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Jan
14, 2021 usnews.com
Mexico
Could Cancel Private Prison Contracts, Says President
MEXICO
CITY (REUTERS) - Mexico's president will seek better terms for the government
in private prison contracts signed by his predecessors, he said on Wednesday,
adding that he could cancel them if better deals cannot be reached. The
private prison contracts were much too expensive and represented the worst of
privatization, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at a regular
government news conference. "We need to talk to the providers of these
services so that an agreement is reached because we consider (the contracts)
to be abusive," said Lopez Obrador. He said a civil complaint is being
drawn up to cancel the contracts if new terms are not reached. Lopez Obrador
has previously put pressure on energy and chemical companies over contracts
he considers unfair. U.S. asset manager BlackRock Inc is among the investors
that have been involved in prisons in Mexico. During the government of Lopez
Obrador's predecessor, President Enrique Pena Nieto, payments for the Ramos
Arizpe prison in the northern border state of Coahuila jumped by nearly 18%
just before BlackRock purchased it, according to records reviewed by Reuters
in 2017. BlackRock at the time declined to comment. The asset manager did not
immediately respond to a request for comment for this article. Ex-President
Felipe Calderon, who preceded Pena Nieto, launched the partial privatization
of Mexican prisons during his 2006-2012 term with eight facilities. Under
Calderon's model, the contractors did not manage security or healthcare at
the facilities, but instead secured the land, built the prisons
and then provided services like food and laundry over 20-year contracts.
Lopez Obrador, who ran and lost against both Calderon and Pena Nieto, routinely
criticizes both men on a range of policy disagreements as well as for alleged
graft during their terms. The leftist Lopez Obrador said a renegotiated deal
should benefit the government's finances.
July 4, 2003
Three bounty hunters facing charges over their capture of fugitive rapist
Andrew Luster can travel where they want as long as
they show up at court here each Monday, the judge overseeing the case
said. "They can do what they want with their free
time," Judge Jose de Jesus Pineda Gutierrez told The Associated Press on
Wednesday after being told that Duane "Dog" Chapman, his son Leland
and brother Timothy, had returned to Los Angeles. Pineda last month
ordered the three tried on charges of criminal association and deprivation of
liberty for a predawn seizure of Luster, the Max Factor heir convicted in
absentia in California of drugging and raping three women. Prosecutors
say the bounty hunters had no legal standing in Mexico and should have gone
to police instead of snagging Luster themselves. Each of the charges
carries a maximum sentence of four years, though attorneys said Mexico's
complex sentencing laws mean the maximum possible sentence would fall well
short of eight years. The case was to be handed over to a judge in
Guadalajara in the coming weeks. Pineda released the bounty hunters on
15,000 pesos (US$1,430) bail each on the condition that they sign in at the
court in Puerto Vallarta each Monday. Mexican immigration officials added a
bail of 3,000 pesos each - less than US$300. If the defendants don't
appear, an arrest warrant could be issued and they could be imprisoned if
they return to Mexico. During a news conference in Beverly Hills,
California, on Wednesday, Chapman said he would return to Mexico
"soon." "We still don't think we broke the law," he
said. Chapman's U.S. attorney, James E. Blancarte,
said he did not expect that his client would have to serve more prison time
in Mexico.
Authorities briefly detained and charged a television producer and actor who
went along with the bounty hunters to videotape Luster's capture, but Pineda
threw out the charges against them. (AP)
June 27, 2003
Mexico - A judge ruled Thursday that there was enough evidence to order
American bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman, his brother and his son
to stand trial on criminal charges for capturing the heir to the Max Factor
cosmetics fortune.Judge Jose de Jesus Pineda freed
two Americans, producer Jeff Sells and actor Boris Krutonog,
but found that the Chapmans should be charged with criminal association and
deprivation of liberty - similar to kidnapping without requesting a ransom.
Chapman, a 50-year-old, Hawaii-based Bounty hunter, his brother Timothy and
his son Leland were arrested long with
Shells and Krutonog on June 18, about two hours
after the group captured convicted rapist Andrew Luster near a taco stand in
this popular Pacific resort city. Prosecutors maintain that Luster's
dramatic capture violated Mexican sovereignty and claim that the Americans
should have gone to police instead of trying to capture Luster
themselves. (Arizona Republic)
December 4, 200
Prison
officials in northern Mexico say their inmates are manufacturing furniture bound
for Texas -- despite U.S. laws that ban the importation of goods made with
prison labor. And they'd like to
contract with more U.S. companies to produce all kinds of goods. One official
said prison shops would even label their products to hide their origin. Convicts already work for Mexican
companies. But prison labor is
strongly criticized around the globe on the grounds that it undercuts unions,
steals jobs from law-abiding workers and poses risks of human rights abuses.
