the Prison Industry of America

[stillcool]

Over two thirds of the felons convicted in State courts were sentenced to prison or jail.

http://www.engaged-zen.org/articles/Kobutsu-Investing_in_Slavery.html
The Prison Industrial Complex in America: Investment in Slavery
by Venerable Kobutsu Malone, Osho
The United States Constitution Permits Prison Slavery and Involuntary Servitude
-------------------------------
The secure housing, minimal support, minimal medical care and feeding of 2.2 million people is a costly endeavor consuming billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer's money every year in America. Corporations are lined up to receive a portion of the public funds used to support the self-perpetuating incarceration industry. States such as California spend more public funds, tax dollars, your money, my money, on prisons than for education and schools
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Indeed, the correctional-industrial complex has been in such an accelerated boom cycle that J. Robert Lilly and Paul Knepper report that in 1986 Adtech Incorporated spun-off two subsidiary operations, the Correctional Development Corporation and American Detention Services Incorporated, and then in 1988 acquired Steel Door Industries, with the end result that profits rose from $10.3 million in 1987 to a remarkable $21.6 million in 1989. This doubling of profits is dwarfed by the 500% profit-growth over a five year period shown by Space Master Enterprises Incorporated (builders of pre-fabricated prison cells), which leapt from $12 million in 1982 to $60 million in 1987.

The largest network of prison labor is run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' manufacturing consortium, UNICOR. While paying inmate laborers entry-level wages of 23 cents an hour, UNICOR boasts of gross annual sales (primarily to the Department of Defense) of $250 million.

The correctional-industrial complex therefore relies on a sobering "joint venture" directly relating profits to increased incarceration rates for four kinds of "partners," only the first of whom are those seeking opportunities in prison construction. A second kind of partner stocks these prisons with stun guns, pepper spray, surveillance equipment, and other "disciplinary technology," corporations such as Adtech, American Detention Services, the Correctional Corporation of America and Space Master Enterprises. A third partner finds a state-guaranteed mass of consumers for food and other services in the prisoners themselves, such as Campbell's Soup and Szabo Correctional Services. The fourth partner can be any private industry or state-sponsored program that stands to gain from paying wages that only nominally distinguish captive forced labor from slavery. In this last category, an example of the former is Prison Blues and of the latter is UNICOR which uses prisoners to produce advanced military weaponary.

Captive Labor
America's Prisoner's As Corporate Workforce
By Gordon Lafer The American Prospect, 1 September 1999
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2244
When most of us think of convicts at work, we picture them banging out license plates or digging ditches. Those images, however, are now far too limited to encompass the great range of jobs that America's prison workforce is performing. If you book a flight on TWA, you'll likely be talking to a prisoner at a California correctional facility that the airline uses for its reservations service. Microsoft has used Washington State prisoners to pack and ship Windows software. AT&T has used prisoners for telemarketing; Honda, for manufacturing parts; and even Toys "R" Us, for cleaning and stocking shelves for the next day's customers.

During the past 20 years, more than 30 states have enacted laws permitting the use of convict labor by private enterprise. While at present only about 80,000 U.S. inmates are engaged in commercial activity, the rapid growth in America's prison population and the attendant costs of incarceration suggest there will be strong pressures to put more prisoners to work. And it's not hard to figure what corporations like about prison labor: it's vastly cheaper than free labor. In Ohio, for example, a Honda supplier pays its prison workers $2 an hour for the same work for which the UAW has fought for decades to be paid $20 to $30 an hour. Konica has hired prisoners to repair its copiers for less than 50 cents an hour. And in Oregon, private companies can "lease" prisoners for only $3 a day.

But the attractions of prison labor extend well beyond low wages. The prison labor system does away with statutory protections that progressives and unions have fought so hard to achieve over the last 100 years. Companies that use prison labor create islands of time in which, in terms of labor relations at least, it's still the late nineteenth century. Prison employers pay no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no payroll or Social Security taxes, no workers' compensation, no vacation time, sick leave, or overtime. In fact, to the extent that prisoners have "benefits" like health insurance, the state picks up the tab. Prison workers can be hired, fired, or reassigned at will. Not only do they have no right to organize or strike; they also have no means of filing a grievance or voicing any kind of complaint whatsoever. They have no right to circulate an employee petition or newsletter, no right to call a meeting, and no access to the press. Prison labor is the ultimate flexible and disciplined workforce.

All of these conditions apply when the state administers the prison. But the prospect of such windfall profits from prison labor has also fueled a boom in the private prison industry. Such respected money managers as Allstate, Merrill Lynch, and Shearson Lehman have all invested in private prisons. As with other privatized public services, companies that operate private prisons aim to make money by operating corrections facilities for less than what the state pays them. If they can also contract prisoners out to private enterprises—forcing inmates to work either for nothing or for a very small fraction of their "wages" and pocketing the remainder of those "wages" as corporate profit—they can open up a second revenue stream. That would make private prisons into both public service contractors and the highest-margin temp agencies in the nation.
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2244

Toxic Recycling
by ELIZABETH GROSSMAN
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051121/grossman
Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.

About ten miles northwest of Merced, amid the dairy farms and orchards of California's San Joaquin Valley, sits the Atwater Federal Penitentiary, its tower and low-slung buildings the same mustard yellow as the dry fields that stretch out beyond the chain-link fence and concertina wire toward the Sierra Nevadas. Inside this maximum-security prison, inmates smash computer monitors with hammers, releasing dust that contains lead, cadmium, barium and other toxic substances. These inmates are employed by the electronics recycling division of Federal Prison Industries (better known as UNICOR). With sales that have nearly tripled since 2002, electronics recycling is UNICOR's fastest-growing business. But according to reports from prisons where this work is being done and interviews with former inmates employed by UNICOR, it's taking place under conditions that pose serious hazards to prison staff and inmates--and, ultimately, to the rest of America and the world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"UNICOR's program is labor intensive, so capital machinery and equipment expenses are minimized, this helps keep prices low," says a company brochure. With a captive workforce UNICOR's electronics recycling program can afford to be labor intensive. Because it is run by the Bureau of Prisons, UNICOR does not have to pay minimum wages--recent wages were $0.23 to $1.15 an hour--or provide benefits. Though UNICOR is not taxpayer supported, its pay scale would not be possible without taxpayer support of the inmates.

