Federal Corrections
June 1, 2011
GEO Group, Inc. lands federal contract for 1,300 inmates in Adelanto private prison
A private management company will house up to 1,300 immigration detainees in Southern California after an agreement between the company, the city of Adelanto and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Wednesday.
The city approached ICE to express interest in housing a detention facility and in turn negotiated with Florida-based GEO Group Inc. to house the facility, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.The company purchased the 650-bed facility from Adelanto last year for about $28 million and invested $22 million to renovate and retrofit it, according to company officials. A 650-bed expansion on adjacent land is expected to be complete by the end of 2012...
LINK - LATimes.com
June 1, 2011
CCA hires BOP Director Harley Lappin - after he awards numerous federal contracts to company?
CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), America's leader in partnership corrections, announced that effective June 1, 2011, Harley G. Lappin, 55, shall serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Corrections Officer (CCO). In this role, Mr. Lappin will be responsible for the oversight of facility operations, health services, inmate rehabilitation programs, purchasing and TransCor, the Company's wholly-owned transportation subsidiary. He succeeds Richard P. Seiter, who announced his decision to step down as CCO earlier this year, effective May 31, 2011.
Mr. Lappin, as a career correctional administrator, previously served as the Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) -- the nation's largest correctional system, a position he held since 2003, prior to retirement in May 2011. He served in a variety of roles with the Bureau of Prisons for more than 25 years, beginning in 1985, including Regional Director, Warden of the United States Penitentiary in Indiana, and Warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina, among other positions. As Director of the BOP, Lappin had oversight and management responsibility for 116 federal prisons, 14 large, private contract facilities and more than 250 contracts for community correction facilities, in total comprising more than 215,000 inmates managed by 38,000 employees, with a $6.4 billion budget...
LINK - MarketWire.com
March 2, 2010
Geo Group says “disappointed” by prison cancellation
Prison operator Geo Group Inc said it is "disappointed" by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' decision to cancel a solicitation to build a facility to house illegal aliens convicted of crimes, sending its shares down as much as 8 percent.
Geo said it had undertaken a 1,225-bed expansion of its existing 530-bed correctional facility in Baldwin, Michigan under the solicitation. The expansion is expected to be completed in 2010.
"We are disappointed by the BOP's decision to cancel the (the prison solicitation) due to a funding shortfall," Chief Executive George Zoley said in a statement...
LINK - Reuters.com
October 15, 2009
Federal correctional officers lobby for pepper spray
Gary Pullings knows what he wants as a correctional officer at U.S. Penitentiary Atwater.
"I want to carry the damn pepper spray," Pullings said Wednesday.
The 30-year-old former Marine, an Atwater guard since 2006, said he and his fellow officers remain dangerously exposed at the maximum security prison. He contends that staffing is too low and incarceration policies are imperfect…
LINK - ModBee.com
September 21, 2009
Private company plans illegal-immigrant prison in Adelanto
A private prison operator has plans to build a 2,200-bed detention center that holds illegal immigrants on 51 acres near two other local prisons.
City Council will decide on Wednesday whether to approve the GEO Group Inc.'s development plan and conditional use permit to construct a new correctional facility on the northeast corner of Raccoon Avenue and Rancho Road.
But the proposed facility also hinges on GEO Group winning a federal contract from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Adelanto City Manager Jim Hart…
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
September 1, 2009
Obama’s Fed Bureau of Prisons looking to increase number of private prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is considering building a new privately owned and operated facility in eastern North Carolina to keep up with demand for bed space.
Officials are looking at putting the facility for about 1,380 low-security prisoners from the Washington, D.C., area in Winton, a small town along the Chowan River in Hertford County.
The other site being considered is in Princess Anne, along Maryland's Eastern Shore…
LINK - WRAL.com
August 14, 2009
Adelanto council approves selling prison
City Council Wednesday night approved the sale of the city-owned Adelanto Community Correctional Facility to a private corporation for $28 million — pending state permission to back out of prison contracts early.
"The state can say, 'No,' and everything we did last night is moot," Adelanto Mayor Charley Glasper said Thursday.
The unanimous vote affirms the city is "conceptually interested" in selling the prison — a 650-bed facility holding state inmates — to Florida-based The Geo Group, Inc., said City Manager Jim Hart…
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
August 11, 2009
City-run prison holding CA state inmates to be sold to privateer for feds?
Grappling with depleted reserves amid a cash-flow crisis, the city is looking to sell the city-owned Adelanto Community Correctional Facility to a private corporation for $28 million.
"It would give the cash infusion that would help us be able to continue city services until we are able to get back on our feet from the economic situation," said Adelanto City Manager Jim Hart.
