Geo Group
April 24, 2012
Firm Leaves Miss. After Its Prison Is Called ‘Cesspool’ (Cornell/GEO)
One month after a federal court ordered sweeping changes at a troubled juvenile prison in rural Mississippi, the private company managing the prison has announced it is pulling out of the state. A report by the Justice Department describes "systemic, egregious and dangerous practices" at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility.
As those words imply, the official report is scathing.
Federal Judge Carlton Reeves wrote that the youth prison "has allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate, the sum of which places the offenders at substantial ongoing risk..."
LINK - NPR.org
April 10, 2012
CDCR extends private prison contract in California
PRESS RELEASE: The GEO Group Announces Continuation of Golden State Correctional Facility Contract in California
BOCA RATON, Fla., Apr 10, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The GEO Group GEO +1.46% (“GEO”) announced today that it has received a letter from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”) rescinding the previous notice of termination regarding GEO’s management contract for the 625-bed Golden State Correctional Facility (“the Facility”).
The Facility, which was previously scheduled to close on June 30, 2012, will remain in operation under GEO’s current contract which is effective through December 14, 2012. The Facility generates approximately $13 million in annualized revenues. GEO will provide an update on its 2012 outlook when it releases earnings for the first quarter 2012.
George C. Zoley, Chairman and CEO of GEO, said, “We appreciate the confidence placed in our Company by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation with the continuation of our contract for the Golden State Modified Community Correctional Facility. We have enjoyed a long-standing partnership with the State of California for more than 20 years, and we look forward to building on this important partnership to help the State meet its ongoing needs for correctional bed space.”
The GEO Group, Inc. is the world’s leading diversified provider of correctional, detention, and residential treatment services to federal, state, and local government agencies around the globe. GEO offers a turnkey approach that includes design, construction, financing, and operations. GEO represents government clients in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. GEO’s worldwide operations include 20,000 employees, 114 correctional, detention and residential treatment facilities, including projects under development, and 80,000 owned and/or managed beds.
April 2, 2012
New York Times: Can Privatization Kill?
ON Oct. 12, 2010, Jimmy Mubenga was deported from Britain. The 46-year-old Angolan had come to the country as a refugee 16 years earlier. But after his involvement in a pub brawl and a subsequent criminal conviction, the government ordered his deportation. Three private security guards escorted him through Heathrow Airport and onto British Airways Flight 77 to Luanda, Angola. The exact details of what followed are still unclear and currently subject to criminal investigation.
Several passengers onboard the plane reported that Mr. Mubenga repeatedly complained that he could not breathe and that he was being held down with his head between his knees by security guards. As the airplane taxied to the runway in London, Mr. Mubenga lost consciousness and later died...
LINK - NYTimes.com
March 29, 2012
Judge: GEO private prison operations “such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized
A federal judge has approved an agreement that would move juvenile offenders out of a privately run prison that has been hounded by allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
The settlement was reached between civil rights advocates and the state of Mississippi in a 2010 lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves approved the agreement in a March 26 order made public Thursday...
LINK - SunHerald.com
March 17, 2012
New Mexico Private Prisons Fined $1.6 Million
The companies that operate private prisons where New Mexico state inmates serve their time have racked up nearly $1.6 million in penalties for understaffing and other contract violations since the Martinez administration started cracking down last year.
Nearly all of that was attributable to problems at The GEO Group Inc.’s prison in Hobbs, although the company’s Clayton prison was recently added to the penalty list.
The Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the women’s prison in Grants, also has been fined during the past couple of months, mostly for having inmates in the prison after their release dates....
LINK - ABQJournal.com
March 1, 2012
State gets tougher on private prisons
New Mexico's corrections agency has slapped Florida-based GEO Group Inc. with nearly $300,000 in penalties on top of $1.1 million in fines assessed last year for the company's continued failure to adequately staff a prison in Hobbs.
In addition, $11,800 in fines were assessed this week against New Mexico's second-private prison operator, Corrections Corporation of America.
Tennessee-based CCA, which operates a women's prison in Grants for New Mexico, was penalized for inadequate staffing there and for its failure to release 15 female inmates on time. Some of the inmates were released more than 30 days past their release date, state documents show...
LINK - SantaFeNewMexican.com
February 27, 2012
Private prisons (GEO) banned from housing youth under Federal Consent Decree
Children under the supervision of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) will no longer be housed in a privately run prison or subjected to brutal solitary confinement under the terms of a groundbreaking settlement of a federal class action lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The lawsuit charged that conditions at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, which houses youth convicted as adults, are unconstitutional. The facility is operated by GEO Group Inc., the nation’s second largest private prison corporation...
LINK - WJTV.com
January 31, 2012
Campaign finance watchdog highlights money behind Florida prison privatization move
The National Institute on Money in State Politics released a report yesterday that highlights the money behind the state’s renewed plans to privatize state prisons.
Even though a judge struck down the state’s plans to privatize prisons in some regions of the state last year, the Legislature has fast-tracked bills this session to allow them to take another stab at last year’s plans. In just a few weeks the state’s plans have passed through two committees and are ready for a floor vote...
LINK - FloridaIndependent.com
January 31, 2012
Barbs Fly in FL Private Prison Conflict
Florida correctional officers say a proposal to privatize some prisons amounts to the government picking winners and losers. They claim the losers will be correctional officers who would be unemployed or displaced, along with their families and communities. Proponents, including private prison operator GEO Group, counter that privately-managed prisons are money-savers for the state.
Captain Mike Riley, a corrections officer in Ocala, says private operators may throw current officers out the main prison gate...
LINK - PublicNewsService.org
January 20, 2012
Video: Meet a Town Bankrupted by Private Prisons
Real video from the town of Littlefield, Texas and the story of how the town was left with $10 million in debt by GEO Group after they built and abandoned a private prison in the community...
LINK - TheRealNews.com
January 10, 2012
U.S. Supreme Court won’t allow private prison employees lawsuit
The Supreme Court won't allow employees at a privately run federal prison to be sued by an inmate in federal court, despite his complaint that their neglect left him with two permanently damaged arms.
The high court ruled 8-1 to throw out the federal lawsuit by inmate Richard Lee Pollard against employees of the GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp. Pollard wanted to sue for his treatment after he fell and fractured both of his elbows at the privately run Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, Calif...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
November 17, 2011
Convicted rapist, murderer attacked in GEO Group private prison
A man convicted of raping and murdering one UNM student and raping another back in the early 1980's is at UNM Hospital on life support after being attacked by fellow inmates in prison.
The Corrections Department said Michael Guzman was attacked by more than a dozen inmates just two days after he was moved to a private prison in Clayton.
His family wants answers about the attack...
LINK - KOB.com
November 15, 2011
State fines private prison company $1.1 Million for contract violations
The Department of Corrections will collect $1.1 million from a private prison operator for contract violations related to understaffing, Secretary-designate Gregg Marcantel said Monday.
The GEO Group also has agreed to pump an additional $200,000 over the next year into recruiting staff for its Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, Marcantel said.
The violations occurred since the beginning of this year, after Gov. Susana Martinez took office...
LINK - ABQJournal.com
November 14, 2011
More on GEO $1.1 Million fine for staffing shortages
A Florida company will pay New Mexico $1.1 million in penalties for not adequately staffing a private prison it operates in Hobbs, a state official said.
GEO Group, which manages three of New Mexico's four private prisons, agreed to pay the settlement last week following a meeting between the corrections agency and the company's top management, Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said Monday.
"They've agreed on it," Marcantel said of GEO. "It's a very fair way of doing it. They are not completely happy. It needed to be done..."
LINK - SantaFeNewMexican.com
October 10, 2011
FBI & U.S. Atty investigating private prison deals in Florida
As legislative leaders continue the push to privatize 19 South Florida prisons, the state’s most ambitious private prison project in Northwest Florida is enmeshed in a grand jury investigation.
The federal probe into the Blackwater River Correctional Facility has a broad sweep, touching former House Speaker Ray Sansom, R-Destin, the economic development arm of Santa Rosa County, and incoming Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.
Since March, the Pensacola-based grand jury has issued more than six subpoenas seeking documents and testimony into the $121 million state contract that cleared the way for the Boca Raton-based GEO Group to build a prison near the Panhandle city of Milton...
LINK - MiamiHerald.TypePad.com
October 4, 2011
More on influence and privatization
Private prison companies lost one chance for a big profit last week when one of the largest known privatization campaigns in the country was blocked by a Florida judge for being unconstitutional. But private prison players like The GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America, which would have won big from privatization, and the tactics they use to ensure they stay in good graces with lawmakers have remained in the shadows even as the future of the legislation remains in question.
