Posted on 09/13/2019 5:23:24 PM PDT by Enlightened1
Bill removes profit motive from incarceration and marks latest clash in state’s battle with Trump over treatment of immigrants
The private prison industry is set to be upended after California lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday banning the facilities from operating in the state. The move will probably also close down four large immigration detention facilities that can hold up to 4,500 people at a time.
The legislation is being hailed as a major victory for criminal justice reform because it removes the profit motive from incarceration. It also marks a dramatic departure from California’s past, when private prisons were relied on to reduce crowding in state-run facilities.
Private prison companies used to view California as one of their fastest-growing markets. As recently as 2016, private prisons locked up approximately 7,000 Californians, about 5% of the state’s total prison population, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. But in recent years, thousands of inmates have been transferred from private prisons back into state-run facilities. As of June, private prisons held 2,222 of California’s total inmate population.
The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, must still sign AB32, but last year he signaled support for the ban and said during his inaugural speech in January that the state should “end the outrage of private prisons once and for all”.
Currently, one company, the Geo Group, operates four private prisons in California under contract with the California department of corrections and rehabilitation. The contracts for these four prisons expire in 2023 and cannot be renewed under AB32, except to comply with a federal court order to reduce crowding in state-run facilities.
In addition to signaling a major criminal justice reform, AB32 also has become a flashpoint in California’s fight with the Trump administration over the treatment of immigrants.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Oh, no. They will still arrest just as many if not more. It’s just that the “protected” class members will be getting instantly released. They’ll be out before the inkjet printer ink is dry on the arrest paperwork log.
“How can a State ban Federal facilities?”
We settled that question back in 1865.
L
Well, since we are struggling to find some way to get along with the communist Chinese lets outsource detention and repatriation of noncitizens to Communist China.
Thnx
Some i hadn’t seen before
Why doesn’t President Trump tell Mexico that it can have California back provided it builds a secure wall along the Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon borders?
“If you’re going to release them why bother catching them in the first place?”
They don’t. The cops have learned their lessons, they don’t even bother going out for the majority of crimes. They found out they get the same paycheck without the hassle.
Remove profit motive?? How about capping OT pay for state prison guards at $100,000 a year?
the federal laws are different than the state of Cal and so is the court system.
This is part of a democrat movement started by Brown 7 years ago to reduce prison population because they won’;t build new prisons. Brown lied us into two initiatives which released prisoners, some violent.
There is the duty of the feds to ensure each state has a republican form of government.
I believe ballot harvesting is sufficient grounds to claim that the DPRKalifornia no longer has one.
It was called nullification. Andrew Jackson dealt with this when S. Carolina tried it. Trump needs to follow his example.
“How can a State ban Federal facilities?”
they can’t ...
Does the state have the ability to forbid such contracts? Yeah, probably does. Should they? Much has been made of the 'living conditions' for those under detainment until the resolution of their case and deportation can take place. If activists had a care for those conditions, it would seem a great method would be to require specific improvements in conditions and minimum standards for a detention center.
Towards the end of the article: Servin said that while the new law was a significant victory, there was one other thing immigrants rights groups were concerned about. When several sheriffs’ departments canceled their contracts to house Ice detainees last year, instead of freeing the detainees, Ice moved many of them to prisons in Colorado and Hawaii.
One of the primary objections to these detention facilities is that they were so far away from the major cities and thus denied visitation without major effort. And now they'll have to get on a plane to Hawaii or drive to Colorado to visit, a much longer journey than the central valley.
Oh, and of course, the facilities won't really be closed - they're also used to comply with court orders regarding overcrowding of state prisoners in state facilities - that'll be just fine until 2028 or so. The state will just end up having to pay about 8 times more for each prisoner to make up for the budget shortfall from hosting ICE detainees.
Since no new facilities are currently on the drawing board in California, and only those who are facing long sentences after a career in crime are going to state prisons, it is guestimated that both of these 'shut down' private facilities will be at capacity by 2024 under current federal court orders.
Gov Gruesome will likely be out of office when the next governor will get to face the decision about commuting the sentences of murderers, rapists and child molesters to comply with overcrowding rules.
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