Immigration Enforcement Benefits Prison Firms

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/business/19detain.html?ei=5094&en=8bd6807f56ef126e&hp=&ex=1153281600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

July 19, 2006
Immigration Enforcement Benefits Prison Firms
By MEREDITH KOLODNER

As the Bush administration gets tougher on illegal immigration and increases its spending on enforcement, some of the biggest beneficiaries may be the companies that have been building and running private prisons around the country.

By the fall of 2007, the administration expects that about 27,500 immigrants will be in detention each night, an increase of 6,700 over the current number in custody. At the average cost these days of $95 a night, that adds up to an estimated total annual cost of nearly $1 billion.

The Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group (formerly the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation) — the two biggest prison operators — now house a total of fewer than 20 percent of the immigrants in detention. But along with several smaller companies, they are jockeying for a bigger piece of the growing business.
........

With all the federal centers now filled and the federal government not planning to build more, most of the new money is expected to go to private companies or to county governments. Even some of the money paid to counties, which currently hold 57 percent of the immigrants in detention, will end up in the pockets of the private companies, since they manage a number of the county jails.

[High Plains]

1. Well, isn't that special?

Profiting off human misery.

[Bozita]

2. Soon, we'll privatize local fire depts -- just like in the good ol' days

If your home bore no fire company medallion, the firemen would simply stand and watch.

We ARE heading in that direction.

Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, CCA, Wackenhut. What a bunch of patriots.

[Bridget Burke]

3. The Texas Observer also covered this story....

South Texas Hold 'Em; The Immigration Endgame

by Forrest Wilder

For the savvy investor looking for a growth industry, South Texas offers a sure thing. The business calculus is simple: More immigrants than ever are being apprehended. That means the federal government needs more detention centers and more people to run them. No matter how the national debate on immigration plays out in Congress, the corporations that have moved into the business of building and operating detention centers are likely to see a steady stream of revenue for years to come.

The United States Marshals Service, for example, is now soliciting bids from private companies to build, own, and operate a 2,800-bed detention facility near Laredo. The “superjail,” as it has come to be called, will serve the federal criminal court in downtown Laredo, which is loaded up with immigration-related cases in what the Marshals Service calls an “emergency situation.” The $100 million superjail is expected to be one of the largest private detention centers in the nation, and will join a growing chain of county and local jails and private detention facilities all over Texas that coordinate with federal agencies to hold immigrants—some destined for trials or hearings, others for deportation.

www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2193

The Texas Observer has been offering "Sharp Reporting from the Strangest State in the Union" since 1954. Molly Ivins is a former editor & still has a column in the Observer.

[Sven77]

4. bush offers blanket amnesty to immigrants

cheap labor to bring the middle class down. the merging of canada, usa, and mexico is coming.

What ought to shock and terrify every American is that KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, was awarded a $385 million contract to build "temporary detention facilities" in case of an "immigration emergency":

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=43&ItemID=9765

[unlawflcombatnt]

5. Imprison the Illegal Employers

Needless to say, this would work much better if they had imprisoned 27,000 employers for illegal hiring. If they'd done that, the illegal immigration problem would already be resolved.

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[High Plains]

7. Why don't we quit talking about imprisoning people?

We already the world's leading jailer, with 2.2 million people behind bars.

I really get sick of the punishist posse. Think they can jail their way out of complex social problems.

[unlawflcombatnt]

12. Do you have a better idea on how to deal with illegal employers?

Since employers seem to continue illegal hiring, even after they've been fined, what else do you think we should do? Just let it slide? Grant them amnesty?

In addition, there's nothing even slightly "complex" about this problem. Employers knowingly break the law by hiring illegal immigrants to undercut wages of American workers. And it's 100% against the law. There's nothing even slightly "complex" about this. The employers should be fined heavily or thrown in jail. That's what we do with people that knowingly break the law in this country. We throw them in jail. Why should this be different?

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[sarcasmo]

6. This makes the most sense to me. I am in no way saying it the right thing

but, I have a neighbor who is a County Sheriff and he tells me that they can't deport the illegals so they just hold them in the cell. edit: ( until their court date or jail time expires). The more prisoners in the county jail = more tax dollars for the county jail. Kick and Nom

[SoCalDem]

8. $95 a night,..we should send them to Vegas.. It's cheaper

and the buffets are great :)

[cantstandbush]

9. Just buy stock in those firms and forget it. nt

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Republican legislation benefits Republican donors ?? No $#!+ ?

How'd that happen, I wonder?

[Julius Civitatus]

11. America under Bush + Corporate Prison Inc. = $$$$

The private prison system is growing like no other business in the USA, and turning prisoners into free labor for other industries to benefit.

[Celica Toyota]

13. kick