Another Escape from a CEC jail

CEC is a smaller company in the private prison industry, but they certainly have their fair share of problems.  In particular they seem to have a lot of trouble just keeping prisoners locked up.  A CEC prison in PA wrongfully released about a half dozen prisoners back in 2011, including a man accused of murdering someone on a playground in broad daylight.  And just yesterday, a man escaped from a CEC jail in Texas while out on work detail

Protecting Against Losses

Quick one here.  In Liberty County, Texas, officials have been working to reduce the population at the county jail, run by CEC.  That's a great thing; that means less people will be incarcerated, and the county can save money and focus on people truly deserving of being behind bars at the same time.  If only CEC hadn't structured the contract so that they get more money per prisoner when the population drops.  So as the population decreases, CEC earns more money per prisoner, and the county loses out on potential savings.  As a county judge said, "They [CEC] are taking all the incentive out of [releasing prisoners]."

Political Donations and Cronyism in NJ

I just wanted to provide a quick update on the ongoing situation in NJ, where a contract to build and operate an immigration detention center was basically handed to a company with strong political ties in the state.  I've covered this a bit in the past (here and here), but basically, the state set up the bidding process in such a way that only one company, a subsidiary of CEC, would be able to secure the contract.

An immigration advocacy group has just released a report detailing the political influence that helped CEC's subsidiary win the contract.  It's a rather short report, but a nice case study of how political relationships cultivated by private industry can severely restrict public oversight and accountability. 

Blatant Political Favoritism

As I discussed previously, the state of New Jersey has been looking to bring a private immigration detention center online for a few months now.  After the initial proposal was announced, it was discovered that the state has basically rigged the bidding process in favor of one single company that has strong relationships with many influential NJ politicians, including governor Christie.  The company, Education and Health Centers of America, is affiliated with a larger private prison company, CEC, which has a terrible track record both within the state and outside it.

So after the plan was protested by advocates because of the obvious favoritism showed to EHCA, the state re-issued its proposal.  And again, EHCA was the only company to bid on the proposed detention center.  And, lo and behold, they won.

Almost Comically Corrupt

I say "Almost," because this story at its heart really deals with human lives and suffering, as impacted by the private prison industry (of course), but the blatant handout from New Jersey to CEC is just ridiculous.

So the state was looking for someone to operate a private prison with approximately 450 beds.  CEC, whose vice president is a close friend and confidant of anti-government governor Chris Christie (you know, the fiscal conservative who flies in a state-owned helicopter to little league games), seems to have had the proposal tailor-made for it.  So much so in fact, that they were literally the only company that could possibly comply with all the restrictions of the request, among them "that the facility be located within a two-hour drive of Newark, New York and Philadelphia and within a 10-mile radius of the Essex County Jail on Doremus Avenue in Newark; that the successful bidder have a facility already being used for correctional purposes; and that it be within 20 miles of a major airport."  

Anyhoo, as part of the request, Essex County said it was seeking an open and competitive bidding process "so [it] can obtain the most professionally delivered and cost effective services." CEC's parent company has already been the beneficiary of more than $500 million in contracts from the state, but apparently NJ thinks that a company that can wrongfully release half a dozen prisoners, including a convicted murderer, in the course of a year can do that.  Because CEC was the only bidder, and - surprise - they won the contract for nearly $10 million.  It seems sometimes as though the more we privatize government services, the more willing governments are to overlook complete breakdowns in contract compliance and delivery of services.  I tend to think CEC's close (aforementioned) ties with the Governor, and the tens of thousands of dollars it donated to an influential county executive might have helped.  CEC was so darn confident about its chances that it even posted announcements for openings at the facility before it had been announced that they won the contract.  As an immigrant advocate, Karina Wilkinson, said, "Essex County has shown that profits come before human rights."

Thankfully though, that wasn't the last word on these shenanigans - ICE and county officials have decided to re-evaluate the contract awarded to CEC.  Amy Gottlieb, of the American Friends Service Committee, hit the nail on the head when she said "The exposure of the unorthodox bidding process, the non-transparency of the bidding process, has maybe raised some questions."  I'll say.  Of course this hasn't stopped that influential county executive, Mr. Devincenzo, from defending the bidding process, which lasted all of 23 days (yep, because you can find a suitable partner for a multi-million dollar contract in 3 weeks), as "fair and open."

"Fair and Open."  And the Pope's a Muslim.

A Poor Investment

I often gripe about how poor the quality of medical care is at private prisons. These facilities are notoriously understaffed and hired less-qualified individuals than government facilities, which in the medical arena translates to substandard care. What makes this phenomenon even worse is that private prisons often are able to essentially "cherry-pick" their populations per the contracts they sign. What I mean is that private prisons sign contracts to house primarily low- and medium-security level offenders, and often take only younger, healthier prisoners than the average.

State systems tend to have prisoners who are older, who have chronic illnesses, and who generally cost more to house and care for. So I was kind of surprised to learn that a lot of pregnant prisoners from marion County, Indiana were being housed in a private jail. The care at this particular facility was so delporable that one young woman died after suffering an emergency and never receiving medical attention.

Thankfully, this spurred some action from the Marion County Sheriff, the government official technically in charge of the contract with CEC, the company that runs the jail. Sheriff John Layton "pulled all pregnant inmates into the Marion County Jail; increased county supervision and control over Liberty Hall and the privately run Marion County Jail II; and ordered external evaluations of the facilities to be conducted by former sheriffs Frank Anderson and Jack Cottey."

It's a shame that it took the death of a 27-year-old woman to encourage an evaluation of care at the jail. CEC is the same company who runs a jail in Delaware County, PA that has wrongly released at least 6 prisoners over the past year due to poor record-keeping (or so they say).

So for as much as proponents of privatization love the "cost-savings" provided by the industry, in this case, as in many others, those savings come at a very real and often incalculable cost of human suffering.

Why You Can't Trust Private Prison Operators

A man charged with murdering someone at a playground in broad daylight was wrongfully released from confinement in Pennsylvania earlier this week.  The mix-up occured at a facility run by Community Education Centers, a smaller company based out of NJ. There is rampant speculation that this could have been an inside job, perpetrated by someone in the records department.  Regardless of whether his release was intentional or not, this just demonstrates an expectable outcome of having poorly trained staff that aren't properly vetted before working in high-risk positions.  Hopefully this will be enough of a lesson to the Delaware County prison officials to teach them to not privatize their prisons.  Doubtful, but I can hope, right?

Here's a link to the initial story about the improper release: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100616_Accused_killer_walks_in_Delco_slammer_snafu.html#axzz0r31y0ALR. 

The title link goes to a more in-depth article about how and why this could have happened.

Another Hernando County-Type Fiasco

A jail in texas, operated by Community Education Centers, a NJ-based company, appears to be in need of more than $1 million in repairs, which the county will likely end up paying for.  Much of the equipment in the facility has not been upgraded for decades, even though CEC claims to pay $60,000 per year in maintenance.  Currently there is some debate about how much of the repairs the county should be responsible for, considering the most recent contract it signed with CEC somehow omitted a clause that CEC "shall return the facility to the county in the same condition as when leased, normal wear, tear and depreciation excepted,” which had been included in recent contracts.  But no one is quite sure why this contract doesn't include it.