An Eye on Crete

Just a few years ago, as Illinois folks scratched their heads about a privatized Chicago Skyway, for-profit parking meters, parking lots and more, there was real confidence that even though the move towards privatization was strong, prisons and detention centers would be safe because of the Private Correctional Facility Moratorium Act.

In 1990, the State of Illinois, with bi-partisan support, banned most privately run detention centers and prisons through the Moratorium Act.  The law has kept private prison giants Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group out of the Land of Lincoln.  Here is the text of that bill (730 ILCS 140/2) (from Ch. 38, par. 1582) :

Sec. 2. Legislative findings. The General Assembly hereby finds and declares that the management and operation of a correctional facility or institution involves functions that are inherently governmental. The imposition of punishment on errant citizens through incarceration requires the State to exercise its coercive police powers over individuals and is thus distinguishable from privatization in other areas of government. It is further found that issues of liability, accountability and cost warrant a prohibition of the ownership, operation or management of correctional facilities by for‑profit private contractors.

The Act states that “the State shall not contract with a private contractor or private vendor for the provision of services relating to the operation of a correctional facility or the incarceration of persons in the custody of the Department of Corrections or of the Department of Juvenile Justice.”

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) plans to change all of that in a proposed intergovernmental partnership between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Village of Crete.  The deal would build a 700-bed facility in that community. Because this would be a federal, not a state or local detention center, the state would not have jurisdiction.

Crete, known for its importance on the Underground Railroad, may become known for a less honorable kind of migration history. Crete may host the detention of immigrants by a for-profit prison corporation.  At a recent village board meeting some residents, in this community divided by the proposal, complained that the process has been secretive and that some information in the distributed literature had been blacked out.  Many of the attendees felt that the minimum-to-maximum security facility would strain their small village.

In a recently distributed FAQ, village officials explained the partnership.  An intergovernmental agreement would be established between Crete and ICE.  Crete would also enter into an agreement with CCA. CCA would be responsible for the construction, ownership and operation of the facility.

Yana Kunichoff at The Chicago Reporter is offering excellent reporting on the proposed detention center this week.   We’ll continue to follow this story closely.  As we do, let’s look at the relationships between CCA and those who are pushing this unneeded and unwanted facility.  And let’s make sure that the good citizens of Crete have all the information they need about for-profit detention centers.  This facility can be stopped.

Michigan May Re-open Troubled GEO Prison

Michigan state lawmakers are debating re-opening GEO Group’s prison in Baldwin.  This despite the fact that Michigan has a declining prison population and does not need additional prison capacity. According to a report by the Sentencing Project, Michigan saw a 12% decline in its prison population from 2006-2009 (one of the report’s authors, Judy Greene, tells us that the decline is now 14%).  This decline was ushered in by reforming strict drug sentencing laws and eliminating most mandatory minimum sentences.

The GEO Group’s Baldwin facility has a troubled history.  When the facility opened in 1999 as the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility (MYCF), a prison for youth sentenced to adult prison time, problems soon arose. State lawmakers held hearings to discuss allegations that the facility was not providing the adequate special education and behavioral support and that 95% of guards working at the prison had no previous corrections experience.[i]  The facility saw 33 attempted suicides in the first half of 2000, drawing further scrutiny from state officials.[ii]

In May 2005, a state released a damning audit of MYCF.  The report found that the daily cost of per prisoner at the Baldwin facility was higher than 33 of 37 other Michigan prisons, and that the DOC had not adequately measured the benefits of keeping juvenile prisoners in their own facility and was issuing too many “waivers” allowing youth prisoners of different security classifications to be housed together in an effort to maintain occupancy at the facility.  This policy increased “the safety risk to staff and prisoners”.  In fact, the facility had an average of 3.5 times as many serious misconducts as in other state facilities.[iv]

Resistance is growing to re-open MYCF as GEO’s North Lake Correctional Facility.  A report issues last week by a coalition of Michigan labor groups further calls into question the ability of GEO or other private prison corporations to operate safe facilities or save the state money.  And, civil rights and faith organizations are fighting back against the privatization effort.

