Last Updated on August 25, 2016 by Andre Loftis
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Between the years 1980 and 2013, the federal prison population increased by an unconscionable 800 percent.”
Data provided by the United States Department of Justice
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Late last week, Deputy United States Attorney General Sally Yates, advised the nation of the Justice Department’s intent to begin the process of reducing and ultimately ending federal use of privately operated prisons.
According to Yates, between 1980 and 2013, the federal prison population grew at a far faster rate than the Bureau of Prisons could accommodate in their own facilities. In response and in an effort to manage the rising prison population, the bureau began contracting with privately operated correctional institutions to confine some federal inmates. As a result, by 2013, the Justice Department (JD) was housing approximately 15 percent of its population, or nearly 30,000 inmates, in privately operated prisons.
That same year, the JD identified reforms that would ensure more proportional sentences and effective use of federal resources and launched its Smart on Crime Initiative. The initiative included several significant efforts to recalibrate federal sentencing policy, such as the retroactive application of revised drug sentencing guidelines, new charging policies for low level, non-violent drug offenders, and the Administration’s ongoing clemency initiative. In response, the JD has experienced a decline in the nation’s federal prison population—there are now approximately 195,000 inmates in bureau or private contract facilities—down from a high in 2013 of approximately 220,000.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”10″][vc_column_text css_animation=”bottom-to-top” el_class=”boxContainer”]
…inmates and their attorneys have complained of the inadequacy of the private prison system.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”10″][vc_column_text]There was also another report of significant interest related to prison populations released in 2013. In September 2013, In the Public Interest (ITPI), a Washington, D.C.-based research and policy group on public services released an analysis of private prison contracts from across the United States. It revealed that government entities commonly entered into agreements with the private prison industry that required them to keep prisons filled or pay for unused, empty beds.
The ITPI found these bed guarantees existed in approximately 65 percent of the more than 60 private prison contracts it analyzed. The bed guarantees, or so called lockup quotas, ranged from 70 percent minimum occupancy in at least one California facility to 100 percent occupancy at three Arizona prisons. The most common bed guarantee was 90 percent. Such contracts provided clear motivation for government entities to keep the prisons filled.
Beyond these agreements, for years inmates and their attorneys have complained of the inadequacy of the private prison system. There have been complaints of male treatment, wrongful deaths and the list of injustices goes on and on; however, according to Yates’ statement, it appeared the JD sought to make the reduction in prison population the key driver that ultimately turned the tide on the use of private prisons. However, many believe the change may also be in response to a scathing report by the Justice Department’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG) that ultimately forced the change in the government’s private prison policy.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”10″][vc_column_text css_animation=”bottom-to-top” el_class=”boxContainer”]
In the private prison system there are more frequent reports of violence, including higher rates of assaults and inmate discipline, contraband, lockdowns, telephone monitoring, etc.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”10″][vc_column_text]Earlier this month the OIG released a report, Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Monitoring of Contract Prisons. The results were devastating. It revealed what inmates, their attorneys and activists have reported for years—serious problems exist in privately run, for-profit prisons when compared to the federally operated public prison system—which of course is no panacea either.
In the private prison system there are more frequent reports of violence, including higher rates of assaults and inmate discipline, contraband, lockdowns, telephone monitoring, etc. Also, according to the OIG report, “The rehabilitative services that the Bureau provides, such as educational programs and job training, have proved difficult to replicate and outsource—these services are essential to reducing recidivism and improving public safety.”
In announcing the change last week Yates stressed how the decline in prison populations since 2013, has resulted in a growing need to better allocate resources in order to, as she phrased it, “. . . ensure that inmates are in the safest facilities and receiving the best rehabilitative services, services that increase their chances of becoming contributing members of their communities when they return from prison.” Possibly, a veiled reference to the OIG report.
According to the JD plan going forward, as each private prison contract reaches the end of its term, the bureau should either decline to renew that contract or substantially reduce its scope in a manner consistent with law and the overall decline of the bureau’s inmate population. “This is the first step in the process of reducing—and ultimately ending—our use of privately operated prisons,” Yates confirmed.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”10″][vc_column_text css_animation=”bottom-to-top” el_class=”boxContainer”]
“Taken together, these steps will reduce the private prison population by more than half from its peak in 2013…”
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”10″][vc_column_text]Three weeks ago, the JD declined to renew a contract for approximately 1,200 beds. Last week, concurrent with Yates’ announcement, the Bureau was in the process of amending an existing contract solicitation to reduce an upcoming contract award from a maximum of 10,800 beds to a maximum of 3,600. These actions will allow the Bureau to end the housing of inmates at three or more private contract facilities over the next year and will reduce the total private prison population to less than 14,200 inmates by May 1, 2017—a greater than 50 percent decrease since 2013. Yates continue, “Taken together, these steps will reduce the private prison population by more than half from its peak in 2013 and puts the Department of Justice on a path to ensure that all federal inmates are ultimately housed at bureau facilities.”
When stressing the importance of the need to reduce contract prisons Yates affirmed, “Our work to house and rehabilitate individuals incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons is an important part of our responsibility and operations, accounting for 25 percent of the department’s budget every year.”
Finally, the JD also maintains contracts with private companies to operate hundreds of community-based Residential Re-entry Centers or halfway houses across the country. These facilities provide short-term transitional housing and community-based re-entry services such as employment assistance. According to Yates, the use of private companies to operate Residential Re-entry Centers was not the focus of last week’s decision.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text el_class=”small”]Feature photo: “In July the President became the first sitting President to visit a federal prison. Here the President departs El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma with Valerie Jarrett and Secret Service agent Rob Buster.” (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]