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Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons

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TheDemSocialist

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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.
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Read more @: Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons

This is huge! :applaud
This is probably the first domino to fall in the private prison industry. Now if only immigration will do the same. Prisons should not have a for profit incentive to lock people up so they can make a buck.
 
Mason66 said:
So where will the criminals be kept?
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As the private prisons are phased out and turned back over to the federal government, the federal government.
 
TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons

This is huge! :applaud
This is probably the first domino to fall in the private prison industry. Now if only immigration will do the same. Prisons should not have a for profit incentive to lock people up so they can make a buck. [/FONT][/COLOR]
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What it means to say is that governments were incapable of structuring the contracts with private companies competently. If one does not structure the contract well, you should not be surprised at bad results.
 
TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons

This is huge! :applaud
This is probably the first domino to fall in the private prison industry. Now if only immigration will do the same. Prisons should not have a for profit incentive to lock people up so they can make a buck. [/FONT][/COLOR]
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Not so fast.

Quote from linked article: "The privately run facilities 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."

That loophole is HUGE. (Emphasis in red mine.) It's the contracts that worry me. We may not enter into brand new contracts, but this leaves the door open to still renewing existing contracts, which is exactly what I believe will happen. The corporations are not going to give up their revenue without a fight, and Congress will have something to say about it, and these corporations lobby Congress heavily.

I would love to see this actually happen, but I'll believe it when I see it.
 
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These studies kill me.

According to the study the staff at the contract prisons found 10x more cell phones on inmates than at BOP facilities. Their conclusion? Contract prisons are less secure. Now, out of curiosity, could it possibly be that BOP prisons just check for and confiscate less phones? We don't know because the study doesn't ask that question. The same goes for finding weapons and drugs. Contract prisons find more of that stuff but we don't know WHY they find more. I also like that inmates complained more about staff at contract facilities. Well, in my experience prisoners complain about stuff that makes it more difficult to get away with "recreational" activities....such as cell phones, drugs and weapons.

I should also note that these prisons, 14 in total, generally house adult male criminal illegal aliens. With everything else this administration is doing to encourage illegal immigration why not cater to the criminal aliens as well?
 
Wow... this is kind of unreal.
 
The "free market, let's privatize anything and everything" crowd now will have their panties in a bunch.
 
Ikari said:
How will all those friends of the Republocrats get those nice, expensive contracts for prisons!!?
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They will just have to make large donations to the Clinton Foundation for special exceptions just like foreign governments do.

If we follow the cash I would suspect that those federal prisons will still contract out many services to loyal democrat supporting unions.
 
joG said:
What it means to say is that governments were incapable of structuring the contracts with private companies competently. If one does not structure the contract well, you should not be surprised at bad results.
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uh... no. It means:

“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,”​

Right smack dab there in that link you didn't bother to click.
 
i'm not big on privatizing incarceration.
 
I'm reading that they are shutting down thirteen prisons. Surely there are more contract prisons than that?
 
Cardinal said:
I'm reading that they are shutting down thirteen prisons. Surely there are more contract prisons than that?
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Most are state or local prisons and are not effected by this. Some are detention centers controlled by other agencies not under DOJ control and are not effected. That is why so few are effected or at least That was what NPR said.
 
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