Key financials for Federal Prison Industries, Inc.
Company Type Government Agency
Fiscal Year-End September
2005 Sales (mil.) $833.6
1-Year Sales Growth (5.2%)
2005 Net Income (mil.) $64.5
1-Year Net Income Growth 1.4%
2005 Employees 19,720
1-Year Employee Growth 2.0%

CEO Harley G. Lappin
COO Steve Schwalb
Controller Bruce Long

HARLEY G. LAPPIN
DIRECTOR
FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS
Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons on April 4, 2003. He is a career public administrator in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the seventh Director of the Bureau since its establishment in 1930. He is responsible for the oversight and management of the Bureau’s 114 institutions and for the safety and security of the more than 193,500 inmates under the agency’s jurisdiction.

http://www.unicor.gov/
The Services Business Group has a full range of services to meet your labor needs. Our goal is to be the #1 source for services to Federal Government, federal contractors, and commercial firms.
Fleet Management & Vehicular Components
Federal Prison Industries provides a full array of customized fleet modernization programs ranging from tactical vehicle & vehicular components remanufacturing (RESET), commercial vehicle upfitting and de-retrofitting to web-based fleet asset services for fleets ranging from fifty to thousands of vehicles.FPI has been a premium provider of fleet management and vehicular components remanufacturing services to the federal government since 1997. It has a unique understanding of the federal environment working closely with Armed Services, Defense Department and Homeland Defense agencies and broad experience across DoD and civilian agency fleets.
The Industrial Products Business Group provides a diverse product offering.

The Office Furniture Business Group offers a full range of office furniture options,
from reception areas to executive suites.

UNICOR's unique, full service recycling program is an integrated part of a national e-scrap solution. UNICOR's commitment to the environment extends to its vendors, who are required to sign no-landfill certifications, follow a restrictive export policy, and agree to site inspections.
The Clothing and Textiles Business Group provides a wide assortment of products from a variety of materials. These include products for medical, military apparel, law enforcement, and lodging needs.
UNICOR/FPI Electronics Group
UNICOR/FPI's nationwide network of factories are fully equipped and staffed to manufacture electronics and electrical products for the most demanding military, federal agency and commercial us

Blockhouse/UNICOR Partnership
Blockhouse Inc.- A manufacturer and marketer of dormitory and quarters furniture, will be UNICOR's agent for sales and marketing, field representation, customer service, delivery coordination and scheduling, invoicing, performing installation, GSA packaged room, and collaboration on advertising and ongoing product development for dormitory and quarters furniture.
Filtration Services, Inc.Filtration Services is an industrial filter distributor and filtration service company. We have over 10 years experience representing 6 major manufacturer's product lines. In addition to servicing offices, schools, medical facilities, manufacturing and painting operations; we recently teamed with UNICOR to provide federal government facilities throughout the U.S. with office and commercial air filter services meeting requirements unique to federal government sites
Nightingale - Since 1928, Nightingale's mission is to design and manufacture office seating solutions that are extremely comfortable, ergonomic, affordable, and are build to last with quality materials and workmanship. The design award winning XO Series of office chairs offers a new standard for ergonomic mesh seating.
HumanScale - Their mission is to design and manufacture products that encourage computer users to adopt low-risk body postures - creating a healthier, more comfortable and more productive work environment. The freedom office chair offers a revolutionary advancement in the area of ergonomic seating.
OEI - Office systems furniture specialists, offering product lines from basic workstations to designer components, in up-to-date fabrics and privacy paneling.
Titmus Brand Prescription Eyewear Frames Titmus is the largest manufacturer of prescription protective eyewear in the world. Since 1958, Titmus has produced prescription and safety prescription frames in fashionable, yet durable styles. UNICOR manufactures prescription lenses and then assembles lenses and frames. Various quality checks are completed before shipping prescription glasses. Titmus also maintains a nationwide network of over 5,000 Optometrists which is available to UNICOR's customers for selecting frame styles and fitting.
Systems 290 Signage-2/90 Sign Systems is the flexible response to the demand for modular interior and exterior facility signage.

This is from a dated Congressional Hearing, sorry...I forgot to add the date but thought the mandated Board of Directors was interesting

STATEMENT OF JOSEPH M. ARAGON, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, UNICOR, FEDERAL PRISON INDUSTRIES, PRESIDENT, ProServ CORP., AURORA, COLORADO

Mr. Aragon. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the opportunity to be here to provide the Federal Prison Industries Board of Director's perspective on these matters.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Again, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak here today. I want to offer particular thanks to two Congressmen from my home state of Colorado. Mr. Schaffer, and Mr. Tancredo, who I am proud to say is my Congressman, thank you for being here, sirs. Mr. Chairman, I will refer to Federal Prison Industries as either FPI or our trade name, UNICOR.

I serve as the Chairman of FPI's Board of Directors, a board that the President of the United States appointed me to approximately 6 years ago. By way of introduction, let me first provide with you a brief overview of the Board of Directors. Pursuant to Federal statute, FPI's Board of Directors is composed of six members representing industry, labor, agriculture, retailers and consumers, the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General. The board consists of a wide variety of accomplished individuals each of whom have been appointed by this President and serve without compensation.
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/edu/hedo&i6-133.000/hedo&i6-133.htm

A Report on the Injustice System in the USA
Written by: Pauline (a contributing writer to IPFG’s Publication; Payaam Fadaee)
Published in Payame Fadaee, Spring edition 2002
http://www.ashrafdehghani.com/articles-english/on%20prison.htm
The US ruling class has established the largest forced labour sweatshop system in the world. There are now approximately 2 million inmates in US prisons compared to 1 million in 1994. These prisoners have become a source of billions of dollars in profits. In fact, the US has imprisoned a half million more people than in China which has 5 times the population. California alone has the biggest prison system in the Western industrialized world. It has more prisoners than France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and Holland combined while these countries have 11 times the population of California. According to official figures, Iran incarcerates 220 citizens per 100,000, compared to US figures of 727. Overall, the total "criminal justice" system in the US, including those in prison, on parole and on probation, is approaching 6,000,000. In the last 20 years, 1000 new prisons have been built; yet they hold double their capacity.

Prisoners, 75% of who are either Black or Hispanic, are forced to work for 20 cents an hour, some even as low as 75 cents a day. They produce everything from eyewear and furniture to vehicle parts and computer software. This has lead to thousands of layoffs and the lowering of the overall wage scale of the entire working class. At Soledad Prison in California, prisoners produce work-shirts exported to Asia as well as El Salvadoran license plates more cheaply than in El Salvador, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. A May/99 report in the Wall Street Journal summarized that while “more expensive private-sector workers may lose their jobs to prison labour, assigning work to the most cost-efficient producer is good for the economy.” The February/00 Wall Street Journal reported “Prisoners are excluded from employment calculation. And since most inmates are economically disadvantaged and unskilled, jailing so many people has effectively taken a big block of the nation's least-employable citizens out of the equation.”

