The State - News from Nov. 19, 1987

The opening of private prisons to house parole violators in California is subverting public control, American Civil Liberties Union lawyers and prisoner advocates charged in filing a lawsuit in Sacramento to stop the facilities. Attorneys for the ACLU and the Prison Law Group said contracts granted by the state for “return-to-custody” facilities illegally give police authority to private firms and deny public review of where prisons are built and how they are operated. “We think the government has gone too far,” said Ed Chen of the ACLU. In opposing the facilities, the two law groups find themselves in the unusual position of siding with a union of prison guards. The state first contracted with a private firm about a year ago to run an 80-bed parolee camp in San Mateo County as a means of reducing prison overcrowding. A second facility, in Tulare County, opened about three months ago and can house up to 330 parole violators.