STOP Rep Kavanagh's $900,000 bonus for GEO Group!

thanks to the AFSC-Tucson for this:

URGENT ACTION ALERT

No Handouts for GEO Group!! Tell Senate Appropriations Chair to pull $900,000 appropriation for GEO Group in state budget! The budget deal negotiated Thursday in the state House included an EXTRA $900,000 specifically earmarked for facilities run by one private prison corporation: GEO Group. This money was not requested by the Department of Corrections.  The Arizona Republic reported that a lobbyist for GEO Group went directly to Rep. John Kavanagh, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee to make the request. The corporation essentially circumvented both the contract negotiation process AND the state agency budgeting process. Despite a contentious process in which a group of holdout Republicans were fighting to secure needed funds for the states broken child welfare system, Kavanagh handed this corporation $1 million that the Department of Corrections says it doesn't need. How many needy Arizona families will go without child care?  How many CPS cases will go uninvestigated because John Kavanagh cares more about the interests of GEO Group than about the people of Arizona? Read The Republic story here

YOU CAN STOP THIS The Senate hears the budget THIS MONDAY, March 31. Call the Senate Appropriations Chair Don Shooter and Senate President Andy Biggs and tell them to pull the plug on Kavanagh's $1 million GEO Group giveaway. Sen. Don Shooter: (602) 926-4139; dshooter@azleg.gov Sen. President Andy Biggs: (602) 926-4371; abiggs@azleg.gov Send emails this weekend, but please call first thing Monday morning. *Please CC cisaacs@afsc.org on any emails you send and forward any responses you get (even automatic ones) so we have an idea of how much impact this action has had. Thanks! Caroline Isaacs Program Director AFSC Arizona

Learn more about the work of AFSC Arizona

AFSC Arizona combines advocacy for incarcerated people and their families with statewide policy change to document and improve prison conditions while working to reduce the number of people incarcerated in Arizona.

Through research, documentation, advocacy, and sentencing reform, AFSC Arizona secures more humane prison conditions, prevents prison expansion, and fosters alternatives to incarceration.

We serve as a resource for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their family members, providing information and resources to address questions, and a place to get involved in bringing their voice to the seats of power in Arizona.

Lock-up quotas and private prisons: sweet deals!

Is it any wonder? These are the kinds of "sound fiscal" decisions AZ Republicans make with prison profiteers, while they try to tell the rest of us it's a good idea and will save money for the state to privatize everything. Really, it's not only immoral, it's a rip-off of the taxpayers as well - we all pay for this kind of thing in more ways than one. 

-------from PR WATCH------

Lockup Quotas Help For-Profit Prison Companies Keep Profits High and Prisons Full

by Brendan Fischer — 

Center for Media and Democracy: PR WATCH

September 20, 2013 - 9:26am

For-profit prison companies like Corrections Corporation of American and GEO Group are no strangers to controversy. Their business model rests on incarceration, and their profits soared throughout the 1990s and 2000s as harsh sentencing laws, the War on Drugs, and tough immigration enforcement led to a dramatic rise in detention and incarceration.

But with crime rates dropping for more than a decade and a new push for sentencing reform and cost-effective alternatives to incarceration, for-profit prison operators have found a new way to keep beds full and profits high. They call them "bed guarantees."

Majority of For-Profit Prison Contracts Include "Lockup Quotas"

A new report from In the Public Interest, a resource center on privatization and public contracting, documented for the first time that some 65 percent of contracts between for-profit prisons and state or local governments include bed guarantees or "lockup quotas." These contractual clauses require that a state keeps prisons full, usually at ninety percent, but in some cases up to a one hundred percent occupancy requirement.

If judges and law enforcement are not pushing enough people into for-profit prisons to meet the quota, taxpayers are on the hook for any unused beds.

“Private prisons have gamed the system and tied the hands of policymakers across the country to an alarming degree,” says report author Shar Habibi, In the Public Interest Research and Policy Director.

The lockup quotas range between 70 percent in a California facility to 100 percent in an Arizona facility, with most contracts requiring a 90 percent occupancy. In Ohio, a 20-year deal with CCA to privately operate the Lake Erie Correctional Institution includes a 90 percent quota; cost-cutting measures in the facility have also led to significant growth in violence, gang activity, and drug use.

Given the longstanding, cozy relationships between for-profit prison companies and legislators -- developed by way of significant campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, and participation in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) -- questions have long been raised about their role in promoting policies that put more people behind bars and create more demand for prisons. Although these companies have denied lobbying for tough on crime laws, lockup quotas can have a similar impact.

"To keep their private business model successful, [for-profit prison companies] look to the children of tomorrow as the next harvest for their shareholders," says Justin Jones, former head of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. "Society deserves better."

Lockup Quotas "Morally Reprehensible"

Bed guarantee clauses can encourage tough enforcement and sentencing policies, or, at a minimum, can help deter criminal justice reforms that reduce sentences and focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration. And reform in this area is long overdue.

America has become the world's leader in incarceration, with around half of all prisoners in state facilities there for nonviolent crimes, and half of inmates in federal prisons serving time for drug-related offenses. And the impact of mass incarceration has been disproportionately borne by communities of color. For example, people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but have much higher rate of arrests; just 14 percent of regular drug users are black, but they represent 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses.

But the social costs of mass incarceration have little relevance for CCA or GEO shareholders or Wall Street investors.

"These lockup quotas are morally reprehensible," said Reverend Michael McBride with PICO National Network. “We have a moral charge to rehabilitate incarcerated persons, not to provide an incentive for filling up cells."

Private Contractors Paid for Services They Don't Perform

"Corrections should not be a turnkey for profit machine, and that’s what we turn them into with lockup guarantees," said Jones, the former head of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

In Colorado, even though crime has dropped by a third in the past decade, a lockup quota covering three for-profit prisons has forced taxpayers to keep CCA's prisons full, even as state facilities remain empty; the state has wasted at least $2 million in taxpayer money by using CCA's prisons instead of its own.

“Where else can private contractors get paid for services they do not perform?” asks Alex Friedman, Managing Editor of Prison Legal News.

In Arizona, where three for-profit prison contracts have a 100 percent quota, reports show that the company’s per-day charge for each prisoner has increased an average of 13.9 percent over the course of the contracts.

"When entering a contract to operate a prison, a private company should be required to take on some risk," ITPI's report concludes. "Private prison beds were intended to be a safety valve to address demand that exceeded public capacity. It was never intended that taxpayers would be the safety valve to ensure private prison companies' profits."

