Youths hog-tied at CCA facility

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has announced that it is withdrawing from a $14m a year contract to run a 400 bed juvenile detention facility at Columbia, South Carolina on 30 June 1997, just a year after it started. According to CCA, “this project has been inordinately distracting to both parties ... an amicable termination of this agreement is in the best interest of both the state and the company ...”

The announcement makes no mention of the series of problems which led to calls for the state to either withdraw the contract or not renew it in June 1997.

In August 1996, after seven youths escaped, the company was ordered to tighten security and, following a meeting between state officials and CCA, the facility’s administrator was replaced.

In November 1996, a review of operations at the facility found that staff used improper force to control juveniles and recommended that the state withhold payments to CCA. That did not happen.

It was also revealed that youths had been ‘hog-tied’ (two hands tied to an ankle behind the back). An independent evaluation of the facility by the John Howard Society was commissioned by the state governor in January 1997. The report confirmed that CCA staff had used excessive force, including hog-tying, to handle youths. This reflected inadequate training, said the report, but no mistreatment had occurred since August 1996.

 The report recommended that CCA staff should be taught to try other methods of control before resorting to physical force and that the youths’ complaints of physical abuse should be investigated.

In February 1997, another eight youths  escaped. The state’s head of juvenile prisons called for security deficiencies to be resolved and for all correctional officers to complete five weeks of basic training.

CCA had recently hired an army colonel to run a military-style leadership programme for 230 of the 300 young people at the facility. He claimed that improvements were being made and that the regime was helping the youngsters become leaders.

On 21 May 1996, the company  announced the contract award saying that it was “ ... an opportunity for CCA to showcase its knowledge, ability and responsiveness in this specialised arena while helping the state meet its court-ordered requirements.”

CCA currently operates seven other juvenile facilities in Florida, Indiana, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas.

n The company had a record year in 1996. Revenues  increased by 41 per cent to $293m compared with $207m in 1995 and net profit increased 115 per cent from $14.3m to $30.9m. This was partly achieved by “leverage at the operating level as well as in overhead.” Operating income was the highest in the company’s history. Total beds under contract grew by 44 per cent from around 29,000 in 1995 to 41,000. Some 11,400 additional prisoner places are expected to become available in 1997.

n Two prison officers employed by CCA at Silverdale Workhouse in Tennessee are facing drug trafficking charges. Following an 18 month investigation, which included the use of undercover agents, Silverdale was raided on 16 December 1996 by over 200 federal law enforcement officers. In January 1997, a grand jury indicted two CCA officers and a former prisoner and his wife for distributing crack cocaine and marijuana at the jail. If found guilty, the penalty could be a ten year to life sentence in a federal prison and up to $4m in fines.

Silverdale,  a 500 place temporary holding prison and work release centre, was one of CCA’s first contracts. As a ‘showcase’ facility in 1987, its operation persuaded members of the UK Home Affairs Committee that private prisons should be implemented in Britain.

Blakenhurst debacle

All houseblock locks had to be changed in February at UK Detention Services-run Blakenhurst prison after management  received anonymous information alleging that a  key had been smuggled in. Despite full security searches, no key was found. However, two prisoners named in the allegations were transferred to a public sector prison and, as a further security measure, the Prison Service ordered the locks to be changed. One newspaper claimed that the Prison Service had to assume control of the prison as senior Blakenhurst staff refused to change the locks. There is now a dispute over whether the company or the Prison Service should pay for the new locks. The estimated cost is around £200,000.

Although not the first time that locks have been changed at Blakenhurst, this is the first serious incident  since Corrections Corporation of America became sole owner of the company running the prison. UKDS was also the first contractor to be financially penalised when it was fined £41,000 after  losing control of the prison in February 1994. UKDS is currently in contract renewal negotiations with the Prison Service over Blakenhurst.

 

NatWest boosts private health

     The National Westminster Bank plc and Natwest Markets are helping to finance the expansion of  private health care provision to American jails. Spectrum Heathcare Services is America’s largest provider of private correctional health care services through its subsidiary, Correctional Medical Services (CMS).  CMS has over 40 per cent of prison health care contracts awarded to private contractors, covering 186 facilities in 28 states. CMS also operates statewide prison health care services in Alabama, Idaho, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and New Mexico.

In January 1997, Spectrum announced a financial restructuring in order to aid its expansion. The senior debt facility for Spectrum’s recapitalisation was arranged by National Westminster Bank.  NatWest Markets Equity Corporation is now a significant shareholder in the company. Spectrum is also one of the largest providers of services to hospital emergency departments and  military medical facilities.

 

Agency status to go?

