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The Independent
5 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Takeaways from AP's reporting on shuttered prisons, mass deportation push and no-bid contracts
Private prison operators are marketing their shuttered lockups to federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump pushes for mass deportations, with some facilities nabbing lucrative no-bid contracts. When Trump, a Republican, took office, politically connected private-prison giants CoreCivic Inc. and The Geo Group Inc. had around 20 idle facilities, partially the result of sentencing reforms that reduced prison populations. But the push to reopen them has been met with resistance in unexpected places like Leavenworth, Kansas, a town whose name alone evokes a short hand for serving hard time. The Leavenworth facility was mothballed in late 2021 after then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to curb the use of private prisons. Here's a look at some of the takeaways from an Associated Press report about private prisons in the era of mass deportations. Demand for bed spurs interest in private prisons The Trump administration wants to increase its budgeted capacity of about 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds and maybe — if private prison executives' predictions are accurate — more than 150,000. That has a gallery of shuttered facilities — some with a history of issues — coming online near major immigrant population centers, from New York to Los Angeles, where Trump hopes to detain and deport millions of people. With Congress weighing massive spending increases for deportations, the companies' stock and profit estimates have soared. Deals inked as contract modifications or without bids Just last week, Geo Group announced that ICE modified a contract for an existing detention center in southeastern Georgia so that the company could reopen an idle prison on adjacent land to hold 1,868 migrants. 'Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,' said CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger during an earnings call last month with shareholders. Leavenworth inspired the term 'the big house' But skeptical city officials in Leavenworth, a town of around 37,000 residents on the northwest fringe of the Kansas City metropolitan area, argue that CoreCivic needs a special use permit to reopen its facility. CoreCivic disagrees, saying that it doesn't because it never abandoned the facility and that the permitting process would take too long. Leavenworth sued the company to force it to get one, and a state-court judge last week issued an order requiring it. The area's politics and roots as a prison town might have been expected to help CoreCivic. Trump carried its county by more than 20 percentage points in each of his three campaigns for president. And in years past, the federal penitentiary housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — in a building so storied that it inspired the term 'the big house.' CoreCivic 'caused the city all kinds of heartburn,' attorney says An attorney for the city, Joe Hatley, said the legal fight indicates how much ill will CoreCivic generated when it held criminal suspects there for trials in federal court for the U.S. Marshals Service. 'They just mismanaged it, and it caused the city all kinds of heartburn,' Hatley said. Vacancies among correctional officers were as high as 23%, according to a Department of Justice report in 2017. 'It was just mayhem,' recalled William Rogers, who worked as a guard at the CoreCivic facility in Leavenworth from 2016 through 2020. And the American Civil Liberties Union and federal public defenders detailed stabbings, suicides, a homicide and inmate rights violations in a 2021 letter to the White House. CoreCivic responded at the time that the claims were 'false and defamatory.' Critics have included a federal judge When Leavenworth sued CoreCivic, it opened its lawsuit with a quote from U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson — an appointee of President George W. Bush, a Republican — who said of the prison: 'The only way I could describe it frankly, what's going on at CoreCivic right now is it's an absolute hell hole.' The city's lawsuit described detainees locked in showers as punishment. It said that sheets and towels from the facility clogged up the wastewater system and that CoreCivic impeded the city police force's ability to investigate sexual assaults and other violent crimes. The facility had no inmates when CoreCivic gave reporters a tour earlier this year, and it looked scrubbed top to bottom and the smell of disinfectant hung in the air. When asked about the allegations of past problems, Misty Mackey, a longtime CoreCivic employee who was tapped to serve as warden there, apologized for past employees' experiences and said the company officials 'do our best to make sure that we learn from different situations.' From idle prisons to a 'gold rush' ICE declared a national emergency on the U.S. border with Mexico as part of its justification for authorizing nine five-year contracts for a combined 10,312 beds without 'Full and Open Competition.' Only three of the nine potential facilities were listed in ICE's document: Leavenworth, a 2,560-bed CoreCivic-owned facility in California City, California, and an 1,800-bed Geo-owned prison in Baldwin, Michigan. The agreement for the Leavenworth facility hasn't been released, nor have documents for the other two sites. CoreCivic and Geo Group officials said last month on earnings calls that ICE used what are known as letter contracts, meant to speed things up when time is critical. CoreCivic officials said ICE's letter contracts provide initial funding to begin reopening facilities while the company negotiates a longer-term deal. The Leavenworth deal is worth $4.2 million a month to the company, it disclosed in a court filing. Financial analysts on company earnings calls have been delighted. When CoreCivic announced its letter contracts, Joe Gomes, of the financial services firm Noble Capital Markets, responded with, 'Great news.' 'Are you hiding any more of them on us?' he asked. ___ Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Morgan Lee, in Santa Fe, N.M., contributed reporting.
