The Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General issued a report (the “OIG Report”) in August 2016 titled “Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) Monitoring of Contract Prisons.”
We believe the OIG Report was not only flawed, from an analytical basis, but the underlying data in fact revealed that the contracted facilities were as safe, if not safer, than the publicly operated facilities.
Flawed Comparison
- We believe the OIG Report was inherently flawed since it offered an apples to oranges comparison of non-similar facilities.
- The DOJ OIG selected 14 low security prison facilities operated by the BOP with a total of 22,600 inmates, mostly US citizens, and only 12% criminal aliens.
- The private sector comparison involved 14 low-security, contracted facilities with a total of 28,000 inmates, of whom 96% were criminal aliens that came from approximately 90 foreign countries.
- Consequently, we believe this was not a fair comparison of similar inmate populations between the public and private sector facilities.
- Even the BOP expressed skepticism regarding the OIG Report by stating:
“We continue to caution against drawing comparisons of contract prisons to BOP operated facilities, as the different nature of the inmate populations and programs offered in each facility limit such comparisons.”