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The private prison model lines pockets, but at what cost?

By Christopher Zoukis On August 18, 2016, then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates issued a memorandum with the subject line “Reducing our use of Private Prisons.” In the memo, Yates points out that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had contracted with privately operated facilities about a decade ago in an effort to curtail the burden of

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Private Prison Firms Spend Billions Buying Other Companies

By Christopher Zoukis A fact sheet compiled by In the Public Interest (ITPI), a public policy research organization, indicates that Corrections Corporation of America – CCA, now known as CoreCivic – and the GEO Group, the two largest private prison firms in the nation, have spent a combined $2.2 billion since 2005 acquiring other, smaller

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States Wrestle with Prison Privatization

By Christopher Zoukis In 2016, questions were raised in at least three states about the amount of taxpayer money flowing into the coffers of private, for-profit prison companies. Take Colorado, for example. When lawmakers were considering an almost $26 billion state budget last year, they noticed it included a curious last-minute addition: $3 million for

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Bonds Used to Finance Private Prisons, Jails Turn into Junk

The promise of safe, humane, and less costly prisons has been used for decades by the private prison industry to sell its products. As prison populations skyrocketed, local, state and federal governments became convinced that financing and building more and more correctional facilities was the way to go. So did investors, who picked up municipal

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Report: How Private Prison Companies Exercise Influence Over Public Officials

An October 2016 report released by In the Public Interest (ITPI), a research and policy group that opposes the privatization of government services, details the millions of dollars spent by for-profit prison companies to influence public officials. The report tracks political expenditures by private prison firms, including Corrections Corporation of America (CCA, now known as

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AG Sessions Says Private Prisons Are Back in Business with BOP

Well, that didn’t last long. You’ll remember the fanfare with which the Obama administration last August 18, announced its plan to phase out all use of private-run prisons by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The campaign was kicked off a week earlier with the unveiling of a study from the DOJ Inspector General, which

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President Trump Preaches Privatization

by Christopher Zoukis In the weeks and days leading up to the inauguration of Donald Trump, he made several statements about privatization — and his team is full of privatization supporters. From public television, to Veterans Affairs to prisons — there are many things he seems to be considering privatizing. As prisons go, this is

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Despite DOJ Ban, Private Prison Contracts in Georgia Are Renewed

This past August was a very rough month for privately-owned and operated prisons at the hands of the Department of Justice. First, on Aug. 11, the DOJ inspector general’s office issued an 86-page report unfavorably comparing the performance of private prisons – looking over a four-year span at eight problem factors, including the incidence of

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