Federal Prison Industries (FPI) whose trade name is UNICOR exports prisoner-made products as well as selling them to all federal agencies as required by federal law. FPI manufactures over 150 different products in 99 factories in 64 prisons (with 19 new ones on the way) in 30 states. It is the federal government's 35th largest contractor, just behind IBM and is exempt from any federal workplace regulations.
FPI's prison workforce produces 98% of the entire US market for equipment assembly services, 93% of paint and artist brushes, 92% of all kitchen assembly services, 46% of all personal armour, 36% of all household furnishings and 30% of all headset/microphone/speakers, etc. RW. Feb/00 FPI consistently advertises for companies "interested in leasing a ready-to-run prison industry" especially following congressional testimony in 1996 that reported a "pent-up demand for prison labour." Meanwhile, shareholders profiting from prison labour consistently lobby for the legislation of longer prison sentences in order to expand their workforce. At least 37 states have legalized the contracting out of prison labour to private corporations that have already set up operations inside state prisons. Prisons' business clients include: IBM, Boeing, Motorola Microsoft, AT&T Wireless, Texas Instruments, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom, Revlon, Macys, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, etc.
----------------------------------
California, with the third largest penal system in the world after China and the US as a whole, spends more on prisons than on the entire educational system. In recent years, California's university and college system cut back 8,000 employees while its Department of Corrections added 26,000. CA has built 19 prisons vs. 1 university in the past 10 years. The state spends up to $60,000 per year to incarcerate a young person, while only spending $8,000 per year to educate the same youth. Politicians in the state debate whether the death penalty should be applied to 13-year-olds or whether it should be applied "only" to those 14 and up. And new proposals to construct mega-prisons that would hold up to 20,000 inmates each is ‘justified’ by David Myers, West Coast regional president of the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison corporation in the US. He told a reporter that he is building 3 new prisons entirely on speculation because "If you build it in the right place, the prisoners will come. RW. Dec/00 In 1994, California passed a "three strikes and you're out" law. That law alone led to the need for 20 new prisons just to handle the increase in inmates. Over 30,000 people in CA have been sentenced to double the normal sentence under the "second-strike" provision of the law and the California Department of Corrections has published statistics documenting 62% of third-strike convictions are for non-violent offences. During the 17 years leading up to 1994 (when three strikes went into effect), the California legislature passed more than 1,000 bills lengthening sentences or defining new crimes. Not surprisingly, these same years showed a 600% increase in California's prison population - from 19,000 to 159,000 where over 70% of the prisoners are Black, Latino or of other oppressed nationalities. The law rules that two prior felony convictions mandates 25 years to life for a third conviction no matter what the prescribed sentence for that third offence. Third offenders have been given that sentence for shoplifting a pair of pants, stealing a bicycle or merely a piece of pizza. Between 1994-95, 24 states and the federal government itself followed CA’s example by also legislating the new "three strikes" laws. Among the victims of this relatively new law are 80% of the women in California's prisons who are there for non-violent offences including those at the prison complex at Chowchilla which according to California Prison Focus, is the largest women's prison in the world. In Dec/96, Human Rights Watch released a 347-page report documenting the sexual abuse of women in state prisons.

Prisoners Under State or Federal Jurisdiction
12/31/2004--U.S. Total ,"1,496,629"--Federal ,"180,328"--State ,"1,316,301"
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p04.htm
Northeast ,"170,982
Connecticut,"19,497"
Maine ,"2,024"
Massachusetts,"10,144"
New Hampshire,"2,448"
New Jersey ,"26,757"
New York ,"63,751"
Pennsylvania ,"40,963"
Rhode Island,"3,430"
Vermont,"1,968"
Midwest ,"250,599"
Illinois ,"44,054"
Indiana,"24,008"
Iowa,"8,525"
Kansas,"8,966"
Michigan,"48,883
Minnesota,"8,758"
Missouri,"31,081"
Nebraska,"4,130",
North Dakota,"1,327"
Ohio,"44,806"
South Dakota ,"3,095"
Wisconsin,"22,966"
South ,"599,080",
Alabama,"25,887"
Arkansas,"13,807"
Delaware ,"6,927"
Dist. of Columbia/a,2004,2003,2002,2001,(2000-"7,456")
Florida,"85,533"
Georgia ,"51,104"
Kentucky ,"17,814"
Louisiana,"36,939"
Maryland ,"23,285"
Mississippi,"20,983"
North Carolina ,"35,434",
Oklahoma,"23,319"
South Carolina ,"23,428"
Tennessee,"25,884"
Texas ,"168,105",
Virginia ,"35,564",
West Virginia ,"5,067"
West ,"295,640"
Alaska ,"4,554"
Arizona,"32,515"
California,"166,556"
Colorado ,"20,293"
Hawaii,"5,960"
Idaho,"6,375",
Montana ,"3,877"
Nevada,"11,365"
New Mexico ,"6,379"
Oregon ,"13,183"
Utah ,"5,989",
Washington ,"16,614"
Wyoming,"1,980"
"Note: Definitions of terms and notes pertaining to individual jurisdictions can be found in ""Prisoners in 2004"" which can be located at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p04.htm .",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
--Responsibility for sentenced felons was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

In 1985 one out of every 320 Americans were in jail.
In 1995 one out of every 167 Americans were in jail.
Between1980 and 1994, the number of people in federal and state prisons increased 221%.
Today, 2 million Americans are in prison.
1.2 million are African-American men.

While there is debate over their underlying causes, these staggering statistics are generally thought to result from rigid drug laws, mandatory minimum sentences and increasingly tough legislation— such as California’s "three strikes" law. One fact remains undisputed: prisons have become big business.
-------------------
Prison Partners
In the tiny town of Lockhart, Texas a private prison run by Wakenhut (a for-profit private corporation) does business with a company called LTI. In this partnership the prisoners assemble circuit boards bound for hi-tech corporations. For LTI, moving manufacturing to the Lockhart prison was a no-brainer. There they found a captive workforce that did not require benefits or vacation pay, major tax incentives and a brand new assembly plant rented for only a symbolic fee. As a result, LTI’s plant in Austin, Texas was shut down and 150 people lost their jobs. In Michigan, through a similar arrangement, the majority of Brill Manufacturing Company’s workforce lost their jobs to state prison inmates.
http://www.itvs.org/shift/prison.html

Army Regulation 210–35
Installations
Civilian Inmate
Labor Program
AR 210–35
Civilian Inmate Labor Program
This rapid action revision dated 14 January 2005--
o Assigns responsibilities to Headquarters, Installation Management Agency
(para 1-4j).
o Makes administrative and editorial changes (throughout).
o Provides Army policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor
programs and civilian prison camps on Army installations.
o Discusses sources of Federal and State civilian inmate labor.
http://www.illuminati-news.com/pdf/prison_camps.pdf

[Faux pas]

1. Just a note regarding Calif inmate count, they only count

those who are actually using bed space. The inmates who are on buses being transported btwn institutions are not part of the actual count. There are a lot more inmates than the numbers show.

[stillcool]

3. This prison stuff is getting as big...

as the Pentagon...with just as much over-sight. Scary.

