Abu Ghraib, Iraq
October 28, 2005 Macon Telegraph
Abu Ghraib means different things to different people. For the people of Iraq, it is where tens of thousands of family members died in Saddam Hussein's death house or were tortured under his regime. Around the world, it is the scene of the infamous prisoner abuse scandal that led to U.S. soldiers doing time for war crimes. For retired Macon firefighter John Wood, it is now home. Before beginning his role as a civilian firefighter working for Wackenhut Services LLC, Wood spent two weeks at Camp Victory near Baghdad, Iraq, to get acclimated to the heat. The prison-turned-military base is home now to some 5,000 detainees, U.S. soldiers and a multinational force that operates a combat supply hospital, Wood said. "It just blew me away," Wood said of his arrival at Abu Ghraib. "I didn't know what to expect, and when I got there, it was beyond my worst expectation."

Alexander Youth Services Center, Alexander, Arkansas
(AKA Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center)
January 26, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The state's youth detention center near Alexander has been accredited for the first time by a national correctional association. But while officials expressed optimism that the center's beleaguered past was nearing an end, two days later they were explaining a Jan. 19 incident involving mistreatment of a teenager that resulted in the firing of three staff members. The private Virginia-based company, G4S, operates the 140-bed detention center under a contract with the state Youth Services Division. Officials said Wednesday the American Correctional Association inspected the quality of life, security, food service, medical care and educational programs in November at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, and later accredited the facility. Center administrator Todd Speight said he viewed accreditation as a sign that the center was making progress. "I see this as turning a corner," Speight said. "We've got a long way to go, but we're making good progress." The previous contractor, Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc., was fired in late 2006. G4S has run the center for about a year. Previously known as the Alexander Youth Services Center or the Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility, the center is the state's largest youth residential treatment facility. Two days after announcing the accreditation, officials said one staff member lost his job for using inappropriate physical force and two others were fired for trying to protect him. Speight said a male employee physically restrained a 17-year-old boy in a dormitory in a manner that was "completely inappropriate." He said two others were fired for misleading investigators because the original report attempted to conceal the nature of the scuffle. Speight, who did not disclose the employees' names, said he was disappointed by the firings, but stressed that center employees are hard workers who try to do their best. "These three did something inappropriate and were held accountable," he said. The Bryant Police Department and the Arkansas State Police are investigating. Scott Tanner, a state ombudsman for juvenile justice issues, said the teenager apparently suffered a sore ankle but his safety was not an issue. "This doesn't seem to be standard operating procedure, but something out of the ordinary," Tanner said. The center's history includes incidents of abuse, mismanagement and educational shortfalls. In 2003, the state and the U.S. Justice Department signed a court agreement to improve shortcomings in fire prevention, suicide prevention, religious policies and educational programs.

July 25, 2007 Arkansas News
The state is developing a plan to improve special education programs at an embattled state lockup for troubled youth, officials told lawmakers Tuesday. Special education at the Alexander Juvenile Correction Facility were found lacking in a report last month. "Yes, we intend to fix the problems out there," former state Rep. Steve Jones, now deputy director of the state Department of Human Services, told lawmakers at a meeting Tuesday. DHS oversees the Division of Youth Services, which runs the Alexander unit and other juvenile facilities in the state. During the meeting, legislators expressed concern with a June report by the state Department of Education, which found that DHS is not in compliance with several state and federal regulations regarding the Individuals with Disabilities Act. The report found procedures for the evaluation of specific learning disabilities were lacking at the Alexander facility, which houses some of the state's most violent youth offenders. Other problem areas included individualized education programs and, in some cases, children were advanced a grade even though DYS was not providing an appropriate education to them. Also, parents of the children were not being informed of their rights regarding special education programs. "Just because a kid is in jail doesn't mean they don't deserve a good education," said Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, upset with DYS. About 500 children a year stay at the 143-bed facility in Saline County. Marcia Harding, associate director of special education for the state Department of Education, told lawmakers DYS is supposed to present a correction action on how it plans to deal with some of the problem on Aug. 1. A plan to address the rest is due Sept. 15. The officials addressed a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Children and Youth and the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs. Also during the meeting, Hendren and other lawmakers said they did not understand why the special-needs education deficiencies identified in a study two years ago have still not been addressed. "Who is in charge of getting this mess fixed?" Hendren asked, saying he did not want to "beat this up time and time again." DHS Director John Selig agreed the problems should have been addressed, but he said a variety circumstances, including the firing of the facilities management, Cornell Cos. Inc., in November, and the hiring of G4S Youth Services in January, were partially to blame.

June 19, 2007 The Morning News
A new report identifying problems in the special education program at the former Alexander Youth Services Center -- some of which were previously identified in a 2005 study -- drew frustrated comments Monday from legislative panels that oversee the state's youth lockups. "It seems we're planning ourselves to death but we're not getting anything accomplished," said state Rep. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, during a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees on children and youth. In a report released this month, the state Education Department cites about 50 practices at the facility, now known as the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, that don't comply with state and federal regulations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The department has directed the Division of Youth Services to develop a plan of action for correcting the problems. Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, said that on visits to the facility in Saline County she has been "extremely unimpressed" with the educational practices she saw, which she said seemed to consist of youths playing on a computer. "Do we have any way of determining if they're really learning something, or if we're just letting a computer baby-sit them?" she asked. The House chairwoman, Rep. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said a lack of sufficient information gathering is one of the problems highlighted in the report. Chesterfield said scrutiny is needed for the educational services the state provides to all youth in custody, not only those in need of special education. Scott Tanner, ombudsman coordinator for the state Public Defender Commission, testified that the Division of Youth Services has had chronic problems with its education system at least since 2000, the year he became an ombudsman. Education services at the facility are provided by Group 4 Securicor, the private company that took over operation of the facility in January. The state fired the facility's previous operator, Cornell Companies, in November after a state investigation found evidence that psychotropic drugs may have been administered improperly to some youths as a restraint. The facility also was investigated in 2005, after 17-year-old Lakeisha Brown died from a blood clot in her lungs two days after complaining to staff that she felt ill. Cornell was ordered to revamp some of its policies as a result of that investigation. Madison asked Monday whether it would be more appropriate for the education of youth in custody to be undertaken by the state rather than a private company. Education Department attorney Scott Smith said he did not believe it would. Trying to incorporate students in custody into the state's public education system would require compliance with numerous state and federal mandates that currently are waived, he said. "The reason I ask is, there's something wrong with the picture in my mind when you have state agencies ..... firmly committed to a free public education, and then we turn around and hire a private company to deliver that," Madison said. "I just have a hard time thinking that that's a good idea." Steve Jones, a former state representative who recently became deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee the Division of Youth Services is working on a plan to correct the problems. Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-Hensley, noted that the division developed a plan of action previously, after a 2005 report cited problems with the facility's educational system. "It's time to quit putting plans of action on paper and time to bring something to the table, take some action, physical action, for improvement. These children are still here, and we're just letting them down continuously, year after year after year," she said. "It is children that the state Department of Education is all about, and it is children that DYS is all about," Chesterfield said. "Somewhere the bureaucratic -- we're not going to use the alliterative -- the bureaucratic stuff, if you will, has got to be overcome for the children." Jones assured the committees the division would achieve real results.

April 21, 2007 AP
Two employees at the Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility have been fired after allegations that they physically abused a 15-year-old girl, the lockup's administrator said. Todd Speight, facility administrator, said two employees were fired because of an incident involving the girl, but emphasized there are many more employees who are trying hard to be a positive influence on the youths. "Our philosophy is we will treat kids right. We truly believe we will turn Alexander around. Not a doubt," Speight said. "We understand there are going to be some negative things at a program that large but we are all about correcting those things with oversight and supervision." The girl, who had been at Alexander for about four months, called advocacy group Disability Rights Center in early April to report the abuse. The teen told the group's investigator that on March 25 she lost consciousness while she was restrained on the floor of her dorm, according to a report released by the Disability Rights Center. While the group was investigating, the girl's family called and reported that she had bruises on her body from another restraint on April 10. This is the fourth incident at Alexander investigated by the Disability Rights Center, which has released reports on the allegations of abuse to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "It's not just one bad thing that we can say, 'It happened but we fixed it,' and can go on," said Dana McClain, a senior attorney with Disability Rights Center. "It's an ongoing thing." The center is run by G4S Youth Services, which took over after the state fired the previous contractor, Cornell Cos. Inc. Cornell was fired after allegations that nurses inappropriately gave anti- psychotic medications to calm bad behavior. Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Human Services, said the agency is closely watching G4S' work at Alexander. "We want to send a very clear message that change is still going on out at Alexander, very positive change," Munsell said. "We've seen a change in the demeanor not only of the staff but also of the campus as a whole."

March 16, 2007 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Advocates investigating a claim of abuse by a teenager at the Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility say employees failed to help the boy even as his screams could be heard behind a closed door in an office without a surveillance camera, according to a report released to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday. In its eight-page report, the Disability Rights Center claims the 15- year-old boy was restrained on the ground for too long during an obscenity-laced encounter with staff members. The advocacy group released its report to the state and to G4S Youth Services, the company that runs the facility, and is calling for disciplinary action against some employees. G4S is investigating the incident with renewed vigor, said John Morgenthau, the company’s chief operating officer and vice president.

