Pax Christi USA has added its endorsement to a sign-on letter being circulated from Grassroots Leadership. The letter expresses that the signatories oppose any additional funding for Bureau of Prisons-contracted “Criminal Alien Requirement” private prisons.
“We, the undersigned organizations working to ensure civil liberties and human rights in our communities, urge that you do not appropriate funding for any additional Bureau of Prison ‘Criminal Alien Requirement’ (CAR) contract confinement beds beyond those that now exist,” the letter begins.
It goes on to say, “CAR prisons use taxpayer funds to incarcerate non-violent, ‘low security’ federal immigrant prisoners, primarily prosecuted for immigration violations through the highly controversial program, ‘Operation Streamline’ and related prosecution programs. These facilities are substandard, privately-owned, privately-operated segregated immigrant prisons. For the reasons set forth below, we call upon you to redirect funding from the wasteful prosecution and incarceration of low-level immigration violations and focus resources instead on correctional programs that will better prepare federal prisoners for constructive lives when they are released from confinement…”
For more information, visit http://grassrootsleadership.org/.