Rep. Allen’s Penal Envy:

May 15, 2003

The ‘Big House’
Hits the Statehouse
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”
--Chain-gang warden in Cool Hand Luke.

R

ep. Ray Allen likes to mix state business with
his private business.

The Houston Chronicle reported in 1995 that the
enterprising lawmaker started Grand Prairie’s
Academy for Firearms Training around the time that
he chaired two legislative panels that discharged bills
to let Texans carry concealed handguns—if they
receive handgun-safety training first.

Now the Chronicle and Texas Observer report that
Allen, who chairs the House Corrections Committee,
is riding herd on legislation to privatize more state
prison beds—even as he moonlights as a hired gun for
a trade group that represents two companies that run
many Texas prisons.
Prison labor
With his legislative chief of staff, Scott Gilmore, Allen
operates Service House, Inc. The sole lobby client that

this firm services is the National Correctional
Industries Association (NCIA), a trade group
promoting prison-labor programs. Its members include
the private prison companies Wackenhut and the
Corrections Corp. of America.
These same prison companies would appear to benefit
from bills that Allen authored to expand prison
privatization in Texas and to ease regulation of this
industry. Allen’s HB 1669, which would repeal a legal
cap on the number of state prison beds that can be
contracted out to private contractors.
To comply with state ethics laws, Gilmore told the
Observer that Service House just lobbies Congress and
officials in other states. Yet Allen’s privatization bill-which he failed to pass out of his own committee—
apparently needs a lot of local lobby muscle. Three
out-of-state prison firms are paying 16 lobbyists up to
$530,000 this year to lobby the state of Texas.

Texas Lock-Up Lobby
Max. Value Min. Value
No. of
Prison Company
of Contracts of Contracts Contracts
*Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) of TN
$260,000
$125,000
6
*Wackenhut Corrections Corp. (WCC) of FL
$210,000
$100,000
7
Correctional Services Corp. (CSC) of FL
$60,000
$20,000
3
TOTAL:
$530,000
$245,000
16

Working on the Prison Lobby Chain Gang
Other notable prison lobbyists include:
• Bill Messer, who was enlisted in Speaker Tom
Craddick’s transition team;
• “Pioneers” Andrea and Dean McWilliams, who
raised $100,000 for George W. Bush’s presidential
campaign; and
• Lara Laneri Keel, who married a cousin of House
Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Chair Terry
Keel.

Max. Value Min. Value
of Contract of Contract
$100,000
$50,000
$50,000
$25,000
$50,000
$25,000
$50,000
$25,000
$10,000
$0
$0
$0
$25,000
$10,000
$25,000
$10,000
$10,000
$0
$150,000
$100,000
$10,000
$0
$10,000
$0
$10,000
$0
$10,000
$0
$10,000
$0
$10,000
$0
$530,000
$245,000

Significantly, Rep. Keel is leery of expanding prison
privatization. In February, the Austin AmericanStatesman quoted him calling it “a dismal failure
here.” When Rep. Allen failed to pass his own
privatization bill out of his own committee on its
merits, the legislation resurfaced in the Republican
leadership’s massive government reorganization bill
(HB 2). That bill awaits a full House vote if and when
that divided chamber can muster a quorum.

Hoosegow who’s who
The hired guns working Texas’ prison lobby include
heavy hitters, led by W. James Jonas. Jonas’ Loeffler
Jonas & Tuggey, which hired two state lawmakers
who have been accused of illegally lobbying the Texas
Health Department to weaken regulations of
dangerous ephedrine diet products (see “Unsafe On
Any Speed,” Lobby Watch October 21, 2002). The
$3,000 Rep. Allen received from this firm made it his
No. 3 campaign donor in the 2002 election cycle.

In the 2002 election cycle current Texas officials
received $42,500 from the founder and a director of
Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America (CCA),
which is a member of the trade group that employs
Rep. Allen. Donor Thomas Beasley is CCA’s founder
and a former chair of the Tennessee Republican Party.
Donor Henri Wedell sits on CCA’s board and owns
more than $10 million in company stock. Apart from
the Republican leadership, most of these CCA donors’
favorite Texas politicos chair strategic committees.•

Lobbyist
Demetrius McDaniel
Lara Laneri Keel
Bill Messer
Ellen Williams
Helen Gonzalez
Laurie Shanblum
Andrea McWilliams
Dean R. McWilliams
Jim Terrell
W. James Jonas III
Allen Penn Beinke
Robert H. Finney
Lisa Mayes
Noe Rangel
Jonathan Snare
Murray Van Eman
TOTALS:

Client
CCA
CCA
CCA
CCA
CCA
CCA
CSC
CSC
CSC
WCC
WCC
WCC
WCC
WCC
WCC
WCC

Top Recipients of CCA Contributions
Recipient
Amount Notable Committees
Gov. Rick Perry
$10,000
Speaker Tom Craddick
$5,000
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
$5,000
A.G. Greg Abbott
$2,500
Rep. Ray Allen
$1,500 Corrections (Chair)
Rep. Talmadge Heflin
$1,500 Appropriations (Chair)
Rep. Mike Krusee
$1,500
Sen. Steve Ogden
$1,500 Criminal Justice
Sen. John Whitmire
$1,500 Criminal Justice (Chair)