GEO Group

The GEO Group, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: GEO)
Industry	Outsourced correctional services
Founded	1984 (as Wackenhut Corrections (WCC))
Founder(s)	George C. Zoley
Headquarters	One Park Place Boca Raton, FL, USA
Area served	USA Australia South Africa United Kingdom
Key people	George C. Zoley (Chairman) & (CEO)
Revenue	$ 1.27 billion (2010) [1]
Operating income	$ 140.5 million (2010) [2]
Net income	$ 63.5 million (2010) [3]
Total assets	$ 2.424 billion (2010) [4]
Total equity	$ 1.039 billion (2010) [5]
Employees	20,000- 2011 [6]
Subsidiaries	GEO Care, Inc. The GEO Group Australia GEO Transportation, Inc. The GEO Group UK Ltd.
Website	[1]

The GEO Group, Inc. ("GEO") is a company headquartered in One Park Place, Boca Raton, Florida.^[7][8] GEO is a multi-national provider of governmental services specializing in the management of correctional, detention and mental health and residential treatment in North America, Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. GEO operates a broad range of correctional and detention facilities including maximum, medium and minimum security prisons, for-profit prisons known as immigration detention centers, minimum security detention centers and mental health and residential treatment facilities.

History

In 1988, GEO was incorporated as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation and in 2003 GEO's Board of Directors approved a name change to The GEO Group, Inc. As of the fiscal year ended December 28, 2008, GEO managed 59 facilities totaling approximately 53,400 beds worldwide and had an additional 3,586 beds under development at seven facilities, including an expansion and renovation of one vacant facility which it owns and the expansion of six facilities which it currently operates, of which it owns three. Excluding its 200-bed Oak Creek Confinement Center, which is a facility held for sale at December 28, 2008, GEO maintained an average companywide facility occupancy rate of 96.6%.^[9]

The GEO Group owns and operates the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest and primary investigative wing of the United States Department of Homeland Security. GEO Group also holds a large number of shares of the Correctional Services Corporation.

On August 12, 2010, Cornell Companies and GEO merged.^[10]

Business segments

GEO conducts its business through four business segments: U.S. corrections segment; International services segment; GEO Care segment; and Facility construction and design segment. The U.S. corrections segment primarily encompasses GEO's U.S.-based privatized corrections and detention business. The International services segment primarily consists of GEO's privatized corrections and detention operations in South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom. International services reviews opportunities to further diversify into related foreign-based governmental-outsourced services on an ongoing basis. The GEO Care segment, which is operated by GEO's wholly owned subsidiary GEO Care, Inc., comprises GEO's privatized mental health and residential treatment services business, all of which is currently conducted in the U.S. GEO's Facility construction and design segment primarily consists of contracts with various state, local and federal agencies for the design and construction of facilities for which GEO has been awarded management contracts.^[9]

Controversy

Between 2005 and 2009, at least eight people have died at the Geo Group-operated George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, the state's only privately run jail. Several of those deaths resulted in lawsuits by family members who say the facility did not provide adequate medical care or proper supervision for offenders. In January 2009, Geo pulled out of operations at this facility, "citing underperformance and frequent litigations" as the reasons.^[11]

A full scale prisoner uprising occurred in 2007 at the Geo Group-operated New Castle Correctional Facility in Indiana. The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel reported that "Authorities were investigating whether the six-hour fracas that involved about 500 offenders started Tuesday afternoon because some of the newly arrived prisoners from Arizona were upset about their treatment at the medium-security men’s prison."^[12]

In 2008, Sandy Morgan, a schizophrenic woman who suffered from a thyroid condition died at the jail where she had been held for six weeks. Family members said she did not receive her medication during her incarceration.^[13]

On April 25, 2008, Kenneth Keith Kallenbach died from cystic fibrosis, an inherited chronic disease after being denied his medication. He had been housed at the jail since mid-March. Kallenbach's mother, Fay, said her son called her a week before his death, asking her to intervene and help him receive better treatment.^[14]

An inmate in 2008 claimed he was denied access to dental care for a cavity, and as a result it festered into an ulcer that burst open requiring three surgeries.^[15]

In November 2010 plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit against the agencies that operate and own the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, saying that the prison authorities allowed abuses and negligence to occur at the facility.^[16] The lawsuit states that prison guards engaged in sexual intercourse with the prisoners and smuggled illegal drugs into the facilities, and that prison authorities denied education and medical care. As of that month the prison has about 1,200 prisoners ages 13-22; the lawsuit says that half of the prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses.^[17] Weeks prior to the filing of the lawsuit, United States Department of Justice officials informed Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour that the department had started an investigation concerning the prison.^[18]

References

1. ^ http://www.geogroup.com/AR_2010/HTML2/default.htm
2. ^ http://www.geogroup.com/AR_2010/HTML2/default.htm
3. ^ http://www.geogroup.com/AR_2010/HTML2/default.htm
4. ^ http://www.geogroup.com/AR_2010/HTML2/default.htm
5. ^ http://www.geogroup.com/AR_2010/HTML2/default.htm
6. ^ http://www.geogroup.com/about.asp
7. ^ "Contact Us." GEO Group. Retrieved on May 10, 2010. "World Headquarters One Park Place, Suite 700 621 Northwest 53rd Street Boca Raton, Fl 33487"
8. ^ "WORLD HEADQUARTERS." GEO Group. Retrieved on November 22, 2010. "621 NW 53rd Street, Suite 700 Boca Raton,Florida 33487."
9. ^ ^{a b} The GEO Group (2008). 2008 10-K Annual Report. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/923796/000095014409001411/g17712e10vk.htm
10. ^ Home. (Direct image link) Cornell Companies. Retrieved on November 22, 2010.
11. ^ Rose, Alex. "A changing of the guard at county prison". delcotimes.com. http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/01/04/news/doc496027a4115a3244758082.txt. Retrieved 2011-03-25. 
12. ^ "Indiana prison riot quelled". USA Today. 2007-04-25. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-prison-riot_N.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-25. 
13. ^ Lambert, Jacob (January 28, 2009). "My Brother's Keeper". Philadelphia Weekly. http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/40509097.html?page=4&comments=1&showAll=. Retrieved March 25, 2011. 
14. ^ "Howard Stern 'Wack Pack' Member Kenneth Keith Kallenbach Dies at 39". FOXNews.com. 2008-04-25. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352649,00.html. Retrieved 2011-03-25. 
15. ^ Rosa, Erin (2009-03-01). "CorpWatch : GEO Group, Inc.: Despite a Crashing Economy, Private Prison Firm Turns a Handsome Profit". Corpwatch.org. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15308. Retrieved 2011-03-25. 
16. ^ Byrd, Sheila. 1 Suit attacks conditions at Miss. juvenile lockup. Associated Press at The Washington Post. Tuesday November 16, 2010.
17. ^ Byrd, Sheila. "Lawsuit attacks ‘barbaric’ conditions at state youth prison." Associated Press at the Sun Herald. Saturday November 20, 2010. Retrieved on November 22, 2010.
18. ^ Mitchell, Jerry. "Private prison firm sued." The Clarion Ledger. November 17, 2010. Retrieved on November 22, 2010.

External links

	Miami portal
	Companies portal

• Official website