No matter how private companies profit from prisons—detaining immigrants, needlessly expanding capacity, cutting quality—privatizing incarceration puts the pursuit of profits ahead of the needs of taxpayers, prisoners, and prison employees. Yet many states and the federal government continue to rely on private companies to manage their prisons. As a step toward ending mass incarceration, AFSC works to document the conditions of private prisons and to stop the privatization of prisons, jails, and detention centers.
Resources
Pushing back on privatization
Related issues
AFSC strives to promote healing – instead of punishment – in the U.S. criminal justice system. We advocate for alternatives to incarceration, better reintegration after prison, an end to prison privatization, more humane conditions of confinement, and ultimately, the abolition of prisons.
In multiple countries, AFSC works to address the economic and political drivers of migration while supporting migrant communities. Our immigration programs include legal services, training, human rights monitoring, humanitarian relief, immigrant-led organizing, and advocacy for humane immigration policies.