New CCA and GEO Group Rap Sheets on SourceWatch

CCA and GEO are the largest for-profit prison operators in the United States. Almost all of their profits are generated by government contracts and therefore come directly from taxpayers. Yet their facilities are failing to deliver, with increased costs, higher levels of recidivism and egregious levels of violence and even death.
The Center for Media and Democracy has created extensive corporate rap sheets on Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group on its wiki resource Sourcewatch.org. The profiles document:

• Allegations of prisoner abuse, civil rights violations, violence, riots, and escapes;

• Accusations of sexual abuse and juvenile mistreatment;

• How cost-cutting strategies have resulted in lower wages and benefits for workers, high employee turnover, insufficient training, and under-staffing, resulting in poor oversight and poor security conditions;

• The high incidence of sexual harassment, employment discrimination, or other labor violations by for-profit prison companies;

• How the companies have evaded taxes and fleeced taxpayers;

• How immigrant detention is a new profit center for these for-profit prison providers.

In addition, the profiles connect the dots between CCA, GEO Group, and organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which pushed legislation to privatize prisons, and at the same time spearheaded the effort to advance harsh sentencing bills to put more people in prison for more time. ALEC was a key proponent of "three-strikes-you're-out" and "truth-in-sentencing" bills, which became law in a majority of states during the 1990s and early 2000s and helped balloon prison populations. GEO Group was an ALEC member for many years and CCA led the Criminal Justice Task Force in the late 1990s.

"Crime control" became a campaign strategy for winning elections in the 1990s -- particularly after the racially-charged "Willie Horton" ad in the 1988 presidential campaign -- and private prisons were presented as a possible solution. At a 1994 ALEC conference, for example, CCA's Robert Britton and Crime Strike's Steve Twist were part of a presentation titled "Campaign School on Crime" designed "to provide legislators with an agenda and plan to advance meaningful crime control this fall and during the coming legislative session." Also part of the "Campaign School" training were Republican pollster Frank Luntz and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist (who in more recent years has become a supporter of criminal justice reform).

"This fall, candidates who campaign on crime, frame the issue effectively, present a credible, tough-on-crime agenda, and debunk the myths and misinformation of their opponents will find an electorate ready to take back the streets from criminals and their apologists," the agenda item read.

Using "crime control" as a political strategy helped lead to America's mass incarceration boom, and high profit margins for CCA and GEO Group -- which these companies are now trying to maintain with lockup quotas.

Read more at the Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group profiles on our sister site Sourcewatch.org.

GEO Group/ CACF corruption & retaliation: business as usual...

The following information showed up in my email box this afternoon, after Donna Hamm disseminated it to her listserve. It refers to the Central Arizona Correctional Facility (CACF) run by GEO Group under contract with the AZ Department of Corrections. It will be interesting to see how far this goes. I hear about staff corruption so often and yet they are so seldom busted or punished when they are caught - the prisoners are the ones who are always disciplined when they try to speak out about these kinds of employees, as you can see below.

Prison staff LIE all the time, just like cops like Armando Saldate do - and they seldom ever have to suffer consequences for it, while the prisoners pay and pay. Note that prisoner Josh Lunn ended up getting reclassed to a higher custody level and shipped out to the Supermax, ASPC-Eyman after his boss wrote him up for refusing to participat ein his criminal enterprise. Please remember this the next time you look at a prisoner's disciplinary record and think "yeah, look at all that bad stuff he's been up to inside -he should be in Supermax".

Remember this the next time you find yourself assuming that just becuase someone wears the uniform of the state and a badge they must be some kind of noble public servant, too, and therefore can always be trusted to tell the truth.

This guy Lewis is poison - and most of the staff working around him probably knew he was lying about those prisoners when he wrote them up, but they went along with it anyway. This infuriates me not because it's so outrageous, but because it's way too common that prisoners get treated this way by the people who hold the keys to their cages and chains...they are the far more dangerous criminals, I think - the ones who will take their power and run over whomever they want with it.

Glad you jumped on this one, Donna. Now the DOC needs to make things right for those prisoners who were so wrongfully treated in all this.

JUNE 12, 2013: The document below has been edited since the original posting to protect innocent prisoners. The main suspects need to answer to the community for this, though, for violating the public trust, so their names are out there. 

I hope the media picks this one up...

------------------------

From: middlegroundprisonreform@msn.com
To: Charles Ryan, Director
Subject: Theft, Corruption, Retaliation
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:38:18 -0700

Mr. Ryan:

The following information has been submitted to Middle Ground.  In italics, I have quoted the information  exactly as it has been provided to me.

During the first week of May 2013, two Central Arizona College employees were fired at Florence  for their part in stealing from the college and providing gifts to corrections employees/officials in exchange for favors.  Brad Ellsworth, the former Director of Prison Programs, was arrested on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, on theft-related charges stemming from over five years of mis-appropriating tools intended for prison vocational programs and stealing materials to build furniture and other items for his personal use, and to give as gifts to Florence wardens and staff.

Chris Lewis, a former Arizona DOC ADW, hired by Ellsworth, to manage the welding program at South Unit, was terminated May 2, 2013, after CAC officials discovered him returning tools previously reported as  missing/stolen.  Lewis is apparently cooperating with authorities in their investigation.

Ellsworth was known for having fine furniture and welded goods produced in the vocational schools within the prison, then rewarding correctional staff who "looked the other way," with these items as gifts in exhange for their blind eye.  Ellsworth was fond of specialty woods such as dark walnut and he built kitchen cabinets and living room furniture using CAC-purchased materials.  Other items, such as a gun tote box for his truck, were also built using CAC purchased materials.

The investigation into Ellsworth began after CAC administrators learned of over $1,300 in purchases by Ellsworth on CAC accounts for Corvette car parts.  When questioned about these purchases, Ellsworth attempted to explain their purchase by stating that the parts were purchased for his "work vehicle." Ellsworth also purchased tools for the various prison vocational schools, often purchasing the same item twice and keeping one for his personal use.  Sometimes these tools were given as reward or gifts to corrections staff or friends or sold to them at discounted prices.

Lewis began his tenure as the welding instructor in January 2013 by making immediate changes to the school's curriculum and program design.  He spent thousands of dollars remodeling the welding area from a student-oriented teaching environment to a production line for "special projects," built by inmate workers.  Students' welding time was reduced from 5 days/week to less than 2 days in order to accommodate the building of mini-smoker grills, bumpers for off-road vehicles, and vehicle gas tanks being built by the inmate workers for Lewis' friends and family.  