January 18, 2007 KATV
Lawmakers said Thursday they plan to study the future of the Alexander youth lockup--and whether they should continue using private companies to run the facility. The Joint Budget Committee reviewed a $4.9 million contract for G4S Youth Services of Virginia, which will take control of the Alexander juvenile facility beginning Sunday. John Selig, director of Department of Health and Human Services, told lawmakers he's confident the company will provide better management than Cornell Companies, which was fired last year for inappropriately injecting children with antipsychotic medications. State Senator Shane Broadway, a Democrat from Bryant, says he wants the Legislature to have more oversight of the youth facility. Broadway says he hopes there is further discussion on the future of the lockup.

January 11, 2007 Arkansas News Bureau
The state Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to enter into a short-term contract with a company to operate the troubled Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility in Saline County, agency officials said Wednesday. The agency has signed a $4.5 million contract with G4S Youth Services in Richmond, Va., a division of the British-based Group 4 Securicor, for the company to operate the facility from Jan. 21 through June 30, DHHS spokeswoman Julie Munsell said. The contract is pending approval by the Department of Finance and Administration. At the end of the six-month period, the state will have the option of renewing the contract for an additional year, Munsell said. Munsell said no bids were taken because the agreement was reached under emergency procedures. The agency considered the situation an emergency because of safety and welfare concerns for the 143 youths at the facility, she said. The state fired Cornell Companies, the Pennsylvania-based company that previously ran the facility, in November after a state investigation indicated psychotropic drugs may have been administered improperly to some youths to restrain them. Munsell said Cornell is still at the site, but the state has been in charge since Nov. 3.

Arkansas Nuclear One, Arkansas
May 16, 2005 Courier News
After Friday’s negotiations between Arkansas Nuclear One security force representatives and Wackenhut Corp., there’s a good chance no strike will occur at the plant. According to Darrell Williams, president of the United Government Security Officers of America Local 23, the second meeting between the two parties was more productive than the first. However, the final decision on whether Friday’s revised contract will be accepted is up to the 79 unionized security guards. That decision will be made later this week when Williams and his negotiations committee present the new information. “I really think the new contract will be accepted,” Williams said. “We’ve done all we can do without going to even more drastic measures, so hopefully we will have a contract by the end of (this) week.” After the guards’ threat of a strike in mid-April with claims of low wages and poor benefits, Wackenhut, who has contracted with Entergy since 1991 to guard Arkansas’ only nuclear power plant, brought some new contract plans to the table.

Baxter Immigration Facility, Australia
June 5, 2005 The Advertiser
SECURITY guards have been moved on to the grounds of Glenside Mental Health Service to watch over nine Baxter detainees receiving treatment. The guards, employed by the Baxter Detention Centre operators, are costing an estimated $150,000 a month. Effectively, two guards have been assigned to each detainee. They operate out of a hired demountable hut which was recently delivered to the grounds of the hospital. State health officials have made it clear the guards are not welcome. Director of Mental Health, Learne Durrington, said she has approached the Immigration Department about the impact of the guards on other patients. "We're running a hospital here and it needs to be managed as a hospital," Ms Durrington said. "I've proposed that we get rid of the guards and replace them with our own staff who are better trained in mental health care." The Baxter guards are employees of Global Solutions Limited (GSL) subsidiary Group 4, the security company that has the contract to operate the Baxter Detention Centre. "We've taken additional troops from another part of our company," the spokesman, who did not wish to be named, said. "As a result we've got staff shortages and we're recruiting more people – mainly for our Baxter contract." One of the guards told a visitor to Glenside hospital the demountable was hired at a cost of $300 per day. Figures from the Miscellaneous Workers Union show the salary costs of the 54 daily eight-hour shifts to be more than $150,000 per month. A spokesman for the Glenside hospital confirmed two guards were allocated for each detainee. "That's 18 guards on three eight-hour shifts, making a total of 54 guards on a daily basis," he said. The increase in numbers of detainees needing mental health treatment has occurred subsequent to the Cornelia Rau case where an Australian resident suffering psychosis was wrongly detained in Baxter until her real identity was discovered in February this year. Health officials have confirmed that in the year prior to the Rau case only one person had been referred to Glenside, but now nine people were in treatment. Glenside hospital officials are still waiting for a response from the Commonwealth on the presence of the Group 4 guards. Meanwhile, the legal team assisting the Rau family's submission into the Palmer inquiry has questioned the timing of an internal Baxter memo about the identity of a detainee. A story in the Sunday Mail of November 21, 2004, described a missing woman as 168cm tall, 58kg, with dark blonde hair, brown eyes and a brown mole on her left cheek. It subsequently turned out to be Cornelia Rau. It's since been revealed that an internal memo dated November 24 raised the possibility a detainee was an Australian citizen. Legal representatives for the Rau family will ask the Palmer Inquiry to check if the memo was sparked by the article in the Sunday Mail.

February 9, 2005 The Age
The detention centre where mentally ill Australian Cornelia Rau was wrongly held was not visited by a psychiatrist for at least three months last year, documents filed in Adelaide's Federal Court suggest. South Australian Legal Services Commission lawyer Claire O'Connor claimed in documents that Group 4 Falck, the company that runs Australia's detention centres, and the Department of Immigration had breached their duty of care by failing to provide adequate psychiatric care for three mentally ill Iranian men at the Baxter detention centre. Outside the court, she said there were parallels with the Rau case. "Cornelia was sick and wasn't treated, my clients are sick and they are not being treated," Ms O'Connor said. "She is no different to people in there." In documents supporting her attempt to get urgent psychiatric treatment for the men, Ms O'Connor said the centre's suicide and self-harm unit did not employ a psychiatrist. "It is believed there has been no psychiatric visit . . . since about August 2004 and certainly none since November 2004," she said in an affidavit. Ms O'Connor said the problem of the lack of psychiatric care at Baxter was compounded by the fact that the centre itself was contributing to the poor mental health of detainees. She said psychiatrists visited Baxter infrequently and were forced to deal with a series of seriously ill people in a short time. "All they can do is medicate them, they just keep renewing the prescriptions," she said.

February 7, 2005 The Age
Only a full judicial and public inquiry would be sufficient to establish the facts about the detention of a mentally ill Australian woman, her sister said today. Cornelia Rau, a 39-year-old former flight attendant who was released from Baxter immigration detention centre last week after spending 10 months locked up, has caused a national debate over services for the mentally ill. Her sister, Christine Rau, said an inquiry independent of the government and open to public scrutiny was necessary to get to the bottom of the case. Adelaide public defender John Harley, who represents mentally ill people, said he had grave concerns for the fate of other people suffering mental health problems imprisoned by the immigration system. "This is not isolated at all," Mr Harley told ABC radio. "I was informed that (Ms Rau) was in solitary confinement and that involves her being under lights 24 hours a day (with) closed circuit television. "She was allowed out of her room six hours a day, but in some occasions it required four men in riot gear to remove her back into her cell," he said.

February 7, 2005 Herald Sun
THE Federal Government will hold an inquiry into the detention of a mentally ill Australian women at the Baxter centre for illegal immigrants. Prime Minister John Howard yesterday said it was regrettable Cornelia Rau was held in custody for three months in Baxter and before that six months in a Brisbane jail. "Obviously it's . . . a very regrettable incident," Mr Howard said. Ms Rau, a 39-year-old former Qantas flight attendant, was released from Baxter in South Australia on Friday. Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison said the Government should not be trusted to investigate its own actions. "It is bad enough that Ms Rau was being held in an immigration detention centre," Senator Allison said. "But why did she spend six months in a women's prison before that? Senator Allison said state and federal governments had allowed prisons and detention centres to become "the new psychiatric asylums".

February 5, 2005 The Age
A family snapshot of Cornelia Rau, detained as a suspected illegal immigrant. A mentally ill Australian woman found by Aborigines in a remote Cape York township has been mistakenly held in immigration detention for nearly a year while her distressed family thought she was dead. Cornelia Rau, 39, who suffers from schizophrenia, was last seen in March after she escaped from the psychiatric unit of Sydney's Manly Hospital. The Immigration Department confirmed last night that Ms Rau, who was speaking German and some English, had been held in a Queensland women's prison until September when she was transferred to Baxter detention centre. Ms Rau's sister, Chris Rau, a Sydney journalist, read an article from The Age last Monday about a mystery German-speaking woman held at Baxter, known only as "Anna". Baxter authorities faxed her a photograph, which showed her missing sister. "We're just relieved that she is alive," Chris Rau said. They were also bewildered why the department could not establish her identity when police had her details. Ms Rau was first taken into detention in April. She had been staying near an Aboriginal camp at Coen, in far north Queensland. The Aborigines became concerned that she was sick and brought her into Cairns police. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the woman was handed over to the Department of Immigration by police in April 2004. She was held in a Queensland women's prison until September when she was transferred to Baxter. Greens senator Kerry Nettle last night called for an inquiry into "this staggering case of mismanagement and abuse". During her three months in Baxter, Ms Rau was kept in isolation for a week, then in a high- security unit locked in a room on her own for 18 hours a day, refugee advocate Pamela Curr said. She said her sister had "been through hell". "We don't know what the implications are going to be for her future condition or her treatment."

