Prison Reform Groups Call For End Of Federally funded Private Prisons

Mississippi Public Broadcasting
By: Jeffrey Hess
Published: September 13, 2012
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Prison reform advocates are calling for an end to private prisons that mainly hold illegal immigrants, including a Mississippi facility that erupted in a deadly riot this spring. MPB's Jeffrey Hess reports the groups claim the prisons create the conditions that contributed to the May riot that left one guard dead.

There are 13 federally funded private prisons intended mainly to hold illegal immigrations nationwide.

One is the the Adams County Correctional Facility where a May prisoner riot left a guard dead.

Judy Green with the prison reform group Justice Strategies is calling for an end to these prisons saying they are over-crowded, have poor medical care and mistreat prisoners. "Compared with low security prisons that the bureau itself runs, these low security contract prisons have higher rates of mistakes. Higher rates of disturbances. And higher rates on contraband," Green said...

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Privately Operated Federal Prisons for Immigrants: Expensive. Unsafe. Unnecessary

Presented before a House of Representatives briefing sponsored by Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado on September 13, 2012, Privately Operated Federal Prisons for Immigrants: Expensive, Unsafe, Unnecessary chronicles the May 2012 Adams County Correctional Center uprising in Natchez, Mississippi, a private for-profit facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America, under contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The report details some of the tragic personal consequences for Juan Villanueva, his family, and others caught in the midst of the horrific conditions at the facility, leading to the insurrection. The report weaves into this narrative a look at the rise and fall of the private prison industry, and its resurrection through the benefit of federal contracts to detain and imprison undocumented immigrants, in an atmosphere of moral panic after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.