PRIVATE CORRECTIONS INDUSTRY

NEWS BULLETIN
Vol. 2 - No.1

Reportillg 011 Prison Privatizatioll and Related issues

January 1999

Privately-Run Juvenile Facility Delays Youths' Release
Acoording to a consultant hired
by the Florida Department of Juvenile
Justice, a Youth Development Center
in Pahokee operated by Correctional
Services Corp. kept ten juveniles past
their release dates so the company
could make more money.
Consultant David Bachman
stated in a November report that the
youths were detained beyond their
release dates to be included in a
quarterly head count used to determine the funding that Correctional
Services receives. Bachman said he
had found a memo indicating the
juveniles were to be held longer than
necessary.
The state pays Correctional
Services an average of $68.40 per
offender per diem at the 350-bed
development center; the local school
district pays the company an additional $2.5 million annually to provide educational services.
The juveniles who were kept
past their release dates were scheduled to go home a week before the
qumtcrly count. The count, conducted
by the school board, determines how
much money Correctional Services

(0

receives based upon the number of
youths enrolled in educational programs and whether they have learning or other disabilities.
The annual cost per student at
juvenile facilities such as the Youth
Development Center ranges from
$4,000 to over $10,000 because most
of the students have some type of
learning disability. Delaying the release of the youths to include them in
the count "increased the educational
funds and the per diem costs to the
state," Bachman said
Jim Irving, a Correctional Services vice president, denied juvenile
offenders were improperly detained
in order to increase the company's
income; however, he had no explanation why the youths weren't released
as scheduled prior to the count.
The delayed releases cited in
Bachman's report are the latest in a
series of problems that have plagued
the privately-run Youth Development
Center since it opened in January
1997. State officials have confmned
IS cases of abuse by staff members
at the facility - ten employees have
been fired, one has quit and seven

have been reprimanded for excessive
or improper use of force. The state
has repeatedly warned Correctional
Services about its failure to train
staff when force should be used.
In July 1998 juveniles complained to Dade Co. Circuit Judge
Thomas Petersen about conditions at
the development center, saying they
had been stripped to their underwear
or stripped naked, placed in solitmy
confmcment, and prohibited from
sitting down or falling asleep. They
also claimed they were kept in their
cells up to 16 hours a day. Following
an on-site inspection Judge Petersen
harshly criticized the facility and
concluded it was at best unsuitable
for many of the juveniles housed
there, who are mostly non-violent
property offenders. Correctional Services denied the youths' aceusations
and the judge's fmdings.
Miami -Dade County juvenile
court judges have since ordered prosecutors to stop sending offenders
to the Pahokee Youth Development
Center. The state is appealing the
order to the Third District Court of
Appeal.
[conffnued¢]

1999 - p.e.I. News Bulletin, 3193-A Parthenon Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203

p.e.!. News Bulletin

2

WANTED

Although the Dept. of Juvenile
Justice has cited problems at the
development center for almost two
years, it has done little to compel
Correctional Services to make improvements. Irving said the state has
not required his company to respond
to Bachman's prior reports. However, following the recent disclosure
of juveniles being detained beyond
their release dates, this is expected
to change.
According to Greg Johnson,
regional bureau chief for juvenile
justice in West Palm Beach, Correctional Services will be placed under
stricter scrutiny. Johnson said he will
assign staff to ensure the company
corrects deficiencies at the facility;
he also plans to work with the Dept.
of Children and Families to address
allegations of abuse.
Bachman noted in his report
that problems similar to the delayed
releases at the Youth Development
Center are likely to occur at other
state juvenile facilities, most of which
are privately operated. He recommended the legislature take steps
to ensure that companies operating
juvenile detention centers are not
given authority over when offenders
are released. Such provisions already
are in place for privately-operated
adult prisons.
The Sarasota, Florida-based
Correctional Services Corp. has a
three-year, $30 million contract to
manage Youth Development Centers
in Pahokce and Polk County. The
company operates 35 juvenile and
adult correctional facilities nationwide and in Puerto Rico. 0

Articles, clippings and news reports
regarding the private corrections industry - please include the source
and date of all materials submitted.

Sources: The Palm Beach Post (FL),
Nov. 23, 1998; PPRl, Nov. 1997;
Correctional Services Corp. web site
(www.correctionalservices.com).

ADMINISTRIVIA
The P.C.1. News Bulletin (PCINB) is
a monthly publication that reports on
prison privatization and related issues,
primarily within the United States.

