In the aftermath of the New Castle prison riot -- the moment in which Governor Daniels' privatized prison hopes and dreams became a nightmare -- there was a common thread of defense for the Governor's policies by referencing that "these things happen all the time." Well, it appears that if the "things" they were referring to are riots in facilities run by the GEO Group, then they were spot-on. From the The Southern Illinoisian:

A weekend riot involving one-fifth of Tri-County Justice and Detention Center's inmates may have been contained in less than an hour, but the incident is not over as far as area law enforcement officials are concerned.

The Pulaski County Sheriff's Department, along with the Illinois State Police, is conducting an investigation into the incident, which began on Friday evening when 46 inmates at the Ullin facility barricaded themselves in a room and began setting fire to mattresses and books.

"We're investigating why it happened, how it happened and we're going to get down to who needs to be charged," Sheriff Randy Kern said.

Kern said there is a strong possibility that criminal charges will come out of the incident.

Pulaski County owns the Tri-County building, and the jail's management is contracted to the GEO Group headquartered in Florida. Kern also serves as warden for the 226-bed facility.

And in case you needed another affirmation that the GEO Group is bad at what they do...

Even so, Ken Kopczynski of the Private Corrections Institute said the incident is further evidence supporting his organization's mission. The Private Corrections Institute advocates abolishing for-profit prisons throughout the country.

"If you get over the moral issue of incarcerating people for profit, I think you can see they don't do a good job," Kopczynski said.

He added that the percentage of incidents in private prisons is higher than in state- and federally-operated prisons.

"If you take the GEO Group as a whole and look at their incidents, riots and escapes and compare to a comparable facility in the state of Florida Department of Corrections, it's higher in terms of their escape and abuse," Kopczynski said. "Public facilities have the same problems, but the percentage of what they have is not as bad."

Expect to hear a resounding "no comment" from the Governor's office on this, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the eventual report on the Illinois incident echo the New Castle report's findings that the facility was understaffed and under-managed.

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