[Faux pas]

5. It's pretty scary alright. I know that some of the Calif prisons

have 'joint venture' projects where the inmates get paid more than minimum wage. They give a third to restitution, a third to room and board and a third they get to keep. That seems more fair than the slave labor idea. But it's seriously sad that prison industries ar such big mostly all profit concerns. Doesn't seem quite right to me, but then no one asked my opinion. LOL

[stillcool]

2. California...

http://explorer.altopix.com/map/2vgjlb/Twin_Towers_Correction_Facility.htm
Twin Towers Correction Facility
The Largest Prison in the World
Location: United States, California, Los Angeles
Longitude: -118°13'49"
Latitude: 34°3'34"
Date: 2005 Jul 26, 21:19

[stillcool]

4. The Geo Group

Profile
The GEO Group (NYSE: GEO) is a world leader in the delivery of diversified services to government agencies around the globe
Stock Quote
GEO (Common Stock)
Exchange NYSE (US Dollar)
Price $49.95
Change (%) Stock is Up 0.61 (1.24%)
Volume 39,600
http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/whatwedo.asp
GEO GROUP
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
621 NW 53rd Street, Suite 700
Boca Raton, Florida 33487
United States
Phone: [phone]
NORTH AMERICAN SERVICES
We are a world leader in the privatized development and/or management of correctional facilities. The North American market is growing rapidly, and we are focused on expanding Federal procurement opportunities. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is operating over capacity and Federal law now authorizes longer term contracts than ever before, resulting in more favorable financing alternatives for new privatized development.

OWNED FACILITIES LEASED TO OTHER PROVIDERS
GEO currently owns two facilities and leases them to other correctional services providers:

* Delaney Hall, located near Neward, New Jersey, a 790-bed facility leased to Community Educational Centers (CEC).

* Mesa Verde Community Correctional Facility, located in Bakersfield, California, a 360-bed facility leased to Cornell Companies.

Corporate Governance - Director & Officer Ownership
Name Total Held
Bulfin John J - SVP & General Counsel 0
Calabrese Wayne H - President and COO 20,000
Carlson Norman A - Director 1,000
Civiletti Benjamin R - Director 9,000
Dibona Jr G Fred - Director N/A
Dominicis Jorge A - SVP Mental Health Services 5,822
Evans Brian - VP, Chief Accounting Officer 4,314
Foreman Anne N - Director 2,000
Glanton Richard H - Director 2,000
Group 4 Falck As - Beneficial Owner (10% or more) 0
Hurley John - President - U.S. Corrections 0
Keens Donald H - President - Intl Services 0
Maddux Ron - VP Business Development 4,314
Martin Amber D - Vice President, Contracts 0
Murphy William M - Director
Orourke John G - SVP & Chief Financial Officer 0
Palms John M - Director 2,000
Perzel John M - Director 2,000
Watson David N T - VP, Finance & Treasurer 2,700
Wierdsma Thomas M - SVP - Project Development
Zoley George C - Chairman & CEO 52,322
* Represents ownership of less than 1% of total shares outstanding.
North American Facilities:
ALLEN CORRECTIONAL CENTER Kinder, Louisiana
ARIZONA STATE PRISON - FLORENCE WEST Florence, Arizona
ARIZONA STATE PRISON - PHOENIX WEST Phoenix, Arizona
AURORA ICE PROCESSING CENTER Aurora, Colorado
BILL CLAYTON DETENTION CENTER Littlefield, Texas
BRIDGEPORT CORRECTIONAL CENTER Bridgeport, Texas
BRONX COMMUNITY RE-ENTRY CENTER Bronx, New York
BROOKLYN COMMUNITY CORRECTIONAL CENTER Brooklyn, New York
BROWARD TRANSITION CENTER Deerfield Beach, Florida
CENTRAL ARIZONA CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Florence, Arizona
CENTRAL REGIONAL OFFICE New Braunfels, Texas
CENTRAL TEXAS DETENTION FACILITY San Antonio, Texas
CENTRAL VALLEY MODIFIED COMMUNITY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY McFarland, California
CLEVELAND CORRECTIONAL CENTER Cleveland, Texas
COKE COUNTY JUVENILE JUSTICE CENTER Bronte, Texas
DESERT VIEW MODIFIED COMMUNITY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Adelanto, California
DICKENS COUNTY CORRECTIONAL CENTER Spur, Texas
EAST MISSISSIPPI CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Meridian, Mississippi
EASTERN REGIONAL OFFICE Charlotte, North Carolina
FORT WORTH COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS FACILITY Fort Worth, Texas
FRIO COUNTY DETENTION CENTER Pearsall, Texas
GEORGE W. HILL CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Thornton, Pennsylvania
GOLDEN STATE MODIFIED COMMUNITY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY McFarland, California
GRACEVILLE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Graceville, Florida
GUADALUPE COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Santa Rosa, New Mexico
GUANTANAMO BAY (GTMO) MIGRANT OPERATIONS CENTER FPO, AE 09593-88,
JEFFERSON COUNTY DOWNTOWN JAIL Beaumont, Texas
KARNES CORRECTIONAL CENTER Karnes City, Texas
LAWRENCEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER Lawrenceville, Virginia
LAWTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Lawton, Oklahoma
LEA COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Hobbs, New Mexico
LOCKHART SECURE WORK PROGRAM FACILITIES Lockhart, Texas
MARSHALL COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Holly Springs, Mississippi
McFARLAND COMMUNITY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY McFarland, California
MONTGOMERY COUNTY DETENTION FACILITY Montgomery, Texas
MOORE HAVEN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Moore Haven, Florida
NEW BRUNSWICK YOUTH CENTRE Miramichi, New Brunswick
NEW CASTLE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY New Castle, Indiana
NEWTON COUNTY CORRECTIONAL CENTER Newton, Texas
NORTH TEXAS INTERMEDIATE SANCTION FACILITY Fort Worth, Texas
NORTHWEST DETENTION CENTER Tacoma, Washington
QUEENS PRIVATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Jamaica, New York
REEVES COUNTY DETENTION COMPLEX Pecos, Texas
RIVERS CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION Winton, North Carolina
SANDERS ESTES UNIT Venus, Texas
SOUTH BAY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY South Bay, Florida
SOUTH TEXAS DETENTION COMPLEX Pearsall, Texas
SOUTH TEXAS INTERMEDIATE SANCTION FACILITY Houston, Texas
TAFT CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION Taft, California
TRI-COUNTY JUSTICE & DETENTION CENTER Ullin, Illinois
VAL VERDE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY & COUNTY JAIL Del Rio, Texas
WESTERN REGION DETENTION FACILITY AT SAN DIEGO San Diego, California
WESTERN REGIONAL OFFICE Carlsbad, California
WORLD HEADQUARTERS Boca Raton, Florida
http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/northamerica.asp?fid=19

[stillcool]

34. this is good...

