Five questions before building a "superjail"

By Carlos Villarreal & Bob Libal

The U.S. Marshals Service, an agency responsible to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, wants to build a 2,800-bed immigrant "superjail" within 50 miles of the new federal court house in Laredo . The project would require millions of dollars of financial risk for local taxpayers, and it would be filled overwhelmingly by non-violent immigrants convicted of no more than immigration violations and low-level drug crimes. Eight sites, seven operated by private prison companies and one by LaSalle County , have submitted documents indicating interest in running the prison.

Before proceeding with what would be the largest private immigrant prison in the country, citizens of Webb County and the surrounding region should ask some tough questions of the U.S. Marshals and their local leaders.

Do the U.S. Marshals need this prison?

Laredoans need look no further than Zapata County for an easy answer to this question. County officials there say they have additional space in their jail intended for U.S. Marshals inmates.

And Zapata County isn't alone. In Reeves County in West Texas , officials built a 900-bed expansion to their county jail and offered the government the "lowest price in the country" to house immigrant detainees or other prisoners. Reeves County even hired U.S. Rep. Tom Delay's brother for a fee of $120,000 to lobby the government for more prisoners. And County Judge Jimmy Galindo wrote a letter to President Bush essentially begging for more federal prisoners. But as of November, the 900 beds sat empty. The County privatized the facility to Wackenhut Corrections (the lead company for the Laredo prison) which promptly laid off 91 employees. The immigrant prisoners that Reeves County couldn't attract were to come from exactly the same pool of immigrants that are supposed to fill the new Laredo "superjail."

So, why build a 2,800-bed prison when there are hundreds of prison beds sitting empty in Texas ? The answer could lie in plans to further step up enforcement along the border. It also could lie in simple supply and demand economics -- the more empty prison beds in Texas , the less the Marshals have to pay per bed.

Who will be housed in the prison and do they need to be there?

Immigrant detainees are the fastest growing segment of the federal prison population. At a time when many states are reevaluating the wisdom of decades of increased spending on prison and jail expansion, the federal government is starting a "prison boom" of its own.

At a recent hearing, a Laredo resident argued that such a huge expansion in jail space was an important tool in the war on terror. But it is difficult to understand how adding jail space will aid such a war. The hypothetical threat of terrorists crossing the Texas-Mexico border is more than adequately covered by a heavily policed and militarized border that gets far more attention than our porous border with Canada. Make no mistake, this jail will not hold terrorists and will rarely hold violent criminals.

In a recent Laredo Morning Times article, some of the federal public defenders identified a possible silver lining to the "superjail" storm cloud. Right now, these criminal defense attorneys have a number of clients scattered about South Texas (and beyond) in various facilities, including county jails. It is difficult to visit these clients when they are in numerous and sometimes distant facilities, each with different visitation policies and varying degrees of sophistication.

These are genuine complaints from these defense attorneys, but complaints against a federal system that doesn't seem to care about immigrants should not translate into support for a huge federal detention facility for immigrants. There are no guarantees, after all, that the U.S. Marshals and the Feds won't fill the new facility and send the overflow to far-flung county jails. Federal public defenders would face the same problems multiplied.

Who will operate this prison?

It's almost a sure thing that the prison will be operated by a private prison company. Private prison companies are paid by a government agency (in this case the U.S. Marshals Service) to operate the prison. In an effort to make a profit, they spend far below what the government is paying them to house the prisoners.

The bidders on the Laredo "superjail" include the most notorious names in private prison operations -- Corrections Corporation of America, Wackenhut Corrections (now called The Geo Group), and Cornell. These companies have track records that include inmate abuse and skimping on basic services to prisoners like medical treatment and rehabilitation programs.

Private prison companies also work hard to maintain a steady supply of prisoners regardless of the need to incarcerate people. Companies like Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut have lobbyists in Austin and Washington , D.C. , and they have a huge financial interest in ensuring harsh immigration and criminal laws. Their profits come from tax dollars and somehow they claim they can take those dollars, house inmates, meet constitutional standards, make a profit, enrich executives, pay lobbyists, and do a better job than public jails and prisons.

What will this prison do for economic development in South Texas ?

While the promise of economic development is often pitched as a major reason for prison construction, there is reason to be skeptical of that claim -- especially when those prisons are operated by for-profit private prison companies.

Raul Casso, chief of staff to Webb County Judge Louis Bruni, has publicly claimed that 500 new jobs would be created by this facility. This claim actually came from Wackenhut Corporation and its method of calculation has never been explained. More importantly, no one trying to sell this jail to the community has addressed the quality of jobs that may be created.

Private prison companies hire correctional officers at well below the salaries of guards at public prisons. One study found that private prison guards make starting salaries of $4,000 less than their public prison counterparts. Turnover in private facilities is considerably higher and benefits are considerably lower. Despite the fact that the federal government will be paying the private company to operate the prison, these will not be federal jobs. They will be jobs working for a private company -- most likely a company with notorious labor practices.

Who pays if this prison fails?

In short, you do. While the U.S. Marshals have given notice that they want this prison built, it will almost certainly be built through a partnership between a private operator and either the Webb County or LaSalle County Public Facilities Corporation (PFCs).

PFCs are quasi-governmental organizations that issue bonds to pay for public projects with the idea that revenue from the project will pay back the debt. If revenue doesn't come through (as in Reeves County when the county couldn't fill their jail), the county can default on its bonds, which can ruin its credit rating and make future public works projects nearly impossible. In other words, building this jail now may make it more difficult to build schools, roads, and parks in the future.

For residents of South Texas , there is every reason to ask questions and speak out against this waste of money and human lives.

(Carlos Villarreal is the communications coordinator for the Texas Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. He can be reached at carlos@protex.org or at (512) 441-8123. Bob Libal is a student/youth organizer with Grassroots Leadership in Austin , TX . He can be reached at blibal@grassrootsleadership.org or at (512) 971-0487.)