Maine Privatization Mistake

 Sad to see another town fall for the salespitch of prison industry. All that prisons will bring to their community are low paying jobs, brutal overtime shifts and a few cheap hotels for visiting family members. No new shops want to open next to a prison. No actual lucrative business would want to set up shop anywhere near a prison so instead of projected growth in the area, the town will begin to exist solely around incarceration for profit. How demoralizing for a community to know that they earn their meager living by caging other human beings...

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The town of Milo has for two years tried to convince the nation’s largest private prison company to build a correctional facility at its industrial park. Corrections Corporation of America was sufficiently interested in 2008 that it sent an engineering firm to inspect the site, but momentum waned following a lack of enthusiasm for the project at the state level. But Governor-elect Paul LePage earlier this month visited Milo to follow up on his campaign pledge to meet with town and CCA officials to try to make the deal happen. 

The opening of a privately run prison in the Piscataquis County town would mark Maine’s first foray into the incarceration of its inmates for profit, a practice currently prohibited by state law. Making that leap with Tennessee-based CCA would bind Maine to a company with not only vast experience with such public-private partnerships and record revenues last year, but also a history of lawsuits and allegations of poor treatment of its inmates. Meanwhile, the company’s interest in Milo is tentative at best. Even if policy at the state level changes to allow for-profit prisons in Maine, CCA hasn’t committed to building here. 

The hoped-for prison in Milo, a town of fewer than 3,000 in the county currently saddled with Maine’s highest unemployment rate of more than 12%, could create up to 300 jobs. But even if CCA commits to the project, research into the economic impacts of private corrections facilities in rural areas “suggests that prisons may not generate the nature and scale of benefits municipalities anticipate or may even slow growth in some localities,” according to an April report by the Congressional Research Service. 

“We’ve got nothing else in the hopper here,” says Milo Town Manager Jim Gahagan. “It really could make a difference in our area.” 

Continue on MaineBiz

GEOGroup Buys Electronic Monitoring Service

Prison operator Geo Group Inc (GEO.N) said it agreed to buy privately-held electronic monitoring service provider B.I. Inc for $415 million in cash.
Geo sees the acquisition, expected to add about $115 million to its revenue in 2011, to have a neutral impact on its 2011 pro forma earnings and to add to its pro forma earnings from 2012.
Lenders including BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Chase have provided $425 million of committed financing to finance the deal, the company said in a statement.
Geo Group forecast pro forma earnings of $1.55-$1.65 a share and revenues of $1.62-$1.64 billion for 2011.
It also backed its earnings outlook for the fourth quarter of 2010. [ID:nASA01ADG]
In April, the company, which has been growing through acquisitions, bought rival Cornell Cos CRN.N for about $374 million in cash. [ID:nSGE63I0HN]
Shares of Boca Raton, Florida-based Geo Group closed at $25.09 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Renju Jose in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
Reuters

California OIG finds multiple Violations at out of state CCA Prisons

California Office of the Inspector General recently inspected 5 out-of-state prisons that house California Prisoners.  These prisons are being run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) which is a for-profit corporation based out of Tennessee.

Denial Of Inmates Rights or Privileges
    These include retaining inmates on administrative segregation, overriding inmate classification scores, delaying inmate property and the list goes on....

Safety and Security Weaknesses
    Allowing inmates to wear clothing similar to custody personnel, poor screening for new CCA employees, unsupervised inmates in restricted areas, significant incidents not investigated and improper evidence handling and opening under an inner fence-line security gate just to name a few.

Unenforced Rules, Policies, Practices or Contract Provisions
    CDCR did not exercise adequate oversight of the inmate welfare fund, competitively bid state-to-state transportation services, approve CCA's use-of-force policy and timely review use-of-force incidents.

Other note-able issues
    Prescriptions being wasted and operating weaknesses on central control.

Sounds to me that CDCR is just handing out California prisoners and trying to forget about them.  According to California Code of Regulations out-of-state prisons may only house level 1 through level 3.  All the prisons that were inspected housed some level 4 inmates.  CDCR sent out a memorandum on March 17th, 2010 stating that "a level 4 inmates with low points (52-59) to be classified as a level 3 override and retain out of state".  The majority of these CCA prisons are one designed for level 1 through level 3 prisoners.

