Crime

Wesson seeks to ban private prisons within city

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson started an effort June 29 to prohibit private prisons from being constructed and operating within the city. Wesson’s proposal would zone the city in such a way that it would effectively ban private detention centers.

Published

6 years ago

July 15, 2019

Wave Wire Services

By Wave Wire Services

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson started an effort June 29 to prohibit private prisons from being constructed and operating within the city.

Wesson’s proposal would zone the city in such a way that it would effectively ban private detention centers.

“Profiting off of locking people up will not fly in Los Angeles,” Wesson said in a statement. “We call on every city and county to join us in preventing this kind of activity from operating within its borders.”

Wesson said he started the effort because of recent reports that young children, who had been separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, were detained in overcrowded areas and kept without basic necessities.

Wesson said private prisons sign contracts with U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement worth millions of dollars every year and carry “horrific records regarding human rights and living conditions for detained immigrants.”

The proposal was seconded by Councilmen Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Gil Cedillo as well as Councilwoman Nury Martinez. The motion by Wesson is scheduled to be discussed by the full council July 3.

The United States incarcerates more people in a year than any other country in the world, and in recent years private prisons have taken on a greater share of the prisoner population, Wesson said, adding “The industry was started at the state level during the height of the war on drugs as governments failed to keep up their capacity with the rising inmate populations.”

Wesson said private detention centers are not subject to the same oversight and scrutiny as public prisons. He cited a U.S. Department of Justice study that found in 2016 that federally contracted private prisons had a significantly higher number of violations per inmate than public prisons.

The proposal also comes after a number of notable politicians pledged to curtail private prisons.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, a presidential candidate, said last week that she would try to ban private prison operations nationally if she’s elected.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom in February also entertained the idea of reeling in the state’s private prison industry.

“Profiting off of locking people up will not fly in Los Angeles.”

This article originally appeared the Wave Newspapers.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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1 day ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

7 days ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.