The cash paid for these items went directly into Lewis' pocket.  Several of the mini-smoker grills were given as gifts to corrections administrators or employees to facilitate the changes Lewis made to the vocational program.  Lewis came to the attention of CAC administrators after numerous complaints were made by inmate-students and when stolen tools were placed back into the college's inventory at the prison.  A fellow instructor discovered the tools and learned from Lewis that these tools were given to him by Ellsworth to "hide."  The instructor...alerted his superiors at the college.

Lewis also used his position and his knowledge of internal DOC procedures to retaliate against inmates who refused to assist in the illicit activities, while rewarding those inmates who were compliant with perks -- such as food and jobs.  Prior to Lewis' tenure, only one inmate had been removed from the CAC vocational area in the previous two years, while six (6) were removed in the four months that Lewis was an instructor.  Lewis rewarded inmate-students who assisted his activities by calling in favors with staff and having the inmates assigned as workers who would receive higher pay ($.40/hour instead of $.15/hour).

Lewis used his relationship with staff to push through disciplinary actions or have inmates transferred to other prison units if they refused to aid his activities.  When inmate student AE complained about not getting enough welding time, Lewis erupted and screamed at AE to leave the class.  Lewis then wrote a disciplinary violation claiming AE was "confrontational" and that AE "threatened him."  AE is stick-thin and probably weighs 130 lbs or less.  Lewis is over 6'3" and weighs about 260 lbs.  AE was found guilty of the disciplinary, despite witnesses testimony about what really happened, and AE was removed from the welding school.

Inmate "MW" was written up by Lewis for "refusing to attend" when a Warden at "MW's" previous facility called Lewis and complained about "MW".  Despite attending every class, "MW" was removed from the welding school and reduced in privileges due to Lewis' write-up.

A third inmate, "JL", signed up as a student and was almost immediately promoted to worker status by Lewis.  When JL discovered Lewis' illicit activities and began documenting them, Lewis caught him and wrote a disciplinary violation stating that JL was writing disparaging things against him.  Lewis called in a favor with staff and the violation was handled as a Major disciplinary ticket.  JL was found guilty, lost all privileges, was removed from the welding school, and transferred to a higher custody unit.

Lewis also targeted inmate workers who refused to help him by getting them transferred.  Lewis enlisted the help of CO Gxxxxxx, who was assigned as South Unit's SSU.  SSU is tasked with identifying gang activity and illegal behavior, and thus has wide lattitude to transfer troublesome inmates between prison units in isolated moves called "one - for - ones."  The first inmate targeted was "SC".  SC is a high profile inmate who worked in the CAC carpentry program.  Lewis asked SC to produce wooden handles for the mini-smoker grills.  SC refused because the CAC carpentry program teaches general construction and SC did not want to participate in any illicit behavior.  A few days after refusing, SC was transferred to (another) Unit in a one-for-one movement.

The second inmate targeted by Lewis was SH.  SH is a high profile inmate due to an escape almost 13 years ago, and he had been working in the CAC vocational programs as a porter for over 2 years.  Lewis knew of SH's past history, including SH's involvement in facilitating staff theft of state property prior to his escape, because Lewis had worked at Eyman Complex while SH was incarcerated there and prior to his escape.  

Lewis asked SH to work for him, but SH declined, citing over 8 years of a clean record.  Lewis attempted to have SH transferred, but (SSU officer Gxxx) was unable to do so because SH's past history requires any move to be approved in advance by Central Office.  When the transfer failed, Lewis instructed Ellsworth to send an email, dated February 8, 2013, to Florence Complex Warden Lance Hetmer, targeting SH's past history of escape (emphasizing the escape). Ellsworth used his position with the college to make it seem that SH's presence in the program threatened the college's reputation, and the college did not want him there.  Reacting to this email, Hetmer removed SH from the CAC vocation program area and banned him from all good jobs in the prison.  SH was jobless for over a month before being assigned to a lower paying, less skilled position.

Lewis then approached inmate CM.  CM was asked to falsify DOC documents he had access to as the Inmate Hazmat Clerk. CM refused and a week later was transferred to (another) Unit in a one-for-one move.

The actions of Brad Ellsworth and Chris Lewis were brought to the attention of CAC President Doris Helmich.  An investigation was commenced and strong measures to end this spree of theft and unprofessional behavior.  Ellsworth and Lewis were dismissed from the college.  At this time, DOC has taken no action to rectify the harm caused to those inmates that Lewis targeted for retaliation.   Warden Hetmer seems oblivious to both his manipulation by Ellsworth and the illegal activity that occurred under his watch.  

Mr. Ryan, my question is:  Isn't it a crime of bribery or conspiracy for a contract employee to provide gifts or sell items that are the fruits of stolen property to a state employee?  What investgation, if any, has taken place regarding the above incidents as they implicate your own employees?  Please provide all investigative reports.   

What is particularly noteworthy is what happened with high-profile inmate SH.  He apparently was able to escape 13 or more years ago (I remember the intensive news coverage) by using insider-corruption and information to facilitiate his escape....  Now, after learning his lesson -- which is what we all hope he would do -- and refusing to participate in corrupt and illicit activities, he is punished for his appropriate, lawful conduct.   Do you find this ironic?  Inmates are, after all, "students of (DOC's) behavior."

There needs to be a full-scale investigation into this matter if it has not already taken place. If it has taken place, then I want to examine the entire record of the investigation pursuant to public records law.

Please advise when the investigative reports are ready for my review at the Central Office.   

Goodyear community sends GEO Group packing!

Some credit should go out to this guy at "Howard's Goodyear Blog" for organizing so much local resistance to the prison.

Cesar Chavez Plaza, Phoenix

(October 23, 2011)

---------------------from the AZ Republic--------------------

State no longer considering Goodyear for private prison

John Yantis

Feb. 10, 2012 

The Republic | azcentral.com

Goodyear is no longer being considered for a future private prison, officials confirmed Friday.

A state proposal released last week that calls for a private company to build a prison for up to 2,000 medium security inmates does not list Goodyear as a potential site. Instead, the state only offers sites in Yuma and Florence.

"The city of Goodyear is grateful to the Arizona Department of Corrections for excluding Goodyear as possible site and for taking into serious consideration the deluge of protests they received from our citizens, business and landowners," Goodyear Mayor Georgia Lord said in statement.

In a previous state request that was canceled in December, a site next to Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville was one of five locations being considered for a private prison that was expected to house up to 5,000 men.

Florida-based GEO Group Inc. was proposing to build a 2,000- to 5,000-bed prison for minimum- and medium-security male inmates at the complex. Construction costs were estimated at $100 million to $250 million.

Citing broken promises in the past over prison size and an expectation of plummeting property values and a tarnished image, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution in August to use every means necessary, including legal action, to stop a new prison from being built.