With CDCR's blatant disregard for the safety of prisoners, staff and citizens I do hope these issues brought out by the OIG are corrected quickly.

Link to letter from California Office of Inspector General to Matthew Cate Secretary of California Department of Corrections and Rehablitiation

CCA & GEO Group Propose More ICE Detention Facilities

Once again I have to ask why we are wasting our money housing immigrants instead of spending the money sensibly to stem the tide at the border? Why can we not deport the ones already here in an expedient manner instead of forcing citizens to bear the cost of housing them while deportation cases drag on for months and years? This is what we are putting our great-grandchildren in debt to pay for?? Outrageous!

By Beth Brelje

Pocono Record Writer

December 07, 2010

A well-developed plan for a massive Pike County federal detention center is one of three finalists being considered by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to county Commissioner Harry Forbes.

Two other proposed locations — in York County, Pa., and Essex County, N.J. — are being considered for the 2,256-bed center to house illegal immigrants, Forbes said. The winning location may be announced in the next two weeks.

A similar proposal by a different prison provider, GEO Group, to place such a center in Northampton County was recently scrapped.

In Pike County, officials are partnering with Corrections Corporation of America, a large national private prison provider. CCA and Pike officials presented plans to federal authorities on Oct. 22, Forbes said.

Between 450 and 600 jobs would be created locally if the detention center is placed in Pike. Immigration officials would transfer an additional 200 workers to the Pike facility, according to Forbes.

CCA-drawn indoor and outdoor renderings show the proposed facility would dwarf the existing Pike County Correctional Facility on a bordering lot. The detention center would be at the corner of Route 739 and Pike County Boulevard in Blooming Grove Township.

Nationally, CCA houses approximately 75,000 offenders and detainees in more than 60 facilities, with a total bed capacity of more than 80,000, according to its website. The company, which is more than 25 years old, partners with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as states and local municipalities.

Read More...

The CA (Private)(Political) Prisoner Shuffle

Does anyone really find it surprising that the Governator is making good on debts owed on his way out the door? Private prisons played a huge part in putting him in office, of course he is agreeing to shipping prisoners willy-nilly around the country for no practical or fiscally responsible reason.

In 2009, Corrections Corp. of America contributed $100,000 to Budget Reform Now, the committee organized to campaign for six state budget-related measures supported by Schwarzenegger on a special election ballot in May. Six months later their contract extension worth $54 million a year to house prisoners out of state was approved by CDCR. I'd call that a rather nice return on their investment, wouldn't you?

Corrections Corp. donated $234,500 in 2007-08, and $38,900 that same year, to several members of the California Legislature and the state Democratic and Republican parties, according to its filings with the Secretary of State.The firm also reported spending about $45,000 for each of the three prior quarters on lobbyists in California.

How safe do you imagine it is to transport busloads of prisoners across several states? Am I the only one who thinks that shipping dangerous felons around might just increase the risk for escape or mayhem? Oh, but wait, GEOGroup/Wackenthut also operates a prison transport system - so for the price of a bloated, no bid contract paid for courtesy of hard working tax payers, they'll be more than happy to ensure safe shipping of prisoners nationwide!

We just aren't supposed to take notice of the fact that in a 2006 it was reported that of California’s seven private facilities, (labeled community correctional facilities), the GEO Group operates four of those, housing over 1,800 inmates. GEO Group has donated thousands of dollars in political contributions. GEO/Wackenhut Corrections gave $34,900 to California committees during the 2002-2004 election cycle. 

How astonishing then when, "In 2005, GEO Group, Inc. was tentatively awarded a $20 million contract to operate a San Joaquin Valley correctional facility," stated the Institute's report. 

"Wackenhut gave two Schwarzenegger committees a total of $58,000 in the latter part of 2003, including $36,800 to his committee supporting the recall of then-Governor Gray Davis. According to the (San Jose) Mercury News, GEO gave another $10,000 to a third Schwarzenegger committee."

Excerpts from today's SFGate -
"When California first signed contracts to ship prisoners over state lines four years ago, it began with 2,260 inmates at a cost of $51 million annually. Now, it is set to pay the companies $330 million a year to house 15,424 prisoners, and spend a total of $365 million once administrative costs are factored in. 

