Safeguard Incarcerated Journalists

AP Photo/David Goldman, file

Reporting on the incarceration system sheds light on opaque and powerful institutions.

Journalists who report on the incarceration system from inside and out provide essential transparency, oversight, and accountability for America’s secretive carceral institutions.

Too often, these centers operate beyond the public eye. Corrections agencies closely guard any information about incarcerated people and facilities and restrict public access to them. We push back on efforts to block reporting on carceral institutions and support the First Amendment rights of journalists covering them.

Write a letter for private prison transparency

ICE’s network of for-profit detention facilities is expanding rapidly under the Trump administration. Even though these private facilities hold human beings in federal custody under federal law, they operate in secret and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
It’s time for that to change.

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Edit this message so that it is unique to you: Dear Senator/Representative, As your constituent, I am deeply concerned about the secrecy surrounding private prisons and detention centers being used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These facilities are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and have been able to shirk oversight for decades as a result. Unsurprisingly, the Department of Justice has found these secretive facilities are more dangerous than their government-run counterparts. The long-standing secrecy has grown inexcusable now that ICE is housing a record number of people in these private facilities. The Intercept recently reported this includes an unknown number of pregnant women, whose health may be in jeopardy. I am asking that you PLEASE SPEAK OUT and demand that private prisons and detention facilities that hold people on behalf of the federal government be subject to FOIA. It is critical that the public, Congress, and even ICE be able to ensure that the private prison companies are fulfilling the terms of their lucrative federal contracts and that the people in their care are treated humanely. This is impossible without transparency. Now is the time to use your considerable influence to support transparency and improve public understanding of the private prison system. Thank you.

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Thank you for fighting for private prison transparency.

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Share this message on social media: ICE isn’t the secret police, and the private detention centers it contracts with to detain tens of thousands of people shouldn’t be off-limits to FOIA requests.
Use our action center tool to tell Congress that FOIA should apply to private prisons and detention centers.media:
Join me in telling Congress to speak out about private prisons: https://freedom.press/issues/safeguard-incarcerated-journalists/