Bill Sessa, a spokesman with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, says there's no evidence that the transfers have made California prisons more dangerous. Inmates to be transferred must meet legal and security criteria and "are being matched to the security level of institutions available to us," he said.
Corrections officials say they want to ease crowding, at least temporarily, and avoid the possibility that federal judges might put a limit on convict populations and force the governor to release felons before their sentences are completed.
Turning to private prisons is "not a policy of choice," Sessa said. "It's a policy of circumstances."
But California prison guard unions, with many members making more than $100,000 a year with overtime pay, aren't eager to give up any jobs to their less well-paid colleagues at the private prisons.
Private prisons are "making a fortune off of people's misery," said Ryan Sherman, a spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. "It's dungeons for dollars."
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marc.lifsher@latimes.com
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Going private
The number of inmates in privately owned and operated U.S. prisons has increased to about 112,000 in mid-2006 from just under 17,000 in 1995. Major companies are planning to build facilities to house about 10,000 more prisoners by the end of 2008. Here are the three biggest firms in the nation:
Corrections Corp.
of America (Nashville)
Operates 65 prisons with 72,000 inmate beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Geo Group Inc.
(Boca Raton, Fla.)
Operates 46 prisons with 51,000 inmate beds in 18 states.
Cornell Cos. (Houston)
Operates 13 prisons with 10,000 inmate beds in eight states.
Sources: Company representatives
and Web pages, U.S. Bureau of
Justice Statistics
