Private Prisons

America’s Secretive Private Prison Industry To Become Much Less Secret

November 6, 2017 Brad Poling, occupy.com Educate! Capitalism, Prison Industrial Complex, Private Prisons

By Brad Poling for Occupy - Seventy-five miles southwest of San Antonio, Texas, in the expanse of desert between the U.S./Mexico border and nestled between oil boomtowns of yesteryear, is Dilley, the epicenter of a new battle over immigrants' rights. The remote town of 4,000 people has enjoyed a hot local economy thanks to its most controversial feature: its private prison. Dilley houses the nation’s largest family detention center, a 50-acre complex that holds 2,400 detainees every night. The center has become a symbol of the resurgent private prison industry and a reminder of why the Justice Department abandoned these facilities in the first place. The private prison industry, which briefly went into free fall after President Obama's Justice Department announced the government would end its use of private prisons in August 2016, has found new allies in President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions – and is making fast dividends on the new deal. Giants like GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) have received billions in taxpayer dollars for renewed government contracts, and have leveraged their private status to closely guard the details of each deal.

Supreme Court Rules Against Private Prisons

October 11, 2017 Staff, www.ccrjustice.org Resist! Corporations, Private Prisons, Supreme Court, Transparency

By Staff of CCRJustice - October 10, 2017, New York, NY – Today, the Supreme Court denied a petition by private prison corporations seeking to block the release of government documents about their immigration detention practices. In a case brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Detention Watch Network (DWN), under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a federal district court ruled in July 2016, that the government must release details of its contracts with private prison corporations. The government chose not to appeal; instead, the country’s two largest private prison corporations, GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), recently rebranded as “CoreCivic,” intervened to appeal the decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which dismissed their petition in February. GEO then petitioned the Supreme Court for a full review of the case, asking for the right to prevent the government from releasing information under the FOIA. The Supreme Court’s decision lets stand the February ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected the private contractors’ unusual attempt to fight for government secrecy when the government itself had acceded to the court’s ruling.

Victory For Immigrant Hunger Strikers

September 24, 2017 Mike Ludwig, www.truthout.org Resist! Hunger Strike, Immigrant Rights, Private Prisons, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout. For three years now, incarcerated immigrants have staged hunger strikes and work stoppages to protest conditions at the Northwest Detention Center, an immigration jail in Tacoma, Washington, run by a private prison company that pays detainees as little as $1 a day to work in the jail. "This week folks were offered chips or a soup for several nights of waxing the floors, so not even $1 [per] day," one person incarcerated in the jail recently reported to NWDC Resistance, an immigrant-led group fighting to end the deportation and detention of immigrants.

Private Prison In New Mexico Demands More Prisoners

August 8, 2017 Steven Rosenfeld, www.alternet.org Educate! Mass Incarceration, New Mexico, Prison Industrial Complex, Private Prisons

By Steven Rosenfeld for AlterNet - The nation’s second-largest private prison corporation is holding New Mexico politicians hostage by threatening to close unless the state or federal authorities find 300 more prisoners to be warehoused there, according to local news reports. “The company that has operated a private prison in Estancia for nearly three decades has announced it will close the Torrance County Detention Facility and lay off more than 200 employees unless it can find 300 state or federal inmates to fill empty beds within the next 60 days,” the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reported last week. The paper said that county officials issued a statement citing the threatened closure and emphasized that every virtually every politician in the region, from county officials to state officials to congressmen, were scurrying to save jobs—as opposed to shutting a privatized prison by an operator that has been sued many times for sexual harassment, sexual assault, deaths, use of force, physical assaults, medical care, injuries and civil rights violations. “This is a big issue for us,” Torrance County manager Belinda Garland told the Santa Fe newspaper.

