U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on the 26th, directing the Department of Justice to improve prison conditions and begin eliminating private prisons.
The U.S. Justice Department inspection found that private prisons, with all their problems, are not cheap. White House Domestic Policy Council Chairman Susan Rice (Susan Rice) said on the 26th: private prisons take advantage of federal prisoners and, according to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report, the security of prisoners and guards is lower than in public places.
But the impact of this Biden measure is limited. According to statistics, only 116,000 of the more than 2 million inmates in 2019 were held in private institutions, representing 7 percent of the state prison population.
In a memo to DOJ officials, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates mentioned the elimination of private prisons. This internal memo also mentions the reason for this policy change: Institutions operated by private companies exhibit more problems, but they are by no means less costly than state prisons. Private prisons do not have the same “reintegration” effect as state prisons. The evaluation claims that “they simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs and resources.
The Washington government can only make decisions about federal prisons, but a much larger number of prisoners are held in the 50 federal states. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there are currently 13 federal prisons operated by private companies, holding about 22,000 inmates. This includes foreign prisoners who will be deported at the end of their sentences.
Deputy Attorney General Yates said, “These prisons will not be closed immediately. Instead, they will likely be “automatically terminated when their current contracts expire.
In proportion to its population, the U.S. has the largest number of prisoners in the developed world: for every 100,000 people, there are 698 in prison. This figure was 76 in Germany last year.
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