Recent Events

Arizona Department of Corrections, Arizona
July 15, 2005 Tucson Citizen
Arizona legislators have made their philosophical point. And it is costing you $11,000 a day.  It was in 2003, when Arizona prisons were badly crowded, that the Legislature decided to act.  Called into a special session to appropriate money for building cells for 4,200 inmates, the Legislature said it would do so only if at least 1,000 of the new beds were in private prisons.  Gov. Janet Napolitano and Corrections Director Dora Schriro objected, saying there was no proof it would be cheaper to send inmates to private facilities.  But state Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, couldn't resist the private prison siren song: "To pass up the opportunity of the private upfront money for construction to me is not responsible fiscal management," he said back in 2003.  Well, now it's 2005 and that siren song has gone flat.  Under legislative mandate, the Department of Corrections contracted with Correctional Services Corp. to build a 1,000-bed prison in Florence for sex offenders.  But here's the kicker: CSC will charge the state $61 a day to house each inmate. The state could do it for $50 a day in a state facility. The CSC bill works out to an extra $11,000 a day for Arizona taxpayers - and an extra $4.1 million a year. So where is the "responsible fiscal management" of which legislators boasted?  mCSC explains its higher cost by saying it will have an "innovative rehabilitation program." We'll see.  Because the vast majority of inmates eventually are released back into society, rehabilitation is an important part of operating a prison. Paying more for effective rehabilitation may be worth it in the long run. But sex offenders are among the most challenging inmates to rehabilitate. So CSC faces a substantial challenge.  Protecting the public from harm is one of the major responsibilities of government. But have legislators done that when they turn over the responsibility of incarcerating dangerous inmates to a private, profit-driven company?  Private prisons make money by hiring fewer correctional officers and paying lower wages. Private prisons also can fail to adequately meet inmates' needs, setting the stage for escapes or disturbances inside prisons, while leaving the state with little authority to correct mismanagement. At a CSC facility in Texas, inmates rioted in January 2003 because, they said, they were underfed.  Arizona has a responsibility not only to its law-abiding citizens, but also to its inmates to ensure they are properly, safely and humanely cared for. And it has a responsibility to do so at the most reasonable price.  Instead of dictating the use of private prisons, legislators should leave those decisions to the corrections professionals.

Augusta Youth Development Campus, Georgia
March 30, 2005 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A former Juvenile justice manager has filed a civil rights lawsuit against two top officials, alleging they forced him to resign after he refused to destroy a memo citing problems at a youth prison. Frank Berry filed suit Friday against Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner Albert Murray and Deputy Commissioner Thomas L. Coleman. Berry ran mental health services for the department for nearly three years. Seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages, Berry claims that Coleman ordered him in February 2004 to destroy a memo he had written, and that he refused. The memo cited mental health care shortfalls at the Augusta Youth Development Campus, which housed "the most vulnerable youth in our system," including some who were prone to suicide. The department's previous commissioner, Orlando Martinez, had put the troubled Augusta youth prison into the hands of a private company. Unique Solutions. But then Youth Services International of Sarasota, Fla., won the contract and was due to take over in February 2004. To ensure a smooth transition, Berry led an all-day meeting at the youth prison with officials and staff from the contractors and the Department of Juvenile Justice and uncovered problems. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. It states that in March 2004, Murray asked Berry if he had considered the consequences of his memo before drafting it and told Berry, "I don't like to be embarrassed." Murray also told Berry that if Murray were asked to destroy a document, he'd have two choices: destroy it or resign. A week later, Berry received a letter from Coleman. It informed him that his last day of employment would be that April 15. Murray was copied on the letter. Berry resigned. The February 2004 memo, which Berry wrote with another staff member, concluded that a private company poised to take over the youth prison wasn't prepared to manage it. It warned that the company's plans for providing medical and psychological care were inadequate. Just before the scheduled takeover, Murray abruptly closed the Augusta facility after Unique Solutions protested the bidding process. The youth prison reopened last November under state control.

A former juvenile justice manager says top officials forced him to resign for refusing to destroy a memo that cited shortfalls in mental health care at a youth prison.  Frank Berry, who ran mental health services for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice for nearly three years, says Deputy Commissioner Thomas Coleman told him in February to get rid of a memo that outlined Berry's concerns about the Augusta Youth Development Campus.  The memo concluded that a private company, which was about to take over the prison that houses the state's most disturbed youngsters, was unprepared to manage a facility that "serves the most vulnerable youth in our system."  The memo -- co-written by Berry and Dr. Shawn Allen, the agency's administrative psychiatrist -- warned that the company's plans for providing medical and psychological care were inadequate.  "We were told to destroy the document by one of the deputy commissioners and ultimately the commissioner," Berry said. "I refused to destroy it.  It would have been unethical at best and illegal at worst."  One year ago, then-Commissioner Orlando Martinez put the troubled Augusta youth prison into private hands after a GBI probe into allegations of sex and drug sales between staff and inmates. Since August 2003, Unique Solutions ran the youth prison. But in February, Youth Services International of Sarasota, Fla., won the contract and was due to take over Feb. 15.  To ensure a smooth transition, Berry chaired an all-day meeting at the facility with officials and staff from the contractors and the Department of Juvenile Justice.  According to Berry, he and Allen left that meeting believing the contractor was not ready to take over the facility. The company's staff had not been adequately trained, it had retained only a part-time psychologist and it still lacked 24-hour nursing care for emergencies -- all in violation of the contract, Berry and Allen wrote in their memo.  "These were the sickest kids in the state, the kids who had significant mental health problems," Berry said. "We felt a strong obligation to the kids to report our concerns about their care."  Just before the scheduled takeover in February, Murray abruptly closed the Augusta youth prison after Unique Solutions protested the bidding process and threatened to seek a temporary restraining order to stop Youth Services International from taking over.  The governor recently announced the Augusta facility would reopen in the fall under state control.  (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 8, 2004)

Bill Clayton Detention Center, Littlefield, Texas
September 17, 2004 Star-Tribune
Four Texans have been jailed on charges of assisting two Wyoming inmates in escaping from the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, last week. Three of the Texans worked as guards at the prison, Littlefield Police Chief Bill McMinn said. Arrested and charged with permitting and facilitating the escape of a convicted felon were Roy Sosa and Yvonne Delagarza, who both worked as guards at the detention center. They were being held in the Lamb County Jail on $50,000 bond each and face two to 20 years in prison if convicted. Delagarza's brother, Robert Sandoval, and Tammy Harper, another prison guard, also have been charged in the incident with hindering the apprehension of a felon, a crime that carries a one- to 10-year prison sentence. They were also in jail on $50,000 bonds. McMinn said the motive for the escape appears to be that the women guards, Harper and Delagarza, were in love with the inmates.

September 16, 2004 Houston Chronicle
Four of the five federal inmates who escaped from a Frio County private prison last month remained at large Thursday, but officials said they've nabbed two people who helped the escapees vanish into a protective underworld of prison-gang sympathizers. Held on charges of instigating or aiding a federal escape are Randy Folsom, 42, and Debra Ayala, 44, both of San Antonio. U.S. Marshals Service officials, who arrested them Wednesday, said Folsom drove as many as four of the "Frio Five" escapees from the Pearsall lockup Aug. 6. The five inmates exited the private prison in daylight through cuts in the chain-link fencing of the recreation yard. Investigators also are trying to determine whether prison personnel aided in the escape.

September 11, 2004 Casper Star Tribune
Two Wyoming inmates were back in custody Friday, after escaping from a Texas detention center the night before. Michael Solis and Jeremiah Zupko apparently cut through a fence to escape from the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas.

September 10, 2004 KCDB
Littlefield police arrested five people involved in a prison break at the Bill Clayton Detention Center, a private facility in Littlefield. So far, their investigation has led them to believe two female prison guards, Iyvonne Delagarza and Tammy Harper, may be involved. Janet Simmons' daughter works at the prison with one of the women who is suspected. At around 9:30 Thursday night, 35-year-old Michael Solis and 22-year-old Jeremiah Zupko cut their way through two layers of fence and razor wire using some kind of cutting tool. Police say they are investigating how the inmates got the tool. Police have not figured out a motive for the prison break and why these two female guards would have reason to help them. The inmates initially were serving time for selling methemphetamines and heroin in Wyoming.

Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, Towson, Maryland
November 29, 2005 Baltimore Sun
As Maryland prepares to close most of the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School this week, it has developed a backlog of tough young offenders who are being held for weeks in juvenile jails while state officials struggle to find places to put them. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced in June that 144 residential beds at Hickey would close by tomorrow. Half of those beds have been used for the most dangerous juvenile offenders, those who have committed such crimes as attempted murder, carjacking, armed robbery and assault. A jail and a sex offender treatment program are to remain open indefinitely at Hickey until replacement facilities can be built elsewhere. Advocates, legislators and others have long called for Hickey to be shut down. The reform school in Baltimore County has long been criticized by state and federal regulators for what they call a violent, dilapidated environment that often failed to rehabilitate youngsters. Ehrlich has drawn fire from judges, legislators, advocates and others for closing Hickey before alternative programs were developed in Maryland.

March 29, 2005 Baltimore Sun
A former social worker with the public defender's office who said she was raped by a 15-year-old boy she was visiting at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School settled a civil lawsuit yesterday against the corporations that ran the juvenile detention center. Amy Bibighaus, 29, will receive $125,000 from the companies that ran the juvenile detention center in Baltimore County, lawyers on both sides of the case said yesterday. While acknowledging that the settlement was far less than the $20 million they had sought in the civil suit, an attorney for Bibighaus characterized the resolution as "a complete vindication" for the social worker, who also was acquitted in 2002 by a Baltimore County judge after being charged with statutory rape for the incident involving the juvenile detainee. "I think for her, the idea was to be vindicated, for them to say, 'Yes, we were responsible for what happened to you.' And I think that happened," said Anton L. Iamele, who represented Bibighaus. Youth Services International ran the troubled Hickey School for nearly 11 years until the state decided not to renew its $16 million-a-year contract last March. After assuming control of the juvenile detention center in Cub Hill, state officials found it to be an out-of-control operation where housing units reeked of urine, walls were covered in graffiti and locks didn't work on the doors of the rooms of dozens of potentially dangerous offenders. The lawsuit alleged that the teenager propositioned Bibighaus after asking the attorney who accompanied her to the meeting to leave the room so he could speak with the social worker alone. He then raped her, according to the lawsuit. When Bibighaus tried to leave the small office, a malfunctioning lock prevented her from being able to escape, and the absence of attentive Hickey staff members kept anyone from quickly discovering the attack, the lawsuit alleged.

The school, which houses 188 juvenile offenders, has been beset by violence, including abuse by staff. Recent incidents there have included a fight in February involving four teen-agers and a staff member that sent two youths to a hospital. The same month, The Sun reported that a Hickey youth was assaulted by two staff members who held him in his room and repeatedly punched him in the face.  When it took over in April, the state asked all those employed at the facility to re-apply for their jobs, and it began screening all 320 of them. It soon learned that the contractor - Florida-based Correctional Services Corp./Youth Services International - had hired workers the state considers unfit.  "It's my understanding there were people here who would not have passed background checks," said former Baltimore police officer Joseph Newman, a Department of Juvenile Services consultant.  After a civil rights investigation, the U.S. Justice Department said in a report last month that it believed workers with felony convictions and histories of using excessive force were being hired at Hickey and the Cheltenham Youth Facility, another state-run detention center, in Prince George's County.  "Notably, we found several instances where we believe that staff with either felony convictions or previous histories of excessive force in a juvenile detention facility were involved in incidents of abuse," the department said in the report to the state last month.  The state pays entry-level youth supervisors between $20,000 and $25,000 - significantly less than their counterparts in surrounding states.  At Hickey, the staff had been earning even less under the private contractor - a little more than $19,000, Adams said.  When it took over, the state found other problems at Hickey besides the staff. In one dormitory, 24 of 30 locks on residents' doors were broken,  Newman said. Many of the buildings were dirty and had graffiti.  (Baltimore Sun, May 8, 2004)

All juvenile and adult correctional facilities must follow Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines and supply hearing aids and interpreters for inmates with hearing impairments so they can attend educational and rehabilitative programs, according to a series of settlement agreements agreed to by the Department of Justice.  The DOJ issued the orders through settlement agreements with the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, Youth Services International Inc. and Correctional Services Corp. in Sarasota, Fla.  The juvenile complaint was filed after a juvenile was sent to a YSI/CSC facility contracted by MDJS. The facility failed to provide him with an interpreter for five months.  (The Special Educator, May 4, 2004)

With blistering language but only a mild threat of further legal action, the U.S. Justice Department has concluded that the violent conditions and substandard care at two Maryland juvenile detention centers are substantially violating the constitutional civil rights of the youths confined there.  The results of the department's 20-month investigation were made public yesterday in a 51-page letter, which details brutal conditions inside the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County and Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County.  "In particular," the letter stated, "we find that children confined at Cheltenham and Hickey suffer harm or the risk of harm from constitutional deficiencies in the facilities' confinement practices, suicide prevention measures, mental health and medical care services, and fire safety. In addition, the facilities fail to provide required education services."  The monitor's most recent quarterly report, issued late last month, concluded that most of the problems outlined in the past had yet to be adequately addressed. It said that assaults had continued at Hickey at the rate of 2.5 a day through the last quarter of 2003.  The state is now running both facilities, although up until March 31 the Hickey School had been managed for the past 11 years by a private contractor, Youth Service International, which since 1999 has been a subsidiary of Correctional Services Corporation, based in Florida.  The investigation also faulted poor training for staff and said that staff members often failed to report serious incidents.  It also faulted poor security in Hickey's dormitories, saying that "youth are not sufficiently supervised, allowing them to tamper with locking mechanisms on youth room doors, disable the locks, and enter other youth rooms to assault one another."  (Baltimore Sun, April 17, 2004)

The General Assembly approved an extensive but slow makeover of Maryland's juvenile justice system yesterday, in hopes of emulating a lengthy reform effort in Missouri that has lowered recidivism even while cutting costs. At the heart of the proposal are plans to eventually shrink or close the state's big detention centers, which have been beset for decades by abuse, mismanagement and a legacy of housing repeat offenders.  Those facilities, such as the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, a detention center in Baltimore County now housing 260 youths, would have to be no larger than 48 beds, as would all state treatment centers for troubled youths. In addition, the state would run all the facilities itself. The Hickey School has been run by private, for-profit contractors for most of the past 13 years.  As if to illustrate the dire conditions now facing the system, two teens who were housed at the Hickey School last year filed suit last week in Baltimore County Circuit Court against the Department of Juvenile Services and Hickey's former manager, the Youth Services International subsidiary of Correctional Services Corporation.  Seeking $50 million in damages, the suit alleges that staffers beat the youths off and on throughout April 2003, and threatened to kill their families if they "snitched." One staffer allegedly repeatedly slammed a 13-year-old's head into the wall because the teen had told another to report abuse.  (Baltimore Sun, April 12, 2004)

A fight yesterday involving four teen-agers and a staff member at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School sent two youths to the hospital, just as state police were beginning efforts to bolster security at the troubled juvenile detention center. The confluence of events put state Juvenile Services Department officials in the awkward position of promoting a new security initiative one moment only to have to explain yet another outbreak of violence the next. And it occurred amid growing criticism that disorder in the detention centers has reached critical levels. "I think the point has been made that circumstances at these facilities need improvement," Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth C. Montague Jr. said. (Baltimore Sun, February 24, 2004)

A youth in state custody at the Charles H. Hickey School in Baltimore County was assaulted last month by two staff members who held him in his room and repeatedly punched him in the face, according to police records. One of the staff members offered the victim's roommate, who witnessed the incident, free telephone calls and a CD player to keep quiet about the beating, the roommate told police. It is the second case to come to light in the past week in which staff have been criminally charged with assaulting a youth at a state-owned juvenile detention center. In the other incident, at the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County, four workers were charged with holding down a 17-year-old and striking him on Nov. 30. In a third case, a 16-year-old boy at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center was severely beaten last month by five other youths. None of the incidents was disclosed by the state Department of Juvenile Services until word began to leak out from police or others. The department acknowledged the Hickey case yesterday only after The Sun learned about it from other sources. Juvenile Services officials contend that they are not obliged to alert the public to such incidents but will reply to queries if the cases become known. (Baltimore Sun, February 20, 2004)

The Charles H. Hickey Jr. School continues to be beset by violence, some of it perpetrated by staff, and conditions have not improved since a scathing report in May detailed 20 cases of child abuse and neglect at the juvenile detention facility, according to the state independent monitor. With the number of assaults and other violent incidents showing no signs of abating, the Office of the Independent Juvenile Justice Monitor recommended in September that the state consider firing the private contractor that operates Hickey, according to documents obtained by The Sun under a public records request. (The Baltimore Sun, December 19, 2003)

Cold Springs Correctional Facility (Mansfield Boot Camp), Fort Worth, Texas
October 22, 2005 Sarasota Herald Tribune
Correctional Services Corp. has settled a $38.3 million judgment that held the company responsible for the death of an 18-year-old inmate at a Texas boot camp. Terms of the agreement are confidential, but the Sarasota-based prison manager said Friday it will pay $2.7 million toward the settlement. The rest will be covered by CSC's liability insurers, which initially balked at paying the award. The agreement is contingent on the closing of CSC's previously announced sale to The GEO Group Inc. for $62 million. CSC shareholders will vote on the sale Nov. 4. If that deal falls through, so does the settlement. A Texas jury in August 2003 found CSC and a nurse at the now-closed Mansfield boot camp responsible for the death of Bryan D. Alexander. Alexander, serving a six-month sentence for a misdemeanor driving conviction, died in 2001 of a rare penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia. Trial testimony showed he was treated for a cold and flu even though he had coughed up blood for five days before his death. His parents sued CSC and nurse Knyvett Reyes for their loss and anguish. Reyes was convicted of negligent homicide and was sentenced to four years of community supervision. She also surrendered her registered nurse's license. The judgment against CSC and Reyes included $35 million in actual damages, $750,000 in punitive damages and more than $2.4 million in interest. The settlement will resolve all claims and lawsuits against CSC and Reyes. It also will end a dispute between CSC and its liability insurers over who should pay. Boca Raton-based GEO is paying $62 million in cash, or $6 a share, and assuming $124 million in liabilities to acquire CSC. It will then sell the Youth Services International subsidiary to CSC president James Slattery for $3.75 million. That unit manages programs at 17 centers with 1,300 beds. GEO will acquire the adult division that owns or operates 15 facilities with 7,500 beds. GEO manages 41 prisons and jails with 36,000 beds in the United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada. Shares of CSC were selling for $5.91 on the Nasdaq at the close of trading Friday, up 1 cent.

October 22, 2005 NEWS8 Austin
The corporate parent of a now-defunct Mansfield detention facility has reached an out-of-court settlement with the family of a teenager who died while serving time at its boot camp. Correctional Services Corp. announced the settlement yesterday with the family of Bryan Alexander. The 18-year-old died in 2001 while serving a six-month sentence for a drunken-driving arrest. Alexander's family was awarded nearly $40 million in damages by a Tarrant County jury in 2003. But the details of Friday's settlement have not been released. Under the agreement, the boy's family will not file any new suits or pursue appeals against Tarrant County or its criminal-court judges. The boy's parents sued the company and camp nurse after he died from penicillin-resistant pneumonia. Although the teen complained of weakness and was coughing up blood, the camp had waited several days before taking him to a hospital. The suit claimed the camp and nurse failed to provide the teen with adequate and timely medical care.

