GEO Group

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The GEO Group, Inc.
Type Public (NYSE: GEO)
Founded 1984 (as Wackenhut Corrections (WCC))
Founder George C. Zoley
Headquarters Boca Raton, Florida, USA
Area served Worldwide
Key people George C. Zoley (Founder, CEO and Chairman)
Wayne H. Calabrese (Vice Chairman, President and COO)
John G. O'Rourke (Senior Vice President and CFO)
Industry Prisons
Revenue ▲ US$ 1.024 billion (2007)
Operating income ▲ US$ 95.836 million (2007)
Net income ▲ US$ 41.265 million (2007)
Employees 11,037 (2007)
Subsidiaries GEO Care, Inc.
GEO Group Australia
Website www.thegeogroupinc.com

The GEO Group is an international corporation that operates prisons around the country and is frequently in the news for its abuse of prisoners in its care resulting in many preventable deaths. Its operations in Texas have been sharply criticized over poor conditions and the treatment of some of its prisoners. Previously known as the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, its name was changed in 2003 as a result of a merger with Group 4 Falck.

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

Since 2005, at least eight people have died at the Geo Group-operated George W. Hill Correctional Facility in 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 inmates.

On April 25th, 2008, Kenneth Keith Kallenbach died. He suffered from cystic fibrosis, an inherited chronic disease and was denied his medication. He had been housed at the jail since mid-March and was dead a month later.

Kallenbach's mother, Fay, said her son called her a week before his death, asking her to intervene and help him receive better treatment. He said he didn't think he would "make it" out of the jail alive, she said.

The prison had no comment on Kallenbach's death. At the same facility last year, a 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.

"There is an awful lot of deliberate indifference to the medical needs" in the prison, said Harold I. Goodman, a lawyer currently suing the company that operates the jail on behalf of the woman's family.

GEO did not comment on this case.

In 2005, five inmates died within a five-month span, drawing scrutiny from Delaware County District Attorney Michael Green. Two men apparently committed suicide, one died after a fist fight, another died of a heroin overdose, and another man was found dead in his bed.

No criminal charges were filed, but GEO Group has settled lawsuits with several families who sued on behalf of their relatives. In 2006, GEO paid $100,000 to the family of Rosalyn Atkinson, 25, who died in 2002 because of a fatal overdose of a high-blood pressure drug administered by jail medical staff. Atkinson had been at the jail for only 18 days.

GEO also agreed in 2005 to pay $125,000 to the family of John Focht, 43, who used his boot strings to hang himself in 2002.


GEO, based in Florida, also has been under fire in Texas, where it operates more than a dozen correctional facilities.

Last fall, the Texas Youth Commission abruptly canceled its $8 million contract with GEO after investigators found unsanitary living conditions at its juvenile facility. Several of the teens said they were sexually assaulted by a guard who was a convicted sex offender, according to lawsuits.

GEO lost its contract at an adult facility in west Texas last year after an inspector reportedly characterized the prison as "the worst correctional facility I have ever visited." The inspection was sparked by an inmate's suicide.

Texas legislators have called for a review of all of GEO's contracts with state and local agencies.

The GEO Group owns and operates the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest and primary investigative wing of the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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