It looks like long-needed change has finally come to the children housed at Walnut Grove and their families, all of whom were victimized by the prison-industrial complex, and more specifically, by the profit motive inherent to the private prison industry. Judge Reeves, who approved the settlement, claims he will avidly enforce the agreement to ensure that no other children fall prey to the GEO Group.
The Michigan legislature is currently considering legislation that would allow a currently empty GEO Group facility to once again house prisoners; the bills passed the senate narrowly but not the house (yet). Under the legislation, a private prison operator would have to demonstrate savings of at least 10% in certain aspects of operations, so I assume this means no private prisons will open in Michigan (I kid, I kid! – they won’t care if it actually saves money).
In particular, the legislation would permit for the re-opening of a facility that used to house juveniles in Baldwin, MI (and which was for a time considered as a potential landing spot for those gitmo detainees that were supposed to have been transferred before Obama dropped the ball on that). The prison closed about 8 years ago because it cost too much, but now the Michigan legislature is convinced, for some reason, that it won’t cost so much. The bill doesn’t really seem to have any enforcement or accounting mechanism to ensure the state will save money (but that didn’t stop the Senate from passing it) and it doesn’t grant the Corrections Ombudsman permission to have any oversight of private prisons. In fact, it expressly denounces the state’s responsibility to provide oversight of private prisons. Because if there’s something an industry that’s been a proven failure for 3 decades needs, it’s less oversight.
Long story short, they tried to force it through as a budget amendment last year, which the state supreme court ruled unconstitutional. The head of the DOC lost his job for opposing that measure, because hey, who’s the head of the department of corrections to say that privatizing half the system is a bad idea? After that shady deal failed, they tried to pass it through the legislature, but that plan was shot down by a group of legislators that hadn’t been bought off by the industry. A state senator lost his chairmanship of a committee for opposing that measure. So you would think that this would probably be an indication to the pro-privatization lobby in the legislature that turning over control of 24 or so prisons maybe isn’t in the best interest of Floridians, and that they should just stop. Either that or all the evidence that came out showing the state hasn’t saved money from its past experiences with privatization, and that it would be on the hook for $25 million owed to state employees who would lose their jobs if the plan went through.
But no; privatization proponents know no bounds. They tried to, once again, insert the privatization as a last-minute budget amendment. That’s the same action that totally rubbed many people the wrong way, that had previously been ruled unconstitutional by the court. Thankfully, this measure was thwarted by some of the same politicians who have stood firm against the overwhelming influence of the industry, including Paula Dockery, who called the move “abhorrent.” Which is a far nicer term than I would have used.
This abuse of authority is sickening; CCA literally imprisoned people unlawfully in order to make more money. Welcome to the world of for-profit prisons!
I’ll spare everyone a summary of what’s been happening in the Florida legislature over the past two sessions (see here, here, and here, or just search for “Florida” to catch up); instead, I’ll just try to continue to update what I’d like to call CorruptionFest 2012. Again, I apologize in advance for the plethora of links to follow, but the news is coming so fast that I can’t keep up any other way.
So before I go off on a tangent here, I apologize for the litany of links to come. But the situation in Florida has quickly spiraled out of control and, seeing as I’m already weeks late on reporting this, I wanted to try to put together as much info here as possible. Enjoy!
I often try to figure out ways to convince people that private prisons are not in the best interest of anyone but executives of private prison companies. There are plenty of others out there like myself, trying to work with elected officials and concerned citizens to convince our legislators that continually giving billions of dollars to an industry whose very survival depends on locking up an ever-increasing segment of our population is morally reprehensible, and bad business to boot. But unfortunately, much of that activism seems for naught, as the anti-privatization movement’s resources and political relationships pale in comparison to the influence built up by the privateers.
Take for example Broderick Johnson, lobbyist extraordinaire who was paid more than $1 million to lobby to get TARP passed on behalf of the major financial institutions that destroyed our economy. He has also worked for such socially conscious organizations as Talx Corp (which helps employers challenge unemployment claims), Comcast, and the GEO Group. Mr. Johnson also happens to be a senior adviser to President Obama, whose immigration policies have been, if not an expansion, at least the continuation of the compassionate and sensible policies of his esteemed predecessor.
So Obama’s got a former GEO Group lobbyist working as a senior adviser. He also appointed a former employee of the GEO Group and CCA, Stacia Hylton, as director of the US Marshal’s Service, a federal agency in control of millions of dollars worth of private prison contracts. I guess it should come as no surprise that the GEO Group was awarded a contract in excess of $235 million to house immigration detainees, despite decades of evidence proving the company can’t operate a prison efficiently and that it seems incapable of treating its wards with basic human decency.
Very quickly, I just wanted to call attention to a riot that took place in a GEO-Group operated jail in Australia, which has experienced many of the same troubles in privatizing prisons that we have. Some of the younger prisoners in the jail have taken officials hostage, revolting over conditions at the facility. 30 prisoners are involved in the crisis, which apparentlycould have been prevented had GEO not cut back on costs for maintenance and staff. In fact, conditions are so dismal at this jail that the prisoners rioted, in part, in order to try to get new toothbrushes. For Christ’s sake, GEO, you can’t give them toothbrushes? That would dig too deep into your bottom line? Maybe some of your CEO’s millions of dollars in annual compensation could have gone to providing these poor kids with a shred of decent treatment. Oh no, I guess all that money is needed for you to live in absurd luxury and purchase multi-million dollar homes.
Proposals to privatize health care and mental health care for prisoners have begun to meet resistance in both North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Let’s start with the NC situation, which really scares the crap out of me.
First is a quick read; a great little editorial discussing the drawbacks of privatization and how private vendors often fail to live up to the public’s expectations. According to the author, “the logic in privatizing the services falls short… Anticipated savings might be difficult to come by… state oversight would have to be not just maintained but intensified,” and the lack of competing bids calls the wisdom of the plan into question.
The community has started to pay attention as well. A town hall meeting was convened earlier this week at a church, where many residents expressed concerns about personal and public safety if the GEO Group starts providing mental healthcare for serious criminals.
Then there’s Pennsylvania, where Governor Tom Corbett wants to privatize liquor sales and has tossed around the idea of privatizing healthcare for state prisoners. Thankfully, that foolish plan has already met with opposition both from the general public, as nurses picketed in protest of the plan, and from local politicians. State Senator David Argall contends that the plan presents a serious risk to public safety, as would any plan in which instruments designed to promote public safety are turned over to the lowest bidder among companies with long histories of abuse and negligence.
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