GEO Group Employee Smuggles Contraband

GEO Group Facility, Big Spring Texas

A GEO Group employee plead guilty to smuggling products to inmates. Two others also plead guilty for bribery of public officials, and aiding and abetting,

GEO, Group employee, Eva Bermea, who worked as a recreational specialist for GEO Group, Inc. was smuggling tobacco and creatine to a GEO Group inmate, Jonas Cruz, at the Big Spring Correctional Center in Big Spring, Texas.  Kami Nicole Bennet assisted Bermea and Cruz by packaging the products and by collecting money from Cruz's brother who is not incarcerated.

GEO manages prisons for profit.  In the traditional GEO model, the government pays GEO to operate the prison on the theory the private sector can do the job for less money than the government can.  In at least some GEO prisons, GEO charges the government a price similar to that a traveler would pay for a luxury hotel for each night a prisoner stays in the "GEO hotel".  At the same time, GEO gives the least it can to inmates, including limiting rations of toilet paper and providing medical treatment at a snail's pace to the detriment of needy prisoners.

Toilet paper is a big issue for people who are incarcerated.  Being able to cleanse one's self after evacuation contributes to the dehumanization of inmates in an environment that is already incredibly harsh.  The practice also leads to unhealthy habits by inmates so GEO can make an extra buck.

From WWW.NUK3.com

Earlier, a GEO contracted teacher plead guilty to smuggling tobacco and alcohol to inmates and received a six month sentence.  Ronald Craig Maxwell was sentenced to making false statements and abetting in the tobacco scheme.  Maxwell said tobacco "fell" out of the ceiling at the Big Spring Correctional Institution, and he sold the products to inmates for a handsome profit.  The truth is, Maxwell was dirty along with other GEO personnel in the product smuggling business.

GEO is traded on the NASDAQ.  Anyone can be in the prison for profit business with GEO Group, Inc. if they buy GEO Stock.  In the past, the investment division of Wells Fargo has purchased significant GEO stock only to find a national boycott of their banks for investing institutional millions in the dirty business of prisons.  In the past year, GEO Group, Inc. stock has fluctuated dramatically.

The sentencing of Bermea, Cruz and Bennet is just one more brick in a bulging wall of evidence why private prisons for profit are a bad idea.  Imagine what the billions spent on incarceration each year could to towards building recreational facilities and schools?  Many of those locked up in GEO hotels could be placed on ankle monitoring devices.  Tax payers don't pay for ankle monitoring, the inmate pays for the cost of his own monitor.

Private Prison Pushes for SB 1070 Arizona Fruad

 PRIVATE PRISON ADVOCATES FOR PASSAGE OF SB 1070

RUSSELL PEARCE IN BED WITH CORPORATE JAILER

SB 1070, the most vicious anti-immigrant law in the history of the nation, was supported by a private company which makes money by jailing undocumented workers.  The conflicts of interest in passing a law which puts people in prison for money is an assault to the freedom of every person.

An Arizona law targeting illegal immigration had its roots in a business venture proposed by prison companies, according to a report by National Public Radio .

NPR reported they found a "quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona SB 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry."

GEO is one of the largest private prison companies in the world.  They have facilities in Colorado, Arizona and many other locations.  They are constantly seeking approval for new sites.  Their record of human rights is abysmal!

"The law could send hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants to prison, meaning hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them," according to NPR.
The law was proposed by Arizona state Senator Russell Pierce and passed in April. Governor Jan Brewer signed it into law.  It became law in July, with protests and support.

There were massive protests in Phoenix as a result of the law.  

NPR says Pierce made a presentation in Washington, D.C. last December with a "membership organization of state legislators and powerful corporations and associations, such as the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., Exxon Mobil and the National Rifle Association. Another member is the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country."

"In the conference room, the group decided they would turn the immigration idea into a model bill. They discussed and debated language. Then, they voted on it," according to NPR.


Meanwhile, Proposition 200 was declared illegal.

This is the Arizona law which required extra I.D. in order for voters to register.

As the right wing seeks to keep immigrants from voting, Promise Arizona, a membership organization has been working to register new voters.  They registered 13,000 new voters this season alone.  Promise Arizona will change the political landscape in Arizona.

The fanatical right is manipulating voter conscience while placing pressure on undocumented workers.  The injustice is beyond the pale.



Read and listen to the full NPR report