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Takeaways from AP's reporting on shuttered prisons, mass deportation push and no-bid contracts
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Private prison operators are marketing their shuttered lockups to federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump pushes for mass deportations, with some facilities nabbing lucrative no-bid contracts. When Trump, a Republican, took office, politically connected private-prison giants CoreCivic Inc. and The Geo Group Inc. had around 20 idle facilities, partially the result of sentencing reforms that reduced prison populations. But the push to reopen them has been met with resistance in unexpected places like Leavenworth, Kansas, a town whose name alone evokes a short hand for serving hard time. The Leavenworth facility was mothballed in late 2021 after then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to curb the use of private prisons. Here's a look at some of the takeaways from an Associated Press report about private prisons in the era of mass deportations. Demand for bed spurs interest in private prisons The Trump administration wants to increase its budgeted capacity of about 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds and maybe — if private prison executives' predictions are accurate — more than 150,000. That has a gallery of shuttered facilities — some with a history of issues — coming online near major immigrant population centers, from New York to Los Angeles, where Trump hopes to detain and deport millions of people. With Congress weighing massive spending increases for deportations, the companies' stock and profit estimates have soared. Deals inked as contract modifications or without bids Just last week, Geo Group announced that ICE modified a contract for an existing detention center in southeastern Georgia so that the company could reopen an idle prison on adjacent land to hold 1,868 migrants. 'Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,' said CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger during an earnings call last month with shareholders. Leavenworth inspired the term 'the big house'But skeptical city officials in Leavenworth, a town of around 37,000 residents on the northwest fringe of the Kansas City metropolitan area, argue that CoreCivic needs a special use permit to reopen its facility. CoreCivic disagrees, saying that it doesn't because it never abandoned the facility and that the permitting process would take too long. Leavenworth sued the company to force it to get one, and a state-court judge last week issued an order requiring it. The area's politics and roots as a prison town might have been expected to help CoreCivic. Trump carried its county by more than 20 percentage points in each of his three campaigns for president. And in years past, the federal penitentiary housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — in a building so storied that it inspired the term 'the big house.' CoreCivic 'caused the city all kinds of heartburn,' attorney says An attorney for the city, Joe Hatley, said the legal fight indicates how much ill will CoreCivic generated when it held criminal suspects there for trials in federal court for the U.S. Marshals Service. 'They just mismanaged it, and it caused the city all kinds of heartburn,' Hatley said. Vacancies among correctional officers were as high as 23%, according to a Department of Justice report in 2017. 'It was just mayhem,' recalled William Rogers, who worked as a guard at the CoreCivic facility in Leavenworth from 2016 through 2020. And the American Civil Liberties Union and federal public defenders detailed stabbings, suicides, a homicide and inmate rights violations in a 2021 letter to the White House. CoreCivic responded at the time that the claims were 'false and defamatory.' Critics have included a federal judge When Leavenworth sued CoreCivic, it opened its lawsuit with a quote from U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson — an appointee of President George W. Bush, a Republican — who said of the prison: 'The only way I could describe it frankly, what's going on at CoreCivic right now is it's an absolute hell hole.' The city's lawsuit described detainees locked in showers as punishment. It said that sheets and towels from the facility clogged up the wastewater system and that CoreCivic impeded the city police force's ability to investigate sexual assaults and other violent crimes. The facility had no inmates when CoreCivic gave reporters a tour earlier this year, and it looked scrubbed top to bottom and the smell of disinfectant hung in the air. When asked about the allegations of past problems, Misty Mackey, a longtime CoreCivic employee who was tapped to serve as warden there, apologized for past employees' experiences and said the company officials 'do our best to make sure that we learn from different situations.' From idle prisons to a 'gold rush' ICE declared a national emergency on the U.S. border with Mexico as part of its justification for authorizing nine five-year contracts for a combined 10,312 beds without 'Full and Open Competition.' Only three of the nine potential