"This week, ADOC also made it clear to the city that Goodyear would not be considered in the future should there be any more private prison expansions in Arizona," a city release says.

Wells Fargo prisons: profit motives still drive legislation...

Wells Fargo, Phoenix

July 1, 2011

Wells Fargo takes heat over investments in private prison industry

Rawstory.com

By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, November 10, 2011

The advocacy group Small Business United on Thursday called on Wells Fargo to provide a full accounting of investments related to private prisons and immigrant detention centers.

Wells Fargo is one of the largest investors in Geo Group, Inc. — the second largest private prison company in the world contracted by state and federal government agencies. The group spends millions lobbying for stricter immigration enforcement.

Wells Fargo has claimed the investments in the GEO Group were made by Wells Fargo mutual funds on behalf of clients, not investments made by Wells Fargo and Company.

“We demand transparency,” said Marco Reinoso, owner of Superstar Deli for 26 years and resident of Brooklyn. “I pay my fair share of taxes and deserve to know where the dark money trail leads, and whether our money is being used to further anti-immigrant bills that hurt our economy and lead to many in our community being treated with violence and inhumanity in these detention centers.”

For-profit prisons are associated with heightened levels of violence toward prisoners and have limited incentives to reduce future crime, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The perverse incentives to maximize profits and cut corners — even at the expense of safety and decent conditions — may contribute to an unacceptable level of danger in private prisons,” the report stated.

After spending a month in solitary confinement in a GEO Group operated Texas prison, 32-year-old Jesus Manuel Galindo allegedly died of an epileptic seizure in December 2008. The cell lacked an operational intercom, which would have allowed Galindo — who needed regular medical attention — to call for help. The neurologist who reviewed Galindo’s autopsy said he was “set up to die.”

In another incident, former GEO Group employees working for the Texas Youth Commission failed to report horrid conditions at a GEO-operated prison in Texas. An independent report found the bug-infested prison smelled of feces and urine, had numerous water leaks and racially segregated the young inmates.

“Prisons have turned into a business for the rich,” said Esmeralda Valencia, owner of Esmeralda Restaurant in Brooklyn, NY. “Wells Fargo should not be investing our hard earned dollars to make profits off of the most vulnerable members of our society. Instead, they should be working to resolve this economic crisis and support immigrant neighborhoods.”

Goodyear: More opposition to GEO Group prison.

for more information about the Geo Group, try the Private Corrections Working Group rap sheet.

-----------------------------

Westmarc joins foes of proposed prison in Goodyear

John Yantis Sept. 6, 2011 09:49 AM
The Arizona Republic

One of the West Valley's largest lobbying groups is the latest heavyweight to oppose a proposal to build a private prison in Goodyear.

---

Goodyear will fight construction of proposed prison

---

Westmarc, a public-private partnership that champions the area, recently sent a letter to Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan explaining its official opposition to building a prison at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville. The group, which is made up of government, business and education officials, says it represents 15 cities and towns and 70,000 jobs.

Candace Wiest, who chairs Westmarc's executive committee, lives in the Goodyear community of Estrella. She is president and CEO of West Valley National Bank.

Michelle Rider, Westmarc president and CEO, said Wiest's place of residence did not weigh in the group's decision to oppose the prison.

The group took a position after Goodyear's economic development director, Harry Paxton, called Rider before a board of directors meeting and asked to speak to the group, Rider said. Paxton is on Westmarc's executive board and chairs the group's economic development committee. Rider asked Wiest if she could put the issue on the board's agenda and Weist agreed.

"He (Paxton) gave his reasoning for why it didn't make sense and the board . . . thought it was a pretty crazy idea," Rider said, adding Westmarc also formally presented the issue to its Economic Development and Public Affairs committees, which both sent the item to the executive committee.

"It's pretty easy to take a position for an organization like Westmarc," Rider said. "There's not a whole lot of pro in that situation."

Besides Wiest, Rider said, none of the other 28 members of executive committee appear to live in Goodyear.

In the letter, Rider explained the West Valley is at a turning point as a region and developments over the next five to 10 years likely will define the area's future.

"A regional economic development strategy focused on creating job opportunities must be a top priority," Rider wrote. "An expansion of the Perryville Prison will significantly undermine the effort to grow and attract high-quality employers in the West Valley."

Florida-based GEO Group Inc. is proposing to build a 2,000- to 5,000-bed prison for minimum- and medium-security male inmates at the complex. Construction costs are estimated at $100 million to $250 million.

The Arizona Department of Corrections will choose among four companies and five locations to house 5,000 inmates. The other proposed sites are in Coolidge, Winslow, San Luis and Eloy. A decision on the 20-year contract is not expected until at least mid-September.

Westmarc joins several high-profile organizations in its opposition of prison. Those opposed include Goodyear; Duncan Family Farms; the Litchfield Elementary School District and Litchfield Park; Sunbelt Holdings, developer of the Palm Valley 303 office park; and Robson Resort Communities, developer of PebbleCreek; and Goodyear refrigerator manufacturer Sub-Zero Inc.

Those against the proposal say the prison would be too close to Scott L. Libby Elementary School, PebbleCreek residents and Palm Valley 303.

"Goodyear has been very effective in developing similar parts of the city into the home of high-quality employers over the last several years, including Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Sub-Zero and Suntech," Rider writes in the letter to Ryan. "Siting a prison expansion in an area of such high visibility and economic potential would not only seriously impede Goodyear's progress, it would be detrimental for the many other West Valley communities for which the Interstate 10/Loop 303 corridor will serve as a gateway."

Goodyear Opposes Prison Expansion.

from the city of Goodyear's website, following the City Council's unanimous rejection of a private prison proposal from GEO Group...

---------------------

City Opposes Prison Expansion in Goodyear

Many citizens have contacted us recently voicing opposition to the proposed expansion of Perryville Prison by as many a 5,000 male inmates over and above its current 3,467 female inmate population. As a result of our citizens’ concerns, the Goodyear City Council voted 6-0 on August 22nd to oppose the Department of Correction’s expanding its facility in Goodyear. The city and its residents are entitled to make their concerns known and perhaps influence the final outcome.

Key reasons why the City Council voted unanimously to oppose the prison expansion in the middle of our growing community are our serious concerns over possible negative economic development impacts of such a large prison expansion:

1. Real property values in the surrounding areas will plummet.
   
   • Among those impacted will be the high-end resort-style master planned Robson community of Pebble Creek, as well as property that is currently available for development.
     
   • The interchange at I-10 and Loop 303 will be one of the busiest freeway interchanges in the state and all property in the area will be primed for high quality development
     
   • Palm Valley 303, a 1,600-acre world class business park, is strategically located just north of the interchange and is already attracting quality companies such as Sub-Zero.
     
