Texas
April 2, 2012
County, private lockups sit empty, drain money as Texas prisoners dwindle
The dusty West Texas ranch town of Anson, once known for its no-dancing law made famous in the 1984 movie "Footloose," has a dubious new claim to fame: the Jail to Nowhere.
Completed almost two years ago to house 1,100 state convicts who never arrived, the $35 million lockup sits empty at the edge of the town of about 2,300 people. Its promise of creating 195 jobs and a $5 million annual boost to the local economy is just a distant, and bitter, memory for most folks.
"It's been a huge disappointment," said Jones County Judge Dale Spurgin, who has lobbied state officials for two years without success for help to avoid an approaching default on the bonds that were issued to build the lockup....
LINK - Statesman.com
October 12, 2011
Reason Foundation (funded by private prison companies) says private prisons are good?
Massive debt and deficits at all levels of government are prompting policymakers to seek ways to keep the spiraling costs of correctional systems in check.
Sensible criminal justice reforms including easing drug penalties, using drug courts, expanding treatment programs and sentencing reforms are key changes. Lawmakers are also expanding their use of public-private partnerships to lower prison spending, improve performance and avoid major capital investment in new prisons.
Public-private partnerships are simply government contracts with private firms to provide services ranging from building and operating prisons to delivering inmate services (e.g., health care, food, rehabilitation services) and operational support functions (e.g., maintenance and transportation). Since the private corrections industry emerged in the 1980s, over 30 states — including California, Texas, Florida and Colorado — have embraced public-private partnerships. Today approximately 9 percent of federal and state inmates are held in privately-operated prisons...
LINK - CNBC.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 20, 2011
Texas hopes to contract for California inmates?
The termination of a contract awarded by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice derailed plans to fill the beds of a detention facility that was completed in May 2010 for a price of $35 million.
On Friday Jones County Judge Dale Spurgin said the 1,112-bed prison remains vacant. "I think people are disappointed, but we're just going to continue to work on it," Spurgin said. "It's a brand new facility, someone is eventually going to use it."
The county did not input any money into the project, he said. Instead, revenue bonds were sold by the state to finance the project...
LINK - CorrectionsOne.com
April 18, 2011
2nd Corrections Officer killed by inmate in a week
A Bowie County inmate shot and killed a female deputy as he was being transported to the county courthouse.
The inmate, identified as Tucker Strickland, then fled from the courthouse in the county's prison van. He was recaptured about 30 minutes later by authorities in Ashdown, AR.
The sheriff's office says Strickland was in Rusk County for a psychological evaluation and had just returned to Bowie County for a court hearing...
LINK - KSLA.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)
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
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
June 17, 2009
Private prison workers plead guilty to smuggling
Two former West Texas prison employees have pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband for prisoners.
Velma Jean Payan, 41, said Tuesday she took more than $2,000 from associates of inmates to smuggle a "green leafy substance" into the privately managed Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos from October to January, federal prosecutors said.
Jerri Diaz Ornelas, 40, said Monday that she took about $450 from an inmate in October 2008 to smuggle tobacco into the prison that primarily houses federal criminal immigrants…
LINK - Chron.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 2, 2009
Former guard at downtown Waco jail pleads guilty to supplying phone to inmates
A former guard at the privately operated McLennan County Detention Center on Columbus Avenue pleaded guilty today to a charge of giving contraband to inmates at a secure facility, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Michael Ray Hamilton III, an 18-year-old former jail guard known as "Big Mike" to inmates, was indicted for allowing two prisoners, Morgan Dyer and Chris McWilliams, to use his cell phone to make calls in October, authorities said. The use of cell phones by inmates is prohibited in detention centers, according to records filed in the case…
LINK - WacoTrib.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
The Big Business of Family Detention
When President Barack Obama made it his first act in office to shut down Guantánamo Bay prison, he effectively ended one shameful chapter in our country's embarrassingly large book of human-rights abuses. It was not so much redemption as a reminder that this country has a long, long way to go when it comes to detention, due process, and the Geneva Convention. It's not just alleged terrorists that are suffering from our inhumane treatment. It's also children.
The United States is currently holding 30,000 immigrants in detention while they await hearings. The country operates three family immigrant detention centers, the most notorious of which is the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, a former prison currently under the private management of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The 600-bed center detains families who are awaiting asylum or immigration hearings, a major departure from past federal policy. Pre-September 11, families charged with immigration violations (which are not criminal violations) or who came to the country asking for asylum were generally allowed to live independently as long as they agreed to attend a hearing…
LINK - Prospect.org (The American Prospect)
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
November 24, 2008
Cell phones hard to find on death row
If you think smuggled cell phones in Texas prisons are easy to track down, think again, say officials involved in the seemingly endless search.
In recent months, phones been found tied inside plastic bags and buried in a jar of peanut butter. And secreted inside the tiny vent atop a shower stall. And hidden in a hollowed-out spot in the binding of a law book. Even stuffed inside a sock, pushed way up out of view inside a narrow crack in a concrete wall.
And, in at least two cases, they have been found in a plastic sack inside someone's rectum…
LINK - Statesman.com (The Austin American Statesman)
November 2, 2008
Retired Correctional Officer wins California Lottery!
A retired correctional peace officer from Crescent City was announced the winner of a $75,000 prize from the California Lottery on Saturday.
Bruce Korsmeyer, who worked at Pelican Bay State Prison and in law enforcement for 27 years, won while playing Fantasy 5, the California Lottery reported in a release…
LINK - Times-Standard.com
CONGRATS TO BRUCE AND HIS FAMILY - HAPPY RETIREMENT!
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
August 6, 2008
Texas: County jail to house outside inmates soon
Despite an assortment of snags and holdups, Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor remains optimistic that the newly-expanded Anderson County Jail may resume housing out-of-county inmates by the end of the month.
For several months now, county officials have been waiting on completion of work on the fire alarm system in the old section of the jail.
Now that that work has been finished, however, a new problem has arisen, according to the sheriff…
LINK - PalestineHerald.com
July 20, 2008
Dogs learn a new trick — finding cell phones in prison
We could all use one from time to time: a dog that can find the darn cell phone. Maryland has three. Their job is to sniff out phones smuggled into prisons.
"Seek," Sgt. David Brosky told his dog Alba last week, offering a public demonstration at the former Maryland House of Correction in Jessup. Alba made her way through an unoccupied prison cell until she came upon a rolled-up pair of jeans on a bed. She sat, a signal she had found something.
"Good girrrrrrrrrrl," said Brosky, a corrections officer, handing the dog a ball, a reward for finding the black cell phone tucked in the pants…
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle)
July 9, 2008
More speak against county jail privatization
Six people spoke against privatization of county jail facilities at McLennan County Commissioners Court this morning before commissioners opened the lone proposal submitted in an effort to ease jail overcrowding problems.
Officer Phillip Zboril of the Waco Police Department's street crimes unit said his group arrests the "worst of the worst," noting that his unit is good at its job and floods the jail with criminals.
In a moment of levity, County Judge Jim Lewis responded that's part of the reason the county is in its current fix, because those officers do their job so well…
LINK - WacoTrib.com (Waco Tribune)
June 25, 2008
Deputies come out in force against proposal to privatize the jail
Uniformed county officers filled the seats and lined the walls of the small McLennan County Commissioners Court room Tuesday. They turned out in force to let commissioners know they are staunchly against privatizing the county jail on State Highway 6.
The county is weighing several options to stem overcrowding in its jail under pressure from state regulators. Building a new, larger jail on Highway 6 and privatizing its management is one idea on the table.
Officer Ricky Armstrong, one of roughly 60 officers at the meeting, listed his concerns, including public safety. County officers have had to respond to trouble at the privately run downtown jail before, he said. If the State Highway 6 jail also gets privatized, who will be there to step in and help the downtown jail when things get out of hand again, he asked….
LINK - WacoTrib.com (The Waco Tribune)
June 11, 2008
Opinion: “Getting more out of Texas prisons”
When it comes to the criminal justice system, Texans get what they pay for. Funding is largely based on volume — as Texas' prison population has quadrupled during the last two decades, the cost to taxpayers has risen proportionally.
Although warehousing works to the extent that inmates cannot commit another crime while in prison, 99 percent of inmates ultimately will be released — usually while still in their prime criminal years. Many of the same offenders are recycled through the system; 60 percent of Texas prison intakes are revoked probationers and parolees. The three-year re-incarceration rate of released Texas inmates has hovered around 30 percent during the past decade.
Leaders from the Texas Capitol to European houses of parliament are increasingly recognizing that reducing recidivism is crucial to controlling future incarceration costs and the incalculable human costs to victims and communities from criminal activity. This realization inspired a 111-page manifesto released in March by England's Conservative Party, titled Prisons with a Purpose: Our Sentencing and Rehabilitation Revolution to Break the Cycle of Crime…
LINK - Star-Telegram.com
May 21, 2008
Holding Hutto’s feet to the fire
When a coalition of community activists gathers in Taylor, Texas, this weekend, they'll trot alongside a barbed-wire fence (we're told the inner barricades have come down) and descend upon the controversial T. Don Hutto Residential Center, where a teddy bear has been placed on every bed and children's artwork lines the halls.
As they inch the bullhorns and signs reading "Texas shame" and "Children need sunshine too" closer to the center, the PR-scrubbed scene will be marred by something the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Corrections Corporation of America, and Williamson County doesn't want: hundreds of protesters shouting for the release of immigrant children and undocumented detainees.
The center — an immigrant-detention facility funded by Homeland Security, operated by privately owned CCA, and administered by the county — made news when it was criticized for incarcerating detainees in conditions that, until recently, were abysmal. The 470-bed detention center is one of two in the country that confine families on immigration violations while they await disposition of their cases…
LINK - SACurrent.com (San Antonio Current)
May 7, 2008
Private Prison Guard accused of having sex with inmate
A female guard at the Liberty County Jail resigned Tuesday, April 29, following accusations she had sex with an inmate, Sheriff Greg Arthur said.
The guard, an employee of CiviGenics, offered her resignation when Liberty County Sheriff's Office investigators questioned her about the alleged affair.
CiviGenics is the private company the county hires to run operations of the jail.
The guard could now face criminal charges stemming from the investigation…
LINK - The Vindicator.com (The Liberty Vindicator - Liberty, Texas)
May 5, 2008
National Correctional Officers Week: TDCJ to honor staff and fallen officers
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice will hold a special memorial service Monday to honor its correctional staff and remember all those who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The formal, military-style memorial ceremony, which will bring TDCJ officials, employees, dignitaries, guests and the general public to the Texas Prison Museum on state Highway 75 North, will begin at 11:30 a.m.
Held in conjunction with National Correctional Officers Week, the service will include a special tribute to Wynne Unit Officer Susan Canfield, who was killed in the line of duty on Sept. 24, 2007…
LINK - ItemOnline.com (The Huntsville Item Online)
April 30, 2008
Put for-profit detention centers on ICE (Opinion)
In 2007, the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) rounded up more than 30,000 immigrants in raids. While more than 186,000 immigrants were deported in 2006, an alarming 300,000 were detained in immigrant detention centers, such as the T. Don Hutto Center in Taylor, in 2007 alone. According to ICE, the purpose of immigrant detention centers is to "detain and remove criminal and other deportable aliens … in part of the strategy to deter illegal immigration and protect public safety."
Despite what ICE ostensibly promotes, these for-profit detention centers are not achieving their intended goals, as they do not create a disincentive for coming to the U.S. The risk of crossing over illegally is a small price to pay for the safety and high labor demand on the other side of the border. Additionally, undocumented immigrants are often hesitant to report crimes to authorities due to the fear of being detained, in which case detention centers may be hindering communities more than helping them.
Privatized detention centers are going up all over the United States as a way to deal with the growing number of undocumented immigrants. As a result, not only are we detaining immigrants in our country, but because of the move toward privatization, these facilities are able to make a profit from these prisoners. The industry leader, Corrections Corporation of America, has seen its stock price rise to as much as $22 a share, and in 2006 its revenue was $1.3 billion with profits of $105 million. According to industry experts, in order to make a profit these companies not only need to ensure that more prisons are built, but also need to keep them filled to an estimated 90-to 95-percent capacity rate. These for-profit detention centers demand immigrants' bodies and labor, and it is disturbing to think about how this demand will be met…
LINK - DailyTexanOnline.com (The Daily Texan - Online)
April 21, 2008
Court rejects appeals by 11 death row inmates
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday followed up on its ruling last week upholding the commonly used lethal injection method of execution and rejected appeals by 11 death row inmates in seven states.