Copyright
PCINB is copyright © 1999. Non-profit
organizations and individuals acting on
their behalf are granted permission to
reprint or copy any materials included
in PCINB provided that source eredit is
given and that such copies are for noncommercial purposes only - all other
persons are required to obtain written
permission from PCINB before any reprints or copies legally can be made.
PClNB will happily and enthusiastically
pursue legal action against copyright
violators, and will provide a reward to
persons who report copyright violations
that result in successful litigation or
settlements, as determined by PCINB.

Address
P.C.I. News Bulletin, 3193-A Parthenon
Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee 37203.

Legal Stuff
The information presented in this publication is not intended to supplant the
services I advice of legal or correctionsrelated professionals. The editors of and
contributors to PCINB disclaim any liability, loss or risk. personal or otherwise,
incurred as a direct or indirect consequence of the use and application of any of
the contents of this newsletter. So therc.

January 1999

Private Prison Escape
Explained
On January 15 Kevin Myers,
warden of the CCA-operated South
Central Corr. Center in Wayne Co.,
Tennessee, appeared before the legislative Select Oversight Committee
on Corrections to explain the Oct. 12
escape of four inmates from the facility (see PCINB, Nov. 1998, pg. 1).
The Select Oversight Committce was told the breakout resulted
from a failure by guards to follow
proper procedures, and that a supervisor had been fired and two other
employees suspended as a result of
an investigation. All of the escapees
were eventually captured.
Myers cited two major procedural shortfalls. First, a supervisor
delivered a mailed package to an
inmate that contained bolt cutters,
which were used to cut through the
perimeter fences.
The second procedural failure
occurred when a guard in the prison's
control room shut off an alarm without checking to see what had caused
it. The escape occurred during shift
change, when false alarms are often
triggered.
Myers blamed complacency
and lack of attention to detail as contributing factors to the escape. "Had 1
gotten complacent? Possibly. I assure
you I'm reviewing everything in that
facility. There have been a lot of
improvements made, a lot of money
spent," he told the Committee members. Myers also confirmed reports
that guards did not learn of the midafternoon breakout until they were
informed by an inmate. 0
Sources: The Tennessean, January
16, 1999; Commercial Appeal (TN),
January 16, 1999.

P.C.I. News Bulletin

Other Private Corrections
Industry Resources
Corrections and Criminal Justice
Coalition (CClC), Route 2, Box
1144, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
(888) 315-8784; www.ccjc.com.
A consortium of anti-privatization
correctional employees' unions.
Corrections USA (CUSA), P.O.
Box 394, Newton, NH 03858
(603) 382-9707; www.cusa.org.
A non-profit association affiliated
with correctional offieers' unions;
opposes prison privatization.
Prison Reform Trust, 15 Northburgh Street, 2nd Floor, London,
EC 1V OJR England; phone: 01144-171-251-5070; e-mail: prt@
prisonrefonn.demon.co.uk. Publishes
the Prison Privalisalion Report Int'I
(PPRl), which covers news about
the private corrections industry in
the U.S. and abroad.
Private Corrections Project, Center
for Studies in Criminology and
Law, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville,
FL 32611 (352) 392-1025; web
site: web.crim.ufl.edIpcp. Conducts
research into prison privatization.
Note that the Project receives funding from the private corrections industry; Prot Charles W. Thomas,
director of the Project, is a board
member of Prison Realty Trust.
Reason Foundation, 3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd. #400, Los Angeles,
CA 90034 (310)391-2245; www.
reason.org. A libertarian-oriented
think-tank that favors prison privatization. Note that the Foundation
receives funding from Wackenhut,
Securicor and U.S. Corrections.

3

Ianuary 1999

TN Governor Proposes Regulations
for In-State Private Prisons
Tennessee would bar private
prisons operating within the state
from housing out-of-state prisoners
who are sex offenders or habitual
escapees under a proposal announced by Governor Don Sundquist on
December 18.
Governor Sundquist further
recommended that private prison
contractors be required to return
inmates to their home states before
they arc released, and to reimburse
Tennessee law enforcement authorities for the cost of capturing escapees. The latter provision comes
after four prisoners escaped from
the CCA-operated South Central
Correctional Center in Wayne Co.
on Oct. 12 (see PCINB, November
1998, pg. 1).
Governor Sundquist's proposal further would protect state and
local governments from liability incurred due to private prison operators
and would allow out-of-state inmates
to be incarcerated in city or county
facilities only with the agreement
of local authorities. The governor
submitted his proposal to the Prison
Privatization Advisory Council, a
group he appointed last December
(sec related article, pg. 4).
CCA presently operates two
facilities in Tennessee that hold a
combined total of 1,775 prisoners
from Montana, Hawaii and Wisconsin. These include inmates with
previous histories of escape and
convictions for rape and frrst-degree
murder. But judging from recent
events at one of the CCA facilities,
including beatings by staff and an
attempted cover-up by prison employees, out-of-state inmates may
have more to fear than local com-

