Reforming Our Incarceration System To Eliminate the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities
Signed January 26, 2021·Joseph R. Biden Jr.·86 FR 7483
Source
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Plain-language summary
Directs the Attorney General not to renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities, as consistent with applicable law. The order states a policy goal of reducing reliance on private prisons in the federal criminal justice system, citing concerns about safety, security, and rehabilitation programming at such facilities compared to federally run ones. It applies specifically to Department of Justice contracts, not to other agencies such as those handling immigration detention. The order notes it must be implemented consistent with existing law and subject to available funding, and it does not create any new legal rights or benefits enforceable against the government.
Not written or reviewed by a person. Read the full order below for anything you intend to rely on.
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Claimed authority
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered
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Disposition
Revoked by: EO 14148, January 20, 2025
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The order, in full
Executive Order 14006 of January 26, 2021
Reforming Our Incarceration System To Eliminate
the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention
Facilities
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. More than two million people are
currently incarcerated in the United States, including
a disproportionate number of people of color. There is
broad consensus that our current system of mass
incarceration imposes significant costs and hardships
on our society and communities and does not make us
safer. To decrease incarceration levels, we must reduce
profit-based incentives to incarcerate by phasing out
the Federal Government's reliance on privately operated
criminal detention facilities.
We must ensure that our Nation's incarceration and
correctional systems are prioritizing rehabilitation
and redemption. Incarcerated individuals should be
given a fair chance to fully reintegrate into their
communities, including by participating in programming
tailored to earning a good living, securing affordable
housing, and participating in our democracy as our
fellow citizens. However, privately operated criminal
detention facilities consistently underperform Federal
facilities with respect to correctional services,
programs, and resources. We should ensure that time in
prison prepares individuals for the next chapter of
their lives.
The Federal Government also has a responsibility to
ensure the safe and humane treatment of those in the
Federal criminal justice system. However, as the
Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General
found in 2016, privately operated criminal detention
facilities do not maintain the same levels of safety
and security for people in the Federal criminal justice
system or for correctional staff. We have a duty to
provide these individuals with safe working and living
conditions.
Sec. 2. Contracts with Privately Operated Criminal
Detention Facilities. The Attorney General shall not
renew Department of Justice contracts with privately
operated criminal detention facilities, as consistent
with applicable law.
Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 26, 2021.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed January 26, 2021. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.