From 1980 to its peak in 2013, the federal prison population grew from 25,000 to 219,000. He said a recent Bureau of Prisons report showed private prisons save taxpayers $17 per day per offender. He said the federal prisons that are affected by the decision “make up 7% of our business.”The company's stock dropped 35% after the announcement Thursday. While the Justice Department may be backing away from private prisons, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Agency recently signed a four-year contract with CCA to build and maintain detention facilities in Texas to hold asylum seekers. We must insist that these changes are adopted by all federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, which relies heavily on private prisons even for housing vulnerable women and children.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 18, 2016 17:58 UTC