Private prisons also have created problems regarding oversight of conditions, limitations on family and attorney visiting, and a lack of recidivism reduction programming.
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Still, the policy will affect the operation of only 13 prisons used by the Bureau of Prisons – not the 100-plus for-profit facilities used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to house immigrant detainees.
The inspector’s report also showed that the Bureau of Prisons spent $639 million on private prisons in 2014.
While this figure will include the prisons, for which federal agencies are the primary client, the filing details work for worldwide, state and local governmental clients.
But some of the private prison companies that operate these facilities said Friday they’re hopeful contracts up for renewal in the next few months to continue running several of the prisons in Texas will be approved.
Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly Springs, managed and operated by Management Training Corporation, is the only private prison in Northeast Mississippi.
Following the decision he said it was “an global embarrassment that we put more people behind bars than any other country on Earth… due in large part to private prisons”.
Although experts believe this change is significant, private federal prisons only house a small fraction of the inmate population in our country.
Meanwhile, officials tell ABC News that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), another major federal client, is not affected by the decision.
“This is very similar to a memo that says: When you leave the room, turn off the lights”. “It would be really sad if this announcement confuses people about how our incarceration system works”. This, she said, provided an opportunity to reevaluate the USA government’s relationship with private prisons, which in 2014 alone cost the Bureau $639 million.
While the debate over the legitimacy and necessity of private prisons is needed, there is one thing escaping scrutiny as a result, according to Christopher Petrella, a lecturer at Bates College and member of Grassroots Leadership, an advocacy group that studies private prisons.
Citing unsafe, ineffective correctional services, the Justice Department plans to stop using private prisons.
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The private prisons are operated by three companies – Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group Inc. and Management and Training Corporation. Already reports are that the stock value of some private prison corporations has dropped by more than 40%.
