Private Prison Company Doctors Its Own Wikipedia Page and Fabricates Facts to Fight Bad Publicity

Via NY Occupy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-takei/private-prison-company-do_b_2807202.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Recently, for-profit prison corporation GEO Group announced that it had secured the naming rights to the football stadium at Florida Atlantic University in exchange for a $6 million "donation" to the University's athletic program. Horrified to be associated with GEO's shameful record of prisoner abuse and neglect, students and faculty quickly rallied against the decision - and both the school and GEO Group were thrust into a national spotlight. Even The Colbert Report weighed in.

But this blog post isn't about FAU's decision to promote GEO. It's about GEO's reaction to being thrust into the light of public scrutiny.

The news coverage highlighted GEO's record of misdeeds - particularly the horrendous staff misconduct and unconstitutional conditions at Walnut Grove, a GEO-operated youth prison. Last year, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation concluded that staff sexual misconduct against the children and teenage prisoners at Walnut Grove was "brazen" and among the worst that DOJ had seen "in any facility anywhere in the nation." Despite knowing of this pervasive misconduct, GEO supervisors failed to institute policies, procedures, and training to prevent staff from having sexual relationships with youth entrusted to their care. GEO staff kicked, choked, hit, and pepper sprayed youth for reasons as trivial as looking at an officer wrong, or for no reason at all. They systematically failed to protect youth from being raped, stabbed, and severely beaten by others. GEO staff lied about the excessive use of force and failed to report the child abuse, despite the requirements of federal law. In the face of expert monitoring, investigations, and pending litigation, GEO staff failed to curtail their actions and supervisors remained indifferent to the constant violations. In response, a federal judge condemned the prison as a "cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions."

News coverage also illustrated that Walnut Grove is only the tip of the iceberg. As The Palm Beach Post reported, "GEO's history of troubled prisons extends beyond one state, or one investigation: Rape, prisoner deaths, charges of lethal medical care and riots have dogged the prison operator for years."

(More at the link.)