The United States' big government is about to get bigger.
The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday it has seen enough of private prisons, and will phase them out as soon as possible.
In a memo explaining the decision, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates wrote that private prisons “simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources,” “do not save substantially on costs,” and “do not maintain the same level of safety and security” as facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons.
The announcement immediately sent Boca Raton-based private prison provider GEO Group's stock tumbling. The price fell about 28 percent after Yates' memo was made public.
“Their stock is dropping like a stone. I’m sure they’re not happy and I’m sure they’ll complain they’re being unfairly treated, but the fact is, there is abundant evidence that private prisons are not as safe and not as secure and the services they provide to prisoners are inferior,” said David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. “Certainly the government has every right to decide that their services are no longer needed.”
The decision will impact the federal prisons coming up for contract renewal -- 13 privately run prisons and some 22,660 prisoners.
The ACLU is the principal organization behind the Obama Justice Department's no-more-private-prisons decision.
Pablo Paez, a spokesman for GEO Group, said in a statement: “While our company was disappointed by today’s DOJ announcement, the impact of this decision on GEO is not imminent. As acknowledged in the announcement, the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) will continue, on a case-by-case basis, to determine whether to extend contracts at the end of their contract period.” He added that GEO would “continue to work with the BOP, as well as all of our government partners, in order to ensure safe and secure operations at all of our facilities.”
Deputy Attorney General Yates also wrote, "Private prisons served an important role during a difficult period, but time has shown that they compare poorly to our own Bureau facilities." As private prison contracts come to an end, the bureau is not to renew the contract or it should at least "substantially" reduce its scope, Yates wrote. She did not specify a timeline for when all federal inmates would be in government-owned facilities.
The Obama administration says the declining federal prison population justifies the decision to eventually close privately run prisons. The federal prison population -- now at about 193,000 -- has been dropping due to changes in federal sentencing policies over the past three years.
The policy change does not cover private prisons used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which hold up to 34,000 immigrants awaiting deportation. But Fathi promised the ACLU will continue to push for an end to those, too.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
