Lobbying and Influence

Update on Texas Treatment Prison Beds

Nicole — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:35:32 -0600

Texas is currently undergoing a large prison bed expansion. During 2007, state lawmakers authorized more than 8,500 new beds in the form of treatment prisons. We have written previously that this expansion is a mix of public, private, and not-for-profit beds.

Scott, at Grits for Breakfast, recently posted that while the money is available private vendors are not bidding for the contracts.

We have attempted to provide a list of the treatment prison beds that are currently online in the table below. Note that of the 8,500 beds which were appropriated money in 2007, only 4,102 have been filled.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Diversion Beds/Slots

As of October 3, 2008

Facility Name	Facility Type	For Profit/Not for Profit	Vendor	# of Beds
El Paso (South)	Halfway House	For Profit	Avalon/SCS	200
East Texas (Henderson)	Intermediate Sanction Facility (ISF)	For Profit	MTC	224
North Texas (Ft. Worth)	ISF	For Profit	GEO	24
West Texas (Brownfield)	ISF	For Profit	MTC	25
Estelle (Huntsville)	Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility (SAFPF)	Not For Profit	Gateway	24
East Texas (Henderson)	SAFPF	For Profit	MTC	588
Henley (Dayton)	SAFPF	Not for Profit	Cenikor	64
Henley (Dayton)	In-Prison Therapeutic Community (IPTC)	Not for Profit	Cenikor	128
Havins (Brownwood)	IPTC	Not for Profit	Gateway	576
Ney (Hondo)	IPTC	Not for Profit	Gateway	296
East Texas (Henderson)	DWI	For Profit	MTC	500
Dominguez (San Antonio)	State Jail Substance Abuse (State Jail)	For Profit	Turning Point	174
Gist (Beaumont)	State Jail	For Profit	Turning Point	116
Hutchins (Dallas)	State Jail	For Profit	Turning Point	232
Lychner (Humble)	State Jail	For Profit	Turning Point	396
Plane (Dayton)	State Jail	For Profit	Turning Point	174
Travis County (Austin)	State Jail	For Profit	Turning Point	108
Abode Treatment (White Settlement)	Transitional Treatment Center (TTC)	For Profit	Abode	72
Centex Alcohol Rehabiliatin Center, Inc. (Temple)	TTC	Not for Profit	Centex	15
Cheyenne Center (Houston)	TTC	For Profit	Cheyenne	76
Gateway Foundation (Dallas)	TTC	Not for Profit	Gateway	8
Land Manor, Inc. (Beaumont)	TTC	For Profit	Land Manor	18
Liberty Lodge (Alice)	TTC	For Profit	Liberty Lodge	23
Lubbock Regional MHMR Center (Lubbock)	TTC	Public	Lubbock MHMR	20
Reality Ranch (Corpus Christi)	TTC	For Profit	Reality Ranch	5
Spindletop MHMR Services (Beaumont)	TTC	Public	Spindletop	7
Volunteers of America (Houston)	TTC	Not for Profit	VOA	9
Total Beds				4,102

MTC Big Winner in TDCJ's Private Prison Swap

Bob — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:18:31 -0600

Management and Training Corporation, the Utah-based private prison corporation most (in)famous in Texas for the operation of Raymondville's "tent city" immigrant detention center, has acquired three new state contracts to operate Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons. According to an ~~MTC press release~~ article in the Standard-Examiner ("MTC Adds Three Prisons in Texas," October 2nd),

Management & Training Corp. said Wednesday it has been awarded contracts worth a combined $62.6 million over 32 months to oversee the Billy Moore, Diboll and Estes correctional centers in northeast Texas.

The contracts, awarded by the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, contain options that could extend their total combined value to $165.8 million through August 2015.

The company will take over the Diboll and B. Moore units from Corrections Corporation of America and Estes from the GEO Group. CCA and the GEO Group are the nation's two oldest and largest private prison corporations.

It should be noted that Estes is the third GEO facility closed in the state of Texas in the last 18 months. The state of Idaho pulled its inmates from the Dickens County Correctional Center in the spring of 2007 in the wake of the suicide of inmate Scot Noble Payne and a subsquent investigation into "squalid" conditions at the lock-up. In October 2007, the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center was shuttered by the Texas Youth Commission after a damning investigation into conditions. read more »

TDCJ Unable to Expand Treatment Capacity Due to lack of Private Prison Space

Nicole — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:42:11 -0600

According to Scott at Grits for Breakfast, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), reports they are unable to expand in prison treatment ("Lack of private beds shouldn't stop Texas from using treatment, diversion strategies", Oct. 1).

The reason, money for treatment authorized by the state legislature in 2007, depends on private capacity to provide in prison treatment beds. We have mentioned previously and Scott reasserts that a primary factor in supposed 2007 criminal justice reforms depended on private capacity. According to Scott:

I'm not an inherent critic of privatization and tend to consider its merits on a case by case basis. But when that strategy can't meet the state's needs, there's nothing wrong with the state operating those beds itself just like the government owns most Texas' prison facilities. If private capacity has all dried up, that's exactly what they should do.