The plan to privatize 29 correctional facilities across 18 counties in South Florida was introduced by state legislators as an amendment to a budget bill, which, according to Thursday’s ruling, didn’t allow for full consideration of the costs of the planned mass privatization. GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America were set to perhaps see a large windfall from the privatization deals, but lobbying records show the companies invested in lawmakers long before any lucrative contracts were proposed...
LINK - FloridaIndependent.com
October 3, 2011
National: GEO case before the Supreme Court
Douglas v. California Pharmacists Association, presents the issue of whether a claim for preemption can be brought directly under the Constitution in the absence of a statute authorizing such suits. If the Supreme Court finds that such suits cannot be brought, it will significantly lessen the ability to ensure state and local compliance with federal law. In Pollard v. GEO Group, Inc., the court will consider whether a cause of action exists to sue guards at private prisons for violating inmates’ constitutional rights...
LINK - ABAJournal.com
September 30, 2011
Florida private prison plan blocked by judge, privateer stock takes a dive
Geo Group Inc., the Florida-based private prison operator, fell as much as 5 percent after a judge blocked the state’s plan to pursue privatization at as many as 29 prisons in 18 counties.
The state legislature’s move to bury key details on privatization in the state budget is “unconstitutional,” Leon County Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford in Tallahassee ruled. The 2012 budget provision changes the statutory process for privatizing facilities and directs the Department of Corrections to replace state employees at particular prisons with private operators...
LINK - BusinessWeek.com
September 24, 2011
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry of Texas and his ties to private prisons
He has the talk. No doubt: “And I’m just not real sure you’re a bunch of right-wing extremists,” the Governor of the Lone Star State had told a crowd in 2009, “but if you are, I’m with ‘ya!” The crowd roared, and Perry was quickly embedded inside the American psyche. Many who were paying attention saw this as his first step towards the 2012 Election.
Yet it must be realized: Perry’s swagger is nothing more than the same tired neo-conservative rhetoric now disguised as populist libertarianism. In fact, a closer inspection of Perry’s record yields familiar attributes of a typical Washington politician in the 21st Century. That is to say, he has a tendency to deviate from his stated principles. In his state of Texas, the longest-ever serving governor has been sleeping cozily with the largest concentration of private prisons in the country, while also signing executive orders mandating little girls to be vaccinated against their will...
LINK - CenturyCityNews.com
September 12, 2011
Quakers file suit against private prison contracts
A Quaker group filed suit Monday to block the state from awarding any more contracts for private prisons, at least for the time being.
The lawsuit points out the Department of Corrections is supposed to award a contract for 5,000 additional private prison beds as early as the end of the week. Four companies have been chosen as finalists.
GEO Group, whose world headquarters is located in Boca Raton, Fla., has a bid for sites at the Yuma Prison for 2,000 or 3,000 beds. Management and Training Corp., from Centerville, Utah, has a bid for sites in Yuma for 3,000 beds...
LINK - YumaSun.com
September 8, 2011
CA to remove all inmates from Michigan private prison (GEO Group)
California’s changing plans for its inmates will cost about 144 jobs in Lake County as The GEO Group prepares to transport the 270 Californian prisoners who are currently there back west.
Paul Griffith, executive director of Michigan Works! West Central, said the inmates are Californian prisoners who were previously housed in Arizona, so he is not sure where they will ultimately be sent when they leave Michigan.
Griffith said about 161 people are currently working at GEO’s Lake County prison, which is named the North Lake Correctional Facility and is located near Baldwin in Webber Township...
LINK - LudingtonDailyNews.com
September 5, 2011
New GEO private prison in Adelanto, CA
A detention center to house immigrant detainees set to open in Adelanto raises many important concerns for immigrants and their advocates in the community. While the facility could potentially keep detainees closer to their families and legal counsel, the so-called public-private partnership that produced this facility shows that immigration law isn't just a divisive political issue - it's big business.
The expansion of for-profit prisons to incarcerate non-citizens held under the government's civil, not criminal, authority is both a symptom and a cause of an increasingly criminalized and dehumanized immigration process. Immigrants who have broken no criminal laws are being held in prison-like conditions that have themselves come under scrutiny by nonprofit groups and federal agencies over the past two years...
LINK - SBSun.com
September 4, 2011
Arizona prison businesses are big political contributors
Corrections Corp. of America, the country's largest private-prison operator, says it thrives by offering better service at a lower cost than state-run prisons. It's an argument echoed by the three smaller rivals bidding on a 5,000-bed private-prison contract with the state of Arizona.
But when it comes to other ways of winning business, such as employing platoons of lobbyists, doling out campaign contributions and working through political connections, CCA stands head and shoulders above its competitors, in Arizona and across the country...
LINK - AZCentral.com
August 23, 2011
Riot at GEO private prison in Oklahoma
LAWTON, Okla. – A huge fight at Lawton's GEO Prison has left a number of people injured. It happened around 4:30 p.m., at least 15 people are injured, six of which have been taken to the hospital. The prison is on lockdown.
A 7News crew has seen three ambulances leave the prison. There is a fourth still parked outside. We are not sure how many people were involved in the fight or where it took place. But police suspect the fight was gang-related...
LINK - NewsChannel110.com
August 19, 2011
Private prison companies GEO and MTC in the hot seat in AZ
Scandal involving two private prison companies seeking a contract to build and operate a new complex near San Luis followed them to Yuma County.
The two companies, GEO Group and Management and Training Corp. (MTC), are competing for Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) monies provided by the Arizona Legislature to build up to 5,000 new private prison beds.
DOC is considering five sites in Eloy, Coolidge, San Luis, Winslow and Goodyear as possible prison locations, and was in Yuma this week to hear public comment...
LINK - YumaSun.com
August 13, 2011
Private prison firms in hot water
Two private prison companies — GEO Group and Management and Training Corp. — involved in proposals for a prison expansion in San Luis, Ariz., are embroiled in legal battles.
GEO Group, the second-largest private prison company in the country, is currently a defendant in a federal class-action lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union for violations at its juvenile detention center in Walnut Grove, Miss.
The lawsuit contends the prison's management caused a culture of violence and exploitation by selling drugs inside the facility and entering into sexual relationships with the inmates...
LINK - YumaSun.com
August 9, 2011
Private prison problems exposed
When Florida inspectors arrived June 13 for a surprise audit of Geo Group Inc.’s South Bay prison in Palm Beach, they couldn’t get anyone to let them in. For 20 minutes, the state inspectors pressed an alert button to signal the prison’s control room, flashed lights at the security cameras, and tried to get the attention of someone – anyone – at the facility. Finally, they gave up and left.
Geo Group, of Boca Raton, Fla., is one of four companies bidding for a contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections to provide up to 5,000 new private-prison beds. Public hearings are being held this week and next to gauge community sentiment. Geo is proposing to build a new prison with 2,000 or 3,000 beds in San Luis, south of Yuma, or a new one with 2,000 to 5,000 beds near the existing Perryville state prison in Goodyear...
LINK - TucsonCitizen.com
June 26, 2011
Security lapses at AZ prisons, including GEO and MTC-operated private prisons
The same kinds of serious security lapses that led to the escape last July of three prisoners from the (privately-operated) Kingman state prison have been and continue to be found at the 14 other Arizona state and private prisons, according to interviews, audits, correspondence and other documents obtained by The Arizona Republic.
The failures include faulty alarm systems, holes under fences big enough to crawl through, broken perimeter lights and cameras, and scores of poor security practices across the board by state and private corrections officers and managers.
While Corrections Director Charles Ryan says the department is correcting these problems, it seems to be doing so on a piecemeal basis as they're found; and there is no evidence that wardens or senior managers, aside from those at Kingman itself, are being held accountable to address or prevent security issues...
LINK - AZCentral.com
June 24, 2011
Private Prison Report: Gaming the System
Approximately 129,000 people were held in privately managed correctional facilities in the United States as of December 31, 2009; 16.4 percent of federal and 6.8 percent of state populations were held in private facilities. Since 2000, private prisons have increased their share of the‚ market substantially: the number of people held in private federal facilities increased approximately 120 percent, while the number held in private state facilities increased approximately 33 percent. During this same period, the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent. Meanwhile, spending on corrections has increased 72 percent since 1997, to $74 billion in 2007. The two largest private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, combined had over $2.9 billion in revenue in 2010...
