G4S PLC

Through its subsidiary G4S Secure Solutions, G4S has multiple significant and long term contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, specifically Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Between 2008 and 2019, the company’s contracts with CBP and ICE amounted to $894.8 million, for operations in Florida, California, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. G4S was highlighted as one of the fourteen main border security companies in a 2019 report by the Transnational Institute and No Mas Muertes.

Since 2006, G4S has transported detained immigrants for CBP. As part of its contract, the company provides guarded transportation services of detainees from the U.S.-Mexico border to detention facilities throughout the U.S., including temporary detention of immigrants in transport or those awaiting processing and the deportation of immigrants across the U.S.- Mexico border. Transporting detained immigrants may take several days and nights and includes the forceful detention and coerced deportation of vulnerable people, with many opportunities for neglect and abuse. A company’s old promotional brochure is telling: “The Bus No One Wants to Catch – The End of the Road for Illegal Immigrants.”

The company similarly holds detainee transportation contracts with three ICE offices, covering operations in Northern and Central California and in Arizona.  Four women who were transported between facilities in California in 2017 have sued G4S for abusive, inhumane, and unsafe treatment during their transport. What should have been a 5-hour drive took over 24 hours in a windowless van without access to food, water, restrooms, or medication. The women were kept shackled in extremely hot conditions with no air circulation, which caused them to vomit, faint, and suffer other heatstroke symptoms so bad they thought they would die. This is one of many lawsuits against G4S involving inhumane transport of detained people.

Until 2017, G4S was one of the main companies involved in youth detention in the United States. See more details below.

In the United Kingdom, G4S operates four prisons with a total capacity of 5,118 people, as of July 2019: HMP Altcourse, Oakwood, Parc, and Rey Hill. The Parc prison includes a “Young Persons Unit” that holds up to 64 youth ages 15-18. Until 2020, G4S also operated the two immigration jails near Gatwick Airport, the Brook House and Tinsley Immigration Removal Centres. After severe abuses were uncovered at Brook House, G4S left the U.K. immigration detention sector in May 2020, and that contract was awarded to Serco.

Between 2011 and 2018, G4S also operated the Birmingham prison. The initial contract was for fifteen years, but the British government took control of the prison mid-contract after multiple deaths and drug incidents. In addition, between 1998 and 2016, G4S operated the Medway Secure Training Centre, a jail for youth ages 12 to 14. The government assumed management of the jail after G4S was accused of physical and emotional abuse of several teenagers.

In South Africa, G4S owns and operates the second-largest private prison in the world, Mangaung Correctional Centre, a maximum-security facility in Bloemfontein that can hold 3,000 people. The company faces ongoing complaints of systemic torture by the prison guards. In 2013, the South African government took over the prison after a series of prison riots. Subsequent investigations revealed that G4S staff uses electric shocks and forcible antipsychotic drug injections. Despite that, the government returned the prison to G4S management in 2014. In 2015, 43 people incarcerated at Mangaung sued the company for torture after revelations of a cover-up of several prisoner deaths.

In Australia, G4S operates two prisons: Mount Gambier Prison in South Australia and Port Phillip Prison in Victoria. The company also provides security services for the Long Bay Prison and Forensic Hospital in NSW as well as the Parkville and Malmsbury “Youth Justice Centres” in Victoria. Between 2013 and 2014, G4S operated Australia’s offshore immigration jail on Manus Island. That contract was terminated after the death of an asylum seeker and the injury of dozens of others at the hands of a G4S guard. The guard was convicted of murder and the company faced multiple lawsuits in relation to violations that happened during its year of operation.

G4S used to claim to be “the world’s largest provider of electronic monitoring services, monitoring the movements of 35,000” people in 20 countries. While no longer one of the largest electronic monitoring companies, and not part of the U.S. e-carceration industry, G4S still provides these services to government agencies in Australia, El Salvador, France, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In 2017, the company reported it was providing “electronic monitoring equipment to justice departments in around 20 countries across the world.” G4S stopped reporting on its electronic monitoring business in subsequent annual reports.

Until 2012, G4S was one of the main providers of electronic monitoring to government agencies in the U.S. through its subsidiary G4S Justice Services. The company had contracts with Departments of Corrections or other state agencies of California, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington; the Sheriff’s Departments or other county agencies of Alameda California, Crescent City California, El Dorado California, Hanover Virginia, Harris Texas, Linn Oregon, Miami Dade Florida, San Francisco California, Santa Fe New Mexico, Sheridan Wyoming, Solano California, Todd Kentucky, Ventura California, and Wyandotte Kansas; the Police Departments of Kansas City and Joplin, Missouri, and the 12th  District Court of Missouri; and many others. In 2012, G4S sold G4S Justice Services to Sentinel Offender Services, a U.S.-based e-carceration and “community corrections” company.

