US Justice Department to end use of private prisons.

[Celista]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ivate-prisons/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-...ons-1471538386
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...rivate-prisons

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”

“They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,” Yates wrote.

In an interview, Yates said there are 13 privately run privately run facilities in the Bureau of Prisons system, and they will not close overnight. Yates said the Justice Department would not terminate existing contracts but instead review those that come up for renewal. She said all the contracts would come up for renewal over the next five years.

The Justice Department’s inspector general last week released a critical report concluding that privately operated facilities incurred more safety and security incidents than those run by the federal Bureau of Prisons. The private facilities, for example, had higher rates of assaults — both by inmates on other inmates and by inmates on staff — and had eight times as many contraband cellphones confiscated each year on average, according to the report.

Disturbances in the facilities, the report said, led in recent years to “extensive property damage, bodily injury, and the death of a Correctional Officer.” The report listed several examples of mayhem at private facilities, including a May 2012 riot at the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi in which 20 people were injured and a correctional officer killed. That incident, according to the report, involved 250 inmates who were upset about low-quality food and medical care.

“The fact of the matter is that private prisons don’t compare favorably to Bureau of Prisons facilities in terms of safety or security or services, and now with the decline in the federal prison population, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to do something about that,” Yates said.

Disturbances in the facilities, the report said, led in recent years to “extensive property damage, bodily injury, and the death of a Correctional Officer.” The report listed several examples of mayhem at private facilities, including a May 2012 riot at the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi in which 20 people were injured and a correctional officer killed. That incident, according to the report, involved 250 inmates who were upset about low-quality food and medical care.

The problems at private facilities were hardly a secret, and Yates said Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons officials had been talking for months about discontinuing their use. Mother Jones recently published a 35,000-word exposé detailing a reporter’s undercover work as a private prison guard in Louisiana — a piece that found serious deficiencies. The Nation magazine wrote earlier this year about deaths under questionable circumstances in privately operated facilities.

It is possible the directive could face resistance from those companies that will be affected. In response to the inspector general’s report, the contractors running the prisons noted that their inmate populations consist largely of noncitizens, presenting them with challenges that government-run facilities do not have.

Scott Marquardt, president of Management and Training Corporation, wrote that comparing Bureau of Prisons facilities to privately operated ones was “comparing apples and oranges.” He generally disputed the inspector general’s report.

“Any casual reader would come to the conclusion that contract prisons are not as safe as BOP prisons,” Marquardt wrote. “The conclusion is wrong and is not supported by the work done by the [Office of the Inspector General].”

Yates, though, noted that the Bureau of Prisons was “already taking steps” to make her order a reality. Three weeks ago, she wrote, the bureau declined to renew a contract for 1,200 beds at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico. According to a local TV station, the county sheriff said the facility’s closure would have a negative impact on the community.

Yates wrote that the bureau also would amend a solicitation for a 10,800-bed contract to one for a maximum 3,600-bed contract. That, Yates wrote, would allow the Bureau of Prisons over the next year to discontinue housing inmates in at least three private prisons, and by May 1, 2017, the total private prison population would stand at less than 14,200 inmates. She said it was “hard to know precisely” when all the privately run facilities would no longer have federal inmates, though she noted that 14,200 was less than half the inmates they held at their apex three years ago, a figure she said indicated the department was “well on our way to ultimately eliminating the use of private prisons entirely.”

According to the inspector general’s report, private prisons housed roughly 22,660 federal inmates as of December 2015. That represents about 12 percent of the Bureau of Prisons total inmate population, according to the report.

In her memo, Yates wrote that the Bureau of Prisons began contracting with privately run institutions about a decade ago in the wake of exploding prison populations, and by 2013, as the federal prison population reached its peak, nearly 30,000 inmates were housed in privately operated facilities. But in 2013, Yates wrote, the prison population began to decline because of efforts to adjust sentencing guidelines, sometimes retroactively, and to change the way low-level drug offenders are charged. She said the drop in federal inmates gave officials the opportunity to reevaluate the use of private prisons.

Yates wrote that private prisons “served an important role during a difficult time period,” but they had proven less effective than facilities run by the government. The contract prisons are operated by three private corporations, according to the inspector general’s report: Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group and Management and Training Corporation. The Bureau of Prisons spent $639 million on private prisons in fiscal year 2014, according to the report.

Yates said it was “really hard to determine whether private prisons are less expensive” and whether their closure would cause costs to go up, though she said officials did not anticipate having to hire additional Bureau of Prisons staff.

“Bottom line, I’d also say, you get what you pay for,” Yates said.

Private prison stocks were down 40% after the DOJ announcement.

Let this be yet another word of caution for those who view privatization as a panacea for any given industry.

[Independent voter]

The prison guard unions really hate private prisons.

[Ahovv]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ivate-prisons/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-...ons-1471538386
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...rivate-prisons


Private prison stocks were down 40% after the DOJ announcement.

Let this be yet another word of caution for those who view privatization as a panacea for any given industry.

Public vs Private are actually irrelevant points when it comes to treatment of prisoners. If the exact same standards and oversight are applied, there is no real difference. I'd be more interested in the reasons these standards were not equal, assuming that's the case.

[Vorkreist]

Let this be yet another word of caution for those who view privatization as a panacea for any given industry.

Really? Thats all you got from this? The opportunity to spew some extra anti-capitalism drivel?

