Rep. Watson Coleman Reintroduces End For-Profit Prisons Act
Today, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) introduced the End For-Profit Prisons Act of 2025.
First introduced in September 2016, during Watson Coleman’s first term in Congress, the End For-Profit Prisons Act would phase out Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service contracts with for-profit prison facilities and would require federal employees to perform core correctional services.
Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order to reverse the Biden Administration’s policy to prohibit the renewal of contracts between the Justice Department and private prison facilities. Averaging over $300 million in profits each year, private, for-profit prisons have a long history of abuse and poor conditions as they seek to maximize profits. In 2024, it was reported that private prison company GEO Group was the first company to max-out donations to then presidential candidate Donald Trump’s SuperPAC to the tune of $500,000.
“Private Prison companies like GEO Group create a perverse incentive to increase incarceration to increase corporate profits,” said Watson Coleman. “The use of private prisons erodes the public’s faith in the integrity of American sentencing policy, leaving them to wonder if the impetus for lengthy mandatory minimums, or forcibly detaining immigrant children, is an evidence-based solution or just submission to the will of private prison companies donating to campaigns and profiting from imprisonment.”
The End For-Profit Prisons Act of 2025 is co-sponsored by Reps Summer Lee (PA-12), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (GA-04), Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), James P. McGovern (MA-02).
The bill can be read here.