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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