City officials said they are confident that the proposed sale to Florida-based The Geo Group Inc. would not result in substantial layoffs to the facility's roughly 100 employees…
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
August 6, 2009
U.S. to announce plan to overhaul immigration detention system
…Details are sketchy, and even the first steps will take months or years to complete. They include reviewing the federal government's contracts with more than 350 local jails and private prisons, with an eye toward consolidating many detainees in places more suitable for noncriminals facing deportation — some possibly in centers built and run by the government.
The plan aims to establish more centralized authority over the system, which holds about 400,000 immigration detainees over the course of a year, and more direct oversight of detention centers that have come under fire for mistreatment of detainees and substandard — sometimes fatal — medical care.
One move starts immediately: The government will stop sending families to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a former state prison near Austin, Texas, that drew an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit and scathing news coverage for putting young children behind razor wire…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
June 16, 2009
HDNet’s ‘Dan Rather Reports’ Investigates the Billion-Dollar Prison Prospecting Industry
HDNet's "Dan Rather Reports" presents a unique look at how your tax dollars are fueling the "recession proof," billion-dollar prison prospecting business. The episode reports on a federal agency charged with managing a detention system that this year alone will cost taxpayers $3.1 billion, a price tag that has doubled since 2003.
The federal government has more than 90,000 people in custody on an average night, and only 25,000 beds to put them in. So the U.S. Marshals, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been outsourcing more than 65,000 detainees to a far-flung network of more than 1,800 state, local and private contract prison facilities. The Marshals Service itself has custody of tens of thousands of prisoners, but does not own nor operate a single detention facility
The number of Federal detainees has sky rocketed in recent years - more than 2000 percent since 1981 - and with the increasingly severe shortage of federal beds, enterprising local governments and private prison companies have been happy to fill in the gap — for a price. But it's the taxpayers who are ultimately footing the bill.
So, every morning, the routine begins. U.S. Marshals monitor the crush of inmates lining up for the vans that will take them to their court hearings. These vans will then have to take them back to a jail cell for the night and, more often than not, that cell will be at a county or city jail renting beds to U.S. Marshals with funds from the U.S. Government. It is a nation-wide, billion-dollar game of musical beds.
A retired supervisor with the U.S. Marshals Service, Al Patino remembers shuffling inmates to and from Hawaii where thousands of dollars were spent to fly prisoners on regular commercial flights. Even after Hawaii, when Patino was serving in El Paso, TX, the cost of housing and transporting prisoners was staggering. "I remember specifically signing checks between two, two and a half to three million on a monthly basis for that county," Patino said.
While the government is looking into questions about the increase in detention costs and how to decrease this taxpayer burden, the new government office in the Justice Department that was created to manage this massive system got derailed when immigration detention was moved into the Department of Homeland Security
"Dan Rather Reports: Bed of Controversy" premieres on HDNet, Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00 p.m. ET with an encore presentation at 11:00 p.m. ET to accommodate West Coast Prime Time.
About HDNet
HDNet (www.hd.net, twitter.com/hdnet) is a network that is original, thinks independently and delivers unique content and provocative, authentic programming that appeals to men of all ages, delivered in true high definition.
HDNet is the exclusive, high definition home for popular, original programming, including television's only HD news feature programs "HDNet World Report," and the Emmy Award winning "Dan Rather Reports," featuring legendary journalist Dan Rather. Only HDNet goes beyond the headlines to deliver real news that is redefining the way we look at our world. HDNet News is provocative, sometimes controversial and always relevant - telling the important stories of our time in-depth, with attitude and with independence.
June 9, 2009
Family of Slain Correctional Officer Jose Rivera Files $100 Million Claim Against the Federal Bureau
According to the claim, on June 20, 2008, at the USP Atwater in Atwater, California, United State Federal Correctional Officer Jose Rivera, in only his 10th month with the United States Bureau of Prisons, was fatally stabbed by two apparently intoxicated inmates: Jose Cabrera Sablan and James Ninete Leon Guerrero (the assailants) both serving life terms. The US Attorney General's office is seeking the death penalty against the assailants. Sablan, previously convicted for Murder, Attempted Murder, and Felony Escape, also had a significant disciplinary history: Assaulting with Serious Injury, Fighting, Possessing a Dangerous Weapon, Possessing Drugs and Intoxicants, and Physically Assaulting a Female Correctional Officer. Guerrero, previously convicted for Conspiracy to Commit Armed Bank Robbery, has a history of assaulting staff, including several incidents of serious assault and fighting with inmates…
LINK - EarthTimes.org (Official Press Release)
June 8, 2009
Report points to prison security failures
A government inquiry into the most recent fatal assault of a federal correctional officer details multiple security breakdowns and underscores a fear among federal officials who say inmates have grown increasingly violent in their dealings with prison staff.
