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Northwest Detention Center vs. the City of Tacoma
As advocates for Open Government and public disclosure, I thought you might be interested in a development concerning the Northwest Detention Center and the City of Tacoma. GEO Group, which owns and operates this private prison, has filed for injunctive relief against the City of Tacoma to prevent the city from releasing records in its possession. These records are part of a public disclosure request I submitted to better understand the operations of the facility and current efforts to expand its operations.
As advocates for Open Government and public disclosure, I thought
you might be interested in a development concerning the Northwest
Detention Center and the City of Tacoma. GEO Group, which owns and
operates this private prison, has filed for injunctive relief against
the City of Tacoma to prevent the city from releasing records in
its possession. These records are part of a public disclosure request I
submitted to better understand the operations of the facility and
current efforts to expand its operations.
GEO was notified when I sought their tax records. Apparently, the city
had to notify GEO that they were going to release them to me. Now the
city attorney has stopped the release of any further records until the
case is decided. I do not know any more about the hearing at this time.
GEO asserts that they "accidently" released other documents to the city
that they don't want released.
The city has released thousands of pages of documents to me in the
past. Because of protections provided under Department of Homeland
Security FOIA laws, private companies with federal contracts are
protected from general disclosure, however, according to the GEO
contract they must comply with all local and state law. This has
provided those concerned about all aspects of this business a great
deal of visibility into its operation and I would think that we must
fight to keep this window open.
What is clear from the documents most recently obtained, is that the
City of Tacoma still fails to understand what this entity is with many
believing it to be federal property and untouchable- with no means of
oversight or influence. They don't realize that it is just another
business - albeit with a unique product - and can be regulated like any
other. Tacoma has more regulations and rules for people operating a
go-cart track than they do for a private prison.
Release of these records is vital to maintaining the oversight each
citizen may exercise in the monitoring of our government.
An old Sumerian proverb goes: If a city has no watchdogs then the
fox is the overseer.
Tim Smith
Bill of Rights Defense Committee - Tacoma
UW Demonstration - Insist that NIKE contract conatin high labor standards!
Lawsuit settled
Mr. Smith,
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. I believe the email you have set forth below is consistent with our conversation of today's date. I am forwarding this e-mail on to Attorney Jean Homan with the City. As I indicated to you, GEO Corp makes no objection to disclosure of the tax returns and most of the other pages responsive to your initial request. Our objection is limited to the five pages we discussed and it is my understanding that the City will withhold those five pages and promptly produce the remaining documents. With your agreement that the five pages are properly withheld, GEO Corp will non-suit the court case as the issue is now moot and does not require court involvement. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
On Sep 30, 2008, at 2:04 PM, Timothy Smith wrote:
Joan,
I believe the redaction of five pages held by the City of Tacoma concerning man-hour calcualtions is proper and inkeeping with the intention of protecting proprietary GEO Group corporate information.
Tim Smith
Bill of Rights Defense Committee - Tacoma