Geo Group Case
In a cynical ploy for jobs and revenue, Gary, Indiana's mayor, Democrat Karen Freeman-Wilson, is currently pushing a proposal that would allow the multinational corporation and America's second largest private jailer GEO Group to build an immigrant detention facility in the deindustrialized Rust Belt city, a city already ravaged by neoliberal economics and corporate globalization.
The facility, according to GEO Group and Freeman-Wilson, will house 800 prisoners, possibly employ 2o0 workers, cost $65 million to build and add $1 million to the city's annual property tax revenue. But the mayor is quite happy, as the proposed project would provide jobs in the $13-$15 an hour range. How much does the soul of a city cost? According to Freeman-Wilson, $1 million in tax revenue and a couple hundred jobs.
However, there's no way to understand Gary's current predicament without taking a brief stroll down memory lane. Gary, a city that's 85% African American and once an industrial goliath, is now a shell of its former self. When the steel mills closed their doors and shipped their services abroad, as corporations did in so many Midwestern cities and towns, tax revenue …show more content…
crashed, people moved out and the city crumbled. Since then, the city has further deteriorated and is considered one of the most dangerous places in the U.S.
Unfortunately, the pain hasn't ceded for steelworkers and their families. Earlier this year, U.S. Steel laid off over 3o0 workers at their Gary Works plant. Nationwide, over 9,000 U.S. Steel employees have lost their jobs in 2015.
In this context, vulture capitalists at GEO Group and their lackeys in Gary's political system gambled on desperation and xenophobia. It's no secret that racial tensions are a major impediment to social and political progress in the U.S., particularly in the Rust Belt, where an overwhelming number of America's most segregated cities are located. Many black residents are critical of the material success and social assimilation afforded to their Hispanic brothers and sisters, while many Hispanic residents, particularly those who've quickly moved up the socio-economic ladder, view black poverty as a personal, individual problem, rather than a systemic-institutional dilemma rooted in America's white supremacist history of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and racist economic systems.
Back in 2011, GEO Group attempted to build a similar facility in Hobart, Indiana, a neighboring city of Gary, but the project was axed after a broad coalition of residents, community organizations, interfaith groups and activists successfully opposed it. When the residents of Hobart learned about GEO Group's history of civil rights violations, horrific jailing practices and lobbying efforts to ensure their bottom lines continue to grow at astronomical rates, they rejected the corporation's efforts.
Over the years, the ACLU and U.S. Department of Justice have both criticized GEO Group. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report about a subsidiary of GEO Group, the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF) located in Mississippi. The Justice Department found reasonable cause to believe that a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct exists in several areas, including:
Deliberate indifference to staff sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with youth;
Use of excessive use of force by WGYCF staff on youth;
Inadequate protection of youth from youth-on-youth violence;
Deliberate indifference to youth at risk of self-injurious and suicidal behaviors; and
Deliberate indifference to the medical needs of youth.
According to the Texas Tribune, a 2014 report released by the ACLU "describes pervasive overcrowding, squalid conditions, insufficient medical care and overuse of isolation units at Texas’ Criminal Alien Requirement prisons, which house people convicted of federal offenses who are scheduled to be deported after completing their sentences." These prisons, you guessed it, are run by Corrections Corporation of America, Management and Training Corporation and of course, GEO Group. Moreover, GEO Group has been found guilty of allowing and perpetrating prisoner abuse, sexual assault, civil rights violations, violence and riots in its privately operated prisons.
Remember Arizona S.B. 1070, the racist anti-immigrant legislation pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) back in 2010? Well, guess who's an official member of ALEC? That's right, GEO Group. Like all corporations, GEO Group understands that its profits require business-friendly policies. To put differently, GEO Group requires punitive policies aimed at keeping people imprisoned for lengthy periods.
Unsurprisingly, GEO Group has found sympathetic ears in the form of local, state and federally elected Republicans, particularly in its home-state of Florida.
"Investigations into members of the Florida Republican Party, as well into party donors, have resulted in multiple indictments. And, on November 2, 2010 -- election day -- federal investigators subpoenaed the party's financial records," notes Beau Hodai of PR Watch. Interestingly, "Perhaps the most notable individual charged to date is former Rep. Ray Sansom (R-Destin), who, while serving as Rubio's budget chief, inserted language into the state's 2008-2009 budget for what was to become Blackwater CF [another subsidiary of GEO Group]." In a three year period stretching from 2006 - 2009, GEO Group gave over $85,000 to the Republican Party of
Florida.
Yet, the people of Gary are standing strong against these entrenched political and corporate interests. According to the Northwest Indiana Times, "More than 100 people representing faith organizations and human rights groups as well as residents from Indiana and Illinois opposed to the detention center filled the Gary council chambers for Tuesday's [Nov. 10th] scheduled public hearing." As a result, "GEO Group Inc. asked for the public hearing to be rescheduled."
Now, Gary's so-called leaders are scrambling. They plan to hold a community forum with a representative from GEO Group at 6pm on November 18th at Gary's City Hall. And on November 23rd at 3pm the Gary Board of Zoning Appeals will attempt to hold another public hearing on the matter. Indeed, the political powers of Gary didn't expect such pushback, but over a year of Black Lives Matter protests and various other political movements mobilizing, Gary is primed for a struggle.
Hopefully this campaign will help develop long-lasting progressive coalitions in the Northwest Indiana region, an area in desperate need of progressive politics and alternatives to rabid-neoliberalism and social conservatism. Thanks to Donald Trump's overt racism and bombastic comments about Mexicans, the issue of immigration is also on the minds of progressive people, not just GOP bigots. Now it's time to fight back and provide alternatives to the status-quo.
