How to create accountability for private prisons

One considerable issue with privatization of public functions like prisons is the question of how a private corporation will weigh its publicly granted mandate against the profit motive. Will private prisons support proven anti-recidivism measures that the government likes even if it cuts into their bottom line? Furthermore, how can the people hold them accountable? One possible solution to this, at least when the company operating the prisons is a public company run by shareholders, is to become a shareholder and attempt to create at least some accountability that way:

A former prisoner, now a shareholder in the country’s largest for-profit prison operator, has won a battle with company management over his campaign to hold the Corrections Corporation of America accountable for reducing sexual abuse at its facilities. The Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled that the shareholder resolution, calling attention to the issue of prison rape, can be included in proxy materials sent to CCA investors in advance of the company’s annual meeting.

Of course this is basically a way to get a certain amount of publicity directed to the issue of prison rape. Most people who buy stock in CCA probably do it for the same reason people buy stock in any other company: to make money. Most people who are investing in private prisons also probably either understand that they are making money of a company that has an obligation to control rape but isn’t really doing enough, or are in denial about prison rape. So the idea that a few activists who buy into these corporations on a limited basis can make a huge difference is probably naive. All the knowledge in the world about sweatshops won’t shut Nike down, and the same is likely the case here. There is just no substitute for government agencies fulfilling government functions.