How true is Christie's warning that an increasingly privatized penal service threatens the ethics and effectiveness of the criminal justice system? Other aspects of the penal system are now privatized and are expected to increase. This includes the privatization of services such as prisons, electronic tags, catering companies, probation work or prison escort services. David Taylor-Smith, head of the world's largest security company, G4S, says he expects private companies to run much of the UK's police service within five years (Taylor and Travis, 2012). Nils Christie's (2000) text “Crime Control as Industry” is based on the increase in the prison population in the United States. However, reflecting on the fact that the prison population in England and Wales has increased from 41,800 prisoners to over 86,000 in 14 years (Ministry of Justice, 2013, 1), Christie also considers other countries facing similar problems and how this and modern policing of crime represent a move “towards gulags, Western-style” (Christie, 2000, 15). He describes the criminal justice system today as a “Pain Delivery” service (Christie, 2000, 143) and argues that it is governed by the amount of pain they choose to inflict on society and not by the actual number of crimes committed. Christie also identifies changes in capitalist societies and their social organization, which he argues are due to factors such as a greater willingness to report incidents to the police and the decline in social controls, which produces a greater “supply” of criminal acts (Jones & Newburn, 2002). , 175) However the main force behind all this is that crime control is becoming a commodity, as represented by the expanding privatization market. Christie argues that crime control is now a product and the privatization of criminal... half of paper....org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/179 (accessed 29 November 2013) ) Prison Reform Trust (2012) Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/FactfileJune2012.pdf FINISHPudelek, Jenna (2013), HM Prison Peterborough social Impact bond has led to a decline in reconvictions, official data show. http://www.thhirdsector.co.uk/news/1186265/ (Accessed 16 December 2013.) Tanner, Will (2013) Reform Ideas No 1, the case of private prisons. London: ReformTaylor, Matthew and Travis, Alan (2012) G4S boss plans mass privatization of police. http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jun/20/g4s-chief-mass-police-privatisation (accessed 29 November 2013)Urbina, Ian (2007), Despite red flags on judges, it is a bribe scheme flourished, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/us/28judges.html?_r=2& (accessed December 15 2013)