Scott is certainly right there. But of course the state relying on private capacity to meet it's needs is one of the problems with private prisons period. If Texas was constrained by current capacity and conservative fiscal policy, discussions to expand any prison beds would be very different.

With private prison companies always available to provide beds -- though they aren't bidding for private treatment contracts-- begs the question: Why do Texas officials fall for these failed incarceration policies?

I am quite certain that one of the primary reasons private contractors aren't bidding for the new contracts is due to the cost of providing treatment. They have probably run the numbers and figure they wouldn't make an actual profit.

Lawmaker Requests AG Opinion

Nicole — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:34:43 -0600

State Represenative, Kevin Bailey (D-Houston), requested an Attorney General (AG) opinion on whether it is legal for a sheriff to accept a fee for work with a private prison company, according to the Waco Tribune ("Texas House member asks state to rule on whether sheriff's pay from work with private detention company is legal," September 21).

Bailey currently chairs the House Committee on Urban Affairs. His AG requests comes after several private contract scandals surfaced. Over the last year, sheriffs in Bexar County and McLennan County have come under scrutiny.

McLennan County officials have rationalized why they believe the payments from private contractors are acceptable. According to an attorney that represents McLennan County, Sheriff Lynch receives a $12,000 salary supplement -- paid to the county from CivicGenics -- for administrative services associated with leasing the county's downtown jail to the private prison company.

Bailey's request asks for certain clarifications in current law.

“Although the sheriff may not actually be a shareholder of the private organization and hold a shareholder’s interest in the private organization, there can be no doubt that the sheriff would have a ‘financial interest’ in the private organizations’ contract with the county if the sheriff receives a sizable administrative fee after approving of the contract if the contract includes such an administrative fee to the sheriff,” Bailey wrote in his letter. “Thus, such an arrangement would violate the spirit and intent, if not the language of the law.”

There are over 256 counties in Texas. Each elects a sheriff that runs and manages the county jail. There is extremely limited oversight these sheriff's actions and their management of the jail. So, further clarification by the AG would be helpful. We will keep you posted on the AG's opinion. read more »

For related coverage see the following posts:

Laredo Superjail Grand Opening

Bob — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:46:08 -0600

photo: Matt Gossage
The GEO Group's Laredo Superjail, a 1,500 bed federal detention center that attracted opposition in Laredo and around the state, held it's grand opening Wednesday. As someone involved in the organizing against the prison, which will hold mostly immigrants being held under criminal immigration charges under the Orwellian-titled Operation Streamline, I was especially sad to see this prison open.

I attended the opening, and have to admit it was even more surreal than I could have imagined - complete with a high school mariachi band singing in Spanish, a cake in the shape of the GEO Group's corporate logo, and a slew of new GEO Group prison guards (many of whom looked to be 18 or 19) wearing desert camo style uniforms.

GEO Group executives George Zoley and Wayne Calabrese mingled with local politicos, including Laredo mayor Raul Salinas and Webb County judge Danny Valdez, who apparently have forgotten their respective councils' rejection of GEO's "blood money" a little over a year ago.

The prison will hold pre-trial federal detainees for the U.S. Marshals - many of whom will be immigrants prosecuted for criminal violations under the program Operation Streamline. The facility was proposed back in 2003, and even before the official launch of Streamline, the U.S. Marshals' federal detention capacity was being pushed almost exclusively by expanded criminal prosecution of immigration violations (PDF), a departure from the old style of dealing with immigration issues in the immigration court system.

Simply put, this $100 million gift to the GEO Group comes because the government is holding border-crossers in criminal jail for 30-90 days before transporting them to deportation proceedings. What doesn't seem very "streamline" about this process?

CCA Spends $240K on Federal Lobbying Last Quarter

Bob — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:28:27 -0600

We reported last week that Corrections Corporation of America was still betting on the trend of increasing immigration detention after the change in presidential administration next year. It appears that CCA isn't waiting to see if the trend continues. According to the Associated Press ("Corrections Corp. spent $240K lobbying in 2Q," August 15), CCA spent $240,000 on federal lobbying in the second quarter of 2008.

That doesn't quite keep up with the breakneck lobbying pace CCA exhibited in 2007, when the company spent $2.5 million on lobbying Congress and federal agencies such Immigration Customs and Enforcement, the Justice Department, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

OpenSecrets.org which operates a terrific lobbying database, puts CCA's total 2008 lobbying number a bit higher at $480,000, while GEO Group has spent $120,000 thus far in 2008 and Houston-based Cornell has spent $60,000 in federal lobbying.

Grassroots Protests in Opposition to Private Prisons Sitings

Nicole — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:45:49 -0600

Our pal Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast posted last week a roundup of grassroots campaigns against private prison sitings. According to Scott:

It's surprising how many acrimonious local debates are going on right now in Texas over jail and prison privatization.

Scott also highlights the grassroots strategies employed by a private prison opposition group in Nacogdoches, Citizens Opposed to the Prison Site (COPS). The community organization is calling for citizens to move their money out of local banks and to boycott the businesses of public officials that are supporting the private prison construction.

