Obama's U.S. Marshals Nominee Too Cozy With Private Prisons

Big surprise. Detention contracts will now be shifted to more GEOGroup facilities than CCA facilities. These cozy connections are certainly not a surprise nor are they anything new.

All that has happened here is one corporation outbid another for the prime contracts on housing immigrants. Rather than our just deporting them, we allow companies to influence  law enforcement into housing them for profit - profit that ultimately comes out of the tax payers wallets.

From an article on TPMMuckraker

Criminal justice organizations are criticizing President Barack Obama's nomination of Stacia A. Hylton for director of the U.S. Marshals Service because of her ties to the for-profit prison industry.
Hylton was a 29-year career employee of the Justice Department until she left her post earlier this year and accepted $112,500 in consulting fees from the GEO Group, a for-profit prison industry group. Hylton awarded contracts worth up to $88 million to the GEO Group during her nearly six years as DOJ's Federal Detention Trustee, according to a press release. The GEO Group is the second largest operator of for-profit prisons in the United States.

Among some issues causing concern for human rights groups is the fact that, as a Federal Detention Trustee, Hylton objected to a recommendation from the Justice Department Office of Inspector General that called for limiting the amount of profit that a state or local jail -- some of which are owned and/or operated by for-profit companies -- can earn for housing federal prisoners.
GEO Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George Zoley admitted recently that "the primary driver for growth continues to be the incarceration of criminal aliens" in the area of federal contracts, the Washington Times reported.
The Washington Times reported last month on Hylton's contract with the GEO Group and the possible conflicts of interest. She received $112,500 in income from her own private company through "consulting services for detention matters, federal relations and acquisitions and mergers" from March through July of 2010, the newspaper said.

"The U.S. Marshals preside over one of the nation's largest privatized federal detention systems," said Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership. "Policies that have driven the private prison expansion such as Operation Streamline are carried out by the U.S. Marshals. Ms. Hylton's consulting work with the GEO Group, a troubled company that benefits handsomely from such policies, is a cause for major concern." 

Continue Story on TPM

Private Prison Not Commenting on Accidental Shooting

Nice. Wonder how much the settlement or lawsuit for this little 'accident' will cost? Why are they not being forced to cooperate with any authorities while this matter is investigated? One might think they are trying to cover something up with such a closed door policy by GEO Group.

Our tax dollars pay for these prisons to operate; any lawsuit against them will ultimately cost us. Why not hold them accountable for what amounts to unnecessary and wasteful spending that could have been prevented if their officers were better trained, better paid and not asked to work double shifts due to being understaffed?

A prison without adequate staff is a dangerous risk to the community around it. Re: The Escape of prisoners from a private AZ facility managed by MTC of Utah who murdered two people while free. How safe are the people around Big Spring, I wonder?

Greg Sherman
CBS 7 News
November 10, 2010

Officials at Geo Group are still not formally commenting on how or why an inmate was accidentally shot at one of their Big Spring prisons.


CBS 7 contacted Geo Group's corporate office in Florida but a representative said they could not comment on administrative matters.


CBS 7 also contacted the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington D.C. but as of this report did not have a full report from Geo Group on exactly what happened.


A prisoner was accidentally shot in the arm by a 12 gauge weapon Tuesday morning at the Flightline Facility.


He was transported to Scenic Mountain Medical Center with minor injuries, released, and is back at the prison.

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.

Illinois State Appointee Earns $85,000 Per Day

So nice to see that this man has earned over $85,000 (of tax payer dollars!) for one single day's work. Aside from his salary, he is also getting medical care on our dime. Politics and dealings as usual for Illinois, I suppose?

From An Article in Chicago Tribune -

A former state prison director has worked just one day in the 17 months since he was appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn to a little-known but important state board that decides if inmates should be paroled, according to documents and interviews.

Roger Walker Jr. attended a half-day orientation but has been absent from every meeting of the full Illinois Prisoner Review Board except for one session about three weeks after his appointment in June 2009, records show.

"I'm on sick leave," said Walker, who indicated he has heart, lung and stomach problems and needs the job for the health insurance. "So what's the deal? … These bills and stuff are just astronomical."

The governor's office said it was aware Walker had medical issues when he was appointed to the $85,886-a-year position, but officials did not believe his health would keep him from performing the work. State law allows the governor to remove a member of the Prisoner Review Board for neglect of duty or inability to serve, among other reasons, but Quinn has taken no action against Walker.

"It's not fair to be a burden on taxpayers when you're not doing anything," said one current member, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of angering the Quinn administration and losing his appointment. "We're being stretched real thin down here. I understand that he's sick, but the system tolerates it." 

GEO Group, CCA Net Out-of-State Contracts for California Inmates

Any wonder CA is broke? Private prisons cost tax payers an average of 33% MORE than what it costs for states to run their own prisons. All that extra money is going towards profit for corporations and there is NO justification for it. Do you like spending all that extra cash on housing offenders who aren't being rehabilitated? Does it give you a warm fuzzy feeling to know that lawmakers are awarding contracts to corporate cronies who don't give a damn about the safety of the general public? 

