'Alibi for everything': S.F. halfway house operator GEO Group gives few answers at hearing

"In a three-hour hearing to investigate allegations of neglect, abuse, and squalid living conditions at a San Francisco halfway house, GEO Group, the for-profit prison operator of the site, largely denied and skirted the allegations. The Board of Supervisors hearing was a response to those allegations and the death of 44-year-old Melvin Bulauan, who died outside the facility at 111 Taylor St. in the middle of what his family called a mental health crisis, as first reported by Mission Local in July."

"The evening before his death, Bulauan had called his children, who drove to San Francisco to help him and said they tried calling the GEO Group facility repeatedly. Staff hung up on them, they said, and even told them their father wasn't a resident there. The GEO Group, which invests in and operates private prisons, immigration detention and residential treatment facilities, faced a laundry list of allegations about the Taylor Street location today: rodents, maggoty food, residents living 14 crammed to a room, and forced unpaid labor."

"Residents also alleged that staff confiscated their phones after the site came under scrutiny during a Board of Appeals hearing in July. Facility director Maria Richard and her colleague Mollyrose Graves denied them all. "I have a very open door policy, so if someone has an issue they can come and talk to me," said Richard. Residents, she said, only perform 'chores' to clean their own areas and bathrooms."

A three-hour Board of Supervisors hearing investigated allegations of neglect, abuse, and squalid conditions at GEO Group's Taylor Street halfway house in San Francisco. The hearing followed multiple complaints and the death of 44-year-old Melvin Bulauan, who died outside the facility during what his family described as a mental health crisis. Family members reported repeated unanswered calls to the facility and said staff hung up and denied his residency. Residents reported rodents, maggoty food, extreme overcrowding, forced unpaid labor, and phone confiscations. GEO Group representatives denied the allegations, described resident work as chores, and asserted an open-door policy. The facility contracts with state and federal agencies and houses varied custody levels; Bulauan's mother spoke at the hearing, visibly distraught.

Read at Mission Local