Union rallies against prison privatization

The largest federal employees union and criminal justice advocates on Wednesday called on Congress to prohibit the privatization of federal prisons.

"Privatization is wrong for a number of reasons," said Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, at a noontime rally of privatization foes on Capitol Hill. Strickland is sponsoring legislation (H.R. 1764) that would prohibit federal inmates from serving their time in facilities run by private corporations. This is not the first time the legislation has been introduced. A similar bill failed to win support in the previous Congress.

The Bureau of Prisons currently has contracts to house inmates at privately owned detention facilities. Additionally, BOP has hired a private contractor to operate a federally owned prison in Taft, Calif., under a congressionally mandated experiment that could lead to the privatization of other government jails.

Strickland said there is an inherent conflict of interest in paying contractors to run prisons because they have little incentive to rehabilitate prisoners. Instead, he said, those companies benefit by keeping prisoners behind bars because they are often paid based on the number of inmates they house. Additionally, he said, guards at private prisons are not paid or trained as well as those who work for federal prisons, which could create discipline problems and could potentially create threats to the public.

Phil Glover, who heads the American Federal of Government Employees prison council that represents some 24,000 federal prison workers, said the federal government is bailing out private prison operators by offering them lucrative contracts. He said several of the largest private prison companies have run into financial difficulties because state prison populations have leveled off after years of growth. Moreover, the companies are now pursuing federal contracts to make up for the shortfall.

Julie Stewart, who heads Families Against Mandatory Minimums, echoed the remarks of several other prison rights advocates in calling for an end to prison privatization. "There's something intrinsically wrong with making money off someone else's misery," she said.