No more federal private prisons in the US

[dpareja]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/prison-private-1.3726828

The Obama administration said Thursday it will phase out its contracts with private prisons, affecting thousands of federal inmates.

The decision announced by the U.S. Justice Department comes after an audit this month found that private facilities have more safety and security problems than the government-run prisons.

The federal prison population has been declining due to changes in sentencing policies over the past three years, reducing the need for private prisons.

"Private prisons served an important role during a difficult period, but time has shown that they compare poorly to our own Bureau facilities," Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates wrote in a memo to the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Cue conservatives screaming about how government still can't do anything right.

[Art Vandelay]

Not sure how anyone thought private prisons were a good idea in the first place. It's the same cost as a government prison, plus however much is necessary in profits to make it worth the owner's while. You could get the same effect with a government prison that flushes a big pile of money down the toilet once a month.

[dpareja]

Not sure how anyone thought private prisons were a good idea in the first place. It's the same cost as a government prison, plus however much is necessary in profits to make it worth the owner's while. You could get the same effect with a government prison that flushes a big pile of money down the toilet once a month.

Because damn gubmint can't do anything right!

But yeah, plus you get a lobby that's dedicated to getting lots of tough-on-crime laws passed since more criminals =  more profit. (And the contracts with the private prison companies often included some sort of occupancy guarantee.)

[Askold]

I don't remember if I said it here but I honestly think that by removing private prisons USA will go a long way towards fixing several problems. Because this will mean that soon all the prisons and their employees are run by the government and that means that Republicans are going to hate them. They are going to start to raise some noise about reducing the size of the government and how you need to cut down on the tax dollars that are spent in keeping US citizens behind bars. Heck, they might even start to suggest things like reducing sentences and actually trying to rehabilitate criminals (which has been proven to be more effective than long sentences and harsh conditions.)

[dpareja]

This move, while a step in the right direction, won't have that huge an impact since it has no impact on state-level prisons. Same reason why a lot of people noted that Sanders' promise to cut incarceration rates wasn't realistic and all he could do was sputter something about working with the states.

[Askold]

...Oh.

Well at least it's a step in the right direction, right? (And the Republicans won't try to overturn this decision, right?)

[dpareja]

...Oh.

Well at least it's a step in the right direction, right? (And the Republicans won't try to overturn this decision, right?)

1. Yes, it's a step in the right direction.

2. Damn gubmint!

[Id82]

Weren't private prisons pretty much for profit prisons? Which pretty much made money off of keeping people in prison or having more people in prison?
I can only see this as a good thing to get rid of these.

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

Apparently this does not apply to migrant processing centres where the government still contracts out the work to private prison providers.

[Askold]

Weren't private prisons pretty much for profit prisons? Which pretty much made money off of keeping people in prison or having more people in prison?
I can only see this as a good thing to get rid of these.

They also have deals with the states which contain a penalty for the state if the prison isn't over 90% full. The state can either pay them huge sums of money as a "rent" for keeping the prison full or they can pay the same (or bigger) sum for a prison that isn't full because the latter means that the State has violated the contract.

Which also means that the states have to ensure, one way or another, that there are a lot of convicts at all times. (what's that? Crime going down? I guess we have to start locking up people for petty crimes. TOUGH ON CRIME and all that.)