By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The Justice Department’s decision last summer to stop contracting with for-private prisons may be changed if the Senate confirms Sen. Jeff Sessions as the next attorney general.
President-elect Donald Trump spoke highly of private prisons, and Sessions has close ties to the industry, Mother Jones reports.
Studies have shown that private prisons are less humane and more violent than government-run jails.
Trump’s victory increased the value of shares of the largest private prison corporations.
“I do think we can do a lot of privatizations and private prisons,” Trump said last spring. “It seems to work a lot better.”
Over the past two decades, Sessions has spoken favorably of private prisons. When he was attorney general of Alabama, Sessions gave the green light to private prisons in his state.