Jose Rivera's June 20 killing, captured by surveillance cameras inside the high security U.S. Penitentiary Atwater in California, provides a chilling view into the U.S. prison system where weapons are plentiful and some violent inmates are allowed to "sleep off" bouts of drunkenness fueled by homemade cocktails, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) report obtained by USA TODAY.
During the attack, Rivera, a 22-year-old Iraq war veteran, struggled for his life while a locked door blocked several of his colleagues from responding…
LINK - USAToday.com
April 13, 2009
State seeks more federal aid for cost of keeping illegal immigrant inmates
Reporting from Washington — Fifteen years after Congress promised that Washington would help states pick up the tab for imprisoning illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, California is receiving but a fraction — less than 12 cents on the dollar — of its nearly $1-billion annual cost.
The unfulfilled promise is perhaps the most glaring example of the federal government shortchanging California.
Officials from states greatly affected by illegal immigration long have argued that their taxpayers should not have to bear the burden for Washington's failure to control the border…
LINK - LATimes.com
March 12, 2009
U.S. Attorney General Agrees To Seek Death Penalty Against Valley Inmates
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has given prosecutors the go-ahead to seek the death penalty against two inmates, accused of killing a North Valley correctional officer.
Jose Sablan and James Guerrero are accused of killing 22-year-old officer Jose Rivera in June at a federal penitentiary in Atwater. The men allegedley stabbed Rivera to death in a housing part of the prison.
Rivera had been a federal correctional officer for less than a year at the time of his death…
LINK - KMPH.com Fox 25 Central San Joaquin Valley
March 2, 2009
CDCR to Discharge Deported Criminal Aliens to Federal Authorities
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is adjusting its parole policy to discharge criminal aliens from state parole after they have been deported by federal authorities. The new discharge policy, being implemented immediately by CDCR's Division of Adult Parole Operations, is expected to reduce the number of parolees returned to state prison for the federal violation of illegally entering the United States.
"California's previous policy of reincarcerating deported criminal aliens in state prison for brief stints on a parole violation has contributed to a revolving door effect that has increased overcrowding and costs to state taxpayers, without improving public safety. The federal government can and should seek significant federal prison sentences for those criminal aliens that return to California, "said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate…
LINK - CDCR.CA.gov
October 22, 2008
Three Men in Custody in Prison Employee Murder
Police have taken three individuals into custody in connection with the slaying of a women's prison employee in north Stockton Wednesday morning.
Police have identified the victim as Michael Rutledge, 35. He was a supervisor of food services at the Federal Correctional Institution women's prison in Dublin. His employment started there in 2000.
Wednesday afternoon, investigators stopped a green Jeep Cherokee in south Stockton and apprehended its occupants. A third man was also put in custody, at a home, a few blocks away. Their names have not been released…
LINK - News10.net
October 1, 2008
Feds say Wash. immigration guards weren’t checked
A privately run immigration lockup in Tacoma hired security guards without required preliminary background checks and then lied about it, according to authorities.
Sylvia Wong, a human relations specialist with GEO Group Inc., the private contractor that runs the Northwest Detention Center, was charged in U.S. District Court on Tuesday with lying to federal investigators when she claimed in April she did not falsely generate documents.
"Clearly this is a cause for concern," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
LINK - IHT.com (International Herald Tribune)
August 18, 2008
U.S. Attorney To Seek Death Penalty For Chamorro Inmates Who Killed Corrections Officer In Californi
Two inmates who allegedly stabbed a federal prison guard to death will stand a capital punishment trial. According to the Turlock Journal, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott will pursue the highest for of punishment allowed by law. "My estimation is that this is a death penalty case. This is why we have the death penalty," Scott said at a press conference in Fresno on Thursday.
An FBI investigation into the case has revealed new details about the attack. Agents say Jose Rivera was stabbed by 43-year-old Jose Cabrera Sablan with an eight inch handmade shank resembling an ice pick. Rivera tried to escape but was caught by 40-year-old James Ninete Leon Guerrero, who held him down while Sablan repeatedly stabbed him…
LINK - PacificNewsCenter.com
August 12, 2008
Folsom Prison Inmate Taken into Federal Custody on Charges of Prosituting Minors Interstate
A man charged with federal violations including sexual trafficking of children and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, was taken into federal custody today by agents with the FBI, announced Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.