September 30, 2005 Star-Telegram
U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit against Tarrant County and its criminal court judges over the death of a teen-ager who was serving a sentence at the former Mansfield boot camp four years ago. Means left the door open for attorneys representing the family of Bryan Alexander to sue the judges in state court. A lawsuit against the county has been thrown out of state court. Alexander, 18, died in January 2001 while serving a six-month sentence for drunken driving. While at the camp, he complained of feeling weak and coughing up blood. Days later, he was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he was immediately put into intensive care. He died two days later. Tests indicated that he had a rare, penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia. In the federal lawsuit, Alexander's family said the county, and the judges individually, should be held liable because they didn't properly monitor Correctional Services Corp., the company contracted to run the camp. A year ago, Means denied the judges judicial immunity, saying they were acting not as judges but as managers of the facility. But in his ruling Wednesday, Means said public officials do enjoy immunity from lawsuits for damages providing that their conduct does not clearly violate an individual's rights.

February 10, 2005 Star Telegram
Several Tarrant County judges sued over a death at the defunct boot camp are being accused of unethical behavior for considering cases involving the attorneys who are suing them. Defense attorneys Charlie Smith and Bill Lane say that state district judges Sharen Wilson and George Gallagher have decided that they will not automatically transfer those cases to other courts. Since January 2003, the judges have routinely transferred cases handled by Smith and Lane to other courts after the attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against them and the county. In the federal lawsuit, the attorneys say that sloppy oversight by the judges allowed an array of problems to continue at the former Mansfield boot camp, where 18-year-old inmate Bryan Alexander died. Lane and Smith are among several attorneys representing the Alexander family. U.S. District Judge Terry Means ruled in August that the judges can be held liable individually, along with the county, because they were acting as managers of the facility operated by Correctional Services Corp. Smith filed a motion to remove Wilson from hearing a felony theft case on Tuesday. In the filing, he described the judge's decision to deny a transfer as "clear evidence" of hostility toward him. Denying Smith's motion "creates a reasonable doubt as to Judge Sharen Wilson's capacity to act impartially as a judge in connection with this case," court documents state.

August 27, 2004 
Tarrant County's criminal court judges are not protected by judicial immunity in a civil rights lawsuit stemming from the death of a teen-ager at the former Mansfield boot camp, a federal judge ruled.  U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means said the judges can be held liable individually, along with the county, because they were acting not as judges, but as managers of the facility operated by Correctional Services Corp.  The judges helped establish the budgets and approved the selection of the private prison operator "in spite of a significant history of operational deficiencies," attorneys for the teen-ager's family have argued. "The court concludes that the defendant judges are not entitled to judicial immunity," Means wrote this week.  "It's huge," Mark Haney, the family's attorney, said of Means' ruling. "The judges can be held personally accountable for establishing policies and procedures ... that routinely denied access to medical care to the detainees."  In July, Means denied a claim by Northland Insurance Co., CSC's insurance carrier, stating that its policies do not cover the judgment against them.  (Star-Telegram)

December 3, 2003
Visiting State District Judge Roger Towery has ruled that Sarasota, Fla.-based Correctional Services Corp. must pay a $38 million judgment that was awarded earlier this summer to the parents of a young man who died at a Mansfield, Tex., boot camp in 2001.  In August, a jury in Fort Worth's 236th District Court awarded the family of Bryan Alexander $35 million in actual damages and $5.1 million in punitive damages following an eight-week trial.  Alexander died from a penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia he contracted while participating in a six-month boot camp program as a condition of his misdemeanor probation. Evidence in the case showed that Alexander, who was 18 years old, died after CSC employees ignored his pleas for medical attention for days.  In September, Judge Towery set the actual damages at $37.4 million, including interest, and reduced the punitive damages to $750,000. CSC responded by asking the court to reduce or set aside the entire judgment, arguing that there was "no legally or factually sufficient evidence to support the jury's findings." CSC President James Slattery told CSC investors during a recent conference call that the company expected the court to reduce the $38 million judgment. In his ruling issued yesterday, the judge denied all of CSC's motions.  "We are pleased that once again the jury's verdict in this case has been upheld," says attorney Jeff Kobs, a partner in Fort Worth's Kobs & Haney, who represented the Alexander family along with Fort Worth attorney Bill Lane. "We are confident that the Courts will continue to deny CSC's repeated attacks on the jury's decision."  As a result of this ruling, CSC has until Dec. 16, 2003, to file its notice of appeal, and the company must also post a $25 million bond by Dec. 28, 2003, in order to prevent the Alexander family from attempting to collect the judgment amount. Interest has been accruing at a rate of $5,250 per day since the original judgment was entered in September.  In a related federal court action, CSC's insurance carrier, Northland Insurance Co., is seeking a declaration that its policies do not cover the $38 million judgment. CSC is arguing that the Northland policies should cover the judgment amount, and that Northland acted improperly in failing to settle the claims prior to the jury's verdict.  For more information on the court's ruling, please contact attorney Jeff Kobs at 817.332.5956, attorney Bill Lane at 817.625.5570, or Bruce Vincent at 214.559.4630 or pager 888.361.8452.  (yahoo.com)

October 10, 2003
Day in and day out, workers sling hash to feed the 3,500 Tarrant County Jail inmates three hot meals a day.   But as companies line up this month to bid for a multimillion-dollar food-services contract, the focus has shifted from slinging hash to slinging mud.  Two of the companies expected to bid on the contract are run by former business partners turned bitter rivals.  Sealed bids are due to the Tarrant County purchasing department by Oct. 27. The contract, now held by Hurst-based Mid-States Services, is worth about $4.1 million a year.  Among the companies expected to bid is Dallas-based Mid-America Services, run by Jack Madera. He has a long history of winning lucrative contracts and maintaining friendships with elected officials who have a say in whether the company gets public business.  Mid-America will compete for the contract against Mid-States, which Madera started in 1970 and sold in February 1999.  John Sammons, chief executive of Mid-States and one of the investors who bought the company from Madera, said there is more to the bid than just a second helping of cafeteria business.  "Our group is committed to running this company with integrity," Sammons said. "There is a clear-cut delineation between the Mid-States of the past and the Mid-States of today.  "The kind of customer base we want is the kind who embraces integrity in government."  Business and pleasure  Many in Texas law enforcement consider Madera a friend, including Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson, whose office oversees jail operations including the kitchen.  "The relationship began when I was elected," Anderson said. "Jack was, at that point, a consultant for Mid-States.  "Both he and John [Sammons] became friends of mine and supporters."  Sammons says Madera's ties to law-enforcement officials prompted him to keep Madera on board as a consultant after Madera sold Mid-States in 1999.  Madera and Sammons parted ways in March 2002, when Madera started Mid-America after a three-year non-competition agreement expired with Mid-States.  Madera looked to his old friends to help his new business and promptly won contracts in Dallas and Denton counties.  There are two types of contracts: food-services contracts, under which the county pays companies to provide meals to inmates, and commissary contracts, under which companies sell snacks and other items to inmates and return a portion of the proceeds to the county.  Sheriffs control jail commissaries, including selection of the companies that handle the services. Bids are required, and county proceeds must be used to benefit inmates.  A provision applying only to Tarrant County requires commissioners court approval of commissary contracts.  Some of Madera's contracts have raised eyebrows. In Dallas, Madera's relationship with Sheriff Jim Bowles has been criticized since Bowles awarded the commissary contract to Mid-America in June 2002.  One Dallas County official labeled the contract a "bad business decision," and questions have been raised about whether Madera exerted undue influence through his friendships. But no specific allegations of wrongdoing have been voiced publicly.  Madera's bid in Dallas County gave the sheriff's department about $600,000 a year, less than what was offered by two other competitors, including Mid-States.  In Tarrant County, Anderson awarded Madera's Mid-America the contract for commissary services in April. The company sells aspirin, snacks, soap and other items from carts, dubbed "banana wagons," that workers wheel through the jail.  Under the commissary contract, Madera will pay the sheriff's office at least $750,000 a year. As was the case in Denton and Dallas counties, Madera won the Tarrant County business by beating out Mid-States, which held the existing contracts.  'No hidden agenda'  Anderson says he is confident that the bidding will be above board, as he says it was when he awarded Mid-America the commissary contract.  Tarrant County commissioners are expected to vote on the food-services contract by Dec. 31. Six companies are expected to submit bids, which will be analyzed by an evaluation committee.  Anderson said the current commissary contract shows that local officials are committed to hammering out the best deal possible.  "I believe we have the most lucrative contract for any county in the state," Anderson said. "It is second to none."  Anderson said he has lunched regularly and dined occasionally with Madera and has dined with Sammons, played golf at his country club and seen a Dallas Stars game from a luxury box, all at Sammons' expense.  "I don't do anything in secret," Anderson said. "There is no hidden agenda.  "Because we are clients, we have a relationship with those people," he said. "Certainly, nothing improper has taken place."  Sammons also said there is nothing improper about his relationship with Anderson.  "Building relationships is part of doing business in the public and the private sector," Sammons said. "It is hard to develop trust."  Madera would not comment to the Star-Telegram except to say he intends to bid on the jail food-services contract and that he denies any inappropriate relationships with Tarrant County officials.  "There is nothing inappropriate going on in Dallas, either," Madera said.  Commissioner J.D. Johnson, who represents Precinct 4, in the northwest part of the county, said his 15- to 20-year friendship with Madera has not influenced county business.  "I've always tried to vote for what I thought was the best deal, and it's what I'll do this time," Johnson said.  Sammons, however, said he'll watch the bidding closely to ensure that he's treated fairly.  He won't be alone.  Patrick Turner, regional sales director for Aramark Corp., which also expects to bid on the contract, said: "On a level playing field, we have always been able to compete. But that's always been the question, whether it has always been a level playing field."  (Star-Telegram)

September 18, 2003
Visiting State District Judge Roger Towery has signed a $38.3 million judgment against Sarasota, Fla.-based Correctional Services Corp. in a lawsuit over the death of an 18-year-old man who died at a Mansfield boot camp in 2001.  The judgment, entered yesterday in Tarrant County's 236th District Court, includes $37.4 million in actual damages plus interest and $750,000 in punitive damages. In August, a Fort Worth jury awarded $35 million in actual damages and $5.1 million in punitive damages to the family of Bryan Alexander. The punitive damages were reduced in the judgment under Texas punitive damage caps.  According to the lawsuit, Alexander died on Jan. 9, 2001, from a penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia while participating in a six-month boot camp program as a condition of his misdemeanor probation. Alexander chose the boot camp over jail time. He died after his pleas for medical attention were ignored for days.  "This judgment sends a clear signal that the original verdict in this case was sound," says Jeff Kobs, a partner in Fort Worth's Kobs & Haney, who represented the Alexander family along with Fort Worth attorney Bill Lane.  During trial, Kobs and Lane argued that Alexander's medical condition should have triggered a response from the boot camp nurse or other employees of CSC. Evidence in the case showed that Alexander experienced difficulty breathing and began coughing up blood at least five days before his death. CSC eventually transferred Alexander to a local hospital, but he died less than 36 hours after being admitted.  "Bryan's was a senseless death that should never have happened," Lane says. "The Alexander family hopes this judgment will send a clear message to CSC and other for-profit correctional companies, and that no other families are forced to suffer a similar ordeal."  Under Texas law, CSC has 30 days to appeal the judgment, ask for a new trial, or pay the $38.3 million judgment. If CSC appeals the judgment, state law would delay the payment of the judgment if CSC posts a $25 million bond.  For more information on the judgment in this case, please contact attorney Jeff Kobs at 817.332.5956, attorney Bill Lane at 817.625.5570, or Bruce Vincent at 214.559.4630 or pager 888.361.8452.  (Yahoo Finance)

September 2, 2003
Jail operator Correctional Services Corp. on Friday said a Texas jury awarded plaintiffs $5.1 million in punitive damages in a wrongful death suit against the company and a former employee, but recovery is limited to $850,000 under Texas law.  The company said its primary liability insurance carrier has recently taken the not uncommon step of disclaiming coverage, but it believes the carrier has no legitimate basis for the decision and has retained counsel to enforce its rights under the policies.  (Yahoo Finance)

August 29, 2003
With no prior criminal record, the 18-year-old Arlington man hoped that the former Mansfield boot camp would set him straight after a drunken-driving arrest.  He chose the regimented, low-security corrections facility over jail time.  But a rare, penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia killed Bryan Alexander on Jan. 9, 2001, while he served his six-month sentence. His pleas for medical attention had been ignored for days.  "He wanted to get some discipline at the camp and a chance to get his GED. It turned out to be a death sentence for a DWI," said Charlie Smith, who represented the teen-ager in the criminal matter and his family in a civil lawsuit.  On Thursday, a Tarrant County jury added $5.1 million in punitive damages to its award Wednesday of $35 million in actual damages for Alexander's death, his suffering and his parents' mental anguish and loss of their son.  Jurors blamed the camp's nurse, Knyvett Reyes, and Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., which contracted to run the 370-bed facility.  CSC must pay $26 million of the judgment, Reyes $14.1 million. Reyes' attorney, Michael Wallach, and CSC's attorney, Vic Anderson, declined to comment.  The lawsuit brought by Alexander's parents, Rickey Alexander and Judy Schumpert, said Reyes and CSC failed to provide Alexander with adequate and timely medical care.  He had complained of feeling weak and coughing up blood days before he was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Alexander was immediately placed in intensive care but died two days later.  The boot camp and residential drug-treatment programs at the Mansfield facility were closed six months after Alexander's death. CSC had been paid $2.9 million a year by the state to run the facility.  On Thursday, attorneys for the Alexander family asked the jury of five women and seven men to further punish CSC and Reyes to send a message to other correction facilities and nurses.  "You did listen to Bryan's pleas for help. Unfortunately for Bryan, you are 2 1/2 years too late," Bill Lane, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, told the jury in closing arguments Thursday in the punitive-damage stage of the trial. "But you are not too late to send a message to this private corporation that we will not accept the lowest bidder or that the bottom line is worth more than a human life."  Attorneys for the defendants argued that their clients were unaware of the seriousness of Alexander's illness. Reyes testified that she treated Alexander for a cold, flu and strep throat based on her evaluation of his symptoms.  Fort Worth accountant L. Andrew McCartney said CSC is worth more than $50.8 million, based on recent financial reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  CSC has about $25 million in insurance coverage that could be used to cover the judgment, said Anderson, CSC's attorney.  "If the company is closed down, there are going to be a lot of people out of jobs," he said.  Reyes' attorney, Wallach, said: "I think we all know Knyvett Reyes is not a corporation. I would ask that you punish her no further."  (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

August 28, 2003
A former nurse and a Florida-based private corrections company that operated the defunct Mansfield boot camp were responsible for the death of an 18-year-old inmate, a Tarrant County jury decided Wednesday.  The jury of five women and seven men ordered the nurse and company to pay $35 million for the death of Bryan Alexander, his suffering, and his parents' mental anguish and loss of companionship.  Alexander died of a rare penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, two days after being transported from the camp for probationers.  Arlington lawyer Charlie Smith, who represented Alexander in his criminal matter and the Alexander family in the wrongful-death lawsuit, said he was not surprised by the jury's verdict.  "This case was more like a homicide case than a wrongful-death lawsuit because of the way this young man died," said Smith, one of seven attorneys representing the Alexander family. "Bryan's family was hopeful that this jury would speak loud about the conduct of these defendants so it will not happen to another child in the same circumstances as Bryan Alexander."  The lawsuit asserted that Correctional Services Corp., and its nurse at the camp, Knyvett Reyes of Arlington, did not provide Alexander with adequate and timely medical care. Alexander had complained of feeling weak and was coughing up blood days before he was taken to JPS Hospital.  But Reyes testified during the seven-week trial that, based on her evaluation of his symptoms, she treated Alexander for a cold, flu and strep throat. Witnesses testified that Reyes thought the inmate was faking his illness.  Reyes' attorney, Michael Wallach, declined to comment after the jury's verdict. Correctional Services Corp.'s attorney, Vic Anderson, also declined to comment.  Attorneys for Alexander's parents, Rickey Alexander and Judy Schumpert, said Reyes' skepticism cost Alexander his life. He was serving a sentence at the facility for a drunken-driving conviction and had no prior criminal record, according to testimony.  Correctional Services Corp., which was paid about $2.9 million a year to run the camp, must pay 60 percent of the $35 million judgment, while Reyes was ordered to pay 40 percent.  The jury also decided that Reyes and Correctional Services Corp. acted with malice in ignoring Alexander's pleas for help, which means the defendants must pay punitive damages. Closing arguments are scheduled for today to determine punitive damages.  Fort Worth accountant L. Andrew McCartney said Correctional Services Corp. is worth more than $50.8 million, based on recent financial reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  "They are currently making a profit," he testified.  Reyes' financial condition was not brought up.  Plaintiffs' attorneys are seeking $40 million in punitive damages for the Alexander family.  Correctional Services Corp. has about $25 million in insurance coverage that could be used to cover the lawsuit judgment, said Anderson, the company's attorney.  "In this case, the plaintiffs are asking the jury to punish the company. If the jury punishes the company, they are probably going to be punishing the stockholders of this company," Anderson said.  (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

August 28, 2003
A former nurse and a Florida-based private corrections company that operated a defunct Mansfield boot camp were responsible for the death of an 18-year-old inmate, a Tarrant County jury decided Wednesday.  The jury of five women and seven men ordered the nurse and company to pay $35 million for the death of Bryan Alexander, his suffering, and his parents' mental anguish and future loss of companionship.  Alexander died of a rare penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, two days after being transported from the camp for probationers.  Arlington lawyer Charlie Smith, who represented Alexander in his criminal case and the Alexander family in the wrongful-death lawsuit, said he was not surprised by the jury's verdict.  "This case was more like a homicide case than a wrongful-death lawsuit because of the way this young man died," said Smith, one of seven attorneys representing the Alexander family. "Bryan's family was hopeful that this jury would speak loud about the conduct of these defendants so it will not happen to another child in the same circumstances as Bryan Alexander."  The lawsuit asserted that Correctional Services Corp. and its nurse at the camp, Knyvett Reyes, failed to provide Alexander with adequate and timely medical care. Alexander had complained of weakness and was coughing up blood days before he was taken to JPS Hospital.  But Reyes testified during the seven-week trial that, based on her evaluation of his symptoms, she treated Alexander for a cold, flu and strep throat. Witnesses testified that Reyes thought the inmate was faking his illness.  Attorneys for Alexander's parents, Rickey Alexander and Judy Schumpert, said Reyes' skepticism cost Alexander his life. He was serving a sentence at the facility for a drunken-driving conviction and had no prior criminal record, according to testimony.  Correctional Services Corp., which was paid about $2.9 million a year to run the camp, must pay 60 percent of the $35 million judgment; Reyes was ordered to pay 40 percent.   (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

August 27, 2003
Correctional Services Corporation today announced that a Tarrant County, Texas jury has returned a $35 million verdict against the Company and its former employee in the wrongful death suit by the parents and estate of Bryan Alexander. Mr. Alexander died of a rare penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia while incarcerated at the Tarrant County Community Correctional Facility, which was operated by the Company at the time. The jury will now be asked to consider whether punitive damages should also be awarded against the Company and/or its former employee.  (Yahoo Finance)

