Immigration Detention – A growth sector for private prison companies

(A Reprint from the Sentencing Project – Race & Justice News)

 

U.S. immigrants are primarily people of Hispanic origin.

According to a new report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, immigration offenses accounted for 70% of the net increase of the total federal felony cases filed from 1994 to 2010. Federal defendants whose most serious offense was an immigration offense increased steadily from 1994 to 2010, nearly equaling the number of defendants charged with drug offenses in 2010.

A new report by The Sentencing Project shows that people being detained for violating immigration laws are a major growth sector for for-profit prison companies. Budget crises and policy changes have led some states to reduce prison populations and private prison contracts in recent years. The losses for private prison companies have been more than offset by expansion of their management of federal detainees under the jurisdiction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of detainees in for-profit facilities increased by about 3,300 people while the number of prisoners held in for-profit facilities decreased by only about 1,300.