Stacia Hylton

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Stacia Hylton was appointed Director of the United States Marshals Service in 2010, nominated by President Obama and confirmed on December 22, 2010. She has been accused of being part of the Government-industry revolving door.

Revolving Door Controversy

On November 9, 2010, "a coalition of human rights and criminal justice organizations – the Alliance for Justice, Human Rights Defense Center, Private Corrections Working Group, Grassroots Leadership, National Lawyers Guild, International CURE, Detention Watch Network and Justice Policy Institute – announced their opposition to President Obama’s nomination of Stacia A. Hylton to head the U.S. Marshals Service."

Ties to GEO Group

According to a November 2010 CounterPunch article:

During Hylton’s tenure as the Federal Detention Trustee, GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest for-profit private prison company, was awarded a number of lucrative contracts to house federal prisoners. These included a sole-source ten-year contract at GEO’s Western Region Detention Facility in San Diego, generating approximately $34 million in annual revenue; a 20-year contract to operate the 1,500-bed Rio Grande Detention Center in Laredo, Texas with an estimated $34 million in annual revenue; and a 20-year sole-source contract to manage the Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility in Lovejoy, Georgia, generating $16-20 million in annual revenue.

According to an October 2010 Washington Times article:

Between leaving her post as federal detention trustee and her recent nomination as the next U.S. marshal, Justice Department veteran Stacia Hylton got a consulting contract with. . . Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which has carried out tens of millions of dollars in contracts for the U.S. Marshals Service[. The arrangement] was disclosed in a recent financial report obtained by The Washington Times through the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

This consulting contact was "through her Virginia-based company, Hylton Kirk & Associates LLC, of which she is the president and sole owner. In her financial disclosure statement, Hylton reported income of $112,500 for 'consulting services for detention matters, federal relations, and acquisitions and mergers.' GEO Group is the only company listed in her disclosure statement in connection with those consulting services."

According to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, Hylton’s consulting company was formed on January 13, 2010 – more than a month before she retired from her position as the Federal Detention Trustee. However, in her questionnaire submitted to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, she stated she began working for her consulting company in March 2010, the month after her retirement.

Ties to the Corrections Corporation of America

Also while Hylton was Federal Detention Trustee:

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison company, was awarded a 20-year contract to design, build and operate the $80 million 1,072-bed Nevada Southern Detention Center. Further, under Hylton’s direction, the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee granted a sole-source 20-year contract to CCA to hold U.S. Marshals prisoners at the company’s Leavenworth Detention Center in Kansas, and approved a sole-source contract for CCA to house U.S. Marshals detainees at a prison in Pinal County, Arizona. Approximately 40% of CCA’s business comes from the federal government.

According to a February 26, 2010 post on a website for CCA employees [no longer available online], CCA president Damon Hininger attended Hylton’s retirement party in Washington, DC. Hininger noted that it "was a nice event and while there, I got the opportunity to speak with various USMS and ICE officials." Why the president of the nation’s largest private prison company was invited to attend Hylton’s retirement celebration is unknown.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Both GEO Group (through its subsidiary BI Incorporated, and Wackenhut, which became GEO) and CCA have been corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

About ALEC

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

ALEC has proposed "model" legislation on "Truth in Sentencing," "Minimum Mandatory Sentencing" and "Private Correctional Facilities," all of which have increased profits for private prison companies like GEO and CCA.

References

This is a list of groups or individuals associated in some capacity with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).