     If the Labour Party wins the upcoming general election, it will consider abandoning the Prison Service’s agency status and reincorporating it within the Home Office. The aim would be to enhance ministerial responsibility for prisons. In principle, agency status means that policy is set by ministers and implemented by a chief executive. However, there have been a number of instances recently where the boundaries have been blurred.  The Prison Service became a semi-autonomous agency in 1993 as part of the government’s commercialisation drive within the civil service. Some other former civil service departments which became agencies have since been privatised.

 

What free market?

    The Prison Service is considering a strategy to provide opportunities for new companies to enter the market for new prison contracts and to take account of  companies’ existing prison management and building commitments. There would be an initial selection of  a pool of bidders for whichever is the greater of a maximum of five competitions  or all competitions over a period of 18 months. From this, three bidders who had entered into a framework agreement on joining the pool would be selected for each individual competition.

Currently there is a perceived imbalance in the UK: Group 4 has three prison contracts; Wackenhut and Serco (as Premier Prison Services Ltd) two; Securicor has one and UK Detention Services Ltd (owned by CCA) also has one.  Group 4 also has four prisoner escort contracts; Premier Prison Services has two, while  Securicor and Reliance have one each.

 

 

UNITED STATES

Communities resist YSI Inc.

      American private juvenile corrections company Youth Services International’s plans for expansion in the states of Pennsylvania and New York are being met with stiff opposition. The company’s attempts to set up a juvenile facility in Lehman Township, Pine County, Pennsylvania were thwarted recently after planning objections were raised by local residents. Now, two communities  in upstate New York are organising to stop planning  approval to similar schemes.

At Sparrowbush, some 140 miles from New York City, YSI wants to turn the Eddie Farm Hotel into a 330-place facility for young offenders. But as one member of the town council said recently, “We will try anything to keep them out of this town.” Meanwhile, 45 miles away, residents of the town of Delaware, are fighting plans by YSI to convert a disused summer resort known as the Valley View into a detention facility for upwards of 250 juveniles. The residents have so far convinced the town council and the planning board to change local zoning laws to try and stop the development. They are concerned that YSI could circumvent these laws by arguing that the company will operate as an extension of the state so they are taking their campaign to the state legislature.

Both communities are concerned that the claimed economic benefits of privatisation are illusory and that safety issues will not be adequately addressed if the facilities are allowed. When residents asked YSI if it  would be accountable to a community it operated in, the company said it was accountable to its shareholders.

Although there are also expressed fears that the quality of life in both areas will be irretrievably lost if YSI’s  plans are approved, the campaigns are not just of the ‘Not In My Backyard’ variety. The communities say that there has been no debate about whether YSI’s proposed facilities are appropriate for dealing with troubled young offenders.

A spokesperson for YSI put the residents’ feelings down to fear of the unknown. “For the most part we don’t want to go where there’s a lot of opposition. We want to be good neighbours,” she said. She also added that YSI was very confident that they would have “a strategic presence in New York by the end of the calendar year.”

As yet, YSI has no contracts in New York to take adjudicated (convicted) young people and so both projects are speculative (about one third of the company’s growth is through such projects). However, YSI has had discussions with New York corrections officials and judges who determine where young offenders go. The company  claims that the initiatives have  their support.

 As at 31 December 1996, YSI operated 20 residential programmes in 12 states. As well as New York and Pennsylvania the company is currently targeting Florida, Texas and California for expansion.

 

Unregulated home detention

     A prisoner who raped four women and robbed two others while under the supervision of  Monitoring Services Inc., has brought electronic monitoring and home detention in the state of Maryland under scrutiny. Officials are now re-examining the use of  the private sector.

The Washington Post recently described the growing practice as  “the supervision of hundreds of convicts and criminal suspects by a small group of unregulated businesses that run electronic home detention programmes.” Companies have no permits to operate and no contracts with corrections authorities. They take clients on a case-by-case basis from individual judges. Clients are charged $250 or more per month while the government pays nothing.

In Maryland, state judges have discretion to order both those awaiting trial and sentenced prisoners to spend their time in home detention. The private companies became established as state and county electronic monitoring programmes became full. However,  the companies are not subject to minimum standards and detainees  can simply shop around for the company which will impose the least restrictions. No public agency collects data on breaches or crimes committed by those on home detention programmes. Maryland corrections officials say they have no legal authority to ensure that companies adequately supervise their clients. Some judges have admitted that home detainees are often sent to jail but  it is impossible to say how often as the companies’ records are not public.

The companies, and some judges who use them, argue that the practice saves taxpayers’ money, eases jail overcrowding and helps people. But there is also consensus that home detention carries risks as the technology only tells officials whether a detainee is at home and not what s/he is doing when they are out.

