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Messages - Celyne

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Facility Question and Answers / Re: anybody ever hear of Abraxas?
« on: November 22, 2010, 01:06:48 PM »
Also, actually, Cornell and GEO merged see http://http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100419006086/en/GEO-Group-Cornell-Companies-Announce-685-Million for this:

The GEO Group and Cornell Companies Announce $685 Million Merger
Creates $1.5 Billion Revenue Diversified Provider of Essential Government Services
Combined Company Well Positioned to Capitalize on Growing Global Demand for Correctional, Detention and Behavioral Health Services

Also found this an interesting statement from Cornell Co.'s 2009 Annual Report:

Our smallest division, Abraxas Youth & Family Services, faced particular challenges during 2009 due to budget cuts across the country, and in particular with our two largest markets: Pennsylvania and Illinois. This created intense pressure on all providers of juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment programs.
 
These pressures compelled us to reconfigure programs and consolidate capacity at several smaller facilities. Perhaps the one bright spot in this segment is that our unrelenting focus on operating quality has enabled us to increase market share from less resilient competitors who have either exited the market or “cut corners” as they try to survive.

 Though Abraxas did not achieve the goals that we established at the beginning of the year, we did make progress as demonstrated by increasing average contract occupancy over 2009 to 85.9% from 80.6% during 2008. Also, despite the funding cuts, average residential per diems increased by approximately 3% which illustrates our ability to shift our programs to a more attractive mix. We finished 2009 with many empty beds in this segment, but for 2010 we expect to continue to gradually increase occupancy and favorable mix so that the division can continue to generate cash for Cornell, despite the continuing budget pressures facing the segment.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/sec-filings/100430/ ... z162D6z4Oc

I guess I'm just green and naive to this topic, but shouldn't the goal of these facilities be to get the residents out and on their feet, not to increase occupancy? (I know: this was written for shareholders, who are interested in their dollar return not in the societal implications of their investments). Still, there is an apparent conflict of interest here.

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Facility Question and Answers / Re: anybody ever hear of Abraxas?
« on: November 22, 2010, 12:40:14 PM »
Hi:

Thanks for clearing that up.

When I first came across the article of Cubic buying Abraxas, it appeared to be a logical progression. GEO, as a provider of alternative elementary school programs for our urban poor is worrisome enough. Their track record including their contract with housing immigrants at Guantanamo is not assuring.

Apparantly the Philadelphia School District had a plan in 2008 to cut out of sending their students to for profit/independent facilities, but appear to have done little toward this agenda. Studies are continually coming out pointing to the fact that children in these programs rarely get out of them and onto productive paths. The actual accountability of these programs is murky at best. The process for sending the children to these alternative schools is also questionable. This is what I have been able to research so far. I am in the process of getting in touch with various groups that work within these organizations and those who are independent watchdogs of them. Any leads you could provide would be helpful.

Thanks,
Celyne

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Facility Question and Answers / Re: anybody ever hear of Abraxas?
« on: November 20, 2010, 12:28:23 PM »
Hi:

I'm so glad to have found this post.

I did know that GEO bought Abraxas  but just found online that Cubic Corp bought Abraxas, (from GEO?) if this is the same Abraxas that runs the juvenile facilities? Maybe it's a different Abraxas Corp? I believe Cubic is one of the leading manufacturers of military weapons. I have to research this more....

FYI: This posted 4 days ago on the WEB:

"Cubic Corp. (CUB) has agreed to pay $124 million for Abraxas Corp., a provider of risk mitigation and expertise for national-security, law-enforcement and homeland-security clients."

I am new here and should introduce myself. I am a mother of a young child in the Philadelphia, Pa. schools, a freelance writer/independent journalist, deeply concerned about education and our young people. I am interested in writing a fair and balanced article about the Abraxas facilities in the Philadelphia area in the hopes of informing the public about what goes on in them and to spark a local dialogue about whether these facilities are helping our youth or not. If anyone has experience on any level with the Philadelphia area facilities (also the Philadelphia Alternative Elementary School program) I would be very interested in speaking with you. I assure you, if you so desire, to keep your identity confidential, and will only make public information that you feel comfortable sharing. As I said I only want to write about this subject out of my concern and not to profit from anyone else's good or bad experiences. If there are problems with these facilities it is important for us to air this information so that our children won't be harmed any more. If there are problems in these facilities we can help fix them, and if I find that everything is above board then that's what I will report.

Thanks, Celyne

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