Trump Reverses Biden Order that Eliminated DOJ Contracts with Private Prisons
President Trump reversed an important Biden administration criminal justice policy Monday, opening the door to more people in federal custody being sent to private prisons. The Biden executive order — one of his first — had directed the Justice Department not to renew contracts with private prison firms. In one of his first moves as president, Trump — as part of a slew of reversals of Biden-era actions — reversed Executive Order 14006, which had eliminated Justice Department contracts with “Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities.”
This reversal by the Trump administration is not a surprise, and it is in fact something that the two largest corporations that manage prisons and detention centers — the GEO Group and CoreCivic — expected to happen. In fact, on the GEO Group’s third quarter investor call the day after the 2024 presidential election, the company’s executive chairman and founder, George Zoley, said, “We kind of get the sense of President-elect Trump’s remarks that he will reverse all of the Biden executive orders on Day One.” Another sign of an administration friendly to the industry: Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, lobbied for the GEO Group in her role with a DC-based firm.
