Comments on: Prison privatization meets college football

Prison privatization meets college football

airing nerdy laundry — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:59:59 -0800

Florida Atlantic University announced today that its football team will play in "GEO Group Stadium", named after a for-profit prison company. According to the New York Times, GEO Group Inc. gifted 6 million to the public university as part of a controversial deal to secure the naming rights for its stadium.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:04:27 -0800

Lazyweb: do other nations have for-profit private prisons, or are they unique to the US?

By: koavf

koavf — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:05:19 -0800

How are for-profit/privatized prisons even legal? Has there ever been a serious challenge to this in the courts?

By: incessant

incessant — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:06:21 -0800

Seeing as how I am of the opinion that companies buying naming rights are essentially throwing money down an infinitely deep hole in a desperate bid for name recognition that they probably already have or really don't need, I'm pretty much OK with this.

By: Charlemagne In Sweatpants

Charlemagne In Sweatpants — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:08:14 -0800

Somebody smarter than me can make the comparison between how prisons and sport trap people in the same cycle, but I'm too disgusted by the American prison system to make it. Lazyweb: do other nations have for-profit private prisons, or are they unique to the US? I don't know if the prisons are for-profit, but Australian immigration detention centers are run by Serco Group, who also run prisons (there isn't much difference between the two).

By: RichardP

RichardP — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:22:37 -0800

Lazyweb: do other nations have for-profit private prisons, or are they unique to the US? The GEO Group, Inc. is a multinational — they operate in countries other than just the US. According to their latest Form 10-K , they operate correctional, detention, mental health, residential treatment and re-entry facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Their overseas facilities that could be considered "for-profit private prisons" include several "Correctional Centres" in Australia, two "Immigration Removal Centres" in the UK, a "Correctional Centre" in South Africa, and a "Youth Centre" in Canada. However, the majority of their facilities are in the US.

By: cmoj

cmoj — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:23:41 -0800

What the fucking cock shitting fuck. How does a for-profit prison company even benefit from name recognition? Are they planning on charging inmates for assignment to their luxury prisons? Everything about this is totally out of control.

By: Brocktoon

Brocktoon — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:26:38 -0800

Salt Lake City had a similar controversy when they sold the naming rights of a venue to one of the biggest pollution generating corporations on the planet.

By: RichardP

RichardP — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:29:33 -0800

Oh, and five fresh fish, since you're in Canada and thought the phenomenon might be unique to the US, the facility that The GEO Group, Inc operates in Canada is the New Brunswick Youth Center in Mirimachi. It's classified as a "Provincial Juvenile Facility" -- it replaced the older Kingsclear Youth Training Centre, a provincial male youth detention centre.

By: RichardP

RichardP — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:33:41 -0800

However, I should note that it looks like they only manage the facility. It's owned by the Province of New Brunswick.

By: incessant

incessant — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:39:45 -0800

There's something deliciously stupid about a company paid by the taxpayers and then turning around and spending a whole shitload of that money for a public university's Macguffin. Can we cut out the middleman? Just give the money directly to the university? Call the stadium "Smart Taxpayer Field?"

By: Kevin Street

Kevin Street — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:40:40 -0800

"How does a for-profit prison company even benefit from name recognition?" That's a really good question. It's not like they need to advertise to judges or anything. Straight bribes take care of that.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:54:58 -0800

There should be public prisons for the poor and private prisons for the wealthy, just like with schools. That way, the rich could pay for themselves to be incarcerated. That would be a great incentive to arrest more rich people.

By: justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow

justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:59:39 -0800

How does a for-profit prison company even benefit from name recognition? GEO's had revenues of $1.27 billion in 2010. Six million dollars is a rounding error. How do they benefit? Don't underestimate the degree to which the interests of management can diverge from the interests of shareholders. How do you get to Carnegie hall? Ruthlessly monopolize an entire industry and use the profits to build monuments to yourself. At least Carnegie was spending his own money, and at least he was supporting cultural and educational institutions rather than a brain damage factory.

By: empath

empath — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:03:57 -0800

How do they benefit? Probably some Florida congressmen that sit on the right committee and are alums of the college in question.

By: RichardP

RichardP — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:09:30 -0800

How do they benefit? Don't underestimate the degree to which the interests of management can diverge from the interests of shareholders. I think you're on to something justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow. This might be a case where George Zoley, the company's chairman/CEO/founder, wanted to give money to Florida Atlantic University (his alma mater) and felt that if the funds came from the company instead of his personal fortune, all the better. Maybe the stadium naming was something he could point to as just enough of a "fig leaf" as to discourage a shareholder lawsuit.

By: Dysk

Dysk — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:27:23 -0800

If they're giving the university money in return for naming rights, how on earth does that constitute 'gifting'? It's payment for services rendered.

By: airing nerdy laundry

airing nerdy laundry — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:33:26 -0800

how on earth does that constitute 'gifting'? I was going with the language from the articles linked in my post, which called the 6 million a 'gift', but I agree 'payment' is probably more accurate.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:40:29 -0800

It's Florida Atlantic — that's the target demographic for private incarceration consumers and employees.

By: Dysk

Dysk — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:50:55 -0800

airing nerdy laundry: I was going with the language from the articles linked in my post, which called the 6 million a 'gift', but I agree 'payment' is probably more accurate. Yeah, sorry, it was intended as a criticism of the articles, not you!

By: Elementary Penguin

Elementary Penguin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 02:19:22 -0800

Corporate naming rights for athletic centers seems like it serves the same purpose as tagging a train car with graffiti, or peeing on a fire hydrant. I will admit that the fact that TD named the "Fleet Center" the "TD Garden" when they bought the naming rights earned them a nice thought from me, since at least the word "Garden" is in the name again.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 02:43:18 -0800

Wow, naming your stadium after a prison? Kind of shows how the school views it's students. Also, corporate naming rights are just ridiculous - especially when they keep fucking changing. If you auction off your naming rights then you're just going to end up transferring the name again later, it makes the whole thing impermanent.

