Anonymous Hacks Private Prison Company Website

A protester wearing an Anonymous Guy Fawkes mask takes part in a demonstration against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement as part of an international day of action against the increasingly-contested anti-piracy accord.

After high-profile takeovers of recording industry and Justice Department websites last month, hackers affiliated with the Anonymous movement had a new target Friday: the for-profit prison industry.

Hackers defaced the website for the Florida-based GEO Group, the nation's second-largest operator of private prisons, calling the attack "part of our ongoing efforts to dismantle the prison industrial complex."

The domain www.geogroup.com was replaced Friday morning with a black screen headlined by the symbol "#antisec," a term for the Anti-Security Movement, which is affiliated with the online coalition known as Anonymous.

The hacked site also featured a photo of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther whose death sentence for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer has since been converted to life imprisonment. Abu-Jamal's case has received international attention from opponents of the death penalty.

"While most folks are suffering under the economy, many billions of dollars are being funneled into this sinister conniving alliance of capitalist and statist forces," stated a message on the hacked site. "What they did not figure into their plans was a determined effort to shut them down."

As of early Friday evening, the company had removed the messages, but the website was still down. A blue screen told viewers "This domain is under construction and will be available soon." A spokesman for the GEO Group did not return an email seeking comment.

Private prison corporations, which profit through contracts to build and manage prisons for state and federal government customers, have been criticized by civil rights groups and public employee unions. More recently, companies such as the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America have been targets of the Occupy movement, which has ties to Anonymous.

Protesters throughout the country declared a "national occupy day in support of prisoners" last Monday. The #occupywallstreet tag also was listed at the top of the defaced GEO Group site on Friday.

Anonymous did not list the GEO Group attack on its website Friday, but a post from one of the group's Twitter handles stated, "GEO GROUP ROOTED. NO MORE STATE CONNIVANCE FOR PRISONS BUSINESS."

Both the GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp.) and Corrections Corporation of America have rapidly grown over the past few decades -- first during the expansion of state prison systems at the height of the "war on drugs," and more recently as the federal government has embarked on an unprecedented push to lock up undocumented immigrants.

The companies have been major donors to federal and state political campaigns. Executives from the GEO Group and its affiliates donated more than $800,000 to campaigns in Florida alone during the 2010 election cycle, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Republican lawmakers in Florida earlier this year pushed legislation that would have led to the largest expansion of private prisons in the nation. The GEO Group was actively pursuing the opportunity in Florida until the legislation was rejected by the Senate last week.

HuffPost's Gerry Smith contributed to this article.

 

Comments

[forestnfama]

01:39 PM on 03/10/2012

The incarceration industrial complex.....the benefactors of the war on drugs.

[forestnfama]

01:30 PM on 03/10/2012

Private prisons are repugnant and a massive sign that the government of the United States is not capable of governing its people.......fascism at its finest

[Thomas VonBerge]

06:22 AM on 03/10/2012

Well I'd be okay with for profit prisons if us taxpayers were the ones getting the profit. The risk though with these private ones is are they making their profit off of some inmates who might not be criminals?

[Mikesfreedomblog]

10:25 AM on 03/01/2012

Private prisons are dangerous and unconstitutional. End the bogus war on drugs and close all of the crapholes up for good.

[TiredOfOC]

02:26 PM on 02/28/2012

Hackers should know that there is always someone smarter coming down the road. They will be traced and they will be caught. That is justice. Now, depending on what country they work from and whose accounts they are hacking will depend on where they will spend the next 20-30 years.

[Ganji]

11:23 PM on 03/09/2012

It's people like you who are the problem..so you don't think there is ANY ethical issues with private for-profit prisons?? Do you think it rational to lock someone up for 20-30 years for hacking a WEBSITE??? STALIN and HITLER would have loved you

[forestnfama]

01:34 PM on 03/10/2012

These hackers have far more credibility than you.....you being a servant of ignorance and intolerance.

[TiredOfOC]

08:32 PM on 02/27/2012

It is time that these Occupiers are held accountable for their crimes. The mob mentality has become organized crime...

[Gurinder Dhillon]

04:47 PM on 02/27/2012

The reason big corporations love the privatization of the prison system is because they realize that its recession proof and if they can use their corrupting campaign contributions to make lawmakers change drug laws to make sentences a lot tougher and longer they just make a fortune. The taxpayer is bamboozled into thinking that the lawmaker passed good legislation to keep hardened drug dealers off the street but really all that happened was that lawmakers made it impossible for people arrested on a drug use charge to get out of the system and become another taxpayer billable state convict, and its a lucrative business. The Corrections Corporation of America has become the single largest private prison contractor by subverting drug laws to lock away marijuana users for a longer duration, because in the private prison industry time really is money.

[az10]

08:23 PM on 02/27/2012

Did you hear about the judge that locked up a child for over a year because of a schoolyard fight? She became a self mutilator and had to get mental help. Her parents helped expose this creep. He was getting millions from these contractors to do this over and over again to kids. If you ever wonder "Why is this happening?" Follow the $$$$

[thefreetradejoke]

02:55 PM on 02/27/2012

Oooh, do Federal Prison Industries/Unicor next!

[cats530]

01:34 PM on 02/27/2012

Good. Shine some light on the cockroaches & watch them scatter. Go Anon!

[ringo3khan]

12:41 PM on 02/27/2012

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[sheeplookup]

05:49 PM on 02/26/2012

I think eventually this system may change as we see more Congressmen do time, but wait a minute... they go to those special prisons with tennis courts, so maybe not.

[ProgressivesWin]

03:55 PM on 02/26/2012

GET PRIVATE PRISONS OUT OF OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM NOW!!!

[Rob Huggins]

03:47 PM on 02/26/2012

A private corporation should never be allowed to do any part of the justice system including prisons, any military actions, or any intelligence actions. These are all areas that have a crucial need for the citizens subject to them needing to at least have a say in who runs them. Citizens have no say over private companies, yet we have more and more private companies doing all three of these activities with the government doing less and less. Our freedom depends on these corporations being eradicated.

[tbishop930]

12:48 PM on 02/26/2012

Having personally experience BOTH state and private systems I can tell you Private Corporations FAIL miserably. Little food, Nonexsistant Medical and dental help. Being able to talk to your family is UNAFFORDABLE for most. Cruel and unusualy evil staff is the norm. Accountability is NON-EXISTANT. This is NOT the America I believe in. Go look up Wackenhut Corrections Corporations record.

[itruth]

12:12 PM on 02/26/2012

The Judge proves this is a very bad idea.If this becomes our way to the future,then our future is indeed bleak.