August 27, 2003
A Tarrant County jury is expected to continue deliberations today in the wrongful-death lawsuit in the case of an Arlington teen-ager who died while serving a sentence at the former Mansfield boot camp.  Bryan Alexander, 18, died of pneumonia at John Peter Smith Hospital on Jan. 9, 2001 -- days after he complained of feeling weak and coughing up blood. He had a rare penicillin-resistant infection, hospital tests later revealed.  Attorneys for his parents, Rickey Alexander and Judy Schumpert, said Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., the private company that operated the boot camp, and its nurse, Knyvett Reyes, ignored Bryan Alexander's pleas for medical attention and could have saved his life.  The attorneys are asking for at least $75 million for Alexander's death, his suffering and his parents' mental anguish.   (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

August 26, 2003
A Tarrant County jury began deliberations Monday in the wrongful-death lawsuit in the case of an Arlington man who died while serving a drunken-driving sentence at the former Mansfield boot camp.  Bryan Alexander, 18, died of pneumonia at John Peter Smith Hospital on Jan. 9, 2001 -- days after he complained of feeling weak and coughing up blood. He had a rare penicillin-resistant infection, hospital tests later revealed.  Attorneys for his parents -- Rickey Alexander and Judy Schumpert -- said the Florida-based private company that operated the boot camp and its nurse, Knyvett Reyes, ignored his pleas for medical attention and could have saved his life.  "They don't believe they did anything wrong," said Jeff Kobs, one of seven attorneys representing the Alexander family. "No one has come to this courtroom to say they were sorry or regret what they did. I want you to tell these people they are responsible and what happened was wrong."  Alexander's parents are suing Reyes and Correctional Services Corp., which contracted to run the 370-bed facility for probationers and drug treatment. Plaintiffs' attorneys suggested an award of $75 million for Alexander's death, his suffering and his parents' mental anguish.  A jury of five women and seven men listened to nearly eight hours of closing arguments Monday in the trial that began July 7. They are expected to resume deliberations this morning.  The defendants' attorneys argued that Alexander was provided with adequate medical care and that he was the only one to blame for his death because he failed to provide the camp's nurse with enough information about his illness.  "It wasn't going to make any difference on the ultimate outcome if he had been seen by a doctor on Jan. 5," Reyes' attorney, Michael Wallach, said. "Alexander never proved he was coughing up blood until Jan. 7. He had every opportunity to bring nurse Reyes the proof."  Attorney Vic Anderson, who represents CSC, said the plaintiffs' witnesses were not credible because they were mostly former inmates at the boot camp, and he frequently called them "criminals."  Anderson also said that Alexander showed signs of having a cold or the flu but that he was not seriously ill until he was transported to JPS.  "We believe nurse Reyes did not think there was an extreme risk involved with Alexander," Anderson said. "She was treating him for strep throat."  Reyes was convicted of negligent homicide last year in Alexander's death and sentenced to four years' probation. But attorneys for the Alexander family could not present her conviction to jurors because the case is under appeal.  The county's 19 criminal court judges closed the boot camp in July 2001 amid an array of problems at the facility. Attorneys for the Alexander family are also suing the judges who oversaw the facility in 2000 and 2001 and the probation department.  Reyes surrendered her nursing license in 2001 during a state nursing board investigation.  CSC still has two contracts with Texas. The publicly traded company is paid about $7 million to run a halfway house in Fort Worth and an intermediate-sanction facility in Houston, state prison spokesman Larry Todd said.  Alexander's attorneys said a judgment in the lawsuit is important to prevent similar incidents at other facilities operated by CSC.  "We're talking about a for-profit corrections company that houses our youths. They do it for the money. And it's the bottom line they are concerned about, not about responsibility," said Bill Lane, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys. "It is wrong what happened to Bryan Alexander, and they should pay for what happened."   (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

July 21, 2003
A Texas Rangers' investigation into the death of an inmate at the former Mansfield boot camp determined that the 18-year-old probationer had to take cold and flu pills for days before he was allowed to visit a nurse. Attorneys blamed a nurse's skepticism and poor staffing by a Florida-based private company that ran a Mansfield boot camp for the death of an inmate who had been serving a drunken-driving sentence at the facility.  The attorneys, who represent the parents of Bryan Alexander, made the accusations Thursday during opening statements of a wrongful death trial. Alexander, 18, of Arlington died Jan. 9, 2001, two days after being transferred to a Fort Worth hospital. He had a form of pneumonia that was resistant to penicillin. Plaintiffs' attorneys contend the camp's nurse and Correctional Services Corp., which contracted to run the camp for the county's judges and probation department, failed to provide Alexander with timely and adequate medical care.  "They watched him die," Charlie Smith said in opening statements. He is one of seven attorneys representing Alexander's parents, Rickey Alexander and Judy Schumpert.  Visiting State District Judge Roger Towery is presiding over the trial, and a five-woman, seven-man jury will decide the case.  The plaintiffs' attorneys contend Bryan Alexander tried to get medical attention as early as Dec. 31 but was not seen until Jan. 5. Alexander had been given over-the-counter medication to treat a cold or flu.  Alexander's parents are suing CSC and the camp's former nurse, Knyvett Reyes, who was hired by the company. Reyes was convicted of negligent homicide last year in Alexander's death. Attorneys on both sides are awaiting clarification from the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth on whether that conviction is final or under appeal.  Vic Anderson, an attorney for CSC, said Reyes acted appropriately in treating what she believed was the flu or strep throat and could not have known the severity of Alexander's illness.  "We do not deny the fact that Mr. Alexander was ill and began feeling bad sometime in late December or early January," Anderson said in opening statements. "But a lot of people at the facility were feeling bad," he said.  "There was an outbreak of flu. It was not an unusual thing for someone at the camp to say they are sick to get out of work or to get a trip to the hospital."  Alexander died two days after being taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth on Jan. 7, 2001. "Just because there is a death doesn't necessarily mean there is someone at fault," Anderson said.  Texas Rangers Sgt. Alvin Alexis testified that the boot camp had a policy of requiring probationers at the 370-bed Mansfield facility to take over-the-counter drugs for three days before they could request a visit to the camp's nurse.  Alexis said Alexander complained of coughing up blood but had to take cold and flu pills for three days and then tried for another three days to visit the camp's nurse. Alexis based his conclusions on CSC records and interviews with CSC employees and boot camp inmates.  Reyes' attorney, Michael Wallach, told jurors they should question the reliability of inmates' statements, even Alexander's.  "You will have to determine whether Bryan Alexander was a reliable historian of his own health problems," he said.  The civil lawsuit, which initially sought more than $700 million in damages, is expected to last more than a month, court officials said. Attorneys for Alexander's parents are not disclosing how much in damages they'll seek at the conclusion of the trial.  (Fort Worth Star Telegram)

July 14, 2003
Jury selection begins today in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of an 18-year-old Arlington man who died after becoming ill at a former Mansfield facility for probationers.  While serving a sentence for drunken driving, Bryan Alexander developed a rare lung infection and died Jan. 9, 2001, two days after being transferred to a Fort Worth hospital.  Alexander's parents, Rickey Alexander and Judy Schumpert, are suing Correctional Services Corp., the Florida-based private contractor that operated the camp, and its former nurse, Knyvett Reyes, who was convicted in Alexander's death last year.  The lawsuit, which initially sought $755 million, contends that the camp and its employees ignored warning signs of Alexander's failing health.  Attorneys for Correctional Services and Reyes did not return phone calls Friday.  The lawsuit may help prevent other inmates' medical concerns from being ignored, attorneys for Alexander's parents say.  Last year, Reyes, the camp's former nurse, was sentenced to two years in jail, but a probationary sentence was imposed in lieu of jail time. She was also ordered to pay $10,939.74 in restitution. The attorneys for the state and for Reyes negotiated the sentence.  Reyes' attorney, Jack Strickland, is trying to appeal the conviction. But the special prosecutor in the case is fighting the request, meaning that Reyes' conviction can be used as evidence in the civil case, attorneys say.  Plaintiff attorneys said they will focus on Reyes' actions in Alexander's death and how the private contractor limited inmates' access to medical attention.  The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office ruled that Alexander died of pneumonia caused by an antibiotic-resistant infection. Doctors at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth could not detect and treat the infection in time to save his life.  Six months after Alexander's death, the county's 19 criminal-court judges voted to close the boot camp and residential drug-treatment programs at the 370-bed facility. The judges also voted to end the county's $2.9 million annual contract with Correctional Services Corp.  (Star-Telegram)

Colorado County Juvenile Facility, Eagle Lake, Texas
February 7, 2006 The Victoria Advocate
Colorado County officials are expected to decide today if the county will close the Eagle Lake Juvenile Detention Facility Boot Camp. The decision will be made during a special commissioners court meeting at 9 a.m. The only item on the agenda is to consider authorizing County Judge Al Jamison to close operation of the boot camp. The county has been operating the facility since Sept. 1 after the previous operator, Florida-based Correction Services Corporation, notified the county it would end its contract on Aug. 31. The court conducted a six-month review, Jamison said in a Monday phone interview. "We're losing money on the facility and I would like to shut it down and quit the bleeding."

Correctional Services Corporation, Sarasota, Florida
December 24, 2009 Miami-Herald
The former chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine and another Fort Lauderdale physician have agreed to pay substantial sums to settle federal civil charges of insider stock trading. Dr. Mammen P. Zachariah, appointed to the board of medicine by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2004, and Dr. Sheldon Nassberg allegedly reaped illegal windfalls by acting on stock tips supplied by Mammen Zachariah's brother, prominent Broward heart specialist and major Republican fundraiser Dr. Zachariah P. Zachariah. Zach Zachariah, who has raised millions of dollars for Republican causes and candidates, including both presidents Bush, faces similar charges, but has declined to settle his case. A federal magistrate has set trial for Aug. 23, 2010. That trial promises to offer a unique look at Republican fundraising and how political access is bought and sold. Among the expected highlights is witness testimony from two of South Florida's better-known corporate chieftains -- The Geo Group's George Zoley and Phil Frost, formerly of IVAX. The Zachariah brothers and Nassberg, all of whom practice at Fort Lauderdale's Holy Cross Hospital, were named in a May 2008 civil complaint brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The complaint accuses them of collecting more than a half-million dollars in illegal profits during a fraudulent stock-trading scheme in 2005. Without admitting or denying the government's allegations, Mammen Zachariah, 61, agreed to pay nearly $136,000 in what a judge labeled ``ill-gotten gains,'' plus an equal amount as a civil penalty. Nassberg, an endocrinologist, agreed to similar payments totaling $52,668. He admitted no wrongdoing. Both men are required to pay up by the end of the month. The final judgments signed by U.S. Magistrate Linnea Johnson on Wednesday also include permanent injunctions that restrain both doctors from future securities law violations. Zach Zachariah, another past chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine, is alleged to have used nonpublic information to buy and sell shares of two unrelated Florida companies, Miami-based generic drug maker IVAX and Sarasota's Correctional Services Corp. (CSC). Zachariah was on IVAX's board of directors in July 2005 when company chairman Phil Frost informed him that IVAX had agreed to be acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals for $26 a share. Within minutes, Zachariah bought 35,000 IVAX shares for about $21 a share, the SEC said. At the time of the alleged purchase, company insiders were forbidden from trading in IVAX stock. Zachariah also allegedly tipped off his brother, who bought 2,000 IVAX shares for about $23 a share on the last trading day before the deal was announced in July 25. Zachariah allegedly used inside information to make even more money trading shares of CSC, which was acquired by The GEO Group of Boca Raton in 2005. According to the SEC, the Zachariah brothers and Nassberg turned $380,000 in quick profits. The government says Zachariah acquired that inside knowledge in a couple of ways. One was through his son Zachariah ``Reggie'' Zachariah, who worked in GEO's mergers and acquisitions department. Reggie Zachariah has denied under oath tipping off his father to the deal. Another was through Zachariah's own moonlighting work for GEO. The SEC says Zachariah made ``millions of dollars'' as a corporate consultant, service provider and lobbyist for GEO, a giant prison contractor once known as Wackenhut Corrections. Zachariah, who owns a $2.3 million home on the Intracoastal Waterway in secluded Sea Ranch Lakes, said under oath last winter that he was paid to provide access for GEO chief executive George Zoley to top federal and state Republican politicians. Those politicians include former President George W. Bush, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, former Florida Senate President Tom Lee and House Speaker Alan Bense and former attorney general Charlie Crist, now Florida's governor.

November 8, 2005 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, has closed its $62 million deal for the Sarasota-based private prison management company. GEO ended up paying $6 per share and assuming $124 million in Correctional Services debt. The local company's founder, James Slattery, plans to continue to run Youth Services International, which runs detention operations for youthful offenders, out of Sarasota. That unit manages programs at 17 centers with 1,300 beds. Slattery paid $3.75 million for the business. GEO will continue to own the 26-acre property in Newport News, Va., that housed one of Youth Services' juvenile operations. Contingent on the closing was a settlement by Correctional Services on a $38.8 million judgment that held the company responsible for the death of Bryan Dale Alexander, an 18-year-old inmate at a Texas boot camp. The terms were held confidential, but the Sarasota company paid $2.7 million toward the settlement, with the rest made up by its liability insurers, which initially balked at paying the award. A Texas jury in August 2003 found CSC and a nurse at the now-closed Mansfield boot camp responsible for Alexander's death. He died of a rare penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia. The judgment against CSC and nurse Knyvett Reyes included $35 million in actual damages, $750,000 in punitive damages and more than $2.4 million in interest. Correctional Services' former adult division owns or operates 15 centers with 7,500 beds. GEO manages 41 prisons and jails with 36,000 beds in the United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada.

November 7, 2005 Yahoo
The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE: GGI - News; "GEO"), a world leader in the delivery of correctional and mental health services, announced today the successful completion of its previously announced acquisition of Sarasota-based Correctional Services Corporation (Nasdaq: CSCQ - News; "CSC"), a leading developer and manager of privatized correctional and detention facilities, for approximately $62 million, or $6.00 per common share. GEO also assumed $124 million of CSC non-recourse debt. GEO's acquisition of CSC will add 16 adult male facilities located in six states, totaling approximately 8,000 beds, to GEO's operations, representing local, state and federal clients, including the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the United States Marshals Service. Post-closing of the CSC acquisition, GEO will have contracts and awards to manage 58 facilities with a total design capacity of approximately 48,000 beds, increasing GEO's correctional bed market share from 22 percent to 28 percent.

October 22, 2005 Sarasota Herald Tribune
Correctional Services Corp. has settled a $38.3 million judgment that held the company responsible for the death of an 18-year-old inmate at a Texas boot camp. Terms of the agreement are confidential, but the Sarasota-based prison manager said Friday it will pay $2.7 million toward the settlement. The rest will be covered by CSC's liability insurers, which initially balked at paying the award. The agreement is contingent on the closing of CSC's previously announced sale to The GEO Group Inc. for $62 million. CSC shareholders will vote on the sale Nov. 4. If that deal falls through, so does the settlement. A Texas jury in August 2003 found CSC and a nurse at the now-closed Mansfield boot camp responsible for the death of Bryan D. Alexander. Alexander, serving a six-month sentence for a misdemeanor driving conviction, died in 2001 of a rare penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia. Trial testimony showed he was treated for a cold and flu even though he had coughed up blood for five days before his death. His parents sued CSC and nurse Knyvett Reyes for their loss and anguish. Reyes was convicted of negligent homicide and was sentenced to four years of community supervision. She also surrendered her registered nurse's license. The judgment against CSC and Reyes included $35 million in actual damages, $750,000 in punitive damages and more than $2.4 million in interest. The settlement will resolve all claims and lawsuits against CSC and Reyes. It also will end a dispute between CSC and its liability insurers over who should pay. Boca Raton-based GEO is paying $62 million in cash, or $6 a share, and assuming $124 million in liabilities to acquire CSC. It will then sell the Youth Services International subsidiary to CSC president James Slattery for $3.75 million. That unit manages programs at 17 centers with 1,300 beds. GEO will acquire the adult division that owns or operates 15 facilities with 7,500 beds. GEO manages 41 prisons and jails with 36,000 beds in the United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada. Shares of CSC were selling for $5.91 on the Nasdaq at the close of trading Friday, up 1 cent.

May 13, 2005 Sarasota Herald Tribune
Private prison manager Correctional Services says a lack of use of its immigration holding centers as well as prisons in Texas bit into its bottom line during the first quarter. The Sarasota-based company reported a loss of $509,000, or 5 cents per share. That compared with a loss of $656,000, or 6 cents per share a year earlier. Correctional Services, which runs both adult and juvenile detention centers, closed four juvenile operations during 2004 and expects to close another two this year.

Cypress Creek Juvenile Detention Center, Lecanto, Florida
Two years ago, Cypress Creek Juvenile Detention Facility in Lecanto was wrought with scandal - from female guards having sex with inmates to allegations of brutal inmate treatment.  The Department of Juvenile Justice terminated its contract with Correction Services Corporation last year and brought in Securicor to 
run the Level 10, or maximum security, juvenile jail.  "But we still have a considerable amount of turnover. It's probably in line with the rest of the industry," he said. "It's just the nature of this business. Stress is always a factor. But if you run good programs and people can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that they're making a difference, then you'll keep good people."  (Citrus Chronicle, June 28, 2004)

Mrs. Diane Wilbur says she has reached a kind of closure. It took a lot of perseverance, and even guts, for her to stand up to a multimillion-dollar corporation, but last week in Federal District Court in Ocala, she was vindicated. After a four-day-long trial and a jury that deliberated for more than six hours, Federal Judge William Terrell Hodges found in favor of Wilbur in her case against Correctional Services Corp, alleging sexual harassment. Wilbur told the Ocala jury that her employers fired her because she refused to have sex with her bosses. Her attorney, Craig Berman of St. Petersburg, said that it was also clear that her dismissal from Cypress Creek had something to do with her complaints to the company and Department of Juvenile Justice over wrongdoings in the facility. These wrongdoings involved beatings of teen inmates and sexual misconduct galore. Her reports were ignored or covered up. (Citrus Chronicle, September 3, 2003)

At midnight Monday, Cypress Creek Academy came under new management. Securicor New Century took over operations of the 96-bed facility, one of four maximum-level juvenile facilities in the state. Cypress Creek had been operated by Correctional Services Corp., a Sarasota-based private company, since 1998 when it acquired Youth Services International. The department's contract with Correctional Services came up for bid in December. Under Correctional Services' management, there were escapes from Cypress Creek in 2000 and 2001. In addition, a female guard was charged last year with having sex with three inmates older than 18; she later accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to four years of probation. In 2002, a critical concern was an inadequate amount of mental health and substance abuse treatment services, according to the review. Before Correctional Services and Youth Services International, there was another private company, Rebound, that ran Cypress Creek on the state's behalf. The state canceled its contract with Rebound after the company experienced many problems. (St. Petersburg Times, July 2, 2003)

Eagle Lake Juvenile Facility, Columbus, Texas
November 29, 2005 Victoria Advocate
The Colorado County Commissioners Court has formed a committee to determine which of the county's taxing entities will be able to use the new voting machines for its elections. "We formed the committee to come up with an equitable system for all of the voting entities in the county to use the equipment," County Judge Al Jamison said after Monday's court meeting. "We've purchased 16 of the machines and have three cities and three school districts." "Now that the county is running the facility, the school district wanted the contract to be with us rather than Correctional Services Corporation," Jamison said. "The district operates an off-campus program at the juvenile facility with a principal and five teachers. That way the kids at the facility are not in an educational vacuum. For example, if they are in eighth grade, they follow an eighth grade course of learning at the facility."

