Friday, 5 February 2021, 7:01 am
GENEVA (4 February 2021) – A group of UN
experts welcomed the US decision to stop using
privately run federal prisons and urged the Biden
Administration to also end outsourcing of all detention
centres, including those holding migrants and asylum
seekers.
“Ending the reliance on privately run
prisons for federal prisoners is an encouraging step, but
further action is needed,” said Jelena Aparac,
Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the use of
mercenaries.
“Given the magnitude of mass
incarceration in the US, this decision will benefit only the
very small percentage of federal prisoners who are held in
private prisons and specifically excludes vulnerable people
GENEVA (4 February 2021) – A group of UN experts welcomed the US decision to stop using privately run federal prisons and urged the Biden Administration to also end outsourcing of all detention centres, including those holding migrants and asylum seekers. “Ending the reliance on privately run prisons for federal prisoners is an encouraging step, but further action is needed,” said Jelena Aparac, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries.
“Given the magnitude of mass incarceration in the US, this decision will benefit only the very small percentage of federal prisoners who are held in private prisons and specifically excludes vulnerable people held in migrant and asylum centres who are at particular risk of serious human rights violations.”
US should end use of private, ‘for-profit’ migrant detention centres, say UN experts
Format
GENEVA (4 February 2021) – A group of UN experts welcomed the US decision to stop using privately run federal prisons and urged the Biden Administration to also end outsourcing of all detention centres, including those holding migrants and asylum seekers. Ending the reliance on privately run prisons for federal prisoners is an encouraging step, but further action is needed, said Jelena Aparac, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries. Given the magnitude of mass incarceration in the US, this decision will benefit only the very small percentage of federal prisoners who are held in private prisons and specifically excludes vulnerable people held in migrant and asylum centres who are at particular risk of serious human rights violations.
(John Moore/Getty Images)
The Department of Justice will not renew existing contracts with private prison companies following an executive action signed by President Joe Biden on Jan. 27. The move, part of a package of racial justice initiatives, reinstates an Obama-era policy reversed by former President Donald Trump in 2017.
Even as the industry has drawn sharp criticism from criminal justice reform groups, the top private prison companies continue to net billions in revenue by contracting with federal, state and local governments. In 2019, private facilities incarcerated an estimated 116,000 individuals or 8.1 percent of the nation’s total prison population, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Like all of the numerous and diverse cultures that add to America’s great mosaic, the African American culture has yielded some remarkable gifts.
Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Abbott, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman all made enormous strides to better American society. Their contributions are forever woven into the fabric of the freest and most generous society on the planet.
One can only imagine the heights of what might have been or what could still be had it not been for the damage caused and is caused by the leadership in the Democrat party. Leadership that has openly proclaimed superiority over the African American culture and has vilified and tormented its people for centuries.