   • Businesses are looking for visible employment corridors like Loop 303 at I-10 that promote:
     
   • high quality corporate image
     
   • desirable lifestyle
     
   • stable workforce
   
   
2. Companies considering moving to the high-end Palm Valley 303 complex will have to travel north from I-10, past an even larger, more imposing prison complex.
   
3. The city's image will deteriorate and strong companies will take their business elsewhere and that will mean a loss of jobs for the residents of Goodyear.

We need to make our voices heard. Therefore, I strongly encourage you to make your feelings about this prison expansion known before September 16th by contacting the Department of Corrections to share your objections or to voice your support. You must note on your correspondence that this is in “opposition to or support for the 5,000-bed expansion to Perryville Prison in Goodyear.” E-mail or mail to: ADC Procurement, 1645 W. Jefferson St., Phoenix, AZ 85007.

Globe to Goodyear: Resist Private Prisons!

A letter to the editor of Globe's local press, the AZ Silver Belt, from the leader of Globe's private prison resistance, Jim Moss. Nice job, Jim.

-------------------------------

Reader gives Kudos to Goodyear's mayor and city council

Posted: Wednesday, Aug 31st, 2011
Arizona Silver Belt

Dear Editor:

The Arizona Republic reported last week that the town of Goodyear will do whatever is necessary to stop a proposed private prison. Goodyear’s Mayor and Council unanimously said NO to the private prison industry. They are willing to sue the State of Arizona if that’s what it takes. Interesting.

Inspiring! The town of Goodyear has a group of elected officials who have conducted due diligence and understand that another big prison in their community would not be a positive development. Goodyear is host to the Perryville Prison, a large state-run facility. Town leaders declared that Perryville was originally supposed to be just one-third its current size. Promises were broken, and the facility has grown to house nearly 3,500 inmates. As with Globe, the town of Goodyear can be thankful that “their prison” is operated by the State of Arizona, instead of a for-profit corporation.

Fortunately for the residents of Goodyear, they do not have to battle their local elected officials. Efforts to stop a proposed prison project are actually being led by the folks elected to represent the people of Goodyear. How refreshing! And, Goodyear can learn a thing or two from the citizens of Globe. If state authority seems too much for Goodyear’s Mayor and Council to deal with — the citizens of Goodyear should take the private prison bull by the horns and subdue the beast. The voice of the majority must prevail in our democracy.

Unfortunately, several Arizona towns are rolling out the red carpet for the private prison promoters. Just like Globe, their elected leaders have been seduced by the empty promises of easy money. There is no free lunch with private prisons. The 2010 Arizona Auditor General Report actually dispelled the myth that private prisons save taxpayer money. One sobering statistic is that 30 percent of Arizona’s 41,000 inmates are doing hard time for a “non-violent” offense. Such offenders could and should be in alternative programs that cost taxpayers far, far less.

Building more prisons in Arizona is very bad public policy. More tax dollars allocated to corrections means less money for education and other vital programs that Arizona citizens need for an improved quality of life. Building more prisons (especially for-profit prisons) is socially indefensible, morally reprehensible, and fiscally irresponsible.

Good luck to Goodyear. Good riddance to private prison promoters.

Jim Moss,
Globe Resident and
Business Owner

Build Communities not Prisons: Public Hearing feedback.

John McCain Town Hall Meeting
Goodyear Justice Center
August 23, 2011

----Editorial from The Tucson Citizen/ Cell Out Arizona-------

Prison, Privatization and Politics

Thu, 08/25/2011 - 10:42

By Dianne Post


The Arizona Department of Corrections conducted five public hearings regarding contracts for 5,000 beds in private, for-profit prisons. The last hearing was in Coolidge on 18 August at the City Council Chambers. I drove down from Phoenix through a sandstorm and got a good car wash as it poured rain during the hearing. Close to 200 people packed the auditorium in a sea of blue tee shirts saying “Coolidge: The right choice.” People of color were noticeably absent.

As with the hearing I attended in Goodyear on the 10th, the director of DOC, Chuck Ryan, began promptly on time and outlined the legislative action authorizing the 5,000 new beds and the process for DOC. It became apparent during the testimony that talks have been ongoing in Coolidge since early 2010.

The representative from MTC was given an hour for his presentation. He talked about “A Partnership for the Future” and the BIONIC (believe it or not I care) culture of MTC. The presentation focused on the job corp and international charity work rather than the reality of the prison facilities they already mismanage. This approach was clearly designed to mislead the audience into thinking they were some kind of charitable organization rather than the bottom-feeders they are.

They bragged about their record in Arizona in spite of the disaster in Kingman and the result that they never learned their lesson as they sued the State when the state tried to make them correct the security errors and got nearly $3 million of taxpayer dollars from that. For trying to be held accountable for letting killers escape and to clean up their act. Clearly no lesson was learned.

Rather than take their entire hour, they paraded an array of officials to the podium to sing their praises. The mayors of Coolidge and Marana, the sheriff and the chief of police, members of the board of supervisors, members of the school board, members of the city council, the Chamber of Commerce all marching in lock step.

Thirty-seven speakers followed the presentations. The first two speakers took the wind out of their sails. Vivian Haas and her son-in-law Frank Rook (not sure of spellings) are the family of the couple that was murdered by the inmates who escaped from Kingman. They told the tale of MTC’s mismanagement, incompetence and inhumanity in the wake of the murders. While they had no position on profit v. state prisons, they focused on safety and strongly urged not to reward MTC with any contracts.

Of course other speakers talked about how wonderful MTC was including some employees shipped in from Kingman. As with other hearings, the need for jobs eclipsed every other thought about the real impact of the prison. The college spoke of having an educated work force and being able to educate the staff. Students in the law enforcement program told how eager they were for jobs.

I spoke for NAACP opposing the prison for four main reasons: cost, safety, mismanagement and the inhumanity of for-profit prisons. Several speakers illustrated the debasement of our society by referring to the prisoners as good revenue sources because their presence counts for federal revenue sharing so the area would get more money. That’s like the Constitution that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation. Ryan referred to “loading in the facility” when he meant sending inmates – now reduced to items of commerce – to Kingman. People are not cost centers. They are human beings with human rights.

Peggy Plews spoke about the surfeit of human rights in prisons and asked the group to form a citizens oversight committee and to be committed to human rights. I didn’t notice anyone writing down her website. Emily Verdugo a local resident and education coordinator for the Democratic Party in Pinal County spoke about the lack of vision of local leaders to seek a prison as the only industry for the town. She feared that with a prison in the city limits, education would never be funded. She pointed out that prisons are put in towns with a poorly educated populace and what was the message for Coolidge?

