NEWARK, N.J. – This afternoon, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement:
“Attaching a profit motive to imprisonment is a moral failing and wholly inconsistent with our obligation to guarantee just and fair outcomes for all detained people. Today’s decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals allows private prisons to profit from immigrant detention contracts, hindering the state legislature's power to protect New Jerseyans from predatory, greedy, and abusive private prison companies. This decision perpetuates a perverse incentive to fill beds that put corporate profits over human costs and undermines the will of New Jerseyans whose democratically-elected officials passed this legislation. Our communities deserve better, and it is in these moments that we must continue to fight for our neighbors and advocate for an end to for-profit detention.”