ATLANTA — President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered the federal government to stop sending criminal offenders to private, for-profit prisons - and lock them up in Bureau of Prisons facilities, instead - saying that corporations should not be allowed to profit from incarcerations.
But the corporations insist they’re performing a public service.
President Biden’s order reinstated a policy instituted by the Obama administration but reversed by the Trump administration.
Now, the Georgia legislature may now consider, once again, eliminating the state’s private prisons, as well.
Private companies that build and run prisons, under contract with the Georgia Department of Corrections and also with the federal government, speak of how their facilities provide safe and secure, cost-effective and evidence-based rehabilitation for the inmates.
But critics like President Biden say the companies are profiting from mass incarceration, and are less successful at helping inmates reform than publicly-run federal and state prisons are.
So now that the president has signed an executive order stopping the federal Bureau of Prisons from contracting with private, for-profit prisons, Georgia Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, says he’s going to try again to ban the state from using for-profit prisons, too.
“They were an experiment” in Georgia, begun more than 20 years ago, Holcomb said Tuesday, “but they were an experiment that failed, they were an experiment that has cost more, they were an experiment that is less transparent” to public oversight.
"And they were an experiment that hasn’t yielded better results," he added. "And, finally, they were an experiment that incentivizes the profit of incarcerating human beings. And I think that’s wrong.”
Georgia contracts with two companies to run four, for-profit private prisons, at a total cost to Georgia taxpayers of some $170 million a year, incarcerating nearly 8,000 people; the total state prisoner population, including the 8,000 housed in the private prisons, is about 40,000.
A state audit in December 2018 found that the cost of housing each inmate in private prisons in Georgia was $49.07 a day, while the cost in the state’s prisons was $44.56 a day.
The companies insist the services they provide are well worth the cost to Georgia taxpayers specifically, and to U.S. taxpayers.
CoreCivic, one such company, said, “We aren’t the driver of mass incarceration, we are working hard to be part of the solution... to prioritize rehabilitation and redemption...”
GEO Group, another company, said, “...today’s Executive Order (from the president) merely represents a political statement which could carry serious, negative unintended consequences... with potential overcrowding (in public prisons) in the future...”
Sara Tontonchi, Executive Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, said the president’s order should set an example for Georgia.
“These companies have a business model that involves keeping people locked up, as many people as possible, for as long as possible,” Tontonchi said Tuesday. The president “is sending a message that the profiteering off of caging human beings is going to stop when it comes to the federal system.”
Rep. Holcomb said he expects to submit his bill, to ban private prisons in Georgia, possibly next month.
Here are the full statements, emailed to 11Alive News, from both of the prison companies that are under contract in Georgia, commenting about the president’s decision on Tuesday to end similar contracts they’ve had with the federal government:
From Steve Owen of CoreCivic:
The BOP (Bureau of Prisons) has experienced a steady decline in inmate populations over the past several years, so today’s announcement was no surprise considering the agency’s diminished need for capacity. It’s a trend we’ve watched carefully, and we’ve worked hard to diversify the solutions we provide. We’re extremely proud of the critically important services we’ve provided to the BOP for more than two decades, along with our other federal, state and local partners in the 21 states we currently operate. Providing our partners flexibility to manage ups and downs in their populations is one of the most important ways we provide value.
Any assertion that our company or the private sector is responsible for the rate of incarceration or detention is false. Under longstanding policy, we don’t lobby on any policies, regulations or legislation that impact the basis for or duration of an individual’s incarceration or detention. What’s more, only 8 percent of inmates are cared for in facilities run by private contractors.
While we aren’t the driver of mass incarceration, we are working hard to be part of the solution. Our efforts are fully aligned with the administration's goal to prioritize rehabilitation and redemption for individuals in our criminal justice system. Every day, CoreCivic helps nearly 1,500 inmates learn the life and vocational skills they need to find and keep employment once released. In 2014, we made commitments to strengthen reentry programming unprecedented for the public or private sector. Our most recent ESG report shows we’re making real, measurable progress on our goals to expand proven reentry programs to fight recidivism and change lives – programs that help those in our care develop to their fullest potential and find success in their next step in life.
Our facilities are safe and secure for those in our care and our staff. The 2016 Inspector General’s report cited today has significant flaws. For example, its authors freely admit that they “were unable to evaluate all of the factors that contributed to the underlying data,” and they failed to account for the impact of elements such as population demographics. The findings simply don’t match up to the numerous independent studies that show our facilities to be equal or better with regard to safety and quality, or the excellent feedback we get from our partners at all levels of government.
From a spokesperson for GEO Group:
Today’s Executive Order is a solution in search of a problem. For more than three decades, our company has provided high-quality services under a private-public partnership with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. During this timeframe, our facilities, which are newer and more modern than the generally older government-run prisons, have helped the BOP meet the significant overcrowding challenges facing the federal prison system. Our facilities have almost exclusively housed non-citizen criminal aliens convicted of federal crimes, thus allowing government-run facilities to care for U.S. citizens without significant overcrowding challenges.
Given the recent decline in federal prison populations, in part due to the COVID pandemic, the BOP had already announced steps over the last four months to not renew expiring contracts with private sector operators. Given the steps the BOP had already announced, today’s Executive Order merely represents a political statement, which could carry serious negative unintended consequences, including the loss of hundreds of jobs and negative economic impact for the communities where our facilities are located, which are already struggling economically due to the COVID pandemic. Additionally, limiting the federal government’s options to deal with potential overcrowding challenges in the future could result in worsening and unsafe conditions for the men and women in federal custody.