According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Aaron Pierre Brown, 28, of Hayward, California, controlled a prostitution operation in which he victimized minor females… The complaint charges Brown with Title 18 U.S.Code Section 1591 ( a )( 1 ), sex trafficking of minors by force, fraud, and coercion; and 2423( a ), transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
…Brown was arrested at Folsom Prison this morning, where he was serving a sentence for a recent parole violation. Brown was afforded an initial appearance before a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court in Sacramento this afternoon and was detained. Brown waived his right to be tried in Sacramento and it is anticipated that he will be transported to Los Angeles to face prosecution.
LINK - Media-Newswire.com
August 6, 2008
Private prisons hold on in hard times
One more profit report for you to blame on the slowing economy: The Postal Service announced today it lost $1.1 billion dollars for the quarter that ended in June. Officials blamed higher fuel costs and less mail being sent in lean economic times — it's down 5.5 percent from last year.
Even though we usually do think of it as a government operation, the post office is a private company and the same can be said for some prisons in this country. Most of them are government-run, but about 7 percent of the incarcerated population is housed in prisons run by for-profit corporations.
The biggest of those companies, Corrections Corporation of America, reports profits tomorrow. Like any other company, rising prices have raised their cost of doing business and its customers — federal, state and local governments — are facing tight budgets…
LINK - PublicRadio.org
July 25, 2008
ICE blocks 9-1-1 calls from T. Don Hutto
Outgoing 9-1-1 calls placed by immigrants detained at T. Don Hutto Residential Facility in Taylor will soon be blocked after Immigration Customs Enforcement changes the phone system in the former prison.
The block affects telephones used specifically by immigrants housed in the facility. Also blocked will be all incoming phone calls.
The change came as part of a change in the contract between Williamson County and Immigration Customs Enforcement billed as "Modification … relating to Low Cost Telephone Services" on the county commissioners' agenda Tuesday…
LINK - TaylorDailyPress.net
July 21, 2008
Legislation, lawsuits seek to shine light on private prisons
A bill before Congress would extend the Freedom of Information Act to require private prisons contracted by the federal government to release records under the same standards as federal prisons.
The Private Prison Information Act of 2007 (H.R. 1889), introduced by Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., would require private prisons and other correctional facilities under contract with federal agencies to house federal prisoners to make their records accessible under the same FOIA requirements that govern federal prisons. An identical bill was introduced in the Senate (S. 2010) by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
Prison privatization has increased rapidly in the face of growing concerns over overcrowding, safety and poor health care in public institutions. Desire to control costs has also led to an increase in privatization. However, privately owned and operated facilities are not subject to the same FOIA scrutiny as public agencies…
LINK - FirstAmendmentCenter.org
July 13, 2008
Central Valley prison death prompts call for knife-proof vests
A bill that would provide all federal correctional officers with stab-proof vests has been introduced in Congress by U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced.
The bill authorizes $20 million for the Bureau of Prisons to purchase the vests and mandates that officers wear them while on duty.
"This bill is a necessary step towards helping prevent another tragedy like the one that occurred at USP Atwater on June 20," says Mr. Cardoza…
LINK - CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com
July 12, 2008
Slain guard’s family goes national in push for reform
The stabbing death of a U.S. Penitentiary Atwater correctional officer has sparked a national campaign to overhaul safety policies in the federal prison system.
On Thursday, USA Today ran a full-page advertisement featuring a photo of the slain correctional officer, Jose Rivera, and an open letter from his family blaming overcrowding and inadequate protection inside the penitentiary for his death.
"Jose was taken from us because of the situation inside federal prisons today," stated the ad, which was paid for by the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents federal correctional officers…
LINK - ModBee.com (The Modesto Bee)
July 3, 2008
Immigration center plans expansion
The corporation that runs the federal immigration detention center on Tacoma's Tideflats plans to expand the facility's capacity by 50 percent.
When completed, the Northwest Detention Center should be able to hold up to 1,500 immigrants in federal custody.
The GEO Group, the Florida-based company that runs the detention center, has made no formal announcement. Several voicemails left with its spokesman were not returned. Calls to the Northwest Detention Center were referred to a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said the company is handling the expansion and therefore should answer all questions…
LINK - TheNewsTribune.com
July 2, 2008
Atwater prison policies leave staff in grave danger, correctional officers say
It was 3:30 in the afternoon — count time on housing unit 5A at U.S. Penitentiary Atwater. Jose Rivera was a half-hour short of finishing his shift.
He had just announced the count, ordering the inmates under his charge — all 110 or so — to return to their cells. He began locking them down one by one, as he did every time he worked the eight-to-four. It would be the last inmate count he'd conduct.