Elizabeth Detention Center, Elizabeth, New Jersey
September 7, 2005 AP
Immigrants who claimed they were abused at a detention center won a $2.5 million settlement from a private company that operated the center for the federal government. After legal fees, some 1,600 detainees will divide about $1.5 million based on how long they were held and what they said was done to them, the New Jersey Law Journal reported this week. U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise, in Newark, approved the settlement Aug. 10. The detainees were being held at the Elizabeth center between August 1994 and June 1995 for what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Many have since been deported. The center was operated by Esmor Correctional Services, then based in Melville, N.Y., until shortly after a June 1995 riot, when about 100 immigrants broke windows, destroyed furniture and overpowered guards, claiming they had suffered physical abuse and other inhumane conditions. The INS closed the center and fired Esmor after its investigation found that poorly trained guards abused the detainees physically and mentally, gave them spoiled food and deprived them of sleep. The detention center reopened in January 1997 after renovations were completed by its new operator, Corrections Corp. of America, of Nashville, Tenn. Still pending is a related lawsuit against Esmor, now known as Correctional Services Corp., of Sarasota, Fla., by nine detainees who claim that political asylum seekers were abused and harassed at the center.

November 17, 2004 AP
Evidence shows political asylum seekers were abused and harassed while detained at a privately operated facility that lacked clean food, clothes and bedding, a federal judge found as he refused to dismiss a lawsuit by nine immigrants. "You don't need to beat someone to a pulp until they're ready to die to violate human rights law," said the lawyer, Penny M. Venetis, associate director of the Constitutional Law Clinic at Rutgers School of Law-Newark. The ruling, filed Nov. 10 by U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise in Newark, is the latest milestone in a lawsuit filed in 1997 against what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the company that ran its detention center in Elizabeth. The judge dismissed charges against the INS and its officials, saying the government cannot be sued. He also dismissed some charges against the company's guards, finding that individual actions did not rise to the level of international human rights abuses, Venetis said. But he refused to dismiss all charges against Correctional Services Corp. and its officials. The Sarasota, Fla.-based company was known as Esmor Corp. when it operated the INS detention center. The judge said the evidence showed that detention center administrator Willard Stovall was "fully aware" of abuses, and listed 21 examples, including the beatings of detainees and the sexual assault of one female detainee. Other examples cited by the judge were sexual harassment that included guards watching women detainees take showers, broken toilets, defective heating, and lack of access to supplies such as toothbrushes and toothpaste. In addition, guards interfered with detainees' efforts to practice their religions, whether they were Christian, Hindu or Muslim, the judge said. The Elizabeth center was operated by Esmor, then based in Melville, N.Y., until shortly after a June 1995 riot, when about 100 immigrants broke windows, destroyed furniture and overpowered guards, claiming they suffered physical abuse and other inhumane conditions. The INS closed the center and fired Esmor after its investigation found that poorly trained guards abused the detainees physically and mentally, gave them spoiled food and deprived them of sleep. The detention center reopened in January 1997 after renovations were completed by its new operator, Corrections Corp. of America, of Nashville, Tenn.

Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
December 19, 2004 Orlando Sentinel
Florida has regularly locked up many underage offenders for months or years longer than they were told, shuffling them from program to program and forcing them to restart their terms. It's a practice that can harm the young people the system is supposed to help, stealing a wide swath of their adolescence and keeping them locked up in a sometimes-violent environment long after they might have been sent home. Often, even those who stayed out of trouble and followed the rules were forced to start their terms over, a six-month Orlando Sentinel investigation found. ·  The department transferred 3,631 offenders during five years, an average of 726 a year. That, according to the department's own calculations, was about 10 percent of its annual admissions. The transfers extended the offenders' stays dramatically -- up to four times longer than those who were not moved. ·  The extended stays inflated the cost of treatment at least by an estimated $20.3 million during the five-year period studied by the Sentinel. ·  In the overwhelming majority of transfers, an offender was moved from one privately run program to another. Children's advocates argue that all those transfers raise serious questions about the ability of the department to manage its programs, the bulk of them operated by private companies. The Sentinel estimated that, during the five years it studied, transfers cost the state an extra $20.3 million. To arrive at that number, the paper analyzed a department database -- the most recent available -- that tracked the comings and goings of 35,107 juvenile offenders from fiscal 1999 through 2003. Of those, 27,882 began and completed their treatment during the five-year period the paper examined. And almost 10 percent were transferred at least once. Twice in the past three years, the audit branch of the Florida Legislature criticized DJJ for making so many transfers. The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability looked at the same data as the Sentinel, except it had three instead of five years' worth. In April, the Sentinel reported that DJJ and its contractors were responsible for 661 confirmed cases of child abuse or neglect during nine years, according to data provided by another state agency, the Florida Department of Children & Families. Most of the abuse occurred at programs run by private companies. Many of the department's residential providers are nonprofit, but three of its top five are not. They are Securicor New Century LLC of Richmond, Va.; Premier Behavioral Solutions Inc. of Coral Gables; and Correctional Services Corp. of Sarasota. Combined, they account for a third of the system's beds. Securicor was involved in at least 792 transfers during five years, according to DJJ data. For Premier, the number was at least 873; and Correctional Services Corp. and an affiliate, Youth Services International, accounted for 736. Industry executives said they emphasize helping kids.

Frio County Detention Center, Texas
March 12, 2005 Express-News
An alleged member of the Mexican Mafia who was part of a jailbreak last summer at the Frio County Jail pleaded guilty Friday to escape. Reymundo Alaniz Flores - one of five inmates who escaped - entered the plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo in San Antonio. The escape occurred Aug. 6 at the privately run jail in Pearsall that used to house federal inmates.  Authorities allege Robert Lee Jack and Randy Wayne Folsom helped the escape by cutting a hole in a perimeter fence, supplying wire cutters to the inmates and driving them away.

January 21, 2005 Express-News
A San Antonio man admitted Thursday that he helped five federal inmates escape from Frio County Jail last summer. At a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Mathy, Robert Lee Jack, 32, pleaded guilty to instigating and assisting the Aug. 6, 2004, escape. Jack admitted he went to the privately run jail in Pearsall the day of the escape and tossed a pair of bolt cutters over a perimeter fence to an inmate. Jack also admitted cutting a hole in an outside fence. He faces up to five years in prison when he's sentenced May 12. Two of the inmates remain at large.

October 13, 2004 Houston Chronicle
Two federal inmates who escaped from a South Texas detention facility in August were captured Wednesday near Laredo, officials said. The men were among five inmates who fled a Frio County lockup Aug. 6, possibly with the help of the Mexican Mafia. One of the escapees was caught shortly after the escape. The two who remain on the loose are presumed to be in South Texas, officials said. The "Frio Five" were able to flee the jail through holes cut in security fences, possibly with outside assistance. An investigation continues into whether they had inside help.

Federal authorities are hoping $50,000 will persuade someone to give up the whereabouts of five inmates who escaped last week from the privately operated Frio County Jail. LaFayette Collins, U.S. marshal for the Western District of Texas, said at a news conference today that it is offering rewards of $10,000 apiece for information leading to the recapture of the former jail residents, who slipped to freedom Aug. 6 through holes cut in two perimeter fences. Collins also said the escape probe continues, including interviewing — and re-interviewing - jail guards to see what they know. No determination has been made on whether the inmates — who are said to have ties to the Texas Mexican Mafia gang — had help inside or outside the lockup, or both. "We suspect everything and everybody at this point," Collins said. Meanwhile, the Sarasota, Fla.-based company that runs the jail under contract, Correctional Services Corp., has refused to publicly explain the foul-up, ordering its local officials to turn down media interviews and not returning numerous calls seeking comment. (Express-News, August 13, 2004)

The first round of layoffs began Tuesday at the privately run Frio County Jail in the wake of last week's broad daylight escape of five federal inmates.  Jose "Nacho" Hernandez, a former detention officer, said his son, Joel, and a friend were among those who lost their jobs.  He said he didn't know how many detention officers received letters Tuesday notifying them of the layoffs.  But up to 30 employees are expected to be laid off, County Judge Carlos Garcia said Tuesday.  Garcia said representatives with Correctional Services Corp. advised him the cutbacks were necessary after the U.S. Marshals Service withdrew its remaining 240 inmates from the jail over the weekend, citing security concerns.  The five inmates that escaped Friday remained on the loose Tuesday.  (Express-News, August 11, 2004)

Big changes at the Frio County Jail, as hundreds of inmates are shipped out.  They were sent to another facility just one day after five convicts escaped from the jail, and more changes could be on the way.  "What are we waiting for are. Are we waiting for one of these persons to go into one of these homes and kill somebody?," said Mayor Roland Segovia.  The mayor of Pearsall is concerned about the company that runs the Frio County Jail.  Segovia says Correction Services Corporation out of Florida is a good company but, "having six breakouts in the past eight years and only catching one of the 15 that have escaped, that's pretty scary," said Segovia.  He says on Saturday about 200 jail inmates were shipped to another jail.  "We stand at only about 40 inmates in the Frio County Jail," said Segovia.  Segovia also says he's heard dozens of Frio County CSC employees are being laid off as operations are scaled back.  "To lose 75 people in a matter of two or three days that's a lot," said Segovia.  (WOAI.com, August 10, 2004)

After the fifth breakout at Frio County Jail in the past eight years, nearby residents reacted Saturday with a mix of anger and indifference to the rash of escapes.  Five inmates cut through two fences and walked away from the jail at about 1 p.m. Friday, before a massive nine-hour manhunt came up empty and was called off due to darkness, rain and thick brush in the area.  Since the start of 1996, 14 inmates have escaped from the jail in five incidents.  On Saturday afternoon, a bus from the LaSalle County Detention Center in Cotulla was at the Pearsall jail to transfer some of the federal inmates out of the Frio County facility. Jail officials declined to provide details on the number of inmates being sent to LaSalle County.  Some nearby residents complained because they didn't learn of the escape for hours.  Like many Pearsall residents, Judy Stacy, who lives two blocks from the jail, was incredulous after another escape.  "It's absurd," she said. "How could you cut two holes through the fences and just walk out? Don't they have people watching them?"  Nell Youngblood lives a block from the jail, but did not hear about the escape for more than two hours. Then her husband locked all the doors and all but one window.  (Express-News, August 9, 2004)

Five federal prisoners escaped today from a privately run lockup near San Antonio, according to the Frio County Sheriff's Department.  Spokesman John Butler said the escape from a Correctional Services Corp. facility in Pearsall occurred around 1 p.m. He said the prisoners were in the custody of the Marshal's Service office in Laredo, which uses the lockup under contract.  Butler, based in San Antonio, said a headcount was under way this afternoon to determine who was missing and how dangerous they might be.   Investigators were also trying to determine how the prisoners got away, though Butler said witnesses reported seeing them crawling under perimeter fences.  (AP, August 6, 2004)

Law officers continued searching today for two federal inmates who escaped from a South Texas lockup. The prisoners, both Mexican nationals, were reported missing late Monday morning from the Frio County Detention Center. Jorge Perez Delgado, 45, and 29-year-old Oscar Herrada Herrera were held on federal drug charges out of Laredo, said David Sligh, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal for the Western District of Texas. (AP, September 10, 2003)

Genesis Treatment Center, Newport News, Virginia
May 14, 2005 Daily Press
The former operations director of a treatment center for troubled youth has filed suit against the companies that ran the now-defunct center, alleging he was discriminated against because of his race and fired in retaliation for his complaints. In the suit, filed last week in Newport News Circuit Court, James E. Graves of Hampton seeks $1.85 million in lost wages and damages as a result of losing his job at the Genesis Treatment Center. The suit names center operator Youth Services International and parent company Correctional Services Corp. as well as the center's former facility administrator as defendants. The treatment center, which operated out of the old Newport News General Hospital on Marshall Avenue, treated boys and young men between the ages of 12 and 21 for severe emotional disorders and sexual delinquency. It closed in October 2003 because of financial problems, although former employees questioned whether internal problems there had something to do with it. At the time the center closed, at least five employees had reportedly filed discrimination complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. At least one of those complaints was settled, Graves said, while the EEOC gave him the green light to sue.

Geo Group, Florida
July 14, 2005
Correctional Services Corp., the Sarasota-based prison management company, is being bought by Boca Raton’s GEO Group Inc. for $6 per share.  That is a 37 percent premium based on the Sarasota company’s closing price of $4.39 per share on Wednesday. The all-cash deal works out to $62 million price for Correctional Services.  GEO Group, which also manages prisons and mental health operations, also will assume $124 million in Correctional Services debt and said that it plans to divest the Sarasota company’s juvenile services division, which has been problematic for the prison manager.

Grenada County Detention Center, Grenada, Mississippi
May 28, 2006 Daily Star
The operators of the Grenada County Jail have told county officials they plan to give it back to the county in 120 days. Geo Group, Inc., the leaser of the local correctional facility, met with Grenada County officials last week to discuss the financial shortfalls which the leaser is suffering. "We have had an initial discussion with the county and we are hoping to come to a resolution beneficial to both parties," said Pablo Paez, the Director of Corporate Relations with The Geo Group. Geo took over the county jail last year when the Florida based Correctional Service Corporation's (CSC) contract ended. Paez said yesterday that Geo is working with the county but no final decision has been made yet. Grenada County Board of Supervisors President Columbus Hankins said Geo did give a notice and they were asked to submit a proposal to the county if they had any adjustments that were to be made. "We are seeking bids for a new leaser even though it is still in the early stages," said Hankins. Hankins said it would be too expensive for the county to run the jail and the sheriff and the county is too busy to do so.

November 29, 2005 Greenwood Commonwealth
Carroll County District Attorney Doug Evans soon will receive the results of the state Highway Patrol's investigation into the death of Debbie Denise Loggins, a patrol spokeswoman says. "All investigative findings, including autopsy results, will be forwarded to the district attorney's office within the next few days," Delores Lewis said in a written statement Monday. She had been arrested for fighting and was driven from the sheriff's office in Carrollton to Grenada. She was, according to Lewis, "unresponsive upon arrival at Grenada County Correctional Services Corp., a private prison in Grenada."

November 29, 2005 Sun Herald
An autopsy is complete on the body of a North Carrollton woman who died in September after being found unconscious in the back of a Carroll County Sheriff's deputy's car, the Mississippi Highway Patrol says. "All investigative findings, including autopsy results, will be forwarded to the district attorney's office within the next few days," Highway Patrol spokesman Delores Lewis said. Debbie Denise Loggins, 33, had been charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. She was unconscious when she arrived at a private prison in Grenada, authorities said. Sheriff Don Gray has said he is confident the final autopsy report will show Loggins' death was not due to excessive force while she was in the custody of his deputies.

March 24, 2005 Sun Herald
The family of an inmate who died this past weekend during an apparent fight at the Grenada County Detention Center has filed a lawsuit against the operators of the lockup. The jail is operated by Correctional Services Corporation, a private prison company headquartered in Sarasota, Fla. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against CSC in U.S. District Court in Oxford. It seeks unspecified damages. CSC will have 20 days to respond. Grenada County Sheriff Alton Strider identified the dead inmate as Kenneth Kendall, 22, of Grenada. He said Kendall was killed Sunday night in his cell. An autopsy has been ordered. Kendall was serving a 30-day sentence for failing to pay fines, authorities said. Jay Westfaul, an Oxford attorney representing the Kendall family, said Thursday that the sheriff and Grenada County are not defendants in the lawsuit but that may change once the investigation and autopsy are completed. "Jails and prisons should be run by governmental entities not private corporations out to make a profit," Westfaul said in a statement. Westfaul said the lawsuit alleges the facility was understaffed at the time of the incident and that Kendall was placed in an area with "hardened criminals, many of whom were being held for capital murder."

March 22, 2005 ZWire
A young man killed during an attack in the county jail was serving time for contempt of court, according to authorities.   The inmate beaten to death at Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) had been in jail for the charges related to fines owed to the city. According to Grenada County Sheriff Alton Strider, Kenneth Kendall, 22, of Grenada was being held at CSC on contempt fines. Kendall died in what the sheriff called an altercation with other inmates in his cell. According to Grenada County Justice Court Clerk Brenda Mullen, a simple assault charge against Kendall had been remanded by the county; he remained in jail on the charge from the Grenada Police Department. The investigation is continuing. Information about charges related to the death was not available at press time.

Jefferson County Downtown Jail, Beaumont, Texas
August 10, 2005 The Enterprise
Three guards at a privately managed downtown jail have been fired after authorities decided their mistakes led to the escape last month of three dangerous prisoners, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The inmates were recaptured within 25 hours of their July 10 escape. On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons listed the men as being in custody at the Beaumont federal penitentiary. Jefferson County Sheriff Mitch Woods, who ultimately controls the jail managed by Correctional Services Corp., said CSC's internal investigation pointed to human error in handling inmates as the cause of the escape, as is often the case. The inmates - Todd Christian, David Lee Jackson and Arzell Gulley - took advantage of their chance to leave their floor of the jail and found an open gate when they arrived downstairs, Woods said. The sliding gate had been left open in preparation for the arrival of inmates, Woods said. Without the open gate, the prisoners would not have been able to leave the jail, Woods said. The escape also prompted meetings between the CSC warden and Beaumont police officials. Beaumont Officer Carman Apple said police were unable to get color photos and full information about the escapees immediately, which made for a less effective search.

July 12, 2005 AP
Authorities have now captured all three federal prisoners who escaped from a private jail in downtown Beaumont, police said.  Todd Christian, 26, was captured about 10:30 p.m. Monday after he knocked on the door of a home in Beaumont's South Park section and asked to use the telephone. Beaumont Officer Crystal Holmes, police spokeswoman, told Beaumont television station KFDM that the homeowners managed to stall Christian until police arrived.  Arzell Gully, 34, was nabbed by police at the Port of Beaumont seven minutes after the escape Sunday night.  The second inmate caught, David Jackson, 45, was arrested Monday morning near a hospital in Beaumont after he was spotted by hospital security guards, Holmes said.  Jackson gave police a false name but was taken into custody and later identified by the warden, Holmes said.  The inmates at Correctional Services Corp.'s jail used pepper spray and a shank to overpower the guards, she said. All three men were federal inmates awaiting trial who were involved in the killing of another prisoner in 1999. Holmes said she did not have details about the killing and whether the inmates had been convicted of other crimes.

New York Legislature
October 19, 2004 1010 Wins
He's been convicted of theft, reviled by the press and pushed from office in a scandal that came to symbolize lax ethics in Albany . Roger Green is still feeling pretty good. Running all but unopposed for the state Assembly, he's poised to retake the Brooklyn seat he resigned in June after pleading guilty to stealing public money by submitting fake travel vouchers to the state. Green's legal troubles emerged from a probe of free transportation given to lawmakers by Sarasota, Fla.-based Correctional Services Corp. Albany County prosecutors charged Green with stealing from the state by submitting fake travel claims for expenses he never incurred when he was riding the CSC vans. Green filed bogus claims for about 30 trips between Albany and New York , prosecutors said. Green also was among a host of current and former state lawmakers who wrote to state officials supporting extensions of CSC's state contracts for halfway house services. CSC received $25.4 million from the state to provide such services between 1992 and 2000. Green was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines and restitution after admitting to two counts of petty larceny and one count of offering a false instrument. He acknowledges using the CSC vans but said he paid CSC for gas and asked for state reimbursement because he did not understand the state's vague guidelines. But good-government advocates say Green's ethical troubles and impending return to office show a pressing need for reform. "The system is broken," said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director for the League of Women Voters of New York State. "The system has not overseen itself at all."