facilities were listed in ICE's document: Leavenworth, a 2,560-bed CoreCivic-owned facility in California City, California, and an 1,800-bed Geo-owned prison in Baldwin, Michigan. The agreement for the Leavenworth facility hasn't been released, nor have documents for the other two sites. CoreCivic and Geo Group officials said last month on earnings calls that ICE used what are known as letter contracts, meant to speed things up when time is critical. CoreCivic officials said ICE's letter contracts provide initial funding to begin reopening facilities while the company negotiates a longer-term deal. The Leavenworth deal is worth $4.2 million a month to the company, it disclosed in a court filing. Financial analysts on company earnings calls have been delighted. When CoreCivic announced its letter contracts, Joe Gomes, of the financial services firm Noble Capital Markets, responded with, 'Great news.' 'Are you hiding any more of them on us?' he asked. ___ Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Morgan Lee, in Santa Fe, N.M., contributed reporting.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
EPA drops case against prison company that has donated heavily to Trump
The Donald Trump administration has dropped up to $4m in potential fines against the private prison operator Geo Group over the latter's use of a toxic disinfectant in a detention center that allegedly put employees' and detainees' health at risk. The administration made the move after Geo donated over $4m to the president and Republican leadership, as well as Trump's inauguration fund. Geo is a key piece of the administration's immigration crackdown, and the federal government has paid it billions of dollars to hold US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. The company faced fines of up to about $3,550 for each of its approximately 1,100 violations for failing to provide its workers with protection from a toxic disinfectant heavily sprayed at its Adelanto, California, immigration facility in 2022-2023. The US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Justice changing course after the election is 'highly unusual', Gary Jonesi, a former EPA enforcement manager who retired earlier this year, told the Guardian. He called it a 'complete surrender'. 'If this is not due to political intervention on behalf of an early and large Trump donor who stands to gain from managing Ice detention facilities and private prisons, then surely it is at least partly due to the intimidation that career staff feel in an environment when federal employees are being fired and reassigned to undesirable tasks and locations,' Jonesi said. In an email, the EPA said: 'As a matter of longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on litigation.' Geo said: 'The case was dismissed with prejudice because the allegations were completely baseless and without merit.' 'GEO's COVID safety protocols at the Adelanto Facility focused on cleanliness and health, successfully protecting the lives of thousands of detainees in our care,' a spokesperson added. The disinfectant, called Halt, includes an EPA warning stating: 'Causes irreversible eye damage and skin burns. Harmful if swallowed or absorbed through the skin. Do not get in eyes, on skin, or on clothing.' Among its ingredients are quats, a chemical class that's under increased scrutiny for links to infertility, birth defects, hormone disruption, asthma and skin disorders. It also includes tetrasodium EDTA, a chemical made from formaldehyde and sodium cyanide. A separate civil lawsuit alleges Geo sickened inmates with its indiscriminate spraying of a similar disinfectant, HDQ Neutral, with most of the same ingredients. That is playing out in federal court, and plaintiffs allege, among other issues, the disinfectant causes blood clots in their lungs, nosebleeds, dizziness and headaches. The suit alleges staff sprayed the substance throughout the prison, 'including the front lobby, administrative areas, living areas, food and microwave areas, day room, corridors, intake units, and medical units. In the living areas, GEO staff would spray onto all surfaces including on soft, porous surfaces like mattresses and sheets'. The suit also alleges the substance got in detainees' food, and in one instance staff sprayed a detainee as punishment. EPA records show the agency cited Geo in March 2021, at which time it was using HDQ Neutral. It switched to Halt and continued spraying through early 2023. Geo fought the charges in administrative law court beginning in June 2024. The disinfectant is regulated under US pesticide laws, which require the use of goggles or a face shield, chemical-resistant gloves and protective clothing. Geo provided gloves for its staff, but the EPA noted the nitrile gloves' box stated that they were 'extra soft' and 'not intended for use as a general chemical barrier'. Geo argued that the gloves were sufficient for the chemicals in the disinfectant. If the two sides didn't settle, then an administrative law judge would decide the amount, if any, that Geo would have to pay. It's unclear how the negotiations played out, Jonesi said, but in its motion to dismiss, Geo suggested it would take the case in front of a jury, questioned some of EPA's findings and questioned if the agency had overstepped its authority. There were 'litigation risks', which is common in enforcement cases, Jonesi said. Under normal circumstances, if EPA enforcement officials felt they might lose in court, then they would probably offer a settlement with a much lower fine. 