Presidential candidates senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren want federal private prisons eliminated, Blacks of whom make a nearly a half million of state and federal prisoners, Warren and Harris saying also that charging for phone calls and basic needs must stop, which is what occurs also in state prisons and county jails, including Cuyahoga County's jail in Cleveland of which charges for local phone calls, even if the inmate is indigent..."So as president, one of the first acts of business for me would be to get rid of these private detention centers," said Senator Harris, one of two Blacks along with Senator Cory Booker in the race for the Democratic nomination for president.... "We've got to take the profit margin out of the issue," said Harris. By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog

United States senators and Democratic presidential candidates Kamala Harris (D-CA) of California and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) of Massachusetts are both calling for private federal prions to be banned in an effort to minimize mass incarceration via for-profit prisons that target detained immigrants, the poor, and Blacks in particular 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com. 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com-CLEVELAND, Ohio –Democratic presidential hopefuls U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren say that if elected president in 2020 they will ban federal private prisons, an effort, they say, to minimize mass incarceration, a problem in the United States that disproportionately impacts detained immigrants,  poor people, and the Black community, Black men in particular.

Warren has offered a plan that would shut down private federal prisons and would stop for-prohibit contractors from charging inmates for basic services such as phone calls, and sometimes even health care.

Harris said the for-profit prisons are undemocratic, and driven by greed.

"So as president, one of the first acts of business for me would be to get rid of these private detention centers," said Harris. 'We've got to take the profit margin out of the issue."

Private prisons currently house some 22,000 federal inmates, according to the DOJ report, which translates to roughly 12 percent of the total inmate population.

The Bureau of Prisons pays some $700 million annually to private prisons for operating costs and other expenditures. 

Roughly 74 percent of detained immigrants are housed in private federal prisons, data show.

Together, federal and state prisons in the United States held about 475,900 inmates who were Black and 436,500 who were White in 2017 – a difference of 39,400, according to BJS. Ten years earlier, research shows, there were  some 592,900 Black and 499,800 White prisoners.

Though Warren's plan to ban private prisons includes federal prisons and not state prisons and county jails across the country, it paves the way for more discussion, Cuyahoga County's jail now in the national news for nine inmate deaths in roughly a year and U.S Marshals findings of gross unconstitutional mistreatment of inmates from physical assault by jail guards to attempted starvation as punishment and rat and roach infested jail facilities

In Cuyahoga County inmates must pay heavily for local phone calls to family members, and to their own attorneys, even poor and indigent inmates.

Cuyahoga County includes the largely Black city of Cleveland and is the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties.

It is the second most populated county jail statewide, behind the jail in Franklin County, the state's largest county and of which includes Columbus, the state capital.

Former vice president Joe Biden, who served under former president Barack Obama, is the front runner for the Democratic nomination with Sen. Bernie Sanders trailing in second place, Biden and Sanders among some 30 Democratic candidates, including Warren, of Massachusetts, Harris, a former California attorney general, and Cory Booker, and  Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, a Youngstown area Democrat.

Booker and Harris are the only two Blacks in the race for the Democratic nomination, the Democratic nominee to face President Donald Trump in November 2020, Trump a Republican real estate mogul who upset Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 to win the presidency.

Sen. Sanders, a socialist representing Vermont, has also taken on undemocratic and for- profit prisons as a part of his political platform for president, now, and in 2016 before he lost the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.