We’ll keep you posted on developments from Michigan.

[i] Amy Franklin, “Lawmakers hear testimony about problems at juvenile prison,” The Associated Press, August 23, 2000.

[ii] “Suicide attempt figures spur punk prison foes; The youth prison recorded 33 suicide attempts in the first half of 2000 compared to 12 in the first five months of 1999,” Grand Rapids Press, August 25, 2000.

[iii] Corrections officer sentenced for aiding in escape, The Associated Press, November 14, 2002.

[iv] Office of the Auditor General, Performance Audit of the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility, May 2005.

Bi-partisan support kills prison privatization sweetheart deal in Florida

Valentine’s Day the Florida state Senate killed Senate Bill 2038: Privatization of Correctional Facilities, which would have instigated the largest mass privatization of prisons in the nation’s history. Private corrections corporations gave Florida lawmakers almost $900,000 in the last campaign cycle. Florida lawmakers pulled out all the stops – trying to bypass both public and media scrutiny – to get it passed. In an extraordinary move, nine Republicans broke ranks, defied their leadership and joined with their Democratic colleagues to stop the bill.

Privatized Prison Bill

SB 2038 was fast tracked through the Senate. Despite powerful testimony against the bill in the Rules Committee, it was rushed through to the Budget Committee – circumventing the committees that would ask the hard questions about this legislation.  Senate President Mike Haridopolos thought he had the votes he needed.  But a second reading saw a handful from his own party questioning the bill.  And it all fell apart.

Haridopolos fired Senator Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, from his chairmanship of the budget panel in charge of prisons because Fasano dared to suggest an amendment that would require real study and real thought about this unprecedented move. Fasano publicly stated that SB2038 was payback to GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, which flooded the last campaign cycle with so much corporate money.  And, he called Haridopolos a bully.

The once-smug Senate President scrambled for support, scrounging for the 21-senate votes he needed in order to deliver to the multi-million-dollar private prison corporations what had been promised – and paid for.

And then on Valentine’s Day, senator after senator stood up with courage and tenacity and voted “no”.  They stood up for public safety and against human freedom becoming a commodity to be bought and sold.  They stood against the lobbying of a multi-billion dollar industry and they stood with the four thousand state workers who would have lost their jobs in the privatization. The bill was defeated.

On the same day, the CCA, Corrections Corporation of America, through its Corrections Investment Initiative, offered to buy Florida prisons in a public-private partnership in which CCA would assume ownership and management of existing facilities, with guaranteed occupancy rates and payments.  The ink was barely dry on the defeat of SB 2038, when the industry found and offered a new scheme to profit on incarceration in Florida.

The bill is dead.  But the movement to expand into the prison market is alive and well, with offers to buy prisons and proffer other services associated with these facilities; such as food services, transportation, health services, mental health services, electronic surveillance – and, in one state, the infrastructure for holding and willingness to engage in executions.

Grassroots Leadership, along with a coalition – faith based groups, labor, small non-profits and researchers – came together and dismantled the private prison sweetheart deal.

Florida’s Ongoing Privatization Saga – Call in the Clergy?

During the temporary postponement of SB 2038 Privatization of Correctional Facilities we see a once smug Senate President, Haridopolos, scrambling for support.  After trying to fast-track a vote on what would become the largest prison privatization move in the nation, its supporters are scrounging for the 21 senate votes it needs to deliver to the multi-million-dollar private prison corporations what they had promised.

The senate president fired Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, from his chairmanship of the budget panel in charge of prisons because Fasano dared to suggest an amendment that would require real study and real thought. Oh, and he publicly stated that privatizing was a payback to GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America.  And, he called Haridopolos a bully.

Now the beleaguered Haridopolos has announced he will make even more drastic cuts in education, health care and state employee benefits if Florida does not embrace privatized prisons. Yet, still he cannot seem to move the more moderate Republicans.  This petulant, pouting Senate President, and his profiteering cronies are getting nervous as they continue to be questioned, lampooned, spoofed and criticized by the public, faith leaders, journalists and their own colleagues.

