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Only 9% of the federal prison population is held in private prisons.
Ending private prisons is good, but much more money is made from businesses that profit off public prisons.
Biden should halt private corporations from securing new contracts with federal prisons.
Ashish Prashar is the Global Chief Marketing Officer at R/GA and a justice reform activist.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
President Joe Biden, by executive order, directed the Department of Justice to end its private prison use. It s a step in the right direction and a symbolic moment for this administration to say they are going to take criminal justice reform seriously. While this step decouples the federal government s relationship with private prisons, let s remember that such institutions hold just about 9% of the federal prison population a little more than 14,000 people.
Bill O Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Lawmakers now join ranks with over 240,000 children who have experienced the trauma of gun violence and fear for their lives at school since 1999.
It s been 27 years since any legislation to protect citizens from gun violence has passed a law which lapsed just 10 years later.
It s time for lawmakers to take the lives of our school children as seriously as they address their own personal safety.
Meg Poulin is a freelance writer focusing on women s rights and parenting while raising her three young girls in Connecticut.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
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The US global image has been deeply damaged by Trump and decades of skimping on diplomacy.
In order to rebuild America s image, the government needs to be willing to spend tens of billions of dollars.
Brett Bruen was the director of global engagement in the Obama White House and a career American diplomat. He runs the crisis-communications agency Global Situation Room.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
International influence isn t something that comes cheap even when you re a super power.
America s badly blemished brand will only begin to get better if the government dedicates a massive amount of money to addressing the challenge. This is not even a one-billion-dollar problem. We are talking tens and probably even hundreds of billions. Despite the considerable price tag, it is both necessary and worth the extraordinary expense.