America’s private prison industry was in decline for the best of reasons.

With crime at historic lows, and many states finally beginning to roll back harsh sentencing laws, there was less need for the services of private prisons.

The endless chorus of horror stories about corruption and abuse at private prisons was also starting to have an effect on the industry’s fortunes.

Government officials were growing skeptical about the wisdom of spending taxpayer money on private prisons for other reasons, too.

In a memo last summer ordering the Department of Justice to begin phasing out the federal government’s use of private prisons, then-deputy Attorney General Sally Yates noted that private prisons consistently underperform government facilities on crucial metrics.

The Office of the Inspector General had released a report concluding that, compared with similar government facilities, private facilities had a 28 percent higher rate of inmate-on-inmate assaults and more than twice as many inmate-on-staff assaults per capita.

With the overall population of federal prisoners declining, there was no reason — either economic or moral — for the federal government to continue using these facilities.

Then along came Jeff Sessions.

Unwilling to acknowledge inconvenient incarceration facts, President Trump’s new attorney general ordered the Bureau of Prisons to yank the order phasing out the use of private prisons.

In a memo released Feb. 23, Sessions said Yates’ order “changed the long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional facility.”

He directed the bureau to return to its previous approach of contracting with for-profit jails and detention centers.

Stocks in private prison companies extended their rally. Shares in CoreCivic Inc. (previously known as the Corrections Corporation of America), for example, have skyrocketed by as much as 140 percent over their pre-election day value.

If that sounds odious, it is. The purpose of prison should be to punish and rehabilitate offenders, not to create returns for shareholders who wish to extend their profits for as long as possible.

“The reversion to a reliance on private prisons is shameful,” said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles. “The president’s decision to scratch the plan to phase out private prisons reflects a base-level misunderstanding.”

Private prisons create a profit motive where none should be present. They also encourage susceptible politicians to pursue destructive policies.

This is why the most alarming portion of Sessions’ memo is his statement about “future needs.”

In order to create those returns for their shareholders, private prisons need product — also known as prisoners or detainees.

One obvious possibility for private prison companies to expand their customer base would be finding business opportunities in the Trump administration’s promise to deport more immigrants.

The majority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are held in privately owned facilities.

Investors in prison facilities in Arizona and Texas have already seen their bond holdings soar. CoreCivic has also suggested it sees a business opportunity.

Trump’s “executive orders appear likely to significantly increase the need for ... detention bed capacity that we have available in our existing real-estate portfolio, as well as an increased demand for our detention facility design, development and facility maintenance expertise,” said CoreCivic President and CEO Damon Hininger on a Feb. 9 earnings call with investors.

We don’t need more private prison facilities. We need comprehensive immigration reform and rehabilitative services for offenders.

It is cruel and immoral for the federal government to provide more “customers” for private prisons, and there is a tremendous human cost in expanding this kind of detention. Trump promised to bring back more American jobs — but these jobs are a bad bargain.

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