We are ACLU lawyers. We're here to talk about private prisons. AUA

In momentous news, last week the Justice Department ordered the Bureau of Prisons to begin phasing out the use of private prisons.

Carl Takei and Amy Fettig, attorneys at ACLU's National Prison Project, are here answeing questions about what this means at the national and state level, the Department of Homeland Security’s even more lucrative system of for-profit immigration detention centers, and any of your questions about the U.S. prison system.

PROOF

Amy: https://twitter.com/abfettig/status/768143301396557825

Carl: https://twitter.com/carltakei/status/768144133361926144

What you can do to help: https://action.aclu.org/secure/ICE-private-prisons

Update 4:50pm We're signing off--thanks for the great questions. Follow Amy ( https://twitter.com/abfettig/) and Carl (https://twitter.com/carltakei/) on Twitter to learn more. And p.s. ACLU is giving away FREE pocket Constitutions until election day! Get yours: https://www.aclu.org/freeconstitutionsReddit

Comments: 158 • Responses: 8  • Date: 

aclu16 karma

Here's a question from Facebook:

Stephen Reaves When and where did private prisons start? Why have they become so profitable?

aclu6 karma

From Facebook

Jue Thao For prisoners who died while incarcerated at a private prison, will their deaths be investigated and will those corporations be held accountable? Many prisoners have died in these facilities without adequate security but they have not been sued because many of these prisoners family members are poor and/or do not understand the prison system.

aclu5 karma

Question from Twitter

Peggy Polenberg Don't Corp prisons have complex contracts w/states that include tax credits etc? Hard to dissolve?

ryanHdidit4 karma

I see here (https://action.aclu.org/secure/ICE-private-prisons) that you are only 80 or signatures away from your goal of 15,000 to petition DHS to drop private prisons. Should you reach your goal, what is the next step?

aclu5 karma

We want to get as many signatures as possible, and hopefully that will be more than 15,000. We'll adjust the goal if we think the next level is realistic based on current response rate. We will deliver all the signatures to the Department of Homeland Security to make sure they know that ending contracts with private prisons is a priority for our supporters.

hau5keeping4 karma

I got your call-to-action to sign the petition from the Voices app. It doesn't seem like you guys update it too often. Can you consider sending out more calls to action? My friends all use the app because it makes it really easy to get all our elected officials.

aclu2 karma

We will look into this, thanks /u/hau5keeping!

aclu1 karma

We're signing off--thanks for the great questions. Follow Amy ( https://twitter.com/abfettig/) and Carl (https://twitter.com/carltakei/) on Twitter to learn more.

And p.s. ACLU is giving away FREE pocket Constitutions until election day! Get yours: https://www.aclu.org/freeconstitutionsReddit

SquareJerker0 karma

Oh boy, I have a legit legal question! I donated at one point to the ACLU. Now, years later, they continue to flood my mailbox with requests for further donations, despite my request for them to stop. Further, the requests look perhaps a little unethical and misleading.

My question: how do I get the ACLU to stop?

aclu2 karma

email [email protected] and ask to be removed from the list.

SquareJerker1 karma

That doesn't seem to work for physical mail. Is there a potential cause of action against the ACLU? Who would you refer me to? Based in Florida.

aclu2 karma

direct message us your contact information here and will make sure it gets to the right people!