Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will unveil a plan Thursday to stop private companies from running federal, state, and local prisons, The Washington Post reports. Under Sanders' proposed Justice is Not for Sale Act, governments would have three years to end private ownership of jails and prisons, which he argued have "perverse incentives."
"It runs counter to the best interests of our country," the Democratic presidential candidate told the Post. "You should not be making a profit off of putting people in prison."
About 19 percent of federal prisoners and 7 percent of state prisoners were held in private facilities at the end of 2013, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report.
Sanders' bill will also propose reinstating the federal parole system and removing a congressional mandate requiring Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to hold at least 34,000 detainees per day.