December 13, 2004 The Age
The immigration department today accused refugee advocates of inciting incidents within the Baxter detention centre by exaggerating reports of a detainee hunger strike. Refugee support group Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) today said 27 Iranians within the South Australian centre were participating in the hunger strike, now into its second week. Among those were five men who had sewn their lips together and three who were staging a protest on the centre's gymnasium roof, RAR spokeswoman Kathy Verran said. She said those on the roof had been denied water since last night, after guards stopped other detainees bringing water to the men. Ms Verran said detainees had also reported the guards were bouncing balls against the ceiling of the gym, underneath the detainees, to prevent them from sleeping.

December 3, 2004 The Age
Four Sri Lankan men have been hospitalised after refusing food for up to 10 days in a hunger strike at South Australia's Baxter detention centre. Two of the men had also been admitted overnight earlier this week, she said.

December 1, 2004 The Age
Eleven Sri Lankan men at the Baxter detention centre have stepped up their hunger strike and are now refusing medication, a refugee advocate said today. The detainees were determined to continue their hunger strike until death, in a last bid to be granted refugee status in Australia, according to Rural Australians for Refugees spokeswoman Mira Wroblewski. Ms Wroblewski said other hunger strikers were angry that the pair, after their release, had been forced to walk from the detention centre medical facility to their compounds in pouring rain. "It (forcing them to walk in the rain) has just strengthened their resolve.

September 20, 2004 The Age
A hunger strike, a High Court action and a direct appeal to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone are among last-ditch efforts to stop the forced return of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. The man on hunger strike, who is 34 and was detained after his visa expired, was put into Baxter's management unit on Thursday and forcibly fed. He resumed his hunger strike on Saturday, Ms Wroblewski said. Eleven other Sri Lankans held at Baxter yesterday entered the fifth day of a peaceful sit-in at the compound.

August 20, 2004 The Age
A food sample from South Australia's Baxter detention centre will be presented to health authorities for inspection after detainees complained they had been served a meal crawling with maggots. The Immigration Department last week said one maggot had been found in food and an investigation was under way. South Australian Greens MP Kris Hanna said he would today present a sample of meat and rice to the state Environmental Health Department for examination. Mr Hanna said the food sample was smuggled out of Baxter following frustration among detainees about the situation. "According to reports in the centre, the food was crawling with live maggots," Mr Hanna said. Detainees at the Baxter centre last week upturned rubbish bins in protest after complaining about maggots in their food.

November 1, 2004 BBC
An investigation is being carried out at a Warwickshire prison after two inmates finished a rooftop protest. The men came down from the roof of a shed at Rye Hill prison near Rugby at just after 9.30pm on Saturday evening.  It is not clear what the demonstration at the jail, which is run by Global Solutions Ltd, was about.

Inmates of Baxter immigration detention centre took control of a compound yesterday morning and barricaded themselves in. About 50 guards in riot gear surrounded the compound and forced open the door. A spokesman for the Immigration Department confirmed that there had been a disturbance at Baxter. (The Age, March 18, 2004)

Bicester Detention Center, Oxford, UK
June 11, 2008 Mail on Sunday
The Home Office squandered £29million of taxpayers' money on a flagship giant asylum centre which was never built - including hiring in a 'financial advisor' who charged almost £16,000 a month. A scathing report from MPs exposes a catalogue of costly blunders and lambasts the failing department for a 'startling absence of common sense' in one of its most embarrassing fiascos of recent years. Seven years after officials started working on the ambitious plans to house thousands of asylum seekers on a former RAF station at Bicester, Oxfordshire, the site remains empty and derelict with 'no benefit' to the taxpayer. Vast sums were paid to consultants, private advisors and contractors and when ministers pulled the plug on the entire project in 2005 they were forced to hand over millions more in cancellation fees. Officials failed to understand how fierce local opposition and legal challenges would drag out the process, and made no attempt to plan for future uses of the site or the risk that other immigration policy changes would scupper the scheme. Last night the Home Office claimed the disaster had led to an 'overall positive impact for the public' because officials had learned important lessons. Former Home Secretary David Blunkett announced the scheme in 2001, as part of a strategy to speed up and streamline the creaking asylum system by housing applicants in a series of huge accommodation centres across the country. Thousands were to be placed in the first centre at an isolated site outside Bicester, but crucially it would not be secure and the immigrants would be free to come and go as they pleased. The plans brought a storm of protests, not only from local residents but also from refugee support groups who claimed leaving so many asylum seekers to languish at a remote site, far from any local community, was a disastrous plan. Planning inspectors rejected the plans, but John Prescott used his powers to overturn their decision, further infuriating locals. Finally ministers realised in 2005 that the centre was unnecessary and unworkable, but not before almost £30million of public money had been wasted. The PAC report reveals how the Home Office hired a Financial advisor at a cost of £15,743 per month, and a procurement advisor who was paid £15,559 per month, because no civil servants were judged to have the right expertise. The pair, who have not been named, were paid more than £1.1million for less than three years work, on top of £6.3million paid out to consultants. MPs complained that the Home Office was unable to show whether the highly paid consultants 'added value'. Private contractors Global Solutions Limited were paid £7.6 for design work, but claimed almost £8million in termination fees when the Bicester scheme was axed. PAC chairman Edward Leigh said the project 'embodied lack of foresight, poor business planning and a startling absence of common sense.' He said the scheme was 'always going to provoke opposition in the local community' but the Home Office took no account of that, or of objections from refugee groups, and made no effort to make contact with local interest groups or MPs to discuss objections. Nor did the department realise - until it was too late - that a decline in the number of asylum seekers and some success in speeding up the system meant the centre was increasingly pointless. Last month the Home Office announced plans to build a secure immigration detention centre on the Bicester site, although it will not be open until 2012 at the earliest and will require planning permission. Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green, attacked the Bicester debacle as 'a symptom of long-term incompetence by immigration ministers, who failed to notice that asylum numbers were dropping just when they were planning this new centre. 'Their latest plan is to turn the derelict site into a detention centre. I hope they have done their homework better this time.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'At the time, we believed accommodation centres to be the right decision but as circumstances changed and the project was delayed, we reviewed that decision. 'Our experience with this project has taught us some important lessons, and this, along with the other improvements put in place, has led to an overall positive impact for the public.'

November 8, 2007 The Guardian
A Home Office decision to abandon plans for an asylum accommodation centre near Oxford because of local opposition cost it £28m, including "termination payments" of £7.9m to the private contractor, Whitehall's spending watchdog reveals today. The National Audit Office says that some of the problems faced in trying to open Bicester accommodation centre could have been foreseen - and money saved - if the Home Office had worked in a "more coordinated and joined-up way". The report also discloses that despite a four-year battle by local residents against the project, it is still being considered whether the site can be used as a detention centre for failed asylum seekers who face deportation. The plan to set up a 10-strong network of purpose-built accommodation centres holding 3,000 asylum seekers was announced by the then home secretary, David Blunkett, at a time when asylum applications were at a record high, as part of a plan to disperse them from London and the south-east of England. Bicester was earmarked as one of the first but it met fierce local opposition and planning permission was not secured until November 2004. By then, the number of asylum seekers coming to Britain had halved. The Home Office accounting officer advised that it was no longer economically viable and the project was cancelled in June 2005. The NAO inquiry found that £33m had been spent in total on the accommodation centres, including £28m on Bicester alone. The report reveals that the successful bid by GSL, formerly Group 4, for the contract to build the 750-bed centre for £59.9m was nearly £25m cheaper than the bid from rival private security company UKDS. After the project was cancelled GSL was handed "termination payments" of £7.9m. It had already been paid £7.6m for design work. Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said that £28m had been spent on "the asylum centre that never was". Mr Leigh said: "The Home Office drove ahead with a project to build a network of asylum accommodation centres without an eye on what was happening to the numbers of those seeking asylum in the UK.

Brook House, Sussex, UK
June 13, 2009 BBC
A fire was started and "disorder" broke out at a wing of an immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport, Sussex police said. Officers said there were reports of minor damage and a blaze in the exercise yard at Brook House, which houses 312 people awaiting deportation. No-one is believed to be hurt and the fire is said to have burnt itself out. The force said "disorder" involving 30 detainees started at about 2250 BST and was confined to one wing. Officers were called in to support security firm G4S. 'No risk' -- G4S, with the help of HM Prison Service, currently manages the welfare of detainees inside the centre, the police said. Ch Insp Ed Henriet, of Gatwick Police, said: "Sussex Police is supporting the security arrangements. All detainees are accounted for and there is no risk to the wider community." A second fire, that was unrelated to the first, according to a spokesperson for G4S, was also started by "one of the detainees setting fire to his bedding" on Saturday afternoon. It was extinguished using sprinklers and fire extinguishers. The spokesperson added that a detainee who assisted in putting out the fire was "slightly injured" and the fire had delayed some detainees being fed. The then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith opened Brook House, which can house up to 426 people, in March. It is situated next to Tinsley House, a 136-bed detention centre.

