The Stark Data That Led The Justice Department To Abandon Private Prisons

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced in a memo on Thursday that the United States Justice Department will either not renew its contracts with private prison companies or “substantially reduce” the scope of those contracts — with the goal of “ultimately ending” DOJ’s use of private prisons.

The Justice Department currently contracts with 13 such facilities. Yates told the Washington Post that DOJ and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have discussed ending their relationship with private prison companies for months. As her memo notes, these facilities “simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security.”