Business is Booming for the Prison Profiteers

[ensho]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/09/business-is-booming-for-the-prison-profiteers/


The GEO Group Cashes In


Private corrections company The GEO Group celebrated the holiday season by opening a new 1,500 bed prison in Milledgeville, Georgia on December 12th. The $80 million facility is expected to generate approximately $28.0 million in annual revenues.

Though GEO (formerly Wackenhut) is hardly a household name, they are a major player in the private corrections sector, combining a self righteous amorality in profiting from human misery with a ruthless sense of just how to make a buck in this business. The GEO Group is so notorious that they were the target of an Occupy Washington D.C. action in early December. In addition, the United Methodist Church sold off more than $200,000 in stock in GEO Group over the holiday season, judging that holding these shares was “incompatible with Bible teaching.”

While such actions may irritate a few within the company’s rank, the GEO Group is thick-skinned. Over the years journalists have exposed a long history of violence, abuse and corruption in the company’s facilities. Such scandals would have driven most firms out of business, but GEO has always managed to find the way back to prosperity. While the U.S. economy has plummeted in the past eighteen months, GEO has been positioning itself for the future. In addition to opening the Georgia facility, during this period the company has:

bought up competitor Cornell Corporation and its prisons in 15 states, an acquisition expected to add about $400 million a year to GEO’s revenues.
acquired BI Incorporated for $415 million. BI is the U.S.’ largest producer and provider of electronic monitoring units with 60,000 “customers” for their ankle bracelets
begun the intake of new detainees at the 650 bed Adelanto ICE Processing Center East in Southern California. Adelanto West is scheduled to bring a further 650 beds online in August 2012.
expanded their first facility, Aurora Detention Center (founded in 1987) from 400 to 525 beds
moved ahead with plans to develop a 600 bed Civil Detention Center in Karnes County Texas, expected to generate $15 million in annual revenues

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and guess what colors will fill these and new built prisons

and how these prisoners will be used as slave labor for the Barons

ah yes, america, the land of the free and the brave

[NNN0LHI]

1. Hightower: Prison Labor's "Made in the USA"

http://www.alternet.org/story/7980/hightower%3A_prison_labor/?page=entire

Hightower: Prison Labor's "Made in the USA"

April 26, 2000 | Advertisement Psssst. Hey you, corporate honcho. Tired of paying American workers five or six bucks an hour, and them still complaining that it's not a living wage? Well, how would you like to get some of those nice, compliant, super-cheap Third-World workers -- without even having to move your factories to some Hell-hole in China or El Salvador? Let me whisper two little words to you: "Prison Labor." That's right, don't run ads or go to the unemployment agency for workers -- got to your state prison! That's what J.C. Penney and Eddie Bauer are doing, getting jeans and toys made by Tennessee inmates: Ohio prisoners have produced car parts for Honda; prison laborers in Oregon make uniforms for McDonalds; and TWA even employs convicts to book reservation by phone. Cheap? We're talking as little as 20-cents an hour, with no health care, pensions or any of that other nonsense that workers on the outside want. And these guys always show-up on time, they can't talk back and they won't be joining any of those pesky unions. Plus, you can even put a "Made in the USA" label on the products they make for you. Commercialized prison labor has become big business.

[prairierose]

2. Does anyone know if someone has compiled a list...

of the corps using prison labor? I would sure like to find one so that I can avoid buying anything from them.