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Can these federal private prisons just start accepting state inmates? Thereby remaining profitable?



No. These facilities are privately operated, but are owned by the federal government. The operators can't choose to turn them into state prisons, no more than they could choose to turn them into hotels.


At the risk of sounding frivolous, there are numerous prisons that have been turned into hotels.

http://www.nileguide.com/blog/2010/10/30/incarcer-vacations-...


The government can choose to do that (in those cases, sell off the property). Not private prison operators. The issue of property rights, not the inherent concepts.


And one Olympic village turned into a prison - Tahoe.


I'm sure that's on their radar in terms of contingency planning, but it shouldn't be a surprise - looks like sentencing policy changes in the past years (thanks Obama, for reals) have reduced the inmate population, and this is an adjustment to those policies.

I sure hope Hillary will continue this good work.




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