The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private prison company, opened its first facility, an immigrations detention facility in Texas in 1983. Tom Beasley, the co-founder of CCA, was leader of the Tennessee Republican Party. Their 1st completely private prison was opened in 1985, in Hamilton County, Tennessee.

The Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, now called the GEO Group, another private prison company, incorporated in 1988.

In 1987 the parent company of Wackenhut built an immigrations detention center in Colorado.

In 1987 The Management and Training Corporation started. From 1990-2009, the number of people that was incarcerated increased 1600%… me say that again 1600%

In 1990, LCS Corrections Services started, & in 1996 Emerald Corrections started.

In 1996, Texas had 38 private prisons, either already built, or under construction.

In 1997, the City of Youngstown, Ohio sold CCA land for $1 & they built a prison with 1,700 people housed in it. The incarcerated people were shipped in from Washingto D.C. & within the the first 14 months there was: 2 people stabbed to death, 47 assaults, & 6 escapes.

In 1997, CCA was sued by several investors who won, over divedend payments to shareholders on the NYSE. An auditor’s report had said: “There is substantial doubt about CCA’s ability to continue to grow as a going concern.”

In 2014 private prisons were in 30 states, the private companies that owned them managed or owned about 9% of all the U.S. prison beds.

CCA & Geo Group own or manage 58% of all the private prisons beds. CCA owned or manage 86,000 beds in 53 facilities, with a revenue of $1.69 billion in 2013, their CEO Damon Hininger made $3.2 million. And the whole private prison industry was worth about $5.47 billion.

In 1983 CCA went public on the NYSE, the put $18 million shares of shares on the market.

In 1997 CCA’s Prison Realty Trust sold $446.8 million in shares. The person who owns most shares in the industry is a CCA board member named Henri Wedell. In 2006 Wedell owned about 650,000 shares worth about $25 million, which is $38 a share.

In 2012, the Cheif Corrections Officer of CCA sent a lettr to prison officials in 48 states, & offered to buy prisons, with $250 million that CCA had set aside.

A letter signed by the ACLU & 26 other organizations was sent to the 28 states prison officials, part of it said: “Selling off prisons to CCA would be a tragic mistake for your state…
[CCA’s] proposal is an invitation to fiscal irresponsibility, prisoner abuse and decreased public safety. It should be promptly declined.”

The United Methodist Church had said: “The United Methodist Church declares its opposition to the privatization of prisons and jails and to profit making from the punishment of human beings.”

In 1999 CCA’s share prices fell from $84 to
18 cents.

Diane Post, Chair of Legal Redress, Maricopa County, Arizona NAACP said: “If you’ve read some of the annual reports from prisons and what they give their stockholders they say: “Lookin good for us. Looks like we can keep filling our beds. We don’t want any changes to drug laws because that might mean fewer people in prison. We don’t want any comprehensive immigration reform because that might take people out of prisons. We want crime.”

CCA’s annual report in 2010 said: “The demand for our facilities and service could be adversely affeced by…leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices.”

From 2003-2010 CCA spent $1.55 million on political candidates in 27 states, & hired 179 lobbyists in 32 states. In 2012 CCA & GEO Group made combined $738 million from federal immigrations centers contracts.
The CCA immigration facility built in Lumpkin, Georgia in 2004, houses 1,700 people.
On 3-11-2011, the ACLU filed a class action law suit against CCA & the Idaho Corrections Center it owns. In 2012 another class action law suit was filed by people incarcerated there, in 2014 the state took control of the facility, after CCA admitting to filing false staff reoports that claimed thousands of hours of work that was never done.

In 2013, Geo Group owned or managed 72,744 beds & opened prisons in South Africa & Australia, meaning USA is taking it’s prison industrial complex global.

The company made $1.52 billion, & CEO George Zoley made $4.6 million. In 1994 Wackenhut (Geo’s old name) went public & sold $19.7 million in shares. In 1998 Wackenhut put out $142.6 million Correctional Properties Trust shares by organizaing as a realty trust. When these companes organize as realty trust, they avoid paying millions of $$$ in corporate taxes.

From 2003-2010, the Geo Group donated $2.4 million to politicians & hired 63 lobbyists in 16 states.

It costs an average of $164 per day which equals $59,860 a year to house people who have violated immigration laws. In 2006, Management and Training built the $65 million Willacy Detention Center in Raymondville,Texas…In 2007, the Geo Group opened up the 3,700 bed Reeves County Detention Complex, in 2005 they built the South Texas Detention Complex that has 1,900 beds in Pearsall,Texas, in 2010 they built a 650 bed expansion in Adelanto, California, & the Karnes County Civil Detention Center in Karnes,Kansas that cost $32 million.

From 2002-2012 building prisons was a average of a $2.8 billion a year industry. In the 1990’s California, alone spent $3.5 billion building 9 prisons which had an average cost of around $200 million. Some of the companies that financed the prisons was: Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Securities, & Morgan Stanley. In 2014 California spent $30 million to design a new $2 billion L.A. County jail, spread over 7 sites including a $200 million women’s facility. (the jail has been approved, eventhough the residents fought against it being built).
So aa few points I would like to make, first off: notice that 2 of the companies that helped build prisons in Cali were Also rescued by bailouts back in 2007??? In the financial meltdown of USA.
Also L.A. decided to approve a $2 billion jail system against the taxpayers wishes, yet who is the ones that are paying for it??? TAXPAYERS…Studies show that building more jails & prisons does not reduce crime at all. All it does is burden taxpayers & create more money & jobs for greedy government officials.

Turner Construction, a subsidiary of a German company called: Hochtief, is the biggest prison builder in the USA, from 2007-2012, it made an average of $278 million a year just from building prisons, during the same time period, the 2nd biggest prison builder Hensel Phelps Construction averaged $186 million, & Gilbane averaged $153 million.

FOOD SERVICE:
Aramark a food service company, is in over 600 facilities serving over 1 million meals a day in: Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Michigan, & Ohio.

FOOD SERVICE:
In 2013, Aramarlk had a 2 year contract in Michigan for $145 million, & in Ohio for $110 million. In 2014, Aramark was fined $142,000 in Michigan & $86,000 in Ohio for: not hiring enough workers, being short on food, maggots in the food & many other violations.

*We can plainly see that these companies are getting paid big money, yet the care & quality of food is dangerous, putting people’s lives in jeopardy, as a means of punishment for those people that are in prison. The state’s & companies be cutting corners to save money & in the process, they are actually loosing more money, because they have to pay fines, pay out money in law suits, lawyer fees & what not as we well see in some of my upcoming articles…I mean, if this was to happen in the free world, these companies would not be allowed to operate they would be shutdown & there would be a public outrage. Yet since this happens in prison, nobody cares & nobody is doing anything to stop it, yes companies get sued, they pay out millions, but they are still in operation!!! Why don’t they courts/government shut them down??? People’s lives are at stake here, this is not a game.

http://www.jonathankeenangordon.name

Jonathan Gordon
DOC #793350