Scott goes on to offer additional analysis regarding private prison debate in Nueces County and why the construction of a new prison has a complicated history.

The grassroots actions taking place in Nueces and McClennan Counties are some of the most interesting in the state. The opposition of local citizens to private prison construction proves that this issue continues to resonate with folks in all communities throughout the state and that incarceration policy impacts us all.

GEO Group Reports on Expanding Capacity in Texas

Nicole — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:51:44 -0600

The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) held a conference call for investors earlier this month. During the call, GEO reported on policy developments that will impact private prison capacity in Texas and beyond. GEO officials stated that the company's private prison capacity is scheduled to increased by 5,900 beds during 2008, representing a 12% year-to-year increase in bed space. During 2007, the prison profiteer had a capacity of 48,260 and grew to 54,160 beds in 2008.

Several private prison units owned or managed by GEO opened for business in recent weeks, with more prison beds on the way. According George Zoley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GEO, continued demand from federal clients are driving private prison expansion in Texas and other states. Zoley stated that client demand among the agencies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), United States Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Prissons (BOP) will lead GEO to open three new major facilities in Texas for an increase of 3,200 beds in the lone star state.

According to Zoley, the desire of federal clients to consolidate prison populations into the same facilities drove the company to construct new prisons that could accommodate customer needs. As a result GEO is bringing online the three new facilities in Texas.

During the call, Zoley mentioned that this would free up approximately 1,000 beds in Texas as the private prison company shifts federal prisoners and detainees to the new facilities it is bring online. Apparently, ICE, USMS, and BOP are coordinating their prison populations so that some of their prisoners can be held in the same facilities.

Investors questioned GEO's decision to construct new private prisons that would result in 1,000 empty beds in Texas. Zoley assured his investors that despite temporary population reductions at certain facilities, new inflows of detainees as a result of current policy will result in normalizing occupancy levels at older prisons once the new private prisons are at capacity.

It is incredibly troubling listening to the exchange between Zoley and GEO investors regarding the profitability of the company's given the empty 1,000 beds that result from new construction and the consolidation of federal prison populations. After all, each bed does represent a human being for a period of time, many of whom have families and ties to their communities. We encourage everyone to listen to the GEO conference call, it is incredible how criminal justice policy can be reduced to dollars and cents for prison privateers.

Cornell Companies Gets Close to Obama

Nicole — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:07:24 -0600

Recently, University of Houston Associate Professor of Law Tony Chase, joined Senator Barack Obama's National Finance Committee. In addition to various responsibilities, Chase sits on the board of directors for Cornell Companies Inc. As we all know, Cornell is one of the nation's private prison profiteers.

According to Chase (CBS News, "U. Houston Prof Joins Obama's National Finance Committee")

"I've known (Obama) for quite some time, and I was one of the people he asked whether if he should run," Chase said. "Because of that, this is very personal, and I genuinely believe he is best for this country"

Hmmm. Let' s see how Chase and his private prison cronies work to influence Obama's positions on criminal justice policy including federal detention practices. We'll be watching....

Proposed Raymondville Family Detention Center Being Pushed by Prison Developer

Bob — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:07:54 -0600

While we've reported that one of the three new family detention centers proposed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement may end up in Raymondville, I hadn't seen this Valley Morning Story until recently. The story provides more details on the proposed Raymondville lock-up,

City officials are considering a proposal to build a 200-bed, $30 million detention center to hold illegal immigrant families.

Raymondville city commissioners sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to support a plan to build the detention center, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said Wednesday. "We haven't committed ourselves to anything yet, except we're interested and would like to know more about it," Garcia said.

Since the mid-1990s, Willacy County has built prisons and a detention center in the Raymondville industrial park. Already there are a 1,000-bed state prison, a 500-bed county prison, a 96-bed county jail and a 3,000-bed illegal immigrant detention center, the largest in the United States.

We've reported in the past on Raymondville's growing dependence on immigrant detention beds to survive economically. We've also reported that prisons do not create long-term economic growth, and that prison towns tend to scare away more beneficial industries. Of course, there are those that stand to benefit from a new detention center in Raymondville - prison developers and private prison operaters.

According to the article, one of those is Michael Harling of Municipal Capital Markets Group.

Michael Harling of Municipal Capital Markets Group in Dallas, which would work to finance the project, said it would create 200 jobs. Harling called the city to ask if officials would consider the project, Garcia said.

"They asked if the city would be supportive of putting it in the industrial park," Garcia said. The city would sell bonds to fund construction of the project, Harling said.

Federal revenue derived from holding illegal immigrants would pay off the bonds, Harling said. Garcia said the detention center would allow illegal immigrant parents to be housed with their children.

"It's not a detention center," Harling said. "It's a facility for holding families, for holding people who have not committed crimes."

I certainly find it interesting and more than a little disturbing that a prison financier - someone who makes their money off the floating of bonds to build prisons - is the one who is acting as the spokesperson for the policy of detaining children and their families.

We'll keep you updated on developments on ICE's three new proposed family detention centers. read more »