In an internal memo released by the department, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said her agency would begin the gradual process of reversing the privatization of some United States prisons, a practice which had proved more problematic but no less costly than the use of government-managed correctional facilities.
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“Private prisons served an important role during a hard period, but time has shown that they compare poorly to our own Bureau facilities”, Yates wrote in the memo.
Thursday’s announcement follows this month’s report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General that found privately operated prisons are more prone to violent incidents and rule infractions.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it plans to stop contracting with for-profit prison companies, a decision that will affect some 20,000 federal inmates.
She said private prisons they “do not save substantially on costs”, and what’s more, their cost-saving efforts appear to have come at a number of compromises, according to a recent report from the department’s Office of Inspector General.
The US Department of Justice has said it will end the use of private prisons to detain federal inmates.
Stock prices of the country’s two biggest private prison companies – Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group – nosedived by almost 25 percent Thursday morning.
That leaves the Bent County Correctional Facility (1,466 beds) and the Crowley County Correctional Facility (1,890 beds) as the only two major private prisons in the state.
McFadyen said she expects the private-prison companies to intensify their lobbying in the General Assembly to staunch further losses.
Yates told the Post that the Bureau of Prisons system now includes 13 private facilities that will all be due for contract renewals within five years.
To be sure, states’ use of private prisons has been under protest.
The memo, issued by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, said private prisons compare poorly to publicly operated ones and don’t save substantially on costs.
Great, now let’s get the prison population down. “As such, we think today’s stock action is more based on fear than actual cash flow risk”, said Ryan Meliker, analyst at Canaccord Genuity, which maintained Thursday a “hold” rating on Corrections Corp. and a “buy” on GEO.
Yates instructed federal officials to significantly reduce reliance on private prisons.
Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly Springs, managed and operated by Management Training Corporation, is the only private prison in Northeast Mississippi.
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The memo said about 15 percent of federal inmates were in private prisons in 2013. In 2015, the Huffington Post cited an Arizona county that was profiting from a private prison in their jurisdiction. Moreover, these 13 facilities are a fraction of the private prisons in the US; the move will not have an effect on the size of the prison population.