FORMER INMATES of a federal community confinement center operated by defendant, a private company under contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons, alleged that defendant was negligent in hiring, retaining, training, and supervising an employee whom plaintiff alleged sexually abused them. Defendant moved for summary judgment, arguing that plaintiffs, who failed to submit expert testimony, need expert testimony to establish a prima facie negligence case. The court held that defendant is not entitled to summary judgment on this ground, noting that a lay juror could determine without expert testimony that defendant should not have retained the employee if defendant had been placed on notice that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with the residents of the confinement center. The court, however, granted defendant summary judgment on the vicarious liability issue, finding that no reasonable jury could conclude that the employee's actions were within the scope of his employment.  (New York Law Journal, April 15, 2004)

A state assemblyman was sentenced Monday to three years probation, and ordered to pay $3,000 restitution and a $2,000 fine in connection with a probe into free transportation provided to lawmakers by a state contractor. Roger Green, 54, had pleaded guilty in an Albany city court Feb. 5 to three misdemeanor charges, including two counts of petty larceny and one count of offering a false instrument, in connection with charges he pocketed travel reimbursements from the state for expenses he never incurred. Green acknowledged taking rides from Correctional Services Corp., but had denied any wrongdoing, saying he gave the Florida-based prison services company nothing in return. The probe began after Gloria Davis, a Bronx Democrat, resigned her Assembly seat last year and pleaded guilty to bribery. As part of a plea deal, Davis admitted getting free rides from CSC back and forth to Albany. Last year, the private prison company was fined a record $300,000 by the state Lobbying Commission for failing to report it provided free transportation and other gifts to state lawmakers. From 1992-2000, CSC received $25.4 million from the state to provide halfway house services to the New York prison system. The state contracts were scrapped in 2001 after the Pataki administration said the services were no longer needed. (Newsday, March 22, 2004)

Newton County Correctional Center, Newton, Texas
June 2, 2006 Idaho Statesman
Correctional officers at a private Texas prison have been disciplined for abusing Idaho prisoners this spring, the state Correction Department said Thursday. At least half a dozen department employees, including department Director Tom Beauclair, flew to Texas after the department received complaints from inmates and family members, department spokeswoman Melinda Keckler said in response to an inquiry from the Idaho Statesman about allegations of abuse. The state team inspected the Newton County Correctional Center in Newton, operated by Geo Group Inc. The company disciplined security staff members in response to the team's findings, Keckler said. "We have received concerns from several parties, all in relation to one or two specific incidents in the Texas facility," Keckler said. "(Department) employees interviewed offenders and staff and observed the physical operations of the facility, and as a result of that, some corrective action was taken on some employees in Texas." Keckler said she could not describe the nature of the abuse or specify how prison employees were disciplined. The media contact for the Geo Group was on vacation and could not be reached, and the prison's warden would not comment. Keckler said the department is satisfied that the Newton prison is complying with its agreement with Idaho. The state has turned to out-of-state prisons to handle inmate overflow from Idaho's jam-packed prisons. In mid-March, 150 prisoners were moved to the Texas prison. Since then, 270 more Idaho prisoners have been transferred from the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minn. after that private prison needed to make space for more Minnesota prisoners. All out-of-state Idaho prisoners are now housed at the 872-bed Newton prison, as are prisoners from Arizona and Texas and federal immigrations and customs detainees. Josie Daniel, a 32-year-old homemaker from Fruitland, said her brother, Eddie Daniel, an Idaho inmate transferred to Texas in April, was interviewed by Correction Department employees in response to abuses he and six other prisoners suffered in early April. In a letter Josie Daniel received from her brother April 14, he said he and six other prisoners had been put in an isolation area without explanation for five days from April 3 to April 7. On the fifth day they were handcuffed, beaten and maced by 15 people, the letter claimed. "So these people came in ... and take turns beating us up," Daniel wrote. "And when I say beating us I mean beating us, kicking us in the face ... They went cell to cell during this." According to the letter, the beatings of the prisoners stopped when the warden intervened. Eddie Daniel also said food, showers and recreation time were withheld, and beatings continued after the first incident. "Even though we're in Texas, Idaho is still responsible for us," he wrote. "You need to call IDOC and let them know what's going on. Now every day they come to our cells threatening to beat us again." Josie Daniel said she contacted at least five IDOC employees, including Keckler, to report the abuse. Eddie Daniel is serving a six-year sentence for drug trafficking and had already served six months of it in Idaho, according to Josie Daniel, who served a two-year sentence herself for grand theft that she committed when she was 19. Josie Daniel said her brother had served five years in Idaho prisons for earlier crimes and never complained of mistreatment or abuse. "My brother is the kind of person that he has a lot of pride, and he's not going to ask anyone for help," Josie Daniel said. "My heart sunk when I read this letter because he is pleading for help." Keckler said the department had not received any abuse complaints at the private Minnesota facility. Idaho staffers will continue with routine checks of the Texas prison and will investigate any future complaints, she said. "Of course whenever we have charges of abuse we take them very seriously," Keckler said.

Northwest Detention Center, Tacoma, Washington
November 4, 2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Two people are suing a private corrections company, saying one was viciously beaten and the other sexually harassed while they were being held in Tacoma on federal immigration charges. Dozens of inmates witnessed the allegedly unprovoked beating in July of Jose Mancilla Gutierrez, 22, at the Northwest Detention Center, according to his attorney, Gwynne Skinner. Correctional Services Corp., which operates the detention center on the Tacoma tide flats for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, is named as the defendant in the suit along with five of the company's guards and officials. Skinner and her partner, Daniel Gross, filed suit in U.S. District Court last week for Mancilla and Marisela Manzo Torres, 27, who contends that officers sexually harassed her. Mancilla told his attorneys that on July 5, guards ordered detainees to return to their cells. As he was doing so, a guard identified only as Lt. McIntyre, "yelled at him to stop." "For no justifiable reason, defendant McIntyre then handcuffed plaintiff (Mancilla), threw him to the floor, and forcefully put his knee into plaintiff Mancilla's back," the lawsuit says. McIntyre then walked Mancilla to the exit and slammed his face into a wall. The impact chipped a tooth, split his lip and caused him to bleed. The lawsuit says McIntyre "repeatedly without justification shoved plaintiff Mancilla against the wall." McIntyre is alleged to have taken Mancilla into a hallway still visible to many cells, where he "violently threw plaintiff (Mancilla) to the ground." Then, joined by a guard identified only as Portillo, both officers "attacked plaintiff, beating and kicking him and repeatedly hitting his head against the floor," the lawsuit says. As the handcuffed Mancilla begged for mercy, the beating continued and blood pooled on the floor, the lawsuit says. Manzo also says in the lawsuit that she suffered mistreatment at the hands of McIntyre and other officers. The lawsuit accuses McIntyre of brushing against her "so that his arm or other parts of his body would touch her breasts." McIntyre passed her cell at night, "shined a flashlight over her body" and repeatedly said "show me." She complied, lifting her blanket, out of fear, according to the lawsuit. Manzo says that a guard described only as officer Twogood worked in a control room during the night shift and would engage in sexual banter with Manzo over an intercom in her cell.

Smith County Jail
Smith County, Texas
Corplan/Correctional Services Corporation
November 7, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
Smith County commissioners picked Lee Lewis Construction Inc. of Lubbock, along with Dallas architects Wiginton Hooker Jeffry PC, with which to enter into negotiations for the design and construction of a new Smith County Jail. In Monday's meeting of the Smith County Commissioners Court, Commissioner JoAnn Hampton explained that the three private firms that responded to the recent Request for Proposals were evaluated according to a specific set of criteria. The next highest was Correctional Services Corporation, with a score of 55, she said. Hale-Mills received 51 points. The court, with Gary's help, also looked at the potential legal entanglements of each of the three firms, after they were forced to reject an early RFP due to the legal troubles of bidder CorPlan.

September 1, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
Smith County commissioners on Tuesday could vote to put a bond referendum for a new criminal justice complex on the Nov. 8 ballot, County Judge Becky Dempsey confirmed Thursday. Commissioners have not yet picked a specific proposal, but have three to choose from, she said. The prices in those proposals from private firms range from $46.52 million to $55.71 million. "We have some preliminary numbers already, and I'm working with our bond counsel on exact wording," Judge Dempsey said. "We have to fill in some blanks, but I'm hopeful we can do that in the jail workshop on Tuesday." Also, all three of the firms that submitted proposals failed to provide the disclosure of their legal troubles commissioners wanted; they've been asked to provide that information to the county by Friday. Any firm that fails to do so presumably would be considered out of the running.

August 25, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
If the instructions weren't explicit enough before, Smith County officials say, they'll make it perfectly clear: The private firms offering proposals to build a new jail complex must disclose all their legal troubles immediately. Assistant District Attorney Michael Gary will send a letter on Friday, he told attendees at a public hearing on the jail that county commissioners held in Lindale on Thursday. Smith County officials are wary of such lawsuits because in July, they threw out a proposal by Corplan Corrections for a new facility after learning of a growing scandal in Willacy County. Their vote was not based on the bribery-related convictions of three county officials there, but on the "contingent liability" of a lawsuit filed in May against Corplan and Hale-Mills Construction by Willacy County. They wish to avoid any more such surprises, they say. The private proposals were one issue that emerged at the public hearing attended by more than two dozen citizens at the county offices in Lindale. Sheriff J.B. Smith began the hearing with a brief presentation on jail overcrowding, followed by County Judge Becky Dempsey explaining what overcrowding is doing to the county's finances.

August 24, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
A general partner of Hale-Mills Construction says his firm's proposal to build a criminal justice complex for Smith County is in full compliance with the county's request for proposals, and that a lawsuit filed by Willacy County alleging that his firm conspired to bribe officials there will soon "dry up and blow away." Smith County commissioners have expressed concern that not one of the five proposals submitted last week included the disclosure about lawsuits and criminal charges that they asked for in the request for proposals. And all five lead firms have either sued or been sued over construction projects or jail operations in that period. The merit of the lawsuits filed by or faced by each of the companies is not the issue, county commissioners say; it's that they didn't tell the county about the lawsuits when asked in the RFPs. In July, Smith County threw out a proposal by Corplan Corrections for a new facility after they learned of a growing scandal in Willacy County. Their vote was not based on the bribery-related convictions of three county officials there, but on the "contingent liability" of a lawsuit filed in May against Corplan and Hale-Mills by Willacy County. The lawsuit claims that Corplan and Hale-Mills conspired to bribe county commissioners, to be selected for a $14.5 million project.

August 22, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
The most recent round of proposals for a new Smith County jail and sheriff's office are in, with private firms offering to build and run a new facility for sums ranging from $46.52 million to $55.71 million for construction, and $31.65 to $45.51 per day, per prisoner for privatized operations. But Hale-Mills Construction, a firm linked to a South Texas prison project scandal, has apparently submitted a proposal that doesn't disclose that the firm is being sued by Willacy County. That county alleges that Hale-Mills and Corplan Corrections conspired to bribe Willacy County officials in order to win a project. Smith County commissioners in July threw out a proposal by Corplan Corrections for a new facility after they learned of a growing scandal in Willacy County. Their vote was not based on the bribery-related convictions of three county officials there, but on the "contingent liability" of a lawsuit filed in May against Corplan and Hale-Mills by Willacy County. The lawsuit claims that Corplan and Hale-Mills conspired to bribe county commissioners, in order to be selected for a $14.5 million project. Smith County commissioners added extra language to their new Request for Proposals to avoid any more such surprises. "List all criminal charges, lawsuits or alternative dispute resolutions to which Respondent is a party or has been a party in the past five years and the nature of the issue," the county's RFP reads. "Indicate if and how each was resolved." No such disclosure about the Willacy County lawsuit appears to be in the Hale-Mills proposal packet.

June 27, 2005 Tyler Paper
It's no longer a choice between public and private, Smith County officials say - it's a matter of combining the best of both to come up with a workable solution to jail overcrowding.  In Monday's jail workshop session, county commissioners agreed in principle that a new jail should be publicly financed, privately built and run by the county.  County Judge Becky Dempsey added, "It's more cost effective for us to do our own financing."  That's because generally, government entities can borrow money more cheaply. Corplan, when discussing financing the facility itself, cited an interest rate of 5.125 percent. Smith County, on the other hand, could get an interest rate of 4.8 percent or less. Over the 20-year life of millions of dollars worth of bonds, that extra point of interest would add up.  "Just a slight difference in interest rates over 20 years could prove quite costly," Judge Dempsey said.  

December 9, 2002
A private jail contractor drew interest and skepticism Friday from members of a committee formed to study Smith County's jail space crunch.  But after touring the county's cramped facilities, CSC Vice President Bill Bryan conceded whether or not county leaders embrace his product, they need to do something - and fast.  "My hat's off to the sheriff and his staff," said Bryan. who retired as chief jail administrator in Bell County before joining the staff of the nationwide CSC.  Bryan said a lack of infirmary and space for one is causing medical bills to skyrocket because inmates constantly must be hospitalized for ailments that could be treated in an onsite infirmary.  The county's jail facilities, which consist of 755 beds, failed the most recent state inspection due to overcrowding.  Bryan joked he would be glad to take the inmates at a 900-bed facility his company recently opened in Newton County.  CSC currently contracts with four counties in Texas and open spaces in those jails are rented to counties and other states with overcrowded facilities.  Bryan said CSC has a large contract with Arizona and has been able to nearly fill its Texas facilities with Arizona prisoners.  Friday's committee meeting consisted of the sheriff and jail staff, his administrative staff, County Auditor Ann Wilson, purchasing agent Jacque Pelson, attorney "Buck" Files, who represents the county in jail matters, and Taxpayers Association President JoAnn Fleming.  Answering a question from Files, Bryan said indemnity clauses and insurance could be built into a contract for liability purposes.  Still, Files was skeptical about contracting jail services, which would mean bringing in inmates from other states to fill empty beds.  "The more inmates we have, the more problems we have," Files said.  (CLEAT News)

Smith County Jail
Smith County, Texas
Corplan/Correctional Services Corporation
November 7, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
Smith County commissioners picked Lee Lewis Construction Inc. of Lubbock, along with Dallas architects Wiginton Hooker Jeffry PC, with which to enter into negotiations for the design and construction of a new Smith County Jail. In Monday's meeting of the Smith County Commissioners Court, Commissioner JoAnn Hampton explained that the three private firms that responded to the recent Request for Proposals were evaluated according to a specific set of criteria. The next highest was Correctional Services Corporation, with a score of 55, she said. Hale-Mills received 51 points. The court, with Gary's help, also looked at the potential legal entanglements of each of the three firms, after they were forced to reject an early RFP due to the legal troubles of bidder CorPlan.

September 1, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
Smith County commissioners on Tuesday could vote to put a bond referendum for a new criminal justice complex on the Nov. 8 ballot, County Judge Becky Dempsey confirmed Thursday. Commissioners have not yet picked a specific proposal, but have three to choose from, she said. The prices in those proposals from private firms range from $46.52 million to $55.71 million. "We have some preliminary numbers already, and I'm working with our bond counsel on exact wording," Judge Dempsey said. "We have to fill in some blanks, but I'm hopeful we can do that in the jail workshop on Tuesday." Also, all three of the firms that submitted proposals failed to provide the disclosure of their legal troubles commissioners wanted; they've been asked to provide that information to the county by Friday. Any firm that fails to do so presumably would be considered out of the running.

August 25, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
If the instructions weren't explicit enough before, Smith County officials say, they'll make it perfectly clear: The private firms offering proposals to build a new jail complex must disclose all their legal troubles immediately. Assistant District Attorney Michael Gary will send a letter on Friday, he told attendees at a public hearing on the jail that county commissioners held in Lindale on Thursday. Smith County officials are wary of such lawsuits because in July, they threw out a proposal by Corplan Corrections for a new facility after learning of a growing scandal in Willacy County. Their vote was not based on the bribery-related convictions of three county officials there, but on the "contingent liability" of a lawsuit filed in May against Corplan and Hale-Mills Construction by Willacy County. They wish to avoid any more such surprises, they say. The private proposals were one issue that emerged at the public hearing attended by more than two dozen citizens at the county offices in Lindale. Sheriff J.B. Smith began the hearing with a brief presentation on jail overcrowding, followed by County Judge Becky Dempsey explaining what overcrowding is doing to the county's finances.

August 24, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
A general partner of Hale-Mills Construction says his firm's proposal to build a criminal justice complex for Smith County is in full compliance with the county's request for proposals, and that a lawsuit filed by Willacy County alleging that his firm conspired to bribe officials there will soon "dry up and blow away." Smith County commissioners have expressed concern that not one of the five proposals submitted last week included the disclosure about lawsuits and criminal charges that they asked for in the request for proposals. And all five lead firms have either sued or been sued over construction projects or jail operations in that period. The merit of the lawsuits filed by or faced by each of the companies is not the issue, county commissioners say; it's that they didn't tell the county about the lawsuits when asked in the RFPs. In July, Smith County threw out a proposal by Corplan Corrections for a new facility after they learned of a growing scandal in Willacy County. Their vote was not based on the bribery-related convictions of three county officials there, but on the "contingent liability" of a lawsuit filed in May against Corplan and Hale-Mills by Willacy County. The lawsuit claims that Corplan and Hale-Mills conspired to bribe county commissioners, to be selected for a $14.5 million project.

August 22, 2005 Tyler Morning Telegraph
The most recent round of proposals for a new Smith County jail and sheriff's office are in, with private firms offering to build and run a new facility for sums ranging from $46.52 million to $55.71 million for construction, and $31.65 to $45.51 per day, per prisoner for privatized operations. But Hale-Mills Construction, a firm linked to a South Texas prison project scandal, has apparently submitted a proposal that doesn't disclose that the firm is being sued by Willacy County. That county alleges that Hale-Mills and Corplan Corrections conspired to bribe Willacy County officials in order to win a project. Smith County commissioners in July threw out a proposal by Corplan Corrections for a new facility after they learned of a growing scandal in Willacy County. Their vote was not based on the bribery-related convictions of three county officials there, but on the "contingent liability" of a lawsuit filed in May against Corplan and Hale-Mills by Willacy County. The lawsuit claims that Corplan and Hale-Mills conspired to bribe county commissioners, in order to be selected for a $14.5 million project. Smith County commissioners added extra language to their new Request for Proposals to avoid any more such surprises. "List all criminal charges, lawsuits or alternative dispute resolutions to which Respondent is a party or has been a party in the past five years and the nature of the issue," the county's RFP reads. "Indicate if and how each was resolved." No such disclosure about the Willacy County lawsuit appears to be in the Hale-Mills proposal packet.

June 27, 2005 Tyler Paper
It's no longer a choice between public and private, Smith County officials say - it's a matter of combining the best of both to come up with a workable solution to jail overcrowding.  In Monday's jail workshop session, county commissioners agreed in principle that a new jail should be publicly financed, privately built and run by the county.  County Judge Becky Dempsey added, "It's more cost effective for us to do our own financing."  That's because generally, government entities can borrow money more cheaply. Corplan, when discussing financing the facility itself, cited an interest rate of 5.125 percent. Smith County, on the other hand, could get an interest rate of 4.8 percent or less. Over the 20-year life of millions of dollars worth of bonds, that extra point of interest would add up.  "Just a slight difference in interest rates over 20 years could prove quite costly," Judge Dempsey said.  