The two prisoners moved in, at least one of them clutching a sharp handmade shank. Rivera, a 22-year-old Navy veteran who'd started at USP Atwater less than 11 months earlier, hit the panic button on his radio…
LINK - TMCNet.com
July 1, 2008
Federal Prison Guard’s Murder Points Out Need for Funding, Staff
For years, AFGE's Council of Prison Locals (CPL), the union representing correctional officers in the nation's federal prisons, has been pushing for more funding and staffing to safely maintain our nation's prisons and surrounding communities. The union warns that staffing levels are decreasing while inmate population levels are increasing, leaving the correctional officers and the communities in grave danger.
Tragically, on June 20, those warnings were realized when Jose Rivera, a correctional officer at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, Calif., was killed by two inmates with homemade weapons. Rivera, who would have turned 23 this month, had worked for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for 10 months when he was killed. A Navy veteran, he served two tours in Iraq…
LINK - Aflcio.org Blog
June 28, 2008
Valley prison officer mourned
Hundreds of law enforcement officials paid their respects to U.S. Penitentiary Atwater correctional officer Jose Rivera during a service Friday at St. Patrick's Parish in Merced.
Rivera, 22, of Chowchilla was killed June 20 after being attacked by two inmates and stabbed with a homemade shank. The two U.S. Penitentiary Atwater inmates suspected in the killing are from Guam.
Jose Palacios, director of the Guam Department of Corrections, identified the two inmates suspected in the killing as James Leon Guerrero and Joseph Cabrera Sablan, 40. Palacios said they were transferred off the small Pacific island because of their violent behavior at the prison there. Guerrero was implicated in the death of a correctional officer in Guam in 1987, though he was not convicted…
LINK - FresnoBee.com
June 24, 2008
High inmate-to-guard ratio blamed in death
As Jose Rivera's friends and family mourn a brother, a son and a Navy veteran, union officials are blaming high inmate-to-guard ratios for the correctional officer's death.
Rivera, 22, had worked at U.S. Penitentiary Atwater less than a year. He died Friday afternoon after two inmates attacked and stabbed him with a homemade shank.
In a statement Monday, union officials said inadequate staffing at the federal prison has left its correctional officers "in grave danger"…
LINK - ModBee.com (The Modesto Bee)
June 21, 2008
Correctional Officer Killed on the Job
Officer Jose Rivera had been a federal correctional officer for less than a year, starting just last August. He was killed by two inmates Friday afternoon while working at Atwater Federal Penitentiary, according to prison officials.
Extra security was posted outside the prison gates and all was quiet on Saturday afternoon, the only reminder to visitors that a correctional officer was killed there on Friday.
"It's kind of close to home, you get a little worried and are aware to lock your doors a little more than usual," said Tim Baker…
LINK - KMPH.com News
June 11, 2008
HIV/AIDS numbers decline, but many not convinced
HIV rates are declining in prison, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, but AIDS activists paint a different picture of the disease's prevalence both in and out of prison.
Laura M. Maruschak, a statistician for the bureau, studied statewide HIV rates for 2005 and 2006, and found that the number of HIV positive prisoners decreased by a little more than three percent (from 22,676 to 21,980). Despite this drop, the overall AIDS rate among prisoners was 0.46 percent compared to 0.17 percent for the U.S. general population.
The report, "HIV in Prisons 2006," further indicated that the number of AIDS-related deaths in state and federal prisons dropped to 167 from 203; and the states with the largest numbers of AIDS related deaths were Florida (28), New York (14), Pennsylvania (13), Georgia (10) and Louisiana (10).
The data does not include information on the flow of HIV positive inmates in and out of prisons, and the Justice Department has no idea of where inmates go when released, but is exploring ways to get that data. There are also times when some states fail to submit year-end data—mostly because states do not have the facilities to track the numbers…
LINK - FrostIllustrated.com
June 5, 2008
Suit over immigration jail overcrowding is settled
A class-action lawsuit alleging chronic overcrowding at an immigration jail on Otay Mesa was settled Wednesday. The lawsuit said the overcrowding at the facility, run by the Corrections Corporation of America for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, subjected immigration violators to health and safety risks. It also alleged the conditions violated due-process rights under the Constitution.
Before the suit was filed in January 2007, the jail was so overcrowded it was "triple celling" hundreds of detainees, the suit alleged. That involved putting three people into cells designed for two, with the third sleeping on the cell floor in a plastic shell or "boat."
The facility housed 1,000 people at one point. After the suit was filed, federal authorities moved out more than 100 inmates, according to the ACLU. According to ICE, the facility now holds no more than 700 people…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune Online)
May 27, 2008
County Jails Welcome Immigrants
The immigration crackdown is filling county jails across the country with immigrants who have been torn away from their jobs and homes. Tens of thousands of arrested immigrants are bedding down in county jails while they await court dates and eventual deportation.