Nevada Governor Vetoes Bill Banning Private Prisons

June 22, 2017 Beryl Lipton, www.muckrock.com Educate! Legislation, Nevada, Private Prisons

By Beryl Lipton for Muckrock - After signing up for 200 private beds, the state leaves open the option of contracting even more. Nevada’s move to ban for-profit prisons was struck down at the finish line last week when Governor Brian Sandoval vetoed a bill that would have prohibited their use by the state law enforcement, citing the possibility that for-profit prisons have a larger role to play in managing the state’s incarcerated population. Assembly Bill 303 would have provided the Department of Corrections five years to renovate existing facilities, allowing for out-of-state and private prison use in the interim, before eliminating the state’s relationships with the for-profit operators. In his statement on the veto, Governor Sandoval pointed to an encroachment on the authority of the executive branch as well as the possibility that overcrowding in the state’s facilities may require the option of utilizing private prison beds out-of-state. Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D-North Las Vegas, a former corrections officer, introduced AB 303 and reportedly worked with the Nevada Department of Corrections to deal with concerns that implementation would be too costly. The state is currently operating at over 183 percent capacity, well over emergency levels.

Lawsuit: Up To 60,000 In Forced Labor In US Private Prisons

March 6, 2017 April M. Short, www.alternet.org Resist! Detention Centers, Immigration, Private Prisons, Slave labor, Undocumented

By April M. Short for AlterNet - As many as 60,000 immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could play a role in a class-action lawsuit accusing a private prison company of violating federal anti-slavery laws. The lawsuit alleges that detained immigrants awaiting court dates were forced to work for $1 per day or for free, on threat of solitary. The suit was initially filed on behalf of nine immigrant plaintiffs in 2014 for $5 million in damages, but was recently moved to class action status. Now, attorneys expect damages to grow substantially, maybe involving tens of thousands of plaintiffs, as Kristine Phillips reports in a March 5 Washington Post piece detailing the lawsuit.

Newsletter: Privatization vs. The People

February 25, 2017 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Capitalism, Commons, Education, Education reform, Healthcare, Keystone XL, National Improved Medicare for All, No DAPL, Private Prisons, Privatization, Public-Private Partnerships, TISA, TTIP, TTP

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The essence of privatization today is to turn a public good into a profit center for Wall Street. US economic policy has created a wealth class that is grotesquely wealthy and under-taxed so that it has the money government needs to provide public services. This forces the government to borrow money from or sell a public service to the privateers or to create a public-private partnership (disguised corporate welfare and crony capitalism) in order to provide essential services. There is another way. We’ve reached a tipping point, as evidenced by the worldwide revolt through Occupy, the Arab Spring, the Indignados and other movements. We can reverse the trend toward privatization and inequality by claiming the commons for our mutual prosperity. If we believe in a more just, sustainable and democratic world, a world based on the common good, we will build the foundation for a world in which people work together to solve common problems and create an equitable economy that betters the lives for all.

Privatization Of Prisons Gets New Life Under Sessions Order

February 25, 2017 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, ICE, Immigration, Prisons, Private Prisons

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. One of the ugliest policies in the move to privatize public services has been the private prison industry. We have reported on the abuses of private prisons, riots at them and how they put profit ahead of prisoners as these shocking photos show. The private prison industry is a corrupting influence in US politics. We have reported on how "Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is striking deals with private prison companies to lock up a “guaranteed minimum” of mothers with their children in euphemistically-termed family detention centers" and how they are getting wealthy abusing immigrants. Corporations are turning the US justice system into a profit making venture at every step in the process. This decision to continue to use private prisons by the Trump administration ensures that the profit of private prisons will come before treating prisoners humanely. The trend toward corporate profiteering from what is becoming a prison-industrial complex will continue. Injustice will thrive while justice is diminished.

Ten Examples of Resistance to Government Raids

February 22, 2017 Bill Quigley, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Immigration, Private Prisons, Sanctuary Cities

By Bill Quigley for Popular Resistance. Resistance to unjust government action is the duty of all people who care about human rights As Dr. King reminded us in his letter from a Birmingham jail, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” It is now clear that Latinos and Muslims are Trump’s first target for government actions. The orders just released put ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and US Customs and Border Protection on steroids. These new policies also will have a devastating impact on LGBTQ , as well as Black and Muslim communities.

