Moms Group Applauds Biden Administration Executive Order On Private Prisons

Statement of leaders of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families,

on the executive orders President Biden signed yesterday to advance racial justice in America:

“There is no doubt that mass incarceration has caused devastating and disproportionate harm to Black, Brown, and low-income communities – with the harm often felt for generations. Private prisons have grown into a billion-dollar industry, despite clear evidence that they are, and have long been, plagued by inhumane conditions and substandard staff training, and despite the fact that they exploit the labor of incarcerated people and subject them to work conditions that harken back to slave labor.

“The step the Biden administration took yesterday, to refuse to renew U.S. Department of Justice contracts with private prison companies, is an important step in stopping additional harms caused by mass incarceration. No one should profit – ever – from prisons and from incarcerating millions of people.

“We hope and expect that this is the first of many steps the Biden administration will take and look forward to additional actions, including ending solitary confinement, abolishing the federal death penalty, and ending the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s private prison contracts, which deny immigrants in detention the humane conditions and basic human rights everyone deserves. That, too, must end immediately.” – Statement of Beatriz Beckford, National Director, Youth, and Education Justice, MomsRising

“Too many families, most of them Black and Brown, have been devastated and too many children separated from their families by our country’s broken criminal justice system. We are extremely grateful that the Biden administration will not renew U.S. Department of Justice contracts with private prison companies, which have profited while amassing a shameful record of violating the rights and safety of those in their custody.

“And while yesterday’s executive order on private prisons is important and meaningful, it is the first step: In addition to reforms and protections, government contracts with private prison companies who operate immigrant detention centers through the Department of Homeland Security must also end right away. We ask the Biden administration to overhaul our entire criminal legal system so that every person in custody will be safe, have adequate health care, and be treated with dignity and respect. Further, while stopping for-profit prisons is key, the U.S. still has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with structural racism embedded throughout our policing and criminal justice system, and the entire criminal justice and police system still need reforming. MomsRising is committed to doing the work to get our nation toward justice for everyone.”
– Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising

MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive.

Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety.

MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high-quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination that penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others.

MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at  — and follow us on our blog, and on and .www.MomsRising.orgTwitterFacebook