As the immigration crackdown escalates, county commissions and sheriff departments are increasingly signing contracts with the federal government to house arrested immigrants. For the most part, county governments are eager to receive immigrants into their jails.
The per diem payments they receive from two federal agencies—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)—are covering shortfalls in county budgets, funding the hiring of new deputies, and paying for jail expansion projects. Although some localities are complaining of jail overcrowding and a diffusion of law enforcement priorities, more and more local governments are cashing in on the immigration crackdown…
LINK - Americas.irc-online.org
May 22, 2008
Enforcement on Steroids: Homeland Security’s Emerging Immigration Police State
…The United States holds around 350 detainees in its "legal black hole" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and people around the world are rightly appalled by the lack of due process afforded them. Three times that many people, picked up within the United States, have been ordered deported but can't be returned to their country and are now facing the prospect of "indefinite detention" — they could potentially die in prison if the Bush administration and its allies have their way. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the government didn't have the authority to detain immigrants forever, but Homeland Security has resisted the order.
In addition to its own detention facilities — they're not called "jails" because those being held include many who aren't charged with a crime — ICE leases thousands of beds in 312 county and city prisons, where a majority of immigrant detainees are held.
These include dozens of private, for-profit prison facilities. The immigration detention system has proven a cash cow for companies like Halliburton, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group. "Housing federal detainees typically brings in more per 'man-day,' an industry term for what is earned per detainee," than they can get from state prison systems," wrote Leslie Berestein in the San Diego Union-Tribune…
LINK - Alternet.org
May 21, 2008
Holding Hutto’s feet to the fire
When a coalition of community activists gathers in Taylor, Texas, this weekend, they'll trot alongside a barbed-wire fence (we're told the inner barricades have come down) and descend upon the controversial T. Don Hutto Residential Center, where a teddy bear has been placed on every bed and children's artwork lines the halls.
As they inch the bullhorns and signs reading "Texas shame" and "Children need sunshine too" closer to the center, the PR-scrubbed scene will be marred by something the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Corrections Corporation of America, and Williamson County doesn't want: hundreds of protesters shouting for the release of immigrant children and undocumented detainees.
The center — an immigrant-detention facility funded by Homeland Security, operated by privately owned CCA, and administered by the county — made news when it was criticized for incarcerating detainees in conditions that, until recently, were abysmal. The 470-bed detention center is one of two in the country that confine families on immigration violations while they await disposition of their cases…
LINK - SACurrent.com (San Antonio Current)
May 20, 2008
Corrections Corporation of America Announces Contract Award From the Office of Federal Detention Tru
NASHVILLE, TN, May 19, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) —-Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW: 25.55, -0.06, -0.23%), the nation's largest provider of corrections management services to government agencies, announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee (OFDT) to design, build and operate a new correctional facility located in Pahrump, Nevada, approximately 65 miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. CCA's new 1,072-bed Nevada Southern Detention Center is expected to house approximately 1,000 federal inmates and detainees from the United States Marshals Service as well as potential populations from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Prisons…
Now we know why CCA is pulling out of it's State and County contracts… their Federal contracts seem to pay off better - and getting a "friend" on the inside [more: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] doesn't hurt either…
May 19, 2008
Crowding Forces Prisoners Into Makeshift Sleeping Areas
New York's federal prisons are letting inmates sleep in areas not originally designed for inmate beds — such as television rooms — because of overcrowding in excess of 50 percent, according to correspondence with the Federal Bureau of Prisons that was released by Senator Charles E. Schumer today.
According to Harley G. Lappin, the director of the Bureau of Prisons, more than 5,700 inmates were in New York federal prisons on an average day in the 2007 fiscal year, far above the recommended population of 3,600.
Each of New York's four federal prisons is at least 50 percent over capacity, with the federal prison in Ray Brook at a high of 61.2 percent over capacity…
LINK - NYTimes.com CityRoom Blog
May 7, 2008
Canada banning all smoking in federal prisons
Canada has banned all smoking in federal prisons because a partial ban was largely ignored, the government said on Tuesday.
As a result of the ban, which took effect in all maximum-security prisons on Monday, inmates will be barred from smoking anywhere inside or outside prison property, including private visiting rooms and yards, reported Reuters.
"Since the partial ban was not working in order to ensure a safe, healthy, smoke-free environment, we decided to move towards the total ban," said Lynn Brunette, a spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)…
LINK - Trend.AZ (Trend News)
May 4, 2008
Detention Dollars: Tougher immigration laws turn the ailing private prison sector into a revenue mak
At the beginning of the decade, the private prison industry was in a tailspin. After several profitable years in the 1990s, companies contracting prison beds to public corrections agencies were losing revenue at an alarming rate.