December 9, 2002
A private jail contractor drew interest and skepticism Friday from members of a committee formed to study Smith County's jail space crunch.  But after touring the county's cramped facilities, CSC Vice President Bill Bryan conceded whether or not county leaders embrace his product, they need to do something - and fast.  "My hat's off to the sheriff and his staff," said Bryan. who retired as chief jail administrator in Bell County before joining the staff of the nationwide CSC.  Bryan said a lack of infirmary and space for one is causing medical bills to skyrocket because inmates constantly must be hospitalized for ailments that could be treated in an onsite infirmary.  The county's jail facilities, which consist of 755 beds, failed the most recent state inspection due to overcrowding.  Bryan joked he would be glad to take the inmates at a 900-bed facility his company recently opened in Newton County.  CSC currently contracts with four counties in Texas and open spaces in those jails are rented to counties and other states with overcrowded facilities.  Bryan said CSC has a large contract with Arizona and has been able to nearly fill its Texas facilities with Arizona prisoners.  Friday's committee meeting consisted of the sheriff and jail staff, his administrative staff, County Auditor Ann Wilson, purchasing agent Jacque Pelson, attorney "Buck" Files, who represents the county in jail matters, and Taxpayers Association President JoAnn Fleming.  Answering a question from Files, Bryan said indemnity clauses and insurance could be built into a contract for liability purposes.  Still, Files was skeptical about contracting jail services, which would mean bringing in inmates from other states to fill empty beds.  "The more inmates we have, the more problems we have," Files said.  (CLEAT News)

South Texas Detention Complex, Pearsall, Texas
May 18, 2005 San Antonio Express-News
Overcoming some last-minute glitches, homeland security officials have opened the doors to the country's largest and most modern immigrant detention center. The $49.5 million South Texas Detention Complex is to begin housing detainees in the next month or two. It has room for 1,020 of them — 850 men, 150 women and a temporary holding area for 20 minors. The massive, high-tech structure — the main corridor stretches one-fourth of a mile — isn't immune to technical difficulties. During the tour, an administrator had trouble opening and closing a back entrance through which detainees will arrive and be processed. The door could be opened both automatically and manually, but the operator inside and the guard outside spent several frustrating minutes before getting it to work. "It's a brand-new facility," ICE supervisor Valentín De La Garza said with a smile. "There are still some kinks left to be worked out."

Summit View Youth Correctional Facility, Las Vegas, Nevada
After being closed for nearly two years, the state-owned Summit View male juvenile detention center in North Las Vegas will be reopened Jan. 26 and will take in 24 boys the first week. "We intend to keep (the inmates) engaged and busy," newly hired superintendent Robert W. McLellan said. "There will be little unstructured time." From 6:15 a.m. until lights-out at 10 p.m. there will be schooling and a variety of programs with only a minimum of free time, he said. Classes at the facility will begin Jan. 29. The $14 million, 96-bed center originally opened in June 2000 with Correctional Services Corp. hired by the state to operate the facility. But there were problems, including escapes and sex between female staff and inmates. The private company pulled out of the contract in January 2002, complaining it could not make money. (Sun Capital Bureau, January 5, 2004)

Travis County, Texas
June 28, 2005
Travis County plans to send 100 inmates to a jail near San Antonio that, although recently upgraded, has been cited for violating state rules and recently lost a federal contract after five inmates escaped in broad daylight. Travis is moving the inmates to ease crowding in the county jail system. The inmates are being sent to the Frio County Detention Facility in Pearsall. The 391-bed, privately managed facility has the room Travis County was looking for and will take inmates at less cost than the other available jail, in Limestone County. But the space in Frio County is available almost one year after the U.S. Marshals Service removed 240 federal inmates because five of their prisoners escaped in August 2004. A surprise inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards in July 2004 resulted in citations for understaffing and crowding, including housing inmates in a classroom.  Federal officials also were concerned last year that prisoners were not properly monitored, said Gary Brown, an assistant chief deputy for the U.S. marshals' western Texas division.  The August escape was at least the fifth in the nine years, according to state and federal records. Tavis County Judge Sam Biscoe and Commissioner Gerald Daugherty said they hadn't heard about Frio County's troubles. Daugherty said he's asked the Travis County sheriff's office to give the commissioners a detailed rundown of Frio's recent history.  "I fully expect that when something like this goes before the commissioners, these traps have been sprung," Daugherty said. "If we think Frio County hasn't cleaned their act up, then we have to really think about whether we should be sending our inmates there."

Past History

Angelina County, Texas
November 10, 2004 KTRE
The old Angelina County jail is locking up. The county started leasing the building about eight months ago to the Correctional Services Corporation so dozens of undocumented immigrants could be housed there. The Immigration and Naturalization Service can no longer afford that arrangement.

Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, Towson, Maryland
Gov. Robert Ehrlich has asked attorneys to find out if the state can end a contract with a Sarasota, Fla., company that runs a juvenile detention center in Baltimore County. Ehrlich wants to know if the state can place the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School under new management in the wake of a report that staff members hit, sexually abused and intentionally intoxicated children. Correctional Services Corp., a subsidiary of Youth Services International, has a five-year contract to operate the Hickey School until March 31. (Gainesville Sun, June 13, 2003)

More than 20 cases of suspected child abuse and neglect have occurred at Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County so far this year, including instances of staff allegedly having sex with youths and bringing alcohol and pornographic materials into the juvenile detention facility, according to a report by an independent monitor. The highly critical report further revealed that documented cases of youth-on-youth assaults and other violent incidents occur at the school, on average, 2.5 times each day. (The Baltimore Sun, June 12, 2003)

Nine teen-age boys who removed a window and cut through two fences to escape from the Charles H. Hickey School on Saturday were back in custody by the end of the night, authorities said yesterday. The boys, ages 15 to 17, were on foot, unarmed and wearing their Hickey School uniforms. They have committed "everything from drug crimes to assault," said Lee Towers, a spokesman for the Department of Juvenile Justice. (Sunspot, July 1, 2002)

Two teen-age sex offenders were back in custody yesterday after escaping from the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County, officials said. The offenders, 17 and 19 years old, escaped about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Lee Towers, spokesman for Maryland's Department of Juvenile Justice. He said the teens were dressed in street clothes. A guard, apparently believing they were employees, opened the gate and let them pass. The two were being held at a 26-bed facility for sex offenders run by the Chesapeake Center that is housed on the Hickey grounds. An employee at the Kmart at North Plaza Mall called police after seeing two teens shoplifting walkie-talkies yesterday morning, Towers said, and county police arrested them across the street. (Sunspot, March 8, 2002)

Officials for the private company that runs the jail admitted this year to destroying dozens of reports of force against teens in 2000, and an investigator with the juvenile justice agency concluded that cases of abuse were hidden by employees who destroyed records the two previous years. (Sunspot, December 5, 2001)

Top administrators at two state juvenile jails have resigned amid allegations of continuing abuse and public outcry concerning youth detention. Donald Brooks became the third director this year to leave Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County when he announced his resignation Wednesday, said Laura Townsend, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice. Brooks took over the top job at Hickey in July. Townsend said Richard Daugherty, the clinical director of Victor Cullen Academy in Frederick County, also resigned Wednesday. Daughtery was responsible for administering the substance abuse program at Victor Cullen. A coalition of 50 juvenile justice advocacy groups demanded reform, including the closing of Cullen, at a forum on Wednesday. High turnover of staff was one of the deficiencies the state cited in an audit of Florida-based Youth Services International, the private agency which has a contract to run Cullen until 2002 and Hickey until 2004, Townsend said. (AP, November 29, 2001)

A male teenager disguised with a tee-shirt wrapped around his face, sexually assaulted a female nurse. The inmate had slipped through an un-locked door in the kitchen and jumped a Dutch door to get to his victim. (AP, June 28, 2000)

Cold Springs Correctional Facility (Mansfield Boot Camp), Fort Worth, Texas
January 22, 2003
A former Mansfield boot camp nurse convicted of negligent homicide in the 2001 death of an inmate is appealing and asking for a new trial.  Knyvett Reyes, 36, was sentenced in August to four years of community supervision for the death of boot camp probationer Bryan Alexander, 18, of Arlington. Reyes struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid serving two years in state jail.  The judge who presided over the non-jury trial in June found that Reyes failed to provide timely and adequate medical care to the teen-ager, who died of a rare lung infection that was resistant to antibiotics.  Alexander's parents are suing Reyes, the boot camp's doctor and a Florida-based private contractor that ran the facility. The suit contends that Alexander's pleas for medical help were ignored and his death could have been prevented.  The civil case is scheduled to begin July 7 in Judge Tom Lowe's 236^th District Court.  (Star_Telegram)

December 31, 2002
Attorneys for parents of an 18-year old who died after falling ill at a Mansfield boot camp filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Tarrant County and its 19 judges who managed the correctional center.  The lawsuit contends that the judges who supervised the Tarrant County Community Correctional Facility failed to ensure that its staff provided proper medical care for Bryan Alexander, 18, of Arlington.  The boot camp's former nurse, Knyvett Reyes, was sentenced in August to four years of community supervision.  She was convicted of negligent homicide in Alexander's death for failing to provide the teen-ager with timely medical care.  A $755 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Alexander's family is pending.  (Star-Telegram)

August 31, 2002
FORT WORTH - Former Mansfield boot camp nurse Knyvett Reyes was sentenced Friday to four years community supervision for negligent homicide and ordered to pay restitution to Bryan Alexander's family. Alexander, an 18-year-old probationer at the boot camp, died in 2001 of a lung infection that led to pneumonia after leaving her care. During her trial, the prosecution accused Reyes of failing to provide adequate and timely attention. Reyes was sentenced to two years in jail, but the probationary sentence was imposed in lieu of jail time. Reyes was also ordered to pay $10,939.74 in restitution. The attorneys for the state and Reyes negotiated the sentence. Alexander, who was in the boot camp because of a drunken-driving conviction, died after being taken from the camp to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Reyes is also barred from performing any nursing duties involving direct patient care during her probation. She is working as a hospital clerk. Barring an appeal, criminal proceedings are now concluded. But family members have filed a $755 million wrongful death civil lawsuit. The family two weeks ago moved to add Tarrant County's 19 criminal judge to the suit. (Star-telegram)

June 29, 2002
A nurse accused in the death of a probationer at the former Mansfield boot camp was convicted Friday of negligent homicide. Knyvett Reyes, 36, of Arlington, faces up to two years in state jail in the death of 18-year-old Bryan Alexander, a probationer at the camp. "It's kind of difficult to feel sorry for nurse Reyes because she didn't show any empathy for Bryan," the teen's father, Rickey Alexander, said outside the courtroom. "The important thing for us was we didn't want her in a position where she could do the same thing to some other person." "Bryan Alexander died as a result of being ignored," special prosecutor Bill Turner said during closing arguments. A pending $755 million wrongful death lawsuit in Alexander's death kept the courtroom packed throughout Reyes' two-week trial. Alexander's parents are suing Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., the private company that ran the 370-bed Mansfield facility for probationers. (The Star-Telegram)

June 28, 2002
A former boot camp nurse thought an inmate who died after complaining of coughing up blood had a cold or strep throat, she testified Thursday. Knyvett Reyes, 36, of Arlington, is being tried on charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Bryan Alexander, a probationer at the Mansfield camp. Prosecutors contend Reyes failed to provide Alexander with adequate and timely medical attention. Witnesses for the prosecution have said Reyes was skeptical of inmates' illnesses, and that she did not provide physicians with enough information to detect Alexander's infection. During Reyes' cross-examination, special prosecutor Bill Turner accused her of altering Alexander's medical records, ignoring his complaints and failing to take some vital signs that could have helped doctors save the teen-ager's life. Turner accused Reyes of creating records after Alexander died to help in her defense. Original boot camp records and inmate's files have not been located, he said. (The Star-Telegram)

June 25, 2002
A Colorado prison warden testified Monday that a Mansfield boot camp nurse could not have known an inmate under her care had a fatal illness based on his written request for medical treatment. The nurse, Knyvett Jane Reyes, is on trial on negligent homicide and manslaughter charges in the death of 18-year-old Bryan Alexander, a probationer at the camp who medical examiners determined died of a form of pneumonia. Prosecutors have argued that Reyes did not thoroughly examine Alexander. They contended she should have taken several vital signs, such as his blood pressure and heart rate, which would have revealed a rare infection that eventually caused his death Jan. 9. An official with the state nurse licensing agency testified last week that Reyes should have sent Alexander to a doctor Jan. 5. Alexander was taken to the hospital Jan. 7 and died two days later. Special prosecutor Lindsey Roberts said Alexander's weight loss - about 25 pounds during his two months at the camp - and claims that he was coughing up blood should have been red flags. Roberts said Alexander was 6 feet tall and weighed 150 pounds when he died. (The Star-Telegram)

September 27, 2001
The boy knew rage. A troublemaking, dope-smoking misfit, "Brad" was in and out of trouble with the law, and more in than out. He ran away from home, stayed out all night, stole. Help came in the form of confinement to a juvenile "boot camp" run by Correctional Services Corp., a private company that manages two Dallas County juvenile facilities. Sent to CSC's program for emotionally disturbed youths in Southern Dallas, Brad's condition quickly deteriorated. Privately, the boy's group counselor told his grandmother, "I am not qualified. I do not have the education. He needs more than I can give him." Those words, from one of CSC's own employees, might be used to sum up the company's long and troubled history of running juvenile and other jail facilities here and nationwide with what one critic calls a "Costco" approach to juvenile treatment. It is a track record that includes chilling episodes of sexual abuse, gross mismanagement and, in one Tarrant County case, the death of an 18-year-old. In the past decade, in New York, Florida and Texas, local authorities and the federal government have canceled contracts with CSC, following a host of complaints from former CSC inmates and their families. One top Texas government official in the juvenile justice system, who declined to be named, says CSC has a two-pronged pitch when it sells its services. First, it promises much lower costs. The Texas Youth Commission, for instance, budgets $129 per day per juvenile at its facilities, compared with the $80 or $90 a day CSC charges. In other instances, CSC pledges to help counties make money. At CSC boot camps in North Texas, drill instructors are hired at $7.46 an hour. Their training consists of observing other instructors for a week, before being put to work. "There were a whole lot of people hired to do jobs they didn't know how to do," says one educator who taught at the facility, speaking on the condition that she not be identified. She worked for another company hired by the county to provide schooling at the CSC facility but quit after six months because she believed she and her staff, who went for weeks without offices or phones, were ill-equipped to handle their responsibilities. One fresh-out-of-college education major, she recalls, was handed the responsibility of developing a special education program. After the July 1999 attack on his grandmother, Brad was taken to the Dallas County juvenile detention center. A month later, state District Judge Hal Gaither committed him to the CSC boot camp. Initially, his grandmother welcomed the development. She believed the help she had sought had finally arrived. But even behind bars he continued to misbehave and spent countless hours, sometimes shackled and handcuffed, seated on a concrete bench in a small confinement room that reeked of urine. Brad, like many of his peers, did not meet with an individual counselor, family counselor or psychiatrist for months. When he did see a doctor, the juvenile simply told the psychiatrist to halt his prescribed drugs, and the physician agreed, according to records. The lack of promised counseling wasn't unique to Brad's case. Attorney Craig Sargent represented a mentally retarded client sent to CSC's unit for emotionally disturbed kids. His client, he says, was also denied the family counseling he had been promised. At a hearing to determine whether the boy should be sent to a Texas Youth Commission facility, Sargent grilled a CSC drill instructor and program director Brown. The instructor testified that despite working with the youth every day, she had not realized he was mentally handicapped. "That would be important to know when you're addressing someone as far as their mental capacity and their ability to follow your directive, if they have any defect. Would you agree with me?" Sargent asked. "Yes, sir," the employee replied. For four months, CSC had been receiving $82 a day to treat the boy, Sargent notes. "It pissed me off as a taxpayer," he recalls. In the late '90s, the company ran into similar problems in Florida. Dade County officials terminated contracts when they discovered CSC had deliberately kept delinquents beyond their release dates to pocket extra money. The local school district paid the company to teach kids in its custody; CSC was accused of collecting money for days when it provided no schooling. "They are a completely greedy company. They have a Costco approach to meaningful intervention," says Marie Osborne, an assistant public defender in Dade County who went to court to get 11 of her indigent clients removed from a CSC facility. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice conducted a study of the facility and found a lack of training, inadequate background checks on employees and inadequate food service. Employees had even helped stage fights between 13- and 14-year-olds while their peers watched and referred to these bloody scrabbles as "The Main Event" in memos, according to CSC employees' testimonies. The lawsuits against CSC are mounting to the point analysts say that they are threatening the corporate bottom line. Once a Wall Street darling, CSC has fallen on hard times. (Dallas Observer)

July 13, 2001
Five former Mansfield boot camp inmates filed a civil lawsuit Thursday, alleging that they were sexually harassed or given inadequate medical care while housed there.  Two female plaintiffs allege that a male guard fondled them and repeatedly made sexually suggestive comments.  Three former male inmates allege that they suffered long-term physical problems after failing to receive prompt and adequate medical attention.  Arlington attorney Howard Rosenstein, who filed the suit Thursday, represented three female former boot camp inmates who won a $2.8 million award in a sexual harassment suit against Correctional Services Corp. in March.  "Again, we find ourselves in the situation where, due to the absence of enforcement of a security policy at CSC, instructors and guards were allowed to isolate, torment and sexually abuse these women," Mr. Rosenstein said.  The suit is the latest in a series of legal battles facing the company, which operates more than a dozen facilities in Texas and runs facilities in 18 states.  A $ 755 million lawsuit alleging inadequate medical care was filed by the parents of Bryan Alexander, who died Jan. 9 from pneumonia while an inmate at the boot camp.  The company also faces a civil lawsuit by a former operations manager who alleges that he was improperly fired for reporting staffing shortages.  The company has repeatedly denied the allegations in those cases.  (The Dallas Morning News)  

June 21, 2001
A panel of judges voted unanimously Wednesday to close the Mansfield boot camp and residential drug treatment facility July 6 and reopen it as a day treatment program for probationers.  The Board of Criminal Judges, with 11 of its 19 members in attendance, decided to move up the closure date from Aug. 31.  A contract with Florida-based Correctional Services Corp. to operate the 370-bed facility ends Aug. 31, but the company has agreed to end its obligations sooner.  The judges voted this year not to renew the contract with Correctional Services Corp.  The company came under scrutiny after some female inmates were sexually assaulted by employees and because of questions about the quality of health care for inmates.  Probationer Bryan Alexander, 18, of Arlington died of pneumonia Jan. 9, two days after being transported to a Fort Worth hospital.  Alexander's parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nurse who treated him, the company and others.  (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

May 19, 2001
Two Tarrant County judges pulled about a dozen probationers from drug-rehabilitation programs at the Mansfield boot camp facility Thursday after reports that a guard had consensual sex with an inmate.  Boot camp administrator Randy Tate declined to discuss details of the allegations, other than saying that the reports are being investigated and that the guard has been suspended.  State District Judges Jamie Cummings and Sharen Wilson removed probationers from the substance-abuse treatment program at the facility Thursday after officials notified the county's probation department of the reports.  (Arlington Morning News)

