ABA Journal’s Post

So what we’ll see is more arrests to fill these prisons whose standards are not up to par with federal prisons, such as they are, but private prisons do not have any obligations to meet existing standards.

Recently, Gov. Kevin Stitt questioned the performance of correctional facilities operated by GEO Group, a multibillion-dollar private company that owns and manages prisons across the United States. Nationwide, for-profit prisons have failed to make a compelling case that they are better or even cheaper than public alternatives, and a growing number of states, such as Arizona and Idaho, have canceled some of their contracts. However, entirely eliminating private prisons is both a financial and practical mistake. Oklahoma has an opportunity to change the way the state does business with private prisons while remaining faithful to free market principles. Creating policies that foster greater competition and accountability in the private prison industry would make Oklahoma a national leader in corrections and offer a smarter path forward for other states looking to improve public safety and prison performance without abandoning the private sector. Cicero’s Devon Kurtz has more in The Oklahoman. Read the full story at the link in the first comment.

A lot will change for the United States under the Trump administration. Here are some of the changes we may see in the Bureau of Prisons with a new president.

The Bureau of Prisons keeps making progress on the First Step Act implementation. However, when it comes to moving people into the community, the BOP takes the most conservative approach to do so, often leading people to stay in expensive institutions longer. Here is a look at the BOP's latest attempt to enact First Step Act ... they have a ways to go.

At last, the Government has made public a comprehensive list of where its new prison places will be.  In a parliamentary answer at the end of last month, Prison Minister Ed Argar gave details of the sites where 14,169 additional places will be delivered over the coming years. Together with the 5,856 places already up and running, the total, if they all come to fruition, will be 20,025. https://lnkd.in/edPRKwX7 Actually the list is not complete as the answer refers to additional sites which are “commercially sensitive and information released about these would prejudice the department’s negotiating position and ability to achieve value for money in these developments”. But it’s the fullest picture we’ve had so far. According to the answer, planning permission is still needed for 3,362 of the places though more than half of these are at the Lancashire site next to Garth and Wymott prisons which Planning Minister Michael Gove is minded to approve. While an inquiry has been reopenedto consider safety issues on surrounding roads, the MoJ will expect to get the go ahead before long. Less certain must be the 247 place expansion at HMP Gartree in Leicestershire, coming on top as it would do of the 1,715 place new build next door. Permission for the new prison was rejected by the local council but overruled by Gove. 1,080 of the 1280 places in Open prisons on Argar’s list require planning permission as do 320 at privately run HMP Parc in South Wales. So assuming the Garth/Wymott site is approved, the government still need permission for 1,647 places.   Argar says they are on track to have delivered half of the 20,000 places by the end of 2025. Theres no timetable beyond that which I’ve seen It’s worth noting that according to information given to the Justice Committee last month, more than 1,000 of the 5,856 places delivered to date have been through refurbishment rather than construction; and a further 400 are classed as urgent and temporary accommodation. 800 of the remaining places will also be achieved through refurbishment.  There's a link here to a spreadsheet with the data on the proposed new places.  https://lnkd.in/evw_3DjW

A comprehensive analysis by Rob Allen of the current state of play on the Government’s plans to build more prison places. Rob makes clear that a number of proposed schemes still require planning permission and are therefore far from “oven ready”. It seems highly unlikely that the flow of new places will match the rapid increase in prisoners that is forecast in the latest version of the Governments projections for the prison population. Whoever wins the next Election should expect to inherit a full scale prison population crisis.

Please Mr. Starmer, listen to Kamali, he is 100% right. The solution is NOT more prison places, it is to better support services so that we keep people out of prison from an early age. The third sector can help, if only others would listen. Use Government money on reducing crime and reducing reoffending, then we will not need new prisons. Lastly, make the front line prison staff positions much more attractive as a career. Raise pay and improve conditions.

Prisons do not work. Every piece of evidence on reducing crime shows this. "More prison spaces" only creates a new line to fill the prisons up to. We will be facing the same problem quicker than we can say "look how we've alleviated the prisons". What is needed is a more robust Criminal Justice System with pathways that do not involve incarceration. This can be achieved twofold. Firstly, restorative justice, rehabilitation and community based projects and systems which allow people to reintegrate into society safely. Even more importantly we need to reduce offending in the first place - this can be done several ways but the most effective is alleviating the socio-economic pressure on the most vulnerable. Labour's current rhetoric continues to disillusion me.

This is the opening line of Department for Correctional Services employment ad: "Have you ever wondered what it's like inside a prison? It may surprise you!" Prison is NOT a theme park or a curiosity to satisfy. Prisons are violent, dehumanising places that perpetuate harm—not environments for people to explore on a whim. People in prison are not curios to be ogled. We are human beings enduring systemic violence, often as a result of poverty, racism, and colonialism. Ads like this normalise the brutality of incarceration and diminish the lived realities of those trapped inside. These kinds of ads also attract people driven by curiosity, not compassion—those who view prisons as a spectacle rather than a site of immense suffering. By framing incarceration as something "surprising" to explore, the ad ignores the humanity of those inside and invites people who are indifferent to our struggles. This approach only fuels a culture of detachment, where the violence of prisons is normalised, and the people enduring it are dehumanised. I’d ask if this is that who they want working in these spaces, but I know the answer is yes, ads like this are absolutely by design. Instead of recruiting people to uphold this violent system, we should be dismantling it. Prisons don’t solve harm—they create it. #AbolitionNow #EndPrisons #HumanDignity

A non political view! Building more prisons isn’t the answer. An absolutely absurd idea. There is a deep-seated structural problem. The number of prisoners being recalled back to jail after they have been released on licence or parole has soared to a record high. Regularly, people are being released into homelessness. They are given a tent when they are released. That is setting those people up to fail. And that’s why our prisons are bursting at the seams. Rehabilitation is the key to providing meaningful opportunities, genuine organisations who have lived experiences of the prison system they have experienced and overcome the failings. Those organisations should be provided with the necessary funding instead of wasting money building more prisons.