June 2, 2011
Two private CCFs run by GEO Group may close in McFarland
The Central Valley Modified Community Correctional Facility and Golden State Community Correctional Facility in McFarland are on the verge of locking up the gates for good.
The plan is all part of the public safety realignment plan also known as AB 109, which would shift thousands of low-level offenders to county jails and other community-based programs.
The move would a big hit for McFarland because it would mean less money for the city. Dozens may soon be out of a job in a community that is already struggling with 31.8 percent of unemployment....
LINK - Turnto23.com
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
May 19, 2011
The Disadvantages of Private Prisons
Politicians who continue to promise constituents that they will reduce budget constraints with cuts to state agencies are looking to the prison system to make good on their word, mainly by taking inmate out of state prisons and placing them in private prisons.
In the past, states have looked to private prisons to help ease state costs, trusting in the misconception that the private sector will always be more efficient and less costly. But recent research completed by Arizona’s Department of Corrections reveals that this is not always the case...
LINK - AtlantaPost.com
May 4, 2011
California and private prisons
Private prisons are making subtle advances into California–albeit via the back roads. This week, an initial group of California inmates arrived at GEO Group’s North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan–part of a larger strategy initiated by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to relieve some of the overcrowding in California’s prisons.
For decades, private prisons have been a contentious issue in California. While states like Texas and Florida have embraced privatization as a cost-effective supplement to state-run institutions, California has resisted. Not that private prisons haven’t tried to make gains into one of the country’s largest correctional markets. A foray into housing low-level offenders in Community Correctional Facilities run by private companies was discontinued in 2007 after massive lobbying by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. The Correctional Corporation of America tried building a prison in California City on speculation, hoping to take in overflow from the state system, only to sit vacant until it obtained a contract to house federal prisoners...
LINK - KALWNews.org
May 2, 2011
CA inmates arrive at private prison in Michigan
People living near Baldwin saw a convoy of prisoners arrive at the Northlake Correctional Facility Sunday. It's a private prison, owned by The Geo Group, based in Florida.
Six years ago the prison was a major employer in an area with very few employers. It closed in 2005 amidst state budget cuts.
"We're happy to have our neighbors back up there, and we just want to keep on going," says Lake County Clerk and CFO Shelly Myers...
LINK - Interlochen.org
March 28, 2011
Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns In Trouble
Second in a two-part series on private prisons (See Part 1 - Town Relies on Troubled Youth Prison for Profits)
The country with the highest incarceration rate in the world — the United States — is supporting a $3 billion private prison industry. In Texas, where free enterprise meets law and order, there are more for-profit prisons than any other state. But because of a growing inmate shortage, some private jails cannot fill empty cells, leaving some towns wishing they'd never gotten in the prison business.
It seemed like a good idea at the time when the west Texas farming town of Littlefield borrowed $10 million and built the Bill Clayton Detention Center in a cotton field south of town in 2000. The charmless steel-and-cement-block buildings ringed with razor wire would provide jobs to keep young people from moving to Lubbock or Dallas...
LINK - NPR.org
March 28, 2011
Town Relies On Troubled Youth Prison For Profits
Prisons are filled with stress and violence; without proper supervision they can revert to primitive places. That's what happened at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Mississippi, an NPR news investigation has determined.
As the nation's largest juvenile prison, Walnut Grove houses 1,200 boys and young men in a sprawling one-story complex ringed by security fences about an hour's drive east of Jackson. The State of Mississippi pays a private corrections company to run the prison.
NPR's investigation found that allegations swirling around the prison raise the fundamental question of whether profits have distorted the mission of rehabilitating young inmates...
LINK - NPR.org
January 11, 2011
(Another) private prison firm with CA ties under federal DOJ investigation for abusing inmates
A former inmate testified today at a House Juvenile Justice Committee hearing that he was beaten at the state's youth prison.
"The Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility was hell," recalled Ross Walton, a 25-year-old former inmate.
The private prison is the target of a federal investigation.
The U.S. Department of Justice informed Gov. Haley Barbour late last year that it had begun an investigation into the treatment of juveniles at the prison...
LINK - ClarionLedger.com
January 5, 2011
Another dead inmate at GEO Group-run private prison
Hobbs police have released the name of an inmate who died at the Lea County Correctional Facility.
The inmate is identified as 31-year-old Paul Lasner. He was transported to Lea Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead Monday.
Hobbs police say the death is being investigated as a homicide...
LINK - NewsWest9.com
November 9, 2010
Schwarzenegger creating hundreds of correctional jobs (in other states)
California’s prison crisis is proving to be something of an economic opportunity for other states.
Last week, officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced a deal to send more inmates to facilities out of state in order to meet a court order to reduce prison overcrowding.
That includes some 2,600 California inmates who could be heading to a former youth correctional facility in the town of Baldwin, Mich. The facility is run by The GEO Group, a private prison company...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
November 4, 2010
Prison Privateer “GEO Group” gets CDCR 2580-bed contract in Michigan, CCA gets 3256 more beds
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced today it has contracted for nearly 2,600 additional beds in out-of-state prison facilities in an effort to reduce inmate overcrowding and increase access to rehabilitation programs.
“Reducing overcrowding in our prisons is a priority,” said Scott Kernan, CDCR Undersecretary for Operations. “Our ability to place offenders out of state offers us much needed flexibility, which ultimately creates a safer environment for inmates, our staff and the public.”
CDCR entered into a new contract with the GEO Group Inc., and plans to extend an agreement with the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to house additional inmates out of state. CDCR also has notified CCA of its intent to award additional contracts for beds not currently under contract...
LINK - CDCR Today Blog
November 4, 2010
Meeting on private prisons canceled
KINGMAN - A public meeting to hear comments about the privatization of Arizona’s prison system originally scheduled for Monday has been canceled.
The meeting to be held in Kingman depended on participation by Mohave County elected officials. The meeting was to discuss efforts to privatize the state prison system, American Friends Service Committee spokeswoman Caroline Isaacs said.
Most of the county’s elected officials, including the county supervisors; the city councils of Kingman, Bullhead City and Lake Havasu; Arizona State Reps. Doris Goodale and Nancy McClain; and state Sen. Ron Gould did not respond. The rest of them said they had prior commitments, Isaacs said...
LINK - MohaveDailyNews.com
November 2, 2010
Private prisons helped draft Arizona immigration law?
Many voters today will be motivated by anger at politicians, whether it's over too much spending or not enough jobs. They should be just as worried about the things they don't see -- the unknown forces influencing decisions at all levels of government.
National Public Radio's investigative report last week about the origins of Arizona's immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, is one example. It turns out that border security wasn't the only, or perhaps even the major, reason it passed. During a December meeting in Washington at which the law was written, representatives of the Corrections Corporation of America -- the largest private prison company in the nation -- were in the room with Russell Pearce, the bill's chief sponsor...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
October 4, 2010
Lawsuit alleges Florence prison operator allowed sexual harassment
A federal agency filed a lawsuit last week alleging a private company that operates prisons in Florence sexually harassed and retaliated against female employees.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit against GEO Group Inc. alleged the company and some male managers supervising correctional officers fostered a "sexual and sex-based hostile work environment" at two Florence prisons that allowed harassment and retaliation against female employees.
GEO Group, which operates Arizona State Prison-Florence and Central Arizona Correctional Facility in Florence, declined to comment on the EEOC lawsuit...
LINK - AZCentral.com
September 15, 2010
Corrections gave up $18 million in uncollected penalties
Over the past four years New Mexico has potentially given up more than $18 million in never-assessed penalties despite repeated contractual violations by two private prison operators, a new legislative report says.
By contract New Mexico can levy penalties against GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) when staffing vacancies at the facilities they manage in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10 percent or more for 30-consecutive days.
That penalty has been triggered regularly, state records show and the new report by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) confirms...
LINK - NewMexicoIndependent.com
June 24, 2010
May - June Privatization Update
OVERALL PRIVATIZATION ISSUES
• The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that employees of private prison companies hired to run federal prisons can be sued for allegedly violating an inmate’s constitutional rights. An inmate at a federal prison run by the GEO Group slipped on a cart left in a doorway and injured both elbows. As GEO employees were preparing to transport him to an outside hospital, the inmate said they made him wear a jumpsuit and wrist restraints, despite causing him excruciating pain. The inmate is suing GEO and its employees for allegedly violating the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment. (Courthouse News)
• A new study by a longtime privatization proponent claims that sending 25,000 California inmates to out-of-state, for-profit prisons could save the state up to $1.8 billion over a five year period. The report by The Reason Foundation-Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation states that California spends $162 per inmate per day vs. $42 in Texas, based on data from the American Correctional Association (ACA)...