The facility, according to GEO Group and Freeman-Wilson, will house 800 prisoners, possibly employ 2o0 workers, cost $65 million to build and add $1 million to the city's annual property tax revenue. But the mayor is quite happy, as the proposed project would provide jobs in the $13-$15 an hour range. How much does the soul of a city cost? According to Freeman-Wilson, $1 million in tax revenue and a couple hundred jobs.
However, there's no way to understand Gary's current predicament without taking a brief stroll down memory lane. Gary, a city that's 85% African American and once an industrial goliath, is now a shell of its former self. When the steel mills closed their doors and shipped their services abroad, as corporations did in so many Midwestern cities and towns, tax revenue …show more content…
crashed, people moved out and the city crumbled. Since then, the city has further deteriorated and is considered one of the most dangerous places in the U.S.
Unfortunately, the pain hasn't ceded for steelworkers and their families. Earlier this year, U.S. Steel laid off over 3o0 workers at their Gary Works plant. Nationwide, over 9,000 U.S. Steel employees have lost their jobs in 2015.
In this context, vulture capitalists at GEO Group and their lackeys in Gary's political system gambled on desperation and xenophobia. It's no secret that racial tensions are a major impediment to social and political progress in the U.S., particularly in the Rust Belt, where an overwhelming number of America's most segregated cities are located. Many black residents are critical of the material success and social assimilation afforded to their Hispanic brothers and sisters, while many Hispanic residents, particularly those who've quickly moved up the socio-economic ladder, view black poverty as a personal, individual problem, rather than a systemic-institutional dilemma rooted in America's white supremacist history of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and racist economic systems.
Back in 2011, GEO Group attempted to build a similar facility in Hobart, Indiana, a neighboring city of Gary, but the project was axed after a broad coalition of residents, community organizations, interfaith groups and activists successfully opposed it. When the residents of Hobart learned about GEO Group's history of civil rights violations, horrific jailing practices and lobbying efforts to ensure their bottom lines continue to grow at astronomical rates, they rejected the corporation's efforts.
Over the years, the ACLU and U.S. Department of Justice have both criticized GEO Group. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report about a subsidiary of GEO Group, the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF) located in Mississippi. The Justice Department found reasonable cause to believe that a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct exists in several areas, including:
Deliberate indifference to staff sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with youth;
Use of excessive use of force by WGYCF staff on youth;
Inadequate protection of youth from youth-on-youth violence;
Deliberate indifference to youth at risk of self-injurious and suicidal behaviors; and
Deliberate indifference to the medical needs of youth.
According to the Texas Tribune, a 2014 report released by the ACLU "describes pervasive overcrowding, squalid conditions, insufficient medical care and overuse of isolation units at Texas’ Criminal Alien Requirement prisons, which house people convicted of federal offenses who are scheduled to be deported after completing their sentences." These prisons, you guessed it, are run by Corrections Corporation of America, Management and Training Corporation and of course, GEO Group. Moreover, GEO Group has been found guilty of allowing and perpetrating prisoner abuse, sexual assault, civil rights violations, violence and riots in its privately operated prisons.
Remember Arizona S.B. 1070, the racist anti-immigrant legislation pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) back in 2010? Well, guess who's an official member of ALEC? That's right, GEO Group. Like all corporations, GEO Group understands that its profits require business-friendly policies. To put differently, GEO Group requires punitive policies aimed at keeping people imprisoned for lengthy periods.
Unsurprisingly, GEO Group has found sympathetic ears in the form of local, state and federally elected Republicans, particularly in its home-state of Florida.
"Investigations into members of the Florida Republican Party, as well into party donors, have resulted in multiple indictments. And, on November 2, 2010 -- election day -- federal investigators subpoenaed the party's financial records," notes Beau Hodai of PR Watch. Interestingly, "Perhaps the most notable individual charged to date is former Rep. Ray Sansom (R-Destin), who, while serving as Rubio's budget chief, inserted language into the state's 2008-2009 budget for what was to become Blackwater CF [another subsidiary of GEO Group]." In a three year period stretching from 2006 - 2009, GEO Group gave over $85,000 to the Republican Party of
Florida.
Yet, the people of Gary are standing strong against these entrenched political and corporate interests. According to the Northwest Indiana Times, "More than 100 people representing faith organizations and human rights groups as well as residents from Indiana and Illinois opposed to the detention center filled the Gary council chambers for Tuesday's [Nov. 10th] scheduled public hearing." As a result, "GEO Group Inc. asked for the public hearing to be rescheduled."
Now, Gary's so-called leaders are scrambling. They plan to hold a community forum with a representative from GEO Group at 6pm on November 18th at Gary's City Hall. And on November 23rd at 3pm the Gary Board of Zoning Appeals will attempt to hold another public hearing on the matter. Indeed, the political powers of Gary didn't expect such pushback, but over a year of Black Lives Matter protests and various other political movements mobilizing, Gary is primed for a struggle.
Hopefully this campaign will help develop long-lasting progressive coalitions in the Northwest Indiana region, an area in desperate need of progressive politics and alternatives to rabid-neoliberalism and social conservatism. Thanks to Donald Trump's overt racism and bombastic comments about Mexicans, the issue of immigration is also on the minds of progressive people, not just GOP bigots. Now it's time to fight back and provide alternatives to the status-quo.