munity members (see PCINB, Dec.
J998, pg. I).
Governor Sundquist has been
a staunch proponent of prison privatization; he supported a bill to
privatize up to 70% of the state's
prison system, which failed to pass
last April. His proposal to regulate
private prison operators is skeptically seen by some as an attempt to
preempt more restrictive regulations
currently being considered by the
legislative Select Oversight Committee on Corrections (see PCINB,
Nov. 1998, pg. 10).
State Senator Pete Springer
has called for a complete ban on
out-of-state prisoner transfers into
Tennessee. In 1994 state Representatives Phillip Pinion and Kim
McMillan introduced a regulatory
bill for privately-operated facilities
housing non-Tennessee inmates; the
bill passed in a watered-down form
that mcrely requires private prison
contractors to report when inmates
from other jurisdictions are brought
into the statc. 0
Sources: The Tennessean, December
19,26, 1998.

PROTEST PLANNED
Corrections USA will hold its next
annual conference in Miami and will
be demonstrating at the corporate
offices of Wackenhut Corrections
from Feb. 4-6, 1999. Contact CUSA
for details (see far left column).

p.e.!. News Bulletin

In the News
Jesse Baker, a fonner CCA officer
at the company's Cimarron Corr.
Facility in Oklahoma, pled guilty in
October to accepting a $140 bribe
from a prisoner in exchange for providing cash loans, hiding contraband
and ignoring misconduct by inmates.
He received a five-year suspended
sentence and is cooperating with an
on-going investigation at the prison.
Source: PPRl, Nov.lDec. 1998.
CCA has acquired a contract from
the Bobby Ross Group to manage a
480-bed prison under development
in Laredo, Texas. The $600,000 deal
is expected to close on December
28; Prison Realty Trust intends to
purchase the prison for $22 million.
The facility is scheduled to open in
Februmy 1999, and will house federal prisoners and county inmates.
Sources: The Tennessean, December
22,1998; Commercial Appeal (TN),
December 22, 1998.
Wackenbut officials at the company's
Lea County Correctional Facility in
Hobbs, New Mexico are seeking
ways to stop inmates from making
weapons out of chain-link fence. A
prisoner recently was stabbed over
90 times - the eighth stabbing at
the 1,200-bed prison within the past
six months. Source: U.S.A. Today,
December 31, 1998.
The privately owned and operated
Middle Tenn. Detention Center, a
40-bed juvenile facility in Nashville,
opened Janumy 13 with one resident.
Owner Lige Hollis said he expects
the center to be full by spring. Source:
The Tennessean, Jan. 14, 1999.

4

January 1999

Private Prison Advisory
Council Meets

Correctional Services Corp.
Pledges Improvements

The Prison Privatization Advisory Council, an executive panel
appointed by Tennessee Gov. Don
Sundquist last year, held its first
meeting on Jan. 11 in Nashville.
The Council members include
Lt. Gov. John Wilder, state Finance
Commissioner John Ferguson, Rep.
Lois DeBeTI)', Assist. Comptroller
John Morgan, corrections consultant
Ned Benton, and Justin Wilson. Rep.
DeBeTI)' is the designee of House
Speaker James O. Naifeh; Naifeh's
wife, Betty Anderson, is employed as
a lobbyist for CCA.
"I don't really know why this
council was created," stated Rep.
DeBeTI)', who also is a member of the
legislative Select Oversight Committee on Corrections. She expressed
concern that the Advisory Council
would duplicate the Select Oversight
Committee's work or develop a conflicting agenda with the Committee.
During its initial meeting the
Advisory Council agreed to gain an
overview of the state's contract with
CCA to operate the South Central
Corr. Center, a I,SOO-bed facility
located in Wayne Co., and to discuss
regulations for privately-run prisons
that house out-of-state inmates. Both
issues have been considered by the
Select Oversight Committee.
The Advisory Council indicated
it would try to seek consensus with
the Select Oversight Committee in
regard to regulatory laws for private
prisons. "As I understand it, the role
of the Council is to give the governor
advice," said Select Oversight Committcc Chainnan Jim Kyle. 0

