![]() Pilots of new for-profit products from private prison companies “tend to happen unbeknownst to most of the public,” explained Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative. But despite stated goals to remove for-profit companies from incarceration, the Biden administration has yet to reverse the program, and in a statement to the Prospect, the BOP said that it is actively considering an expansion, pending funding. The one-year pilot program, under way in two federal corrections facilities, started under the Trump administration in March 2020. A company called Smart Communications has an exclusive pilot program with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) called MailGuard, which eliminates nonlegal physical mail in federal prison facilities and transfers it to either crude paper printouts or electronic files accessed through tablets or kiosks. One such contractor is poised to gain control of the means by which people communicate with those in the federal prison system. Critics charge that these contractors prioritize their own balance sheets over the well-being of prisoners and their families, and that the services they provide are often exploitative, of low quality, and infringe on inmates’ civil rights. Food, medicine, telecommunications, banking, and practically every other service for incarcerated people are almost entirely privatized, through a network of subcontractors. “e must reduce profit-based incentives to incarcerate by phasing out the Federal Government’s reliance on privately operated criminal detention facilities,” the order stated.īut the profit motive will still exist in the federal prison system, even after private prison operations contracts are exhausted. Other reforms approved on Wednesday include the implementation of a major gun law passed last year which would stiffen prison sentences for straw purchasers who buy a firearm on behalf of someone else, and for people who knowingly sell pills laced with deadly fentanyl, or who act with willful blindness.In his first-week blitz of executive actions, Joe Biden directed the Justice Department to not renew federal contracts with the private prison industry. “Permitting people to be sentenced based on conduct for which a jury has acquitted them is fundamentally unfair," he said, adding it "eviscerates the constitutional right to trial." ![]() Heiskell, the President-Elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he was disappointed by the delay. Under current practice, a defendant who is acquitted on some counts and convicted on others could still face a harsher sentence if the judge factors the acquitted conduct into the sentencing calculations. However, Reeves said the commission decided it needed more time before making a final determination. The commission had been considering a vote on another high-profile reform to limit federal judges from imposing longer sentences on defendants based on alleged crimes even if a unanimous jury has acquitted the defendant of those very same allegations in a split verdict. The policy "makes a systemic, structural change without congressional authorization," commission member Candice Wong said. Three members of the panel opposed the final policy, saying they disagreed with a provision that could allow judges to grant compassionate release to inmates if changes to federal sentencing laws renders their prison term inequitable. "The commission rightly recognized that people who are sexually assaulted by correctional officers and, in limited cases, people serving excessive sentences they would no longer receive today, might qualify for release," he said. Kevin Ring, the president of the criminal justice advocacy group FAMM, called the changes "a big step in the right direction."
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