Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Fantastic News

Best news I’ve heard all year: CCA is struggling, big time. They’ve lost contracts for 8,000 beds in the past 16 months and could lose another 4,000 by the end of the year. They’re operating with 14% of their beds vacant, and their stock has dropped 15% since the beginning of the year. And if you saw my post earlier ("Insider Trading?") about the chairman and executive VP selling their stock, you’d have seen that it’s been falling for some time now. Another tidbit from this that I had seen previously but forgot to mention; George Soros, the influential billionaire investor, also sold all his shares of CCA stock recently. The good news just keeps on comin’!

-This was announced in a press release that I can't find available online yet. When a version gets posted, I'll link to it

Insider Trading?

Two of CCA's executives, its Chairman and an Executive VP, have been selling their shares of company stock like hotcakes in the past few months, liquidating more than 50,000 shares between them in that time, as the value of the stock has dipped. While I'm inclined to believe there were some insider trading issues at play here, at the very least, if you own CCA stock (CXW on the ticker), I would suggest you sell it now.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Sexual Harassment and Victimization

Corrections Officers at the Correctional Treatment Facility at the DC Jail (which is run by CCA) not only sexually harassed female inmates, one even paid an inmate’s sugar daddy to have sex with her while she was incarcerated (for the icing on the cake, this CO led a group therapy session she was in called “life without a crutch”). And of course, when one of the women complained, she was transferred and placed on lockdown, and CCA obstructed her access to her attorney.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Lobbying

In 2009, CCA spent more than $2 million lobbying the federal government(and millions more lobbying state governments), or 4.5% of every lobbying dollar spent from the great state of Tennessee. And what did they get in return for their investment? Oh, only a couple hundred millions dollars in profits by ensuring the continued contracting of their facilites by the federal government.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ahh, Kickbacks!

TX's Attorney General just ruled that the tens of thousands of dollars Civigenics (a relatively smaller private jailer) has been paying to county sheriffs to oversee their facilities wasn't exactly what you'd call "legal."

Why I Hate GEO Today

The GEO Group used two people who didn't properly register as lobbyists to lobby for the lease of a jail in San Diego. Oh, and they also donated money to the interim sheriff through one of these guys, who listed himself as "retired" on the contributor information form. And of course, Mr. Fortier refused to comment on why he hadn't declared his work as a GEO lobbyist. But in a slightly upbeat note, the GEO group still hasn't been awarded the contract.

Dan Rather Hates Private Prisons, Too

Just a quick hit to a transcript from a recent episode of Dan Rather Reports, examining the private prison industry in light of the rapid growth of our immigration detention system over the past decade, and how the industry effectively evades government and/or public oversight. This is at least the second time Mr. Rather has reported on the industry in the past year; you can find episodes of his show on iTunes.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

New Earnings Report

CCA made $42.5 million in profit over the last 3 months on taxpayer dollars.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

At Least Some Kentucky Legislators Get It.

The House Judiciary Committee of Kentucky's Legislature recently passed a resolution to ban the privatization of food services at its state prisons, in light of the riots that occured as a result of Aramark's ridiculously substandard food delivery, and regardless of the fact that it will cost the state more than $5 million extra to feed the prisoners themselves. Way to do the right thing, Kentucky House Judiciary Committee.

Undertrained Staff

A recent surprise inspection of a prison owned and operated by LCS Correctional Services revealed that 73% of the staff haven't yet completed their training to be COs. I guess that makes sense, since this is the facility that wrongly released a convicted sex offender. Maybe if you trained your people properly, they wouldn't release the wrong guys.