Two Soylentils wrote in to tell us of news from the US Justice Department's plans to stop using private prisons.
Justice Department 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.
This really took me by surprise; I had thought this was beyond hope. The article doesn't mention my main beef with private prisons though, which would be the incentive for those profiting to lobby for and otherwise encourage increased jail time for more people, including making more things illegal (war on drugs), and increased chances of wrongful prosecution.
Related Coverage:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20880-for-profit-prisons-eight-statistics-that-show-the-problems
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-lotke/the-real-problem-with-pri_b_8279488.html
https://www.aclu.org/blog/private-prisons-are-problem-not-solution
[Continues...]
U.S. Begins Phase-out of Private Prisons
A memorandum (PDF version) (plain text version fraught with errors) from the deputy attorney-general of the U.S. Department of Justice to the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons asks for "help in beginning the process of reducing—and ultimately ending—[the] use of privately operated prisons." This is to be done as contracts with private prison operators come up for renewal: the services contracted for are to be lessened, or the contracts are to be allowed to expire. According to the memo:
[...] the Bureau is already taking steps in this direction. Three weeks ago, the Bureau declined to renew a contract for approximately 1,200 beds. Today, concurrent with the release of this memo, the Bureau is amending an existing contract solicitation to reduce an upcoming contract award from a maximum of 10,800 beds to a maximum of 3,600.
The memo follows a report (PDF) released this month by the Department of Justice's inspector-general, which said
Our analysis included data from FYs 2011 through 2014 in eight key categories: (1) contraband, (2) reports of incidents, (3) lockdowns, (4) inmate discipline, (5) telephone monitoring, (6) selected grievances, (7) urinalysis drug testing, and (8) sexual misconduct. With the exception of fewer incidents of positive drug tests and sexual misconduct, the contract prisons had more incidents per capita than the BOP institutions in all of the other categories of data we examined. [...] Contract prisons [...] had higher rates of assaults, both by inmates on other inmates and by inmates on staff. [...] the BOP still must improve its oversight of contract prisons to ensure that federal inmates' rights and needs are not placed at risk when they are housed in contract prisons.
On the day of the release of the memo, trading in the stocks of two of the three prison operators was temporarily halted due to declines in their prices.
Related Coverage:
Reason blog about inspector-general's report
The Atlantic about inspector-general's report
Washington Post
Reuters
BBC News
Los Angeles Times
Mother Jones
Atlanta Black Star
The Guardian
Esquire
U.S. News & World Report
Time
ABC News
NPR
USA Today
Toronto Star
Further reading:
- Mother Jones, "My four months as a private prison guard." by Shane Bauer This reporter was himself a prisoner in Iran.
- The Nation, 'This Man Will Almost Certainly Die' by Seth Freed Wessler
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fraxinus-tree on Friday August 19 2016, @04:26PM
... and this is one of them.
> the incentive for those profiting to lobby for and otherwise encourage increased jail time for more people
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Friday August 19 2016, @04:31PM
What about enforcers' and cagers' unions?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @04:51PM
From the Reuters article:
Yates said in a memo that the number of federal prisoners in private facilities is expected to fall by 50 percent by May 2017 from the population's peak in 2013.
To give you an idea of their goalposts.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @03:26AM
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 19 2016, @05:38PM
I gotta disagree with you on that one.
There should be no profit motive built into the prison system. I'm sure you saw some of the movies about the Old South prison farms - there were plenty of them made. Cool Hand Luke comes immediately to mind. The sheriff kept people in prison for PROFIT, which meant, he had no incentive to ever turn you loose.
I detest the idea of rich bastards getting wealthy at the expense of some poor people's freedom. It may not be slavery, but it's really damned closely related.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Francis on Friday August 19 2016, @06:02PM
Exactly, we can quibble over things like buses and utilities being private, but things like prisons and the military need to be public institutions for practical reasons.
One of the reasons why we've got such a massive overpopulation of prisoners is that the prison industry lobbies for tougher enforcement. That and the conditions inside are unnecessarily brutal with things like prison rape not being taken seriously.
Remove the profit from it and we can get back to focusing on balancing punishment, rehabilitation and reducing recidivism. It does nobody any good to have people going to prison, training up on their criminal skills and then being released only to do it again.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday August 19 2016, @09:30PM
The incidence of prison rape in America is waaaaaaaay overstated. Sure, it happens here and there, but very rarely not nearly as much as depicted on TV and movies -- and especially not like how it happened in American History X. Prisoners who commit crimes while being incarcerated are brought to trial.
That does not change the fact that America prisons are violent, though. If you're locked up and you fart in a common area, you will get your ass beat. They expect you go to all the way to the latrine, sit on the pot, and fart there even if you are not taking a dump.
