Private Prisons
Over the past four decades, imprisonment in the United States has increased explosively, spurred by criminal laws that impose steep sentences and curtail the opportunity to earn probation and parole. This rise in incarceration disproportionately affects people of color, does little to make us safer and is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, we won’t end our addiction to incarceration so long as there are companies that profit from locking people up.
REPORT: Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration
(2011 Report): The imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one—especially at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet and when state governments confront enormous fiscal crises. This report finds, however, that mass incarceration provides a gigantic windfall for one special interest group—the private prison industry—even as current incarceration levels harm the country as a whole. Read the Report »
Make a Difference
Your support helps the ACLU defend prisoners’ rights and a broad range of civil liberties.
The current incarceration rate deprives record numbers of individuals of their liberty, disproportionately affects people of color, and has at best a minimal effect on public safety. Meanwhile, the crippling cost of imprisoning increasing numbers of Americans saddles government budgets with rising debt and exacerbates the current fiscal crisis confronting states across the nation.
Private prison companies, however, essentially admit that their business model depends on locking up more and more people. For example, in a 2010 Annual Report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) stated: “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by . . . leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices . . . .” As incarceration rates skyrocket, the private prison industry expands at exponential rates, holding ever more people in its prisons and jails, and generating massive profits.
And while supporters of private prisons tout the idea that governments can save money through privatization, the evidence that private prisons save taxpayer money is mixed at best – in fact, private prisons may in some instances cost more than governmental ones. Private prisons have also been linked to numerous cases of violence and atrocious conditions.
Reports
Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration (2011 Report): The imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one—especially at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet and when state governments confront enormous fiscal crises. This report finds, however, that mass incarceration provides a gigantic windfall for one special interest group—the private prison industry—even as current incarceration levels harm the country as a whole.
Multimedia & Infographics
VIDEO: The Private Prison Problem: This video shows the brutal beating of 24 year-old inmate Hanni Elabed by another inmate at privately-run the Idaho Correctional Center (ICC).
MAP: Sexual Abuse in Immigration Detention Facilities (2011 map): A state-by-state picture of allegations of sexual abuse in immigration detention facilities.
Letters
ACLU Letter to Governors Urging Rejection of CCA Offer (2012): Signed by organizations including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, The Sentencing Project, the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Religious Coalition Letter to Governors Urging Rejection of CCA Offer (2012)
Presbyterian Criminal Justice Network Letter to Governors Urging Rejection of CCA Offer (2012)
Blog & News
"A Picture of Such Horror as Should Be Unrealized Anywhere in the Civilized World" Judge Carleton Reeves — only the second African-American to serve on the federal bench in Mississippi's history — entered a blistering order giving final approval to a consent decree that bans the horrendous practice of subjecting kids convicted as adults to solitary confinement and requires the state to move such kids out of the brutally violent privately run prison where they are currently housed.
ACLU Says Brutal Beating At Idaho Correctional Center Another Example Of Rampant Violence Plaguing Facility: Video underscores violence that prompted lawsuit by ACLU against CCA and prison officials.
ACLU Urges States to Reject CCA Offer to Privatize Prisons: Letters From Coalition of Policy and Religious Groups Call Selling Off State Prisons “a Tragic Mistake” That Could Add Debt to State Budgets.
Groundbreaking Federal Consent Decree Will Prohibit Solitary Confinement of Youth in Mississippi: Children will no longer be housed in facility run by private prison company after ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit.
Family of Hawaii Prisoner Murdered in Mainland Prison Files Lawsuit Against State of Hawaii, Corrections Corporation of America: On behalf of the family of Bronson Nunuha, a 26-year-old Hawaii prisoner who was brutally murdered at a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) private prison in Arizona in 2010, the ACLU of HI filed a lawsuit in state court against CCA and the State of Hawaii. The suit exposes CCA’s business model of grossly short-staffing prisons and cutting corners in every way possible to make its private prisons profitable.
ACLU of Arizona Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Transgender Woman Sexually Assaulted By CCA Guard (2011 press release): The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of a 28-year-old transgender woman who was intimidated, harassed, and sexually assaulted by a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) guard while she was in immigration custody at the CCA-owned and operated Eloy Detention Center.
For-Profit Prisons: A Barrier to Serious Criminal Justice Reform (2011 op-ed, CNBC.com): An opinion piece by the ACLU’s David Shapiro on the problems with private prisons.
Documents Obtained by ACLU Show Sexual Abuse of Immigration Detainees Is Widespread National Problem (2011 press release): Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act provide a first-ever window into the breadth of the national problem of sexual abuse of detainees in immigration detention facilities.
License to Abuse? Time for Bureau of Prisons to Sever Ties with CCA (2011 blog post): Since 2003, there have been at least 19 deaths in facilities operated by CCA, including three in Georgia.
ACLU And Southern Poverty Law Center File Federal Lawsuit Challenging Inhumane Conditions At For-Profit Youth Prison (2010 press release): A federal class-action lawsuit against the for-profit operators of the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), charging that the children there are forced to live in barbaric and unconstitutional conditions and are subjected to excessive uses of force by prison staff.
Publisher Sues Corrections Corporation of America Over Censorship of Books Sent to Prisoners (2009 press release): A lawsuit against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest for-profit prison firm, charging that CCA violated the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution by censoring books sent to prisoners at the company's Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona.
