Wally Nunn: Promises versus reality
Four years ago, Delaware County’s Democratic leadership, cheered on by liberal advocacy groups like the Pennsylvania Prison Society, triumphantly wrested control of the George W. Hill Correctional Facility from the private GEO Group. The pitch was pure progressive gospel: Privatization was immoral because profits were being made off human suffering. County control would be more humane, more transparent, and—most importantly—cheaper for taxpayers.
Feasibility studies promised millions in annual savings. The Prison Society itself hailed the early results as a “major improvement.”
As Todd Shepherd reported last week, the February 5, 2026 memorandum on their November 13, 2025 walkthrough reads like an indictment.
According to the Prison Society’s own data, prisoners were better off under private management. In nearly every major category tracked since the county takeover, conditions were better in December 2022 (under GEO private operation) than in November 2025 (under full county control):
- Got out of cell every day: 78% → 44%
- Officers available at night: 61% → 12%
- Officers available on weekends: 55% → 16%
- Working payphones on the unit: 87% → 24%
- Able to make daily phone calls: 68% → 44%
- Successful family visits: 61% → 13%
- Witnessed assault by staff: 30% → 58%
Only commissary delivery improved. Almost everything else got significantly worse.
When the monitors arrived at the women’s unit, all five pods were locked down with zero officers present. One man stood in sewage and feces for twelve hours while staff laughed at his broken lock. Ninety-two percent say they don’t get enough food. Seventy-seven percent lack basic hygiene items. The women’s unit was freezing. Phones don’t work. Visits get canceled. Staff assaults are up.
Warden Willie Bonds’ March 2 response is bureaucratic boilerplate: Aramark’s 2,600-calorie meals (portions still too small), daily cleaning supplies (staff don’t distribute them), and a capital plan that ballooned from $28 million to $50 million. Same old excuses.
This is exactly what Todd Shepherd and I warned about for years here at Broad + Liberty. The county didn’t fix the problems — it replaced a profit motive with a political one. The result? The same failures, plus exploding costs and worsening outcomes.
Delaware County residents deserve better than ideological experiments sold as compassion. The Prison Society’s own numbers just proved the “I told you so.”
Wally Nunn is the former Chairman of Delaware County Council.
