The Justice Department's plan to phase out its use of private
prisons — the result of declining inmate populations and concerns about
safety and security — ended this week without ever really taking effect.
The reason is a new administration that has called for a crackdown on what it sees as a rise in crime.
That crackdown could lead to more arrests, which
in turn could result in more people in prison. Which, presumably, is
why Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded a six-month-old Obama
administration directive that sought to curtail the government's use of private prisons.
Sessions said in a Feb. 21 memo that the Obama move had "impaired"
the U.S. Bureau of Prison's "ability to meet the future needs of the
federal correctional system."
Those "needs" are not yet clear. Asked for an
explanation, a Justice Department spokesman said only that Sessions'
move "returns discretion to the professionals at BOP who are in the best
position to evaluate their needs."
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Source: NBC News
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