Texas Prison Bid'ness

Corrections Corporation of America spent $240,000 in the second quarter of 2010 lobbying federal agencies and against transparency legislation that would subject private prisons to similar freedom of information act requests as publicly-operated facilities, according to an article ("Corrections Corp. spent $240,000 on 2Q lobbying," September 1) in Business Week,

Prison operator Corrections Corp. of America spent $240,000 lobbying federal officials in the second quarter. That's down slightly from the $250,000 it spent on lobbying in the first quarter of 2010 and the $260,000 it spent lobbying in the second quarter of last year.

The company said it lobbied on issues related to the private prison industry and on all provisions of the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 and the Private Prison Information Act of 2009, among other topics.

Aside from Congress, Corrections Corp. also lobbied the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement in the April-to-June quarter, according to a report filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives on July 20.

Two hearings will be held in the next week that could effect the size, effectiveness, and purview of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the state agency charged with overseeing Texas' massive county jail system, including a number or privately-operated jails and detention centers.

1) Joint Budget Hearing: Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 1st, from 9am-10:30am in the Capitol Extension, Room E2.028 will see a budget hearing in which the agency will most likely be fending off budget cuts.  Check out Ana Yañez-Correa's excellent guest-post over at Grits for Breakfast for why this hearing is important.  Here's the highlight:

In the face of a potential 15% budget cut (including across-the-board 5% agency budget cuts and an extra, requested 10% budget cut), TCJS could potentially lose 2-3 staff members, possibly inspectors (out of a current total of 5 inspectors). Without inspections, TCJS will not be able to fully realize its critical mission to set constitutional jail standards, conduct facility inspections, and enforce compliance with rules and procedures - all of which keep Texas jails safe, well regulated, and run by educated, professional leadership.

2) Interim Charge #4.  The Senate's Criminal Justice Committee, chaired by Senator John Whitmire, will meet on Wednesday, Tuesday, September 7th, at 10am in Capitol Extension E1.016 (Hearing Room) to discuss interim charges, including Interim Charge #4:

Study and make recommendations related to municipal jails and other detention facilities that operate without state agency oversight. Identify the number of such facilities and the population detained, as well as best practices for municipal jails. Make recommendations to improve services and consider options for oversight of facilities by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

The combined effect of these hearings could shape the debate over TCJS in the upcoming legislative session.  On one hand, the agency could be stripped of inspectors and see its ability to oversee jails (both public and private) diminished.  On the other hand, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee could lead a charge to expand the purview of the agency to include municipal jails and county-owned detention centers currently exempted from oversight.  The latter could make a big difference in regulating problem-facilities like the GEO's Reeves County Detention Center, which is currently exempt from state-oversight.

A Human Rights Watch report released yesterday identifies numerous cases of sexual assault against immigrants detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's vast and largely private immigrant detention system.  As we reported, last week a former supervisor at Correction Corporation of America's T. Don Hutto detention center was arrested and charged in a case of sexual assault of many detained women being transported from the facilities. 

HRW's report, Detained and at Risk: Sexual Abuse and Harassment in United States Immigration Detention, details several cases of abuse at many of Texas' private immigrant detentio centers.  About Hutto, the report says:

In May 2007, when Hutto still functioned as a family detention center, a young boy was sleeping in a crib inside his mother’s cell when a guard entered and had sexual contact with her. Video surveillance captured the guard, employed by private contractor Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), crawling out of the cell in the middle of the night in an apparent failed attempt to evade security cameras.[36] CCA fired the guard, but he never faced criminal prosecution by either state or federal authorities. According to an ICE spokesperson, the police investigation concluded that the sexual contact had been consensual.[37] In any Bureau of Prisons facility in the US, the same incident would have constituted a crime because federal law criminalizes sexual contact between guards and those in their custody.[38] However, at the time, that particular provision of the federal criminal code applied only to facilities under the authority of the Department of Justice. Immigration facilities had been under the authority of the DOJ until 2003, but then authority passed to the newly created Department of Homeland Security. Consequently, the statutory provision did not cover sexual misconduct in ICE facilities at the time of the incident at Hutto. Later in 2007, a legislative amendment was passed to make the provision cover all federal facilities.[39]

The report also details alleged abuse at the GEO Group's South Texas Detention Center,

The South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, Texas has also been dogged by reports of sexual abuse of detainees.[40] In 2008, media outlets reported detainees attesting to frequent sexual abuse. One such report stated that documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request described an investigation into an alleged assault of a detainee from Mexico by a private security guard which led to his firing but did not result in prosecution.[41] According to the report, the documents also said that another detainee had reported multiple sexual assaults.[42]

And at Management and Training Corporation's Willacy County Detention Center in Raymondville,

In the summer of 2009, the Women’s Refugee Commission received numerous reports of sexual assault at the Willacy Detention Center in Raymondville.[43] In at least one case, a lawsuit was filed by the victim, who was transferred to the Port Isabel center after the allegations were made. The allegations received by the Women’s Refugee Commission included not only assaults by guards on women, but also one alleged incident in which a guard locked a female detainee in a room with a male detainee to whom he “owed a favor,” so that he could rape her. These reports came from various sources, including former staff at the facility who wished to remain anonymous. These alleged incidents were reported to Dora Schriro in August of 2009 and she responded by immediately going to Willacy herself to investigate and conduct interviews.

While Corrections Corporation of America is dealing with the fallout from the indictment of one of its former supervisors for sexual abuse of detained female immigrants at the company's T. Don Hutto detention center, another interesting article in the Nashville Post (Geert De Lombaerde, "Out of options," August 17) caught my eye:

Former Corrections Corp. of America CEO — and current chairman — John Ferguson has taken one for the team. Ferguson has signed a deal with the prison management firm to hand over almost 166,000 stock options so the company can divvy them out to other employees. The options would have expired in 2017 and 2018. It’s a magnanimous gesture, to be sure, and consistent with Ferguson’s request last year that he not be given equity awards.

But it’s also worth pointing out that Ferguson, who led CCA for more than nine years, last year pocketed $11 million from the exercising of options and still controls another $13 million in company stock. Plus, the surrendered options had strike prices above $26, where CCA (Ticker: CXW) hasn’t traded since September of 2008.

We pointed out last week that GEO Group's top executives also brought in nearly more than $7 million and $3 million respectively, and that all of this wealth is accumulated through taxpayer dollars.