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The Times of San Diego article, Opinion: Mass Incarceration Must End: Closing Private Prisons is a Good Start

Last year, President Joe Biden acknowledged what had been evident for years: Our nation’s reliance on mass incarceration “imposes significant costs and hardships on our society and communities and does not make us safer,” according to the president’s Executive Order 14006 signed just days after he took office.

In the order, the president pledged to “decrease incarceration levels” by reducing “profit-based incentives to incarcerate.” To help achieve its goals, the administration ordered the U.S. Department of Justice not to renew contracts with private prison companies.

The Marshals’ contract with the billion-dollar prison company GEO Group to operate the Western Region Detention Facility in downtown San Diego was set to expire on Sept. 30, 2021, but has been inexplicably extended twice since the executive order was issued. Its contracts with El Centro and Otay Mesa facilities, which were set to expire in December, were also extended. The current contract extension with Western Region is set to expire on June 30.