GENEVA (4 February 2021) – A group of UN experts* welcomed the US decision to stop using privately run federal prisons and urged the Biden Administration to also end
outsourcing of all detention centres, including those holding migrants and asylum seekers.
“Ending the reliance on privately run prisons for federal prisoners is an encouraging step, but further action is
needed,” said Jelena Aparac, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries.
“Given the magnitude of mass incarceration in the US, this decision will benefit only the very small percentage of
federal prisoners who are held in private prisons and specifically excludes vulnerable people held in migrant and asylum
centres who are at particular risk of serious human rights violations.”
The US Department of Justice was ordered on 26 January not to renew its contracts with 12 privately operated federal
criminal detention facilities. In 2019, there were about 116,000 prisoners held in privately operated facilities,
representing about seven per cent of all state prisoners and 16 per cent of federal prisoners, according to the Bureau
of Justice Statistics.
The experts urged the US to “eliminate all for-profit detention facilities”, saying that “detainees should not become
units for profit”.
The Working Group has regularly expressed concern over the outsourcing of inherent State functions, including prisons and detention facilities. The issues of inadequate
standards and grave human rights violations in migrant detention centres have been raised repeatedly with the US
government and its contractors on involuntary sterilisations, solitary confinements and violations of the right to
healthcare.
(*) The Working Group on the use of mercenaries is comprised of five independent experts: Jelena Aparac (Chair-Rapporteur), Lilian Bobea, Chris Kwaja, Ravindran Daniel, and Sorcha MacLeod