Sessions’ Reversal of the  Private Prison Phase-out

Abstract

Pages 19-33 of NLG Review Spring 2017

No more than a month after President Donald J. Trump came into office, his newly appointed Attorney General, Jeff Sessions reversed1 an executive policy established by the Obama Administration2 only six months prior, reducing federal use of private prisons. Around the same time, two classes of what could be 60,000 immigrant detainees sued one of the federal government’s biggest private prison contractors for using them as forced labor and other abuses.3 Sessions’ reversal of the private prison phase-out makes it clear that the current administration does not acknowledge a link between private prisons and civil rights violations. Indeed, Sessions’ reversal ensures continued harm4 by continuing to fund5 such abuses. 

The Trump Administration’s about-face brings the humanitarian crisis underlying the private corrections industry into plain view—or, at least it should. With the current administration’s refusal to deal with civil rights violations in private prisons it is up to the people of the United States to notice and respond to the civil rights abuses that occur within the privatized criminal justice system—a system rooted in our country’s racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. If we don’t, we will soon arrive at a new height of injustice. 

This article presents a brief history of the United States’ use of private prisons, which has been relatively short in duration when compared to its other longstanding penal schemes and systems. It will also introduce the major private prison corporations and analyze their market share and strategies, with particular focus on how these corporations’ political contributions affect that market share. Next, it looks at the human toll wrought by these companies over the past decade, examining the various civil rights violations that have occurred at private prisons as well as the litigation ensuing from those abuses. 

It will then examine and compare the Obama Administration’s phase-out policy with the Trump Administration’s revised stance. These approaches will be viewed side-by-side with stock price comparisons of the major private prison companies, which will reveal the effects that certain political milestones—specifically, Trump’s election and his administration’s major policy announcements—have had on private prison stock prices. 

The Trump Administration’s reversal of the private prison phase-out in fact only serves the business interests of the private prison companies that support the Trump Administration. The article further contends that the Trump Administration’s promise to continue contracting with private facilities will only exacerbate existing civil rights violations within those detention and prison complexes.