Private Prison Company Buys Florida Atlantic University Stadium Name

by John Noonan  |  February 27, 2013

TALLAHASEE, Fla. -- GEO Group, the nation’s largest for-profit prison corporation, has decided to spruce up their image as a reckless and dangerous privateer by buying the naming rights to the new football stadium at Florida Atlantic University, a public university.

If GEO Group rings a bell it may be because they have a long and sordid history of unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane conditions at their facilities; especially those that house children. GEO Group is also one of the top funders of the Republican Party of Florida. The company has given the party more than $1.2 million dollars in the past two election cycles alone.

While millions of dollars to the right wing has allowed GEO to secure lucrative private prison contracts, it’s done little to stop the outcry from children’s, immigrants’ rights, and social justice advocates. On Tuesday, Florida Atlantic University students protested the company’s plans with a sit-in in university officials offices.

GEO Group claims the $6 million dollar naming rights deal is a “philanthropic” donation, but some criminal justice advocates are not convinced. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Bob Libal, a criminal justice advocate says, "The company is dependent on public dollars for all of its profits. When you look at other things that GEO gives to, it's generally in communities where they either have contracts or are seeking contracts, and certainly Florida is a state where GEO has tremendous interest."

In the same interview, Don Sexton, a professor of marketing at Columbia University's Business School and president of the Arrow Group, a marketing firm says, “"If it's pure philanthropy, you don't ask for your name to go on the stadium. The only reason you want your name on the stadium is because you want to get something back."

See what talk show host Stephen Colbert had to say on the story below: