WASHINGTON, D.C.–Private prisons have been an issue in Mississippi for several years, with fights, riots, even killings of prisoners and guards and a push to get rid of them in the state. A bill being introduced in the U.S. Senate by Bernie Sanders, junior senator from Vermont and Democrat presidential candidate, would rid the entire country of private prisons.
“The bill we are introducing today, the Justice is Not for Sale Act, eliminates federal state and local contracts for privately-run prisons in two years,” said Sanders at a press conference Thursday.
“Corporations should not be allowed to make a profit by building more jails and keeping more Americans behind bars. We have got to end the private, profit system in jails that are so dangerous to our country.”
BERNIE SANDERS PRESS CONFERENCE
Sanders said he believes that America must do everything she can to keep people out of prison before they go into the system.
“I would hope that every American appreciates that it is a national tragedy that the United States of America today has more people in jail, over two million people, than any other county on earth, including China.”
Private prisons and their contracts were at the center of one of the biggest corruption cases in Mississippi history that led to the arrest of former Corrections commissioner Chris Epps.