Claudio M Perez

Claudio M Perez

And so, they bring in Claudio M. Perez and his clergy team from South Florida Jail Ministries.  Do they talk about the dignity and worth of every person?  Do they explore an industry whose ‘product’ is human beings?  No, they talk business.  Perez admits that he has spoken to some of the multi-million dollar prison groups about hiring his company to provide services.  Yesterday Perez and his associates delivered a letter to the Governor, the Senate President and House Speaker Dean Cannon calling for the state to move forward on the bill.  (this is where we begin to connect the dots)

He believes that he can work with private prisons because he said that he believes the private prison industry has more of an incentive to save money and reduce recidivism, more of an incentive than the Department of Corrections. (This is where we scratch our heads.)

Hailed by the media as a clergy leader, Perez was awarded a 2010 honorary Doctor of Divinity from Jacksonville Baptist Theological Seminary. An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa  is an academic degree for which the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations, are waived  In addition to picking up his Hon. D. D., he attended a short program within the Harvard Business School Executive Education program.  We only mention the honorary degree and the short (less than a week) Harvard program because, on a number of sites, these are his credentials.

Dr. Perez is a very busy man.  According to information gleaned from South Florida Jail Ministries’ 990’s, he worked twenty hours a week as the organization’s Executive Director for which he was paid $65,000.  He is also listed as a forty-hour a week President and CEO, for which he was paid another $85,000.  Add to that his executive positions as President at Universal Investors Network Inc., Director of Home Automation International Inc.  and Chairman, CEO and President at Universal Investors Association Corp., one wonders where he finds the time. (head scratch and connect the dots?)  And, to add to his already busy schedule, we understand that he sits on the Health Choice Network.  Their lobbyist is Ron Book who also lobbies for the private prison profiteer from Florida, the GEO Group.  And, a number of years ago he was the lobbyist for South Florida Ministries. (connect the dots, please!)

As we scratch our heads and connect the dots, let us remember that the passage of this bill will affect the lives of thousands of prisoners and state workers.  It will send a message that, at least in Florida, human beings are indeed a commodity to be bought and sold.  It is time that we stand up to these bullies and expose them for who they are.

Humpday Hall of Shame: Mike Haridopolos, Part 2

Welcome to the Humpday Hall of Shame – every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

For the second week in a row, our Humpday Hall of Shame award goes to Florida State Senate President Mike Haridopolos (R – Merritt Island).  Haridolopos is a major proponent of an effort to cede control of 29 south Florida prisons to private prison corporations.  That effort, until this week, appeared to be sailing through the state legislature.  We reported last week that Haridopolos had received more than $67,000 in campaign contributions from private prison corporations since 2009.

However, this week, several state Senators (including many members of Haridopolos’s Republican party) have bucked the idea of what would be the largest prison privatization in U.S. history.  They’ve objected to the proposal saying that prison privatization doesn’t save money, can be dangerous for those incarcerated and working in prisons, and is ultimately is a payoff to for-profit prison companies who have made huge donations to politicians in Florida.

Instead of listening to his critics on both sides of the aisle, Haridopolos today fired Republican Senator Mike Fasano as chairman of the criminal justice budget subcommittee.  Fasano stood up for his beliefs, saying, according to the Tallahassee Democrat:

“No matter how big the bully in the schoolyard may be, if the loss of a chairmanship is the result of taking a stand for what is right, I wear that loss as a badge of honor. As the final days of the president’s tenure comes to a close I encourage him to stand up for taxpayers and consumers to ensure that each and every tax dollar is spent wisely. The special interests should not prevail.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Kudos to Senator Fasano for his integrity and courage.  And to Senator Haridopolos, well, shame on you!

