July 2012

A "minor fight" between incarcerated immigrants at the GEO Group's Reeves County Detention Center is being reported by the Odessa American-Statesman ("Inmate fight results in injuries at Reeves County prison Sunday," July 16)

"A minor fight involving several inmates resulted in minor injuries at the Reeves County Detention Center Sunday, officials from the Geo Group, Inc., the private company that operates the facility, reported.

During the day Sunday, a minor “inmate-on-inmate fight” broke out in the recreation yard, reported Pablo E. Paez, vice president of corporate relations reported. The fight resulted in minor injuries to “less than half a dozen inmates.”

“Staff at the facility responded promptly to quell the fight which did not result in any injuries to staff or damage property,” Paez reported."

Last weekend, the Conroe Courier reported (Feds investigate 2 county facilities, July 7, 2012) that Montgomery County’s decision to construct the Joe Corley Detention Facility may have left the County with a large financial burden.  The facility, operated by The Geo Group, was constructed using $45 million in bonds exempt from federal taxes.  But, there was a catch.  As the Courier reported:

“the approval by the Internal Revenue Service in 2006 was based on a ruling request stating federal prisoners – including those from the U.S. Marshal’s Office and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement – would occupy an average of 70 percent of the 1,100 beds in the facility, according to county documents. … In that same ruling request … after the initial five-year operating period, ‘(the) county expects that the number of county prisoners or prisoners of other local governmental entities in the county housed in the Jail will exceed 30 percent of the beds. Eventually, County expects that non-federal prisoners will occupy close to 100 percent of the beds in the Jail.’”

Well, the facility opened in August 2008 and guess how many county inmates are in the facility?  Zero.