Susan Hower from Tubac spoke as the former head of New Jersey DOC and pointed out that MTC had made lots of promises but the reality and the research proves that such promises do not come true. Other businesses do not follow a prison and economic development does not occur. Good jobs do not materialize as often other prisons are closed and those jobs are just moved. In Bullhead City, inmates from Kingman are replacing city workers and good jobs being lost. The work is tough and the turnover very high for the low pay and high stress. She pointed out that DOC had withheld $44,000 from Kingman MTC and $54,000 from Marana MTC for failure to fill the jobs they had. Of course vacant positions mean more profit for the corporation. Lastly she pointed out the debacle in Texas where MTC left a town high and dry with an $837,000 loss after they fled the town.

The next speaker Rachael Wilson asked pointed questions about how the financing would work. After some tough cross examination, in which the MTC representative said – trust me, we have been doing this for 17 years - she established that Wall Street investors would buy the bonds and then the State of Arizona – with your tax dollars – would pay them back. Do you trust Wall Street? Do you trust MTC? The contract is only on a five-year option so MTC can bail in five years with the money and leave us stuck with the debt. Terry Stewart, former DOC head and now a shill for MTC, also tried the “trust me” route but got no better reception as the speaker pointed out it would be to the advantage of DOC to decrease prison population but to the advantage of MTC and other for-profit prisons to increase prison population. She asked the recidivism rate and DOC’s only answer was that it was 24.8% for all prisons combined – private and state – and they could not break out the numbers separately. Don’t believe it.

DOC came in for its share of criticism from Lucy Shep from Tucson for not monitoring its contracts with the private prisons. She forced DOC to admit that the law requires that every two years a comparison be done between state and private prisons and though we have had private prisons in Arizona for 17 years, one has NEVER been done. Ryan claimed one would be done by June 2012 – too late for this decision making process.

Frank Smith from the Private corrections Institute spoke and outlined the history of lies about private prisons – the failure of jobs, the low pay, the lack of benefits, the lack of economic development, the turn over, the lack of safety, and the excessive cost. He encouraged the audience, as had earlier speakers, to do their own research and not believe the fantasies told by DOC and MTC.

Roberto Reveles, president of the Board of ACLU, opposed privatization because of the mismanagement of the prisons, especially by MTC. He reiterated that they don’t save money, are not safe, focus on profit and are not accountable. No cost benefit analysis exists so there is no rationale to do this and the state is fiscally irresponsible to spend this money at this time.

You still have time to speak up. Comments are due by the end of August to: Procurement, ADOC, 1645 W. Jefferson, Phoenix, 85007. Specify in the document that you are writing about the 5,000 private prison bid RFP. Send copies of your letters to both your state representatives and your state senator and the governor.

As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”

Cell-out-arizona: Private Prison Lies.

Wes Bolin Plaza / AZ State Capitol Complex
February 2011

-------------thanks to the AFSC-Tucson for the following insights--------

Top 10 Lies Told By Private Prison Corporations at the Arizona Hearings

Tucson Citizen
by cell-out-arizona on Aug. 22, 2011

It’s been a hot summer in Arizona, but there were a lot of private prison corporate executives whose pants were on fire over the past two weeks. On the plus side, our crop yields will set records this year due to the amount of b.s. that we just got showered with.

Over the past two weeks, the Arizona Dept. of Corrections (ADC) conducted public hearings on proposed private prisons in 5 Arizona towns: Eloy, Goodyear, Winslow, San Luis/Yuma, and Coolidge. At each hearing, the ADC gave a presentation on the bidding process, the Corporation gave a (sometimes quite lengthy) presentation on how awesome they think they are, and members of the public got 5 minutes apiece to raise concerns, ask questions, or, in many cases, beg them for jobs.

In their efforts to win a multi-million dollar contract, the corporations—CCA, GEO Group, MTC, and LaSalle—told some real whoppers. Here are our favorites, plus the truth that they are trying to hide.

Lie # 10: “No immigrant prisoners have died in CCA’s Eloy Detention Center.”

When asked about an ACLU investigation that revealed the Eloy Detention Center had the most inmate deaths of any detention center in the US, CCA’s talking head said it just never happened.

But records from the US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement prove that nine immigrants have died while in custody at Eloy since 2003, two more than reported at any other facility. The deaths were only discovered because of an ACLU lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act asking for a comprehensive list of deaths in 2007. In April, the Department of Homeland Security released a list of 90 individuals who died while in custody.

Just because CCA tried to cover the deaths up doesn’t mean they didn’t happen.

Lie # 9: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

At all the hearings, the sales pitch was the same: This prison will create umpteen construction jobs and kazillions of guard jobs. The corporations are manipulating the financial distress of rural Arizona towns to get themselves a multi-million dollar contract. So, what will the people of the next Arizona Prison Town get?

Well, they’ll get a few jobs, but not nearly the number they were promised. Here’s why:

• Private prison corporations are based in other states. They are huge companies and bring in their own architects and construction companies. They usually have relationships with distributors, and because buying in bulk is cheaper, they will go with those companies over local ones. They will tell you that they will “try” to use as many local vendors “as possible,” but then they will determine that those local vendors are not competitive in their pricing or cannot handle the volume and they will go with the ones that they usually use.
• These towns are tapped out. Every one of them already has at least one prison or a prison nearby. Eloy has several. Pinal County, where Eloy and Coolidge are located, has 6 CCA prisons, two entire state prison complexes (with about 5 units each), a few federal detention centers, and a county jail that also rents out space to CCA.
• The private prisons can’t keep people in the jobs they have now. The Arizona Republic has reported that, “This year, through the end of June, the state has withheld about $844,000 from Kingman, $54,000 from Marana (also operated by MTC) and about $6,000 from Geo Group’s Phoenix West and Florence West prisons for failing to fill vacant positions quickly enough.”

Obviously, working in a prison isn’t for everyone. These are difficult jobs, with long hours, and stressful conditions. One corrections officer described it as “long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.” Not every unemployed person in this town is going to want to work in the prison. Or they will get a job there and quit shortly after.

Oh, and here’s another interesting twist: The Yuma Sun recently reported that Bullhead City has reached a deal with the Arizona Department of Corrections and Management and Training Corporation for inmates from the Arizona State Prison in Kingman to perform park and street maintenance work in the city. That’s right: Instead of creating jobs, they are tossing Bullhead City residents out of these low wage jobs and replacing them with prison labor. How many jobs will be lost there? How many other towns will follow suit?

Lie #8: “The prison will bring economic development to your town.”

Decades worth of research proves that prisons are not good economic growth for towns.

