Trump & Private Prisons

Photo–Business Insider

Last week, we posted an article about,“Trump’s Myth about Immigrant Crime.”President Trump continues to claim that illegal immigrants are major contributors to American crime. The facts do not support Trump’s myth. General census studies and macro-level studies have shown that immigrants including illegal immigrants have committed less crime than native born Americans.

The beneficiaries of Trump’s myth on immigrant crime are the federal private prisons. The two major prisons for profit companies are– The Geo Group and Core Civic. Core Civic was formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, but chose to change its name, when the Obama administration was pursuing its justice reform policy which included eliminating federal private prisons.

The Office of Inspector General’s 2016 memo on private federal facilities stated:

“Our analysis of data on safety and security indicators found that contract prisons had more incidents per capita than BOP institutions in three quarters of the categories we examined…” The Justice Department concluded that federal private prisons were less safe, secure, and did not save substantial money. This decision does not apply yet to immigration detention facilities or private state prisons.

Under the Obama prison reform policies, the stock prices of the 2 private prison companies plummeted. Since November 8th, Geo stock price has risen 80% and Core Civic has increased 120%.

Our new attorney general, J. Sessions, announced already last month that the administration will reverse Obama’s policies and continue to use private federal prisons and private federal detention centers.

States like Texas and Ohio have become disillusioned with private prisons. Lance Lowry, Texas president of the Huntsville-based local of the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees stated:

“Publicly operated facilities are better managed and offer a greater degree of safety to the communities around them. Private prison companies make their profit by filling beds and have been known to encourage incarceration. Texas is currently becoming a national model on reform and savings to the taxpayers by getting smart on crime. With private prison growth in Texas coming to a stop four years ago, Texas has seen recidivism go down.”

Adding the profit incentive to incarceration leads to one primary goal–more inmates and more prisons. We can only hope that the Trump administration will change its prison policies on the use of federal private prisons and immigration detention centers.

Sponsored by the Fishman Firm: Brian Fishman has been practicing law in Philadelphia since 2002. His practice has been dedicated almost exclusively to criminal law, although he also handles personal injury and civil right matters. Brian has been admitted to practice in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey and in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. After graduating cum laude from Temple University Law School where he was an editor on the Temple Law Review, Brian went to work as an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. There he tried hundreds of cases, including many jury trials. Brian litigated cases in Pennsylvania’s Municipal Court, Juvenile Court and the Court of Common Pleas. Brian, as a Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney, prosecuted a variety of serious criminal cases including rape, firearm offenses, attempted murder, burglary, robbery, DUIs and narcotics offenses. Brian can be contacted at his firm’s web site: http://www.thefishmanfirm.com/

By:Bradley Schwartz
Founder of prisonpath.com
Prison Consultant