JJIE caught up with Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, to talk about the increasing use of private prisons by local, state and federal government. Relying on private institutions to provide extra capacity discourages progress on real reforms to reduce the prison population, while putting profits first can adversely impact prison conditions, Friedmann argues. “It’s not an issue a lot of people know or care about unless they’re personally impacted by it,” Friedmann said, who spent years incarcerated in both private and public prisons. He sat down with JJIE after speaking on a panel on the same topic at a conference in Ohio last month.
Privatization of Prisons from JJIE Multimedia on Vimeo.