June 8, 2010
Inmate Can Sue Agents of Private Prison Operator
Employees of a private company hired to run a federal prison can be sued for allegedly violating an inmate's constitutional rights, the 9th Circuit ruled on an issue that has yet to be "squarely addressed" by the Supreme Court.
Richard Lee Pollard, an inmate at a federal prison run by the private company GEO Group, slipped on a cart left in a doorway and injured both elbows.
As GEO employees were preparing to transport him to an outside orthopedic clinic, he said they made him wear a jumpsuit and a "black box" wrist restraint, despite his claim that both would cause him excruciating pain...
LINK - CourthouseNews.com
March 29, 2010
Adelanto sells city-prison to GEO Group, hoping for Calif, other contract
City officials said they have secured the sale of the city-owned prison to a private operator for $28 million — a move that will replenish the city’s depleted reserves but could put about 100 workers out of a job.
“This is great,” City Manager Jim Hart said Friday. “What it does is it helps temporarily relieve some of the financial pressure on the city and gives us time to now look at all the options that are available to us so that we can stabilize the city’s revenue sources.”
The sale of the city’s Adelanto Community Correctional Facility, a 650-bed prison on Rancho Road west of Highway 395, to Florida-based The Geo Group, Inc. is set to finalize on June 4, Hart said. The sale was crucial for reviving the city’s reserve funds, which had dwindled to less than $100,000...
LINK - VVDailyPress.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
January 5, 2010
Private prison operator GEO Group get sued (again) for wrongful death
The family of the man, who's death started the first Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC) riot, is planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Attorney's representing the family of Jesus Manuel Galindo say they're close to filing a wrongful death civil suit against GEO Group, the company that runs the detention center, along with the Physicians Network Association who provides medical care for the inmates.
You'll remember Galindo died in December 2008 after not receiving medicine for his epilepsy and being placed in an isolation cell…
LINK - NewsWest9.com
January 5, 2010
GEO Group private prison guard gets year in jail for smuggling contraband
A former corrections officer at a privately run prison in South Bay was sentenced this morning to a year in jail following her convictions earlier this year for introducing contraband and conspiring to introduce contraband into the facility.
Michelle Terrien, 34, was the center of a bizarre triangle within the South Bay Correctional Facility run by the GEO Group. An inmate with a homemade bomb — honey bottles filled with gasoline and connected to batteries and wires — took Terrien hostage last year claiming she never delivered to him $4,000 that she had received from his sister…
LINK - PalmBeachPost.com
December 10, 2009
Protesters at Geo Group’s private prison in Texas
Civil rights activists say they're taking their attack on conditions in a privately run West Texas prison to the prison operator's New Braunfels offices.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other groups are demonstrating around midday Thursday outside the regional offices of the GEO Group.
They're trying to draw attention to what they say are poor conditions in the GEO-operated Reeves County Detention Center near Pecos…
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle - AP)
December 4, 2009
GEO Group private prison company to house thousands of CA inmates in Oklahoma
The Geo group is in the process of negotiating contracts that would house thousands of inmates out of California prisons in Lawton's Geo Prison.
Comanche County officials say the Geo group is now in the process of negotiating those contracts. The details of the contract are not laid out just yet, as they are actively negotiating, but what is known is that the facility will be built across the street from the current facility and it will house about 2,500 California inmates.
"Geo is in serious negotiations and continuing negotiations with the state…to house their prisoners," said Comanche County Commissioner Ron Kirby.
That means, Geo needs more room, and to get it, it will build on this land. There has been talk before about it, but this time the deal is supposed to happen…
LINK - KSWO.com
November 30, 2009
GEO private prison: hatchets, knives used in attack
Two inmates are recovering after a weekend attack at a private prison in Lawton.
Lawton police say the two inmates were attacked Saturday by two other inmates wielding homemade hatchets and knives at the Lawton Correctional Center. Both were transported by ambulance to a Lawton hospital, where one of the victims required surgery.
The prison is owned by Florida-based GEO Group, Inc., and a GEO spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment…
LINK - KFSM.com
October 6, 2009
Napolitano announces reforms at immigrant detention centers
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday a package of reforms aimed at making detention centers for immigrants in Arizona and throughout the nation safer, more humane and less costly.
The reforms include separating immigrants with criminal records from those who are merely seeking asylum and finding alternatives to detention for those who pose no real danger to the public.
Alternatives could include putting ankle bracelets on immigrants to keep track of their whereabouts, Napolitano said. She estimated that alternatives would cost $14 per day at most compared with more than the $100 per day it costs to detain someone. Detaining immigrants cost nearly $2 billion in 2008…
LINK - AZCentral.com
September 28, 2009
State approves sale of city-owned prison
State officials have approved the city's request to end its prison contract early, paving the way for a private operator to buy the city-owned prison for $28 million.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has approved canceling the state's contract for the 640-bed Adelanto Community Correctional Facility. The city-owned prison was previously slated to hold state inmates through April 2011.
Now the city-approved buyer, Florida-based GEO Group, Inc., has until January to secure a federal contract on the Adelanto facility…
LINK - VVDailyPress.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
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
July 30, 2009
Report finds detainees’ rights routinely violated in U.S. immigrant detention
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been systematically violating its own minimum monitoring standards in regulating immigration detention centers across the country, according to a new report released Tuesday. The report is based on an analysis of previously unreleased inspection data on dozens of ICE facilities between 2001 and 2005.
In recent months, Facing South has reported on the problems in U.S. immigrant detention, highlighted by the mounting number of immigrant deaths in ICE detention centers. For the past year, reports of abuse, neglect, inhumane treatment, and inadequate health care in immigration custody have been surfacing across the country. Immigrant rights groups have criticized ICE's detention standards and inspection procedures, and have also steadily lodged complaints about detainees' rights being violated…
LINK - SouthernStudies.org
July 13, 2009
Texas officials wary of prison company contract
A private prison company with a history of problems in Texas has caught the attention of state officials with a $7.5 million contract to run a new psychiatric hospital near Houston.
Lawmakers budgeted funding for the future Montgomery County facility starting in 2011. But they told The Dallas Morning News they didn't know until the past week that the county selected a GEO Group subsidiary to operate it.
The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company's problems with Texas facilities date to 2006 and include allegations of atrocious conditions, the hiring of a convicted sex offender as a guard and the suicides of at least two inmates…
LINK - KrisTV.com
July 7, 2009
Sanctions against The GEO Group sought
An appellate court is weighing claims against The GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., to determine if the private prison business lied when it claimed to have been exonerated of any responsibility in the beating death of an inmate and if it should be sanctioned.
The family of the late Gregorio de la Rosa Jr., killed by two inmates in 2001 in a jail facility then-operated and managed by Wackenhut in Raymondville under contract with the state, is seeking the sanctions from the Thirteenth Court of Appeals.
The family claims in court records that GEO "continues its disgusting display of disrespect for Texas' civil justice system," by lying to the government, investors and the business community in an April 30 report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)…
LINK - BrownsvilleHerald.com
June 18, 2009
Dead inmate’s family sues GEO private prison in Texas after riots, other problems
The death of a 32-year-old epileptic inmate in solitary confinement at Reeves County Detention Center last Dec. 12 touched off the first of two riots that saw fires set and hostages taken, said an attorney who represents the inmate's family.
Some of the privately-run federal lockup's 2,400 inmates, many of them illegal immigrants, had complained of woeful health care after the riots west of Pecos on Dec. 12-13 and Jan. 31-Feb. 1.
But the story now centers on 32-year-old Jesus Manuel Galindo of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, who El Paso lawyer Miguel "Mike" Torres" claims was improperly treated…
LINK - MyWestTexas.com
April 27, 2009
Lawmakers’ relatives work for GEO Group prison co. as state weighs clamp-down on embattled firm
Two state lawmakers from South Texas have financial ties to a private prison firm that runs facilities for the Texas state prison system — at a time when lawmakers are debating sweeping new measures to clamp down on corrections companies.
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and state Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, have financial links to the GEO Group, a Florida-based firm that runs 19 correctional facilities in Texas, including nine under contract for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Zaffirini's husband, Carlos, is a lawyer and advocate for the firm, formerly known as Wackenhut. In December 2007, the Zaffirinis' hometown commissioners in rural Webb County considered whether to stop supplying water and sewer lines to a local GEO-owned prison after residents voiced concerns about the company's track record…
LINK - TexasWatchDog.org
April 8, 2009
GEO Group Must Pay $42.5 Million in Beating Death
In a searing opinion, the 13th Court of Appeals has upheld $42.5 million in punitive damages against a private prison operator for the "horrific and gruesome death" of inmate Gregorio De La Rosa Jr. in 2001.
