The GEO Group, Inc. Message Board

Investing in this company is indicative of a
hellacious lack of humanity. It also looks like you'll lose
your ass.
From todays NYTimes:
T he Justice
Department filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Wackenhut
Corrections Corporation and the State of Louisiana charging
that conditions at a private for-profit juvenile
prison in central Louisiana
run by Wackenhut are
"dangerous and life threatening" and asking a federal judge
to
take emergency action to protect the inmates.


The lawsuit asked Judge Frank J. Polozola of
Federal District Court in Baton Rouge to intervene to
stop guards at the Wackenhut prison from beating the
young boys, throwing gas grenades into their
barracks,holding them for long periods in isolation and failing to
provide the inmates with adequate mental health care and
education.

David Utter, director of the Juvenile
Justice Project of Louisiana, a civil rights and advocacy
group that represents some of the inmates, said the
Justice Department action was highly unusual because it
was done in the form of a request for a preliminary
injunction for emergency relief, rather than as a regular
lawsuit.
"It is an extraordinary remedy for a
horrendous situation," Mr. Utter said.
A group of
experts hired by the Justice Department who toured the
prison, at Jena, reported that many of the 276 boys
incarcerated there had no shoes or blankets and were
constantly short of food. The experts also
reported that
many boys had tried to commit suicide or had
deliberately injured themselves to get into the infirmary as a
way to escape physical abuse by the guards.


A New Orleans juvenile court judge, Mark Doherty,
found conditions at Jena so bad he released six boys he
had sent there after visiting the prison earlier this
month. Judge Doherty, a Republican and former
prosecutor, said Wackenhut had treated the boys no better
than animals "on all fours."

In response to
the Justice Department lawsuit, Wackenhut released a
written statement saying that the company "is providing a
constitutionally sound, safe and secure facility" and that it is
"working hard to continuously improve the operations
through additional support from our corporate and
regional staff."

In addition, Wackenhut said it
believed the Justice Department experts had been misled by
"exaggerations and misstatements of facts" by inmates they had
interviewed, and that the experts' findings "do not accurately
reflect the condition of the facility today."


Richard Stalder, the secretary of the Louisiana
Department of Public Safety and Corrections was said to be
out of town and other officials in his office did not
return calls seeking comment.

Wackenhut, based
in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is the second largest
private prison company in the United States and the
largest internationally. It operates 39,308 beds in 56
institutions in 13 states and 7 foreign countries, and its
shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange.


Justice Department officials have privately expressed
both bafflement and anger at the conditions in Jena,
since the Justice Department had reached an agreement
with Wackenhut just before the prison opened
in
December 1998 laying down guidelines for how the prison
would be run.

Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant
attorney general for civil rights, said "We are taking
this action on behalf of young people in this facility
who cannot help or protect
themselves." Mr. Lee
added, "It is clear that, at this time, we need to
involve the court to get some emergency relief."

I am long on this stock but watching it's slow
slow crawl back up is so painful. I'm at least
consoled by the fact it is such a good stock. Good
earnings/revenue/growth. If I had this much invested in AMZN I don't think
I good sleep as well.

Does anyone here have
any thoughts on if the presidential election is a
factor on this stock? Are investors holding back to see
if Gore/Bush make any changes in policy?


Hang on....

Though I agree with your post, I too have held
this since before the $45 split. I have continued to
average down, but at times you need to withdraw the
emotion, and realize I can make more in a money market.
Who knows, you may have gotten in at the right time,
but for people who have owned this for 4-5 years,
it's like watching an alzheimers patient die a slow
death; you just wait for the day when it's
over.

I have sold have of my postion for some losses, and
pray I can just get even on the rest. If I didn't hold
a shimmer of hope that this will someday be
recognized by the street, and the price will rise, I would
have sold it all. Manboking is the most optimistic,
and long term, but I believ he would echo my
sentiments.

Easily Confused

<EOM>

Thanks for the info. Sounds like you do your homework well. When I get a few minutes I'll try some of the sites and tips you shared with everybody.

Thanks again!

Hi PBC!

My two favorite free stock
screeners are those provided by Kiplinger and Quicken. I'll
give the websites at the end of this
message.

Occasionally, I like to check on certain kinds of extreme
stocks. On the day that I discovered WHC, I decided that
I would research stocks which had ZERO long-term
debt (a special and rather rare condition!), as well
as very strong, consistent earnings growth. Using
the Kiplinger screener, I set the following
parameters: Earnings Growth Past 5 Yrs: greater than 40%;
Projected 3-5 yr Earnings Growth: greater than 20%; Long
Term Debt to Equity equal to ZERO!; a PEG ratio of
less than 0.75. And I believe only three stocks in the
vast world of available issues met these very unusual
criteria!! Of course, one must always be wary of future
earnings projections! One must carefully examine past
earnings to see if they are quite stable! Also, perhaps
you are familiar with the widely used "PEG Ratio":
Price to Earnings to Growth. Most analysts will
generate a PEG based on several past quarters of earnings
and the present share price. A PEG ratio of under 1
suggests (if other conditions are met) that the stock is
undervalued. But be forewarned!! The Kiplinger screen uses a
"forward-looking PEG" that is not based on PAST earnings, but on
FUTURE estimates!! Even so, if earnings are fairly
stable, this kind of PEG can be useful. WHC's
forward-looking PEG of about 0.6 suggests that it is
significantly undervalued, especially in light of its
incredibly healthy, no-debt balance sheet!! I did a bit more
research on WHC, but really less than I'd like to -- the
numbers were so unusually good that I decided to pick up
a moderately-sized bushel-o-shares!
Hope you
find this helpful! Here are the relevant links:
Kiplinger's Nifty Stock Screener (scroll down the page to see
it): http://www.kiplinger.com/russell/r3k-search.php3
Quicken's Equally Nifty Screener:
http://www.quicken.com/investments/stocks/search/?page=Full Once you've screened you stocks, be sure to check
them out at Marketguide, and OUTSTANDING free research
site!! Compare them with other stocks in their industry
and sector, as well as the S&P 500:
http://yahoo.marketguide.com/mgi/ratio/A0A2B.html If you investigate this excellent site thoroughly
(and work thru its handy tutorials!) you will be well
rewarded for your efforts!!

Did anyone have confirmation of the article that
projected 25% per annum growth in the private corrections
industry? Despite our exceptional growth I would like to
see some more evidence regarding the overall trend.
Thanks

Did anyone check out crdt? That stock took a
serious hit the other day, but it has explosive growth
and is highly profitable. Any suggestions on where to
find info. the message board there is filled with
shorts so its difficult to get a rational picture. As
for WHC, $18 is a very reasonable projection, I would
expect longterm growth that won't stop there. Obviously,
anything outside of tech, is currently fighting the
market. Banks in Canada though have already put strict
standards on margins invested in techs. Other lending
institutions may not be far behind in trying to protect
themselves and their investors from this vulnerable
position. This pressure bodes well for sound value based
investment, if not for the market.

It's very easy to sell too soon.

I saw your earlier post where you mentioned you
use a tight search. Your latest post got me thinking
about it again. It sounds as though it's good for
bargin hunting.

Could you share your search
parameters with us? I am always interested in hearing about
a better mousetrap that someone has
devised.

Thanks.