Corporal Medina’s father is currently housed at the Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility.
Antonio Medina’s father was the very first in his family to encourage him when he decided to become a U.S. Marine. Despite serving a federal prison sentence for drug-related charges for much of Antonio’s childhood, Medina Sr. remained a dedicated father with weekly visits and phone calls. He even became certified in family management, helping others inside prison seeking to build a positive relationship with their children.
Corporal Medina was deployed in 2019 when he first learned that his father’s health was declining. In federal prison, he felt that his father had always had reasonable access to medical care. That summer, however, Medina Sr. had been transferred to the privately-owned Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility, and reported a marked difference in his treatment overall.
Corporal Medina recalled, “In his first week it was already horrible. He told us immediately it was a private prison and that he felt the difference. He kept asking the other prisoners, ‘why are these people allowed to treat us so terribly?’ They said, ‘This is a private prison. You’re not here to be reinstated into society, you’re here to be milked, to make money for them. You’re not a human being, you’re a money factory.’”
It was from Moshannon that Corporal Medina received a desperate phone call on November 30th last year from friends of his father, saying he’d been throwing up blood and put into isolation. They were concerned he hadn’t actually been provided with medical care, and despite calling daily were not able to simply confirm he was still alive. Medina Sr. was finally able to phone his family on Dec 3rd, and told them he had not been provided medical treatment. Ultimately it was after his lawyer, contacting a judge, contacted the warden, that he was taken to the prison’s hospital.
“It took everyone’s careers to get threatened for them to spend money on one spoonful of medicine. Not a man crying on the floor, vomiting blood, begging for his life for 5 days straight,” said Corporal Medina. “Being in the military I generally expect federal employees to follow basic standards of decency and respect for others, or otherwise face consequences. The minute you put on a uniform, whether as a Marine or a prison guard, you represent the US government. You are essentially the face of our country. I’ve been shocked to see, in the private prison system, that this is not the case. These guards do not have nearly the same level of accountability, and do not reflect American values. They treat our family members worse than animals.”
A GEO Group
Antonio and his family are celebrating the recent news that Moshannon has lost its contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. This is part of two major trends—the first is the decline of private prisons generally in the wake of widespread allegations of poor treatment in both prisons and immigrant detention centers, like that experienced by Medina Sr. Additionally, whether public or private, there has been a great decline in the use of jails, prisons and immigrant detention centers during COVID, that’s likely to continue under new Biden administration policies and threaten key revenue sources for private prison companies.
Moshannon’s Contract will End March 31
While most of the world’s attention was on the presidential inauguration January 20th, GEO Group announced that the Federal Bureau of Prisons would not be renewing its contract. The 1,878 bed facility for men, when opened in 2006, was the first private prison in the state of Pennsylvania, and has been managed by GEO Group since their 2010 acquisition of Cornell Companies. It now typically houses immigrants who have committed non-violent criminal offenses at some point in the past, and upon completing their sentences will be deported—think of it as a “halfway house” between incarceration and deportation. GEO Group had a five-year contract with the Federal Prison Bureau starting in 2014, with the option of five, one-year extensions.
According to George C. Zoley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GEO, "GEO has operated the Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility under a public-private partnership with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for more than a decade. Over that timeframe, our employees have delivered high quality services, providing needed secure residential care on behalf of the federal government. Federal prison populations in the United States have experienced a decline, more recently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This decline and other factors may result in future decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to not renew additional BOP contracts. We expect to market the Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility to other federal and state agencies."
Clearfield County Commissioners expressed their displeasure at this decision, noting: “We hope that the GEO Group is able to successfully market this great resource so that the facility is able to continue to employ many Clearfield Country citizens for years to come.” This community with a population of roughly 80,000 residents will be impacted from the loss of close to 270 jobs.
And yet, this reflects what’s often seen as a zero-sum-game—the idea that we need to use our tax dollars to incarcerate one population, in order to employ another, rather than seeking other models of comprehensive community development. What if the tax dollars used to pay private prisons were instead provided to Clearfield’s Main Street?
