Thursday, February 23, 2017

AG Sessions Reverses Government's Stance on Private Prison Use


Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled his support for the Federal Government's use of Private Prisons, rescinding a memo meant to phase out their use.

Sessions issued a new memo Thursday replacing one issued last August by Sally Yates, the Deputy Attorney General at the time.

Yates memo told the Bureau of Prisons to begin reducing and ultimately end its use of Privately Run Prisons. She said the facilities were less well run than those managed by the Bureau of Prisons, and were less necessary given declines in the overall Prison Population.

But Sessions says in his memo Thursday that Yates' Directive Contradicted longstanding Justice Department policy and "impaired the Bureau's ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system."

Today, For-Profit companies are responsible for approximately 6% of State Prisoners, 16% of Federal Prisoners, and, according to one report, nearly half of all Immigrants detained by the Federal Government.

The Department's report on Future Trends show:

- The number of privatized prisons is likely to increase, but not at the pace exhibited during the past decade.

- The number of companies operating privatized prisons is likely to decrease as competition and the costs of doing business increase, thus forcing a consolidation of firms within the industry.

- It is unlikely that privatized prisons will develop a strong market in the high-security inmate population market due to the recent flurry of well publicized disturbances. However, important inroads can be expected for the private sector within low-security medical, mental health, and geriatric inmate populations.

- Speculative prisons will face the greatest scrutiny and resistance by State and Federal Correctional Agencies. These facilities are the most difficult to monitor and regulate.

- Unless there is a sharp reduction in major incidents at private prisons, litigation directed at facilities that are immune from the Prison Litigation Reform Act will likely increase.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
Digg! StumbleUpon

No comments: