actively counters the findings that several researchers and journalists alike have revealed.
format	article
author	Karoline Marko
author_facet	Karoline Marko
author_sort	Karoline Marko
title	Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States
title_short	Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States
title_full	Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States
title_fullStr	Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States
title_full_unstemmed	Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States
title_sort	serving the public good?—a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of private prisons and for-profit incarceration in the united states
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/19fa54b7fcb64064b26e26f82de9e2d6
work_keys_str_mv	AT karolinemarko servingthepublicgoodacorpusassisteddiscourseanalysisofprivateprisonsandforprofitincarcerationintheunitedstates
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Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States

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