May 17, 2001
A privately operated prison that was the subject of a Texas Rangers investigation over prisoners' treatment will now be shuttered.  The 370-bed Tarrant Community Corrections Facility will close in less than three months due to a $2.8 million budget shortfall.  Earlier this year, the judges voted to not renew a contract with Florida-based Correctional Services Corp. to operate the facility.  The company, which has run the center since 1992, has been criticized because of escapes, sexual assaults by employees and questions about the health care inmates have received.  Earlier this month, a Tarrant County grand jury indicted a nurse who provided medical treatment for a boot camp probationer until two days before he died of pneumonia.  (AP) 

May 4, 2001
Rick Alexander, hat clutched in hand, sat for nearly 50 minutes as a lawyer defended the woman the Arlington resident is convinced helped kill his 18-year-old son.  Mr. Alexander listened intently as Fort Worth attorney Jack V. Strickland lambasted the Tarrant County grand jury's indictment on charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide against Knyvett Jane Reyes, a nurse at the Mansfield boot camp where Bryan Alexander was an inmate.  " I don't think that Nurse Reyes is a victim," Mr. Alexander said in a hallway at the Tarrant County Justice Center.  "Bryan told me he filled out three requests, not to see the doctor, but to go to the hospital.  But he said, ' She's real mean and she doesn't like me. ' He told me that himself."  Bryan Alexander died Jan. 9 at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.  He was sentenced to the camp for assault and drunken driving.  The teen filed a written request for medical attention Jan. 4.  Camp officials contend that he was seen by Ms. Reyes the next day and given antibiotics, but the teen was required to continue a workout regimen through Jan. 6.  James Slattery, chief executive officer of Sarasota, Fla.-based Correctional Services Corp., was out of town Thursday and was unavailable for comment on the pending court case.  (Arlington Morning Star)

May 4, 2001
A 35-year-old nurse at the Mansfield boot camp was indicted Thursday on charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide in connection with the death of an 18-year-old inmate.  The indictment alleges that Knyvett Jane Reyes recklessly and negligently caused the death of Bryan Alexander of Arlington by failing to adequately assess his condition, report his illness and provide adequate care at the Tarrant County Community Correctional Facility.  The two-page indictment states that Ms. Reyes failed to adequately assess and evaluate Mr. Alexander's medical status, failed to accurately report his status to the boot camp's attending physician, and failed to stabilize Mr. Alexander's medical condition and prevent complications.  The indictment also says Ms. Reyes did not order bed rest, and did not prohibit strenuous physical exertion or transfer Mr. Alexander to the hospital in a timely manner.  Florida-based Correctional Services Corp. has operated the Mansfield facility since 1992.  The boot camp is part of the Tarrant County Community Correctional Facility.  (Arlington Morning News)

May 4, 2001
The parents of a Mansfield boot camp inmate, who died of pneumonia days after complaining of being ill, filed a $755 million wrongful death lawsuit Friday against the company that runs the camp and others.  Bryan Alexander, 18, of Arlington, died Jan. 9, two days after being transferred from the camp to Fort Worth's John Peter Smith Hospital.  The lawsuit contends the camp and its employees ignored signs of Alexander's "falling health" and were grossly negligent in providing medical treatment.  Defendants in the lawsuit are Correctional Services Corp., a private, Florida-based company that runs the camp; CSC attorney Tony Schaffer; the Tarrant County Community and Corrections Department; CSC nurse Knyvett Reyes; and Dr. Samuel Lee, who was employed by the company.  Reyes was indicated Thursday on a charge of manslaughter and negligent homicide in Alexander's death.  An Austin administration law judge, who suspended Reyes' nursing license in March, wrote that Alexander "would most likely have been" cured if his illness was diagnosed earlier and treated with other antibiotics.  In February, three former inmates were awarded $2.8 million by a Tarrant County judge for sexual harassment the women suffered at the facility.  (Star-Telegram)

April 20, 2001
Members of Tarrant County's judiciary have voted to stop sending probationers to the Mansfield boot camp out of concerns that there won't be enough money to keep the camp open long enough for the next platoon to graduate.  Under the contract with Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., the county pays $21.94 a day per bed, regardless of whether the beds are occupied. This arrangement will continue until the contract expires Sept. 1.  The judges voted in February to manage the facility after the private contractor's contract expires in September.  Allegations of sexual harassment by guards and the death of a probationer in January have plagued the boot camp.  (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

April 6, 2001
A Tarrant County grand jury will decide whether to indict officials at the Mansfield boot camp in connection with the death of a former inmate, a special prosecutor said Thursday.  Grand jurors will hear evidence April 25 from witnesses and the Texas Ranger's investigation into the death of 18-year-old Bryan Alexander of Arlington, who was an inmate at the boot camp, also known as the Tarrant County Community Correctional Facility.  Mr. Smith has notified Correctional Services Corp., which has run the boot camp since it opened in1992, that the Alexander family may file a civil lawsuit.  A Correctional Services Corp., official said Thursday that a grand jury was the proper venue for consideration of the investigation.  The Texas State Board of Nurses Examiners on March 2 indefinitely suspended the license of Knyvett Jane Reyes, the boot camp nurse who provided medical care to the teenager.  Two other inmates have alleged that they received inadequate medical care at the camp, charges facility officials have denied.  The Board of Criminal Court Judges voted Feb. 21 to assume management of the 370-bed facility when Correctional Services' operating contract ends Aug. 31.  On March 5, a Tarrant County judge awarded $2.8 million in damages to three female former inmates who sued Correctional Services Corp. and a former drill instructor for sexual harassment.  (The Dallas Morning News)

March 21, 2001
A Tarrant County criminal justice task force has recommended that the Mansfield boot camp program be discontinued and its beds used for housing probation violators.  If approved, the program would occupy the 120 beds currently used for the boot camp. (Dallas Morning News, March 21, 2001)

March 6, 2001
Bryan Alexander's medical treatment while incarcerated at the Mansfield boot camp was so poor that one official compared it to "modern day torture," and the nurse supervising him has her license temporarily suspended. Knyvett Jane Reyes' nursing license by the Texas State Board of Nurse Examiners was suspended Feb. 13, according to documents released Monday by State Sen. Chris Harris' office. Mr. Alexander died Jan. 9 at John Peter Smith Hospital of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia caused by a staphylococcus inflection. Charles Smith, attorney for Rick Alexander, Bryan Alexander's father, said the nurse's suspension validates his client's claims. "This is what we've been saying all along, that medical service was substandard," he said. On Jan. 3, Mr. Alexander first notified medical staff through a locked drop box that he was not feeling well. Inmates at the boot camp submit sick forms into a locked box. In the case of Mr. Alexander, his form was not read until Jan. 4.Documents show Mr. Alexander was not assesses by Ms. Reyes until Jan.5, two days after he filled out a report detailing his complaints of flu-like symptoms. "I caught the flu or something from somebody. My whole body is sore. It hurts real bad when I cough," Mr. Alexander wrote on Jan. 3. "My nose gets closed up to where I can't even breathe and the pills I've been taking are not working. Mr. Reyes, who had been on Christmas vacation, returned to work Jan. 3. According to the drill instructor's testimony, Ms. Reyes was aware of the ailing teen's symptoms Jan. 4. On Jan. 5, he filled out another form. According to registered nurse carol Dobrich, an independent expert hired by the board to review the case, the treatment of Mr. Alexander, who died at John Peter Smith Hospital on Jan. 9, amounted to "modern day torture." "By 2 p.m. on January 5th, once she knew Bryan Alexander had as temperature of 101, and a red, sore throat, respondent knew he had an infection," according to Ms. Dobrich's testimony, outline in the order suspending the license. "And her failure to have him seen by a doctor or send him immediately to the emergency room was an inappropriate nursing response. (Arlington Morning News)

March 1, 2001
Three women who allege they were sexually harassed while inmates at the Mansfield boot camp asked a state judge Wednesday for up to $4 million in damages. "If this court does not dress down and discipline this attitude every women, everyone else, is subject to the same consideration these women got," Brice Cottongame, the attorney representing the three women, said in closing arguments. But the attorney for Correctional Services Corp., the Florida-based company that operates the boot camp, said employees, not the company, are at fault. the civil trail's final day included testimony from a Correctional Services executive, who refuted earlier testimony from a state senator. On Wednesday, Mr. Rau suggested that the senator misinterpreted a comment he made. "I did not make any statement like that," Mr. Rau said. "There was point in the conversation where I said I would like to get all the facts and hear both sides of the story. "The senator said, "What could the other side of the story be?' which is when the statement was made. That is the other side of the story." "We stand of Senator Harris' credibility," Mr. Cottongame said. "Sen. Harris has no ax to grind, no interest in this lawsuit." (Arlington Morning News)

February 27, 2001
In the latter dated Jan. 30, 2000 - 11 days after Kari Echels Chattha graduated from the boot camp - she wrote to Joseph Fonville telling him she missed him and she was worried about him. She used the term of endearment "honey." Tony Schaffer, an attorney representing Correctional Services Corp., which runs the boot camp, said Mrs. Chattha 's letter proves she was involved romantically with Mr. Fonville. Mrs. Chattha, 19, and two other plaintiffs, Karen fowler, 21, and Annawaynette Creek, 33 allege in their suit they were fondled and sexually harassed by boot camp workers during their incarceration at the Mansfield boot camp over a seven-month period in 1999. Ms. Fowler and Ms. Creek also are suing former boot camp maintenance worker Michael Zahn. Fred Bagely, a former vice president of CSC, testified in a videotaped deposition that sexual harassment was a problem at the Mansfield Facility. he initially learned of the allegations made by Mrs. Chattha, Ms. Fowler and Ms. Creek in 1999. he said. (Arlington Morning News)

February 26, 2001
The county's 19 criminal court judges voted unanimously last week to stop using a private contractor at the Tarrant County Community Corrections Facility, which houses the boot camp and three substance abuse programs. Three former female inmates are suing Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., alleging sexual abuse at the 370-bed facility. The company's contract expires Sept. 1. The lawsuit's allegations are among recent criticisms of the facility. Accusations of sexual misconduct by male guards against female inmates have plagued the camp since it opened in 1992. The facility has also endured accusations of the staff shortages and questions of proper medical care. Bryan Alexander, 18, a boot camp inmate, died of pneumonia Jan. 9. Relatives allege he didn't receive timely medical care. "I don't think any of us want to see CSC or any private company run this camp any longer," Judge Gallagher said last week. State Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, who testified against Correctional Services Corp. on Friday in civil trail, said the company's problems may be a result of paying many of its employees near the minimum wage. Last year, 50 of 77 employees at the facility were paid less than $17,000 per year, according to company records. "They are in business of making money," Harris said. "As result, they are out there cutting corners." Attorneys for the plaintiffs have alleged that a corporate culture exists at the company. On Friday, Harris testified that a company executive vice president told him in a telephone conversation that the women at the boot camp "got what they wanted." He said the company "seemed to have no concern about what happened to the women." According to the company's contract, a female inmate cannot be alone with a male guard unless a female guard is present. Testimony during the first three days suggested that staff shortages prevented the company from following its policy of female inmate supervision, which is part of its contract with the county's probation department. "They are allowing employees to work 16-hour shifts, and sometimes more than that," Harris said outside the court after his testimony Friday. "It obviously came down to the corporate bottom line." (Star-Telegram)

February 23 , 2001
The private company that operates the Mansfield boot camp filed false reports about staffing hours to Tarrant County officials, the facility's former manager testified Thursday. John Renfroe, a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who worked for the Florida-based Correctional Services Corp. between June 1994 and June 2000, testified that he had reported the practice to his supervisors since 1995. "The data that had been in the monthly reports indicated that CSC as meeting or exceeding contract hour requirements," said Mr. Renfroe, a witness in a civil trail in which three women are suing the company because of sexual harassment at the facility. "If you did the math, what was being reported included extraneous, inappropriate figures." (Arlington Morning News)

February 22, 2001
Tarrant  County criminal judges agreed Wednesday to assume management of the Mansfield boot camp when a contract with Correctional Services Corp. ends in August. the 19-member Board of Criminal Judges cited a $2.5 million budget shortfall in its decision not to renew the private company's contract. The facility could close by Sept. 1 if the legislature does not approve additional funding, the judges said. Recent controversies - including the death of an inmate, the hospitalization of two others and allegations of sexual exploitation of female inmates -  were factors in the decision. State Sen. Chris Harris, R-Fort Worth, who has strongly criticized the boot camp's operation, praised the judges' decision and said he will ask other state agencies funding. "I think the judges are the ones who are accountable on that since they're the ones with the oversight," Mr. Harris said. "I think this is smartest thin they can do." (Dallas Morning News)

February 22, 2001
The private company that runs the Mansfield Boot Camp was negligent in allowing two former workers to sexually harass women at the facility. an attorney for the three former inmates said in court Wednesday. An attorney for Florida-based Correctional Services corp. apologized for the incidents and defended the company's record of quality management. Ms. Fowler and Ms. Creek allege former maintenance worker Michael Zahn sexually harassed and exploited them during their several month stays in 1999 at the boot camp. Mrs. Chattha alleges Joseph Fonville forced her to participate in improper sexual activity during her 1999 stay. In July, Mr. Zahn received two years' probation after he pleaded guilty to two counts of official oppression in connection with both incidents. "The attitude of this corporate defendant will outrage you."  (Arlington Morning News)

February 22, 2001
As compliance officer at the Mansfield boot camp, John Renfore spent six years faulting the private contractor that runs the facility, citing staff shortages and a failure to protect female inmates from sexual abuse. That testimony Thursday before 141st District Court Judge Paul Enlow bolstered the case of the three former female inmates who are suing Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., which runs 370-bed facility for probationers. The women assaults contend CSC employees sexually abused then while they were serving sentences at the Tarrant County Community Corrections facility in Mansfield. On Thursday, Renfore said he outlined staffing shortages and inadequate supervision of female inmates in numerous memos that he sent to CSC officials and his bosses with Tarrant County Community Corrections Department. those complaints began in 1995 and continued until the probation department fired him in June, he said. Fort Worth lawyer W. Brice Cottongame, who is representing the women, said the incidents were caused by a corporate culture in CSC that does not protect female inmates and ignores their complaints of abuse. Sherry Johnson, who worked as a drill instructor at the camp last year, said grievances filed by inmates are often thrown away or shredded by CSC supervisors. She also said CSC employees retaliate against inmates who file grievances. "They would read them out loud and laugh, then throw them in the trash," she said. "They would be disregarded for misspelling a CSC employee's name." (Star-Telegram)

February 07, 2001
The former operations manager of a Mansfield boot camp filed a lawsuit Tuesday charging he was unjustly fired after pointing out deficiencies at the camp. Mr. Renfore says his relationship with Correctional Services and Ms. Calaway soured 1999 after he began filing critical reports with boot camp administrators. The reports said that because of staff shortages, the company was not keeping the facility properly cleaned and maintained, and not adequately supervising its staff and did not have enough drill staff on duty to properly supervise probationers. 
(Arlington Morning News).

January 23, 2001
The Texas Rangers agreed Wednesday to act on a local judge's request for an independent investigation into the death of an 18-yeat old former Mansfield inmate. Mr. Harris, who called for wholesale changes at the boot camp five months ago in the wake of the alleged sexual abuse of three former inmates. since the Mr. Alexander's death, various judges have removes more the 50 of the camp's 120 inmates. (Arlington Morning News)

December 14, 2000
A former employee of the private company that operates a North Texas correctional facility is denying a lawsuit's claims that female inmates were sexually harassed. Zahn, in deposition released this week, said his behavior was limited to peeping through an attic vent while one of the women performed unsolicited sexual acts. (Arlington Morning News)

October 2, 2000
Three teenagers ran from security officers and scaled a seven foot fence in a recreation yard at the minimum-security center for non-violent offenders. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Oct.6, 2000)

January 16, 2000
Accusations that neglect caused the death of an inmate at a Mansfield boot camp last week may slam the door on a million-dollar deal for Tarrant County to lease its long-shuttered Cold Springs Correctional Facility, officials said Tuesday. The contract to operate the 384-bed Cold Springs facility for state inmates. After months of negotiations and some last minute changes, the contract, signed by CSC officials, was received by county officials Tuesday.  But all five members of Commissioners Court and the sheriff now say they won't approve it unless the investigation into the death last week of 18-year old Bryan D. Alexander -- whose family says boot officials failed to get him proper medical care for pneumonia -- shows that CSC was not at fault. County officials' concerns about contracting with CSC for new prisoners were heightened last week when several district judges began pulling offenders out of the facility after Alexander died. The boot camp has gone through a year of turmoil, including escapes and allegations of drill instructors sexually assaulting female inmates, and has struggled with staffing. Similar issues plagued the facility in the mid-1990's, said James Slattery. Commissioners Dionne Bagsby and Marti Vanravenswaay voted against the CSC contract last year, saying they were concerned about problems at the boot camp. (Star-Telegram)

Colorado County Juvenile Facility, Eagle Lake, Texas
A juvenile sent to a military-style correctional boot camp in Eagle Lake died Saturday from what officials there said was a "clear case of suicide." Police in Eagle Lake were contacted after the young man's death and are conducting an investigation, MacIntyre said. They could not be reached for comment Sunday. The Colorado County facility, operated by the Sarasota, Fla.-based Youth Services International, is part of a growing trend of private correctional centers. (The Houston Chronicle, September 5, 2002)

Correctional Service Corporation, Sarasota, Florida
October 23, 2002
A discharged youth counselor with a back injury alleged his employer violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it did not allow him to return to work after his disability leave. Charles C. Hasbrouck was a youth counselor for Youth Services International Inc. He had to help maintain the security of the detention facility and provide crisis intervention. Often he had to restrain disruptive students, which sometimes required twisting and kneeling. Hasbrouck injured his back in a motor vehicle accident. His doctors permanently restricted him from lifting more than 40 pounds and banned him form repetitive bending or twisting. When he returned from disability leave, Youth Services refused to allow him to continue in his position as a youth counselor, he said.