Private prisons are notorious for abuses against prisoners and before you say, "Oh boo hoo! Who cares if prisoners get abused?" stop and consider that the long term effects of abuse of prisoners results in ever angrier and more criminalized people being released back to the free world where they can then wreak havoc on your neighborhood. There is no point in creating more hardened criminals, no point in allowing our tax money to go towards corporate profits while the corporations don't care if anyone is ever rehabilitated - in fact, doesn't it work to their advantage to create more people who will commit more crimes, increase the odds of ex-cons reoffending...just so they can keep more beds full and charge the states more money to house prisoners?

Conservatives are not generally known for wanting to reform our prisons but anyone who has an interest in stopping the waste of our tax dollars, anyone who is against paying more and more and more money just to house 'the scum of the earth' really should wake up and realize that their hard earned money is being siphoned out of state coffers and into the pockets of corporations who ultimately make our country more dangerous. 

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Correctional News

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation awarded GEO Group Inc. the contract for nearly 2,600 additional beds in out-of-state facilities, according to the CDCR. Also getting play from California is Corrections Corp. of America, with an offer in the works from CDCR to take on additional beds that are not currently under contract. The total of new beds in the new contracts could surpass 5,000, according to reports.

Nearly 2,600 California inmates contracted to GEO Group will be transferred to the company’s North Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan, according to a company statement. GEO Group expects revenues from the transfers to generate $60 million in annualized

Purchasing Access: Examining the GEO Group's Texas Political Expenditures

National Public Radio recently ran a story about how private prison companies helped write Arizona's controversial statute (currently being litigated in federal court) requiring local police to arrest and detain illegal immigrants. Private prison companies' interest in immigration law should come as little surprise for Grits readers: Nearly five years ago I wrote that the potential for expanded detention of illegal immigrants appeared virtually "limitless,"and this blog has long lamented the extra costs to county jails from such policies.

The NPR story inspired me this a.m. to look more closely at private prisons' political influence in Texas, and I plan to follow up with additional, related posts in the coming weeks. A 2006 public policy report (pdf) from the Institute on Money in State Politics identified Texas pols as the second largest recipient of private prison political spending after Florida.

The three big players in Texas' market are the GEO Group, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and a company called Management and Training Corporation (MTC) out of Utah. Of the three, only the GEO Group operates a state-level PAC in Texas. CCA and MTC's contributions appear to come mainly from individuals associated with the company, which are a bit more time consuming to track, so let's start with the Geo Group.

I went through the contribution reports for the Texas Geo Group Inc. PAC for this last election cycle and compiled a list of all Texas House and Senate members who both a) received contributions from GEO in 2009 and/or 2010 and b) won their elections and will be in the Legislature next year. Read the list, with totals combined from multiple reports on Grits For Breakfast

Our Taxe Dollars Hard At Work -Toxic Metals Tied to Work in Prisons

Nice. Our taxes pay to create long term health problems so in the future, we can spend even more tax money on medical treatment. Meanwhile, corporate/government entities pocket profits coming and going. How is this helping REHABILITATE anyone? Why are we forced to pay out of our hard earned money to fund this crap and these programs that DO NOT benefit either society or the prisoners we have to house.

 Excerpt from the NY TIMES...

“We have said all along that prisoners should not be managing toxic waste, and the federal government should never allow the export of such wastes to developing countries,” said Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, a group that advocates for rigorous standards for recycling electronic waste.

“Now we are finding out that not only did the federal government continue to allow it,” Mr. Puckett said, “they were doing it themselves and may still be doing it to this day.”
The recycling work is overseen by Unicor, a unit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons that employs inmates to manufacture items like furniture and license plates. Since 1997, it has accepted contracts for recycling computer monitors, televisions, printers and other electronic waste. 

CA Renews Contract With CCA

Is it any wonder California is not only broke, but spending a fortune to maintain their overcrowded prison population? Nothing will change so long as your state officials keep sleeping with gold digging whores like Corrections Corporation of America. Or should I say, Connections Corporation of America? 

Only political connections keep corporations like CCA in business - no one in their right mind can actually look at the track record of this company and think otherwise...

To view a list of wrongdoings, lawsuits against CCA and other dirty cover-ups, click here.
For a list of other private prison malfeasance in California, click here.

Press Release from CCA

NASHVILLE, TN, Nov 05, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) /quotes/comstock/13*!cxw/quotes/nls/cxw (CXW 26.25, +0.03, +0.11%) , America's leader in partnership corrections, announced today that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has renewed its contract with CCA to manage up to 9,588 California inmates at four of the five CCA facilities currently housing California inmates (the Contract Extension). The CDCR also notified CCA of its Intent to Award an additional contract to manage up to 3,256 offenders at CCA's Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado and CCA's Prairie Correctional Facility in Minnesota (the Intent to Award). Between the Contract Extension and the Intent to Award, CCA expects to have the opportunity to house a total of up to 12,844 inmates for the CDCR in six facilities. CCA currently has a contract to house up to 10,468 California inmates.

CCA Announces Third Quarter 2010 Blood Earnings, er... Financial Report...

NASHVILLE, TN, Nov 03, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- CCA /quotes/comstock/13*!cxw/quotes/nls/cxw (CXW 26.39, -0.32, -1.20%) (the "Company" or "Corrections Corporation of America"), America's leader in partnership corrections and the nation's largest provider of corrections management services to government agencies, announced today its financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2010.
Financial Review - Third Quarter 2010 Compared with Third Quarter 2009

    -- Total revenues up 2.8% to $427.2 million from $415.4 million
    -- Operating income up 10.7% to $85.2 million from $76.9 million
    -- Adjusted Diluted EPS up 15.2% to $0.38 from $0.33
    -- Adjusted Funds From Operations Per Diluted Share up 6.8% to
       $0.63 from $0.59
    -- EBITDA increased 9.1% to $111.5 million from $102.2 million

For the third quarter of 2010, CCA generated net income of $42.0 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, compared with net income of $45.3 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2009.
Total management revenue for the third quarter of 2010 increased 2.7% to $425.3 million from $414.2 million during the prior year period, primarily driven by a 2.9% increase in average daily inmate populations. Management revenue from our federal partners increased 12.6% to $186.3 million generated during the third quarter of 2010, compared with $165.5 million generated during the third quarter of 2009. The increase in federal revenue was primarily driven by an increase in populations from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) at our Adams County Correctional Center which commenced operations during the third quarter of 2009 and from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) at facilities located primarily in the southwestern region of the country. Management revenue from our state partners decreased to $210.7 million during the third quarter of 2010 compared with $218.3 million during the same period in 2009. State revenues were impacted by declines in inmate populations from the states of Arizona, Alaska, Washington and Minnesota, partially offset by an increase in inmate populations from the states of California and Georgia. 

Arizona PrisonTalks Delayed

Coolidge Examiner

City officials will have to wait until the dust is settled from gubernatorial election before they know whether or not they can move forward on a private prison for Coolidge.

The project also hit a snag when in July when three prisoners escaped from a facility near Kingman, Ariz.
A minimum- and medium-security private prison was approved by City Council over the summer.

“I think it’s been without question that the council has fully supported this from the moment we heard about the project, and the fact that we could be a player in the game,” Mayor Tom Shope said in June.

Utah's Management & Training Corporation's (MTC) role in Ariz. immigration law

Tougher immigration laws mean more detentions and bigger contracts for prison companies.
By Jesse Fruhwirth

Many people suspect that backroom deals and corporate interests influence public policy, and rarely are those backroom negotiations exposed to the public. But investigators from In These Times magazine, NPR and others have unlocked one such backroom where Arizona’s controversial immigration law was hashed out, and discovered Utah connections in the process.

A private group of conservative state lawmakers and private-prison-industry representatives discussed and revised Arizona’s controversial immigration bill—both hailed and decried as the toughest in the nation—before it became law. Not only was a Utah lawmaker the chair of that private committee that discussed the bill, but new research also shows that a Utah company—the nation’s third-largest private-corrections company— made campaign donations to the sponsor of Arizona’s law four times in recent years. Immigrants are detained in prisons prior to deportation, so private jailers have a financial interest in tougher immigration laws.

Most news about corporate interests influencing Arizona’s immigration law has focused on Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private-prison company.

This Is The Company That's Desperate To Keep Marijuana Illegal In California

Joe Weisenthal

The latest polls don't look good. After looking like it might pass earlier in the election cycle, California's historic Prop 19 -- which would legalize Marijuana -- is now trailing.

But it's not over yet, and there are important business implications.

We've already told you some of the ways to make money from the coming legalization of pot (Tobacco names like RJ Reynolds would probably capitalize well).

But what if the measure goes down?

Check out Corrections Corp of America -- the biggest owner of private prisons.

As Mike Riggs at The Daily Caller notes, CCA has given money to Democratic candidate Dianne Feinstein, who inexplicably and appallingly opposes Prop 19. Because the legalization of weed result in a lot fewer arrests (not just for pot, but also for real crimes that deserve incarceration), this company has a lot to lose.

Last year, hedge funder Bill Ackman presented a bull case for this company, arguing that a huge boom in this area was imminent..

Click here to see the presentation >

Read more: Business Insider

ALEC IN ARIZONA

From The Tucson Citizen
You might have heard some news about the NPR story connecting SB1070 and the private prison industry though ALEC. Here's the story in full. It's worth your time to listen and to read:



Here's the follow-up story about the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is a disturbing story of unregulated influence pedaling of it's own, even without the SB1070 connection: