GEO Group's parent company,
Wackenhut Corporation, has funded the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
[29] GEO Group itself is also a member as of 2010, according to
In These Times.
[30]
While Wackenhut (later GEO) was a member of ALEC's crime Task Force, ALEC pushed legislation to privatize prisons, and at the same time advanced harsh sentencing bills to put more people in prison for more time, particularly "truth-in-sentencing" legislation calling for all violent offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences before being eligible for release, and "three strikes you're out" bills requiring mandatory life imprisonment for a third felony conviction. These bills became law in a majority of states during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Between 2003 and 2010,
ProPublica reports that GEO Group contributed to many candidates who have or had connections to ALEC.
[31]
Lobbying
From 2004 to September 2013, GEO spent just over $3 million lobbying the federal government, with its biggest lobbying expenditures in 2010 at $660,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). They also employ two to three lobbying firms a year. Most recently, their additional lobbyists and firms have included Lionel ‘Leo’ Aguirre,
Podesta Group, Navigators Global LLC, Public Policy Partners, and
Bryan Cave LLP.
[120]
Most of the bills GEO Group lobbies for at the federal level are homeland security, immigration, and appropriations bills. For example, in 2013, GEO Group heavily lobbied for H.R. 2217, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations act, and S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, according to CRP,
[120] because they provided for more funding to border patrol, fences along borders, and more measures. While many other for-profit prison corporations, such as
Corrections Corporation of America, try to deny their involvement in anti-immigration and enhanced border security bills, GEO CEO
George Zoley admitted the company's political preferences in a 2011 letter to stakeholders:
[121]
"At the federal level, initiatives related to border enforcement and immigration detention with an emphasis on criminal alien populations as well as the consolidation of existing detainee populations have continued to create demand for larger-scale, cost efficient facilities."
[121] Aguirre, GEO Group’s top lobbyist, has been a lobbyist for the group exclusively since 2008. From 2008 to 2013, Aguirre has received $1.02 million in lobbying income from the company, just over one-third of GEO Group's total lobbying expenditures from 2004 to 2013, according to CRP.
[120][122]
An article published by Grassroots Leadership reported that Aguirre lobbied the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, the United States Marshals, the House of Representatives, the Department of Transportation, Department of Labor, and the Department of Justice in 2011 and 2012.
[123]
In the states, GEO Group hired 142 lobbyists in 25 states from 2003 to 2012, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics (NIMSP).
[124]
Political Contributions
GEO Group and its employees have made nearly $2.3 million in political contributions to individuals and PACs at the federal level from 2004 to September 2013, according to CRP.
[125]
GEO Group created a
political action committee called the GEO Group Inc. PAC. The PAC was most active in the 2008 election, with its $353,259 in spending, followed closely by the 2012 election and 2010 election, with $331,425 and $305,580 spent respectively. The PAC raised more funds in the 2012 election cycle -- $470,564 -- than in any previous cycle, according to CRP.
[126]
Most recent contributions to candidates and members in 2012 and 2014 include Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), Connie Mack (R-FL), and Andrew Crenshaw (R-FL), according to CRP.
[127]
GEO Group and its employees also pumped over $3.2 million into state-level politics in 24 states from 2003 to 2012, including contributions to candidates for office, party committees, and ballot initiatives, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
[128]
The Justice Policy Institute wrote in 2011:
"private prison companies tend to concentrate their efforts in specific states, particularly California, Florida, and to a lesser degree, Georgia. Florida, the home of the GEO Group, not only has the second highest private prison population in the country, but has budgetary mandates that certain prison beds be privatized. Attention to California is likely based on the state having the largest incarcerated population, and the existence of a U.S. Supreme Court-order to reduce its overcrowded prison system by as many as 46,000 people over the next two years; private prison companies are offering policymakers a way to transfer, rather than reduce, the number of people they lock up."
[9] Two-thirds of GEO Group's state-level spending went to California, Florida, and New Mexico, according to JPI.
[9]
