ColorOfChange.org changing the color of democracy

UPDATE: April 24, 2012. Mississippi’s department of corrections canceled its contracts with the GEO Group for all of the private prison facilities it had run in Mississippi. You can read more here.

Youth incarcerated at a privately-run correctional facility in Mississippi will no longer have to live in a nightmarishly abusive and violent environment. They will no longer be regularly subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, and long periods of solitary confinement. Earlier this week, a settlement was announced in a federal lawsuit that demands that children who are housed at the facility be moved elsewhere. The facility is run by the GEO Group, the nation's second-largest operator of private prisons.

On Thursday of this week, the New Orleans City Council will vote to determine how a new prison facility with be funded. ColorOfChange and more than 30 organizations have mobilized 2,200 New Orleanians to sign a petition calling for an end to the per diem funding structure-- a method that incentivizes longer lock ups and more prisoners.

New Orleans is the only major city in the United States that funds its jail based on a per diem system, billing the city $22.39 per day for every individual held at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP). Much like the model for private prisons, this has created a perverse incentive to keep more people in jail on a daily basis. More prisoners for more days equals more money for the Sheriff's budget. We're working with our New Orleans partners and allies to do something about this.