The Honorable Russell Feingold
United States Senate
716 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Feingold:
In our society, the deprivation of liberty is the penultimate control a state exercises over its citizens. This power should not be delegated to the private sphere. The American Civil Liberties Union thanks you for introducing the Public Safety Act (S. 842), which prohibits placement of federal prisoners in private prisons and denies grants to states and localities that contract with private correctional facilities, and we endorse the Public Safety Act without reservation.
We also base our opposition to private prisons on the national experience with such enterprises. A recent case against the Corrections Corporation of America, brought by prisoners from the District of Columbia, exemplifies the problems when profit is placed before human dignity. A Department of Justice report, released in November of 1998, cited the inexperience and lack of training of officers at the private CCA facility and the resulting excessive use of force by staff. The report also noted the company's failure to recognize its responsibilities as a correctional service provider and its reluctance to accept blame for the unconstitutional conditions of confinement at its prison. After two stabbing deaths, several escapes and deaths resulting from deficient medical care, CCA agreed to pay damages of $1.65 million.
Serious constitutional violations take place in other private prisons as well. In facilities in New Mexico, riots resulted in several injuries and extensive facility damage. One riot occurred only a few months after two attempted cover-ups of correctional officers' excessive use of force and two prisoner stabbing deaths. In 1998, a juvenile correctional facility run by a for-profit company in Tallulah, Louisiana was taken over by the State because of inhumane conditions. A Justice Department investigation found that the juveniles housed there were routinely beaten. Just two years later, a Department of Justice investigation of another Louisiana juvenile facility, owned and operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, found that, "[the facility] fails to provide reasonable safety, improperly uses chemical restraints, and provides inadequate mental health, medical and dental care for the approximately 276 adolescent boys." Dr. Nancy Ray, an expert evaluating conditions there, concluded that at least some of the problems were linked to Wackenhut's reluctance to spend enough money to provide care for the youth.
For CCA, Wackenhut and companies like them, incarceration is a business. Cost-conscious private industry has insufficient incentives to meet constitutional standards, encourage rehabilitation or establish productive instructional programming in a safe and secure correctional institution. When the decision to place an offender in prison, and the decision to impose a particular length of sentence are contaminated by profiteering interests, everyone's liberty is at risk. The ACLU applauds your initiative to end for-profit influences and restore government control over our criminal justice system.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Alexander
Director, National Prison Project
Laura Murphy
Director, Washington National Office