De La Rosa was beaten to death by two other inmates at a 1,000-bed facility in Raymondville while guards and supervisors looked on, according to trial testimony three years ago.
The trial judge concluded that prison officials, including co-defendant David Forrest, the prison warden, had destroyed or lied about critical evidence, including a videotape of the fatal beating…
LINK - MySanAntonio.com
March 11, 2009
Green MP Warns Of Dangers Of Private Prisons
The rape and subsequent suicide of a woman at United States private prison was in Parliament today used as a warning about what could happen here.
The US prison was owned by a company that has operated in New Zealand, Green MP Metiria Turei told Parliament.
Ms Turei related the story of LeTisha Tapia, a 23-year-old imprisoned at a GEO Group-owned facility in Texas.
Ms Tapia told family she was put in a cell block with male inmates and was raped and beaten…
LINK - Guide2.co.nz (New Zealand)
March 3, 2009
Despite a Crashing Economy, Private Prison Firm Turns a Handsome Profit
While the nation's economy flounders, business is booming for The GEO Group Inc., a private prison firm that is paid millions by the U.S. government to detain undocumented immigrants and other federal inmates. In the last year and a half, GEO announced plans to add a total of at least 3,925 new beds to immigration lockups in five locations. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the U.S. Marshals Service, which hire the company, will fill the beds with inmates awaiting court and deportation proceedings.
GEO reported impressive quarterly earnings of $20 million on February 12, 2009, along with an annual income of $61 million for 2008 – up from $38 million the year before. But the company's share value is not the only thing that's growing. Behind the financial success and expansion of the for-profit prison firm, there are increasing charges of negligence, civil rights violations, abuse and even death…
LINK - CorpWatch.org
February 23, 2009
Wash. activist fights immigrant detention center
If it wasn't for Timothy Smith's intense opposition to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, the state might never have noticed that the private company that owns the facility was violating environmental rules.
The detention center - the federal government's prison-like complex in Tacoma that holds suspected illegal immigrants, often for months - was built near the former site of a coal gasification plant that left behind heavy pollution in the soil.
According to the state Department of Ecology, Boca Raton, Fla.-based The GEO Group violated an "environmental covenant" by not informing the state before moving any of the soil, which may be contaminated…
LINK - Seattle PI - NWSource.com
February 12, 2009
GEO Group Guards Get New Contract After Threatening to Strike
Guards at one of the nation's largest immigrant detention facilities have approved a new labor contract rather than strike.
Union workers at the South Texas Detention Facility in Pearsall ratified the new deal late Wednesday that union leaders say promises improved equipment and increases the likelihood of wage increases.
Chief union negotiator Howard Johannssen said the new three-year contract passed by a slight margin but declined to release the vote…
LINK - The Houston Chronicle
February 10, 2009
Guards threaten strike at Texas detention facility
Guards at the largest immigrant detention facility in Texas readied to strike Tuesday in a dispute with the same private contractor running a West Texas prison disrupted by two inmate riots in as many months.
Unionized workers at the South Texas Detention Facility in Pearsall say that unless The GEO Group Inc. agrees to better wages and working conditions Tuesday, more than 300 employees could walk off the job as early as this week.
Negotiations began in August, and union officials said the meeting with GEO in San Antonio was the last chance to hammer out a deal. About 1,400 detainees are being held at the facility because of their immigration status…
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle)
February 6, 2009
Texas Private Prison Riot Ends Peacefully
The last of the rioting inmates at a remote West Texas prison gave up their fight Thursday night and returned to secured buildings at the sprawling complex following five days of unrest.
"It's over. It's done. Everyone went in," Reeves County Chief Deputy Victor Prieto told The Associated Press on Thursday night.
Inmates at the jail started rioting Saturday afternoon in protest of conditions, including medical care and food quality, according to authorities and a South Texas lawyer who said he represents at least 50 inmates…
LINK - DallasNews.com (The Dallas Morning News)
February 4, 2009
Boca Private Prison Operator Feelin’ Heat from West Texas
Perhaps the only thing harder to contain than a prison riot is the embarrassment that comes after a prison riot. But still. Boca Raton-based Geo Group has done a ham-handed job spinning the riot that broke out Saturday at a prison it owns in the West Texas town of Pecos. On Sunday it released a statement that the riot ended with a "positive outcome."
Huh? What post-riot outcome could possibly be "positive"? Did everyone learn a valuable lesson?
And considering this is the second prison riot at a Geo Group-owned facility in Texas in less than two months, does the company know why these keep happening and have a plan for making them stop?…
LINK - BrowardPalmBeach.com
February 3, 2009
Immigration detention center considered for L.A. area
The federal government is looking for contractors to build a possible detention center in the Los Angeles area that would hold up to 2,200 illegal immigrants and others suspected of violating immigration laws.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said last week that the agency was "exploring the feasibility of such a project," though she said no definitive decisions had been made.
"ICE is continuing to review its options to determine how to best meet the agency's future local and national detention needs," she said…
LINK - LATimes.com
February 3, 2009
Company says Texas prison’s damage ‘significant’
The company that runs a federal prison in West Texas says "significant" damage from the second riot in less than two months has left the facility unable to resume normal operations.
The GEO Group Inc. said in a statement Tuesday that inmates in two of the Reeves County Detention Center's three units remain under staff view in a central area of the complex. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company says inmates remain "cooperative and compliant" after a riot that started Saturday afternoon…
LINK - The Houston Chronicle
February 2, 2009
Riot continues at West Texas prison
Law-enforcement authorities worked Sunday to restore order at a privately run federal prison in West Texas, where a riot broke out a day earlier.
Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said inmates were in the prison yard at one of the units that make up the Reeves County Detention Center. The riot is the second in less than two months at the facility, which includes three units. The first was at the prison's No. 3 unit. Saturday's disturbance was at the center where units No. 1 and No. 2 are housed.
Officers from various agencies, including the DPS, remained on the scene Sunday. Officials at the prison could not be reached for comment. Calls to the GEO Group, which runs the lockup, were not immediately returned…
LINK - The Houston Chronicle
February 1, 2009
Officer: Inmates riot again at West Texas prison
The second riot in less than two months at a privately run federal prison in West Texas involves an area that houses up to 2,000 inmates, a corrections officer said Saturday night.
Matt Guerra of the Reeves County Detention Center said the disturbance that started earlier Saturday was ongoing. He said prison officers were safe but that he wasn't sure whether inmates were injured…
…The GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., has run the lockup through contracts with Reeves County and the Federal Bureau of Prisons since 2003. The prison holds more than 2,400 inmates…
LINK - The Dallas Morning News
December 22, 2008
Privatized Jail: Weighing the Pros and Cons
AT ONE END of Delaware County's rekindled debate over prison privatization, you'll find Wally Nunn, a tough-talking fiscal hawk and former county councilman. At the other, Fay Kallenbach, a bereaved mother.
The George W. Hill Correctional Facility is ground zero.
Nunn led the 1995 effort to privatize the county jail, outsourcing its operation to the GEO Group, a multinational corrections corporation…
LINK - Philly.com
October 31, 2008
Prison Corporation (GEO Group) Charged with Murder, Manslaughter
The indictment grows out of the April 26, 2001 death of an inmate at one of the company's facilities in Raymondville, Texas. The inmate – Gregorio De La Rosa – was beaten to death by fellow inmates with socks stuffed with padlocks.
The murder count alleges that the company "intentionally or knowingly" caused the death of De La Rosa by allowing the inmates to beat De La Rosa to death.
One of the manslaughter counts allege that the company "recklessly allowed" the beatings to occur. The other manslaughter count alleges that the company intended to cause serious bodily injury while committing a felony – aggravated assault…
LINK - CorporateCrimeReporter.com
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)
September 3, 2008
Honeymoon is over for county, GEO
It's sad when any relationship fails. And when one does, we should try to avoid taking sides. We should just hope the divorce goes as painlessly as possible and that the kids are well-looked after.
You always hope there's a chance for reconciliation. But in this case, no. It's over. Delaware County and the GEO Group are calling it quits.
