Amy Ludlow: Privatising Public Prisons: Labour Law and the Public Procurement Process
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Author | Roseanne Russell |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00733.x |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
PRIVATISING PUBLIC PRISONS: LABOUR LAW AND THE PUBLIC
PROCUREMENT PROCESS by AMY LUDLOW
(Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015, 229 pp., £40.00)
In April 2009 the Ministry of Justice put out to tender the management of a
number of prisons. One of these was HMP Birmingham. Following the
conclusion of a lengthy procurement process held by the National Offender
Management Service (NOMS), the contract to manage the prison was
awarded to G4S. The prison's formerly public sector employees became,
with effect from 1 October 2011, staff of a private security company. In this
ambitious, engaging, and timely
1
work, Ludlow examines the effect of the
privatization process on affected staff and probes the political assumption
that `competition' is unquestionably the best way to improve public sector
performance. The central thread running through this work is the need for
`more socially sustainable public procurement policies' (p. 225) that make
greater efforts to identify why public services are performing poorly (if
indeed they are) and which support and empower staff in the planning and
implementation of any change programme (p. 219). Through a carefully
reasoned and measured analysis, she shows why `competition' should not be
assumed by policy makers to be the most appropriate or desirable `fix' for
perceived shortcomings in the public sector.
Ludlow combines legal doctrinal analysis of the public procurement rules
(particul arly Direct ive 2004/18 /EC) and TUP E Regulatio ns with an
examination of the sociology of `free' markets and real-life accounts of
the impact of the privatization process on prison staff. As she acknowledges,
combining law, sociology, and empirical scholarship (case study)
2
could
create `a problem of narrative' when attempting to `weave' each strand
together (p. 2). Careful structuring has, however, created a text that is both
rich and seamless.
Following detailed scene setting in chapter 1, in chapter 2 Ludlow takes
the reader through the process of selecting an appropriate case study for
inquiry, ethical approval, and a careful account of her choice of research
design. She reveals the challenging and time-consuming practical considera-
tions for lawyers wishing to embark on empirical scholarship.
3
What
follows, however, is a fine example of the benefits of engaging with
empiricism. Her carefully-chosen case study of the procurement and transfer
674
1 See, for example, the recent `bailout' experience of Greece where privatization was a
clear policy goal: J. Rankin and H. Smith, `The great Greece fire sale' Guardian, 24
July 2015.
2 On different meanings of empirical legal scholarship, see A. Blackham and A.
Ludlow (eds.), New Frontiers in Empirical Labour Law Research (2015) 3.
3 On perceived drawbacks to empirical legal scholarship, see H. Genn, M. Partington,
and S. Wheeler, Law in the Real World ± Improving Our Understanding of How Law
Works: Final Report and Recommendations (2006) 32.
ß2015 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2015 Cardiff University Law School
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