President Joe Biden on Tuesday, January 26th, 2021 signed executive orders on ending the Justice Department’s use of private prisons as part of what the White House is calling his “racial equity agenda.” To be clear, the order specifically tells the DOJ not to renew contracts, so no one is being transferred or released yet.
268,000 people are incarcerated by the federal government, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. 32%, or 85,000, are being held in privately-run prisons. 55,000 federal inmates are held in privately-operated prisons for non-immigrant related offenses. They make up 20% of the total federal incarcerated population that will eventually be moved to public prisons or released.
However, as reported by Axios, “domestic policy czar Susan Rice confirmed at a press briefing that the order does not apply to private immigration facilities, which fall under the Department of Homeland Security.” 30,000 immigrants are detained in privately-operated prisons, or 35% of the total privately-operated federal inmate population. Of all immigrants being detained by the federal government, 71% are incarcerated in private prisons.
No word yet from President Biden on why he left out immigrants from this executive order.
Of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States, less than 9% are held in privately-operated facilities. A majority of those incarcerated in private prisons are not in the Federal system, but state & local institutions.