 

Grassroots Leadership Welcomes Laura Price as Women’s Campaign Intern

Laura Price is currently a junior at Davidson College majoring in Postcolonial Studies through the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.  She spent the past four months studying Arabic and Political Science in Rabat, Morocco.  After graduation, Laura hopes to pursue a career in law

From her experiences working with the Pittsylvania County’s sheriff department and volunteering with Boaz and Ruth, she grew more interested in social justice issues relating to prison and jail reform.  Laura is thrilled to have the opportunity to work on the Women’s Campaign and learn more about the state of women held in private prisons and detention centers.  The Women’s Campaign seeks to expose the reality of women incarcerated for profit and ultimately end for-profit imprisonment and detainment. Utilizing a human rights framework we will examine disciplinary practices, sexual assault, deprivation, victimization, gender and identity-responsive and culturally relevant treatment plans, and aftercare, specific to the private prison and detainment center.

Grassroots Leadership is very happy to welcome Laura to the Charlotte office .  She brings a great deal of energy,intelligence and enthusiasm to the work.  We look forward to working with her and to the important report on women in private incarceration that she will help create.

She can be reached at lprice at grassrootsleadership.org

 

 

Welcoming Jane Atkinson to Grassroots Leadership

Grassroots Leadership is very happy to welcome Jane Atkinson to our Austin office.  Jane is completing her Master’s of Science in Social Work degree at the University of Texas School of Social Work this semester.  Her final field internship is in our Austin office this semester.

Before moving to Austin, Jane studied psychology and French at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. After graduating in 2008, Jane joined the PCUSA’s Young Adult Volunteer program in Guatemala working with child laborers and the Maya-Mam Presbyterian Church.

With an interest in social justice and community organizing, Jane is excited to be working at Grassroots Leadership to learn more about successful activism and how to create systemic change.   Jane can be reached at jatkinson (at) grassrootsleadership.org.

Humpday Hall of Shame: Florida State Senate President Mike Haridopolos

Welcome to the Humpday Hall of Shame – every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

This week’s inductee into the Humpday Hall of Shame is Florida State Senate President Mike Haridopolos (R – Merritt Island).  Haridolopos is a major proponent of an effort sailing through the state legislature to hand over control of 29 south Florida prisons to private prison corporations.  Haridopolos claimed in a recent press release that “privatizing prisons is exactly the kind of common sense solution we must choose.”

Turning over control of 29 Florida prisons to private prison corporations doesn’t seem very “common sense” to us.  So, we decided to follow the money.  Our research shows that Haridopolos’s dedication to prison privatization may have less to do with common sense and more to do with private prison donations to his campaigns.   According to a search at InfluenceExplorer.com (which combines the excellent state-level research of FollowtheMoney.org with federal records at OpenSecrets.org), Haridopolos has received at least more than $67,000 in campaign contributions from private prison corporations since 2009.

GEO Group executives and lobbyists, including those from states other than Florida, have been pouring money into Haridopolos’s campaign coffers.  According to the data we looked at, Haridopolos received $35,500 in campaign contributions from GEO Group executives in 2010 and 2011.  Haridopolos’ GEO ties don’t end there.  He received an additional $1,431 from Jorge Dominicis, head of GEO Group’s health care subsidiary GEO Care, and $5,000 from Mr. Dominicis’ wife, Virginia, in 2011.

GEO’s lobbyists have also pitched in to help Haridopolos.  Between 2009-2011, Haridopolos received $5,900 from GEO lobbyists associated with  Johnson & Blanton, a Tallahasee based company employed by GEO Care.  Larry J. Overton, another lobbyist for GEO Care, donated $3,500 in 2010.  Lobbyists associated with Roland L. Book PA donated another $10,800. He also received $2,000 from Texas-based GEO Lobbyist Lionel Aguirre in 2011 and  $2,000 from Arizona-based GEO lobbyist John Kaites.

Haridopolos has also received $500 from Corrections Corporation of America in 2009, and $500 from LCS Corrections.  As we reported last week, in 2010, The GEO Group and its staff made more than $700,000 in political contributions in the Sunshine State while CCA contributed $138,994.

Corruption Clouding the Sunshine State?

