Private contractor offers to end running Delco prison

The Florida-based company that runs the controversial George W. Hill Correctional Facility on Tuesday submitted a request to Delaware County officials to terminate its contract to operate Pennsylvania’s only privatized county prison by the end of the year.

The GEO Group Inc. suggested Dec. 31 as the hand-over date for its five-year, $259 million contract, at which point the county would resume operation of the 1,900-bed facility in Thornton, the company said in a statement. The contract was signed in December 2018.

GEO made its request at a meeting Tuesday of the Delaware County Jail Oversight Board.

In February, the Delaware County Council took its own preliminary step toward ending the contract, voting to commission a study on what was needed to transition it back to a publicly run prison, so GEO’s move falls in line with where the five-member, all-Democrat council has been heading.

It was unclear late Tuesday whether the county had retained a firm to begin that study.

“We truly appreciate GEO’s willingness to cooperate with the county toward a safe and smooth transition back to government management,” County Councilman Kevin Madden, the head of the Jail Oversight Board, said Wednesday. “While no date has been determined for the transition, and GEO expressed flexibility on the timeframe, we agree with their desire for a clear handoff date. Once the transition plan has been completed, we will make that timing publicly known.“

A spokesperson for GEO said in a statement that the company will work with county officials during the transition.

“After two decades of operating the George W. Hill facility as a public private partnership, we recognize the council’s desire to transition to government operation," GEO said in its statement. "We will work together with the county to prepare and achieve an orderly transition of facility services. By selecting a date certain of December 31, 2020 for the county to assume operational control, we can ensure a safe and effective transition that is in the best interests of the staff and individuals housed at the facility.”

The prison was opened in 1998 by the then-Republican County Council as a privatized facility run by Wackenhut Corrections Corp., which later became GEO.

Democrats long opposed to prison privatization took control of the council last year.

“We continue to have the ignominious status of having the only private prison in Pennsylvania,” Madden said at a county council meeting last month.

“The idea of any organization viewing maintaining people incarcerated as being a source of recurring revenue, that doesn’t work. That doesn’t work for what our interests are, which is to rehabilitate folks and to work as a community to get people back on their feet,” Madden said.

GEO says it has done a good job running the prison safely, but the company faced mounting criticism last year.

On Christmas Day, an inmate hanged himself and five female inmates overdosed on heroin.

In November, the longtime superintendent, John Reilly Jr., retired a day after an investigation by The Inquirer and Caucus detailed previously undocumented accusations of what current and former prison workers described as abusive and racist behavior. Reilly has denied the allegations.

GEO has operated the George W. Hill Correctional Facility for more than 20 years, and has weathered multiple controversies in the last few months amid increased opposition from residents and elected officials.

GEO is currently about halfway through its contract with Delaware County. That contract gives the company license to terminate the agreement at its discretion.

This story has been updated to correct the length of time GEO has run the prison and the terms of its current contract with Delaware County.