Correctional Services Corp.
took over operations at the Tallulah
Corr. Center for Youth in Madison
Parish, Louisiana on Dec. 14. The
company subcontracted management
of the facility from TransAmerican
Development Associates, which had
operated Tallulah since it opened in
1994. The privately-operated youth
center previously had been cited for
abusive staff members, excessive violence, and inadequate mental health
care (see PC/NB, Aug. 1998, pg. 2).
Correctional Services pledged
to improve conditions at the facility,
sending more than a dozen company
officials to Tallulah to retrain 350
employees. "We expect many challenges; however, we arc confident we
can provide the solutions to make this
a model facility," said Correctional
Services president James Slattery.
Advocates for juvenile offenders reserved judgment, citing problems at other Correctional Servicesoperated facilities, including a youth
center in Pahokee, Florida (see cover
story, pg.l). "It could be more of the
same at Tallulah," said David Utter,
director of the Juvenile Justice Project
of Louisiana, referring to reports of
misconduct at the Pahokee facility.
The U.S. Dept. of Justice has
filed suit against Louisiana over conditions in the state's juvenile prisons
(see PCINB, Dec. 1998, pg. 3), and
lawyers say they want to evaluate
promises made by Correctional Services to improve medical and mental
health care, reduce violence, and add
educational services at Tallulah. 0

Source: Commercial Appeal (TN),
January 12, 1999.

Sources: The Advocate (LA), Dec. 12,
27, 1998; The Times-Picayune (LA),
Dec. 12, 1998.

P.C.1. News Bulletin

5

January 1999

Article Lauds Benefits of Prison Privatization
An article by Adrian T. Moore
in the Nov.-Dec. issue ofCorrections
Technology & Management magazine, entitled "About our need to
compete and how private operators
cut costs," praises privately-operated
prisons for reducing public expenditures on corrections services.
Moore says his own research
indicates that prison privatization
can achieve savings of 10-15%,
although similar cost-reduction
claims recently were questioned in a
report by Abt Associates produced
for the u.s. Attorney General (see
PCINB, Dec. 1998, pg. 5). According
to Moore the private corrections
industry achieves savings through
competition.
The article observes that competition in the private sector results
in efficiency and innovation because
companies must improve their performance in order to survive and
prosper. Cornell Corrections C.E.O.
Steve Logan is quoted as saying,
"When you are competing for contracts to operate correctional facilities, you have to be creative or the
competition will eat you up." Moore
states the contracting process should
remain competitive in the long run
to promote efficiency.
This does not, however, take
into consideration the fact that once
a company has been awarded a
prison management contract it enjoys
a significant advantage over other
firms in subsequent renewal bids,
because other contract contenders
must factor in start-up expenses.
Thus, once companies win private
prison contracts they tend to retain
them, which curtails competition in
the long term.
Moore identifies improved efficiency in the public sector as being

another beneficial effect of private
sector competition, as government
agencies reduce costs to avoid privatization of the services they provide.
He calls this the "great uncounted
benefit" of prison privatization because it indirectly improves
efficiency at publicly-run facilities.
The article cites success stories
in Connecticut, Arizona and the U.K.
in which costs at public prisons were
reduced upon the introduction, or
threat of introduction, of prison
privatization. In Connecticut the
DOC adopted a business-oriented
approach, cutting staffand increasing
revenue generated by prisoners; at
the end of 1996 the agency had a $46
million budget surplus, which it
returned to state coffers.
Moore defines efficiency primarily in monetary terms. But it is
equally important to know whether
such cost-cutting measures at public
prisons were accompanied by corresponding increases in rates of inmate
violence or decreases in rehabilitative programs and services. The
article did not address these points.
Regardless, Moore contends that the
incentive to reduce costs engendered
by competition is itself "a good
argument for the existence of private
prisons."
One of the innovations that
results from competition is more efficient facility design and construction by for-profit prison companies.
Contractors can reduce construction
costs by building prisons much more
quickly than state corrections departments - in about half the time in
some cases. Private-sector companies
are not bound by subcontractor bidding requirements, purchasing restrictions or other forms ofbureaucratic red tape, as are public agencies.