'Instead they just walked away and said 'We're not going to bother' – that's very unusual,' Jonesi said. Geo and its affiliated Pacs donated heavily to Trump Pacs and Republican congressional campaigns, federal election records compiled by the Open Secrets nonprofit shows. That included a $1m to Trump's Make America Great Again Pac, and over $1.2m to the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund. Geo also contributed $500,000 to Trump's inauguration. Geo was the first company to max out political donations to Trump's campaign. In his first day in office, Trump reversed a Biden executive order that aimed to curb the federal government's use of private prisons. Ice is holding about 50,000 people in immigration detention, an approximately 50% increase since January, though not all are held at Geo facilities. The EPA case is one of many that raises questions about favors in exchange for campaign donations, but it is 'a more egregious case than most', said Craig Holman, a lobbyist with the Public Citizen nonprofit, which advocates for government transparency. 'Trump rewards his friends, and friends are those who give him money, and friends are those who comply with his edicts, and one of his main edicts is on immigration,' Holman said. With Republicans fully in control of the government, there's little that can be done in response, Holman added, unless Democrats retake at least part of Congress in 2026. 'The midterm elections means everything,' Holman said.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
EPA drops case against prison company that has donated heavily to Trump
The Donald Trump administration has dropped up to $4m in potential fines against the private prison operator Geo Group over the latter's use of a toxic disinfectant in a detention center that allegedly put employees' and detainees' health at risk. The administration made the move after Geo donated over $4m to the president and Republican leadership, as well as Trump's inauguration fund. Geo is a key piece of the administration's immigration crackdown, and the federal government has paid it billions of dollars to hold US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. The company faced fines of up to about $3,550 for each of its approximately 1,100 violations for failing to provide its workers with protection from a toxic disinfectant heavily sprayed at its Adelanto, California, immigration facility in 2022-2023. The US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Justice changing course after the election is 'highly unusual', Gary Jonesi, a former EPA enforcement manager who retired earlier this year, told the Guardian. He called it a 'complete surrender'. 'If this is not due to political intervention on behalf of an early and large Trump donor who stands to gain from managing Ice detention facilities and private prisons, then surely it is at least partly due to the intimidation that career staff feel in an environment when federal employees are being fired and reassigned to undesirable tasks and locations,' Jonesi said. In an email, the EPA said: 'As a matter of longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on litigation.' Geo said: 'The case was dismissed with prejudice because the allegations were completely baseless and without merit.' 'GEO's COVID safety protocols at the Adelanto Facility focused on cleanliness and health, successfully protecting the lives of thousands of detainees in our care,' a spokesperson added. The disinfectant, called Halt, includes an EPA warning stating: 'Causes irreversible eye damage and skin burns. Harmful if swallowed or absorbed through the skin. Do not get in eyes, on skin, or on clothing.' Among its ingredients are quats, a chemical class that's under increased scrutiny for links to infertility, birth defects, hormone disruption, asthma and skin disorders. It also includes tetrasodium EDTA, a chemical made from formaldehyde and sodium cyanide. A separate civil lawsuit alleges Geo sickened inmates with its indiscriminate spraying of a similar disinfectant, HDQ Neutral, with most of the same ingredients. That is playing out in federal court, and plaintiffs allege, among other issues, the disinfectant causes blood clots in their lungs, nosebleeds, dizziness and headaches. The suit alleges staff sprayed the substance throughout the prison, 'including the front lobby, administrative areas, living areas, food and microwave areas, day room, corridors, intake units, and medical units. In the living areas, GEO staff would spray onto all surfaces including on soft, porous surfaces like mattresses and sheets'. The suit also alleges the substance got in detainees' food, and in one instance staff sprayed a detainee as punishment. EPA records show the agency cited Geo in March 2021, at which time it was using HDQ Neutral. It switched to Halt