The decision to forge ahead with the federal use of for-profit prisons by Attorney General Sessions is dangerously ill-advised. Private detention and prison facilities for adults and juveniles have failed. The Obama Administration wisely issued guidance to reduce for-profit incarceration in the federal corrections system. Rescinding that guidance and returning to the use of private prisons is bad policy. Since President Trump took office, for-profit prison stock has been on the rise. This new policy may be good for a few companies and their shareholders, but it will harm our youth.
Using private prisons is bad policy for two main reasons. First, their use can lead to an increase in incarceration rather than community-based rehabilitation programs that are more cost-effective, have been proven to increase public safety and provide better outcomes for youth. Second, scraping profit out of incarceration trims programs and services necessary for a facility to run safely and to successfully rehabilitate its residents. Profit is based on headcount and full facilities. Creating a financial incentive to incarcerate negates all that we have learned in the past decade about what is best for community safety and rehabilitation.
Of course, Pennsylvania is all too familiar with the harms that can flow from relying on private, for-profit facilities for youth. In the Kids for Cash scandal, two judges were charged with accepting nearly $2.9 million from the private developer and former co-owner of two for-profit juvenile facilities in Luzerne County. The lives of over 2,500 teens were impacted, leaving many with lasting scars. Juvenile Law Center was successful in expunging the records of all the juveniles impacted by incarceration in these for-profit facilities. We were not able to remove the trauma or the lost teen years for the hundreds of youth who were sent to these private facilities by judges accused of corruption. The costs to the community in economic terms for unnecessary incarceration of so many young people are staggering.
Settlements with the developer, corporate provider and former co-owner provided financial compensation to the kids and their families, but their loss of liberty can never be truly compensated.
Following this tragic scandal, Juvenile Law Center worked with stakeholders in Pennsylvania to develop recommendations to avoid such a miscarriage of justice in the future, and many were adopted. A key recommendation, prohibition of the use of for-profit facilities for juvenile detention and placement, has gained momentum over the past decade. The use of incarceration in general, and of for-profit incarceration in particular, has diminished. This was concurrent with a decrease in the juvenile crime rate. Communities are better protected and youth are better served when harsh for-profit incarceration is not part of the justice system.
Attorney General Sessions should heed the lessons of the Kids for Cash scandal: private prisons are bad public policy and lead to abuse. Shut them down; do not bring back them back or increase their presence in our communities.