• In states with at least one private prison as of 1990, prisons have been shown to reduce the number of jobs overall in a community. You might get prison jobs, but you won’t get other kinds of jobs that pay better.
• Private prisons pay less, which means that state prisons have to compete, driving wages down for everyone.
• As mentioned previously, relatively few corrections officers live in the same town as the prison where they work, which means they spend their money somewhere else. One study estimates that up to two-thirds of potential tax revenues and other economic benefits leave the host community in this way.
• Having a prison nearby is not a draw for other kinds of businesses, and in many cases will scare them away. Who wants to build a housing development or school near a prison? Many Arizona towns are cultivating tourism due to historic landmarks and buildings, natural beauty, or scenery—what happens when you plop a huge prison with hundreds of feet of razor wire down in the middle of a historic area or pristine natural landscape?

One need go no further than Florence, AZ to see the true economic impacts of being a prison town. You can bet they heard the exact same sales pitch when those prisons were proposed. Where is the economic boom they were promised? Where are the stores? The industry? The housing developments? If prisons are so great for local economies, why doesn’t Florence have a thriving downtown?

The bottom line is, once you have prisons, all you will ever have is prisons.

One final note: Several residents noted during the hearings that Arizona is in a very sorry state when the only type of economic development offered to people is from an industry that is so harmful to our communities in so many ways. One retired firefighter at the Goodyear hearing put it this way: “Our fire station budget was cut and many firefighters were laid off. But we don’t go around saying, ‘we need more fires.’”

Lie #7: “We’ve learned from our mistakes.”

You gotta hand it to them—it takes some serious moxie to tell people that, because of your company’s gross negligence resulting in two deaths, your prisons are now the safest in the state. Especially when we know that MTC dragged its feet on fixing the problems at Kingman and only got its act together when the state stopped paying them.

A security audit of Arizona’s private prisons completed after the escapes reveals that the problems at Kingman are endemic to all private prisons in the state. Here’s what it found:

“At the three Geo prisons – Florence West, Phoenix West and the Central Arizona Correctional Facility – Corrections Department inspectors found such issues as inmates having access to a control panel that could open emergency exits; an alarm system that didn’t ring properly when doors were opened or left ajar; and that staff didn’t carry out such basic security practices as searching commissary trucks and drivers, among many other failures.

At MTC’s Marana prison, there were broken monitors, a control-room panel that didn’t work, missing perimeter lights, missing razor wire, missing visitor passes. Marana’s swamp coolers – in August, in Arizona – weren’t working, making it hotter inside the prison buildings than outside.”

You can read the full report, obtained through a public records request by Arizona Republic reporter Bob Ortega, on the Republic website.

Not only did MTC resist making the necessary fixes to Kingman demanded by the Department of Corrections, they threatened to sue us for attempting to hold them accountable. When ADC pulled our prisoners out after the escapes and refused to pay MTC until the security problems were fixed, MTC threatened to sue us for $10 million. Because they have better lawyers and more money than God, we rolled over. We paid this corporation $3 million for empty beds—beds that were empty due to their gross negligence, which resulted in two deaths.

Clearly, this is not a corporation that “learns from its mistakes. It’s a company that is wholly unaccountable for its mistakes.

Lie #6: GEO Group’s contract to run the Cook County juvenile detention center was cancelled because the state wanted to move the facilities from rural to urban areas, NOT because of the rampant abuse of children by GEO’s guards.

Baloney. The New York Times reported that “Juvenile detainees as young as 13 years old slept on filthy mats in dormitories with broken, overflowing toilets and feces smeared on the walls. Denied outside recreation for weeks at a time, they ate bug-infested food, did school work that consisted of little more than crossword puzzles and defecated in bags.”

In response, Texas “has transferred the 197 offenders in Bronte to other institutions, fired seven monitoring officials and canceled an $8 million contract with the GEO Corporation, the prison company in Boca Raton, Fla., that managed the center. The state has also opened a criminal investigation and a review of the adult prisons run by GEO.”

Lie #5: “Our security system is state-of-the-art”

I would bet a large sum of money that this exact same pitch was made to the people of Kingman when that prison was built. They might have fancy technology, but does it work? And if it stops working, will they fix it? See the security audit referenced under Lie #5—broken monitors, control-room panels that don’t work, alarms that don’t ring properly, malfunctioning security cameras. These problems were found in all our private prisons.

Technology is only as good as the people using it. We consistently hear after a riot or escape that a for-profit prison was having “staffing issues.” That pay was low, there was a lack of training, and the guards were inexperienced. Clearly, ADC has gotten wise and is requiring contractors to provide the same training as the state—it’s written into the RFP. But that doesn’t address the turnover problem. Those folks might get trained, but they won’t stick around. That means that a large percentage of the staff is inexperienced and unlikely to know how to handle a dangerous situation. One report stated that 80% of the guards at Kingman were recent hires.

At Kingman, the guards were propping those state-of-the-art security doors open with rocks. They ignored those high-tech alarms when they went off. The ADC monitor was either asleep at the switch or being blown off by Central office. As they say, “you can’t fix stupid.”

Lie #4: “The town is not taking any risks in the financing scheme for the prison”

Prison construction for private facilities is almost always financed through lease revenue bonds. They generally create an “Industrial Development Authority” or “Public Facilities Corporation,” which is essentially a paper tiger created through the city or county. The reason they fund through this mechanism is because they don’t want to take the risk, carry the paper, nor pay the interest.

When industrial revenue bonds are issued, the public is often told that neither the local government nor the taxpayers will be obligated or negatively affected in any way if the project fails. While it’s true that revenue bonds are not a general obligation of the issuer, it is not true that governments and taxpayers will be unaffected by the risks of the project.

The debt is paid off with the money received as per-diem payments for each inmate housed. This looks great on paper, but what happens when there are no inmates?

The savvy businessperson approaches any financing project asking “where is the market?” In this case, the financing for these prisons is dependent on a guaranteed occupancy of state prisoners. Yet the Arizona Auditor General reports that our prison population grew by only 65 prisoners in 2010. And there’s a movement afoot in the state legislature to reduce our prison population as 25+other states have done through sensible reforms to criminal sentencing laws favoring cheaper alternatives like probation, drug treatment, and house arrest.

If there’s no market, then these projects are doomed to fail. And what will happen to the town then? What if the corporation gets a better offer somewhere else and decides to pull out of the contract? What if Arizona’s prison population goes down?

Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s what the Director of the Oklahoma DOC said after Arizona pulled its inmates out of a private prison there: He said the private prison industry is a speculative market. “It is not immune to recession and trends in sentencing and crime,” Jones said. “A lot of states have gone back and applied research to their sentencing practices, which results in sentences that are more evidence-based, and that obviously affects a market that relies upon incarceration.”

