Learn About GEO Group Scandals - Close Reeves County Detention Center

The GEO Group prisons and the dates that they were reported.

Coke County Juvenile Justice Center (Bronte, Tx) - Wackenhut/GEO Group

7 youths sue the GEO Group claiming they were mentally, physically, and sexually abused by a registered sex offender working at the prison. (2007)
The Texas Youth Commission pulls all of the agency's 200 juvenile detainees from the jail after learning that jail programs are severely lacking. The facility is described as unsafe and unsanitary. (2007)
Several girls were sexually, physically, and mentally abused by Wackenhut employees, including a man with a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a child; a lawsuit settled for $1.5 million. (1999)
15 year old female victim of sexual assault by Wackenhut employee committed suicide in wake of lawsuit settlement that allowed company to avoid accepting responsibility. (1999)
Texas Youth Commission confirmed allegations that some staff members manipulated a "demotion/graduation" system to coerce girls into giving them sexual favors or dancing naked in front of them; some girls were raped or fondled, while others were made to disrobe and shower in the presence of male employees. (1995)

Scott Noble Payne, an Idaho inmate, commits suicide prompting an investigation. The Associated Press calls the facility's conditions "squalid," and the Idaho Department of Correction's Health Director says, the facility is the worst prison he's ever seen. Idaho announces that it will withdraw all inmates from the prison. (2007)

After reports of a prisoner mistreatment, including using mace and cuffing prisoners, and a two-man breakout, the state of Idaho removes its prisoners from the facility. (2006)

A female immigrant detainee sues GEO after she failed to receive treatment and medicine for her mental disability, and was put in isolation after being stripped naked and having her crutches removed. The lawsuit alleges that the inmate was ridiculed and threatened with deportation. (2007)

Arizona inmates stage fights and go on hunger strikes in order to be transferred back to Arizona. (2004)

11 former guards and a case manager are indicted on felony charges of sexual assault and improper sexual activity and misdemeanor charges of sexual harassment. (1999)
TDCJ retakes control of the facility (1999)

The family of a Laredo man killed at a prison run by Wakenhut is awarded $47.5 million by a Willacy County jury. The inmate was beaten to death four days prior to completing his sentence. (2006)

A 20 year old former guard is indicted in federal court for violating the civil rights of prisoners after allegedly striking a prisoner in the face in a 2006 incident. The guard was 19 years old at the time. (2007)
Three inmates die and one more is hospitalized after a mysterious illness breaks out at the prison. The body of a Honduran immigrant was embalmed and shipped to Honduras before an autopsy could be completed. (2007)
A civil rights organization sues the GEO Group and Val Verde County on behalf of the family of an inmate who was sexually assaulted in the facility, denied medical care, and subsequently committed suicide. (2006)
An African American guard sues the GEO Group for racial discrimination after a superior poses for pictures in his prison uniform and KKK garb and displays a hangman's noose in his office. (2005)

More details about these and many other incidents in Texas private prisons as well as cites to the relevant newspaper articles may be found the F lorida Police Benevolent Association web site.