The article further notes that
approximately two-thirds of prison
operating budgets is devoted to personnel expenses, mainly salaries and
benefits, which is where "most of the
opportunity for savings lies." Some
labor costs are reduced through facility design: improved line-of-sight
construction and monitoring technology allow inmates to be supervised by fewer staff members.
The article acknowledges that
pay for guards at privatized prisons
tends to be lower than wages for
correctional officers at publicly-run
facilities. Also, according to Carl
Nink, Assistant Director of Prison
Operations for the Arizona DOC,
"with the high turnover in correctional officers, private [prison] operators
save money on health benefits by
not starting [new employees] for six
months and then paying a smaller
segment of the premium."
Moore describes reduced tension between staff and inmates,
better
purchasing policies and
improved maintenance methods as
being other areas of innovation and
efficiency that result from the
competition that prison privatization
affords.
The article identifies Adrian
Moore as the Director of Economic
Studies for the Reason Public Policy
Institute. Not mentioned is that the
Institute is the policy arm of the
Reason Foundation, a Iibertarianoriented research group whose corporate donors include Wackenhut
Corrections Corp., Securicor, and
U.S. Corrections Corp. - all private
prison operators. 0
Sources: Corrections Technology &
Management, Nov-Dec. 1998 (www.
ctmmag.com); 1997 Annual Report
for the Reason Foundation.

p.e.!. News Bulletin

In the News
Last December a guard at the Cornell Corrections-run Santa Fe Co.
Detention Center in New Mexico
was charged with criminal sexual
penetration of a female prisoner.
Another officer operating the control center overlooking the women's
section of the facility was charged
with conspiracy to commit the same
offense. Source: The Albuquerque
Journal, Dec. 11, 1998.
Two drug offenders at the Wackenhut-operated Taft Corr. Facility in
Taft, California walked away from
the minimum-security section of
the federal prison on December 6,
1998. Source: The Bakersfield Californian, Dec. 9, 1998.
On Dec. II, 1998 two youths escaped from a high-security juvenile
center in Polk Co., Florida operated
by Correctional Services Corporation. Source: The Ledger (Lakeland,
FL), Dec. 14, 1998.
A public hearing is scheduled for
March 18, 1999 on a federal contract bid for two privately-operated
prisons to house Washington, D.C.
inmates. The original contract for a
single 2,200-bed facility, in which
CCA was the main contender, was
withdrawn last year and is being rebid. Source: The Washington Post,
Nov. 24,1998.
Inmate Bill Hambly was stabbed to
death at CCA's Torrance Co. Jail in
Estancia, New Mexico on Nov. 17,
1998. Source: Privatization Update,
December 1998.

6

January 1999

Tennessee Supreme Court Upholds
Private Prison Disc. Procedures
When the Tennessee legislature passed the Private Prison Contracting Act of 1986, codified at TCA
§§ 41-24-101 to 115, the following
provision was included: "No contract
for correctional services shall authorize, allow or imply a delegation of
the authority or responsibility of the
[Dept. of Correction] to a prison contractor for . . . taking any disciplinary
actions."
The Tenn. Dept. of Correction
later developed Uniform Disciplinary
Procedures for the CCA-operated
South Central Corr. Center - the
stale's only privately-operated state
prison. The procedures permit CCA
employees to serve on an institutional
disciplinary board; the board reviews
evidence, determines guilt and makes
recommendations for punishment to a
TDOC liaison - a state employee who reviews the board's decision.
Two inmates at South Central,
Luther Davis and Jabari Mandela,
were charged with rule violations and
found guilty by a disciplinary board
composed of CCA employees. They
then filed separate suits in Chancery
court claiming the disciplinary pro-

cedures at South Central constituted
an illegal delegation of the TDOC's
authority to punish inmates.
Their arguments were rejected
by the Chancery court and Court of
Appeals, and the Tennessee Supreme
Court agreed to hear their consolidated cases. On October 19, 1998 the
Supreme Court ruled that the Uniform Disciplinary Procedures governing disciplinary hearings at state
facilities operated by private contractors do not "improperly delegate
prison disciplinary responsibility to
a private corporation."
The Court found the disciplinary board merely makes recommendations, and final approval of the
recommendations rests solely with
the TOOC liaison. The Court did not
address whether the TDOe liaison
simply rubber-stamps the board's
recommendations without conducting an independent review of the
disciplinary proceedings.
The Court's ruling was published on December 15, 1998.
Source: Mandela v. Campbell, 978
S.W.2d 531 (Tenn. 1998).

WI Prisoners Protest Poor Food
On January 18 and 19, 1999
Wisconsin prisoners at the CCAoperated North Fork Corr. Center
in Sayre, Oklahoma staged a silent
protest about the poor quality of the
food at the facility. Only 70-85 of
the 700 inmates at the privately-run
prison went to the dining hall for each
meal on both days.
"They have our attention," said
John Wisener, chief of security at the

North Fork prison. He said a survey
had been distributed to solicit comments about the food.
Wisener also said the prison
administration was speaking to the
district manager for the food service
provider and checking the menu to
determine if changes were needed. 0
Source: The Post-Crescent (WI), Jan.
22,1999.