It seems like yesterday, but it was 13 years ago, GEO, (then just a struggling little company called Wackenhut) first proposed to a single mother named Delaware County…
LINK - DelcoTimes.com
August 5, 2008
Private Prison Co. Again Accused of Human Rights Abuses
A publicly traded company that runs private prison facilities across the country is again facing accusations of human rights abuses against inmates in its facilities.
Immigrants at a Washington State detention center run by the GEO Group, Inc. are being held in conditions that violate both international and U.S. law, says a new report released by the Seattle University School of Law and the human rights group OneAmerica.
The report concludes that immigrants at the Northwest Detention Facility, including refugees and asylum seekers, are being held in "an atmosphere of intimidation" which includes verbal abuse, sexual harassment, strip searches, and poor to non-existent mental and physical health care…
LINK - ABCNews.GO.com
June 16, 2008
Opinion: “Too many profiting from incarceration trend”
According to the Department of Justice Web site, approximately 2.3 million people are currently incarcerated. A recent article in the Norman (Okla.) Transcript places the cost of this incarcerate at about $49 billion dollars. This cost falls on the taxpayer. That cost is approximately $338 for each of the 144 million individual personal income tax filers this year.
It starts to become clear that the real "truth in sentencing" has nothing to do with crime and punishment, but more to do with people filling their pockets with your tax money. It's easy to see that there is money to be made in the business of incarceration; simply look at the number of private-sector enterprises that have entered into the realm. Companies like Corrections Corporation of America (www.correctionscorp.com), The GEO Group (www.thegeogroupinc.com), and the Bob Barker Company (www.bobbarker.com). They are just a few of the many companies making profits from incarcerating individuals, typically at the expense of taxpayers…
LINK - ZWire.com
June 16, 2008
New Mexico: GEO Group says pact terminates June 30
GEO Group Inc., which provides residential and correctional services, said Monday its contract with the State of New Mexico, Department of Health to manage the Fort Bayard Medical Center will end June 30.
The contract generated about $3.5 million in annual operating revenues for GEO. The company said the contract's discontinuation won't hurt GEO's financial performance or affect prior guidance…
LINK - Money.CNN.com
June 3, 2008
Private Aurora ICE detention facility gets expansion OK
Plans for a $72 million expansion of a privately owned and operated illegal immigrant detention facility can proceed after Aurora City Council members said they weren't deciding federal immigration policy.
Anthony Paradiso, a property owner near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract facility, filed an objection over the planned expansion from 400 beds to 1,500 beds. He recently withdrew his objection and the council voted Monday to cancel it's review of the Planning Commission's approval of the plan.
About 20 people spoke in opposition, mainly on humanitarian grounds…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
June 2, 2008
Colorado: Protesters Fight Immigration Center Expansion
Protesters taking over the Aurora Municipal Building Monday evening. They came to protest the city's expansion plans for the current immigrant and custom's enforcement holding center at 30th and Peoria. Many protesting say the center violates the rights of immigrants being held there.
"It's inhumane to the people that's working there", said Scott Kwasny of Jobs for Justice. Protesters say the company looking to build and run the ice facility the GEO group is an international company that doesn't help the local economy. "In the United States, GEO is very aggressive at keeping labor unions out", said Kwasny…
LINK - MyFoxColorado.com
May 15, 2008
Immigrant crackdown creates need for more detention beds
AURORA, Colo. (Map, News) - A privately run immigrant detention center in suburban Denver that serves several Western states is looking to expand - anticipating a greater demand for beds as the federal government cracks down on illegal immigration amid concerns that local jails can't handle the burden.
The GEO Group wants to invest $72 million to expand its Aurora detention center from 400 beds to 1,500, even without a new operating contract from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
GEO stated in October it was expanding to meet federal agencies' need for detention space. At 90 percent capacity, GEO estimates the Aurora center - which houses undocumented immigrants from Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming - would generate about $30 million annually in operating revenue…
LINK - Examiner.com
May 5, 2008
Privatization Update: May 5th
Privatization Update
April 28-May 4, 2008
CiviGenics
May 1 - Columbiana County Commissioners voted to enter into a consent agreement with former jail employees to resolve a lawsuit filed earlier this year with the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals. The lawsuit sought a court order requiring commissioners to comply with a decision by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, which ruled last November five former employees were entitled to retirement benefits dating back to 1998, when a private company took over operating the jail. CiviGenics, the company hired by commissioners were required to continue contributing into the OPERS on their behalf even though the county no longer operated the jail. The attorney cited a state law that requires contributions continue to be made into a public employee pension plan of a public employee whose job was abolished due to privatization. This applies if the employee went to work for the private operator and continued to perform the same or similar job duties. Commissioners fought the ruling for the next several years until the OPERS board issued it's ruling six months ago. When commissioners failed to act quickly enough to suit the attorney, the lawsuit was filed with the appeals court. The agreement to resolve the lawsuit requires commissioners to pay both the employee and employer share of OPERS dating back to when the five employees were hired by CiviGenics and to continue contributing into their public employee pension plan as long as they remain employed by CiviGenics. The figure is to include penalties and interest. This would be the second largest settlement commissioners would have to pay out because of their decision to privatize the county jail. In 2002, commissioners agreed to pay $300,000 to former jail employees to resolve outstanding labor complaints arising over privatization.
May 4 - A female guard of CiviGenics who works at the Liberty County jail in Texas has resigned after being questioned by Liberty County Sheriff's Office investigators about having sex with an inmate. The case has been accepted by the District Attorney?s Office and will be presented to a grand jury. The grand jury could return an indictment for Violation of Civil Rights of a Person in Custody By Having Sex With That Person. This is a state jail felony, punishable by confinement for a period of 180 days to two years in a state jail and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
Corrections Corporation of America
May 3 - Edgar Bailey, 35, is on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Top 10 Most Wanted List after a clerical error allowed Bailey to leave the South Central Correctional Facility. Bailey was "inadvertently released" by CCA. The error seems to have occurred because of confusion over a court ruling. Bailey was convicted of premeditated murder and felony murder for the killing of Anthony McAffee on June 19, 2001. He had appealed his case; the premeditated murder count was reversed and a new trial was to be scheduled. The felony murder count, however, remained. Bailey has been on the loose for nearly two weeks, and authorities were alerted only after Hamilton County District Attorney Boyd Patterson discovered the error and notified CCA.
May 4 - Edgar Bailey was apprehended at his father's house early this morning. Bailey surrendered to U.S. marshals and is being held in the DeKalb County jail awaiting extradition to Tennessee.
Wackenhut
April 29 - New Hampshire police are investigating an accidental shooting in the apartment of a nuclear power plant security officer, the second accidental discharge by an off-duty nuclear plant security officer this year. The most recent shooting involved a 9 mm handgun and was "contained within the apartment." The police chief said details, including the date of the incident, whether any injuries resulted and the security officer's identity, will not be immediately released due to an ongoing investigation. On Jan. 25, power plant security trainer Joshua hill pulled the trigger of his Springfield Armory handgun and shot a .45 caliber bullet through the floor of his apartment into the living space below. "He was cleaning his weapon and didn't realize it was loaded," said Seabrook Police Chief Patrick Manthorn. Both security officers are employed by Wackenhut.
May 2, 2008
Delco Prison: “Too many deaths”
Too many inmates are dying at Delaware County's jail.
Since 2005, at least eight inmates have died at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton, the only privately run jail in Pennsylvania. The latest fatality is Kenneth Kallenbach, 39, who died April 24 after contracting pneumonia at the lockup. He had been held there awaiting trial since mid-March. Last year, a woman died at the jail after being held there for six weeks. She suffered from a thyroid condition; her family said she was not receiving her medication. In 2005, five inmates died in five months. Two were apparent suicides; one was a heroin overdose.
GEO Group, which operates the facility, has faced lawsuits over these deaths. It has problems elsewhere. In Texas, where GEO runs more than a dozen prisons, it has come under criticism for alleged mismanagement and foul conditions. One inspector called an adult facility in Texas operated by GEO the worst he'd ever seen…
LINK - Philly.com (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
May 1, 2008
GEO Group Detention center neighbor protests expansion plan
A Florida-based property owner has stalled the $72 million expansion of a privately run detention center with a written appeal.
Anthony Paradiso, who owns a 10,000-square-foot building at 1010 Oakland St. in Aurora, sent a letter to the city's planning department protesting the recent decision to allow the extension of the current GEO Group detention facility by about 68,500 square feet and 1,100 in added capacity.