SPY MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 1992
By 1966, Wackenhut could confidently state that it had secret files on 4 million Americans

Our sources confirm that Wackenhut has had a longstanding relationship with the CIA, and that it has deepened over the last decade or so. Bruce Berckmans, who was assigned to the CIA station in Mexico City, left the agency in January 1975 (putatively) to become a Wackenhut international-operations vice president. Berckmans, who left Wackenhut in 1981, told SPY that he has seen a formal proposal George Wackenhut submitted to the CIA to allow the agency to use Wackenhut offices throughout the world as fronts for CIA activities. Richard Babayan, who says he was a CIA contract employee and is currently in jail awaiting trial on fraud and racketeering charges, has been cooperating with federal and congressional investigators looking into illegal shipments of nuclear-and-chemical-weapons-making supplies to Iraq. "Wackenhut has been used by the CIA and other intelligence agencies for years," he told SPY "When they {the CIA} need cover, Wackenhut is there to provide it for them." Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau was said to have rebuffed Wackenhut's efforts in the 1980s to purchase a weapons-propellant manufacturer in Quebec with the remark "We just got rid of the CIA—we don't want them back." Philip Agee, the left-wing former CIA agent who wrote an expose of the agency in 1975, told us, "I don't have the slightest doubt that the CIA and Wackenhut overlap."
There is also testimony from people who are not convicts, renegades or Canadians. William Corbett, a terrorism expert who spent 18 years as a CIA analyst and is now an ABC News consultant based in Europe, confirmed the relationship between Wackenhut and the agency. "For years Wackenhut has been involved with the CIA and other intelligence organizations, including the DEA," he told SPY "Wackenhut would allow the CIA to occupy positions within the company {in order to carry out} clandestine operations." He also said that Wackenhut would supply intelligence agencies with information, and that it was compensated for this—"in a quid pro quo arrangement," Corbett says—with government contracts worth billions of dollars over the years.
We have uncovered considerable evidence that Wackenhut carried the CIA's water in fighting Communist encroachment in Central America in the 1980s (that is to say, during the Reagan administration, when the CIA director was former Wackenhut lawyer William Casey, the late superpatriot who had a proclivity for extralegal and illegal anti-Communist covert operations such as Iran-contra). In 1981, Berckmans, the CIA agent turned Wackenhut vice president, joined with other senior Wackenhut executives to form the company's Special Projects Division. It was this division that linked up with ex-CIA man John Philip Nichols, who had taken over the Cabazon Indian reservation in California, as we described in a previous article {"Badlands;" April 1992}, in pursuit of a scheme to manufacture explosives, poison gas and biological weapons—and then, by virtue of the tribe's status as a sovereign nation, to export the weapons to the contrast This maneuver was designed to evade congressional prohibitions against the U.S. government's helping the contrast Indeed, in an interview with SPY, Eden Pastora, the contras' famous Commander Zero, who had been spotted at a test of some night-vision goggles at a firing range near the Cabazon reservation in the company of Nichols and a Wackenhut executive, offhandedly identified that executive, A. Robert Frye, as "the man from the CIA." (In a subsequent conversation he denied knowing Frye at all; of course, in that same talk he quite unbelievably denied having ever been a contra.)
In addition to attempted weapons supply, Wackenhut seems to have been involved in Central America in other ways. Ernesto Bermudez, who was Wackenhut's director of international operations from 1987 to '89, admitted to SPY that during 1985 and '86 he ran Wackenhut's operations in El Salvador, where he was in charge of 1,500 men. When asked what 1,500 men were doing for Wackenhut in El Salvador, Bermudez replied coyly, "Things." Pressed, he elaborated: "Things you wouldn't want your mother to know about." It's worth noting that Wackenhut's annual revenues from government contracts—the alleged reward for cooperation in the government's clandestine activities—increased by $150 million, a 45 percent jump, while Ronald Reagan was in office. "You've done an awful lot of research," George Wackenhut said to me as I was leaving. "How would you like to run all our New York operations? "
IF THAT WAS THE EXTENT of Wackenhut's possible involvement in a government agency's attempt to circumvent the law, then we might dismiss it as an interesting footnote to the overheated, cowboy anti-Communist l980s. However, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida has been conducting an investigation into the illegal export of dual-use technology—that is, seemingly innocuous technology that can also be used to make nuclear weapons—to Iraq and Libya. And SPY has learned that Wackenhut's name has come up in the federal investigation, but not at present as a target.

http://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm

[stillcool]

35. jeepers I wish I could post this whole article..

However capable Wackenhut's detectives may have been at their work, George Wackenhut had two personal attributes that were instrumental in the company's growth. First, he got along exceptionally well with important politicians. He was a close ally of Florida governor Claude Kirk, who hired him to combat organized crime in the state, and was also friends with Senator George Smathers, an intimate of John F. Kennedy's. It was Smathers who provided Wackenhut with his big break when the senator's law firm helped the company find a loophole in the Pinkerton law, the 1893 federal statute that had made it a crime for an employee of a private detective agency to do work for the government. Smathers's firm set up a wholly owned subsidiary of Wackenhut that provided only guards, not detectives. Shortly thereafter, Wackenhut received multimillion-dollar contracts from the government to guard Cape Canaveral and the Nevada nuclear-bomb test site, the first of many extremely lucrative federal contracts that have sustained the company to this day.
The second thing that helped make George Wackenhut successful was that he was, and is, a hard-line right-winger. He was able to profit from his beliefs by building up dossiers on Americans suspected of being Communists or merely left-leaning—"subversives and sympathizers," as he put it—and selling the information to interested parties. According to Frank Donner, the author of Age of Surveillance, the Wackenhut Corporation maintained and updated its files even after the McCarthyite hysteria had ebbed, adding the names of antiwar protesters and civil-rights demonstrators to its list of "derogatory types." By 1965, Wackenhut was boasting to potential investors that the company maintained files on 2.5 million suspected dissidents—one in 46 American adults then living. In 1966, after acquiring the private files of Karl Barslaag, a former staff member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Wackenhut could confidently maintain that with more than 4 million names, it had the largest privately held file on suspected dissidents in America. In 1975, after Congress investigated companies that had private files, Wackenhut gave its files to the now-defunct anti-Communist Church League of America of Wheaton, Illinois. That organization had worked closely with the red squads of big-city police departments, particularly in New York and L.A., spying on suspected sympathizers; George Wackenhut was personal friends with the League's leaders, and was a major contributor to the group. To be sure, after giving the League its files, Wackenhut reserved the right to use them for its clients and friends.
Wackenhut had gone public in 1965; George Wackenhut retained 54 percent of the company. Between his salary and dividends, his annual compensation approaches $2 million a year, sufficient for him to live in a $$20 million castle in Coral Gables, Florida, complete with a moat and 18 full-time servants. Today the company is the third-largest investigative security firm in the country, with offices throughout the United States and in 39 foreign countries.
It is not possible to overstate the special relationship Wackenhut enjoys with the federal government. It is close. When it comes to security matters, Wackenhut many respects is the government. 1991, a third of the company's $600 million in revenues came from the federal government, and another large chunk from companies that themselves work for the government, such as Westinghouse. Wackenhut is the largest single company supplying security to U.S. embassies overseas; several of the 13 embassies it guards have been in important hotbeds of espionage, such as Chile, Greece and El Salvador. It also guards nearly all the most strategic government facilities in the U.S., including the Alaskan oil pipeline, the Hanford nuclear-waste facility, the Savannah River plutonium plant and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Wackenhut maintains an especially close relationship with the federal government in other ways as well. While early boards of directors included such prominent personalities of the political right as Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, General Mark Clark and Ralph E. Davis, a John Birch Society leader, current and recent members of the board have included much of the country's recent national-security directorate: former FBI director Clarence Kelley; former Defense secretary and former CIA deputy director Frank Carlucci; former Defense Intelligence Agency director General Joseph Carroll; former U.S. Secret Service director James J. Rowley; former Marine commandant P. X. Kelley; and acting chairman of President Bush's foreign-intelligence advisory board and former CIA deputy director Admiral Bobby Ray Inman. Before his appointment as Reagan's CIA director, the late William Casey was Wackenhut's outside legal counsel. The company has 30,000 armed employees on its payroll.