Border Patrol (US)
June 4, 2008 San Diego Union-Tribune
Two Border Patrol contract workers were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to shuttle illegal immigrants from San Diego to Los Angeles for $2,500 apiece instead of returning them to Mexico. Christopher Saint Lucero and Manley Lamont Smith work for Wackenhut Corp., which holds a Border Patrol contract to escort illegal immigrants to Mexico after they are captured by agents in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. According to court documents, Saint Lucero told a colleague that he had been involved in about 10 smuggling attempts. The men were arrested Sunday after Saint Lucero allegedly escorted a group of illegal immigrants from the Border Patrol's Chula Vista station to the border in Tijuana. According to a statement of probable cause, Mexican authorities refused to admit two who identified themselves as Salvadorans. One was an undercover agent. Authorities say Saint Lucero then brokered the deal to get the two men to Los Angeles. Smith allegedly met them at the Border Patrol station in his Wackenhut jeep and offered to hide them. Saint Lucero and Smith were expected to make an initial court appearance today, said Debra Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego. The charge against them, conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants, is a felony.

June 3, 2008 AP
A Border Patrol contractor says 2 of its employees have been arrested for investigation of releasing illegal immigrants from federal custody. Wackenhut Corp. says the employees were arrested Sunday in the San Diego area and are in jail facing felony charges. For about two years, Wackenhut has held a contract to return illegal immigrants to Mexico after they are captured by Border Patrol agents. A senior vice president, Marc Shapiro, told The Associated Press Tuesday that this is the first time Wackenhut employees have been arrested for allegedly releasing immigrants. He said his company has returned more 1 million illegal immigrants to Mexico. Shapiro declined to name the suspects. A Border Patrol spokesman had no immediate comment.

Broward County, Florida
November 13, 2008 Miami Herald
The Wackenhut Corp. overbilled Broward County thousands of dollars for airport security guards, and collected hefty payments for unauthorized overtime work by library guards, according to a county auditor's report. But those irregularities could be just the tip of the county's problems with the Palm Beach Gardens-based security company. County Auditor Evan Lukic also found poor spending controls at nine county agencies that paid Wackenhut $5.8 million last year. The County Commission will discuss the report Thursday, as Lukic vowed a more in-depth look at the billings. 'If we'd found little chance of risk we'd say, `Case closed,' '' he said. ``This has opened the door to look some more.'' A spokesman for Wackenhut downplayed the auditor's findings, noting that the amount in question totals less than one percent of the money the company was paid last year. ''We are pleased and proud of not only our long-term relationship with Broward County, but also of the high degree of safety and security we provide to the residents,'' Bruce Rubin said. Rubin said Wackenhut has worked closely with the county ``to ensure compliance and improve processes.'' County Administrator Bertha Henry reviewed the report and told commissioners she agreed with its findings, and had begun implementing fixes. Broward launched its audit last spring following reports in The Miami Herald about problems in a Miami-Dade contract involving the company. There, the county reported that Wackenhut overbilled as much as $6 million over three years for phantom security guards at county transit stations. Miami-Dade auditor Cathy Jackson said the company relied on inaccurate and falsified records to try and cover up the billing. ACCUSATIONS DENIED -- Wackenhut denied the accusations and supplied the county with paperwork seeking to refute them. Miami-Dade has not yet responded, and the company continues to supply guards for Metrorail under a contract that runs through November 2009. Broward signed a three-year security contract, including two one-year renewal options, with Wackenhut in June 2005. In the first three years, the firm was paid $14.9 million. Lukic's audit found that most county agencies doing business with Wackenhut failed to review and validate daily entries on security logs that documented hours worked by guards. Also, they didn't compare the hours Wackenhut billed with the hours reported on the security logs. Likewise, little checking was done to ensure that some highly qualified guards Wackenhut billed the county for actually carried those special qualifications. AVIATION DEPARTMENT -- The one department that did check: Broward County Aviation, where officials said Wackenhut overbilled nearly $19,000. Those overcharges were recovered last year, the audit said. In contrast, the report said, the library division paid Wackenhut overtime for 14 branch guards even though OT wasn't properly pre-authorized or substantiated by payroll records. In one week alone in September 2007, the auditor found 233 hours of unauthorized overtime costing $1,655.

November 11, 2008 South Florida Business Journal
Broward County auditors are raising red flags over how county agencies kept tabs on nearly $6 million in billings by Wackenhut Corp. for security services last year. In a report to be presented to county commissioners on Wednesday, county auditors noted several problems with the way Wackenhut invoices have been processed. Specifically, the report noted that county personnel were not reviewing and validating daily entries on security logs that document hours worked by guards. The audit also found that there was no evidence that hours billed were hours actually worked. County Auditor Evan A. Lukic said the decision to review the county’s oversight of Wackenhut grew out of news reports earlier this year that alleged the Palm Beach Gardens-based security company was overbilling Miami-Dade County for services that were not performed. “We were concerned about the allegations we heard and whether we were possibly experiencing the same thing here,” he said. “We wanted to look at it from how are we controlling the contract and administering it.” At this point in the auditing process, Lukic said, there was no evidence Wackenhut engaged in any wrongdoing. However, based on the audit’s findings Lukic said his department will take a closer look at payments to “make sure that guards who we are paying for are present.” In June 2005, Broward County entered into a three-year agreement with Wackenhut to provide security services. Payments for fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007 totaled more than $14.8 million. In fiscal 2007, Broward County’s Aviation Department topped the list with $2.1 million in security services billings by Wackenhut. The county’s facilities maintenance division paid out $1.66 million to Wackenhut, and the county’s library division was billed nearly $633,000. The report found that during a one-week period, the libraries division paid 233 hours of overtime for security guards and found no evidence that Wackenhut provided the required written notification and payroll documentation to substantiate the overtime payments. When queried by the South Florida Business Journal about the auditor's findings, Wackenhut issued the following statement: "We've worked closely with facilities management through the audit department to insure compliance and to improve our processes." Questions also have been raised about matching guard qualifications to pay rates. In some instances, the audit raised concerns about guards with lesser qualifications billing at a higher rate, resulting in overcharges. In an Aug. 22 letter, Broward’s director of the facilities maintenance division advised Wackenhut President Drew Levine that he would now require the company to provide documentation that links guards’ qualifications with their job classifications. In the meantime, Lukic is asking the Broward County Commission to direct the county administrator to come up with procedures to ensure that billings are validated, that the guards’ qualifications match their job descriptions and that overtime charges are substantiated. In May, a Miami-Dade County audit found that Wackenhut overbilled the county by as much as $6 million over three years for services it did not provide to Miami-Dade Transit, and then falsified records to cover up the over charges. In its response to that audit, which Wackenhut published on its Web site, the company said it has cooperated with the county’s investigation, but “continues to question the audit methodology.” Wackenhut said a lawsuit by a former guard, who accused the company of padding its bills, has caused the increased scrutiny. “It is Wackenhut’s belief that county entities … have been placed under undue pressure and influence by unsubstantiated allegations in this ongoing disputed litigation,” it stated. Miami-Dade continues to review Wackenhut’s response to determine what actions should be taken, county spokeswoman Suzy Trutie said.

Coquelles Detention Centre, Coquelles, France
April 6, 2006 Gulf Daily News
Holding cells used by British immigration officials at a French freight terminal were so crowded and filthy that staff called them "the dog kennels," a prison watchdog said yesterday. Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers also said staff were unsure whether they could stop a detainee from fighting, trying to escape, or committing suicide because they did not know whether English or French law applied. Her report concerned the centres at Calais seaport and the Channel tunnel freight and tourist terminals at Coquelles, which were set up on French soil under an international treaty to hold detainees seeking entry to Britain. Accommodation at Coquelles freight terminal was described by staff as the "dog kennels," Owers said. The six 13 feet by 10 feet cells at Coquelles freight terminal featured hole-in-the-ground toilets and on busy days one cell could be used to hold six people. Furnishing, ventilation and heating were all inadequate, her report added. Records suggested average detention time was seven and a half hours, with the maximum nearly 12 hours. The chief inspector made 49 recommendations for improvement, including one that an independent monitoring board should have regular access. Figures for May to July last year showed 661 detainees had been through Calais Seaport detention centre, 11 of whom were children. The average period of detention was four hours, although the longest was 17. In all, 17 per cent were given permission to enter Britain. At the third centre at Coquelles tourist terminal, average detention time was three hours but the maximum recorded was nearly 16 hours. None of the facilities, run by private firm Group 4 Securicor, could appropriately separate men, women and children. The chief inspector also published a report on detention facilities at Heathrow airport, including the Queen's Building, which handles the greatest number of forced removals from Britain. People could be detained there for up to 36 hours, the report said. Owers complimented the staff's approach to welfare of detainees but called the system inhumane. "Some of those we observed in detention had been dealt with as though they were parcels, not people, and parcels whose contents and destination were sometimes incorrect," Owers said.