Capital earned during the 1990s had been poured into a speculative prison-building boom that backfired. State corrections agencies, a mainstay of what was then a relatively new industry, had begun pulling inmates out. There were too many prison beds and too few prisoners.
[…]
Then, in early 2000, CCA announced a lucrative new contract. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was to house 1,000 detainees at the company's San Diego Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa, built as part of the late-1990s construction boom. The agency agreed to pay a per diem fee of $89.50 for every person held…
LINK - SignOnSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
May 4, 2008
Lawsuits raise questions about private prisons
As immigration laws have become tougher, the federal government has found itself with a logistical challenge: where to house a population that has swollen to more than 30,000 detainees. The solution? Turn them over to the private sector.
Detention contracts have helped turn once-ailing private prison companies into a multibillion-dollar growth industry with record revenues, healthy stock prices and ambitious expansion plans.
One of them, Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, has applied to build a nearly 3,000-bed prison in Otay Mesa, where it now runs a facility holding up to 700 detainees awaiting deportation or decisions on their immigration cases. The company is the nation's largest private prison operator…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
May 1, 2008
Immigrants Challenge U.S. System of Detention
Immigrants who spent time in detention while fighting deportation filed a federal suit on Wednesday against Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, demanding that the agency issue legally enforceable regulations for its detention centers.
No enforceable standards now exist for the immigrant detention system, a rapidly growing conglomeration of county jails, federal centers and privately run prisons across the country.
The lawsuit, filed by the immigrants and their advocates in United States District Court in Manhattan, contends that the lack of such regulations puts hundreds of thousands of people a year in substandard and inconsistent conditions while the government decides whether to deport them, leaving them subject to inadequate medical care and abuse…
LINK - NYTimes.com (The New York Times)
April 30, 2008
Put for-profit detention centers on ICE (Opinion)
In 2007, the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) rounded up more than 30,000 immigrants in raids. While more than 186,000 immigrants were deported in 2006, an alarming 300,000 were detained in immigrant detention centers, such as the T. Don Hutto Center in Taylor, in 2007 alone. According to ICE, the purpose of immigrant detention centers is to "detain and remove criminal and other deportable aliens … in part of the strategy to deter illegal immigration and protect public safety."
Despite what ICE ostensibly promotes, these for-profit detention centers are not achieving their intended goals, as they do not create a disincentive for coming to the U.S. The risk of crossing over illegally is a small price to pay for the safety and high labor demand on the other side of the border. Additionally, undocumented immigrants are often hesitant to report crimes to authorities due to the fear of being detained, in which case detention centers may be hindering communities more than helping them.
Privatized detention centers are going up all over the United States as a way to deal with the growing number of undocumented immigrants. As a result, not only are we detaining immigrants in our country, but because of the move toward privatization, these facilities are able to make a profit from these prisoners. The industry leader, Corrections Corporation of America, has seen its stock price rise to as much as $22 a share, and in 2006 its revenue was $1.3 billion with profits of $105 million. According to industry experts, in order to make a profit these companies not only need to ensure that more prisons are built, but also need to keep them filled to an estimated 90-to 95-percent capacity rate. These for-profit detention centers demand immigrants' bodies and labor, and it is disturbing to think about how this demand will be met…
LINK - DailyTexanOnline.com (The Daily Texan - Online)
April 25, 2008
CCA gets approval for federal inmates
When Bill 3175 became law Monday, it helped to secure jobs and economic prosperity for the future of Adams County. The bill signed by Gov. Haley Barbour allows the Adams County Correctional Center, under construction by the Corrections Corporation of America, to house both federal and state inmates.
"This new facility is not only helping to fill a need for more prison beds but is also enhancing the economy of southwest Mississippi by providing at least 300 new full-time jobs," Barbour said.
CCA marketing director Steve Owen said now that the facility has the OK to house federal inmates the prison can pursue contracts to house federal prisoners…
LINK - NatchezDemocrat.com (Mississippi)
April 21, 2008
2 Killed in Fight at Federal Prison: Fight happened while group honored Adolf Hitler
FLORENCE, Colo. (MyFOXColorado.com) - An inmate fight linked to nazi racism at a federal prison in Colorado has led to the deaths of two people and injuries to at least five others.
U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said authorities believe the fight started when white supremacist inmates targeted minorities on Adolf Hitler's birthday.
