Author Topic: Global privatization of prisons and juvenile reform programs  (Read 2040 times)

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Offline Ursus

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Global privatization of prisons and juvenile reform programs
« on: January 04, 2010, 02:30:10 PM »
I came across an interesting old issue of Prison Privatisation Report International, a bulletin (then) put out ten times a year by the UK-based Prison Reform Trust (PRT).

The following (long) excerpt, of news specific to the United States, contains many familiar names on this carousel:

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No 3 August 1996 | ISSN 1363-9552
Prison Privatisation Report International
Published in London by the Prison Reform Trust

... <snip snip> ...

UNITED STATES

Big in New Mexico

Building firm Brown & Root of Houston, Texas is constructing the largest private prison in the world to date and Wackenhut Corrections Corp. will run it. The state of New Mexico has awarded the companies contracts to finance, design, build and run a 2,200 place prison at Hobbs and a 1,200 place prison at Santa Rosa. Wackenhut won the contracts with a proposal for considerably fewer employees than other bidders. The original request for proposals called for companies to provide college teachers and weightlifting facilities. Now the state corrections department has decided that college courses will not be available at the prisons as it believes that high school diplomas are enough to make a prisoner "sufficiently marketable to maintain a job". Weightlifting equipment will also not be provided as the state governor argues that prison should not be "a health club." The governor is claiming that the two private prisons will be 60 per cent cheaper than the state's own jails.

Esmor changes name

Esmor Corrections Corporation, the Florida-based company which made private corrections history in July 1995 with what Federal officials called the "worst disturbance ever" at a privately run immigration centre in New Jersey, changed its name on 28 July 1996 to Correctional Services Corporation. The INS, which was also criticised for poor oversight of the facility, cancelled Esmor's contract. But the company recouped $6.2m by selling it on to Corrections Corporation of America.  CSC still runs another INS facility in Seattle and 12 other facilities in New York, Texas, Arizona and Florida. Since the problems at New Jersey, the company has examined all its operations to reduce the possibility of any future incidents. According to the company, an ethics and compliance officer has been appointed to "continually instil our principles" to all employees as "the commitment to excellence is something which has become ingrained in our operating philosophy."

Revolving door

In July 1996, Charles Jones, formerly first vice-president of a Dallas investment banking firm, joined Wackenhut Corrections Corp. as vice president for business development. He will be useful as he assisted the states of Texas, Florida and Virginia in developing and implementing their strategies for privatised corrections.

In June, the state of Virginia awarded Wackenhut a contract to design, construct and manage a 1,000 place prison in Charlotte County.

Going global

According to Prudential Securities Inc. the private management of prisons, jails, detention centres and ultimately the full spectrum of corrections services could be "a worldwide movement." The analysts believe that contacts with Wackenhut Corrections Corp. and visits to Wackenhut-run facilities by representatives from Panama, Mexico and Argentina "translates into a still unquantifiable but apparently huge potential global market for prison management services."

CORPORATE WATCH
 
Youth Services International

Private provision of services for young offenders is a growing business in the US, and as one corrections industry analyst reported recently "crime can pay". As a result, the analyst suggested that the most experienced and best capitalised companies involved in the "schoolhouse to jailhouse" spectrum will win the largest percentage of future business. Youth Services International (YSI) Inc. is one of the fastest growing companies in the US. Mr Timothy Cole resigned as chairman of the board of Wackenhut Corrections Corp. on 3 August 1996 in order to join YSI.

The company was started in 1991 by Jim Hindman, an acknowledged former child delinquent. By the 1970s, at the age of 35, he was a millionaire running a chain of private nursing homes. He then made - and lost - another fortune by starting Jiffy Lube, the famous American 'quick oil change' franchise. He sold this in 1989 after the company had defaulted on loans of more than $69 million, but Hindman himself still came out with $2 million. His next venture materialised when he realised the potential from juvenile crime figures in the US and the amount of money spent on youth rehabilitation programmes - about $3 billion a year at federal, state and municipal levels.

YSI now manages or operates 19 residential and community based programmes, including boot camps, in 12 states. It was a failed bidder for New Brunswick's Miramichi young offenders facility in 1995. It is expanding by acquiring companies with existing contracts and in June 1996 YSI acquired Three Springs Inc, which runs outdoor adventure programmes and residential treatment centres for over 500 young people. It also has joint ventures with non-profit agencies which provide "greater program contribution margins".  

In Maryland, the company runs two contracts for the state: the Victor Cullen Academy in Frederick County and Charles H. Hickey Jnr. school in Baltimore County. At the latter, a facility for hard core delinquents, the company ran into trouble after it took over a contract worth $49 million a year for the first three years of a five year contract. YSI was accused by teachers and other former staff of cutting corners on schooling, job training and supplies. The company claimed, however, that it put a stop to escapes and kept recidivism rates down to about 20 per cent in an atmosphere referred to as a 'positive peer culture'.

On 5 June 1995 seven juveniles escaped from YSI's care while they were being driven by bus across the 300 acre Charles Hickey School campus to church. The escapees threw pepper in the face of the bus driver and three youth counsellors. Some of the 41 other juveniles had to be treated for minor injuries after the bus crashed. It was the second escape from YSI custody. The first took place in July 1994 during the first week of the company's contract. YSI won the contract after the previous contractor, Rebound Corp of Denver, Colorado, was fired from its three year $50 million a year contract for allowing too many escapes.

In November 1994 a school counsellor was raped by an inmate at the school's sex offender unit after she had been left alone with the young man. Under the terms of the contract, staff should not have been left alone with a known sex offender. The school's operating guideline stated that an inmate should be locked in his room until a second staff member was present. At the time of the incident the company only had four staff members supervising the sex offenders; the contract stipulated five. As a result of the incident, the company fired the unit's senior staff member and promised in house and independent reviews of security procedures.

In 1995, YSI commissioned a survey of 863 out of over 1,400 former students; 86 per cent felt that, one year after leaving, YSI's programmes had been beneficial and 87 per cent had stayed out of the courts.


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