G4S’ largest electronic monitoring contracts have been in the U.K., accounting for more than a third of its global monitored population in 2009. In 2013, the company was found to be defrauding the U.K. government, charging it for monitoring dead people, people who were in prison, or people who had left the U.K. In 2014, the company repaid the government more than $181 million. Despite that, the U.K. Ministry of Justice awarded G4S another electronic monitoring contract in 2017. As of 2019, the company’s misconduct was still under investigation by the U.K. Serious Fraud Office.

G4S is involved in the operations of the Israeli National Police Academy, which consolidated all of Israel's police training facilities and trains all units of the Israeli Police, as well as other security forces and private security companies. The Israeli Police is in charge of enforcing Israel’s military law in the occupied West Bank and providing security for Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements. In addition, the Border Police branch is regularly deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories, where it is under military command.

The National Police Academy is owned and operated by Policity, a consortium of companies that was created for the purpose of this project. Policity is owned by Israeli infrastructure company Shikun & Binui (50 percent), Israeli security company G1 Secure Solutions (25 percent), and G4S (25 percent). Policity formed in 2010 as a joint venture between G4S and Shikun & Binui for the purpose of bidding on the National Police Academy. The facility opened in 2015, with G4S and Shikun & Binui each owning a 50 percent stake. In 2017, after G4S sold its Israeli subsidiary (see below), its stake in Policity was reduced to 25 percent. Policity has the contract to operate the Academy at least until 2035.

Until 2017, G4S was deeply involved in several projects of the Israeli occupation of Palestine through its Israeli subsidiary, G4S Israel (formerly Hashmira, now G1 Secure Solutions). The company was one of the major providers of security systems and services to all branches of the Israeli government, including military bases as well as facilities and equipment of the Israeli security and finance industries. Its security patrol units, the company boasted, were manned by "warriors who graduated elite combat units in the Israeli army." G4S and 3M together supplied all electronic monitoring systems to prisoners in Israel.

In 2016, following an international campaign, G4S plc announced it would sell G4S Israel to FIMI Opportunity Funds for $110 Million. In 2017, the acquisition was complete and the company in Israel was rebranded as G1 Secure Solutions. The activities described below can not be attributed to the multinational G4S plc.

G4S Israel has provided equipment for Israeli-run checkpoints and terminals in the West Bank and Gaza, including luggage scanning machines and full body scanners by Rapiscan and L-3's Safeview to the Erez checkpoint in Gaza and to the Qalandia, Bethlehem and Irtah (Sha’ar Efraim) checkpoints in the West Bank. These military checkpoints are part of the Israeli separation barrier which controls the movement of Palestinian civilian residents. This project is strictly illegal under international law according to a 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice.

Prisons for Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel

G4S Israel installed and operates the entire security system of the Ketziot Prison, the central control room of the Megiddo Prison and security services to Damon prison. The Ketziot, Megido, and Damon Prisons, located inside Israel, are incarceration facilities designated specifically for Palestinian political prisoners. In addition, G4S Israel provides the entire security systems and the central control room in Hasharon compound - Rimonim prison, which includes a wing for Palestinian political prisoners.

G4S Israel clearly indicates in its website that it operates in prisons which hold "security prisoners", that is Palestinian political prisoners. Ketziot prison is the biggest incarceration facility in Israel with 2,200 Palestinian political prisoners, Megiddo prison holds over 1,200 Palestinian political and Damon prison over 500 Palestinian political prisoners from the occupied West Bank. Some of these prisoners have not been charged and some are administrative detainees, held without charge. As of April 2015, Israel was holding 414 Palestinians in administrative detention, more than double the number held at the same time on the previous year.

The company also provided security systems for the Kishon ("Al-Jalameh") and Jerusalem ("Russian Compound") detention and interrogation facilities. Human rights organizations have collected evidence showing that Palestinian prisoners are regularly subjected to torture in these facilities.

The placement of prisons for Palestinian prisoners inside Israel and the transfer of prisoners to the occupying power’s territory is a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Convention’s Article 76 states: “Protected persons accused of offenses shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein”. When Palestinian prisoners are moved to prisons in Israel, it becomes almost impossible for them to have family visits or meet with their lawyers. Prisoners with families on the Gaza Strip have not been able to have visits from family members since 2007. Reports show that Palestinian children are also being held in prisons in Israel, which is a violation of Article 37c of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that children have the right to maintain contact with their family through letters and visits, except under special circumstances.

Israeli Military Prison and Court in the Occupied West Bank

The company installed peripheral defense systems on the walls surrounding the Ofer prison and operates a central control room for the entire Ofer military compound. Ofer is an Israeli prison for Palestinian political prisoners, located in the occupied West Bank, near the settlement of Givat Ze'ev. The prison holds about 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners and includes a military court which tries detainees from the West bank on a daily basis. The conviction rate for Palestinians in Israeli military courts is 99.74%. 
As of June 2015, 93 children were reportedly held in Ofer military prison, The compound also hosts an Israeli military courtroom dedicated to trying Palestinian children. Between 2005-2010, 835 Palestinian minors were accused of stone-throwing in Israeli military courts. Only one was acquitted.

