The Justice Department cited a decline in federal prisoners and a critical recent report about safety and security problems in for-profit facilities.
This is a great first step, since private prisons
“do not save substantially on costs,” and they provide fewer rehabilitative services, like educational programs and job training, that are “essential to reducing recidivism and improving public safety.”
In other words:
- Private corporations are run to make money
- Private prisons make more money when there are more prisoners
- When prisoners stay incarcerated longer, or when prisoners who are let out return to prison, the prisons do better financially.
This creates an obvious conflict of interest, and it looks like the US gov’t is finally waking up to that fact.
Source: U.S. to Phase Out Use of Private Prisons for Federal Inmates – NYTimes.com