The violence broke out Sunday afternoon in the recreation yard of the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence. The inmates' names were not immediately released. Five were taken to hospitals with undisclosed injuries…
LINK - MyFoxColorado.com
April 11, 2008
Authorities investigate reports of missing property at privately run immigration detention center
Authorities are investigating allegations of missing property from illegal immigrants held at the country's largest immigrant detention center here, officials said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials refused to comment on those allegations nor would they comment on a report that a government-issued gun also was missing at the detention center.
[…]
Carl Stuart, a spokesman for Management and Training Corp., the Utah-based company that runs the 3,000-bed detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, acknowledged that there's an "ongoing investigation." But ICE would not comment on whether anything or anyone is being investigated at the detention center.
March 17, 2008
Texas: Brawl blamed on staffing shortage
One inmate was hospitalized. Eight other detainees and three staff members sustained minor injuries.
Correctional officer Clifton Buchanan, president of Local 1030 branch of the American Federation of Government Employees union, said the detention center needs more guards. Last month, he visited Washington, D.C., to share his concerns with Jackson Lee and other members of Congress.
"They're not funding us appropriately," he said Sunday outside the detention center. "There's a fear of retaliation or reprisal, and that's why we're reluctant to say anything."
The incident last week illustrates why employees have filed multiple grievances, allegations of unfair labor practices and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints, he added. Buchanan said administrators followed only certain protocols last Tuesday, which resulted in the "misuse of staff, mismanagement of resources and lack of leadership."
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle)
March 5, 2008
Government Starts Cutting Sentences Of Crack Inmates
More than 3,000 crack offenders are eligible for release within the year, according to an analysis by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The commission modified a 100 to 1 ratio disparity between sentences meted for crack and powder cocaine possession, saying that it was unfair because the drugs are virtually the same.
The Bush administration opposed the U.S. Sentencing Commission's decision to make the new guidelines retroactive for inmates currently serving sentences for crack cocaine crimes. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said that crack offenders would clog the courts with petitions requesting a release, and that "violent criminals" would eventually be returned to the streets…
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
February 25, 2008
28 Alleged Members of Violent ‘TTP Bloods’ Gang Indicted on Federal Racketeering, Drug and Gun Charg
A federal grand jury indicted 28 defendants for conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise known as the Tree Top Piru Bloods gang (TTP Bloods) and conspiracy to distribute drugs and gun violations, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Baltimore City State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. The indictment was returned under seal on February 21, 2008, and unsealed today upon the arrests of eight defendants. Fourteen defendants were previously in custody. This indictment was the culmination of a long-term joint investigation by the ATF, Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office and the United States Attorney's Office.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said, "More than 100 law enforcement officers deployed this morning to execute search warrants and arrest members of a violent gang known as TTP Bloods. The detailed indictment alleges that TTP Bloods gang members belong to a nationwide racketeering enterprise, for which they may be exiled to federal prison with no probation and no parole…"
LINK - PRNewsWire.com
February 8, 2008
Queens, NY - Residents Balk At Prison Contract
The GEO Group Inc., an international company which manages prison facilities, was given a two-year extension on Dec. 3, despite constant protests from nearby residents. […] The prison was opened in July 2005 on a trial basis. It holds prisoners detained by the U.S. Marshalls on drug- and weapons-related federal charges. Prior to 2005, it was used as a detention center for illegal residents, who were to be extradited by U.S. Customs officials. Despite strong and visible protests from the community, Queens Private Detention Facility, as it is now called, was awarded a two-year contract with four two-year extension periods, meaning the prison could potentially stay in the neighborhood for another 10 years without having to change the terms of its deal…
LINK - ZWire.com
January 15, 2008
U.S. to Speed Deportation of Criminals in Jail
Federal authorities expect to identify and deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country, the country's top federal immigration enforcement official said Monday. The effort to speed the deportation of foreign-born criminals is part of a campaign by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to help federal and state prisons reduce the costs of housing immigrants…
LINK - NYTimes.com
October 15, 2007
AFGE Council of Prison Locals Featured on ‘60 Minutes’
The American Federation of Government Employees' (AFGE) Local 1302 President Barb Batulis appeared Sunday, Oct. 14 in a "60 Minutes" piece that deals with the dangerous working conditions at the ADX Supermax prison facility in Florence, Colo. Batulis discussed her role as a female federal correctional officer, and the challenges associated with her job…
LINK - TradingMarkets.com
October 15, 2007
N.C. Prison Doesn’t Serve D.C. Inmates Well, Critics Say
The rural North Carolina prison, run by the private GEO Group, has become a symbol for what inmates, their families and city leaders say is harsher treatment of D.C. inmates in federal prisons compared with other inmates. Drug treatment and job training options are inadequate, critics say. As a result, too many inmates return home unprepared to do anything but get sent back…
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
