Background: Some kind of asylum (Guardian G2)

“If any person here present doth know of any reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, let them speak now or forever their peace.”

The Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre near Bedford is currently operated by the Group 4 subsidiary GSL which also runs Campsfield, Oakington, and Tinsley detention centres and the new GCHQ spy headquarters in Gloucestershire.

Back in February 2002, Yarl’s Wood burned to the ground. The Home Office had failed to install a sprinkler system as urged by the Fire Authority. Despite an inquiry last year, key questions raised by the Fire Brigades Union have never been answered: Why were firefighting operations delayed for over an hour after the fire crews arrived? What was the operational priority on the night - detaining asylum seekers or fighting the fire? Group 4 called the police at 8 p.m. but did not hand over control until 1 a.m. Group 4 gave the orders for detainees to be locked into the burning building. Group 4 have, amazingly, claimed £100m damages from the police. Several former detainees acquitted of arson are suing the company, as are a number of ex-employees.

In December, an investigation by “The Mirror” uncovered racism amongst the Yarl’s Wood staff, provoking a second Parliamentary inquiry, completed but still unpublished.

As Group 4 prepares to merge with Securicor this summer, the company would like to divest itself of Yarl’s Wood, should a suitable suitor emerge for the sumptuous bride GSL. And who is Mr. Right? Step forward Geo Group Inc.

Heavenly Bodies

Group 4 Falck A/S is still considering a £200m bid for its Global Solutions Ltd. (GSL) prisons unit from Geo Group Inc, according to Bloomberg.com (5 March).

Geo do not suffer from false modesty. Their mission statement proclaims:

“Every day is a commencement. The end of one thing and, at the same time, the start of something new. It is a gift in which to exercise our talents in concert with our fellow employees on behalf of our newly-named company, The GEO Group. GEO aspires to be a world leader in government outsourced services that are diversified in their scope and uniquely professional in their quality. This vision can only be accomplished and sustained by an organization that has the necessary depth of talent which is united in its purpose. Working together, we will shape our remarkable new future one day at a time.”

Geo also run “Religious/Faith-based Programs”.

“When an offender changes his values system, he changes his behavior. Religious programming is an important element in offender rehabilitation.”.... Some Geo programmes “include a voluntary, faith-based, residential Bible college where offenders can earn a Bible degree through correspondence courses. We also work closely with the Kairos Ministry and other religious groups to provide expanded faith-based programs...”

Hell on Earth

Few people have heard of the “newly named” Geo Group, as it happens. But until shareholders voted for a name change last November, the company was rather better known as “Wackenhut Corrections Corporation”.

“Eye on Wackenhut” is a website maintained by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the US.

Australia:

Wackenhut Corrections Corp. through its subsidiary Australasian Correctional Management ran six immigration detention centres in Australia: Curtin, Port Hedland, Perth, Woomera, Villawood and Maribyrnong. The company was paid A$328 million during the life of the contract from early 1998 until December 2002.

The tenure of ACM at the detention centres was marred by a string of hunger strikes, riots, escapes and human rights violations, widely reported in the Australian and international media. ACM’s operations became the subject of inquiries by a parliamentary joint committee and also by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, whose chief investigator described Woomera as “a great human tragedy” with conditions that were “inhumane and degrading”.

Additionally, the results of an investigation published last September by Business Review Weekly discovered a “serious contractual breach relating to ACM”. The publication reported that ACM had been served a default notice by the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs sometime between March 2001 and September 2002. According to Business Review Weekly, a default notice is one of the most serious penalties available under a contract between the government and a private contractor.

ACM lost the contract to run the Australian centres less than two years ago. Last May, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary revealed that ACM had lied to the government about its management of a refugee detention camp to boost profits and covered up child sexual abuse, according to former staff members. The company also destroyed medical records of detainees at the Woomera detention center, staff members said. (AP 20 May 2003)

Texas:

Prisons, profits and Governor George W Bush

Tim Wheeler
Editor, People’s Weekly World
Nov 15 2000
source

...Meanwhile, back in Texas, Wackenhut is prospering. About 25 miles south of Austin, in the town of Lockhart, Wackenhut took over a prison and invited corporations to set up a factory to employ inmates.

Leonard Hill, owner of a company in Austin that assembled circuit boards, closed his factory - terminating 150 workers - and moved his plant to the Wackenhut prison.

Texas taxpayers paid for the construction of a new factory built to Hill’s specifications for which he pays $1 per year in rent.

Hill’s company, now called Lockhart Technologies Inc, employs 100 inmates who assemble circuit boards for IBM, Dell and Texas Instruments, all non- union. The inmates are paid the minimum wage with 80 per cent of their wages deducted to pay “room and board” and “victim restitution”. Texas taxpayers cover the inmates’ health care and workers’ compensation.

