Privatization of detention centers....

We need to get the money grubbers out of this.
http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/privateprisons

snip:

Since the late 1990’s, the number of people held in immigration detention has exploded. On any given day, ICE detains over 33,000 immigrants; this is more than triple the number of people detained in 1996. In the last 5 years alone, the annual number of immigrants detained and the costs of detaining them has doubled: in 2009, 383,524 immigrants were detained, costing taxpayers $1.7 billion at an average of $122 a day per bed. Nearly 2.5 million individuals have passed through immigration detention facilities since 2003.

snip:

Questions that need to be answered:

1. Outside of pure facility operations, which corporations provide services (such as officer training, food service, transportation or facility construction) relevant to immigration enforcement and detention and what relationships have those corporations had with the federal and state governments?

2. Which specific pieces of federal legislation have been the focus of lobbying efforts by which corporations?

3. What influence have private prison corporations had on state-level legislation?

4. Who are the key individuals lobbying on behalf of the private prison corporations? Do any of them have a history of employment with DHS, ICE or other government entities?

5. In states that have proposed SB1070 copycat bills, or other anti-immigrant legislation, what relationships exist between policy makers and the private prison industry?