Queens private jail with $528 million contract insulated from Biden order
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A GEO Group guard. Photo by Seth Wenig/AP
By David Brand
A private jail in Queens under state investigation for its COVID-19 failures can continue detaining federal defendants for eight more years, despite President Biden’s new executive order phasing out private jail contracts.
Biden’s order directs the Department of Justice not to renew contracts with private jails and prisons. But the 222-bed Queens Detention Facility in Springfield Gardens — New York City’s lone private jail — has a contract that lasts until March 31, 2029.
That date falls after Biden’s potential second-term would end, putting the executive order in jeopardy. A Republican would likely reverse the order if elected in 2024 or 2028.
The DOJ has long contracted with the private prison corporation GEO Group to operate the Queens Detention Facility in a warehouse near JFK Airport. The latest contract, signed in April 2019, is worth a potential $528.3 million, according to the contract.
The jail houses cooperating witnesses who are awaiting their own trials and sentencing in federal court. The U.S. Marshals Service hands over responsibility to GEO Group.
The facility was the site of a major COVID-19 outbreak among inmates and staff that was first reported by the Eagle in April. Extensive coverage from the Eagle and the Daily News spurred an investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James, who sued GEO Group in federal court in December to obtain records related to their pandemic response at the Queens jail.
The Eagle first reported on conditions inside the jail’s open dormitories after inmates and their loved ones called to describe COVID-sick detainees sharing bunk beds and dorms with non-symptomatic inmates.
Staff and inmates did not have personal protective equipment, they said, and a number of guards called out sick, forcing one officer to patrol multiple units at a time.
“Everyone’s coughing, sneezing on top of each other,” said one inmate on April 3. “We’re not practicing social distancing because you cannot do social distancing in this jail because everyone is so on top of each other.”
GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
