Delegate Watkins Abbitt I-Appomattox

One of Watkins Abbitt’s contributors is Geo Corporation, a private prison construction company. I noticed this when I was looking through donation records for Abbitt in order to try and connect the donations to possible interests Abbitt protects in the House of Delegates.

Geo Group has donated money to him. One Thousand dollars. Now, we know part of the connection to the private prison industry. On January 23, 2009, Abbitt introduced HB2624, a measure which would allow training of private prison corrections personnel at Lynchburg Training Academy, as long as that training is paid for by the employer.

One curious thing about this bill though, is that it was rushed along with an emergency clause:

01/23/2009 Presented and ordered printed with emergency clause 095983400

I had never heard of this, so I went looking. An emergency clause mainly does two things, as far as I have found out about them. First, the bill requires an 80% majority vote in the House, and second, it would take effect upon the signature of the Governor.

Currently, HB 2624 is awaiting a vote in the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee.

If you are wondering how this bill and Geo Corp are connected, they aren’t entirely connected. If the company building and opening an immigrant prison in Farmville wasn’t doing it, Geo or one of the other private prison industry regulars would be. In fact, I have not been able to find out who the construction would be done by. Part of the problem is that Immigration Centers of America Farmville is actually owned by an LLC, just as the dump being built in Cumberland is owned by Cumberland County Development Corp LLC. With the legal shield of the LLC in their name, they could be owned partially by Geo, and we might not ever know.

Thanks, Watkins! I already didn’t like the idea of an immigrant prison in my area, or in any area really, and finding out that you are going to help make it possible for their employees to get training in this work at a publicly-owned facility strengthens my faith in you. I knew you could sneak around like a rat and do things on the sly, but you have become more adept at it over the years.

Oh, one more thing. GEO, of Coral Gables, FL, is represented in the Legislature by Watkins Abbitt’s niece, Anne Leigh Kerr of Troutman Saunders. It’s going to be a long hot summer on the political trail.