Private Prison Company Indicted for Murder

Private prisons profit by our country's staggering incarceration rate, which is presently about one in every 130 people.  They also profit by the closure and downsizing of mental health facilities, reduction in outpatient services to psychiatric patients, and resistance to facilitate enforced treatment of mental patients, when warranted.  These omissions leave many acute mental patients vulnerable to arrest for acting out their dementia in public.  About 1.25 million of America's 2.3 million prisoners have mental dysfunctions.  Private prisons are paid up to $50,000 per annum per prisoner, and some enlarge their profits by using prison labor to manufacture goods for sale in interstate commerce. 

Ever wonder why it is that planes and boats are being checked thoroughly these days to fight terrorism, yet many illegal drugs still manage to get through our borders?  One could have logically expected an associated decrease in the expensive budget for America's War on Drugs with the advent of the War on Terror.  Perhaps the decrease in drug trafficking did not occur because drug offenses account for a large percentage of arrests every day.  Stop illegal drug imports and the Big Business of private prisons may soon need a bailout.  African American males under the age of 34 have an incarceration rate estimated at being 1 in 9, and many of them are imprisoned for nonviolent drug offenses involving marijuana and other contraband.

With these things in mind, I was not displeased to read about a private prison company in trouble.  In fact, the AP article reported that a private prison has been indicted for murder.  I did not know that non-humans could be indicted for such offenses, but that is what the article reports.

Super-sized handcuffs are being fashioned to take the culprit into custody at this moment.  (Just kidding!)

Seriously, one might hope that charging a non-human with this prisoner's death will not give the human beings a pass who were actually responsible for de la Rosa's murder.

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Private prison company indicted for murder

10/24/2008
Associated Press

A Florida private prison company has been indicted in South Texas on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release.

A three-count indictment alleges The GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened in 2001 at the Raymondville facility, just four days before de la Rosa's scheduled release, according to Thursday's indictment from Willacy County.

Calls to The GEO Group and the Willacy County District Attorney's Office were not immediately returned Friday.

The GEO Group was formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp.

In 2006, a jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment.

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Source for data below and incarceration charts pictured above:
http://www.libertyforlife.com/jail-police/prison_populaton.htm

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States of America is The World's Worst Prison State:

"In 2006, over 7.2 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend 2006 -- 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults." - U.S. Department of Justice

Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm  NOTE:  It's far worse now.

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UPDATE - April 9, 2009

Texas court upholds $42.4M verdict in prison death

http://www.google. com/hostednews/ ap/article/ ALeqM5hHzJKeXbRt Bat4rRj1kx7Pl- Q7FQD97ELGA00

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas appeals court has upheld a multimillion dollar civil verdict against a Florida private prison company in the beating death of an inmate.

The 13th Court of Appeals ruled last week that Wackenhut Corrections Corp., now known as The GEO Group, and Warden David Forrest have to pay $42.5 million to the family of Gregorio de la Rosa Jr.

The company was accused of allowing two inmates to beat de la Rosa with padlocks stuffed in socks. He died in 2001, four days before his expected release from a facility in Raymondville.

A Willacy County jury had ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a 2006 civil judgment.

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Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI