By Dave Hawkins | Special to the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Executives with the Florida-based company that has taken over operation of the state prison in Golden Valley are promising to lead the embattled penitentiary in a new direction.
James Black, western region vice president for the GEO Group, told the Mohave County Board of Supervisors at a Dec. 21 meeting that the company wants to “erase the negative stigma” that hung over the prison during its operation by the Utah-based Management & Training Corp.
The Arizona Corrections Department transferred operations to GEO in early December. Inmate riots in July caused more than $2 million in damage to the prison and more than a dozen staff members and inmates were injured. It was the latest headline-grabbing incident at the prison from which three inmates escaped in 2010, leading to the slayings of an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico.
