US justice department announces it will end use of private prisons

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/18/us-government-private-prisons-use-justice-department

Decision to phase out use of 14 contract prisons after investigative report found increased violence in facilities, fewer resources and ineffective cost

The Obama administration said on Thursday that it planned to end the federal government's use of private prisons, after an inquiry found they were drastically more unsafe than publicly run facilities.

Deputy attorney general Sally Yates announced the decision in a memo to Thomas Kane, the acting director of the federal prisons bureau, which was published on the justice department's website.

"I am eager to enlist your help in beginning the process of reducing – and ultimately ending – our use of privately operated prisons," Yates said. Officials were directed to not renew or substantially downscale contracts with prison operators as they expire.

The decision immediately prompted a sharp decline in the share prices of America's biggest private prison companies.

Yates said in her memo that research had found private prisons "simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources" and "do not save substantially on costs" either. Essential government education and training programs for prisoners "have proved difficult to replicate and outsource" in the private sector, she said.

The decision was announced days after the Department of Justice's inspector general released a damning investigation report. It found instances of inmate-on-inmate assaults were 28% higher in contract prisons than in government-run facilities, and that the confiscation of contraband mobile phones occurred eight times more frequently.

Federal inmates in private prisons were found to be nine times more likely to be placed on lockdown than those at other federal prisons, and were frequently subjected to arbitrary solitary confinement.

Inmates at two of the three contract prisons routinely visited by inspectors were automatically placed in solitary confinement as a way of combating overcrowding, rather than for disciplinary issues, the inquiry found.

The 14 private prisons currently contracted by the federal government almost exclusively incarcerate low-risk inmates who were convicted of immigration offenses. The prisons house around 22,000 people at an annual cost of $600m.

Yates said in her memo that the use of at least three private prisons would be phased out over the next year and that the private prison population would be reduced to less than 14,200 by May 2017.

Private prisons are operated for the federal government by three companies: GEO Group, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and Management and Training Corporation.

CCA is the largest private prison operator, with a market cap of $3.2bn. Within an hour of the news on the government's decision on Thursday, its shares had fallen in value by 52%, dropping from $27.06 per share to $13.

Shares of GEO group, the second-largest private prison firm, also fell by more than 45% during that time. With its shares dropping to $17.30 from $32.32, nearly $700m was shaved off GEO group's earlier $2bn market valuation.

By noon on Thursday, trading on stocks in both companies had been halted due to their volatility and then reopened again. Neither CCA or GEO group responded to requests for comment.

[Hamilcar]

Good.

[celedhring]

Great news.

[frunk]

I'm in favor of closing these, but this statement has me perplexed.

that the confiscation of contraband mobile phones occurred eight times more frequently.

How is that an indication of anything?  It could be the private prisons are more rigorous in their enforcement, or that the public prisons are better at stopping the cellphones from being acquired in the first place.

[The Brain]

Are they ending the use of their purchasing department too?

[garbon]

I'm in favor of closing these, but this statement has me perplexed.

that the confiscation of contraband mobile phones occurred eight times more frequently.

How is that an indication of anything?  It could be the private prisons are more rigorous in their enforcement, or that the public prisons are better at stopping the cellphones from being acquired in the first place.

Context would suggest it is not the positive for private prisons but article could be spinning.

[frunk]

Context would suggest it is not the positive for private prisons but article could be spinning.

It could be, but either there should have been more context for the statement or it should have been left off.  Plenty of other criticisms in the article.

[DontSayBanana]

I'm in favor of closing these, but this statement has me perplexed.

that the confiscation of contraband mobile phones occurred eight times more frequently.

How is that an indication of anything?  It could be the private prisons are more rigorous in their enforcement, or that the public prisons are better at stopping the cellphones from being acquired in the first place.

In my advanced systems analysis class last semester, there was a group led by a CCA employee who did their project on CCA's Newark, NJ facility.  If that facility is at all indicative of the others (which it very much sounds like it is), no, there's nothing more "rigorous" about CCA prisons- that shit is pretty much held together by duct tape.  Good on the Feds to drop that whacked-out company.  No joke, half the time, they can't even keep track of who's checked in to visit inmates because they're still doing everything on paper logbooks.

[The Brain]

they're still doing everything on paper logbooks.

?

[garbon]

Context would suggest it is not the positive for private prisons but article could be spinning.

It could be, but either there should have been more context for the statement or it should have been left off.  Plenty of other criticisms in the article.

Alright, write a letter to the editor.

[DontSayBanana]

http://www.cca.com/facilities/elizabeth-detention-center

Not sure how much of the details he was really allowed to share, so I won't go into it, but "minimum-security" is probably overstating things.  There is effectively no automation whatsoever, so the potential for human error is ludicrously high.

[Berkut]

So other than it not saving any money and not providing better service, is there any concrete reason to get rid of private prisons?

[Hamilcar]

So other than it not saving any money and not providing better service, is there any concrete reason to get rid of private prisons?

The aqueduct? Sanitation? Roads?

[Valmy]

So other than it not saving any money and not providing better service, is there any concrete reason to get rid of private prisons?

Well the fact the companies that do it like to lobby for laws that get people locked up. That kind of sucks.

[dps]

So other than it not saving any money and not providing better service, is there any concrete reason to get rid of private prisons?

The aqueduct? Sanitation? Roads?

I'm not sure what any of those have to do with Berkut's question. 

But I do agree that prisons should be run by the state, not privatized.  They're part of the justice system, and IMO is one thing that definitely should be a function of the government.  Note, though, that my objection to private prisons is based on ideology, not practical concerns.