Many countries, including the United States, bar imports of products made by
prisoners. The prison director for
Tamaulipas state, Manuel del Riego, said Clint
Hough of Austin, Texas, was the first foreign businessman to accept the
state's offer of its inmates' services. He said Hough had been buying
furniture made by prisoners for more than a year. Inmates at the Ciudad Victoria prison said
Hough ordered chairs for a Texas restaurant chain as well as
dining room furniture. Hough,
interviewed at the prison, would not confirm that he takes the furniture
across the border. "That I would
really rather not discuss because I'm afraid U.S. Customs would ruin
it," he said. Wiping sweat from
his brow with a towel, Hough later denied ordering furniture from the prison
at all and said he merely teaches prisoners design and finishing
techniques. "You don't want to
cause problems for people because the U.S. Customs can be
narrow-minded in its views," said Hough, 49. "So it's really
important that this not be reported."
On average, Mexican inmates are paid the minimum wage of 45 pesos a
day ($4.50), half what free workers along the border make. Companies hiring
prison labor also save on health insurance, retirement and other
benefits. Del Riego,
however, said there was no need for companies to worry. "Our products don't say they are made
in prison. They put a fancy tag on
them and say they are made in a faraway country," he said. Although Mexico permits prisons to produce
for companies, U.S. law bars the importation of convict-made goods "no
matter what the circumstances," said Paula Keicer
of the U.S. Customs Service in Washington.
Keicer said officials were not aware that
prison-made furniture was being imported across the Texas border.
(Tulsa World.com)
September
19, 2002
Officials
in Mexico state, which surrounds Mexico City and absorbs
much of the city's population and problems, recently announced
they would contract with a private corrections company from
the United States to operate a new state-owned facility and to
build and operate four more over the next two years.
Despite that interest, recent scandals
and a slump in the private prison industry - stock
prices plummeted in 2000 and have not recovered significantly -
suggest that private lockups, once viewed as a cure-all for U.S.
states straining under high prisoner housing costs, carry
troublesome baggage. "The evidence is
really clear that when you compare public and private prisons
that operate at similar levels, the private sector does not
measure up across the board," said Judy Greene, an
independent corrections consultant and fellow with the Open
Society Institute in New York dedicated to building democracy
infrastructure in Third World and formerly communist
countries Evangelina Lara, Mexico state's prisons director, said the
$87.1 million private prison deal will give the state 4,500 new
prison beds, enough to Private-prison foes in the United States
cite cases in which private companies have been
sued and sanctioned on abuse and mismanagement charges. Among cases involving Wackenhut and
Cornell: Lara said the state is taking the scandals into consideration
in designing its contracts. None of Lara's assurances quiet the
concerns of private-prison critics, who say the industry
hasn't bothered to fix its problems but is still looking for new
markets. And in some cases, the profits these companies want may
come at a steep price. Kevin Pranis
directs the "Not With Our Money!" campaign, a New
York-based activist network working to limit the reach of
private-prison companies. He said the industry makes money either
by cutting costs or getting paid more in the contract.
Because Mexican prisons already spend
much less on violate human rights, cost-cutting
will not be an option for private operators to improve their
bottom line, Pranis said. That leaves
negotiating a fat contract. "To the degree that
corruption is a serious problem in Mexico," Pranis said, "that opens the door for
these companies to use the government like a big cash machine."
(Az Central.com)
August
27, 2002
Mexico state officials unveiled plans Tuesday for the country's first private
prisons to relieve the government's overcrowded jails. Several U.S.
companies and one French firm have expressed interest in the $100 million
project to build and operate four jails in the state, officials said at a
meeting Tuesday with Foreign correspondents. Bidding was expected to
begin in three weeks. Officials visited private prisons in France,
Chile, and the U.S. states of Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona before drafting
their plans. U.S. security firms such as Cornell, Wackenhut Corp. and
Correction Corporation o America have expressed interest in the project, as
well as the French construction company Bouygues, Alcantara said. (AP)
July 8, 2002
Prominent
business leaders are trying to sell lawmakers on a plan to build
new prisons in Mexico and privately run them, Notimex reported Sunday. Rosa Maria
Navarro, security coordinator for the National Industrial
Chamber (Canacintra), said prison officials
in Mexico City already had agreed to discuss future participation
of private investment at several penitentiaries. (The News)
June 28,
2002
Prison concessions have become the next big thing in Latin America's
infrastructure business. In Mexico the federal justice ministry has
called for tenders for the construction and operation of four prisons worth a
total of US $88.5 million. Chile is getting into the act too. The
first phase of the country's private prison building program was officially
launched this week. The entire program represents some US $280 million
in investments and will almost double the country's current prison
capacity. (Business News Americas)
June 27, 2002
Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest prison management
company, today announced a new agreement with Mexico aimed at reducing the
number of incarcerated undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"American taxpayer dollars pay for more than 50,000 undocumented
immigrants, many of them repeat offenders, sitting in prison cells,"
said John D. Ferguson, President and CEO of Corrections Corporation of
America. The U.S.- Mexico Chamber of Commerce entered
into a Memorandum of Understanding with CCA for the SOAR
project. (PR Newswire)
June 26, 2002
The construction and operation of four prisons worth a total of US $88.5 mn in the Mexican municipalities of Tenancingo,
Tenango del Valle, Ixlahuaca
and Zumpango will be put up for auction this week,
local newspaper La Reforma reported. The
project aims to solve serious overcrowding in 23% of Mexico's prison.
The state ainticipates an 18-year concession period
at a cost of US $22 a day per prisoner. (Business News Americas)
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