JAILHOUSE BLUES
County Council grilled over future of prison; groups want private firm out
As the deadline nears on the contract between Delaware County and the GEO Group Inc. regarding operation of the county’s George W. Hill Correctional Facility, a debate has emerged over public vs. private ownership, with several vocal groups saying county officials should abandon the for-profit company.
GEO Group operated the 1,883-bed prison from 1998 until 2009 when Community Education Centers overtook the contract. Last year, GEO acquired CEC, whose contract with the county expires at the end of December.
Some have called for the county to cut cites with the private entity and bring the prison back under county control.
“I come before you tonight to ask that you discontinue the county’s contract with the GEO management group at the George Hill Correctional Facility,” Diane Simon of Upper Chichester told county council last week. “I’m asking you to end the contract with them and change your mindset about how this county will deal with its incarcerated citizens.”
Saying he received about a dozen calls on the subject, county Council Chairman John McBlain said he’s awaiting the results of a prison study.
“The Phoenix Management report will be a useful tool in looking at that,” McBlain added.
Prison Board Solicitor Robert DiOrio explained that the Phoenix report is due the end of this month.
“Phoenix has been engaged to perform an operational analysis, a cost analysis, a quantitative analysis of the operations of the jail,” he said.
In addition, DiOrio said they are anticipating being able to compare those numbers with information from other counties in the surrounding areas.
Several council members are hopeful that once that report is finished, a joint public meeting with County Council and the Board of Prison Inspectors will be held.
“Given the extremely important nature of the management of the prison, given the large portion of the budget that comprises $50 million, … I have called in the past and I will continue to that we have a joint hearing,” County Councilman Kevin Madden said.
He added, “I do not like the indirect nature of the way the prison board is currently managed. I don’t think it’s the right model.”
The prison is operated by the GEO Group Inc. by contract and the county Board of Prison Inspectors oversees their management. The Board of Prison Inspectors is comprised of appointed individuals – two from county council and three from the president judge.
Others also expressed a desire to have a joint meeting with the two governing bodies.
“I am in favor and I have been throughout the entire year,” McBlain said, adding that he wanted to have some actual numbers as those anticipated in the Phoenix Management report to present to the public and compare.
County Councilman Brian Zidek said, “I would hope that we could have a public meeting where we could call on experts on prison issues to attend.”
He said he’d also want the prison board, county council and the public to participate in such a meeting.
“Hopefully in getting a lot of different information from a lot of different sources, we can be more deliberate and more informed in making decisions about the manner in which we want to incarcerate citizens in Delaware County,” Zidek said.
DiOrio said he did not know about a request for a joint public meeting with county council and the prison board or if any of the prison board members had been approached with such a request or what their thoughts were about such a meeting.
In the meantime, some expressed their concern about various conditions at the prison.
“To me, you all are the moms and the dads of all of Delaware County,” Chester Councilwoman Elizabeth Williams told county council at last week’s meeting. “You need to take care
“I come before you tonight to ask that you discontinue the county’s contract with the GEO management group at the George Hill Correctional Facility. I’m asking you to end the contract with them and change your mindset about how this county will deal with its incarcerated citizens.”
— Diane Simon of Upper Chichester delivering remarks before county council
of our children. You can’t keep locking them up, not knowing what their health problems are.”
She said she heard stories from parents of those incarcerated saying their loved ones who have medical problems aren’t receiving their medications for two or three weeks.
A former inmate and a member of the Delaware County Coalition for Prison Reform, Gwendolyn McCullough of Havertown voiced her concern about a hole in which prisoners defecate. Officials have said prisoners have toilets but there are less than a handful of cells that have ground drains not intended for that use.
Bruce Thomas, who worked at the prison for 22 years, asked to move the prison board meetings to the county Government Center.
“It makes it much more readily accessible to the average citizen,” he said.
Madden himself said he had “personal outrage at the stories I have heard over the years about the conditions at George W. Hill and about what I believe to be a total disalignment of incentive when you have a for-profit company managing a prison.
“When recidivism means ongoing revenues, that is a fundamental disalignment,” he said.
McBlain said GEO doesn’t decide who goes in or out of the prison, nor does Superintendent John Reilly or the warden – sentencing is solely a function of the courts and mandatory minimum guidelines.
Besides arranging a tour for the Delco CPR group, McBlain said he arranged for a tour for Madden, who brought a New York attorney with him.
McBlain said the attorney said, “There’s no question that you run a good jail.”
There is, however, a fundamental disagreement on allowing a for-profit entity to operate the facility, he added.
McBlain pointed to the multitude of programs at the prison to assist inmates in making different life decisions, from the fast-track system, which allows for earlier release for qualified individuals; the drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs; the wellness programs from yoga to CrossFit to anger management; to restoration of competency, which he said has become the top of its kind in the state.
In addition, he said so far this year, 38 prisoners have received their GED with the number on track to reach last year’s accomplishment of 40 to 42.
With the average stay at the county prison being 30 to 90 days, it can be difficult to make long-lasting transformations, McBlain said, adding that some of what has shaped those coming into the prison was formed in their elementary years.
“It may be difficult,” he explained, “to enact lifetime, long-term reform. We can’t fix in 30 days … where other segments of society have failed them, but we can try.”
In addition, he said, “We’ve become a detox facility and drug rehab facility. We’ve become a mental health facility.
“We as a society and as a state do not provide adequate mental health institutions and treatment to people who need it and we’ve got to address it,” the councilman said. “Our county prisons have become the mental health hospitals of the state of Pennsylvania.”
County Councilman Michael Culp agreed.
“Make no mistake, the operation of a prison is very complex and dangerous,” he said. “There are people in there with mental health issues who could be better served in other venues but there are also very, very bad people who are housed there because they have created heinous crimes.”
He said it is the county’s duty to save the taxpayers the most money in the most efficient way.
County resident Diane Simon extended her request for council to intervene on behalf of the prisoners at the facility.
“Our goal should be to reduce the inmate population through a comprehensive plan to change their mindset about what is possible if they make some changes in their thinking,” she said.
“You have people sitting in jail because they are poor,” Simon continued. “Is poverty a crime in Delaware County? And, if it isn’t, then why are we housing people who can’t pay their bill?”
She said she thought the best way for positive change would be for the county to end this arrangement.
“We want you to be responsible for changing this,” Simon said. “You should want people to get the help they need to become productive citizens.
“Ending the contract with GEO Group would sow citizens that you have heard their concerns and understand what is needed to achieve social justice in this county,” she said. “The GEO Group wants profits, not rehabilitation. I want to believe that this county is working to provide resources so that all of its citizens can realize the American Dream.”
The Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors meets next at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the prison at 500 Cheyney Road in Thornbury.