There are numerous cautionary examples of towns facing default struggling to pay the debt on an empty prison: Hardin, MT is one of the most notable. The town there got so desperate that they actually asked the state to send them sex offenders and lobbied the Obama administration to send Guantanamo detainees. A few weeks ago, the town of Littlefield, TX had to hold a public auction to sell a prison there so that they could pay the debt on the facility after GEO group cancelled its contract and left the town holding the bag.

Even if the town isn’t directly responsible for paying the debt on the prison, a default on the bond can affect the town’s credit rating (kinda like S&P just did to the United States). That can make it difficult for the town to borrow money for other needed projects like new schools or a hospital. Some towns have taken desperate measures to try to pay the debt on a prison in an effort to avoid default, including raising taxes and cutting other critical city budgets. A bond default can also make a city the target of costly litigation, further draining the town’s coffers.

Lie #3: “It’s impossible to measure recidivism from our prisons, because the prisoners may be housed in several different facilities during their incarceration.”—Terry Stewart, former Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections and now consultant for MTC

We asked every one of the companies what their recidivism rate was, and none of them had an answer. Isn’t that convenient? These companies can make claims about how they supposedly are “changing lives” and rehabilitating people, and they don’t even have to prove it.

Probation departments, social service providers and re-entry programs all measure recidivism. They don’t say, “well, this guy is also getting services at the VA and the food bank, so there’s no way to measure the impact of our programs.”

Let’s face it–these corporations know that their recidivism rate won’t be any better than the state’s and probably worse.

What’s more, the Arizona Department of Corrections has all this data, they just won’t go to the trouble to analyze it. They could easily do a comparison between state prisoners who have been housed in private prisons at any point in their incarceration, and those who have only been in state facilities.

Lie #2: “What lawsuits?”

When directly asked whether the company had settled lawsuits over abusive conditions in its juvenile prisons in Michigan and Louisiana, GEO Group representatives hemmed and hawed and refused to answer the question. We consider this the same as lying.

As reported in the Dallas Morning News, GEO not only faced lawsuits over bad conditions, but they actually lost contracts due to their abuses.

The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2000, when it was known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., alleging that juveniles at the company’s Louisiana facility were subjected to excessive abuse and neglect. Wackenhut agreed to a settlement that provided for sweeping changes to Louisiana’s juvenile justice system and required the company to move all juveniles from its facility. The former security chief pleaded guilty in 2001 to beating a 17-year-old handcuffed inmate with a mop handle. In October 2005, Michigan closed the state’s private youth prison run by GEO after an advocacy group sued the prison over inadequate inmate care.

And, rather than accepting responsibility for its actions, the company turned around and sued the state of Michigan for wrongful termination of contract. How’s that for being a “good corporate citizen”?

And the #1 Lie told at the Arizona Hearings: “I’m accountable to you”—George Zoley, CEO of GEO Group

Waaah! Ha! Ha! Good one, George! About 30 seconds after uttering this whopper, Zoley proceeded to tell the crowd that GEO does not even bother to measure recidivism and then refused to disclose how much money he makes. Accountability, indeed.

Fortunately, Frank Smith of Private Corrections Working Group was in attendance and informed the crowd that Zoley made $16 million last year. Zoley’s pay, he pointed out, is a matter of public record. As a follow up, Frank provided us with the exact figures. Zoley’s salary, per companypay.com, was $3,825,433. He made $23 million in stock trades in the last 18 months.

Just a note to the boys at GEO corporate—don’t send Zoley to these things. He creeps people out.

AZ Republic: GEO Group Goodyear Public Hearing

---------from the Arizona Republic--------

Prison proposal for Goodyear draws fire
Geo Group Inc.'s plan to construct a private facility spurs opposition

Bob Ortega
Arizona Republic
August 11, 2011


Geo Group Inc.'s proposal to build a 2,000- to 5,000-bed private prison in Goodyear ran into fierce public opposition Wednesday, with much of the anger at a public hearing coming from residents who said the state has broken a promise made at the time the nearby Perryville state prison was built.

Geo tried to head off criticism, saying its prison would be built to far higher security standards than the state requires, with several extra layers of fencing and security devices and with more staff.

Company CEO George Zoley also stressed the economic benefits of adding up to 1,000 construction jobs and up to 1,100 permanent jobs if the largest alternative were selected.

But despite giving a far more detailed presentation than rival bidder Corrections Corp. of America provided at a hearing in Eloy one night before, Geo Group ran into a buzz saw.

Litchfield Park Mayor Thomas Schoaf, in a statement read by City Manager Darryl Crossman, called the proposal "a slap in the face to our residents," a direct threat to the public safety of the area "and a threat to the public welfare of our communities."

Schoaf, in an argument echoed by others, said that when the state built the Perryville prison in 1980, the Legislature overcame local opposition by promising to limit the facility to 1,400 minimum-security women prisoners.

But by 1989, the state began sending male, higher-security inmates there. Perryville now houses just under 3,500 inmates.

Schoaf called a further prison expansion preposterous.

"I'm the guy who founded this company in 1984 . . . and I'm accountable to you," Zoley promised at the hearing.

But when he declined to answer a question about the ratio of correctional officers to prisoners, Dianne Post, the NAACP's Maricopa County representative, argued, "He says, 'I'm accountable to you.' How? He won't tell us his staff ratio. They're not accountable."

Other speakers alternated between those in construction - "We all need jobs, we need jobs in this area," said John Coffman - and those peppering the company with questions, criticizing its record and political donations, or arguing, as Goodyear resident Barb Julien said, "If this area had a Scottsdale ZIP code, we wouldn't be holding this meeting tonight."

Geo., based in Boca Raton, Fla., is a publicly traded company with about 78,000 beds in 116 corrections and treatment facilities in the U.S. and three other countries. It recently bought a company that uses ankle-bracelet tracking devices to monitor about 60,000 probationers and parolees.

Geo operates three prisons under contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections: Phoenix West, a minimum-custody prison that can hold 495 inmates; Florence West, which can hold 750 inmates; and the Central Arizona Correctional Facility, also in Florence, which can hold 1,280 sex offenders.

In addition to the Goodyear proposal, Geo is proposing an alternative plan to provide 2,000 or 3,000 beds in San Luis, southwest of Yuma.

Wednesday's hearing was the second of five being held this week and next over proposals by Geo, CCA, Management and Training Corp. and LaSalle Southwest Corrections. The hearings continue today in Winslow and next week in San Luis and Coolidge.