The latest deal will ship 5,800 inmates to private prisons across state lines, bringing the total to more than 15,000. The transfers will begin in May under a contract that runs through June 2013 - nearly halfway through the term of Gov.-elect Jerry Brown.
Critics of moving prisoners to out-of-state facilities say it does little to relieve the underlying problems that have caused crowded conditions and questioned the timing of the new, no-bid contracts with two private companies. One of the companies houses nearly 10,000 California prisoners.

"This is the governor doing what he wants to in the last minutes of his administration," said state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. "It is a way he can, on his watch, knock another 5,000 from the official numbers." 

Private Prison Lobbying Pays Off For CCA (And Others) In AZ

*Gasp* Oh my! How totally shocking! Brewer has numerous ties and connections to, uhm..who was that again, exactly? Oh! That's right, silly me! The private prison corporations like CCA. Having a prison industry lobbyist on your staff would certainly have no bearing whatsoever on decision like handing contracts to private prisons now would it? To be precise, her prison connections according to State lobbying records show two of her top advisers — her spokesman Paul Senseman and her campaign manager Chuck Coughlin — are former lobbyists for private prison companies.

A state commission studying privatization will likely recommend privatizing Arizona's parks and prisons as a way to help ease the state's budget deficit when it releases its full report in December.

KPHOChannel5

"This is one way to economize in a way that will cause the least amount of pain to the public," said Glenn Hamer, a member of Arizona's Commission on Privatization and Efficiency.
Gov. Jan Brewer created the commission to help Arizona save money.The state is currently facing a more than $1 billion budget deficit."This is 101 for good government to look for ways that you can save taxpayer dollars," said Hamer, who is also the president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Hamer said most of the commission's recommendations will be kept secret until the report is released, but he expects the report to recommend privatizing Arizona's state parks and privatizing more state prisons."Privatizing prisons is a still good deal for this state," said Hamer.The issue of privatizing prisons is controversial in Arizona.

Opponents -

"I think that's a horrible idea," said state representative Chad Campbell, D-District 14. "We should not be looking at privatizing more prisons. People escaped; people were killed and it was due to privatizing a very important government function without any accountability."
Campbell also said the commission's recommendations could result in thousands of state employees losing their jobs."I think we need to very cautious about how we about privatizing anything," he said. 

Full Story on KPHO

Staff Watches Over Empty Juvenile Detention Facility

Talk about waste in the government of New York.  Throwing 3 million dollars out the window should hurt, even for New York. Just think about all the other things that the money could be used for. This money is being spent so union employees wouldn't have to be transferred to another facility.

Here are some excerpts from the article

The sprawling campus north of Albany is empty except for 25 to 30 staffers. Each employee collects almost $90,000 a year with benefits.

The state tried to shut Tryon down. It moved young people to other facilities. But the New York law requiring union members at juvenile detention centers and prisons to get a year's notice kept it open. Now the empty detention center costs taxpayers $3 million year.

Throwing money away like this for the cause of not inconveniencing union employees is just wrong.  New Yorkers should be upset.  Besides the wages that they are having to pay how much does it cost New York State as well as the county of Fulton to keep the heat on for these union employees?  How much does it cost for the upkeep the buildings, the grounds clean, snow removal and trash pick up?

There are other staffing concerns. Only 661 juveniles are in the state system, and yet 2,134 state employees watch over them. The cost is huge: $228,000 a year to keep a kid in a secure facility and $298,000 in a non-secure facility. Cities and counties pay half.

Right now it costs $169 million to run these facilities and New York City pays a big share of that cost- a share that city officials like Probation Commission Vincent Schiraldi want to cut down.

Corporations Being Paid To Abuse Our Children

Another fine example of private prison cost cutting for profit. How many more children will be hurt before we realize the price of turning them over to corporations for curing is far too high and lives are needlessly being ruined.


"Among the named defendants in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of all the teenagers and young men in the facility, are the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority and the Geo Group, Inc., the second largest private prison company in the country. The facility houses youth between the ages of 13 and 22 who have been tried and convicted as adults.

“The Mississippi legislature established WGYCF with the hope that the young men housed there would be provided a second chance,” said Sheila Bedi, Deputy Legal Director of the SPLC. “Unfortunately, private prison companies prioritized their profits over the well being of Mississippi’s youth. As a result, the young men imprisoned in this facility endure unspeakable abuses at a tremendous cost to Mississippi’s taxpayers.”

