Texas Prison Bid'ness

The debate over the recently proposed Caldwell County detention center, proposed by private prison corporation Emerald Companies, has largely centered on the inflammatory comments of Charles Law, mayor pro tem of the City of Mustang Ridge and a local water board official. Law called the detention center a "holding pen for wetbacks" and has been rightly condemned for his comments. In January, a similar proposal was defeated after widespread community opposition on the other side of the county.

Ignored in the debate about the current Emerald proposal has been one of the key driving forces behind detention center expansion in rural Texas - the idea that building a prison will stimulate the local economy and create jobs. Which begs the question, does building a prison or detention center in a rural community help the local economy? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is no. And it points to one of the most persistent myths surrounding prisons and detention centers - that they are good for rural economies. In fact, the exact opposite appears to be true.

According to multiple studies on prisons and economic development, rural counties that build prisons actually end up worse off than those that do not. According to one of the most comprehensive study on the topic, The Prison Industry: Carceral Expansion and Employment in U.S. Counties, 1969-1994, rural counties with slow-growing economies that built prisons actually fared worse than comparable counties that did not build prisons. In faster-growing areas, prisons had no positive economic benefit.

The reasons for this outcome aren't entirely known, but researchers have offered several hypothesis.

1. The so-called "prison-town effect" where large prisons deter more beneficial businesses from wanting to come to a community while at the same time scaring off tourism and other industries reliant on a positive community image.
2. Prisons can drain scarce public resources such as water hook-ups and other utilities, law enforcement, and road construction monies.
3. These factors are compacted by private prisons where "profits" from the facility are taken out of the community and given to shareholders or invested in future prison and detention center expansion efforts.

Unfortunately, Carceral Expansion is not online in its entirity, but you can read a review of the study by University of Texas LBJ School professor Michele Deitch in the Considering a Private Jail? resource guide. These studies should provide food for thought for local public officials dealing with private prison or detention center proposals.

The Del Rio News ("Jailer Arrested" March 25) reports that a 20 year-old GEO Group guard at the Val Verde Correctional Center has been charged distributing marijuana within the prison. According to the article:

Jose Alberto Ybarra, 20, 102 Gilchrist Lane, was arrested Friday and charged with the offense of prohibited substances and items in adult or juvenile correctional or detention facility or on property of Texas Department of Criminal Justice or Texas Youth Commission, said Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Larry Pope, who heads the VVSO’s criminal investigations division.

Pope said Val Verde County Sheriff A. D’Wayne Jernigan Friday asked him to meet with John Campbell, warden of The GEO Group’s Val Verde Correctional Facility, about Ybarra. “The warden suspected a jailer of bringing (marijuana) into the jail,” Pope said. “We set up a surveillance and when the suspect jailer arrived at work Friday, he was stopped and escorted into a conference room.”

Pope said Ybarra was found to be carrying 1.1 ounces of marijuana concealed in the rolled-up cuff of his left shirtsleeve. Pope said Ybarra was also carrying four $50 bills. “He later admitted that this is what he was being paid to deliver the marijuana,” Pope said.

While 1 ounce of Marijuana smuggled into a correctional facility doesn't seem particularly egregious, this incident is reminiscent of a more serious incident where another 20 year-old guard was charged with federal civil rights violations for repeatedly striking a prisoner in the face. It is also part of a long and growing list of problems at Val Verde, a reputation that earned it the "worst jail in Texas" award from the Texas Jail Project back in October 2007.

Selected previous Texas Prison Bid'ness coverage of the Val Verde Correctional Center:

• Val Verde Protest Video

• Problems Haunt Val Verde Correctional Center

• Idaho to Send Inmates to Scandal-Ridden GEO Private Jail

• Mysterious Illness Leaves Two Dead at Val Verde Correctional Center

• What's Not Happening at the Val Verde Jail

Several readers have contacted us over the last month with concerns about developments at Corrections Corporation of America's Mineral Wells pre-parole transfer facility. The facility, housing state prisoners awaiting transfer, was the site of a major multi-day disturbance last fall.

This time readers, including some with family members in the prison, are worried that CCA is constructing metal coverings over the dorm windows, creating a safety hazard. One reader sent pictures to illustrate the point.

Mineral Wells Dorm Before Metal On Windows

Mineral Wells Dorm with Metal Over Windows

Clearly, conditions that make prisoners and families feel unsafe are not good in prisons, a special importance at a facility like Mineral Wells which has experienced some major disturbances in the past years. We'll keep you posted on developments from Mineral Wells In the meantime, read our previous posts about Mineral Wells:

• Hidden Costs of Private Prisons

• Disturbance at CCA's Mineral Wells Private Prison

• Mineral Wells on Lockdown After Two Days of Disturbance

• Prisoners Escape CCA Prison

Laredo Independent School District trustee Jose A. Valdez expressed concern about the proposed sale of Webb County Juvenile Detention Center to Cornell Companies last week, citing the accompanying change in makeup of the facility from juveniles to adults as cause for concern due to the close proximity of the detention center to two elementary schools.

The Laredo Morning Times Reports:

"The detention center's location, in the 4100 block of Juarez Avenue, is too close to nearby schools and raises safety issues, Jose Valdez said.

"Our concern is that one block to the south is an elementary school, Santa Maria. On Chicago (Street), one block to the west is Farias Elementary," he said. "We don't want a prison there."

The proposed contract stipulates that the facility be used for re-entry of adult prisoners under jurisdiction of the United States Bureau of Prisons. Webb has been trying to sell its County Juvenile Detention Center for more than a year in order to pay for operation of a new juvenile detention center-- the Webb County Youth Village Complex.

On a slightly encouraging note, the issue of prison privatization seems to be getting a critical look in Webb County. Bob wrote earlier this month about the County Commissioner races going on in Webb, where some candidates are making opposition to Geo Group an important piece of their platforms. And this was in the LMT article:

"Martinez said the recent political climate and the controversysurrounding the GEO Group's new detention facility in south Laredo ishelping to fuel to the issue"

LISD trustee George M. Beckelhymer said it is always good to examine intent with respect to contracts, especially if one entity is a for-profit business.

Good indeed.