[hfojvt]

6. kick for an important topic

but I wish your first chart showed more of the huge increase in prison, probation and jail populations over the last two decades
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/41

[stillcool]

7. a little more...

This is a list of state prisons in Texas.It does not include federal prisons or county jails located in the state of Texas.

Polunsky Prison houses the male death row. Mountain View Prison houses the female death row. The execution chamber is housed at the Huntsville Prison.

* Allred Prison
* Bartlett State Jail
* Beto Prison
* Boyd Prison
* Bradshaw State Jail
* Bridgeport Prison
* Briscoe Prison
* Byrd Prison
* Central Prison
* Clemens Prison
* Clements Prison
* Cleveland Prison
* Coffield Prison
* Cole State Jail
* Connally Prison
* Cotulla Transfer Facility
* Dalhart Prison
* Daniel Prison
* Darrington Prison
* Dawson State Jail
* Diboll Prison
* Dominguez State Jail
* Duncan Transfer Facility
* Eastham Prison
* Ellis Prison
* Estelle Prison
* Estes Prison
* Ferguson Prison
* Formby State Jail
* Ft. Stockton Transfer Facility
* Garza East Transfer Facility
* Garza West Transfer Facility
* Gatesville Prison
* Gist State Jail
* Glossbrenner SAFPF
* Goodman Transfer Facility
* Goree Prison
* Gurney Transfer Facility
* Halbert SAFPF
* Havins State Jail
* Henley State Jail
* Hightower Prison
* Hilltop Prison
* Hobby Prison
* Hodge MROP
* Holliday Transfer Facility
* Texas State Hospital
* Galveston Medical
* Hughes Prison
* Huntsville Prison
* Hutchins State Jail
* Jester I SAFPF
* Jester III Prison
* Jester IV Psychiatric
* Johnston SAFPF
* Jordan Prison
* Kegans State Jail
* Kyle Prison
* Leblanc Prison
* Lewis Prison
* Lindsey State Jail
* Lockhart Prison
* Lopez State Jail
* Luther Prison
* Lychner State Jail
* Lynaugh Prison
* Mcconnell Prison
* Michael Prison
* Middleton Transfer Facility
* Montford Psychiatric
* Moore Prison
* Moore Transfer Facility
* Mt. View Prison
* Murray Prison
* Neal Prison
* Ney SAFPF
* Pack Prison
* Plane State Jail
* Polunsky Prison
* Powledge Prison
* Ramsey I Prison
* Ramsey II Prison
* Ramsey III Prison
* Roach Prison
* Robertson Prison
* Rudd Transfer Facility
* Sanchez State Jail
* Sayle SAFPF
* Scott Prison
* Segovia Transfer Facility
* Skyview Psychiatric
* Smith Prison
* Stevenson Prison
* Stiles Prison
* Telford Prison
* Terrell Prison
* Torres Prison
* Travis County State Jail
* Tulia Transfer Facility
* Vance Prison
* Wallace-Pack Prison
* Ware Transfer Facility
* Wheeler State Jail
* Willacy County State Jail
* Woodman State Jail
* Wynne Prison
* Young Medical Facility Complex
* Baten Parole Confinement Facility
* Bridgeport Parole Confinement Facility
* Central Texas Parole Confinement Facility
* El Paso Parole Confinement Facility
* Lockhart Parole Confinement Facility
* Mineral Wells Parole Confinement Facility
* North Texas Parole Confinement Facility
* South Texas Parole Confinement Facility
* West Texas Parole Confinement Facility

Florida Corrections Commission 1997 Annual Report
3.0 Out-of-State Inmates Housed In Private Correctional Facilities
3.1. BACKGROUND:
The Private Adult Correctional Facility Census, March 15, 1997, lists twelve states that contract with privately operated prisons in five states to house a portion of their inmate population. The five states are Texas, Arizona, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Concerns regarding recent experiences in Texas and Arizona relating to inmate disturbances and the escape of out-of-state inmates in private correctional facilities prompted a review of Florida's statutes and current contracts. Florida currently has five separate contracts for operating private correctional facilities.
---------------------------------------------------
3.2. FINDINGS:
Although Florida's current private correctional facilities house only state inmates, there is no specific statutory prohibition against a private firm acquiring land, constructing a facility, and contracting the entire facility to house out-of-state offenders in Florida. Additionally, the existing contracts that the CPC has entered into for the private operation of correctional facilities do not appear to limit the private firms to housing only Florida inmates.

The CPC contracts guarantee a 90 percent occupancy rate with a per diem compensation based upon that rate, and a reduced per diem based upon the number of inmates exceeding the 90 percent occupancy rate. However, the standard contract language does not preclude the potential for a private firm to contract the remaining 10 percent occupancy rate of the facility to house out-of-state inmates. A private firm may explore this potential, particularly if it can obtain a higher per diem, rather than the negotiated lower rate, for the remaining 10 percent occupancy rate of the facility.--------------------------------
The potential for private correctional facilities contracting to house out-of-state offenders in Florida may not be entirely negative as it would create new employment opportunities and may boost local economies. However, specific statutory, procedural, and liability safeguards would be necessary to regulate the practice and related sub-issues to ensure Florida's interests are not compromised.
DC's inmate wage deduction formula and distribution of earnings is as follows:

* 15% to the Crimes Compensation Trust Fund
* 15% for taxes
* 40% to the DC for room and board
* 10% to family or child support, if applicable
* 5% to restitution, fines or court costs
* 5% to an inmate savings account
* 10% to be available to the inmate

* Hawaii deducts twenty percent of gross inmate wages for room and board. Up to fifty percent of the room and board deductions from each PIE project can be redirected to the individual correctional institution that administers the project. All room and board funds are deposited in the Correctional Industries Revolving Fund and expenditures are authorized on a case-by-case basis. Generally, the expenditure of room and board funds must expand the institution's work programs or create new jobs. The expenditure of room and board funds is not governed by statute and these funds are used as approved by the director. The remaining fifty-plus percent is used to fund PIE positions and program expansion.

* Idaho deducts fifty percent of gross inmate wages for room and board. Forty percent of the room and board deductions from each PIE project is redirected to the individual correctional institution that administers the project. The expenditure of room and board funds is not governed by statute and these funds are used to offset the costs of separate security for workers. The remaining sixty percent is used to offset administrative costs and expand inmate work programs.