By: orme

orme — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:13:20 -0800

Please hold your criticism until you've actually been to this beautiful stadium and enjoyed the delicious Nutraloaf Sliders at the SupperMax Cafe.

By: ibmcginty

ibmcginty — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:58:04 -0800

These days, over and over again, events that I'd dismiss as over the top if they were in an absurdist novel just keep happening in real life. "To be 'Orwellian' is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening ... and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever." -- Frank Luntz.

By: RobotVoodooPower

RobotVoodooPower — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:20:14 -0800

I suppose this is the current worst name for a Florida venue now that the 1-800-ASK-GARY Ampitheatre has finally gotten a name change.

By: evening

evening — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:38:16 -0800

Companies compete to get the govt contracts to manage prisons. So if you have name recognition it might help to get those contracts.

By: rtha

rtha — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:04:14 -0800

Also absurd: The Corrections Corporation of America - the first and largest private prison company in the country - is also celebrating Black History Month. Here's a blog post from their CEO about the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation!

By: Aizkolari

Aizkolari — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:23:05 -0800

College football (the institution, not the athletes) and for-profit prisons deserve each other.

By: Elementary Penguin

Elementary Penguin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:28:16 -0800

I don't know why stadiums can't keep traditional names like Wrigley Field or Busch Stadium.

By: Talez

Talez — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:32:56 -0800

I don't know why stadiums can't keep traditional names like Wrigley Field or Busch Stadium. Busch Stadium actually is named so because of naming rights. But they did it to preserve the name and not change it.

By: Elementary Penguin

Elementary Penguin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:50:54 -0800

I actually knew that! The investors' group that owns the stadium came to my high school around the time of the sale for a school-wise assembly/celebration. MICDS was a weird place. My oblique point was that there has been corporate naming for stadiums for a long time, but the older ones don't seem as egregious, for some reason. Maybe because AB and Wrigley are locally headquartered it didn't seem so tacky. Or maybe I was just used to it. The Wikipedia article on naming rights asserts that Fenway Park was named after a realty company, and also says that Anheuser-Busch orginially tried to get Busch Stadium named Budweiser stadium, but it got rejected. So they named it Busch Stadium, and after the name was set in stone, they then invented Busch Beer to sell at the park!

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:01:58 -0800

How does a for-profit prison company even benefit from name recognition? The same way the American Legislative Exchange Council benefits from being mistaken as a legitimate 501(c)(3) organization. See, corporations like the GEO group pay ~~rackets~~ um - ~~greasy sharks in suits~~ er - syndicates like ALEC to write bills that are "tough" on "crime" and by that of course meaning "completely subvert" the "foundations" of "justice" to serve a corporate agenda where you send otherwise harmless, or at the very least poorly resourced, people to jail for longer periods so GEO can benefit from them. Recently we had some gun control arguments on the blue. My position is I want stronger sentencing for gun crimes. Someone else wants new gun laws. ALEC would get literature sent to both of us on stronger sentencing and new laws. They're textbook phish. So on the gun bill (in whatever form palatable to whomever) you'd have riders for expanded drug sentencing and diminished alternatives to prison and more convictions for very minor offenses for juveniles, say. The Kids for Cash scandal highlights the end result of the process. Bribing judges is a minor detail in the scam that is this industry. So, yeah, they need to pretend they're legitimate. They need a front and a big public name to distract from their racketeering and corruption. Like any organized crime syndicate, the "front" covers up the filthy sticking scum that they are.

By: straw

straw — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:47:03 -0800

like klangklangston, I just see this is a way for the GEO Group to build goodwill with future inmates once the NCAA has finished extracting all of the football playing economic value from them.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:00:53 -0800

Prisoners are profit! It's the last best hope for capitalism! It's the natural result of a morally bankrupt economic system! You poor people, keep smoking pot and getting arrested! You are the lifeblood of the new economy! God bless America!

By: hwyengr

hwyengr — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:02:52 -0800

I don't know why stadiums can't keep traditional names like Wrigley Field or Busch Stadium. Sure, those are names of companies too, but they are also the last names of actual people.

By: absalom

absalom — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:47:35 -0800

"You poor people, keep smoking pot and getting arrested! You are the lifeblood of the new economy! God bless America!" Ayup.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:27:35 -0800

Joey Michaels: "There should be public prisons for the poor and private prisons for the wealthy, just like with schools. That way, the rich could pay for themselves to be incarcerated. That would be a great incentive to arrest more rich people." California is leading the charge on this. I love that Fullerton has a non refundable $100 deposit. I wonder what the rejection rate is.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:05:28 -0800

From Mitheral's this link on how to transfer into the Redondo Beach jail-resort: -You can provide proof of valid medical insurance that must remain in effect for the duration of the scheduled incarceration. -You do not have an infectious disease*. -All fees must be paid in cash** or with a cashier's check only. -You should have the exact amount for your stay, as we may be unable to provide change. *Does having the common cold or the flu count? ** cash, you say? If I could afford $200 a day, I would be sorely tempted even though my only experience has been in an Iowa City jail overnight on a couple of different occasions. But that's about $67,200 per year. I'm sure there are ways to charge up canteen cards or something for "luxuries," too, which adds to that yearly bill. Although it's probably for mandatory DUI or civil "dispute" douchebag haven/heavens that last for a couple of days or at most a couple/few months or "minor" white-collar type crimes.

By: 3.2.3

3.2.3 — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:29:19 -0800

Looks like GEO Group just tried to sanitize their Wikipedia page.