ACLU Statement on Trump Reversal of Policy Ending Use of Private Prisons

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration, through a memo from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, withdrew an Obama administration policy to reduce and ultimately end the use of private prisons by the Justice Department.

David C. Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, issued the following statement:

“Handing control of prisons over to for-profit companies is a recipe for abuse and neglect. The memo from Attorney General Sessions ignores this fact. Additionally, this memo is a further sign that under President Trump and Attorney General Sessions, the United States may be headed for a new federal prison boom, fueled in part by criminal prosecutions of immigrants for entering the country.

President Trump, whose super-PAC received hundreds of thousands of dollars from private prison companies, has issued executive orders calling for increasing criminal prosecutions of immigrants. He has repeatedly expressed support for new legislation to impose harsh, unnecessary new mandatory minimum sentences for these prosecutions.”