PAUL SCHRAG: GEO GROUP FILES TO BLOCK PUBLIC INFO REQUEST >>>

The operator of the Northwest Detention Center, a private prison for immigrants on the Tacoma tide flats, is suing the City of Tacoma to block the release of documents set to be issued under a public information request. Fircrest-based attorney Joan Mell filed a petition in Pierce County Superior Court on behalf of her client, Texas-based GEO Group Inc., to block the release of building plans, structural data and other documents that GEO Group contends are exempt under federal laws. Among documents of concern are air systems analysis reports, demolition plans, supplemental storm water plans and detailed architectural drawings. Court documents indicate that GEO officials are concerned that these plans could be used to sabotage the facility, and that many of the documents fall under protection of federal law because they contain so-called trade secrets. At issue, in particular, are plans for a proposed expansion of the Northwest Detention Center, which human rights advocate Timothy Smith has opposed since it was announced last year. Smith made the public information request.

“The expansion project includes additional administrative offices, housing units for detainees, transportation facilities and an armory,” writes George Wigen, Northwest Detention Center warden in a statement filed in support of the petition. “Information regarding the structural integrity of doors, windows, escape routes, the location and workings of the HVAC, electrical, communications, fire, phone and other systems are contained in the materials requested. There is data to identify vulnerable staff locations and security integrity, the number of staff and where they are located.”

All of those things add up to one thing â€" security risk.

“The risks of concern are from within and out the facility,” Wigen writes. Wigen also adds that company competitors could use the GEO Group’s planning documents to design similar facilities, thereby avoiding design and development costs, providing GEO Group’s competitors with an unfair advantage.

GEO Group officials spent hours looking over documents collected by city staff, and asked the city to withhold documents of concern. City officials responded that it would take a court petition to stop the information from being issued as requested. Predictably, a petition was filed in Pierce County Superior Court. The petition contends that releasing site plans would increase the likelihood of escape attempts and make power and phone lines vulnerable, and would disclose “trade secrets” that would hurt GEO Group’s business operations. The petition notes that courts are allowed to block requests for public documents if “examination of records would clearly not be in the public interest and would substantially and irreparably damage any person or vital government function.”

Requestor Timothy Smith finds it ironic that GEO Group is making such a big deal of the request, considering that many of the documents in question already have been provided by state agencies. He made the sweeping request for all public documents related to the detention center expansion to compare notes, and would use them to bolster ongoing opposition to expansion of the facility, which has come under fire for human rights abuses occurring within its walls. Smith says he was told by city officials that the documents are appropriate to release, and that GEO Group’s claims are not likely to stand in court.

“We’re just trying to figure out how many people they plan to put in there,” he says. “We have every right to see those documents.”

PREVIOUSLY IN THE WEEKLY VOLCANO

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