California To End Use Of Private, For-Profit Prisons

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is banning the use of for-profit, private detention facilities, including those under contract to the federal government to hold immigrants awaiting deportation hearings.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday he had signed a measure into law that helps fulfill his promise to end the use of private prisons.

But the state prison system was already phasing them out, despite its mandate to stay under a federal population cap.

Immigrant advocates welcomed the bill, which they said would put an end to almost all immigration detention in the state in the next few years.

Federal officials said immigration enforcement will still take place. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say California accounts for less than 10% of ICE's detention capacity.

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The bill is AB32.