Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons (1 Viewer)

Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
1,179
Reaction score
5,232
Offline
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ment-says-it-will-end-use-of-private-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.

Thoughts? I know the subject of private prisons often gets discussed during police misconduct threads.
 
I think "phase out using" would've a bit more accurate (I know the article said "end")

It needs to happen - there should be no profit motive to imprison people
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ment-says-it-will-end-use-of-private-prisons/



Thoughts? I know the subject of private prisons often gets discussed during police misconduct threads.

My thoughts are that with as much money that private prisons make, this will be fought as hard as the NRA fights against gun control laws. It'll get tied up in courts until people forget about it and it fades away. However, I think it'd be a wonderful thing to get rid of.
 
I've always thought they were a bad idea. Introduce private profit into the equation and there will always be less services for the inmate, and inmates that shouldn't even be there. Good move.
 
This is a huge step in the right direction. Is this just for federal prisons or for all prisons?
 
Pretty sure this is just federal.


Just federal, and just regular-line BOP prisons.

(So there will still be for-profit federal detention centers and halfway houses).


I read that the two main contractors doing this work get more revenue from the states - so this is just part of the picture.
 
I always assumed federal prisons were federally owned and operated. Similarly state prisons. Never really read up on it. I'm ok with doing away with private, for profit prisons. Never thought that was a good idea to begin with.
 
I always assumed federal prisons were federally owned and operated. Similarly state prisons. Never really read up on it. I'm ok with doing away with private, for profit prisons. Never thought that was a good idea to begin with.


They make sense from a certain perspective of operational efficiency. Private enterprise is just better at doing many things than government - especially at scale. But there's a certain inappropriateness of a business where the the key metric is number of inmates. Call it immoral if you will (I will), but when a business has a profit-incentive measured by incarcerated human beings, it invites an atmosphere aimed at maximizing that number. Free enterprise necessarily moves toward profit - it is fundamental.
 
When I practiced criminal law all the time I would get complaints from jail inmates and those complaints that had any degree of merit whatsoever were almost universally directed the at the private run jail. The city/state run jails rarely had complaints that I heard about. But virtually everyone had complaints about the private one. And these inmates did not know that the jail was private run (for the most part).

I have heard some real horror stories about the federal contract prisons.
 
Corrections Corps of America (CXW) 's stock price is down about 40% today.
 
This is really good news. Now the states need to follow suite and end the private prison practice. It's just bad and wrong all around.

I hope it sticks. No doubt private prisons will fight tooth and nail against this. The NRA comparison above is a good one. The only difference is I don't really think private prison industry has the support of either republicans or democrats like the NRA does among republicans. So it's not something that candidates can run on or turn into a campaign issue.
 
There is no comparison to the private prison industry and the NRA.

The NRA can get votes out. the political muscle it flexed in the 90s is not achievable today, but it still can turnout votes.

Private prison industry can basically just lobby. No comparison.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom