Prison Corporation Looking to Take Advantage of Small PA Community

Folks in PA had best be aware of GEO Group. They are slick salesmen, always promising jobs to help the community but never making small communities aware that prisons do not help at all, but rather, only cause harm. Who will take their kids to vacation anywhere near a town with a prison? Care to stay at a Holiday Inn next door to a detention center? Build a school nearby? Start up a small local business?

Truth is that in community after community across the US, GEO Group has done nothing but kill industry and cause harm to local residents. The jobs they bring in are not for everyone and force residents to settle for working a job in which they risk their lives everyday while receiving minimal training, little protection and are often forced to work multiple shifts because the company is too cheap to hire enough staff to cover all shifts. They don't like to pay benefits so why hire more than just the bare minimum to keep a facility running?

Then of course, there is the issue of lawsuits - of which GEO Group has plenty racked up. Abuses, escapes, murders...gosh, what community wouldn't want such a wonderful employer in their midst?

Finally, citizens should realize that at any time, GEO Group can choose to not renew their contract and then the township will be forced to either purchase the facility from GEO (at a hefty mark up price), be forced to allow another prison corporation like CCA (you know, the guys responsible for letting convicts escape from an AZ facility who then went on to murder a couple on vacation in NM) or at the very least, get stuck with a huge empty eyesore in their town that no one has use for.

From an article in The Morning Call -

Calabrese, the vice chairman and president of Florida's GEO Group, gave a 45-minute presentation Wednesday night about his company's idea for an inmate detention center just south of the Portland Industrial Park in Upper Mount Bethel Township.

Now, take note of the doublespeak in this next paragraph where first he states they aren't actually housing criminals - in spite of the fact that anyone who enters this country ILLEGALLY is technically a CRIMINAL. 

Calabrese stressed that the inmates — the facility would hold 2,250 — would not be serving time because of crimes they committed but because they're illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. However, the majority of them will have committed felonies and already served time in a prison, Calabrese said.

Slick, isn't he? More from the article - 

On the flip side, Calabrese said the detention center would create 500 jobs, many of them paying $35,000 to $40,000 a year with benefits included. On top of that, Calabrese said, the community would benefit from construction and supply expenses and tax revenue paid by GEO. Annual operation would call for about $37 million worth of labor, goods and services.

He fails to mention that GEO will demand huge tax breaks from the county and state so revenue from taxes generated will not come from them. The $37 million in labor, goods and services will be supplied by other corporations like Aramark and will not come from within the state or local community and therefore, provides zero benefits for residents.

The article ends with -

Before the facility could come to Upper Mount Bethel, Northampton County must have a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take on the responsibility to detain people in the United States illegally. After being contacted by GEO, Northampton County Council voted Oct. 21 to allow Executive John Stoffa to begin talks about a contract, which the county could then subcontract to the GEO Group or another company.
The county could risk violating competitive bidding laws if it appears the company was chosen without a public selection process, or without proof that the county can't find anyone else to provide the service.

In plain English, that means that GEO is looking to build a facility BEFORE there is a need and BEFORE they've won any contract with ICE. They are building a facility where the need for one DOES NOT EXIST. End result will be that the residents will be housing criminals shipped in from across the country and who will do nothing more than contaminate their community. I hope the people of this township stick to their resolve and kick GEO Group officials clean out of their county - or better yet, out of their state entirely.