Privately Operated Prisons Are Less Safe for Prisoners and More Punitive, Justice Department Says

Privately operated government prisons are drastically less safe and more punitive than other prisons in the federal system, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Such prisons mostly detain migrants convicted of immigration offenses. The Justice Department’s inspector general conducted the investigation.

The Guardian reports:

Inmates at these 14 contract prisons, the only centers in the federal prison system that are privately operated, were nine times more likely to be placed on lockdown than inmates at other federal prisons and were frequently subjected to arbitrary solitary confinement. In two of the three contract prisons investigators routinely visited, new inmates were automatically placed in solitary confinement as a way of combating overcrowding, rather than for disciplinary issues.

The review also found that contract prison inmates were more likely to complain about medical care, treatment by prison staff and about the quality of food.

Contract prisons almost exclusively incarcerate low-risk inmates convicted of immigration offenses. These facilities house around 22,000 individuals, mostly deemed “low risk”, at an annual cost of $600m. They are operated by three private companies: Geo Group, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and Management and Training Corporation (MTC).

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—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.