Joanna McClinton, the highest ranking Democrat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, noted, “This prison kept people working. But we are making efforts to decarcerate in Pennsylvania. It’s a good time to find our way forward in the global economy, and ensure communities can diversify their economic opportunities. There needs to be training facilities and an effort to figure out where the next wave of jobs can be. Is it electronic cars, is it clean energy jobs? It’s not thinking innovatively to just go back to depending on prisons. Maybe it’s time to think really next level and next wave. If it’s another prison how long will that last? Will this community be in the same situation in 15 years?”
“The idea that one should ‘market’ a prison like one would a Coca-Cola is offensive to me. We should be focused on making sure people are provided the most basic human rights in prison. Instead they want people to be locked up as long as possible, because they get paid for it.” said Corporal Medina. He reflects a broader trend of public opinion and policymakers turning away from the idea that prisons should have a for-profit motive, and in general questioning America’s dubious distinction of having more incarcerated people than any other country.
Consequences for GEO Group
On January 15th, GEO Group announced that its quarterly dividend would be dropping by 27%, a remarkable decrease that seems to reflect overall challenges the private prison sector has had in paying dividends over the past year—CoreCivic, the second largest, publicly-traded prison company after GEO Group, suspended its dividends entirely in June of 2020 (leading to a “massive hit” in its stock price, according to Stock Investor). GEO Group’s stock price fell from a high of 9.31 on Jan 19 to 7.73 today in the wake of this decision, and in general, both GEO Group and CoreCivic have seen their stock price fall by over half this past year.
The Moshannon facility, earning roughly $42M a year, reflects a small portion of GEO Group’s over $2B in annual revenue. However, in general the Federal Bureau of Prisons represents 14% of revenue, and thus the company is vulnerable to the idea that Biden will continue an Obama-era pledge to not renew federal contracts. In that 2016 announcement, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates noted the following about private prisons: “They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and, as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security.” In November of 2020, GEO Group also announced that its Rivers Correctional Facility’s contract in North Carolina will not be renewed when expiring on March 31 (a roughly $43M annual contract).
Whether or not the use of private facilities in federal prison and immigrant detention systems are ultimately banned under Biden—a campaign pledge he made repeatedly, and is expected to reinforce through today’s executive orders—COVID has led to a strong and fast decline in the use of immigrant detention centers, a major source of revenue for private prison companies. Populations fell from 50,000 in 2019 to just under 20,000 in October of 2020, and yet, still COVID rates in detention centers from April to August of 2020 were found to be 13 times higher than the U.S average. This has led to continued calls for the use of alternatives to incarceration, and in general, comprehensive immigration reform. Today Biden is expected to sign an executive order, according to Reuters, “scaling back the use of private prisons,” but it is unclear if that will apply within both the criminal justice and immigrant detention systems.
What’s Next
So what happens now, to people like Medina Sr.? People dislike uncertainty just as much as markets do, and indeed its unclear what plans the government has for these individuals. Some could be released to their families while awaiting deportation, particularly those who, like Medina Sr., are actually eligible for release, are facing health issues, or are otherwise likely vulnerable to COVID-19. Others may be transferred to different facilities as they await deportation.
Corporal Medina said, “I of course hope for my father to be released, or at a minimum, provided with the consistent healthcare he needs. But what I really want to see, is the end of private prisons.”
Full disclosures related to my work available here. This post does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, and the author is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided herein. Any views expressed by Antonio Medina are his alone, and do not represent the opinions of the U.S. Marine Corps.
CoreCivic filed a lawsuit in March of 2020 against author Morgan Simon and her firm Candide Group, claiming that certain of her prior statements on Forbes.com regarding their involvement in family detention and lobbying activities are “defamatory." While we won dismissal of the case in November of 2020, CoreCivic has appealed such that the lawsuit is still active.
