Critical Factors Affecting the Viability of Using Public-Private Partnerships for Prison Development

Abstract

Building, managing, and operating prisons is essential for sustaining a country’s criminal justice system. The provision of prison services usually incurs large capital expenditures and high operating costs, requires hybrid types of operational services, and involves multigroup stakeholders. Internationally, public-private partnerships (PPPs) were introduced by governments to bring forward prison projects. This research aims to evaluate PPP experiences in the prison sector, extract critical factors affecting the viability of PPPs and recommend strategies and measures for improved use of PPPs for prison development. Comparative case studies of two prison projects were adopted as the main research method with semi-structured interviews and focus group as primary data collection instruments. The research shows that the critical factors leading to the success of prison PPP are (1) relevant business case development, (2) robust and streamlined project development, (3) effective contract administration and management, (4) effective governance structures, (5) enhanced private consortium, and (6) equitable risk allocation. The research findings add to the international PPP best practice frameworks by showing that the critical factors for specific sectors vary.