Paradiso, citing the negative impacts of such an expansion on local businesses and pointing to the lack of a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the expansion, formally protested the April 10 decision of the Planning Commission to approve GEO's plans in his letter dated April 18…
LINK - AuroraSentinel.com (The Aurora Sentinel)
April 16, 2008
120 Arizona inmates leave New Castle prison
Arizona's exit from Indiana prison cells has begun, as the first 120 Arizona inmates were shipped out of the New Castle Correctional Facility on Tuesday.
The departure of Arizona inmates comes as the prison achieves occupancy for the first time in its six-year history. Supt. Jeff Wrigley said the prison filled all 2,436 of its beds for the first time last month.
Both are significant developments…
LINK - TheStarPress.com
April 16, 2008
A Setback for Privatization
Privatization has met one insurmountable hurdle down the road at the New Castle Correctional Facility, where Arizona inmates have essentially exercised veto authority over being housed so far from home. The Indiana Department of Correction's prisoner-housing contract with Arizona has ended and, two major lockdown disturbances later, will not be renewed.
On the same February day that the private company that operates the New Castle prison was announcing that inmates would be returned to Arizona in April, the company was reporting to stockholders its fourth quarter and annual gains for 2007. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group Inc. said it had fourth-quarter earnings of $11.5 million and annual earnings for 2007 of $41.3 million.
The consequences of the inmates' return could reach well beyond the company's profit-loss future, raising questions about the future of the New Castle facility in particular and prison privatization in general…
LINK - Pal-Item.com (Palladium-Item - Richmond, Indiana)
April 10, 2008
GEO Group gets go-ahead on expansion plans in Aurora, Colorado
"Detention is an inhumane way to deal with a broken immigration system," said Miriam Pena, director of growth for the Colorado Progressive Coalition. "Detention is not cost effective … GEO is expecting to earn $30 million."
The Rev. Patrick Demmer of the Graham Memorial Community Church of God and Christ in Denver also addressed the crowd of protesters, questioning the underlying motives of the GEO Group corporation.
"There is something morally wrong about the privatization of prisons and detention centers … Courts and prisons cannot and should not be produced sufficiently by the private sector," Demmer said. "The very reputation of this company is very suspect … How did Aurora get involved with such a company in the first place?"…
LINK - AuroraSentinel.com (Aurora, Colorado)
April 8, 2008
Privatization Update: April 8, 2008
Privatization Update
March 31-April 6, 2008
Correctional Medical Services
April 1 - New Jersey has canceled its $85 million annual contract with CMS that has provided medical, dental and pharmaceutical services to state prisoners since New Jersey privatized its inmate health care system in 1996. The state Treasury Department notified CMS that it planned to replace it with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. CMS, whose contract expired, had sought a 4.73% increase to cover costs associated with caring for the 27,600 inmates in state prisons and an additional 14,000 inmates being held in county facilities until a state cell is available. The move ends a contentious 11-year relationship with CMS that was launched during the-Gov. Whitman's push to privatize government services. It comes months after the state auditor and the state inspector general issued separate reports critical of the company. Treasury spokesman Tom Vinz said the state believes the new arrangement will "improve both the bottom line as well as services."
April 5 - Fifteen current and former inmates at Young Correctional Institution filed a federal lawsuit alleging their medical care while behind bars was not only negligent but amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. In at least one incident in 2006, a CMS nurse used the same needle on multiple inmates, perhaps all 15, to draw blood and inject medicine, exposing all to blood-borne diseases including hepatitis C and possibly HIV/AIDS. At least three allege they have contracted hepatitis and possibly other illnesses since that incident.
Corrections Corporation of America
March 31 - Hawaii lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill ordering an audit of two CCA facilities in the wake of national media accounts alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data to make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems than was actually the case. Hawaii pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct performance audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawaii inmates, including reviews of food, medical, drug treatment, vocational and other services provided to Hawaii inmates. The audit also would scrutinize the way the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private prisons and enforces the terms of the state's contract with CCA. According to the bill, there has never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawaii has contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the Mainland. Time Magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify violent incidents such as inmate disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults as if they were less serious events to make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge.
April 2 - Five inmates at the privately run Marion County Jail II in Indiana filed a class-action lawsuit based on claims of improper medical treatment and access to medication, unsafe and inhumane conditions, and a broken grievance process. The suit names Corrections Corporation of America and Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson, who oversees CCA's contract to run the jail. The medium-security jail, which houses 1,043 inmates, serves as an auxillary to the county-run Marion County Jail. Attorney Paul Ogden also filed a suit against CCA in January on claims of dangerous work conditions and racial discrimination against several black nurses. That suit also raised concerns about the handling of medications for inmates, with some given incorrect medication and some denied prescription drugs.
Cornell
March 31 - More than eight months after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials removed 600 detainees from an Albuquerque, New Mexico jail, they say they won't house immigrants there again. The federal immigration agency says it has enough space elsewhere for detainees arrested. ICE was housing hundreds of detainees awaiting deportation at the Regional Correctional Center. That facility faced allegations by immigrant lawyers and criticism by a federal judge of sub-par conditions. Complaints included sweltering heat inside, frozen food and poor medical attention. After the agency yanked all of its inmates last summer, an ICE official said he had 'serious doubts' about the ability of Cornell to provide a safe environment for detainees. Cornell officials say they've worked hard to improve the facility and meet ICE's requirements. The company will continue looking for other customers for the 993-bed facility, which it leases from Bernalillo County. The U.S. Marshals Office currently houses detainees at the jail.
April 3 - Eight immigrant teenagers held at a facility for unaccompanied minors filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were abused and denied access to attorneys. The teens from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Cuba were being held at the San Antonio facility run by Cornell under a contract with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Undocumented minors caught by authorities in the U.S. fall under the care of ORR while their immigration cases are decided. Susan Watson, an attorney for Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, said the teens were beaten and subjected to other excessive force in violation of their constitutional rights. At least one teen was knocked unconscious, but complaints to facility administrators were ignored, according to the lawsuit. The allegations raised by the immigrant teens were not the first against Cornell. Arkansas fired Cornell from the operation of a juvenile facility in November 2006 after finding employees inappropriately injected youth with anti-psychotic medication to control behavior. An in September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials removed 600 detainees from an Albuquerque, New Mexico facility (this incident is addressed in the March 31 Cornell entry), citing failure to maintain safety, health and well-being standards there.
The GEO Group
April 1 - Texas officials want to know how a convicted felon escaped from a GEO Group owned jail. No one noticed he was gone for a full day, even though an eyewitness to the escape immediately told two GEO guards. The women who witnessed the escape said she was taken aback by the guard's lack of urgency. "He never asked me if he was white, Hispanic, African American. I described the clothing," she said. "All he asked was, 'Was he wearing tennis shoes?'" The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force was notified the following day of the escape and launched a massive manhunt for Esequiel Pena. Pena was being held in an 8-story level room at the GEO Group Holding Jail when he escaped. It is believed Pena squeezed through a fence and then made his way to a fire escape and disappeared. A concerned citizen spotted Pena at an apartment complex and called the Boerne Police Department. Pena was arrested without incident at the apartment complex.
Prison Health Services
April 3 - A registered nurse with the city prison system has been charged in a hit-and-run accident that killed a 15-year-old girl. Michelle Johnson, 40, was charged with manslaughter, homicide by vehicle and related offenses. Johnson, who has worked for PHS since 2006, struck Mary Otto. Otto had been walking on a median when Johnson allegedly ran a red light, hit Otto and kept driving. The teen was transported to an area hospital, but she died shortly after arriving. The next day, witnesses led police to a 2006 Toyota Sequoia, with considerable front-end damage, parked in the prison parking lot. Police seized the vehicle and later tied it to Johnson, who is not the owner of the vehicle. Johnson was suspended from her job.
April 2, 2008
Privatization Updated (March 2008)
Privatization Update
March 24-30, 2008
Overall Privatization
March 26 - The new controversial film AMERICA DRUG WAR, premiered on Showtime March 5th, and is creating a storm of controversy surrounding the content. The Sustainable Action network's gold is to raise further awareness about the effects of privately run prison systems. Don Lichterman, the founder of the Sustainable Action Network says that 'once prisons became privatized in America, and started trading on Wall Street every day, the facts show gross examples that in order for these prisons to make money every year; they need to fill their facilities.' The prisons need to be filled with people in order to create profits and revenues for these private companies. Lichterman then says that 'Kevin Booth spells this out in such an easy to understand way in his documentary film that audiences will be captivated.'
