Getty Sanders bill would end for-profit prisons, immigrant detention

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will roll out legislation later this week aimed at overhauling the for-profit prison system and ending the practice of detaining immigrants and asylum seekers.

Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, will unveil the so-called “Justice Is Not For Sale” Act alongside Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The bill is set to be unveiled Thursday.


The senator, who has seized the lead against Hillary Clinton in some recent early-state polling, had garnered some backlash from minority communities for declining to address issues such as immigration and criminal justice reform on the campaign trail. Instead, Sanders has largely focused on a message centered on economic inequality — but is now rolling out other policy proposals as he gains momentum in the Democratic primary.

Among some of the highlights of the bill: It calls for the federal government to end contracting with private prisons within two years and it boosts oversight meant to ban companies from overcharging inmates and families for services such as phone calls from jail.

“For-profit prisons fail in carrying out their basic public safety function,” reads a two-page summary of the legislation obtained by POLITICO.

On the immigration front, Sanders and Grijalva will demand that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson end the practice of detaining immigrant families “immediately” — a practice that is overwhelmingly opposed by Democrats on Capitol Hill — and call for ending the quota mandated by federal officials that 34,000 immigrants be detained at detention centers every day.

“The detention quota imposed on [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is an aberration in law enforcement,” the two-page summary says. “No other federal or local law enforcement agency detains individuals based upon a daily quota.”

Sanders had previewed some of those provisions in a statement last week.

