Eighty private prisons, housing 63,124 inmates, reported five homicides, the corresponding number per 5,000 inmates is 0.396. Studying low- and medium-security prisons, which house 68,541 inmates with three reported homicides, the corresponding number per 5,000 inmates is 0.219 (Camp & Gaes, 2001). A year-long study of escapes from private and public prisons concluded that escapes from private prisons were much more frequent. There were a total of 23 escapes from private prisons, meaning that 85% of private prisons had no escapes. During the same time period, public prisons had only one release, meaning that 98.5% of public prisons had no releases at all (Camp & Gaes, 2001). It's hard to believe that employing cheaper correctional officers is actually cheaper in the long run when you factor in all the costs of turnover, training, violence, healthcare, homicides, lawsuits, and prison breaks. If by chance it is still profitable to employ cheaper prison officers, the paltry savings are worth the violence, killings, escapes and threats to the safety of staff, inmates and detainees?