Cypress Creek Juvenile Detention Center, Lecanto, Florida
A prison guard fired after co-workers said they caught her engaging in sexual intercourse with a 19-year-old inmate was arrested Wednesday. Deritha Earlane Gaskins, 31, of Dunnellon, a former guard at Cypress Creek Academy, one of the state's toughest youth prisons, has been charged with two counts of sexual misconduct, a second-degree felony. This is not the first time a guard at the facility has been arrested on charges of sexual misconduct. In 1999, a 38-year-old Cypress Creek guard was fired for having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old inmate. (St. Petersburg Times, May 2, 2002)

A guard handed a key to the three youths who escaped from Cypress Creek Correctional Facility in May, but that wasn't the only problem. Management also wasn't keeping the doors locked, state investigators have found. Also, the master control panel, which is used to control all the facility's doors, frequently gave false readings, which means guards could not tell if a door was really locked or unlocked, the report said. All of these factors contributed to the May 4 escape of three inmates from Cypress Creek, which houses some of the state's most hard-core juvenile offenders. The person most directly responsible for the escape was detention guard Ryan Johnson, the report said. Other guards told inspectors the locks at Cypress Creek did not work properly and the doors were frequently kicked in by inmates. In addition, inspectors faulted Cypress Creek for having an inadequate number of guards on duty. The ratio of guards to inmates is supposed to be 1-to-8 at night, according to Department of Juvenile Justice standards. The ratio at Cypress Creek was 1-to-6. (St. Petersburg Times, August 25, 2001)

When three inmates at Cypress Creek Detention Facility decided to escape Friday night, they didn't have to come up with an elaborate plan. One of them already had the key which unlocked an exterior door. The escape incident began when inmate Anthony Valazquez, 18, was given a key to the shower room by Cypress Creek staff members at about 6 pm Friday, according to a report filed by the Citrus County Sheriff's Office. Somehow, Valazquez knew the key was a master key which would also open the door leading to the exercise yard. Valazquez waited until 10:15 pm to make his move. He used the key to unlock the door leading to the exercise yard and bolted toward the first of two security fences. He was joined by fellow inmate Darious L. White, 18, and an unidentified juvenile inmate. (Citrus Times, May 6, 2001)

The Department of Juvenile Justice is considering a fine against the company that runs Cypress Creek after the escape of the three teenagers last month. But the state and company officials assured an audience of about twenty - mostly people connected to the juvenile justice system - that more changes are under way to address the problems at the prison. Carolyn Floyd, the state department's northeast region director for residential and correction facilities said her agency had hired employees who will visit the prison weekly to inspect the quality if programs there. Gallon, the facility administrator, said, "We don't mind the department doing that because we need to be doing things right." (Citrus Times, November. 22, 2000)

Three teenagers escaped from the maximum-risk Cypress Creek juvenile center after shimmying underneath a perimeter fence and running. Authorities are investigating how the teenagers, one of whom was being held on a sexual battery charge, got out of a secured detention center building. This incident places another black mark next to Cypress Creek and the corporation that runs it. The company is under pressure from the Department of Juvenile Justice to improve conditions at Cypress Creek after scoring only marginally satisfactory marks on a 1999 evaluation. The prior evaluation gave the company poor marks in several areas, including faulting Cypress Creek for a lack of order and poor documentation of serious incidents such as fights. One example was the discovery of a teen hiding in a ceiling compartment. (St Petersburg Times, October 3, 2000)

Genesis Treatment Center, Newport News, Virginia
October 10, 2003
A treatment center for troubled youths will close Friday, about two years after community activists protested the center's opening in Newport News' East End.  The Genesis Treatment Center treats boys and young men between the ages of 12 and 21 for severe emotional disorders and sexual delinquency.  "It was one of those kind of programs that we didn't need in the community," said activist Lawrence Atkins.  The 51-bed center had 16 patients when officials notified the state's mental health agency of the pending closing. A state spokeswoman said two patients remained at the center Wednesday. Others were transferred elsewhere.  Youth Services International, a subsidiary of Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., operates the center. The company runs 19 treatment centers nationwide, treating about 2,500 youths.  "The reason for closing is purely an economic issue," said senior vice president Woodie Harper.  Harper said Genesis struggled to increase the number of patients it served in the past nine to 10 months, mirroring a widespread industry trend.  In August, president James Slattery attributed a $5.6-million drop in second quarter profits compared to the previous year to "lower than expected occupancy rates in our juvenile division due to systemwide budget cuts."  Some former employees wonder whether internal problems at Genesis also contributed to its closing.  State inspectors investigated two incidents - one in December and one in January - of Genesis staff members improperly restraining patients. One patient suffered a broken arm and another a broken nose. In response, the center fired two employees and gave other employees more training.  Also, at least five to seven former employees have filed discrimination complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to several people who filed complaints.  Harper said company investigations are under way. He declined to say more. Julia Cudjoe, former special education coordinator at Genesis, attributes the center's low occupancy rate to high turnover among employees. This raised questions about the center's quality of care at social services departments making patient referrals.  (Daily Press)

April 21, 2003
State inspectors said two patients suffered broken bones at a treatment center for young men with severe emotional disorders after they were improperly restrained by staff members.  One patient at the 51-bed Genesis Treatment Center suffered a broken arm, the other a broken nose.  The center has fired the two staff members responsible and agreed to offer more training and draft new policies for staff.  But inspectors are also include alleged sexual misconduct between a staff member and a patient, staff members allegedly assaulting patients, and patients not receiving proper care.  A patient's mother has complained of insults, poor food quality and excessive force.  Youth Services International operates the treatment center for young men between the ages of 12 and 21 in the former Newport News General Hospital.  (AP)

Frederick County Juvenile Detention Facility, Maryland
The state Department of Juvenile Services and the private contractor that runs the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County disclosed yesterday that the company will pay the state $792,470 to settle claims resulting from numerous contract violations at the facility. As it announced the settlement, the state released a recent performance audit that detailed the company's failure to live up to the terms of the five-year, $ 79 million contract to run the troubled juvenile detention center. (The Baltimore Sun, September 10, 2002)

A group of juvenile justice advocates is urging Maryland to close a Frederick detention home that state investigators found failed to provide adequate treatment, education and staffing and where workers committed numerous incidents of violence. The group has made similar charges against other state facilities. The incidents at the Victor Cullen Center include a "Saturday morning fight club" in which staffers set children loose to settle their differences with their fists. In addition, numerous youths have been taken to the hospital with broken bones and other injuries caused by staff. The incidents were documented in a state audit completed this fall and were publicly detailed for the first time this week in the Baltimore Sun. (The Washington Post, November 28, 2001)

Three inmates escaped yesterday from the facility in the second security breach at a Baltimore-area CSC facility in 48 hours. They pried open the security screens and escaped in a stolen facility car. The escape follows a rape last week of a female employee. (The Baltimore Sun, June 28, 1999)

Frio County Detention Center, Texas
Two inmates escaped by digging a hole behind the toilet in their prison cell continue to elude authorities. They crawled from the hole onto an unguarded walkway and then slipped out of the building through an unsecured back door. (San Antonio Express-News, August 30, 1999)

Jefferson County Detention Center, Beaumont, Texas
July 13, 2005
Less than two weeks after Jefferson County contracted with a private company to manage prisoners, a manhunt was under way for escaped inmates.  On July 1, the county entered into a contract with Correctional Services Corp. to house overflow prisoners from other state and national correctional facilities at the Jefferson County Detention Center in downtown Beaumont.  Shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday, three inmates escaped from the center by overpowering guards. As of press time Monday, two of the escaped inmates had been captured, and law enforcement agencies from throughout the area were still searching for the third.  The county signed a two-year contract with CSC, a Sarasota, Fla., company, to house up to 250 inmates through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Le Marquis Community Correctional Center, New York
January 20, 2003
Dismissal denied private prison company in sexual abuse case Four former inmates of a halfway house operated by a private company under contract to the Federal Bureau of Prisons brought this action to recover for injuries after being sexually abused by a company employee. Background: In 1998, Susan Scainetti, Yvette Adorno, Stephanie Womble and Rosemarie Johnson were federal inmates at a community corrections facility In New York City, Le Marquis Community Correctional Center. The facility is owned, operated and maintained by Correctional Services Corporation, under contract with the BOP. Between Nov. 6 and Dec. 28, 1998, Miguel Carriera, an inmate counselor And CSC employee, allegedly lured the individual inmates individually into his office and sexually assaulted them. The assaults were facilitated by the fact that Carriera's office was at the end of a hallway and was isolated by double doors though which no sound could be heard. Within two years after the alleged sexual assaults, the inmates filed claims with the BOP for damages. When no settlement was offered, Scainetti filed suit, and CSC moved to dismiss. Company representatives said the claim was time-barred. Ruling: On its face, the three-year statue of limitations barred Scainetti's claims, since her complaint was filed three years and three days after the date of the alleged assault. However, after filing her complaint, Scainetti received BOP records under a Freedom of Information request that showed she originally complained about The incidents on Dec. 30, 1998. Scainetti had told investigators that Carriera had made numerous sexual advances toward her and others over a period several months. She said the sexual assaults occurred on at least four occasions, "from sometime in October through December 1998." Since the alleged assaults continued through December 1998, at least some - if not all - of the assaults were within the statute of limitations, the court said. The CSC's motion to dismiss was denied. Scainetti, et al., v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, et al., No. Civ. 9970(SHS) (S.D.N.Y. 12/18/02). (Corrections Professional)

December 26, 2002
FORMER INMATES of a community confinement center operated by a private company under contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons brought this action to recover his injuries they suffered when allegedly sexually abused by an employee of that company. The court rejected defendant Correctional Services Corp.'s motion to dismiss, holding that a corporation that runs a correctional center for the federal government cannot invoke the government contractor defense. The court noted that the Second Circuit found that the defense "only shields a government contractor from claims arising out of its actions where the government has exercised its discretion and judgment in approving precise specifications to which the contractor must adhere." The instant court added that a contractor can still be found liable where it exceeded authority given it by the federal government, or "where the federal government's authority was not validly conferred." (New York Law Journal)

McKinley County Detention Center, McKinley, New Mexico
On Friday, November 26, five inmates escaped from the county jail operated by Correctional Services Corp. This brings the total to nine the number of inmates who have escaped from the prison in the last three months. CSC’s vice president blamed the escapes on the facility claiming it is structurally unsound. The inmates climbed through a skylight. CSC recently lost the contract to run this prison. (Albuquerque Journal, November 26, 1999)

Four inmates escaped from the private jail in New Mexico operated by Correctional Services Corp. The sheriff’s office was not notified of the escape until an hour and 15 minutes has passed. They crawled through an air vent. Two were jailed on parole violation and burglary charges. The other two escapees were in jail awaiting trial on murder, aggravated battery and kidnapping charges. (Albuquerque Journal, September 6-8, 1999)

Newton County Correctional Center, Newton, Texas
March 9, 2003
An escaped jail inmate was captured early Sunday in downtown Newton, almost exactly a week after he broke out of the Newton County Correctional Center by cutting a hole in a fence, a Beaumont television station reported.  Duncan is the fifth inmate to escape from the Newton County Correctional Center since 1998, and each has been caught.  (AP)

March 7, 2003
It's unclear what possessed convicted felon James Duncan to cut through a prison fence here and   head for the woods, but one thing is certain: He's just as good at getting into places as he is at getting out.  (The Enterprise)

March 3, 2003
Residents here were concerned, but didn't seem too surprised to learn Sunday that an inmate escaped from the Newton County Correction Center - after all, it's the fifth escape in seven years.  James R. Duncan, 38, an Arizona inmate housed at the facility, escaped at approximately 2:30 a.m. Duncan was in the fourth year of a seven-year, six-month sentence for the offense of armed robbery.  "They need to shut down that prison," said a resident who declined to be named, visiting the store with his small daughter in tow.  "Those son of a guns are busting out like roaches," he said angrily.  Another woman who also declined to give her name, complained that though the inmate escaped at 2:30, residents were not informed until after 6 a.m. After past incidents, prison officials had promised to give prompt warning of danger.  Others in the store verified her statements.  The prison, opened in 1991, was originally pitched to the community as a minimum-security facility, but it was found that it could not turn a profit, security measures were increased and maximum-security inmates - referred to by some as "the baddest of the bad" - were brought in.  It has been a source of controversy ever since.  The first and by far most dramatic escape occurred in February of 1996, when Larry Earl Pagan, a Hawaii inmate, escaped and abducted 51-year-old Wilma Parnell.  Pagan made it to Mexico with Parnell, where she made a break for it. Pagan was later arrested.  (The Beaumont Enterprise)

March 3, 2003
Southeast Texas law-enforcement officials were searching late Sunday for a Newton County jail escapee.  Investigators said 38-year-old James R. Duncan, a state of Arizona inmate being housed in the Newton County Correctional Center, broke out about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.  Duncan is charged with armed robbery.  He was last seen wearing a two-piece orange jail uniform with the letters "ADC" in black on the back of the shirt. Duncan is white, 6 feet, 4 inches tall, weighs 215 pounds and has bushy blond-brown hair and blue eyes. He had blue jeans and a black jacket on.  (Houston Chronicle)

January 4, 2003
An uprising by 82 Arizona inmates at a private prison in Texas caused an estimated $15,000 in damage and lead the Department of Corrections to delay transferring more prisoners to the facility until an investigation is completed.  Since November, 346 Arizona inmates have been transferred to the Newton County Correctional Center under a contract with Correctional Services Corp., which charges $38.25 a day per prisoner.  On Thursday, inmates flooded dormitories, tore up mattresses, destroyed TV sets and broke windows until the prison staff fired pepper gas into the dormitories, the department said.  (AP)

July 21, 1998
A convicted rapist who cut his way out of a maximum security private prison and then hitched a ride out of town was shot wounded Monday by a deputy who was trying to arrest him.  Saofaiga Loa Jr., 24, a Hawaii resident incarcerated at the Newton County Correctional Center, escaped sometime before dawn, authorities said.  Using an unknown tool, Loa cut his way through two security fences and was given a ride out of town, said Billy Bryan, a spokesperson for Sarasota, Fla.-based Correctional Services Corp., which runs the prison.  (Houston Chronicle)

Polk Correctional Institution, Mulberry, Florida
One of seven former employees of the Polk Youth Development Center has won a $ 14,000 verdict in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company that manages the detention center. The other six came away with nothing. The employees claimed they were fired after telling state officials that their supervisors told them to falsify the center's documents. But Circuit Judge Dick Prince, in his final judgment in the case, said only one of the employees, Detrice Lippett of Winter Haven, was fired out of retaliation. The remaining six, Prince ruled, followed their supervisors' orders and falsified information in the juvenile files, which made them ineligible for relief under the state law. Employees said they were told to forge signatures and backdate reports, according to the lawsuit, so the company wouldn't lose its $ 31.3 million contract with the state Department of Juvenile Justice to operate the 350-bed detention center from December 1996 through June 2000. (The Ledger, August 10, 2001)

Two juvenile inmates successfully escaped from CSC’s facility. Both had prior escape attempts on record and remain at large. (The Ledger, December 14, 1998)

Summit View Youth Correctional Facility, Las Vegas, Nevada
Teen-age inmates surrendered Friday after a disturbance at a maximum security youth correctional facility outside Las Vegas. Some of the inmates took to a rooftop and could be seen brandishing sticks or clubs before the standoff ended without further incident. The uprising by at least 15 teens came on the first anniversary of the opening of the Summit View Youth Correctional Center, a privately managed 96-bed state prison for the most serious teen-age offenders. (FOX News, June 1, 2001)

Tri-County Justice and Detention Center, Uliin, Illinois
The Tri-County Civic Organization needs a new plan to refinance the Tri-County Justice and Detention Center in Ullin, officials say.  The organization's application for a federal rural development loan has been rejected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under its status as a nonprofit group, said Jerry Thurston, chairman of the Pulaski County Board. Thurston said officials from Pulaski County alone will have to reapply for the money, with an updated agreement from both Union and Alexander counties to help continue paying off the jail.  "It's basically signing an intergovernmental agreement saying they are going to use the facility the way they have been," Thurston said.  The Tri-County jail opened in 1998. All three counties house inmates there to pay for the jail's costs.  The center employs people from Union, Alexander and Pulaski counties. Thurston said now, under new management from Correctional Services Corp. of Florida, the detention center employs 38 people and is increasing the number of inmates.  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also houses detainees at the center.  Officials from Union, Alexander and Pulaski counties plan to meet at 6 p.m. today at the Pulaski County Courthouse in Mound City to discuss options.  Union County Sheriff Jim Nash said that while Tri-County isn't the cheapest place to house inmates, it is the most convenient for his department.  Union County pays roughly $53 a day per inmate at the detention center. Nash said the expense has risen because Correctional Services Corp. won't cover the first $250 of an inmate's medical bills. He said the previous management company did.  Last month, the county board reported spending roughly $10,000 in medical bills for inmates. On average, Union County houses 13 people at the center, according to county records.  (Southern Illinoisan, July 22, 2004)

Victor Cullen Juvenile Facility, Frederick County, Maryland
In a victory for child advocates opposed to Maryland's large juvenile jails, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend announced Thursday that the 185-bed Victor Cullen Center will be sharply scaled down and most of its teens sent to community programs. Victor Cullen is operated by Correctional Services Corp., a Florida-based company whose contract expires June 30. The company, which also operates the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County, has been in financial trouble and under fire from juvenile justice officials for not living up to its contract. Correctional Services paid Maryland a $600,000 penalty in August for failing to meet contractual obligations at Victor Cullen. (The Baltimore Sun, December 27, 2001)

The father of a teen-aged boy formerly incarcerated at the Victor Cullen Center said Thursday the boy was sexually assaulted by other students last month at the Sabillasville treatment center. Guards witnessed the act but did nothing to try to stop it, the father said in an interview Thursday. "He'll be testifying against the kids," the father said of his son. "It's a shame he's not testifying against the guards. As far as I'm concerned, they're conspirators in the whole thing." (Fredrick News Post, December 22, 2001)

Officials for the private company that runs the jail admitted this year to destroying dozens of reports of force against teens in 2000, and an investigator with the juvenile justice agency concluded that cases of abuse were hidden by employees who destroyed records the two previous years. (Sunspot, December 5, 2001)

When state officials audited the Victor Cullen Center earlier this year, they found a mess at the juvenile jail: not enough staff, a failing education system, inadequate mental health services and way too much violence. The findings were predictable for at least two reasons. Private companies across the country are struggling - and often failing - to turn a profit by operating state facilities. And the company that operates Victor Cullen, Correctional Services Corp., has a history of serious problems at facilities in several states, and its financial condition has been steadily deteriorating. The company's most recent problems in Maryland - which include reports that guards at Victor Cullen and the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School have been assaulting teens in their care - have state officials debating whether to continue contracts with Correctional Services. (Sunspot , December 1, 2001)

The contractor that manages Victor Cullen Academy has agreed to pay the state $600,000 after auditors concluded the boys reform school was severely understaffed and fell far short of requirements for mental health care, education and financial controls. After nine months of negotiating, the Department of Juvenile Justice announced the settlement with Youth Services International on Wednesday. The Cullen audit was ordered more than a year ago after two students escaped through a third-floor window using a makeshift rope. Their absence went unnoticed until state police returned them four hours later, and it was at least the fourth escape in 18 months. (AP, September 15, 2001)

Two Victor Cullen Academy employees have been fired amid a broadening state investigation into allegations that they staged fights between teen-age inmates. The employees, who were not identified, were dismissed about two weeks ago, said Woodie Harper, a vice president for Correctional Services Corp., the parent company of the contractor that runs the school. A third employee at Victor Cullen resigned, state officials said. The counselors allegedly took the boys to secluded parts of campus and let them fight out their differences. An audit was ordered after at least four inmates escaped in 18 months. Several escapes have been reported since. (AP, July 3, 2001) 

Two counselors at the Victor Cullen Academy have been suspended while officials determine whether they allowed youths to resolve conflicts in "fight club." Victor Cullen staff told The News-Post that the fights involved boys from the academy's Silver Charm cottages, which houses youths with drug and alcohol problems. The counselors allegedly took the boys to secluded parts of campus and let them fight out their differences. State auditors recommended fining Youth Services International, the Owings Mills-based contractor that runs the school. Youth Services is a division of Corrections Services Corp. of Sarasota, Fla. The audit was ordered after two boys escaped from a third-floor bedroom using a makeshift rope. The escape, which went unnoticed until state police arrested the boys hours later, was at least the fourth escape in 18 months, and several have been reported since then. (AP, June 27, 2001)

Two 16-year-olds were apprehended by state police about four hours after sliding down a makeshift rope from a third-floor dormitory window around 1:30 a.m. Staff members did not know the boys were gone until police brought them back. One staff member was fired and another resigned as a result of an initial probe into the June 11 escape (Frederick News-Post, June 30, 2000)