Biden Signs Executive Order to End Corporate Prisons

January 27, 2021 by Tom Ramstack
Biden Signs Executive Order to End Corporate Prisons
President Joe Biden signs executive orders in the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris listens at left. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday to end the Justice Department’s use of private prisons.

The order tells the Justice Department not to renew contracts with the corporations that incarcerate more than 120,000 people in the United States, or about 8.2% of the nation’s prison population.

It is one more example of Biden reversing Trump administration policies through nearly 40 executive orders he signed in the first week of his presidency.

“This is the first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarceration, that is less humane and less safe, as the studies show,” Biden said in a White House speech before signing the order. “And it is just the beginning of my administration’s plan to address systemic problems in our criminal justice system.”

The number of inmates in private prisons dwindled further in the past year as coronavirus compelled judges to release many of them with convictions for non-violent offenses to home confinement. As a result, the Bureau of Prisons already was canceling some of the corporate contracts.

Biden’s order says there is “broad consensus” that mass incarceration creates hardships for society without improving safety.

“Privately operated criminal detention facilities consistently underperform federal facilities with respect to correctional services, programs and resources,” the order says.

The Bureau of Prisons started hiring private companies to run prisons in the late 1990s to help manage overcrowding. Bureau of Prisons officials said states and Congress did not give them enough money to build more government-run prisons.

Shortly after they started operating, prisoner rights advocates said private prisons were associated with higher rates of inmate violence.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General reported in August 2016 during the last days of the Obama administration that “contract prisons incurred more safety and security incidents per capita than comparable [Bureau of Prisons] institutions.”

The Justice Department responded with a revised policy to phase out private prisons. In addition to the safety concerns, Justice Department officials said private prisons were too costly.

A few months later, when Donald Trump won the presidency, the Justice Department changed policy again to reinstate private prisons.

During Trump’s 2016 campaign for president, he said during a televised town hall, “I do think we can do a lot of privatizations and private prisons. It seems to work a lot better.” 

The biggest private prison companies in the United States are the Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group Inc., Management and Training Corporation and Community Education Centers.

GEO Group said in a statement that Biden’s order would not improve the prison system.

“Given the steps the [Bureau of Prisons] 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,” a statement from the company said.

Prisoner advocates described the order as a civil rights advancement rather than a political statement.

Biden’s executive order “validates something we’ve been saying for years: No one should profit from the human misery that is caused by mass incarceration,” said David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. “Prison privatization increases the potential for mistreatment and abuse of incarcerated people, and this move by the Biden administration will start curtailing this insidious practice.”

The president’s order was one of several addressing civil rights he signed on Tuesday.

Others recommit the federal government to respect tribal sovereignty, reject discrimination against Asian Americans who face harassment because of the coronavirus pandemic that started in China, and direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development to take more aggressive actions to halt racial discrimination in housing policy.

On Wednesday, he signed executive orders designed to make climate change a “national security” issue and a heightened priority for the federal government.

A+
a-
  • corporate prisons
  • Joe Biden
  • Justice Department
  • In The News

    Health

    Voting

    Criminal Justice

    Mexican Security Chief Confirms Cartel Family Members Entered US in a Deal With Trump Administration

    MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's security chief confirmed Tuesday that 17 family members of cartel leaders crossed into the U.S.... Read More

    MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's security chief confirmed Tuesday that 17 family members of cartel leaders crossed into the U.S. last week as part of a deal between a son of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration. Mexican Security Secretary Omar... Read More

    January 20, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    In Final Moments of Presidency, Biden Commutes Peltier Sentence

    WASHINGTON — In one of his last official acts on Monday, President Joe Biden released Leonard Peltier from prison, nearly... Read More

    WASHINGTON — In one of his last official acts on Monday, President Joe Biden released Leonard Peltier from prison, nearly 50 years after the indigenous activist was convicted of murdering two FBI officers. For decades, a number of human rights organizations, tribal groups and international religious... Read More

    January 15, 2025
    by Tom Ramstack
    Pam Bondi Pressed in Confirmation Hearing Over Possible Political Criminal Prosecutions 

    WASHINGTON — Democrats accused Pamela Bondi of evasiveness but Republicans strongly supported her during her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday as... Read More

    WASHINGTON — Democrats accused Pamela Bondi of evasiveness but Republicans strongly supported her during her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday as nominee to become U.S. attorney general. By the end of the hearing, there was wide agreement on the Senate Judiciary Committee that she will win confirmation... Read More

    December 26, 2024
    by Tom Ramstack
    Trump Plans to Resume Death Penalty in Reversal of Biden Policy

    WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is saying he will reverse his predecessor's policy that disfavors the death penalty as soon... Read More

    WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is saying he will reverse his predecessor's policy that disfavors the death penalty as soon as he is inaugurated next month. President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death penalties of 37 murderers convicted in federal court. Instead, they will spend... Read More

    Biden Gives Life in Prison to 37 of 40 Federal Death Row Inmates

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death... Read More

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives... Read More

    Missouri Executes a Man for the 1998 Killing of a Woman Despite Her Family’s Calls to Spare His Life

    BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man convicted of breaking into a woman’s home and repeatedly stabbing her was... Read More

    BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man convicted of breaking into a woman’s home and repeatedly stabbing her was executed Tuesday over the objections of the victim’s family and the prosecutor, who wanted the death sentence commuted to life in prison. Marcellus Williams, 55, was... Read More

    News From The Well
    scroll top