The ruling cleared the way for a resumption of executions that had been halted for nearly seven months while the justices considered a constitutional challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in the executions.
The ruling means more than a dozen death row inmates likely will get early execution dates. Officials in the leading death penalty states, like Texas, Virginia and Florida, said they planned to schedule executions that previously had been on hold…
LINK - Reuters.com
April 3, 2008
Detention facility for immigrant kids sued for abuse
Eight immigrant teenagers held at a facility for unaccompanied minors filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming they were abused and denied access to attorneys.
The teens from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Cuba were being held at the 122-bed facility run by Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. under a contract with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Undocumented minors caught by authorities in the United States fall under the care of ORR while their immigration cases are decided…
LINK - DallasNews.com
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)
January 30, 2008
Immigrant Holding Center to Add 250 Women
The detention center has faced heavy criticism by protesters for what they call the wrongful imprisonment of children. It has also caused liability concerns for the county, after a guard was fired after he was accused of sexually assaulting a female detainee in May. Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the incident but said they found no criminal activity and closed the investigation in June. County commissioners debated whether to keep their contract with the federal government and Corrections Corp. of America, the private company that owns and operates the facility. The contract expires Jan. 31, 2009…
LINK - Chron.com
December 28, 2007
55 Idaho inmates sidetracked during move from Texas prison
Fifty-five Idaho inmates who were moved out of a troubled Texas prison on Thursday have been forced by a contract delay to make a temporary stop before going to their final destination, a lockup near the Mexican border. More than 500 Idaho prisoners are in Texas and Oklahoma due to overcrowding at home…
LINK - Chron.com
November 18, 2007
Privatization Updated (November 18, 2007)
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
California Privatization
Nov. 17 - A guard at the Leo Chesney Community Correctional Facility for women in Live Oak was arrested on suspicion of having sex with an inmate. Mark Steven Susoeff, 45, was arrested after an investigation by the Internal Affairs Division of the CDCR. The minimum security facility is owned and operated by Cornell but overseen by the state. Susoeff allegedly had sex with the inmate on two occasions, once in January and once in March. The state began to investigate after the inmate reported the incident. Susoeff was placed on administrative leave.
Corrections Corporation of America
Nov. 16 - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say an 8-year-old girl was separated from her pregnant mother and left behind for four days at a detention center set up to hold immigrant families together while they await outcomes to their cases. Officials say they had to transfer the Honduran woman because she twice resisted attempts to deport her and was potentially disruptive. ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said guards and ICE staff watched the child after her mother was removed from the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility. But others are critical of the agency's handling of the case, saying it put the child at risk and is another example of why the facility should be closed. Since opening last year, the Hutto facility has been exempt from state child-care licensing requirements. ICE officials told the state Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that parents would be at the facility with their children and would be responsible for their care, so state regulation wasn't needed.
The GEO Group
Nov. 16 - A former guard at the Val Verde Correctional Facility was arrested after he was indicted for violating the civil rights of an inmate in October 2006. Emmanuel Cassio is alleged to have walked into a cell and "struck the inmate with his fist." The inmate then made a derogatory remark to Cassiom who is then alleged to have punched the inmate a second time. If found guilty of the offense, Cassio faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison, a fine not to exceed $250,000 and three years' supervised release.
Management and Training Corp.
Nov. 14 - In Willacy County, Texas, two detention center sergeants Juan Trevino and Albert Vasquez were arrested and charged with conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants between Sept. 1 and Nov. 8, 2007. Detention center officers Carlos Garcia, 36 and Ben Sanchez, 36 were also arrested and charged with attempting to drive 28 undocumented immigrants into the United States. Trevino and Sanchez are charged separately in a criminal complaint. Their arrests were the result of an investigation by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The four men worked as detention officers for Management and Training Corp. which provides security services for the Willacy County Detention Center. Officials allege that Trevino recruited Vasquez, Garcia and Sanchez to pick up and transport immigrants who were smuggled into the country through locations using MTC company vehicles. Garcia and Sanchez were wearing MTC uniforms and officials found a loaded .357 magnum pistol in the center console of the van when they attempted to drive the MTC F-450 van past a checkpoint. Customs and Border Protection agents at the checkpoint became suspicious because the ban was overcrowded, some passengers were sitting on the vehicle floor, none were shackled and many had luggage.
