{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/reports/warren-investigation-finds-pervasive-conflicts-of-interest-and-rubber-stamp-approvals-by-the-nations-largest-accreditor-of-private-prisons-and-immigration-detention-centers", "Warren Investigation Finds Pervasive Conflicts of Interest and Rubber Stamp Approvals by the Nation's Largest Accreditor of Private Prisons and Immigration Detention Centers", "2020-12-14", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 14, 2020\n\t\t\t Warren Investigation Finds Pervasive Conflicts of Interest and Rubber Stamp Approvals by the Nation's Largest Accreditor of Private Prisons and Immigration Detention Centers \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Accreditation process is supposed to ensure quality -- but overlooks serious problems and allows private prison companies CoreCivic, GEO, and MTC to evade responsibility; \"The U.S. criminal legal and immigration systems are broken from top to bottom;\" Rather than addressing major health and safety concerns during COVID-19 pandemic, the ACA has \"greatly reduced its auditing of correctional facilities\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Report\r\n(PDF) Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.) today released the findings of the May\r\n2019 investigation she opened into the American Correctional Association\r\n(ACA) -- the nation's largest accreditor of prisons and immigration detention\r\nFacilities -- and its relationship with the three largest private prison\r\ncompanies that receive ACA accreditation: CoreCivic, GEO Group (GEO), and\r\nManagement & Training Corporation (MTC). Her investigation confirms that\r\nthe deeply flawed ACA accreditation system is riddled with conflicts of\r\ninterest and fails to provide meaningful oversight of the facilities it\r\naccredits, resulting in rubber-stamping of dangerous facilities and the wasting\r\nof millions of taxpayer dollars. Senator Warren's 16-page report opens with troubling truth about the\r\nnation's criminal legal and detention systems: \"The criminal\r\nlegal and immigration systems in the United States are broken. The criminal\r\nsystem incarcerates too many people, locks them away for too long, and fails to\r\nprovide the formerly incarcerated with the necessary tools and support to\r\nsuccessfully return to their communities upon release. The immigration system\r\nis similarly in shambles. Instead of providing refuge to vulnerable immigrants\r\nfleeing poverty and violence, including children and families, the Trump\r\nAdministration is turning them away or throwing them into unsanitary and overcrowded\r\nfacilities with little to no standards.\" Private prison companies derive immense benefits from these flawed systems.\r\nFederal, state, and local taxpayers spend billions of dollars propping up the\r\nprivate prison industry that profits off the backs of prisoners and detainees.\r\nThese companies are driven by incentives that reward locking up more people in\r\nworse conditions, prioritizing their bottom line over the safety and well-being\r\nof incarcerated and detained individuals, corrections and immigration professionals,\r\nand communities. Key findings in Senator Warren's report include: \r\n The ACA's dual role\r\n     as an advocate for the private prison industry and the organization\r\n     responsible for overseeing conditions at facilities run by private prison\r\n     companies creates an irreconcilable conflict of interest. This\r\n     conflict is exacerbated by the additional financial support the ACA\r\n     receives from private prison and detention companies unrelated to\r\n     accreditation.\r\n The ACA accreditation\r\n     process is a rubber stamp that lacks rigor and ignores serious health and\r\n     safety problems. It is almost impossible for a facility to fail\r\n     an ACA audit.\r\n Serious problems\r\n     persist at ACA-accredited facilities. Neither the ACA nor the\r\n     private prison companies Senator Warren's office contacted could provide a\r\n     single, recent example of a prison or detention facility that had been\r\n     denied accreditation -- even when the facility had a public record of\r\n     safety, health, or security violations.\r\n The ACA failed to\r\n     adapt to COVID-19. Rather than shifting its oversight of prisons\r\n     and detention facilities to address major health and safety concerns\r\n     during COVID-19, the ACA has \"greatly reduced its auditing of\r\n     correctional facilities.\"\r\n \"The primary result of the flawed ACA accreditation process is a system\r\nthat ignores major problems and gives private facilities a free pass, putting\r\nthe well-being of detainees, prisoners, and corrections professionals at\r\nrisk,\" Senator Warren's report reads. \"To address these problems, the federal government, and state and local\r\nauthorities, should end their reliance on ACA accreditation and stop\r\noutsourcing oversight of its prisons and detention facilities to for-profit\r\norganizations. The U.S. criminal legal and immigration systems are broken from\r\ntop to bottom,\" the report concludes. \"Ending\r\nreliance on the ACA's corrupt accreditation process is one small but important\r\nstep in reforming that system.\" Senator Warren's report is a result of her investigation\r\ninto the accreditation of private prisons and detention facilities, during\r\nwhich she has demanded\r\ninformation on the ACA's measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.\r\nSenator Warren also led\r\nan investigation into private detention operators' compliance with federal\r\nimmigration detention standards and the private auditor responsible for\r\ninspecting detention facilities, Nakamoto Group, last year. That investigation\r\nrevealed that neither the private prison companies nor their private auditor,\r\nNakamoto, have taken responsibility for grievous failures identified by the OIG\r\n-- and also revealed a dispute between the Nakamoto Group, the contractor\r\nresponsible for auditing detention facilities, and the OIG about the quality of\r\nNakamoto's inspections. ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/reports/warren-investigation-finds-pervasive-conflicts-of-interest-and-rubber-stamp-approvals-by-the-nations-largest-accreditor-of-private-prisons-and-immigration-detention-centers"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.6505948044359684, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}