Wackenhut’s prison warden, Scott Comstock, told CAQ magazine’s Reese Erlich, “I think that Texas, in particular, has proven that privatisation is a viable alternative.”

Wackenhut Corp last year reported a 27 percent increase in revenues, to US$530.3 million.

Joe Gunn, President of the Texas AFL-CIO, has accused Wackenhut of profiting from “indentured slave labour” in its private Texas prisons.

This system of prison labour exerts a strong downward pressure on the wage standard in “right-to-work” (for less) Texas.

Nuclear industry:

Wackenhut Caught Cheating on Security Drill at Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee

source

This January, the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General found that Wackenhut personnel had been tipped off in advance during a DOE drill developed to ensure that the site’s protective force can respond to potential security threats, such as a terrorist attack. Government investigators concluded that Wackenhut’s actions were improper and had tainted the test results to the degree that they could not be relied upon. The DOE report generated widespread negative coverage in the national and local media. A newspaper editorial stated that the findings “should prompt a review of the government’s contract with Wackenhut Corp”

Meanwhile, Wackenhut has forced security officers at a number of nuclear power plants to work 12-hour shifts for six and seven days straight.

source

Though excessive overtime is often rationalized by the increased security demands following 9-11, the practice in fact predates the terrorist attacks.

At the Indian Point #2 power plant, Wackenhut fired Security Officer Vincent Giambalvo after he declined to report for a sixth straight 12-hour shift in June 2000. The federal government ordered him reinstated, and stated that it “reasonably believed that to work in his fatigued state would have violated the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] fitness-for-duty regulation and would have posed a threat to Indian Point 2, its employees, and the community at large.”

UK:

For background on some UK activities see: Shut Wackenhut Enforcement Centre

Wackenhut is also responsible for transporting asylum detainees.

Incestuous

Group 4 and Wackenhut know each other rather well, it turns out.

As SEIU explains, Wackenhut Corrections was an arm of U. S. security firm, the Wackenhut Corporation, which was acquired by Group 4 Falck in April 2002. A separate Group 4 Falck subsidiary, Global Solutions, took over the Australian immigration detention centre contracts. An Australian government opposition spokesperson called the switch, “a distinction without a difference” as both companies were owned by Group 4 Falck. Several months later, Group 4 Falck sold off Wackenhut Corrections. Wackenhut Corrections announced it was changing its name to The Geo Group, Inc. on 1 December 2003.

Liability: Beverley Hughes

So what happens to the civil claims by former detainees if the Yarl’s Wood operating company GSL is sold off to the rebranded Geo Group? Alistair Burt MP directed some relevant questions to the Home Secretary:

source

“. what formal notifications are required when the ownership of a custody or detention centre operated by private companies on behalf of the Government is transferred to another company (a) before and (b) after transfer.”

“. whether he has been consulted over plans to change the ownership of Yarlswood Detention Centre from Group 4 (Falck); and if he will make a statement.”

Former Immigration Minister Beverley Hughes replied on 18 March, just before she resigned.

“The Contract contains a provision requiring the Contractor to notify the Home Office if there is a change of more than 3 per cent. in the ownership of the company. A change of control for the Contractor requires the prior written approval of the Home Office-such approval not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed. If shares are listed in the stock exchange such consent is to be obtained as soon as the Contractor becomes aware of the change of control.”

However, Hughes was apparently unaware of the proposed sale - despite Bloomberg.com (5 March).

“My right hon. friend, the Home Secretary, has not been consulted. However there are no current plans to change the ownership of the Yarlswood Removal Centre. The contract is currently run by Global Solutions UK Ltd. (GSL) a division of Group 4 Falck. There have been recent press announcements regarding the potential merger of Group 4 Falck with Securicor. This relates to the division of Group 4 Falck which deals with cash in transit and guarding business, and does not affect the custodial business run by Global Solutions. In conjunction with the merger Group 4 Falck will separate its security business from the GSL business. GSL will be a division of the Group 4 company to be listed as Falck A/S. As with all public sector contracts, performance will be subject to regular review, and continued provision of the service dependent upon satisfactory performance.”

Wedding Party

With Hughes gone, the Home Secretary himself may have to decide whether Geo and GSL may consummate their mutual desires. At the time of the fire, Blunkett immediately praised Group 4 as having "acquitted themselves with dedication and courage", even before the facts were known. But there could be a happy ending, if he now chose to:

• ensure Group 4’s liability for events surrounding the fire is maintained,
• accept responsibility for the Home Office role in the Yarl’s Wood debacle, and
• shut Yarl’s Wood for good.

The rest of us will dance the night away.