The lawsuit describes a facility well known for its culture of violence and corruption –a culture that is perpetuated by WGYCF’s incompetent management. Some prison staff exploit youth by selling drugs inside the facility. Other staff members abuse their power by engaging in sexual relationships with the youth in their care.  Many youth have suffered serious and permanent physical injuries as a result of the WGYCF’s deficient security policies and violent staff members. Youth who are handcuffed and defenseless are kicked, punched and beaten all over their bodies. Youth secure in their cells are blinded with chemical restraints.

The private entities that operate WGYCF are paid based on the number of youth housed at WGYCF, which was constructed with over $41 million of taxpayer funding and opened its doors in 2001. Since then, the Mississippi legislature has tripled the size of the facility, leading to significantly increased profits for Geo Group"

Full Story on SPLC

Settlement Reached In Escapee Lawsuit Againt CCA

This woman did not have to suffer through this. This corporation should not be allowed to make a 'confidential settlement' and sweep this under the rug. How much did they pay to cover up the fact that they consistently fail to train their underpaid employees? Why do we not have the right to know?

Woman seized by escapee ends suit 
Hilliard couple's settlement with prison company halts jury trial

By John Futty 

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A woman who was held hostage by an escaped inmate at a Hilliard business in 2007 settled her lawsuit with a private-prison company and two guards yesterday after a week of testimony in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Karen Zappitelli and her husband, John, reached a confidential settlement with Corrections Corporation of America and the guards as the final witness for the couple was waiting to take the stand in the morning, said Rex Elliott, one of the couple's attorneys.

Full Story

Lawsuit Alleges Barbaric Conditions and Abuse Of Teens

Once again, a fine example of what our tax dollars are buying. How many children must we pay to damage? In our eagerness to provide a 'safe world' we have gone overboard on how harshly we punish children for petty, non-violent crimes. To allow our government to turn over the care of our children over to corporations who profit from 'punishing' them is not only morally reprehensible, it is waste of our tax dollars. 

Mandatory sentencing laws have removed all common sense from our juvenile justice system and the end result is that we are allowing corporations to breed more violent offenders to release back into society. The earlier a child is thrown in to detention, the higher the odds they will reoffend. When we allow children and teens to suffer abuse, the corporations responsible for the abuse (and hence, creating angry, violent young adults) to create 'repeat customers' for life and guarantee their profits. 

We need to bring back some common sense in this country and a good place to start would be helping our children and put an end to aiding corporations from over-punishing them for profit.

The Dispatch 

Lawsuit: 'Barbaric' conditions at Miss. youth correctional facility
The Associated Press
November 16, 2010 2:01:00 PM 

Excerpt - "The suit, which seeks class action status, names the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority, the GEO Group, Inc., which is contracted to operate the facility; Health Assurance, LLC; Walter Tripp, the facility's warden; Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps and Mississippi Education Superintendent Tom Burnham.

GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., and the agency officials declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

The complaint details allegations of inmates stripped naked and held in isolation weeks at a time; sick inmates denied proper health care and prison guards who were complicit in inmate fights that resulted in stab wounds and severe beatings, including one that left an inmate with permanent brain damage.

The suit also claimed handcuffed youth were kicked and punched by guards, while others secured in their cells were sprayed with chemical restraints.

The facility, which opened in 2001, is located in Leake County and houses some 1,200 inmates aged 13-22. More than half of the inmates are incarcerated for committing nonviolent offenses, the complaint states.

The complaint states that courts often require youth sentenced to the facility to complete their education while incarcerated, but most youth are denied access to basic education.

The suit said under staffing at the prison is one of the main problems, and cited reports from the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review and the MDOC Corrections Auditor that have also raised concerns about the issue.

Taxpayers pay the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority $14 million each year to operate the prison, according to the complaint. The suit alleges that in many parts of the prison only one guard is assigned to a zone, which could hold as many as 60 inmates.

"It has a strong financial incentive to imprison as many youth as possible on the cheap," Bedi said."

