Burying the Money

This is almost too easy.  The GEO Group, a huge, multi-billion dollar corporation, also has a political action committee so that they can essentially donate twice in every political campaign they want to be a part of (it's called GEOPAC).  But apparently, all those billions of dollars couldn't buy them lawyers that could understand the difference between state and federal laws.

GEO also set up an in-state PAC in Florida for this last election cycle (you know, the one in which they donated $800,000+ to Florida politicians, who then decided to privatize the prisons in 18 effing counties).  The in-state PAC is not allowed to donate as much money as a federal PAC, but that didn't stop the GEO Group from using it to funnel campaign contributions only permissible for federal PACs to make.  The company claims it didn't know there was a difference.  Bullshit.

But what bothers me most of all is that the Florida GEOPAC, ostensibly used to spread influence to Floridian politicians, donated to candidates all across the country.  They donated to people in places like Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas.  All places which, coincidentally enough, have a lot of private prisons.

People worried last election cycle about foreign investors donating to American politicians and corrupting them.  I fear we have an even more treacherous movement afoot here in the US, where prison companies are now using such unscrupulous tactics to try to hide the money they use to influence politicians into trying to lock us all up.