Source - Jailbird brother, morally questionable friends.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @12:15AM
...and for another angle on that, there's "The Shawshank Redemption".
** Spoiler alert **
When the warden goes to retrieve the ledger containing records of his illicit activities, his reaction is priceless.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @04:31PM
Another sudden outbreak of common sense.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Friday August 19 2016, @04:39PM
I like this trend, seems that some people are realizing that we have to fix some of the problems before the country is inspired to tear itself apart!
Good job DOJ!
instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or "substantially reduce" the contracts' scope
I know it will be a work in progress, there is no simple magic button to press to make private prisons go away, but I will be keeping an eye out for the actual reductions / removals.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @04:57PM
Eh, you still have overcrowding in federal prisons. While it is anticipated that sentencing reform will reduce numbers in the distant future, overcrowding will probably get worse as there are less beds to go around.
Not to argue for private prisons, but this isn't quite the improvement you might be lead to believe.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 19 2016, @05:41PM
Except, there have been prisons that have been ordered to release prisoners due to overcrowding. The prisons and the courts have to get together, and just decide which prisoners really aren't dangerous, and turn them loose. If there are unlimited beds available from private contractors, then there is no limit to the number of people who can be incarcerated.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday August 19 2016, @09:33PM
This happened in California awhile back, when due to prison overcrowding non-violent prisoners were released to the city jails with the result of -- wait for it, -- that's right, overcrowding the city jails!
And some city jails are worse than prison with regard to things like mold and communicable diseases, even if there are overall less violent people crammed into them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday August 19 2016, @05:43PM
There's an important point here, though.
The feds have already had very few private prisons. They dipped their toes in, but didn't jump in like some states did. This isn't going to fix the biggest source of this particular problem.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday August 19 2016, @07:26PM
from the inspector-general's report:
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) [...] was operating at 20 percent over its rated capacity as of December 2015. [...] contract prisons housed roughly 22,660 of these federal inmates, or about 12 percent of the BOP’s total inmate population.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @11:28PM
Maybe economics will do that.
Private Prison Stocks Plunge on DOJ's Plan to Kill Contracts [thestreet.com]
Corrections Corp.'s (CXW) credit rating was cut to 'junk' status at Moody's (MCO) today [thestreet.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday August 19 2016, @04:50PM
The cure for common sense in government is more lobbying. It's the American way. Politicians love bigger campaign donations. It gets them (re-)elected. Rinse. Repeat.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @05:27PM
From the summary,
This really took me by surprise; ...
I'm not that surprised. As I get older I have enough perspective to see that Churchill is usually correct -- "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
Looking around, many things seem dire and hopeless, when in fact they are somewhere in the middle of this process. It's likely there will be a good ending at some point in the future.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @05:15AM
Rather than a good ending, it's more of a bittersweet ending. It's bittersweet because many people's lives were destroyed before the problem was finally fixed.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @04:48PM
Worse than imprisonment, it would be imprisonment in a system run by private contractors run by ex-military and/or oil-and-gas people like Halliburton.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday August 19 2016, @05:55PM
More likely you will find the place run by drug gangs and with their members quietly in charge on the inside while the prison company quietly looks the other way, perhaps in exchange for some money)
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Friday August 19 2016, @08:16PM
Whichever horrendous way they end up being run, you can bet any talk of rehabilitation gets laughed out of town.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday August 19 2016, @05:03PM
It's sort of like the military industrial complex. And Big Oil. The monster eventually becomes so big that it takes over everything.
Now add Private Prisons. (Hopefully it's not too late yet.)
So what will happen?
And maybe other horrors I can't think of. You won't believe how out of control it could get. Families pay for imprisoned relatives to receive some bare minimum of acceptable food, water, air, etc.
Need marketing people to give it an Orwellian name.
Guantanamo Suites?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1) by tbuskey on Friday August 19 2016, @05:16PM
* Increased incentives to wrongly arrest and hold people for the most trivial or non-existant of reasons (helps keep cells fully populated to maximum profitability)
* Increased railroading of people through the system to get convictions
* Decreased public defenders, because that negatively affects profits of prisons -- and thus shareholder value!
* Maybe eventually we could see it deteriorate to fully automated convictions and/or plea deals.
* An education system that guarantees a stream of some percent of people who are poorly educated, unemployable and more likely to end up populating the prisons -- and it saves money on the education budget!
* Prisons whose major incentive is to ensure that people who are released from prison have a high probability of returning
* Redefine what inhumane conditions and food are, supported by studies ("I don't believe cigarettes cause cancer.") in order to minimize costs.
