Prison firm GEO has troubled record

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Detroit News

May 12, 2012 at 1:00 am
Prison firm GEO has troubled record
Company may get Michigan prisoners if state bill passes

Lansing— A private company that a federal investigation found allowed "a cesspool" of conditions at a Mississippi youth prison and that paid a $1.1 million fine for understaffing New Mexico prisons could be in line to oversee Michigan inmates in the next year.

The Republican-controlled Senate has passed legislation that would allow inmates to be moved to a private prison. Legislation in the state House would go even further, requiring the corrections department to close an Ionia prison and send more than 1,000 inmates to a private facility if the state can cut its costs at least 10 percent.

The bill doesn't specify which company be given the prison contract, but it's unlikely another private company besides GEO Group Inc. would bid to house the inmates. The Florida-based company owns the only private prison in Michigan, the now-empty North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin.

The U.S. Department of Justice released a report in March sharply criticizing the way GEO ran the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Mississippi. The report found the prison "allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate." It cited numerous instances where workers had sex with young inmates, beat them and gave favors to those with the same gang affiliations.

Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120512/METRO/205120363#ixzz1ud5FI6tG

[SleeplessinSoCal]

1. Just say "No to private prisons"

[lonestarnot]

2. No is not enough. Hell no.

[crunch60]

3. The Repukes are turning the beautiful state of Michigan into a hell hole. The

private prison industrial complex, is alive and growing every day. Despite the dismal record of GEO, Mich. will let them in.

[tawadi]

4. Prisons have become GOP money-making machines

Sick.

[Cal33]

5. You are correct. I didn't even know that private prisons existed until I read about it two or three

years ago. Making money off slave labor! How like the Greedy Old Parasites party! What a great
opportunity for sadists to carry out their evil practices! There should be no private prisons at all.
They should be banned outright!!

[47of74]

6. I've said this before but I will repeat it now.

We need a replacement for the 13th Amendment. One like this.

Section 1. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution is hereby repealed.

Section 2. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 3. Private penal institutions shall not exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 4. Violation of any part of this amendment shall be punishable by life imprisonment in a maximum security installation with no possibility of reprieve or parole. Any corporations found to be in violation of this amendment shall be dissolved, with their assets going first to their victims, followed by the United States government.

And I'm having a debate with myself if my proposed amendment should make violation a capital offense punishable by death.