PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Two families are seeking justice, as they prepare for their first holiday season without their loved ones.
They're suing an international corporation, which is based in Boca Raton and operates prisons across the United States.
Allec Garcia, 34, died in July. His mother said she didn't find out until two days after his death.
"They called me on the fifth and [said] he had died on the third," Clara Garcia said Tuesday. "I had no knowledge that my son had been dead for almost three days."
Antron Griffin, 31, died in March. Like the Garcias, his family knows nothing of the circumstances leading to his death.
According to Kimberly Wald, an attorney representing the Garcias and the Griffins, both bodies had stab wounds.
Garcia and Griffin were both inmates at the South Bay Correctional Facility when they died.
They were serving sentences for assault charges. Neither had been sentenced to death.
"My brother was a loving person, regardless of what he did to get where he was," said Griffin's sister, Andrea.
"He was a wonderful son," said Clara Garcia. "He was a wonderful person. He had issues, but we were his family."
Now, their families are demanding answers and accountability from The GEO Group, the company that operates South Bay under a contract with the Florida Department of Corrections, worth more than $550 billion.
"The two situations are unfortunately very similar. They both were stabbed. We know that they both were being threatened, and we know that The GEO Group and the prison staff did nothing to save these two men's lives," said Kimberly Wald, the attorney who filed two wrongful death lawsuits against The GEO Group; one on behalf of each family.
The complaints reference a dozen other deaths that were not the result of natural causes, along with several serious injuries that occurred inside South Bay since 2016. Wald said it demonstrates a pattern for the company, which operates four correctional facilities in Florida and dozens more across the U.S, according to its website.
"Staff are underpaid and under-trained, and it leads to its situations just like this: murders and homicides that really should have been prevented," Wald said.
A search of public records reveals The GEO Group has paid more than $12 million in fines and settlements since 2000. More than $4.8 million of those payments were for wage and hour violations, the records show.
A spokesman for The GEO Group declined an interview, but said in a written statement that Garcia and Griffin's deaths under investigation.
Their families say they've been left in the dark.
"We will not stop fighting until we have the truth," said Garcia's brother, Alfredo Garcia.
"Our family will not tolerate this injustice, and we will not give up until we get justice," Andrea Griffin said.
"As a service provider to the Florida Department of Corrections, GEO is committed to the safety, security and well-being of those entrusted to our care," the company's statement said. "GEO is fully cooperating with the appropriate law enforcement officials who are reviewing these cases."
The manners of death for Garcia and Griffin are listed as "pending" with the Department of Corrections, which WPTV identified through the date and facility listed with entries that do not include the inmates' names.
The GEO Group's contract with the state is set to expire at the end of 2024.
WPTV reached out to the Florida Department of Corrections and is still waiting for a response.
