President Joe Biden’s executive order to eliminate government contracts with private prisons, stemming from a campaign promise to enact criminal justice reform and to reduce mass incarceration, is being met with pushback from those in the industry. They argue the move is largely a “political statement” that fails to tackle the roots of the issue, since private-sector contractors house only a small fraction of the total number of federal inmates. The executive order carries a litany of negative consequences ranging from job losses, impacts on communities where facilities are located, and the potential for federal prison populations to overflow, critics argue. Supporters of the order say it helps to combat racial injustice and racial equity. Before signing the order, Biden remarked that “the nation is ready to change, but government has to change as well.” Leonard Sipes, a retired federal senior public affairs specialist who runs the website CrimeinAmerica, said private prisons save the …