Full Article On The Dispatch

More GEO Group Complaints and Wrongdoings

Bidding Up GEO Group and ICE Contract

This couldn't possibly have anything to do with all of GEO Group's pending ICE contracts or the appointment of a GEO Group lobbyist to head up the US Marshall's Service which awards contracts for privately run detention facilities now could it? Nah...I'm sure there are no backroom deals going on and that the timing of this is just pure coincidence...
From Benzinga

Posted on 11/10/10 at 1:58pm by Chip Brian
Geo Group is in SmarTrend's Security industry and this industry is currently in an Uptrend according to our research. We are monitoring many other stocks on the move within this industry.
SmarTrend currently has shares of Geo Group in an Uptrend and issued the Uptrend alert on June 17, 2010 at $21.57. The stock has risen 16.9% since the Uptrend alert was issued.

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/press-releases/10/11/c599265/investors-bid-up-shares-of-geo-group-up-1-geo#ixzz15O89nsLj

Geo Group's Pending ICE Contracts

Now that GEO Group has succeeded in putting one of their spokesmen/puppeteers in place as head of the US Marshall's Service, they have a stronger chance of winning the *bid* for this contract...and many others as well. Small communities everywhere should be aware and not fall for the ruse of corrections for profit as a money saving endeavor. Communities who have fallen for it have paid a pretty hefty price in many cases.

From
By Beth Brelje

Pocono Record Writer

November 15, 2010 

GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut, wants to build and operate the detention center in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County. The operator says the center would house 2,250 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. The project, the company says, would provide 350 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced an interest in securing additional detention space in the Northeast, said ICE spokesman Mark Medvesky. Ideally, a detention system would reduce transfers and house people near the site of their apprehension, and close to legal services and hospitals.

"Counties, along with private companies with whom they may choose to partner, are drafting concept papers for ICE's consideration. These concept papers, developed by local jurisdictions, are not binding on ICE," Medvesky said in an e-mail to the Pocono Record. "No sites for the northeastern U.S. have been selected and no intergovernmental service agreements have been awarded."

Story Continues -

What if GEO Group doesn't get a contract from ICE, or decides to leave after the center is built?

"In Littlefield, Texas, the municipality had to dip into reserves to cover payments for about $1.2 million in bonds and other debt used to finance the Bill Clayton Detention Center," Smart Money magazine reported in September. "The bonds were issued in 2000, but the expected revenue stream evaporated when, after a prisoner suicide in 2008, the 310-bed private prison lost its contract to house out-of-state inmates. In 2009, GEO Group ended its operating agreement with the detention center, leaving it unoccupied."

In Pueblo, Colo., GEO Group initially promised to fund the building of a private prison for 500 state inmates and later demanded repeated changes in the deal. GEO wanted government financing and changed the size of the proposed prison.

"GEO demanded more money. It wanted either more money per inmate, or a revenue guarantee that amounted to $1 billion over 30 years for two prisons," according to a 2006 report by the Rocky Mountain News."

For more information about the impact of the proposed facility and for more background on GEO Group Read Full Article

Former CCA Guards Slam Prison, Culture of Violence

Another round of lawsuits for CCA. They must keep their in-house legal council working around the clock trying to clean up the messes that their cost and corner cutting operations continually make.

Hopefully the public will wake up and see what a rip-off private prisons are. Do you really, really want the people getting paid - with your tax money - cutting corners on staffing and security at a prison in your community? Prisons that operate for profit encourage these practices all the while not caring about the overall cost to communities. It pays for them to cut staff; to leave you, the public, open to higher risk because every dime they cut from their operating costs is used to line the pockets of overpaid CEOs.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Three former employees at Idaho's only private prison say staff routinely failed to protect inmates, and in some cases put inmates in situations knowing they'd be beaten by others.
The statements from the former Idaho Correctional Center guards are in affidavits filed in a federal lawsuit against the prison's operator, Corrections Corporation of America.
The lawsuit was filed against CCA last year by inmate Marlin Riggs, who was badly beaten in his cell.
The three former employees claim the prison is understaffed, and steeped in a culture of laziness and lack of concern for inmate welfare.
They say staff at the prison, referred to as "Gladiator School," frequently assigned inmates to cell blocks knowing they'd likely be beaten.
CCA has denied the allegations in the lawsuit and is asking a judge to dismiss it.