Backroom Deals in Arizona Enrich Private Prison at Taxpayer Expense, by Olivia Sandbothe, AFSCME

http://tinyurl.com/lksp7ym

A private prison corporation already rakes in $45 million in taxpayer dollars each year in the state of Arizona, with a contract that virtually guarantees the company fat profits no matter how it actually performs.  But that wasn’t enough for the GEO Group, as a recent flap in the Statehouse reveals.

The GEO Group operates 59 private prisons across the United States, making it the nation’s sixth-largest prison system.  Last year the group turned $115 million in profits and paid its CEO nearly $5 million. But they didn’t get there through healthy competition or better business practices. . . .