Denver City Council ends contracts with GEO and CoreCivic

The City of Denver cancelled its contracts with GEO and CoreCivic, two private companies that provide immigration detention and other prison services, following a summer of community protests and a hotly-contested city council vote. The contracts relate to a half-way house that is transitioning 500 former prisoners into the community as an alternative to prison and 200 more scheduled for release. The contracts were worth a cumulative $10.6 million.

Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca, who led the charge said during the four-hour hearing, “GEO and CoreCivic are market failures, and we as a government have an obligation to intervene.” She argued that community re-entry programs run by community-based organizations can do a better job than these two companies do at transitioning former inmates back into society. And, she said, they don’t bring the moral baggage of companies that run private prisons and immigrant detention centers all around the country, including at the border and in Aurora. Other council members struggled with the decision because it leaves the  former prisoners in limbo and possibly vulnerable to returning to jail. Nobody spoke on behalf of GEO or CoreCivic.

MHC