Texas Prison Bid'ness

Tom Barry continues his excellent coverage of the growing system of private prisons detaining immigrants for ICE, the U.S. Marshals, and the federal prison system in a new article in the Boston Review ("A Death in Texas: Profits, Poverty, and Immigration Converge," November/December 2009) online this week. 

Barry, whose excellent blogging over at the Border Lines Blog, has covered the growing immigrant detention industrial complex in the context of the mess that is the Reeves County Detention Center out in Pecos.  In this new article, Barry takes a comprehensive look at the policies and poverty that have driven poor rural Texas towns into the prison industry, and what some of the disasterous results have been.  Here's a brief sample:

Debbie Thomas, curator of the West of the Pecos Museum (commonly known as the cowboy museum), sighs when asked about the town’s only steady business over the past two decades. “Well, we don’t want to be known as a prison town, but it’s better than being a ghost town,” she says. Pecos was once a busy crossroads and hub of industry. Today, the downtown is dead.  In 1985 Reeves County became the first of a few dozen Texas counties to get into the speculative prison business, when Judge Jimmy Galindo (no relation to Jesus Manuel Galindo) persuaded the County Commissioners Court to take a bold step for Pecos’s economic future. At the time, Judge Galindo and other county leaders argued that Pecos could cash in on the surge in incarceration rates that accompanied the war on drugs. Years later, for the prison’s two expansions, the county and the private operators would rely on the federal government to send them immigrant inmates.

Indeed, immigrant detention has been central to the growth of the “privates” for more than two decades. The Immigration and Naturalization Service’s (INS) 1983 decision to outsource immigrant detention to the newly established Corrections Corporation of America gave birth to the private-prison industry; GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut) got its start imprisoning immigrants in the late 1980s.

While the nation’s nonimmigrant prison population has recently leveled off, the number of immigrants in ICE (formerly INS) detention has increased fivefold since the mid-1990s, and continues year after year to reach record highs. Assuming current trends hold, ICE will detain more than 400,000 immigrants in 2009.
The federal government’s escalating demand for immigrant prison beds saved CCA and other privates that had overbuilt speculative prisons. Over the past eight years, the prison giants CCA ($1.6 billion in annual revenue) and GEO Group ($1.1 billion) have racked up record profits, with jumps in revenue and profits roughly paralleling the rising numbers of detained immigrants.

The full article is certainly worth the time to read.  See it here, and check out Barry's other excellent work at Border Lines Blog.

The title says it all.  From the KWES ("25 Inmates Indicted in Connection to RCDC’s First Riot"),

The U.S. District Court in Pecos has released documents showing 25 inmates at the Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC) were indicted for their part in the first riot at the prison.

The federal grand jury documents show those inmates conspired to cause the riot that broke out December 12th at RCDC buildings one and two.

Those inmates set fire to several buildings and held two workers there against their will for hours.

At the time, inmates said they were rioting because they wanted better healthcare and asked to speak with the Mexican consulate.

A second riot broke out about a month later on January 31st and lasted several days.

Both uprisings did millions of dollars in damage to the private prison near Pecos.

Of course, this story raise the real question - who at the GEO Group or Reeves County will be held accountable for creating the conditions that led this riot?  Prison riots don't just happen; they are a response to poor conditions and poor security, two things that seem to be increasingly endemic to the GEO Group's Texas operations. 

See our previous coverage of the Reeves County Detention Center: 

Another Death at GEO's RCDC,  March 27, 2009

GEO Riots Could Cost Reeves County More than $1 Million, February 27, 2009

Family Members Protest GEO Group in Reeves County, February 14, 2009

Reeves County Denies Access to GEO Prison to Attorney Juan Guerra, February 12, 2009

Reeves County Detention Center on Fire Again, February 6, 2009

Second Riot in Two Months Leaves Injuries, Significant Damage, February 4, 2008

Riots and Mysterious Deaths at GEO's Reeves County facility, December 22, 2008

The GEO Group's Reeves County Detention Center was home to another prisoner death.  According to a story on KRGV ("Valley family speaks out about relative's death in Pecos prison," March 20), Jose Manuel Falcon died while in custody at Reeves earlier this month.

A Rio Grande Valley family continues to search for justice after their nephew died while serving time in a private West Texas prison.

Jose Manuel Falcon was two months shy of his release from the Pecos prison when he died. The 32-year-old died Thursday, March 12, at the Reeve County Detention Center.

Falcon spent five years there. Family members called it a harsh sentence for being caught illegally in the U.S. without papers.

A GEO Group statement has confirmed Falcon's death, and claimed that he died of suicide, though the Texas Rangers have not reached a conclusion, according to KRGV ("Pecos Prison Death," March 20),

A spokesman for the GEO Group, a private prison company that runs the Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos released a statement to NEWSCHANNEL 5.