 

New Mexico on hold

    New Mexico’s plans to have the world’s largest private prison to date are on hold pending the outcome of legal proceedings. Two legislators, a Republican and a Democrat,  have filed a lawsuit that the governor of New Mexico’s financing plans for the facility are illegal and that a 1995 statute only authorised private management of new prisons, not finance and design. A consortium of Wackenhut and Brown & Root is the preferred bidder but  contracts have not been signed.

 

Charge!

    Public sector jails  in New Jersey and Alaska are the latest to introduce charges for prisoners. At Ocean County,  prisoners will be charged $200 for the first  ten days of their sentence and $10 per day thereafter.  Those who have not paid by the end of their sentence will face legal action. In Alaska, prisoners are to be charged for health care. A request for a prescription or a visit to the doctor, dentist or psychologist will each cost four dollars.

 

CANADA

Ontario at early stage

 Phase One of the provincial government’s plans, announced last September,  to replace 45 existing adult jails with a combination of new superjails and expanded existing facilities, is still at an early stage. Sites are currently being selected and requests for qualification (RFQ) from the private sector are being invited for contracts to design and build two 1,200 bed facilities (one north and one east of Metro Toronto) and to extend  an existing facility from 700 to 1,700 beds in the west of Toronto. A contract will also be offered to run one of the new jails while the other will remain in the public sector for comparison. RFQs are also being invited for the management of two existing publicly run prisons which were built in the late 1970s, one east of Metro Toronto and one to the west.

The process of tendering, building and transferring prisoners to the new facilities is expected to be completed  by 1999. Although some 1,400 public employees - corrections officers and administrators - are to lose their jobs, the government says that programme staff will be retained as the rehabilitative aspects of regimes  will be enhanced under the new scenario.

Ahead of an overall plan for the province’s youth facilities, a  contract for a privately-run  boot camp for between 30 and 50 young offenders is expected to be awarded in mid-April 1997 with the camp operating on an existing site by the summer.

Ontario’s restructuring programme is the largest in Canada and, according to a government spokesperson, “there is a lot of watching in the wings going on.”

 

AUSTRALIA

 

Wackenhut to expand

Wackenhut’s Australian subsidiary has changed and re-registered its name to reflect the wider role of business activities which the company will be pursuing in the future. The new name is ACM (Australasia) Pty Ltd, formerly Australasian Correctional Management Pty Ltd. The company has not stated publicly what its wider role will be.

Fulham to open in April

 Fulham Correctional Centre, a 600 bed medium and minimum security  prison for men, will open in April, several months ahead of schedule. The facility will be run by ACM (Australasia) Pty Ltd for the government of Victoria and it will be the state’s second to be privately financed, designed, built and run.

As recently as mid-January, ACM was still advertising for correctional officers to work at the facility. In March, a A$60-a-head charity ball in aid of the local Rotary club is to be held in the prison’s gymnasium, with  guests paying a further A$30 for the privilege of sleeping the night in a cell.

 

Victoria’s community contracts

 Almost half of Victoria’s community based corrective services are to be privatised by the year 2000. Community Corrections Services currently has an annual budget of A$13.1m and handles 7,000 cases of offenders serving community based sentences. Ten per cent of services will be contracted out by 30 June 1997 and a further 30 per cent within three financial years. Consultants are expected to report on which services will be privatised first. The chief executive of Victoria’s Public Corrections Enterprise believes that the move will lead to an improvement in the quality of services and a reduction in costs.

 

Resignation at women’s prison

 Mr Gary Emmerson, general manager of  Corrections Corporation  of Australia’s Deer Park women’s prison has resigned just six months after the prison opened. The prison has been at the centre of a row over  allegations of falsified records, drug abuse, and assaults on staff and prisoners. Mr Emmerson and the company have denied the allegations.

 

 

BELGIUM

 

Public sector still cheaper

A presentation by Sodexho/CCA - the most recent company to come through the doors of  the Belgian Ministry of Justice - has failed to convince that privatised prison management is viable. The ministry’s calculations show that it would be no cheaper than existing costs. The current programme of constructing 1,000 new cells  over the next few years will, however, be  privately financed.

 

 

ZIMBABWE

No prisons up for grabs

The government is inviting foreign investment in an extensive privatisation programme. Some state enterprises are for sale and infrastructure projects will operate on a private ‘build-operate-transfer’ principle.  But there are no plans  for privately financed, built or managed prisons.

 

 

SOUTH AFRICA

 

 

Going underground

The commissioner for correctional services has called for the country’s worst offenders to be kept in disused mines as a way of limiting escapes.  Human rights groups say that the proposal is barbaric. It is unclear whether the commissioner has public or private management of the mines in mind.