Cree Incorporated, Durham, North Carolina
October 19, 2005 News Observer
An early-morning immigration sweep at Cree Inc. resulted in the arrest of 36 undocumented workers Tuesday. Most of the people arrested were employed by a contractor to Cree, which makes semiconductors. The bust was the first at a high-tech company since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began focusing on facilities that the government considers strategic or sensitive. All but 10 of those arrested were employed by a maintenance and cafeteria services subcontractor, GCA Services Group of West Conshohocken, Pa. Also, in early February, ICE arrested a Kenyan man working at Cree as a security guard. He was employed by Wackenhut, another Cree contractor.

Cypress Creek Juvenile Detention Center, Lecanto, Florida
January 4, 2007 St Petersburg Times
A helicopter hovered above. Canine officers tracked through the woods. Checkpoints were in place. And dozens of sheriff's deputies swarmed the area near the Cypress Creek juvenile detention facility. Wednesday afternoon, the word was out: Two teenage inmates escaped from the maximum-security prison. Except they didn't. After an hour and a half of searching, the two missing inmates were found hiding - in the detention facility's compound. Kendall Wayne Wilbanks, 15, of Leesburg and Gavin Alexander Eskdale, 17, of Kathleen in Polk County, picked a lock to gain access to the roof area of the woodworking shop, a separate building from the main facility inside the security fence. The inmates were in the shop for an 11 a.m. class. But they were missing when the class ended and a head count took place at 12:06 p.m., the Citrus County Sheriff's Office said. A massive manhunt began, but deputies soon turned their attention back inside the facility after a check of the perimeter showed no breach of the fence.

August 21, 2006 Miami Herald
Just after 4 a.m. on Oct. 13, youth-camp guard Josephus Johnson heard a ''gurgling'' sound coming from a dorm room. He found 17-year-old Willie Durden cold, limp and without a pulse. Twenty minutes and two exams later, an officer at the Cypress Creek Juvenile Offender Correctional Center finally started CPR. Why the wait? ''Some of these kids will play pranks,'' Johnson told an investigator with the state Department of Juvenile Justice, according to records provided to The Miami Herald this week. The inspector ``asked Johnson how someone could get his or her heart to stop beating to accomplish such a prank.'' Durden, a Jacksonville teen described as a ''model inmate'' who dreamed of being a youth counselor himself, was pronounced dead on arrival at Citrus Memorial Hospital at 5:10 a.m. He was to receive a football scholarship to a Christian school in Jacksonville following his release. He became the sixth Florida child to die in DJJ custody since 2000. Two other children have died since then, including Martin Lee Anderson, who died Jan. 6 at a Bay County boot camp. Durden is among several youths who died after guards or nurses dismissed their condition as the false cries of a faker or malingerer -- and the cases raise serious questions about the quality of care children in state custody receive. "This is another tragic example of the state's inability to guarantee the health and safety of children in its care,'' said Roy Miller, who heads the Children's Campaign, a Tallahassee-based advocacy group. ``Parents and judges and law enforcement people need to ask the tough question: Are children in state custody safe? ''These are not isolated incidents. They are recurring, and it's shameful,'' Miller added. Asked Nancy Hamilton, who oversees a St. Petersburg drug treatment program and is president of the state Juvenile Justice Association: ``How do you hire for common sense? This is a key issue . . . Would you wait 20 minutes if this were your child? Or would you be on your phone?'' The head of Cypress Creek, Joseph Hasselbach, declined to discuss the case, citing a DJJ requirement that agencies that contract with the state government not speak to reporters.

March 17, 2006 Florida Times-Union
It took five months for the state to release the autopsy report Thursday for a Jacksonville teen who died in juvenile facility, drawing concern from some lawmakers especially after another boy's taped beating death in January. According to the autopsy, Willie Durden, who died Oct. 13 at the Cypress Creek Juvenile Offender Corrections Center in Citrus County, had an enlarged heart. But the report took several months to surface even after blood tests came back negative for drugs. Durden, 17, was the third young black male in three years to die in a state detention center. The Legislature's black caucus has been waiting for Durden's report since before Panama City teen Martin Lee Anderson died in January at a Panhandle boot camp where staff are accused of contributing to his death. The report on Durden shows the autopsy exam was performed the day of his death and toxicology results came back in November, but only in the last few days has the report quietly appeared on Northeast Florida lawmakers' desks.

Czech Republic
March 25, 2008 Ceskenoviny
Czech police arrested last week an accomplice of Frantisek Prochazka, who is suspected of having stolen half a billion crowns in cash from a security agency last December, Prague City State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Stepanka Zenklova told today. "The detained person has been put into custody and we will provide no more information so that not to endanger further investigation," Zenklova said. She said the alleged accomplice was in custody and faced charges of robbery in conspiracy. A special police team is looking for Prochazka on whom an international arrest warrant has been issued. The company afflicted is the G4S Cash Services, a subsidiary of the supranational security agency Group 4 Securitas that specialises in transport of money. Prochazka worked as a security guard there. The robbery took place on December 1, 2007, on Saturday morning. According to the police, Prochazka and his accomplice who was also employed with the G4S agency as a driver loaded the bags with the cash Prochazka stole from the company's safe in a van resembling an office vehicle that was used for transportation of money. While the accomplice drove the vehicle away Prochazka remained at his workplace. Police declined to say whether the driver was the person whom they detained last week. According to central Bohemian police spokeswoman Sona Budska, police today also detained three men from the Pribram area who are suspected of robbing security agencies' armoured vehicles. They face up to 12 years in prison for the combined theft of more than 12 million crowns. According to available information, two of the vehicles robbed by the suspected perpetrators belonged to G4S. Budska told that she had no information on a possible connection between the two cases of robbery.

December 10, 2007 Czech Happenings
The state attorney in charge of the case of Frantisek Prochazka, former employee of G4S security agency, whom the police suspect of stealing 560 million crowns from the agency, has proposed to issue an international arrest warrant for him, Stepanka Zenklova from the Prague State Attorney's Office told CTK today. "The state attorney has proposed to issue a warrant for the arrest of Prochazka in the Czech Republic, a European arrest warrant and a warrant for his arrest on the international level," Zenklova said. The Prague 3 District Court will now decide on issuing the warrants. So far, only a preliminary consent for Prochazka's detention has been issued. However, after the police officially accused him on Thursday the state attorney could propose issuing the arrest warrants, Zenklova said. Previous information by some media that a European arrest warrant for Prochazka has already been issued has not thus been confirmed. Prochazka has been accused of theft. He will face up to 12 years in prison if apprehended and found guilty. The "theft of the century," probably unprecedented in Czech history, occurred in the G4S agency's premises in Prague last Saturday. Prochazka's car, driven by an unknown accomplice, arrived at the complex, took the stolen sum from Prochazka and drove it away. Prochazka, who worked in the agency as a guard and is armed, disappeared later and he is still escaping from the police.

December 5, 2007 The Prague Post
Police are searching for a security agency employee who took a record 560 million Kč ($31.2 million) from his company’s Prague 3 office Dec. 1 in what officials are calling the “robbery of the century.” According to Prague city police spokeswoman Iva Knolová, “Police would welcome any information about the suspect, and have launched a statewide search.” The man, 33-year-old František Procházka, an employee of multinational security agency G4S Cash Services, has short brown hair, is of medium height and may be carrying a weapon, according to Knolová. While stealing the money, Procházka may have had an accomplice, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported, citing a source close to the investigation. “The suspect used an opportune moment to enter the company’s safe room,” the source says. “He took the cash, put it in bags and had it driven to an unknown place by his accomplice.” The perpetrators used a company vehicle typically used to transport clients’ money to drive away with the stolen cash, giving them more time before G4S staff was able to uncover the heist, the online news server Aktualne.cz reported. The company, a subsidiary of international security and cash transport agency Group 4 Securitas, is offering a 2 million euro reward to anyone who helps catch the perpetrators. The stolen sum is equivalent to G4S’s annual turnover, according to a statement of the company’s local branch. In an effort to map Procházka’s route, police have asked the public to provide them with any information about the getaway vehicle, a white Volkswagen utility vehicle with a 1L74973 license plate and a sticker with the company’s logo. “The suspect used this vehicle and was driving it at the time the robbery occurred,” Knolová says. The vehicle was found abandoned on Kandrtova street in Prague 8 late on the evening of Dec. 2. “It’s possible that an eyewitness noticed the suspect manipulating the vehicle in an abnormal manner,” Knolová says. Police are also looking for information regarding a gray metallic Volkswagen Passat with a 1L81115 license plate, which the suspect may have used after disposing of the getaway car. If caught, Procházka could face up to two years in prison, Knolová says.

Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC
March 6, 2006 USA Today
The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training, failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and biological threats. For instance, when an envelope with suspicious powder was opened last fall at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said they watched in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary Michael Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff's window without evacuating people nearby. The scare, caused by white powder that proved to be harmless, "stands as one glaring example" of the agency's security problems, said Derrick Daniels, one of the first guards to respond to the incident. "I had never previously been given training ... describing how to respond to a possible chemical attack," Daniels told The Associated Press. "I wouldn't feel safe nowhere on this compound as an officer." Daniels was employed until last fall by Wackenhut Services Inc., the private security firm that guards Homeland's headquarters in a residential area of Washington. The company has been criticized previously for its work at nuclear facilities and transporting nuclear weapons. Homeland Security officials say they have little control over Wackenhut's training of guards but plan to improve that with a new contract. The company defends its performance, saying the suspicious powder incident was overblown because the mail had already been irradiated. Two senators who fielded complaints from several Wackenhut employees are asking Homeland's internal watchdog, the inspector general, to investigate. "If the allegations brought forward by the whistle-blowers are correct, they represent both a security threat and a waste of taxpayer dollars," Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote. "It would be ironic, to say the least, if DHS were unable to secure its own headquarters." Daniels left Wackenhut and now works security for another company at another federal building. He is among 14 current and former Wackenhut employees — mostly guards — who were interviewed by The Associated Press or submitted written statements to Congress that were obtained by AP. A litany of problems were listed by the guards, whose pay ranges from $15.60 to $23 an hour based on their position and level of security clearance. Among their examples of lax security: •They have no training in responding to attacks with weapons of mass destruction; •Chemical-sniffing dogs have been replaced with ineffective equipment that falsely indicates the presence of explosives. •Vehicle entrances to Homeland Security's complex are lightly guarded; •Guards with radios have trouble hearing each other, or have no radios, no batons and no pepper spray, leaving them with few options beyond lethal force with their handguns. Over the last two years, the Energy Department inspector general concluded that Wackenhut guards had thwarted simulated terrorist attacks at a nuclear lab only after they were tipped off to the test; and that guards also had improperly handled the transport of nuclear and conventional weapons. Homeland Security is based at a gated, former Navy campus in a college neighborhood — several miles from the heavily trafficked streets that house the FBI, Capitol, Treasury Department and White House. Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said Wackenhut guards are still operating under a contract signed with the Navy, and the agency has little control over their training. A soon-to-be-implemented replacement contract will impose new requirements on security guards, he said. Daniels, the former guard who responded to the white powder incident, said the area where the powder was found wasn't evacuated for more than an hour. Available biohazard face shields went unused. Daniels said that after the envelope was taken outside, and the order finally given to evacuate the potentially infected area, employees had already gone to lunch and had to be rounded up and quarantined. Former guard Bryan Adams recognized his inadequate training one day last August, when an employee reported a suspicious bag in the parking lot. "I didn't have a clue about what to do," he said. Adams said he closed the vehicle checkpoint with a cone, walked over to the bag and called superiors. Nobody cordoned off the area. Eventually, someone called a federal bomb squad, which arrived more than an hour after the discovery. "If the bag had, in fact, contained the explosive device that was anticipated, the bomb could have detonated several times over in the hour that the bag sat there," Adams said. The bag, it turned out, contained gym clothes. Some guards who continue to work at Homeland, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of fear of losing their jobs, said they knew of two instances in which individuals without identification got into the sensitive complex. Another described how guards flunked a test by the Secret Service, which sent vehicles into the compound with dummy government identification tags hanging from inside mirrors. Guards cleared such vehicles through on two occasions, this guard said, and one officer even copied down the false information without realizing it was supposed to match information on the employee's government badge. Marixa Farrar, a former guard, said two guards always should have been stationed inside the main building where Chertoff had his office, but she often was on duty alone. One day last fall a fire alarm rang. As employees walked by Farrar, they asked if this was a fire or a test. "There were no radios, so I couldn't figure out if it was a serious alarm," she said. There was no fire.

DuPont Laboratories, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
April 30, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
A former postal employee serving a year's probation for stealing bars of gold from an express-mail package was jailed yesterday for three months for violating his probation. Edward Henderson, 22, of Dover Street near W. York Street, ran afoul of the feds after he told his probation officer he had been fired from his job as a security guard for Wackenhut Security. Todd Schaffer, the probation officer, testified at a hearing yesterday that Henderson found a SIM card for a cell phone in a storage locker at DuPont Laboratories and used it for several months in his own cell phone. A SIM card is a tiny data card that stores account information. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Burnes said Henderson used the SIM card between May and August 2007, ringing up charges of almost $1,750 to call his girlfriend and family members. Henderson was charged in Common Pleas Court last August with theft by unlawful taking and with receiving stolen property. Those charges are still pending. A condition of Henderson's probation was that he not commit any federal or state crimes. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Rice was not pleased. Last May, Rice sentenced Henderson to a year's probation for stealing 15 bars of .9999 fine gold from an express-mail package, valued by authorities at about $11,850. Burnes said Rice had given Henderson an opportunity last year to set himself straight but he blew it. Burnes asked that the judge jail Henderson for three months. Henderson admitted he had "done a foolish thing" but said he hadn't deliberately violated his probation. Defense attorney Maranna Meehan said she thought three months in jail was a "bit excessive." "I'm asking for a second opportunity for [him]," she said, adding that Henderson was supporting his mother and his 3-year-old son. But this time, Rice was not so understanding. "I had confidence in you, I gave you a chance," he told Henderson. "You made a promise to me and you broke it." The judge was just getting warmed up. "You just don't get it. I think you just thought you could get away with it because you're wearing a uniform," Rice said, his voice rising a few decibels. Rice also ordered Henderson to make restitution of $1,750 to DuPont Labs. Rice ordered Henderson to be taken into custody immediately.

El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego, California
April 3, 2007 Union-Tribune
A City Heights man accused of using his security guard badge to lure victims and then rape them was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in prison. Robert James Purdy, 42, pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court to rape under color of authority and kidnapping charges involving two teenage girls. He agreed to the 12-year prison term in February under the terms of a plea bargain. Purdy was accused of a dozen felonies corresponding to three attacks in September and November in Normal Heights, Southcrest and North Park. Prosecutors said Purdy, a Wackenhut security employee, got the girls into his car by showing his badge and then demanded sex. He was arrested at his home on Nov. 9.

February 1, 2007 10 NEWS
A security guard who used his badge to lure young girls into his car and then forced them to have sex pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of rape under the color of authority and one count of kidnapping. Under the plea deal, Robert James Purdy, 42, will receive a 12-year prison sentence. He must also register as a sex offender and has agreed to give up all property seized by police, including his Ford Escort, according to prosecutors. The defendant, who will be formally sentenced on April 2 by Judge Stephanie Sontag, would have faced more than 40 years behind bars if convicted of a dozen felony charges, including sodomy and false imprisonment by violence. Purdy, of City Heights, pleaded guilty to raping two 15-year-old girls last Nov. 7 and Nov. 8. One of the victims was moved from one location to another, according to the plea agreement. Deputy District Attorney Evan Kirvin said Purdy was an employee of Wackenhut Corp. when he used his badge to lure the victims into his car. The victims were in an area known for prostitution when they were victimized, but it was not established that either actually worked as prostitutes, Kirvin said. Purdy was tracked down and arrested after an officer recalled putting a citation on a vehicle that fit the description given by one of the victims.

November 21, 2006 North County Times
A City Heights man accused of using his position as a security guard to lure young girls into his car, where he allegedly forced them into sex, pleaded not guilty today to 12 felony counts, including rape and kidnapping. Deputy District Attorney Evan Kirvin said Robert James Purdy, 41, is charged with raping two girls under the age of 16 on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8. Kirvin said there may be additional alleged victims, which could lead to more charges. Anyone who thinks they may have been victimized by Purdy should call San Diego police, the prosecutor said. Judge David Szumowski set bail at $500,000 and scheduled a readiness conference for Jan. 11. Purdy, a Wackenhut Corp. employee, allegedly used his security guard's badge to persuade women and girls to get into his car, where he forced them into sex acts. The alleged victims "were in areas known for prostitution when they were victimized," San Diego police public information officer Monica Munoz said. Kirvin, who would not comment on whether the alleged victims were prostitutes, said at least one girl was moved from one location to another. The defendant was tracked down and arrested Nov. 9 after an officer recalled putting a citation on a vehicle that fit the description given by one of the alleged victims. As charged, Purdy faces more than 17 years in prison if convicted.

November 11, 2006 KFMB
A suspected serial rapist is behind bars Saturday morning, being held on $325,000 bail. Police have identified the suspect as Robert James Purdy. Authorities say the 41-year-old man is a security guard who works for Wackenhut Security Services. He’s a man who officers say used his badge and his fake cop talk to target women working the streets along El Cajon Boulevard. Investigators tell News 8 that so far they know of four rape victims. All are prostitutes and two are minors.