The statement reads: On March 5, 2009, at approximately 6:40PM, inmate Jose Manuel Falcon took his life by self inflicting numerous lacerations with a disposable razor blade. At the time of the incident the inmate was in a single cell and there is no evidence of foul play. In accordance with state law, the custodial death of inmate falcon was investigated by the Texas Rangers and it has been determined through the investigation that the death was suicide.

A Texas Rangers spokesperson tells NEWSCHANNEL 5 they still consider Falcon's death an open case.

Falcon's family was not convinced, saying that they believe that he was murdered in the facility.  Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, who is representing many of the detainees at Reeves agrees, according to a report at KRGV ("Family Says Son Murdered In Prison," March 19th).  

Thirty-two-year-old Jose Manuel Falcon died last Thursday at the Reeve County Detention Center in Pecos. The prison promises a report on the official cause of death by this Thursday. His mother and Attorney Juan Guerra say they're positive he was murdered behind bars.

Santos Aguallo says the prison officials told the family he committed suicide. But she says it doesn't make sense, since he was just two months away from being released.  Attorney Juan Guerra was outside the prison in Pecos protesting what he calls dangerous conditions at the privately-run facility at the time of the death. He says from what he saw, Jose Manuel Falcon died a violent death.

"It's very obvious he has defensive wounds. As a prosecutor, you look at his hands and he has, where he was defending himself, so this was not a suicide. This was a murder. Someone killed him inside," Guerra claims. 

Whether Falcon died of suicide or a murder, it is not a good sign for the troubled facility.  A protest of family members is being planned for this Saturday, March 28th, at 10am in front of the prison.  In addition, see Grassroots Leadership and the Texas Jail Project's press release with recommendations that include:

1. An investigation into conditions at the facility by the U.S. Department of Justice;
2. Allowing the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to inspect the facility;
3. Transparency and accountability during the investigation process;
4. Visitation access for attorneys, family members of prisoners, and human rights organizations

We'll keep you posted on developments from Reeves County.  In the meantime, see our previous coverage of the facility:

GEO Riots Could Cost Reeves County More than $1 Million, February 27, 2009

Family Members Protest GEO Group in Reeves County, February 14, 2009

Reeves County Denies Access to GEO Prison to Attorney Juan Guerra, February 12, 2009

Reeves County Detention Center on Fire Again, February 6, 2009

Second Riot in Two Months Leaves Injuries, Significant Damage, February 4, 2008

Riots and Mysterious Deaths at GEO's Reeves County facility, December 22, 2008

The two riots in past two months at the GEO Group's Reeves County Detention Center that have injured inmates, resulted in guards being taken hostage, and destroyed much of the the facility were apparently sparked by lack of medical care at the facility and several inmate deaths. Now, the county may be on the hook for over $1 million in repairs to the prison, according to an article for KRISTV.com ("West Texas prison riots cost county $1.1 million),

A pair of destructive prison riots in the span of two months at a county-owned but privately managed West Texas prison have cost more than $1.1 million in repairs, according to Reeves County records.

The Reeves County Commission unanimously approved more than $948,000 in repair bills from the riots during a regular meeting Monday and previously OK'd about $320,000 in repair costs.

Reeves County Judge Sam Contreras said it may be some time before officials know the total cost of the riots. The first incident was sparked by an inmate's death in December, and the second incident erupted Jan. 31. But insurance officials have estimated its repairs could exceed $20 million, Contreras said.

"They said we won't know until all the bids come in," Contreras said Wednesday.

In the latest incident, which relatives of inmates said was sparked by poor medical care and other conditions inside the sprawling prison complex, inmates caused widespread damages, even setting fire to one building.

Contreras said two recreation buildings suffered substantial damage in the second riot and one may be demolished.

The Reeves County Detention Center is owned by the county, but Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group Inc., manages the facility that houses about 3,000 federal criminal immigrant inmates. The American Civil Liberties Union has called for a federal probe of the compound.

In fact, no state agency can enter the facility to inspect it. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the agency which until the passage of HB 3517 in 2003 had oversight of county-owned facilities holding federal prisoners, is charged with helping counties avoid liability problems. Adan Muñoz, the head of TCJS, expressed support for reversing 3517 at Monday's meeting of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal Justice. As Nick posted last week,

Expanding TCJS to additional county-owned facilities like Reeves would force the affected prisons to meet basic minimum standards set for other county-owned jails in Texas, positively impacting public safety by decreasing riots and hopefully eliminating hostage situations, and better protecting guards
by forcing observation of a 48-1 inmate-staff ratio. It would also insulate Reeves County from some of the liability for problems at the facility.

It would also hopefully eliminate some of the atrocious conditions we continue to hear from families with loved ones detained at places like Reeves. For background information on the Reeves situation, see our previous coverage:

Family Members Protest GEO Group in Reeves County, February 14, 2009

Reeves County Denies Access to GEO Prison to Attorney Juan Guerra, February 12, 2009

Reeves County Detention Center on Fire Again, February 6, 2009

Second Riot in Two Months Leaves Injuries, Significant Damage, February 4, 2008

Riots and Mysterious Deaths at GEO's Reeves County facility, December 22, 2008