The United States government announced this week that the Federal Bureau of Prisons would reduce and eventually end its dealings with private, for-profit prison companies such as CCA and GEO. This decision is a great start towards ending the complete privatization of prisons, but sadly it is not a final solution.

Private prisons have given rise to a bevy of labor and human rights issues, among which include poor staffing, inadequate medical care and not accommodating religious requests. In 1997, in a private prison funded by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), seven people were killed, six were stabbed and two murderers escaped. Private prisons sell themselves to local and federal governments with their appealing low costs. These companies keep the costs low by hiring few people, paying them little, giving them denied benefit pension plans and providing little to no basic training for prison guards. The lack of training is what led to the incidents of '97, as well as two escaped convicts in 2010, who later went on to murder two tourists. The perimeter of the prison yard was left unmonitored for a full 15 minutes, and when monitored, was only watched by one person.

The prevalence of private prisons influenced state agendas to increase the number of people incarcerated, which has translated into minor drug offenses locking people away for years. People of color have been disparately locked up in private prisons, because they are cheaper to get and cheaper to hold.

For all of these reasons, it is a very good step that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has made. However, the FBP only has 13 prisons that are funded privately. That's about 12 percent of inmates incarcerated by the federal government. This decision does not affect state prisons or the Department of Homeland Security. While some are hopeful that this example by the FBP will persuade state governments to make the same decision, many believe that private prisons are too attractive to state governments for them to rule them out anytime soon. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security relies on private prisons to incarcerate about 70% of its immigrant detainees. With private prisons being banned from the FBP, they will turn to the already heavy punishments against undocumented immigrants to make a steady profit. This brings up concerns about how much harder the Department of Homeland Security will crack down on undocumented immigrants.

While the recent decision is a step in the right direction, if it is intended to pacify those who lobby against private prisons and for nothing else, then we have much farther to go to end the privatization of prisons in the United States.