Florence Correctional Center, Florence, Arizona
February 6, 2009 Yuma Sun
An illegal immigrant injured in an automobile accident after his arrest by the Border Patrol has received a $200,000 settlement. Jose Sandoval reached the settlement with Corrections Corporation of America, which had subcontracted with the Wackenhut security firm to transport previously detained aliens for the Department of Homeland Security, according to Yuma attorney Candy Camarena, who along with attorney Virginia Zazueta represented Sandoval. Sandoval, who had been arrested in the Yuma area in March, was being transported in a van with five other people to Florence, Ariz., when a flat tire caused the driver to lose control, according to Camarena and Miguel Escobar, Mexican consul in Yuma. The van rolled over along Interstate 8 in Pinal County. Sandoval was hospitalized with injuries to the arm and spinal column. "He was deported to Mexico through Nogales, in precarious health condition," Escobar said. "He was walking with a cane, and he contacted the Mexican Consulate to get help. The consulate took care of him and took him to San Luis Rio Colorado for medical care and we contacted the attorney." Sandoval, a resident of Baja California, got the additional medical attention but "the arm was broken in seven places," he said. "I have metal pins here and there," Sandoval said Friday at a news conference in San Luis Rio Colorado. "The spinal column splintered in two parts, I suffer a lot of pain. All the time there is that pain in the back." A carpenter by training, he had gone to the United States to work in construction, he said Friday at a news conference, but will no longer be able to do that kind of work. "I've tried to lift heavy things, but it hurts. I can't do it." The legal case was nearly seven months in preparation, Camarena said. "The biggest problems that we had in this lawsuit was that federal court demands that the plaintiff in a suit be present. Mr. Sandoval can't enter the United States, but we reached an agreement to resolve the case." Sandoval received $80,000, with the rest of settlement going for his medical and legal bills.

Florida Department of Corrections, Tallahassee, Florida
September 30, 2005 St. Petersburg Times
Over dinner in midtown Manhattan, Florida Corrections Secretary James Crosby met in July with two executives of a company seeking a multimillion-dollar contract with his agency. Crosby paid his own tab and said no state business was discussed. State bidding rules prohibit vendors and agency staffers from discussing pending contracts, except through official channels. The company, G4S Justice Services, later won a three-year contract to monitor sex offenders in half the state, including Pinellas and Hillsborough. It won because it submitted the lowest price. More bad news surfaced Thursday. --Under criticism from legislators, prison officials reversed course and decided not to hire four companies to expand privatization of health care at South Florida prisons. Instead, prison officials will redo the bids and hire one company to provide medical, dental, mental health and pharmacy services, a deal worth more than $100-million. Because of complex bid regulations, hiring four companies invited a legal challenge, opponents said. --A high-ranking prison health care official, John Burke, quit his $95,000-a-year job amid questions about his past ties to a company that has a prison contract to package medicine for inmates. In his resignation letter, Burke cited "continued turmoil" over his past work for TYA Pharmaceuticals of Tallahassee and another company, MHM Services of Vienna, Va. Both companies were expected to seek parts of the inmate health care program. "I have done nothing improper, unethical or illegal during my tenure now or before," Burke wrote Wednesday. Burke listed his past ties to TYA and MHM on a financial disclosure form filed with the state Commission on Ethics, but prison officials say he never disclosed it to them. G4S sales director Leo Carson, who was at the dinner with the company's top executive, Fiona Walters, said it was the kind of casual get-together that occurs frequently at all professional conferences. "It was very impromptu, very informal and very much in a conference atmosphere," Carson said. "The first thing out of our mouths was, "We want to avoid this topic, for the obvious reason. Agreed? Agreed."' Carson said it would have been rude to snub Crosby, and that the dinner was "115 percent above board." He said Crosby paid his own tab. Crosby previously acknowledged having gone to concerts and sporting events with Don Yaeger, a Tallahassee lobbyist for vendors seeking contracts in the prisons. But as with the New York dinner, Crosby said he always paid his own way.

September 8, 2005 St Petersburg Times
In a surprise twist to Florida's fast-growing sex offender tracking system, a Texas firm tentatively hired to help run the program has quit. The withdrawal by Satellite Tracking of People of Houston came after more than two weeks of field tests of its new one-piece ankle bracelet, known as BluTag. A contract with the state Department of Corrections was contingent on successful testing of the global positioning system devices. The state declined to say whether problems arose in the tests. STOP declined to comment. STOP's vice president for business development, Greg Utterback, sent the state a terse letter Tuesday stating only that the company "is requesting to withdraw from contract consideration." STOP's chief executive, Steve Logan, declined to comment. STOP was one of two companies that submitted low bids to expand electronic tracking of sex offenders under the Jessica Lunsford Act, which includes a three-year, $3.9-million project to track up to 1,200 offenders. The law, which took effect one week ago, was passed in memory of the 9-year-old Homosassa girl who was abducted and killed in February. Angry at the bid language, STOP filed a protest in July and briefly brought the program to a halt. After the state removed the words STOP did not like, the company dropped its protest and made the lowest bid of seven firms. The Corrections Department split the state into two regions, north and south. STOP was the low bidder for the northern half, including Pasco, Hernando and Citrus, the county that was home to Jessica Lunsford and to John Couey, a 46-year-old sex offender charged with her death. G4S Justice Services, a subsidiary of London's Group 4 Securicor, has been hired to provide tracking in the southern half, which includes Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

Florida Legislature, Tallahassee, Florida
May 7, 2008 Palm Beach Post
The chief of staff in training for de facto Senate President Jeff Atwater is officially off the payroll, Atwater said Wednesday. Millionaire "Budd" Kneip of Palm Beach Gardens earned a $7,000-a-month salary from the state for one month and two days to learn the ins and outs of the legislature, which was dealing with a $5 billion budget deficit. Kneip was the founder and owner of the Oasis Group, a division of Wackenhut Corp. He has no legislative experience but has run campaigns, including the one for Palm Beach County's 2004 half-penny sales tax increase to build schools. Normally, the chief of staff assumes his position when the Senate president is appointed in the fall. Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is being challenged in his reelection bid by Skip Campbell, D-Tamarac, who formerly served in the Senate with him. Florida Democrats on Tuesday formally requested public records about Kneip's hiring and asked Atwater use his campaign account to reimburse the state for Kneip's salary. "Floridians are hurting, Sen. Atwater, but your campaign coffers are not," Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman said in a letter to Atwater on Tuesday. "We were going out spending money foolishly when we don't have the money to spend," Campbell said. "Let's be honest about it. There is no chief of staff until you become senate president." Before Thurman's letter became public, Atwater said he had arranged in the final days of the legislative session for Kneip to go off the payroll. The session ended Friday. "Budd's assistance during session was invaluable. ... He has returned home to continue developing a transition plan; I look forward to Budd coming back to the Senate this fall," Atwater said. Thurman's demands were a way to help Campbell, Atwater said Wednesday. "This is a chairman trying to insert herself into a local race with no information," he said.

April 12, 2008 Palm Beach Post
Sen. Jeff Atwater has hired an aide who will get on-the-job training before he becomes Senate president chief of staff, and Atwater's campaign opponent is criticizing the expenditure. Robert "Budd" Kneip is a Palm Beach Gardens businessman with no legislative experience. He founded The Oasis Group, an outsourcing division of Wackenhut Corp. Kneip, who is earning $7,000 a month, needed to come on board early to get the feel of how the legislature runs and how government budgets are developed and negotiated before his new boss officially takes over, Atwater said. Normally the chief of staff is appointed after the legislative leader assumes his role in the fall. Atwater is being challenged for reelection in November by Democrat Skip Campbell, a trial lawyer who formerly served in the Senate alongside Atwater. Campbell criticized Kneip's salary at a time when lawmakers are slashing about $5 billion from the state budget because of plummeting tax collections. "How can we be hiring somebody for on the job training at 7K a month when we're cutting education, food for the poor, Medicaid treatment for the mentally ill? This is one of the most hypocritical actions I've seen in government," Campbell said. Kneip has sat on the advisory boards for Florida Atlantic University and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and served as chairman of the Palm Beach County Task Force on Business Development. In the latter role, he successfully pushed a 2004 referendum for a half-penny sales tax hike to pay for building schools to comply with the constitutional amendment limiting class sizes. Kneip's know-how at implementing state policy at the local level and business acumen are why he's right for the job, said Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican. "He doesn't have the experience in this process," Atwater said. "To have him be able to watch how this works is going to help me as we think about structure, the design, the flow and process of work."

Gambia, Africa
November 28, 2005 Daily Observer
The two staff members of Wackenhut security firm, who were implicated in the aborted groundnut theft at the Gambia Agricultural Marketing Company Ltd (Gamco) a few months ago, were on Thursday arraigned before Magistrate Mboto of the Banjul Magistrates' Court on a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony and stealing.