* Iowa deducts twenty-five percent of gross inmate wages for room and board. Forty-three percent of the room and board deductions from each PIE project is redirected to the individual correctional institution that administers the project. The expenditure of room and board funds is not governed by statute and these funds are used at the discretion of the warden. Room and board funds used in this fashion provide an incentive for wardens to participate in the program. The remaining fifty-seven percent is used to construct facilities to expand inmate work programs.

* Maryland deducts thirty percent of gross inmate wages for room and board. One hundred percent of the room and board deductions from each PIE project remains at the individual correctional institution that administers the project. Room and board, contributions to a crime victim compensation program, family support, deposits to savings and inmate disposable income are functions of the fiscal accounts unit of the applicable institutions. Taxes and legal obligations are deducted by Central Payroll. The expenditure of room and board funds is not governed by statute and these funds are used as approved by the warden and Commissioner of Correction.

* Nevada deducts twenty-nine and a half percent of gross inmate wages for room and board. Twenty-four and a half percent of the room and board deductions from each PIE project is redirected to the operating budget of the individual correctional institution that administers the project. Although wardens want PIE projects to reduce inmate idleness, the funds supplant the operating budget and do not provide an incentive for wardens to participate in PIE. The legislature reduces the State General Fund appropriation to the correctional institution by the amount that is projected to be deposited from PIE project room and board deductions. Should the actual total generated from room and board deductions exceed the projected amount, the correctional institution must revert the difference at the end of the fiscal year. The remaining five percent of the room and board deductions is directed to the Capital Improvement Fund, which is used to build facilities for PIE projects. This also does not provide an incentive, as the funds are not specific to the institution that generates them and are used throughout the system.
http://www.fcc.state.fl.us/fcc/reports/final97/97pie.html

[crikkett]

8. this is amazing stuff.

I've bookmarked this for reading this weekend.

Kick!

[RestoreGore]

9. kicking this

To speak against the privitization of our prison system which is state sanctioned slavery.

[karlrschneider]

12. More accurately, State OPERATED Slavery.

:grr:

[stillcool]

10. This to me...provides a clear view of..

of the goals and ideology of the government.

The circuitous route that money takes in all 'programs' to 'benefit' society is a well-worn path traveled through our history. I find it hard to believe there is a government program out there that does not benefit some business interest in some way.

[Joanne98]

11. Damn I missed it again!

:kick:

[stillcool]

13. Hey you....what can I say?

It must be me. I haven't been looking around much on this recently...but the GEO Group is international...they have prisons in Australia, and somewhere else. There list above shows Guantanamo on it...that was interesting. This business is way, way bigger than I had any idea. I guess with good reason.

[Joanne98]

17. I want to thank you so much for your research!

I got your PM but couldn't find your thread. Next time send me a link.

:pals:

[stillcool]

25. Duh...what was I thinking?..

thanks for the encouragement...:toast:

[Jcrowley]

14. Kick for info

[Jcrowley]

15. California to Address Prison Overcrowding With Giant Building Program

California to Address Prison Overcrowding With Giant Building Program
Max Whittaker for The New York Times


Gymnasiums have become dormitories, which are crowded, at the California State Prison in Sacramento.


Article Tools Sponsored By
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: April 27, 2007

LOS ANGELES, April 26 — In a move to ease chronic overcrowding, California lawmakers on Thursday approved the largest single prison construction program in the nation’s history and agreed to send 8,000 convicts to other states.

The plan, which would cost $8.3 billion and add 53,000 beds, has the strong backing of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who is eager to avert a federal takeover of the state’s prison system, one of the most dysfunctional in the nation.

California prisons are so overcrowded — 16,000 inmates are assigned cots in hallways and gyms — that the governor recently took the highly unusual step of declaring a state of emergency in the system. The state’s prisons house 173,000 inmates — far ahead of Texas, which has the next largest state prison system with 152,500 inmates — and has an $8 billion budget.

The California prisons are the subject of several lawsuits, their medical program is in federal receivership, and various other components of the system are under court monitoring. The courts had given the state until this spring to come up with an overpopulation plan or face possible receivership.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27prisons.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Joanne98]

19. The cowards. They bowed down to the prison guards union!

[stillcool]

16. Interesting Information...

http://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/prisintr.htm

[Joanne98]

20. snippet

There is no contradiction, however, between the facts that prisons are both hugely expensive and very profitable. Just like with military spending, the cost is public cost and the profits are private: it's yet another way of funneling public money into the pockets of the few richest.

[Joanne98]

18. kick

:yourock:

[Joanne98]

21. Lone Star Project Exposes Republican Failures in the Texas Youth Scandal

Video Testimony Confirms that Attorney Generals Abbott and Gonzales Ignored TX Youth Sexual Assault PDF
http://www.lonestarproject.net/archive/2007-03-09%20-%20TYC_Abbott.pdf

Who Did Rick Perry Appoint to Investigate the Texas Youth Commission Sex Scandal and Serve on the TYC Board?
March 8, 2007
http://www.lonestarproject.net/archive/2007-03-09%20-%20TYC_Perry-Kimbrough.pdf

[Joanne98]

22. kick

[ljm2002]

23. We need to get prisons OUT of the private sector!

It is just wrong to have privately run prisons.

Are there any organizations out there who focus on this issue?

[stillcool]

24. there are ...

like this one-http://www.stoppcoalition.org/
I just started checking this stuff out, because of the increasing number of news articles about pre-teens being sentenced to jail. What an eye-opener. It seems there are at least two separate industries. One being the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the director of which... is also the CEO of Federal Prison Industries Inc.,(FPI) trade name UNICOR. Much of what is written above pertains to that industry, which exports prisoner-made products as well as selling them to all federal agencies as required by federal law . This Federal Prison Industry has a board of directors mandated to include the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General.
Then there is the Private Prison Industry, which consists of companies who's business is building and operating prisons...here is a 1993 article that deals with that issue...

http://www.mediafilter.org/caq/Prison.html

Private Prisons: Profits of Crime
By Phil Smith
from the Fall 1993 issue of Covert Action Quarterly
Private prisons are a symptom, a response by private capital
to the "opportunities" created by society's
temper tantrum approach
to the problem of criminality.

