Steps
Remember four years ago watching that guy’s executive orders in horror?
President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered the Department of Justice to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies.
In remarks before signing the orders, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change “its whole approach” on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism.
But it’s also less…all of those things it likes to see itself as. Decent, fair, one of the good ones. Rights-based, egalitarian, justice-seeking.
Biden directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development in a memorandum to take steps to promote equitable housing policy. The memorandum calls for HUD to examine the effects of Trump regulatory actions that may have undermined fair housing policies and laws.
Months before the November election, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule that required communities that wanted to receive HUD funding to document and report patterns of racial bias.
While Trump himself ranted about “your beautiful suburbs” and how he was going to “protect” them from…youknowwhat.
GEO Group, a private company that operates federal prisons, called the Biden order “a solution in search of a problem.”
“Given the steps the BOP had already announced, today’s Executive Order merely represents a political statement, which could carry serious negative unintended consequences, including the loss of hundreds of jobs and negative economic impact for the communities where our facilities are located, which are already struggling economically due to the COVID pandemic,” a GEO Group spokesperson said in a statement.
A spokes representing the for-profit scheme Biden is ending said words about why the for-profit scheme should not end. Duly noted.
There are a number of things that should not be operated for profit. Obviously prisons. Schools. Science. The arts. Things that are ruined by profit margins and bottom lines, that don’t function well when they have to think about dollars over services.
And private prisons aren’t a “solution” in search of a problem?