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| The GEO Group's newest board member, Christoper C. Wheeler (image via IWB). |
| The Coastal Bend Detention Center (LCS Corrections). |
The inspection did not reveal any non-compliance issues. But [state inspector] Johnson noted that of 118 officers, 85 were working with temporary state jailer licenses. All must complete training and pass a state-mandated jailer certification course within their first year of employment.A jail commission inspector was back at the facility Friday to conduct a surprise fire drill and to check on the status of training for jailers.
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| Image via (Hale-Mills). |
It appears that option three is the choice most likely to be presented in the form of a bond vote to Grayson County citizens, according to a report by local Sherman news. Let's hope that if this option does go to a vote it will be more comprehensive than their last attempt and that it will not leave room for a private operator. We will keep you informed of any official decisions made by Grayson County commissioners.
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| - $553 million | for the contract cancellation of the California City Facility |
| + $306.5 million | for the renewal of the Cibola county contract |
| - $565 million | for the cancellation of both Huerfano and Diamondback |
| - $811.5 M | total lost this month in contracts over the next 10 years |
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| Image via Costore |
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| Otter Creek Correctional Center (CCA). |
Kentucky's investigation into the matter resulted in a few precautionary measures put in place at the facility in order to keep this from happening. Roger Alford of the Associated Press explained further:"The (Kentucky) governor's actions validate what we were saying all along," Hawai'i Senate Public Safety Committee chairman Will Espero said yesterday. He added, "It is difficult to have a group of inmates on the Mainland and monitor them."
Some two dozen female inmates who were at Otter Creek, including at least seven Hawai'i inmates, have made allegations of sexual abuse against Otter Creek guards and other employees. Some of those allegations were made as far back as 2006.
In July 2009, Kentucky corrections officials opened an investigation into the prison, after being notified of a letter sent from a Hawai'i inmate to her mother that identified 19 Kentucky and Hawai'i women making allegations of sexual abuse.
That investigation, completed in September, found that Otter Creek failed to report to authorities several incidents of sexual misconduct between workers and inmates back to 2007, including a handful of instances that resulted in the firing of employees.
For the state, who is the client in this business deal, to have to step in and recommend solutions to problems and even deal with staffing priorities shows just how incompetent companies can be at running a corrections facility. By transferring the female inmates into a state prison, Kentucky is taking out the middle-man in this deal and caring for the abused women themselves, instead of issuing demands to CCA in order to solve the problem that originated with the company itself. At least 6 different employees at the facility have been charged with sex crimes involving inmates at the facility, and a 7th case is on the way to a Kentucky grand jury in February (Kentucky Courier-Journal). Maybe it's just me, but seven different cases of sexual abuse is more than "a few bad apples."State investigators had made a series of demands to protect women inmates at Otter Creek, including basic strategies like assigning female guards to supervise sleeping quarters, hiring a female security chief, and shuffling staffing so that at least 40 percent of the work force is female.
Beshear said finding enough women willing to work as corrections officers at Otter Creek had been difficult.
...Company spokesman Steve Owen previously said that his company had taken steps to prevent sexual assaults in the prison. Those steps, he said, included installing video cameras to deter sexual misconduct and to help investigators determine the validity of future allegations.
Owen had said "the rogue actions of a few bad apples" led to an unfair characterizations of Otter Creek employees.
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| Protesters gather with 9 coffins representing the 9 dead at RCDC (TPB). |
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| 12/14 Issue of the Arizona Capitol Times, featuring Private Prison Watch. |
Andrew Strong, who runs the Texas-based private-prison watchdog Web site Private Prison Watch, said ceding operation of the state’s most dangerous inmates to private companies is bad public policy.
“States owe it to their general public to follow through with the punishment that is administered instead of avoiding the responsibility altogether and placing it in the hands of less-qualified personnel
because of a faulty budget plan,” he said. “The blanket selling off of one of the state’s highest responsibilities is not only cowardly but a slap in the face to anyone who pays taxes in Arizona..."...The magnitude of the privatization also presents problems for prison companies, said Strong, who runs a Web site that monitors private prisons. And it will be difficult to make money from the facilities because it costs a lot of money to incarcerate high-risk and maximum-security inmates.
“Private prison corporations, much like any other corporation, have an unyielding desire to make money,” Strong said.
He said private prisons tend to hire inexperienced guards because they are less expensive, which makes the firms better suited to manage facilities with lower-risk inmates. Many private prisons nationwide house such low-security inmates as drug offenders and drunk drivers.
“I am confident that there are no existing private prison companies that could provide sufficient security measures to house death row inmates,” Strong said.
My thanks to Jim Small for reading the blog and for spending his time writing about the issue of widespread jail privatization in his state.