Bernie Sanders

Donkees

(31,327 posts) Mon Aug 22, 2016, 04:49 PM Aug 2016

Sanders, Arizona’s Grijalva call for ending use of privately run detention centers

By Chico Harlan August 22 at 3:10 PM

Excerpts:

According to the letter written by Sanders and Grijalva, among the 400,000 people held annually by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, 62 percent are at private facilities. The agency spends more than $2 billion a year detaining individuals, and in 2014, it entered into particularly pricey contracts to detain Central American women and children seeking asylum.

“Given the impact on detainees, the high cost to taxpayers and the Department of Justice’s recent decision, we believe the Department of Homeland Security can and should immediately begin phasing out for-profit, privately run immigration detention facilities,” the letter said. “As each contract comes to the end of its term, the department should either decline to renew the contract or substantially reduce its scope.”

The letter raised concerns about safety at immigration detention centers, saying that “adults and children detained in private detention facilities often go without due process protections and proper medical care.”

For both GEO and CCA, immigration detention in recent years has emerged as a growing part of their business models. In 2015, CCA made 51 percent of its revenue from the federal government. Of that amount, nearly half came from immigration detention contracts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sanders-arizonas-grijalva-call-for-ending-use-of-privately-run-detention-centers/2016/08/22/f692f04a-6890-11e6-99bf-f0cf3a6449a6_story.html

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Sanders, Arizona’s Grijalva call for ending use of privately run detention centers (Original Post) Donkees Aug 2016 OP

Sanders, Grijalva Ask DHS to End Private Prison Use Donkees Aug 2016 #1

Donkees

(31,327 posts)

1. Sanders, Grijalva Ask DHS to End Private Prison Use

Reply to Donkees (Original post)

Mon Aug 22, 2016, 04:54 PM

Aug 2016

Sanders, Grijalva Ask DHS to End Private Prison Use
Monday, August 22, 2016

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 – Following the Department of Justice’s recent decision to end its use of private prisons, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) asked the Department of Homeland Security Monday to end its use of private, for-profit detention facilities.

“Given the impact on detainees, the high cost to taxpayers and the Department of Justice’s recent decision, we believe the Department of Homeland Security can and should immediately begin phasing out for-profit, privately run immigration detention facilities,” Sanders and Grijalva wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. “As each contract comes to the end of its term, the department should either decline to renew the contract or substantially reduce its scope.”

Community-based alternatives to detention are more cost-effective and provide the necessary resources to ensure undocumented immigrants complete immigration proceedings. Individuals in alternatives to detention appear in court 99 percent of the time and comply with removal 84 percent of the time. Increasing the use of alternatives to detention could save the federal government more than $1.4 billion a year.

Sanders and Grijlava introduced legislation last year with Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) to ban private prisons.

To read the letter, click here.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/letter-to-dhs-regarding-private-prisons?inline=file

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