Private Prison In Ohio Makes Room For 2000 ICE Detainees

December 20, 2016 César, www.crimmigration.com Educate! Detention Centers, ICE, Immigration, Ohio, Private Prisons, Undocumented

By César for CrImmigration - Yesterday, CoreCivic, the new name for the Corrections Corporation of America, announced a new contract with ICE to imprison thousands of migrants in Ohio. CoreCivic/CCA will operate 2,016 beds for ICE at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. CoreCivic/CCA already holds approximately 600 migrants at the same facility on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service. While people being held on behalf of ICE are generally awaiting immigration court hearings, those held on behalf of USMS are held pending federal criminal prosecution. This represents another instance in which ICE helps boost the bottom line for private prison corporations.

Portland Leads Way To Nationwide Divest From Dakota Pipeline And Private Prisons?

December 5, 2016 Mike Ludwig, www.truth-out.org Resist! #NoDAPL, Divestment, Portland, Private Prisons

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout - Not long after returning home from the Dakota Access pipeline protests at Standing Rock, Oregon resident Ali Pullen was testifying before the Portland City Council in an effort to dump several large corporations from the city's list of contractors and investment interests. Pullen, who had traveled to Standing Rock with a delegation of people of color from Portland, specifically testified about Caterpillar, a major construction contractor for Dakota Access, and Wells Fargo, one of 17 banks financing a pipeline that activists are now risking life and limb to stop.

US Gov Quietly Backing Out Of Its Promise To Phase Out Private Prisons

November 28, 2016 Hanna Kozlowska, www.qz.com Educate! Capitalism, Government, Private Prisons

By Hanna Kozlowska for Quartz - Critics have long denounced private prisons in the US as unsafe, inefficient and at times, inhumane. Those critics, who include inmates and activists, seemed to find a powerful ally earlier this year when the Department of Justice announced it would phase out its use of private prisons for federal prisoners. This wouldn’t mean the end of privately-run incarceration facilities (they’re also used by immigration authorities and states), but it was seen as a step forward.

Immigrants Urge Obama To End Legacy As ‘Deporter-In-Chief’

November 25, 2016 Kevin Thomas, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Deportations, Immigrant Rights, Obama, Private Prisons

By Kevin Thomas for DC Media Group. Washington, DC - Undocumented immigrants and their allies traveled this week from Trump Tower in New York City to the White House in Washington, DC, as part of a movement called “Caravan of Courage” to demand action from President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump. The Dream Action Coalition, a New York-based advocacy group, organized the march in the wake of Trump’s election and as Obama’s presidency, which has seen a record number of deportations, enters its final weeks. On their trip from Trump Tower to the White House, the group made stops along the route to support other activists, including organizers against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Philadelphia.

DOJ Orders Bureau Of Prisons To Phase Out Private Prisons

August 19, 2016 Staff, www.aclu.org Create! DOJ, Private Prisons

By Staff of ACLU - WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced today that it is ordering the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to begin phasing out its use of private prisons. The order, announced by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, includes amending the solicitation for five private prisons in Texas from 10,800 prisoners to 3,600. By May of 2017, the BOP is expected to have 14,000 prisoners in private prisons, a decline of about 50 percent from the peak a few years ago.

Private Prisons Making Deals To Lock Up More Immigrant Women & Children

June 29, 2016 Sarah Lazare, www.alternet.org Educate! Deportations, ICE, Immigration, Private Prisons

By Sarah Lazare for AlterNet - Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is striking deals with private prison companies to lock up a “guaranteed minimum” of mothers with their children in euphemistically-termed family detention centers. The 2009 congressional mandate for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep a minimum of 34,000 people minimum locked up at any given time is already well-established. But a new report by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Detention Watch Network reveals that this federal quota rests, in part, on aggressive deals with companies in the business of locking up families.

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