Coalition Asks Inspectors General to Review Implementation of Biden Executive Order Against Private Prisons

The American Immigration Council and seven other organizations called for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Offices of the Inspectors General (OIG) to conduct a formal review into the implementation of President Biden's Executive Order 14006, “Reforming Our Incarceration System to Eliminate the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities.”

The letter raises concerns about local governments contracting with the federal government and then subcontracting to private companies to work around the order. It also criticizes the exclusion of DHS contracts from the order, allowing private companies who lose a contract with the DOJ to hold people in criminal custody to contract with DHS to use the same facility for immigration detention. As part of their review, letter asks the Offices of the Inspectors General to require DHS to provide more information on its contracts to the public, and require DOJ to explain any communication with DHS and federal governments regarding the order, and provide a little of the facilities closing.