Check out this short and entertaining animated film about the differences between county jails and prisons. Texas Jail Project finds that because many people, including lawmakers, church leaders, and advocates, don’t understand the distinctly different functions and populations , they fail to ask the right questions or make informed decisions. Thus, writer Maurice Chammah (from Texas) and the Marshall Project created this film to explain how local lockups differ from state and federal facilities.

This article looks at Geo Group and asks what they are delivering for the big bucks they are making? Turns out it’s a bad deal for prisoners, guards and for the rest of us too. GEO’s cost-cutting measures have resulted in “inadequate training, low pay, and high turnover of corrections staff as well as chronic understaffing. Further allegations of civil rights abuses and medical neglect have resulted in individual and class-action lawsuits brought against the company.”

Texas Jail Project supports all efforts to reduce the number of privatized county jails and prisons in Texas. We work with Grassroots Leadership to supply information and to educate lawmakers and county officials about the detrimental effects of this commercialization of our justice system, but it’s an uphill battle in Texas, which leads the nation in the number of detention facilities that are privatized. Now, GEO and CCA and the other money-hungry private companies are pulling in millions off the backs of immigrants. This excellent article from the American Friends Service Committee tells what it’s like for the people held in those places and follows the money as well: “”Immigrant detention is a growth opportunity for for-profit prison companies, expanding their business model from state and federal prisons.”

Amazing how private prison companies always proclaim they will save the counties money, when the facts prove otherwise. Just look at one statement in this article: “The Liberty County jail, run by Community Education Centers (CEC) has seen its per diem rates rise 64% in the past year. Last summer the county paid $46.50 per inmate per day. Today the rate is $72.75 per day to house one inmate. “

A 25-year-old Daisetta, Texas, man has pleaded guilty to federal charges in the Eastern District of Texas, according to U.S. Attorney John M. Bales. James Allen Roach pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield on Tuesday, Oct. 18, to attempting to provide a federal inmate with a prohibited object. According to information presented in

People in the GEO-run facilities around Texas and elsewhere describe abuse, overcrowding and a lack of medical care that would be called criminal in any other setting. There is more information on this petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-ice-no-new-immigrant-detention-center-in-karnes-co-texas Background: The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has contracted with a private prison company with a

Go to this site and read about this bad idea:
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-ice-no-new-immigrant-detention-center-in-karnes-co-texas.

Here is a letter from someone who knows what it’s like to deal witha GEO run jail. Her complaints sound much like others having to do with private prison companies and the lack of accountability. The sheriff here In Karnes County sends most of his prisoners to Frio Co. Detention Center because we don’t have

Check out the excellent blog called Texas Prison Bidness… http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/ with its new interactive map which has color-coded pins to show exactly which county jails and prisons and immigration prisons are run by private prison companies like CCA and Geo, Inc. Click on a pin and you get the basic info, for example, clicking on

Friday, September 24, 2010 9:43 AM by Matt Clarke, Prison Legal News There are two criminal justice systems in the United States. One is for people with wealth, fame or influence who can afford to hire top-notch attorneys and public relations firms, who make campaign contributions to sheriffs, legislators and other elected officials, and who