Welcome to the Humpday Hall of Shame – every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

 

What does almost $900,000 in political contributions buy in the Florida State legislature?

For private prison companies the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, it may buy them the conversion of twenty-nine state correctional facilities to private prisons. Nearly 4,000 state employees and 16,000 inmates will be affected if SB7172 is passed.

Governor Scott’s inaugural fund received $25,000 from Florida-based The GEO Group and $5,000 from the Corrections Corporation of America. In 2010, The GEO Group and its staff made more than $700,000 in political contributions in the Sunshine State. CCA contributed $138,994. CCA and GEO are the world’s largest private incarceration corporations.

On Friday, January 13th, just before the MLK holiday weekend at 1:12 pm, SB7172 was submitted to be placed on the Senate Rules Committee agenda. Most folks first saw the language of the bill on Tuesday January 17th after the holiday. Its first hearing was scheduled in Rules Committee on January 18th in what seems to be the only place for public testimony.

As described in the Florida Senate website, SB7172:

Privatization of Correctional Facilities; “Requiring that the Department of Corrections privatize the management and operation of certain correctional facilities and assigned correctional units; requiring that the department determine the costs incurred for the 2010-2011 fiscal year for each correctional facility and assigned correctional unit according to a specified formula; limiting the costs to be incurred by the state in the second or subsequent contract years; repealing provisions relating to the adoption of rules by the Department of Corrections regarding contractual arrangements and standards for the operation of correctional facilities by private vendors, etc.”

A companion bill, SB 7170, will
 allow the Legislature to privatize any state service with no substantive review. That means that privatization in Florida could be considered with little transparency, benefit analysis or public inclusion. SB 7170 was also placed on the Rules Committee agenda on the afternoon of January 13th.

As described in the Florida Senate website, SB 7170:

Outsourcing or Privatization of Agency Functions; Providing that certain information relating to the outsourcing or privatization of an agency function that is expressly required by law is not required to be included in the agency’s legislative budget request until after the contract for such functions is executed; providing that procurements for outsourcing or privatizing agency functions that are expressly required by law are exempt from the requirement that they be evaluated for feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency, etc.

Public safety. State jobs. Justice. All seem to be in jeopardy as Florida moves to privatize its prisons and other state agencies and facilities. Is Florida really up for sale to the highest bidders?

Call your Florida State Legislators and let them know how you feel. Do it soon.

And pass this on. We need to shine a light on Florida!

Which Republican Candidates Do Private Prison Corporations Support?

Welcome to the Humpday Hall of Shame – every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

With the political world buzzing with Iowa caucus results, we thought we’d explore which Republican presidential candidates had received campaign contributions from private prison corporations.  Here’s the breakdown, via data obtained at TransparancyData.com:

Mitt Romney:  The winner of the Iowa caucus received $5,000 in donations from GEO Group in 2011.  In 2007, Romney received $5,600 in the course of two months from CCA executives including Gus Puryear and Tom Beasley.

Rick Santorum:  Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Iowa’s second place finisher, has not reported any private prison contributions in this campaign thus far.  However, Santorum received a $1,000 contribution in 1999 from Norman Cox, at the time a CCA employee who had previously founded Cornell Corrections and who later went on to work at GEO Group, and a $500 donation from Cornell executive Harry Phillips in 2006.  Santorum also received a $500 donation from MTC in 2006.

Rick Perry:  The Texas governor hasn’t reported any private prison contributions this election cycle, but has received at least $40,000 from private prison corporations in previous elections.  He received total of $10,000 from GEO Group in 2009 and 2010 for his gubernatorial campaign, an $4,000 in 2002 from the company (then called Wackenhut Corrections) back in 2002.  Perry received a total of $25,000 from CCA and its executives between 2001 and 2006.  He also received $2,000 from Management and Training Corporation back in 1998.

Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Michelle Bachman did not report any contributions from private prison corporations.  However, it should be noted that Super PACs supporting the candidates haven’t reported recent contributions, so that could very well change.