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>>> California Bans Private Prisons, Immigrant Detention Centers
Newly signed law will force federal government to shut down four facilities for migrants in state


Bloomberg

By Alejandro Lazo in Sacramento, Calif., and Michelle Hackman in Washington

Oct. 11, 2019


https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-bans-private-prisons-immigrant-detention-centers-11570820873


California will work to end the use of private prisons within its borders, including for-profit immigrant detention facilities, under a law signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The measure, originally focused only on prisons, was expanded late in the legislative session this year to include jails that hold migrants, as they became a polarizing political issue in left-leaning California.

The new law prohibits the state from entering into or renewing contracts with private prison companies after Jan. 1 and bans their use by the state after Jan. 1, 2028. It also forbids the operation of private facilities contracted by the federal government to hold migrants in California starting next year, or whenever their current contracts expire.

“During my inaugural address, I vowed to end private prisons, because they contribute to over-incarceration, including those that incarcerate California inmates and those that detain immigrants and asylum seekers,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement. “These for-profit prisons do not reflect our values.”

An analysis earlier this year by the state Senate said the Trump administration would likely challenge the law but concluded California would likely prevail in court. A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman declined to comment.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees detention centers for adult migrants, said once the law goes into effect, the agency would move detainees currently in California to facilities elsewhere in the country.

Four large detention centers could be shut down by the new law. All are operated by private prison companies, which have seen increased business from the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement and now account for the bulk of migrant detentions in the state of California.

Two of those facilities are run by GEO Group Inc., while CoreCivic Inc. and the Management and Training Corp. run the other two. A GEO Group spokeswoman said she believed most or all of the new law will be found unconstitutional by a court. CoreCivic said the state’s ban conflicts with its stated goal to reduce prison overcrowding. A spokesman for MTC said the company provides “a valuable service to our customers and a safe and humane environment for those in our care.”

ICE detention centers will again be in the spotlight this fall as some liberal members of Congress and activists plan to inject a demand to defund the agency into federal spending talks. Activists also hope California’s ban will spur similar action in other states.

“It’s going to really set an example for other communities,” said Alejandra Pablos, an activist and Mexican national who traveled to Sacramento from Tucson last month to attend a rally in support of the law. “People are going to recognize that this could be done.”

In 2017, California passed a law blocking local governments and law enforcement from making new contracts or expanding existing contracts with the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants.

Despite those efforts, ICE in April said it was seeking to expand its capacity in the state by 5,600 detainees, according to public documents. Currently ICE has a total capacity in California of about 4,000 beds, which represents less than 10% of the agency’s national detention capacity, a spokeswoman said.

In the 2018 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 396,448 people were booked into ICE detention facilities, some of which are operated privately. That is 22.5% more than during the previous 12 months, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Three other states, New York, Illinois and Iowa, have prohibited their prison systems from using private facilities. In addition, Illinois earlier this year passed a law aimed at halting a proposed detention center in Dwight, Ill., effectively banning for-profit detention centers there. New York and Iowa laws don’t ban such facilities.

The law marks a rapid shift for California, which until recently relied on private prison operators to help relieve overcrowding in state facilities. California currently has four private prisons under contract, all run by the GEO Group, which house about 1,400 of the state’s 125,000 inmates.

The GEO Group’s prison contracts with the state run through 2023, and can’t be renewed under the new law except under a possible court order to relieve overcrowding.

Some experts question whether the law will go as far as intended in light of the court-order exemption and other exceptions in the law.

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