Update: See also: Rick Scott Met by Protesters at GEO Group Fundraiser (Video)
Original post: Rick Scott is in Boca all day Monday, kicking off something called Jobs for the Next Generation tour. And while he's in town talking jobs and tax cuts, he'll also be attending a big-money gala in his honor hosted by the CEO of what many say is the worst private prison in the country.
George Zoley is the CEO of GEO Group, a famously notorious private prison that, among other things, has had federal inspectors discover too few guards on duty at one particular facility with reports of guards being stabbed, bitten, punched, and kicked by inmates and GEO doing very little about it. GEO also owns a facility in Broward that has been the site of a hunger-strike protest over poor treatment of immigrants who are held there.
GEO is also the same company that almost got to put its name on FAU's football stadium, which prompted students and media to nickname the field Owlcatraz.
See also: Vigil at GEO Group CEO's Boca Raton Home Tonight on Behalf of Immigrant Hunger Strikers
According to Mother Jones, the fundraiser will be held at Zoley's Boca home at $10,000 a pop, which also includes a general reception for another $3,000 per person.
The proceeds of the fundraiser will go to Scott's reelection campaign as well as to the Republican Party of Florida.
GEO Group is the second-largest private prison company in the U.S., and it has been peppered with protests and allegations over human rights violations.
The prison has been accused several times of targeting the poor and minorities.
Last year, members of Trans and Womyn's Action Camp chained themselves to the doors of the GEO Group corporate headquarters in Palm Beach in protest over what the group called GEO's "pivotal role in promoting discriminatory laws that target people of color, immigrants, youth, transgender individuals, and the poor."
In 2008, a man died in one of GEO's Texas facilities after allegedly not receiving medication for epilepsy and being put in an isolation cell. His death sparked a prison riot.
In 2013, an investigation was launched by Americans for Immigrant Justice over accusations of immigrant inmates being served rotten food and suffering from food poisoning at the Broward facility. There were also allegations of sexual assault among detainees and reports of several suicide attempts.
Earlier this year, New Times reported on GEO making $600,000 by taking kickbacks from phone companies that put lines into its facilities.
Zoley himself is no stranger to giving money to politicians, particularly to the GOP and Scott himself.
Last year, Zoley gave Scott $20,000 to renovate his mansion -- which didn't include the 80 grand of taxpayer money Scott used to fix up the mansion.
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