Occupation Policing

G4S Israel is the sole provider of electronic security systems to the Israeli police. It provided equipment to the West Bank Israeli Police headquarters, located in the highly contested E-1 area next to the Ma'ale Adumim settlement (the Judea and Samaria Police headquarters - “Machoz Shai”). This police force is tasked exclusively with servicing the Israeli settler population in the occupied West Bank.

Security Services in Illegal Israeli settlements

G4S Israel offers its security services to businesses in illegal settlements, including security equipment and personnel to shops and supermarkets in the Barkan settlement industrial zone, in the West Bank settlements of Modi’in Illit, Ma’ale Adumim, Har Adar, the settlement neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and the settlement of Kalia in the Jordan Valley.

G4S Israel also maintains cooperation with Ariel College in the illegal settlement city of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, which has included the company's participation in an open career day in the college.

The company’s own hired human rights expert, international law professor Hjalte Rasmussen, has stated that: “G4S has contracts with a number of major commercial interests, such as banks, supermarkets, and clothing chains, for the delivery of security guards for branches and stores of these customers as per the customers’ wishes. The branches and stores in question are mainly located in Israel, but G4S is also under contractual obligation to provide guards for the branches and stores that are on exception located east of the ’Green Line’, more specifically in East Jerusalem or on the West Bank”.

Outside Investigation and Company Statements

In October 2012, The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has listed G4S as one of the main companies profiting from Israeli settlements and called on the UN General Assembly and civil society to take action against such businesses. 
In March 2015, the British Government-sponsored National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD has published its findings of the British firm, stating that G4S is currently violating three human rights obligations under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, arising from its involvement in Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians. It has found significant failures by G4S in its overarching obligations to ‘respect human rights’; as well as the obligation to ‘prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to its business operations’ in the region.

In April 2013, following public pressure, the company has stated it would not renew some of its contracts in the occupied West Bank as they come for renewal in 2015, including contracts to supply technologies to Israeli military checkpoints, to the Ofer prison and to the West Bank Israeli police headquarters.
In June 2014, following protests at its annual shareholders meeting, it has committed to stepping out of all Israeli prison contracts as they expire in the next 3 years. As of October 2015, no change in the company operations was registered on the ground.

In March 2016, G4S announced that it would sell off off its U.K. Utility Services,  U.K. Children Services, its U.S. Youth Justice Services, and its entire G4S Israel subsidiary within 12-24 months. In June, the company sold its UK children’s homes care business ‘homes2inspire’ to the Prospects Group, for £11.4 million. By December, Utility Services was sold, as well as G4S Israel, and in March 2017, G4S has sold off its U.S. Youth Services department to HSBC Holdings for $56.5 Million.

Prior to 2017, G4S managed 28 youth detention facilities in Tennessee, Texas, and Florida through G4S Youth Services LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary headquartered in Tampa, Florida. The company also managed juvenile detention programs, probation services, residential facilities, mental health and outpatient services, and maximum-risk correctional centers. G4S Youth Services’ made $5.1 million in profit in 2016. In April 2017, G4S sold G4S Youth Services (now TrueCore Behavioral Solutions) to BHSB Holdings, Inc. for $56.5 million. BHSB is a private company that provides youth behavioral health services and is based in Florida. The youth facilities had consistent reports of sexual abuse, use of excessive force, and recurring riots, leading to numerous lawsuits against G4S.

Prior to 2017, G4S operated 18 youth residential houses in the UK through its subsidiary, “Homes2Inspire,” which provided healthcare, support, education, specialist interventions, and therapy, in coordination with local authorities. In 2016, G4S had faced reports of abuse in G4S-operated youth jail facilities, including the physical and mental abuse against juveniles by staff members at one of the G4S-managed youth facilities in the UK.

G4S has been implicated in labor rights violations in several of its global sites. Official complaints under OECD guidelines from G4S sites in Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa, including testimonies of racial segregation and poverty wages, led to a G4S commitment to workers’ rights in 2008. Despite this, in the following years G4S was implicated in labor rights abuses in Uganda, South Korea, and South Africa.

The company offers security services to facilities, for example to platinum mines in South Africa, specifically to counter “Labor Unrest,” including riot control, undercover operations, intelligence gathering, and canine support.

G4S failed to provide security during the 2012 Olympics and later, in 2013, reached a final settlement that compelled G4S to take a £50m loss on the contract.

In 2014, G4S sold its U.S. Government Solutions division, after charges of complicity in human rights violations in the Guantánamo Bay U.S. Naval Base.