Letter: Administration good for prison industry

Wednesday August 15, 2018

Firms specializing in incarceration thrive thanks to this president.

Editor:
Some people saw it coming. The morning after Donald Trump's election, the stock prices of CoreCivic and GEO Group jumped 34 percent and 18 percent, respectively, according to NPR. By February 2017, those numbers were 140 percent and 98 percent.

In August 2016, the Department of Justice announced it would stop using private prisons, after an inspector general's report cited safety and security issues such as contraband, lack of medical services and increased assaults. GEO Group's Abraxis Academy, near Morgantown, has been known to have problems. After GEO Group contributed $275,000 to a Trump super PAC, and GEO and CoreCivic each contributed $250,000 to his inaugural committee, candidate Trump said he would like "to do a lot of privitizations and private prisons," according to Bloomberg News. And so he has. Immigration detention centers are sprouting. GEO and Core Civic are profiting.

CBS News reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement budgets $291.4 million for its three family detention centers, costing $256 per person, per night. Berks County gets $1.3 million for the facility it leases to the agency. The proliferating tent cities for immigrants cost taxpayers $775 per person, per night. The Health and Human Services Department is holding 12,000 kids, mostly unaccompanied minors, 57 days on average before releasing them to family or foster care. Most adults are eventually released with ankle bracelets. Why hold them for so long?

Taxpayers are getting soaked while private prison operators get rich.
​
Susan Shaak
St. Lawrence

Administration good for prison industry