I bet this is the nr.1 thing going through peoples minds. To the millions incarcerated for stupid laws in a rotten & corrupt government. Its the capitalism fault. Raise your leftcommie flags boys and celebrate.

[Xeones]

I don't even understand how private prisons are constitutional.

[Celista]

Public vs Private are actually irrelevant points when it comes to treatment of prisoners. If the exact same standards and oversight are applied, there is no real difference. I'd be more interested in the reasons these standards were not equal, assuming that's the case.

Clearly there is a difference if the DOJ is pulling out of these contracts. The difference is that privately owned prisons are subject to marketplace competition for contracts and therefore feel pressure to keep costs down at any cost. This can come at the cost of adequate health care, food, and other services for prisoners. Which is what the DOJ report confirmed.

- - - Updated - - -

Really? Thats all you got from this? The opportunity to spew some extra anti-capitalism drivel?

I am not anti-capitalism, I am anti-privatization of services where there is not adequate marketplace competition to make privatization sensible. Privatization in the US has worked for very few formerly government controlled-industries (mail service being one of them).

[Deja Thoris]

This is a fantastic move.

[primalmatter]

I can't see this as anything but a good thing.

[Kujako]

Public vs Private are actually irrelevant points when it comes to treatment of prisoners.

Public : You want to keep people out of prisons, because it costs us money.
Private : You want to keep people IN prisons, because it makes you money.

[Discard]

Public vs Private are actually irrelevant points when it comes to treatment of prisoners. If the exact same standards and oversight are applied, there is no real difference. I'd be more interested in the reasons these standards were not equal, assuming that's the case.

The primary difference is that private prisons are for profit businesses. Their goal is making money. In order to make money, they need prisoners which means corruption, cutting corners and ensuring they are full to the rafters. Rehabilitation runs counter to their interests. Infracting prisoners to extend sentences is common as well.

[Unholyground]

Getting everyone out of prison for non violent crimes like drug possession/consumption is what we need right now. There are far too many people in prison for stupid fucking reasons and it needs to stop.

[Sky High]

best bit of news I've heard in a while.

[Vorkreist]

A much needed step towards ending the bogus war on drugs that fueled this "private prison cancer"

[PACOX]

About damn time.

[Gorgodeus]

Clearly there is a difference if the DOJ is pulling out of these contracts. The difference is that privately owned prisons are subject to marketplace competition for contracts and therefore feel pressure to keep costs down at any cost. This can come at the cost of adequate health care, food, and other services for prisoners. Which is what the DOJ report confirmed.

- - - Updated - - -


I am not anti-capitalism, I am anti-privatization of services where there is not adequate marketplace competition to make privatization sensible. Privatization in the US has worked for very few formerly government controlled-industries (mail service being one of them).

The thing is though that there simply is not that many of these private prisons that they are referring to. Most private prisons are at the state and county level, and that is the big problem.

[Venant]

The thing is though that there simply is not that many of these private prisons that they are referring to. Most private prisons are at the state and county level, and that is the big problem.

The majority of people incarcerated are done so at the state level, theres something like 200k people incarcerated in federal facilities vs 3 million at a state level.

[Gorgodeus]

The majority of people incarcerated are done so at the state level, theres something like 200k people incarcerated in federal facilities vs 3 million at a state level.

Exactly, and they are only referring to 13 federal prisons.

[Adam Jensen]

Really? Thats all you got from this? The opportunity to spew some extra anti-capitalism drivel?

I bet this is the nr.1 thing going through peoples minds. To the millions incarcerated for stupid laws in a rotten & corrupt government. Its the capitalism fault. Raise your leftcommie flags boys and celebrate.

What the hell is wrong with you people?

Why is everything always in terms of black and white? If you dare, dare, criticize capitalism you must be a hardcore pinko commie, right? Christ, so sick of this sort of blind thinking. No.

People like Celista, and I happen to agree with her, recognize the simple fact that privatization of certain industries is not always a good idea. That something shouldn't be motivated by profits, but by the welfare of society, and those things, which would include prisons, would probably be better off government run.

That's not "communism." Communism would be if I said "lets take the entire economy and give all of it to the government." No one is arguing for that.

[IntellectuallyChallenged]

The primary difference is that private prisons are for profit businesses. Their goal is making money. In order to make money, they need prisoners which means corruption, cutting corners and ensuring they are full to the rafters. Rehabilitation runs counter to their interests. Infracting prisoners to extend sentences is common as well.

If I may..

Governments are a for profit businesses. Their goal is making money. In order to make money, they need prisoners which means corruption, cutting corners and ensuring they are full to the rafters. Rehabilitation runs counter to their interests. Infracting prisoners to extend sentences is common as well.

I see no difference really. Corruption is rampant in our government already. If the government needs more revenue, they will tax us for it. All in the name of "public safety". Those people are all in prison for breaking "government laws" to begin with. People will gladly fall in line because most people are already afraid of ISIS, BLM, immigrants carrying Zika, immigrants in general, and a whole list of other things the media throws at us on a daily basis. Things that we don't really get the whole story about and know just enough about to be afraid.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this will turn out to be a good thing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Tijuana]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ivate-prisons/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-...ons-1471538386
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...rivate-prisons


Private prison stocks were down 40% after the DOJ announcement.

Let this be yet another word of caution for those who view privatization as a panacea for any given industry.

This is pretty meaningful. Except the part where the current administration has about 10 minutes left to pack up and GTFO, give or take. Just sayin...