Prison Prlvateers
The growing private prisons industry-several dozen companies contracting with state entities to provide and/or operate jails or prisons-is oligopolistic in structure. CCA and Wackenhut Corrections Corporation dominate the upper tier, control more than half the industry's operations, and run 29 minimum- and medium-security facilities with more than 10,000 beds. Beneath the big two is a tier of lesser players: a cluster of smaller regional companies, such as Kentucky-based U.S. Corrections Corporation and Nashville-based Pricor; and small corrections divisions of international concerns, including construction giant Bechtel Corporation. The boom has created a shadier realm of speculators ready to turn a quick profit from the traffic in convicts. Compared to the big three, these smaller companies are undercapitalized, inexperienced, understaffed, and are more likely to fail eventually. Run by hucksters, fast-talking developers, and snake-oil salesmen, they sell for-profit prisons-disguised as economic development-to depressed rural communities desperate to bolster their budgets and local economies. The pitch is simple: Prisons are overcrowded! Build a prison and the prisoners will come to you! You'll reap the benefits in terms of jobs and increased tax revenues! Reality is a bit more complex. Quirks in the federal tax codes remove exemptions for prison bonds if more than ten percent of prisoners are out-of-state, if state prison officials are reluctant to have their prisoners housed out-of-state, or if large cities with severe overcrowding are unwilling or unable to pay to transport local prisoners hundreds of miles. In short in the trade in convict bodies, supply and demand don't always match. Prisons built on a speculative basis are a risky venture-at least for the towns or counties involved; the speculators take their money off the top.

Wackenhut
Historically, this bottom tier has been the locus of most of the publicized problems and abuses. But although these bottom feeders attract "60 Minutes"-style scandal of banal corruption, it is in the top tiers that the most serious potential for abuse exists. Wackenhut, founded by former FBI of ficial George Wackenhut in 1954, is the largest and best known, as well as the oldest and most diversified. From its beginnings as a small, well-connected private security firm, Wackenhut has grown to a global security conglomerate with earnings of $630.3 million in 1992. Prison management is only the latest addition to its panoply of security and related services. When the Coral Gables, Florida-based firm first entered the prison business in 1987, it had one 250-bed INS detention center. It now operates 11 facilities in five states housing nearly 5,500 prisoners. Wackenhut maintains two medium security prisons in Australia and boasts of "prospects for additional facilities in the U.S., South America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim.'' While some of its competitors in the private repression industry have specialized-Pinkerton and Burns, for example, lead the "rent-a-cop" field-Wackenhut tries to cover all the bases. Its 1991 revenues reflect its corporate diversity: The private security division contributed 43 per cent; the international division, 22 percent; airport security services, 15 percent; contracts to guard nuclear installations and Department of Energy facilities, 10 percent; and, last but not least, private corrections contributed 10 percent. Given the high rate of return in its corrections division-10 percent compared to 1.8 percent overall-Wackenhut has indicated that it wants to see that area grow.

Corrections Corporation of America
Its closest rival is CCA, which despite its youth and small size compared to the Wackenhut empire, has emerged as the pioneer and the industry leader. But unlike Wackenhut, CCA -like the second tier companies such as Pricor, U.S. Corrections, Concepts, Inc., and Correction Management Af filiates-is almost completely dependent on private imprisonment for its revenues. Founded in 1983 by the investors behind Kentucky Fried Chicken, CCA used the sales skills of Nashville banker/ financier Doctor R. Crants and the political connections of former Tennessee Republican Party chair Tom Beasley- co-founders of the company-to win early contracts. The next year, CCA cut its first big deals: to operate INS detention centers in Houston and Laredo, and to run the Silverdale Workhouse (Hamilton County prison farm) in its home state, Tennessee. In the next nine years, CCA grew steadily to become the industry leader, with 21 detention facilities housing more than 6,000 prisoners in six states, the U.K., and Australia. Its profits are up by nearly 50 percent from its 1991 end-of-the-year figures.

Pricor
Once number three behind CCA and Wackenhut, Pricor has taken a different tack from its competitors. It carved out a specialized niche within the private prison industry by convincing underused county jails in rural Texas that they could profit by accepting inmates from overcrowded national and statewide prisons. After cutting its corporate teeth on juvenile education and detention and halfway houses, expan sion into adult prisons must have seemed a natural step. In 1986, its first year of adult prison operations, Pricor opened minimum security detention facilities totaling 170 beds in Alabama and Virginia. By 1990, the company looked west to Texas, with its seemingly unending supply of prisoners and profits. Soon, it operated or had contracts pending for six 500-bed county "jails for hire," mainly in underbudgeted and underpopulated West Texas, and also with one 190-bed pre release center operated under contract with the Texas Department of Corrections. Although Pricor, fueled by its West Texas operations, posted fiscal 1991 revenues of more than $30 million for its adult corrections division, its Texas project was in shambles by mid-1992.
http://www.mediafilter.org/caq/Prison.html

September 11, seems to have provided a huge boom to the private prison industry to house the influx of immigration detainees.

Surge of federal business helps private prison industry rebound from uncertain times
By David Crary
ASSOCIATED PRESS
10:37 a.m. July 30, 2005
NEW YORK – Though state governments are no longer fueling a private prison boom, the industry's major companies are upbeat – thanks in large measure to a surge of business from federal agencies seeking to house fast-rising numbers of criminals and detained aliens.

Since 2000, the number of federal inmates in private facilities – prisons and halfway houses – has increased by two-thirds to more than 24,000. Thousands more detainees not convicted of crimes are confined in for-profit facilities, which now hold roughly 14 percent of all federal prisoners, compared to less than 6 percent of state inmates.

Saddled with thousands of empty beds, CCA teetered near bankruptcy before new federal contracts helped it rebound. Since 2000, the Nashville, Tenn.-based company has doubled its number of federal prisoners to 18,200 – 29 percent of its overall inmate population.

"The federal government smiled on them just in time," said Judith Greene, a New York-based prison-policy analyst.

Business is certain to grow. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said the number of federal inmates is expected to rise from 185,000 to 226,000 by 2010, with private companies likely to be relied on for housing non-citizen immigrants convicted of federal crimes.

The number of people detained by U.S. immigration officials also is increasing rapidly – up three-fold in the past 10 years to more than 21,000 at a given time. In December, Congress passed a terrorism prevention bill calling for 40,000 additional beds by 2010 for aliens awaiting deportation.

Many of the detainees are housed at facilities run by CCA and its main rival, GEO Group – formerly Wackenhut. Both companies anticipate their detention business will grow.

About 30 states use private prisons, notably in the South and West. Texas has the most inmates in private facilities – more than 16,000; New Mexico has the highest portion of inmates in them – 43 percent.

Prison statistics: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/pjim04.htm
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050730-1037-privateprisons.html

[Laughing Mirror]

26. Great work stillcool. It's a huge national crime against humanity nobody talks about

Hard to believe your valuable information only got two recommendations.

[G_j]

27. we spend plenty of money on education, training in crime that is

what better place to learn than in prison?

criminal training camps

[Joanne98]

28. .............

:kick:

[Joanne98]

29. kick

[Dinger]

30. Very Important Information staycool47 K & R

This is sad indeed. They might even try to say this "rehabilitates," but we all know better, don't we?
Prisons are warehouses, not places where inmates who will (potentially/eventually) be released. Lots of them are. Now what happens (in the communities they are released to) when they are released? You can give hope, or you can kill hope, and live with the consequences.

[Joanne98]

31. kick

[Joanne98]

32. kick

[Joanne98]

33. This is very important stuff. Please keep kicked!

:boring: I have to go to bed!