and continued spraying through early 2023. Geo fought the charges in administrative law court beginning in June 2024. The disinfectant is regulated under US pesticide laws, which require the use of goggles or a face shield, chemical-resistant gloves and protective clothing. Geo provided gloves for its staff, but the EPA noted the nitrile gloves' box stated that they were 'extra soft' and 'not intended for use as a general chemical barrier'. Geo argued that the gloves were sufficient for the chemicals in the disinfectant. If the two sides didn't settle, then an administrative law judge would decide the amount, if any, that Geo would have to pay. It's unclear how the negotiations played out, Jonesi said, but in its motion to dismiss, Geo suggested it would take the case in front of a jury, questioned some of EPA's findings and questioned if the agency had overstepped its authority. There were 'litigation risks', which is common in enforcement cases, Jonesi said. Under normal circumstances, if EPA enforcement officials felt they might lose in court, then they would probably offer a settlement with a much lower fine. 'Instead they just walked away and said 'We're not going to bother' – that's very unusual,' Jonesi said. Geo and its affiliated Pacs donated heavily to Trump Pacs and Republican congressional campaigns, federal election records compiled by the Open Secrets nonprofit shows. That included a $1m to Trump's Make America Great Again Pac, and over $1.2m to the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund. Geo also contributed $500,000 to Trump's inauguration. Geo was the first company to max out political donations to Trump's campaign. In his first day in office, Trump reversed a Biden executive order that aimed to curb the federal government's use of private prisons. Ice is holding about 50,000 people in immigration detention, an approximately 50% increase since January, though not all are held at Geo facilities. The EPA case is one of many that raises questions about favors in exchange for campaign donations, but it is 'a more egregious case than most', said Craig Holman, a lobbyist with the Public Citizen nonprofit, which advocates for government transparency. 'Trump rewards his friends, and friends are those who give him money, and friends are those who comply with his edicts, and one of his main edicts is on immigration,' Holman said. With Republicans fully in control of the government, there's little that can be done in response, Holman added, unless Democrats retake at least part of Congress in 2026. 'The midterm elections means everything,' Holman said.
The Sun
14-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Mega detention center for US migrants sees violence, escapes
NEW YORK: Less than a month after it began receiving migrants, a controversial detention center run by a private firm has been the scene of protests, violence, and escapes, sources said Friday. Soon after Donald Trump's inauguration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inked a billion-dollar, 15-year contract to outsourcing giant Geo Group to transform an industrial estate near the international airport in Newark, New Jersey into a 1,000-bed detention center. In May, the center - Delaney Hall - began receiving migrants arrested by ICE and facing deportation, despite objections from area residents and local politicians. Late Thursday, detainees at the center began a protest against detention conditions, according to Mustafa Cetin, a lawyer for an asylum seeker being held there. "I have talked to my client yesterday and he told me that roughly 50 detainees were protesting against their conditions," Cetin told AFP. "They were getting aggressive and it turned violent." Cetin slammed the Geo Group and ICE for their performance, decrying "a lack of planning and accountability." US media reports and footage circulated late Thursday showed protesters trying to block an ICE van in front of Delaney Hall and clashing with police. A senior official with the US Department of Homeland Security meanwhile confirmed to AFP on Friday that four detainees "had escaped" from the center the night before. "Additional law enforcement partners have been brought in to find these escapees," the official said. Newark's mayor, Democrat Ras Baraka, said Friday that he was concerned about reports of events at Delaney Hall, "ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees." "This is why city officials and our congressional delegation need to be allowed entry to observe and monitor, and why private prisons pose a very real problem to our state and its constitution," he said in a statement. The detention center has become one of the latest flashpoints in Democrats' fight against Trump's crackdown on what he calls an "invasion" of undocumented migrants. Baraka himself was arrested and briefly held last month after he tried to enter the detention center, closely guarded by ICE agents and security personnel. Following the dispute that broke out between elected officials and federal agents, Democratic congresswoman LaMonica McIver was also charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, something she has dismissed as "purely political."
