California Ends Private Prisons and Immigrant Centers

The largest state penitentiary system in America plans to abandon the practice of detention in prisons, working under a contract with private companies, writes Reuters.

Фото: Depositphotos

California governor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign a law this week that will ban private business corporations from managing prisons or immigration centers.

Proponents of the bill say private prisons seek to maximize shareholder returns, and do not have adequate supervision or incentives to rehabilitate prisoners. They undoubtedly contributed to the culture of mass imprisonment, as they cheapen the process.

Supporters point to a study cited in the report of the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice for the 2016 year. According to the report, private prisons spend less on staff and are less secure than public institutions.

At stake are low-security detention centers operated by one of the two leading US private prison companies, the Florida headquarters of the GEO Group ( GEO.N ) or Tennessee-based CoreCivic ( CXW.N ).

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In upholding their business model, companies claim to have provided a vital service when custody in California prisons more than doubled system performance. This led to lawsuits that led to a reduction in the number of prisoners by court order.

The GEO Group cited its reputation as an “innovator in rehabilitation services,” and said the bill would work against the state’s goal of reducing recidivism among prisoners.

Kara Gotsh, director of strategic initiatives for the sentencing project, the criminal justice reform group, claims that several states, including New York, Illinois, and Nevada, have similar bans on private prisons, and almost half the states do not.

According to the bill, the closure of the three remaining private prisons in California, where a total of about 1400 prisoners are held, should happen in four years. Then their contracts with the State Department of Correctional Services and Rehabilitation expire.

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Equally important is the fact that the Federal Agency for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will lose four private detention centers in California next year, which contain about 4000 people, if the ban is not challenged in court.

ICE did not take a public position on the bill. If the bill is passed, detainees will simply be transferred to institutions outside of California, the agency said in a statement.

The bill bans any new or renewed contracts in California with private commercial prisons starting in January.

Four privately owned ICE detention facilities will be closed earlier.

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California has already moved in that direction, ending in June its contacts with Arizona's private correctional center (the last of several outside the state), followed by the closure of 700 beds in Macfarland, California, not far from Bakersfield last month.

Recall that 25 July Department of Justice объявил on the resumption of the death penalty for prisoners - for the first time in almost two decades.

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