After years of documented human rights abuses by the private prison industry, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is finally ending its use of privately-run, for-profit prisons, the Washington Post reports.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates issued a memo Thursday announcing that the federal government is ending its contracts with the private prison industry, days after the department's Inspector General issued a damning report about the danger and abuse facing inmates in private federal prisons.
According to that report, about 22,660 inmates were living in federal private prisons as of December 2015.