Lubbock Left

The Texas Youth Commission (TYC) is ordering all of its juvenile inmates removed from the privately run Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in West Texas. The A-J covered the story today. “Unsanitary and unsafe conditions” were the reasons cited for the removal of juveniles. The private facility was run by the GEO Group, which appears to be a multinational corporation. From their website (emphasis mine):

We are a world leader in the privatized development and/or management of correctional facilities. The North American market is growing rapidly, and we are focused on expanding Federal procurement opportunities. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is operating over capacity and Federal law now authorizes longer term contracts than ever before, resulting in more favorable financing alternatives for new privatized development.

We are an industry leader in the international privatized corrections market. We expect substantial growth in Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and other areas in Europe for corrections and immigration services.

Our diversified services include health care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, home detention/electronic monitoring and secure prisoner escort/transportation and court custody services. Our success in delivering some of our industry’s finest diversified services is evidenced by our numerous contracts in the United States and around the world. We are intently focused on extending that success in privatized health care, mental health care and other diversified services to government agencies around the globe.

Does anyone else find the fact that the private prison industry wants to “branch out” into the private health care industry a little creepy? I’m glad these guys are no longer operating anywhere near me… oh, except for Littlefield and Spur (not to mention Santa Rosa, Hobbs, Pecos, Bridgeport, and Fort Worth). Crap.

Also in the news today: Blackwater is defending the actions of their contractors in Iraq. This is fine, and it’s expected as the FBI begins investigating the company. Did you know:

Blackwater bills the U.S. government $1,222 per day for a single “protective security specialist,” the report says. That works out to $445,891 on an annual basis, far higher than it would cost the military to provide the same service.

Now I can list TWO functions of government that I definitely do not want to be privatized, backed up by terrible examples of same: Military operations and Prison/Correctional operations.