Correctional facilities today can definitely use improvements on them to benefit prisoners. I believe that diversion programs are only beneficial to offenders charged with misdemeanors and non-violent felonies and that they are not beneficial to offenders charged with felonies and violent crimes. The Osceola County Correctional facility would benefit from a diversion program but the Orange County Correctional facility would not benefit from a diversion program. In my opinion, public correctional facilities are better alternatives compared to private correctional facilities. Many correctional officials work with a variety of budgetary constraints as they operate correctional facilities on a daily basis. There are major trade-offs made between…show more content… A diversion program is a form of sentencing that is directed by an outside agency where their main purpose is to empower and condition offenders of criminal law to avoid criminal convictions and a criminal record. It is supposed to help the offender in order to avoid prosecution by completing various requirements of the program. A diversion program is more beneficial and to eligible to offenders that have no prior convictions and that the offenses “are typically minor and non-violent such as petty theft, personal possession of certain drugs (not possession for sale), and in some states, driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs” (Jasmine, 1974). Some states include assaults that involved very minor or no injuries, and some include domestic violence and child abuse or neglect. A diversion program is more beneficial to offenders that are charged with misdemeanors and non-violent crimes since the diversion programs are made to emphasize counseling, treatment, and behavior modification over punitive measures. Often, participants must agree to attend classes and vocational training, participate in individual or group therapy or counseling, perform community service work, make restitution to any victim, and pay fines. According to Dembo,…show more content… According to Blumstein and Cohen (2003), “Recent studies on private prisons have directed their focus away from actual dollar cost differences between the public and private sectors. Instead, researchers have noted that one effect of the introduction of private prisons might be that their existence helps control the cost of public prisons.” This means that the cost of maintaining a private correctional facility will help when it comes to the maintenance and running if a public correctional facility. In my opinion, a public correctional facility is a better alternative instead of a public correctional facility. It has better quality control for the inmates based on the number of correctional officers to maintain them, improved quality on other different aspects within the facility, and enhanced accountability, and the cost of savings that comes from savings from the introduction of private prisons and that the competition has beneficial effects on the entire correctional system. A privatized correctional facility may be more costly than a public correctional facility. A private facility may be understaffed and can have a lack of medical staff members and the private facility may or may not have the proper psychiatric support in order to care for the mentally ill or very sick inmates. According to a Department of Justice report, entering