March 26 - Idaho state lawmakers have told Department of Corrections leaders it's too late in the session for them to even consider a proposal for a new 1,500-bed prison that would cost the state more than $190 million. Brent Reinke, the head of the state prison agency, had been meeting with House and Senate leaders since last week but says the plan is now finished, at least for this year. He had a bill drafted, but it never got a hearing. Lawmakers told him selling 30-year bonds to finance a new prison south of Boise was too expensive an item to consider quickly in the waning days of session. Now, Reinke says he'll refine his proposal over the summer and may present a new plan to the 2009 Legislature, as part of his solution to house a growing Idaho prison population. The result of delaying the matter another year is more Idaho inmates will stay out of state longer, he said.
Cornell
March 26 - The Webb County Commissions Court in Texas unanimously voted to rescind all action taken with respect to an earnest-money contract approved earlier this moth with Cornell for the sale of the Webb County Juvenile Detention Center. The decision means the private corrections company will not immediately purchase the facility for a rehabilitation center for federal prisoners. Neighborhood residents and Laredo Independent School District officials had expressed their concern about the proposed halfway house's proximity to two schools, but court members said the decision was based on Cornell's counteroffer, which mandated that the sale go through by June instead of the fall.
Corrections Corporation of America
March 24 - While other inmates at the Metro Detention Facility in Tennessee took an hour out of their cells most days, a mentally ill inmate named Frank Horton never left his cell for any recreation or a shower, for nine months straight. It's unclear if he even saw a doctor. Living conditions for the inmate, a nonviolent offender before entering prison, changed only after an employee complained to the Metro Public Health Department on Jan. 31 and he was forced out for a shower and a mental health evaluation. Horton, 23, refused to leave his solitary cell for the allotted 60 minutes a day for a shower and recreation. When he was finally forced out, a nurse said, he seemed cooperative but was incoherent. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said he wouldn't respond directly to any questions about Horton, 'as that may violate federal privacy protections for medical/mental health information.' He said the facility has policies on enforcing minimal showering for hygienic and health reasons, but would not provide a copy of that policy. Both Metro's health department and the Davidson County Sheriff's Office have contractual power to oversee operations at the Metro Detention Facility, but they disagree about whose responsibility it is to ensure that basic hygiene is enforced. The situation raises questions about the treatment of inmates at the 1,200-bed prison where many of Nashville's convicted felons serve their time. The South Nashville site has been in the news in recent months: A man was arrested in the January beating death of his cellmate in the high-security segregation unit. A prisoner with a storied escape history broke out through the air vents in February, The warden, Brian Gardner, was removed from his post this month and is 'awaiting reassignment' by CCA. CCA was in the national spotlight last week after a former employee accused the company of underplaying serious safety incidents at its facilities. The accusations were aimed at Gus Puryear, a former lawyer for CCA nominated to be a federal judge.
March 25 - An inmate who had his ear ripped off during an attack by another prisoner has filed a lawsuit against CCA. Kevin Swafford claims his ear couldn't be reattached because it wasn't properly packed in ice, staff was negligent and his civil rights were violated, according to the lawsuit. Swafford was attacked on March 26, 2006, at the South Central Correctional Center in Tennessee. Swafford claims he told a CCA guard that another inmate threatened him a day before the attack. Swafford claims the guard overheard the threats and did nothing. Louise Grant, a CCA spokeswoman, said it didn't have any information on the case and would not be able to comment on pending litigation.
The GEO Group
March 26 - A K-9 officer at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility was charged with multiple counts of institutional sexual assault for allegedly taking an inmate to a nearby mill for sex in his pickup truck. Michael Waters, 37, an employee of the GEO Group, who runs the county prison, admitted to having oral and vaginal sex with the female work-release inmate. Other GEO employees at the prison have experienced similar lapses in recent years. The jail's former work-release supervisor is registered as a Megan's Law sex offender. Joseph Henderson is currently on probation after pleading guilty in 2006 to sexually assaulting a female inmate while transporting her back to prison. Former guard Henry Meyers pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit bank robbery. Myers was indicted in 2005 for casing banks in three armed heists and was sentenced to three years in prison. In 2004, a GEO lieutenant at the county prison was fired for beating an inmate 'to a pulp', as the then-warden put it, and two other guards received probationary sentences after an inmate claimed in 2002 that they handcuffed him, pummeled him with a basketball and pulled his pants down. John Reilly, the prison's acting superintendent acknowledged that some GEO employees have previously had trouble staying of jail themselves.
March 25 - A guard at the Val Verde Correctional Facility was arrested for allegedly bringing marijuana into the jail for an inmate or inmates in the facility. Jose Ybarra, 20, was arrested and charged with the offense of prohibited substances and items in adult or juvenile correctional or detention facility or on property of Texas Department of Criminal justice or Texas Youth Commission. The sheriff's office investigator noted that Ybarra said he was paid $200 to deliver the marijuana to an inmate tank in the facility that houses suspected members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang. Ybarra had access to the tank in the course of his work as a guard employed by The GEO Group. Ybarra has worked for the jail since October 2007.
April 1, 2008
Another man escapes from GEO prison; nobody notices for nearly a day
Law enforcement officials are trying to understand how a convicted felon managed to escape from a privately owned jail across the street from the police headquarters without anyone noticing his absence for a full day.
[…]
The facility, which has nearly 700 inmates, is operated by The GEO Group. Spokesman Pablo Paez said Tuesday the company is assisting the U.S. marshals' investigation, but he would not say why it took so long to discover Pena was gone…
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle)
March 10, 2008
The GEO Group - In “related” news???
George Zoley, The GEO Group's chief executive, told analysts on a conference call in February that 2007 had been a bonanza year and predicted that "2008 will be an even better year" as more detention facilities are filled. A company spokesman declined to comment further on GEO's operations.
Its profits rose 10 percent to $11.5 million during the fourth quarter of 2007.
LINK - Business.Inquirer.net
Yet according to recent news here in California where The GEO Group operates low-level community correctional facilities during a time of great budget crisis, prison overcrowding and federal receivers breathing down the necks of CDCR we hear:
Corrections officials say the raise is long overdue, that GEO had been operating below market value until the state increased its daily, per-inmate rate from $40 to $60 in December. […] According to the company, the deal reflects the increase in minimum officer pay from $10 to $14.70 an hour; added costs for food, health care and utilities; the tab for buying the prisons it formerly leased; and a GEO promise to ramp up inmate rehabilitation.
See full story at SacBee.com
So are they making a PROFIT or operating "under market value"?
March 10, 2008
Schwarzenegger seeks $67 million boost for private-prison operator
As far as the inmates are concerned, it's fine if California pays tens of millions of dollars more to their private-prison captors. They like the relaxed atmosphere in the private sector, not to mention the satellite TV that on a recent Friday flashed plenty of poolside bikini action from a Spanish-language soap opera.
"You're relaxed here," said Don Chandler, 43, of West Sacramento, who was propped up on his bunk at Golden State Modified Community Correctional Facility while finishing up a stint for violating parole on an underlying domestic-violence conviction. "You're comfortable. You can enjoy yourself here."
Find out what everyone else - including MCCF guards, CCPOA and California - is saying about Schwarzenegger's private prison spending proposal:
SacBee.com - The Sacramento Bee
February 24, 2008
Arizona: Prison to more than double capacity
If Management & Training Corporation builds it, the inmates will come. The Utah-based company was awarded a contract by the State Procurement Office to add 2,000 minimum-security inmates to their Kingman prison. Senior Procurement Specialist Alicia Bewsey said MTC was awarded the contract from the Arizona Department of Corrections on Feb. 15. They were competing against two other companies: Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group. With a current inmate population of around 1,400, the expansion will more than double the size of the location on the Interstate 40 industrial corridor. MTC will have half of the 2,000 beds filled by August 2009, Bewsey said…
LINK - KingmanDailyMiner.com
January 11, 2008
Florida: New Graceville Prison
The GEO Group, a private prison management company, will buy 51.6 acres of land in the Graceville Industrial Park with an eye toward construction of a new prison or work camp there. The $153,180 purchase was approved Friday in a special session of the Jackson County Commission, a partner in the West Jackson County Development Authority. The Geo Group already manages a new 1,500-bed prison in the industrial park and is currently working to expand that facility to hold another 385 inmates…
LINK - WMBB.com
December 6, 2007
Suit Alleges Sex-Offender Guard Attacked Juveniles
Lewis was hired at the TYC prison in Bronte, Texas, which is operated by the Geo Group that operates detention centers all over North America. Geo officials said they have no comment about the federal lawsuit filed by the seven alleged victims, nor will they say how a known sex offender was hired…
LINK - WFAA.com