* Decreased rehabilitation programs/services
* Lack of transparency (FOIA requests only apply to gov't agencies)
* Prison services get turned into revenue streams (prison phone calls still cost dollars/minute)
* Mandatory sentences
* Automatic sentences after previous (minor) offences
* Reduced ability for courts to vary punishment (you know, use their judgement)
* Prison conditions that increase the likelyhood of breaking rules that add to sentence
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 19 2016, @05:51PM
FOIA requests can apply to contractors that work with government agencies, but it varies by state and compliance could be very bad, requiring lawsuits to get what you need. Some companies in some states probably have never received a FOIA request due to being so far out of the public's view, even though they are subject to transparency laws.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Friday August 19 2016, @05:19PM
while this only has an effect on federal prisons, i'm hoping that at least some states see the light and reverse course on their private prison ventures. frankly, i wish every state would reverse course but i understand some people are too entrenched in rhetoric, ideology and corruption to change things willingly.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @05:27PM
Yeah, it is state prisons where privatization has really infected the system
But some progress is better than no progress.
Now if we could start fixing the problems with ridiculously underfunded public defenders, prosecutorial abuse of plea bargains and the charging of debilitating fees for using the courts, especially for those involuntarily using the courts.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday August 19 2016, @05:50PM
Needs more citations:
The article doesn't mention my main beef with private prisons though, which would be the incentive for those profiting to lobby for and otherwise encourage increased jail time for more people, including making more things illegal (war on drugs), and increased chances of wrongful prosecution.
Seriously, is this really a problem? Are private prison companies really flooding the hill with lobbyists for longer sentences and defining more things as crimes?
I think you made that shit up.
Needs Less Citations:
Butthurt, adding more links to redundant coverage does not make the point stronger, or more well researched. Especially when several are just verbatim copies of the same wire-story.
Two links are more than enough, and when both cite the same source one would suffice.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday August 19 2016, @06:03PM
Are private prison companies really flooding the hill with lobbyists for longer sentences and defining more things as crimes?
Yes.
How for-profit prisons have become the biggest lobby no one is talking about [washingtonpost.com]
Several industries have become notorious for the millions they spend on influencing legislation and getting friendly candidates into office: Big Oil, Big Pharma and the gun lobby among them. But one has managed to quickly build influence with comparatively little scrutiny: Private prisons. The two largest for-profit prison companies in the United States – GEO and Corrections Corporation of America – and their associates have funneled more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying efforts. Meanwhile, these private companies have seen their revenue and market share soar. They now rake in a combined $3.3 billion in annual revenue and the private federal prison population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, according to a report by the Justice Policy Institute
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @07:33PM
I'm curious to know how that compares to lobbying by the unions of prison guards and police for basically the same thing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Friday August 19 2016, @08:18PM
Wrong.
They are simply lobbying for contracts, and against federal funding of federal prisions.
The article presents no evidence of lobbying to make more things a federal crime so or lengthening sentences so that they can hold people longer.
Again, the claim was hype, and you've perpetuated by myth but presented no evidence.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @11:54PM
American Legislative Exchange Council Exposed [alecexposed.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Friday August 19 2016, @08:16PM
> [...] adding more links to redundant coverage does not make the point stronger, or more well researched.
It doesn't. However it makes it easier for readers to consult various accounts of the same story, which can be complementary, or conflicting.
> [...] several are just verbatim copies of the same wire-story.
I try to avoid doing that. I don't see that I've done it here.
> Two links are more than enough [...]
So pick zero, one, or two stories to read and scroll past the other links, please?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @12:05AM
I see no point in including a list of hyperlinks if nothing is quoted from any of those "sources".
As frojack said: redundant coverage [...] of the same wire-story
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Saturday August 20 2016, @12:41AM
I asked frojack which stories are identical, and there has as yet been no answer. If you also see that, I ask you which are identical. I don't see it, unless you are referring to the two links to the Washington Post which happened because another submitter turned in a separate submission before mine.
I didn't use the terms "sources" or "citations." I used the term "coverage." As I said, they are different accounts covering the same event. I fail to see a problem with that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @05:57PM
Important note none of the MSM is covering about this: they're closing 14 out of the roughly 60 private prisons handled by companies subcontracted by the DoJ. This will not affect the 50+ private prisons overseen by the DHS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @10:10AM
This is a good addition indeed. At least they made a smart move for a change.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Friday August 19 2016, @06:51PM
While this (at least IMHO) is a welcome change, it really won't make all that much difference, since less than ten percent of inmates in the US are in Federal custody [wikipedia.org].
It will be interesting to see how states and municipalities react (not at all, act in kind or, most likely, take up the slack by using the private prisons the Feds are phasing out) to this. Actually, it most likely will be horrifying rather than interesting. Sigh.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday August 19 2016, @08:01PM
This really took me by surprise; I had thought this was beyond hope.
I was also surprised -- but because I thought private prisons were big business. Won't this disrupt a big (?) economic (sub-)sector?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday August 19 2016, @08:53PM
Sometimes disrupting a sector is a good thing.