The G4S Olympic security debacle and the west coast mainline franchise fiasco have put privatisation and outsourcing firmly in the spotlight again. And in recognition of just how toxic privatisation has become, government ministers have bent over backwards to try to convince people that this is not what they have planned for our NHS. There is one area of this free market jamboree that comes under less scrutiny, however: the steady sell-off of our prisons and justice system.

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