Global Solutions Limited
June 13, 2009 Perth Now
ONE of two guards suspended over the death of an Aboriginal elder in a prisoner transport van, says she has been ''gagged'' from talking about the tragedy. On Friday, State Coroner Alastair Hope recommended Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock consider criminal charges over the "unnecessary and wholly avoidable death'' of Mr Ward, 46, who died on January 27 last year. Officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell drove the Warbuton elder, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, for the 352km Outback journey between the Goldfields towns of Laverton to Kalgoorlie. In his stinging finding, Mr Hope said Mr Ward died when temperatures rose to 50C in the pod of the commercially owned van which had no air-conditioning and little-to-no air flow. Contracted transport company, G4S, formally known as Global Solutions Ltd, stood down Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell on Friday. "The two employees have been suspended and the findings of the coroner, the coroner's report and recommendations will be considered carefully and it will then be decided what the next step should be,'' G4S spokesman Tim Hall told ABC radio yesterday. Ms Stokoe declined to comment on her suspension, saying: "I can't talk about anything, I would like to, but I can't''. Mr Ward's family is planning to sue G4S, which runs other custodial services including court security, over the tragedy. Prison Officer's Union secretary John Welch said the inquest had raised questions about the privatisation of custodial services in WA. Mr Welch said he feared G4S would be allowed to be apply for the contract to run the recently announced Eastern Goldfields prison which was scheduled for completion by the end of 2013. "You wonder why, in the light apparent failures of privatisation, you would want to even consider looking at having at private provider in the Goldfields,'' Mr Welch said. A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Christian Porter said no decision had been made on whether the prison would be public or private, and any discussion on the potential awarding of a private contract was speculative. Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chair Marc Newhouse said another public protest was planned for the city on Saturday to lobby the State Government for improvements.

June 12, 2009 WA Today
A man died a "terrible death" in the back of a prison van where temperatures reached 50 degrees celsius, the West Australian coroner has found. Coroner Alistair Hope, in his findings handed down on Friday, said the 46-year-old Aboriginal man's death had been "wholly unnecessary and avoidable". Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, died while being transferred 350km from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in a transit van on January 27, after being picked up for drink-driving on Australia Day. The air-conditioning unit inside the prisoner's compartment of the commercially operated van was not working and the coroner was told Mr Ward would have suffered through temperatures of 50 degrees before his death. He received third-degree burns where his body came into contact with the metal floor in the back of the Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) vehicle. Mr Hope found Mr Ward, of the Goldfields town of Warburton, died of heat stroke. He said his death was the result of a "litany of errors" and accused the prison van drivers of collusion and giving false evidence. He said the fact the prison van did not have a spare tyre was an indication of GSL's "reckless approach". It was a disgrace that a prisoner yet to be convicted was transported such a distance in the oven-hot conditions, Mr Hope said. The prisoner's compartment had little light, no restraints to protect the person inside if the van was involved in an accident, had little air flow and the fan did not work when tested, Mr Hope added. There was no proper method for a prisoner to communicate with the drivers, he said. About 40 protesters demonstrated outside Perth's Central Law Courts, where the coroner delivered his findings. Amnesty International called it "a disgrace that a prisoner should be transported in this way in the 21st century".

May 16, 2009 The West
He literally cooked to death. Trapped in a prison van for four hours, suffocated by temperatures that climbed to more than 50C, the Aboriginal elder had no way to communicate with security officers sitting just a metre away, in the airconditioned cab. His only sustenance was a small bottle of water and a meat pie. When he finally collapsed on the van floor, the metal was so hot it seared his skin. Yesterday, Corrective Services Commissioner Ian Johnson travelled to Kalgoorlie to publicly apologise to Mr Ward’s family, accepting responsibility for the 46-year-old’s death in January last year. It was a dramatic end to a coronial inquest that has revealed a litany of failures in the justice and custodial systems in WA’s outback. Widow Nancy Ward and her children will return to Laverton next week after sitting quietly and with dignity throughout the case, which has attracted the attention of the United Nations and the Australian Human Rights Commission. Mr Ward, a conservation worker, a supporter and interpreter for local police and an advocate and educator for children of the Gibson Desert, was an international ambassador for the Ngaanyatjarra people. His family say he was treated like an animal. Mr Ward had been drinking on Australia Day last year in the remote Goldfields town of Laverton when he was arrested for driving with more than four times the legal alcohol limit. Conducting a quasi-court hearing for Mr Ward at his cell door at the local police station, justice of the peace Barrye Thompson remanded him in custody to face court in Kalgoorlie the following day. Mr Thompson told the inquest he had no formal training when appointed as a JP and could not even remember whether he had read the Bail Act. The Aboriginal Legal Service was not contacted. Guards and police officers testified the prison vans used by Global Solutions Limited and maintained by the State were notoriously unreliable, sub-standard and the air-conditioning was often faulty. GSL’s supervisor in Kalgoorlie, Leanne Jenkins, had warned her management an incident would occur unless the vehicles were replaced. At 11.20am, the GSL prison van pulled into a secure area at Laverton police station where the guards were told they would have a trouble-free passenger. Mr Ward made a comment about the warm day and a guard told him “the quicker he got into the van, the quicker the air-conditioning would kick in”. But the air-conditioning did not work: it had been reported faulty in the GSL maintenance log more than a month earlier. Before making the continuous 360km journey to Kalgoorlie, the guards did not tell Mr Ward there was a duress alarm in the back of the van in case he needed help. Towards the end of the trip, they heard a loud thump. Pulling over on to the side of the road and opening the outer door of the van, the guards felt the heat radiating from the rear pod and they saw Mr Ward face-down on the van floor — unconscious and unresponsive. Reaching into the back of the van felt like a “blast from a furnace”, according to Dr Lucien LaGrange, who assisted in removing Mr Ward’s lifeless body at Kalgoorlie Hospital. Doctors found full-thickness contact burns on his stomach and tried for 20 minutes to resuscitate Mr Ward, whose skin felt like a “hot cup of coffee”. They managed to get a brief return of a heartbeat, but after putting him in an ice bath, his body temperature was still 41.7C. Coroner Alastair Hope is due to deliver his findings on June 12. For now, the Ward family will have to return to a community missing a leader. It is little comfort to them that money was allocated in this week’s State Budget to replace the fleet of transport vans — four years after the Department for Corrective Services undertook to do so. “I am sorry,” Mr Johnson told Mrs Ward yesterday. “I have a deep regret but no matter what I say, it’s not going to change what happened.”

May 14, 2009 The West
More than 30 family members and supporters of Mr Ward, an Aboriginal elder who had a fatal heatstroke in the back of a prison van, gathered outside the Kalgoorlie Courthouse yesterday to call for those responsible for his death to face tribal punishment. Mr Ward’s widow Nancy and his four sons were among those who wailed in grief as they demanded justice and answers to why the Warburton elder died in such horrific circumstances. The family’s interpreter and relative, Gail Jamieson, said that under traditional law, anyone found culpable of the death should be speared. “The family is just devastated,” she said. “He was treated with no respect and he was a well-respected, outstanding elder. If they were in an Aboriginal culture, they would be speared because us Aboriginal people are also going through two cultures.” The inquest was told no disciplinary action was taken against the two GSL officers responsible for transporting Mr Ward on the day he died. Mr Ward died after a four-hour journey in a GSL prison van from Laverton to Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year when temperatures reached 42C. Global Solutions Limited general manager John Hughes said security officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell were stood down on full pay and were reinstated when an internal investigation found they had not violated company policies or procedures. Questioned by the family’s barrister Michael Rynne, Mr Hughes said any reinvestigation would depend on Coroner Alastair Hope’s findings. GSL’s multi-million-dollar contract could require it to pay a penalty of 4.5 per cent of its value if found to have failed in its duty of care. Mr Hughes said he understood GSL’s obligations included ensuring officers minimised hardship to detainees, conducting regular checks to ensure their safety, security and health and preventing injury. The inquest concludes today.

March 21, 2009 The West
The security guard who drove the van in which an Aboriginal elder died of heat stroke has admitted he should take responsibility for the death. Testifying for a second day at the inquest into the death of 46-year-old Mr Ward, Global Solutions Limited driver Graham Powell said yesterday he regretted how Mr Ward died. “In hindsight, if I had to do that journey again, I would certainly be doing it a lot differently,” he said. He agreed with lawyer assisting the coroner, Felicity Zempilas, it was inhumane to transport prisoners in the rear pod of the van over long distances and that the vans were “certainly not designed for that”. Coroner Alastair Hope told Mr Powell he was “troubled” over his evidence about phone calls made after Mr Ward collapsed. Mr Hope said a delay of two minutes between calls was a long time in an emergency. To questions from his counsel Linda Black, Mr Powell said he should have checked the airconditioning, made comfort stops and told Mr Ward explicitly how to communicate with the officers if he was in distress. The inquest has heard Mr Powell and colleague Nina Stokoe did not stop during the four hours they had Mr Ward in the van in mid-40C heat while driving from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in January last year. Mr Ward suffered a full-thickness hand-size burn on his stomach from a hot metal surface inside the van. Senior chemist David Tranthim-Fryer said the prison van temperature would have been above 50C. Evidence from a police re-enactment he helped with revealed the van floor reached 56C and the air temperature at least 50C on a slightly cooler day. The temperature would have been hotter with a person inside because there would have been another heat source. “We opened the back doors and could feel the heat coming out of the pods. The hot air affects you more than anything else,” Mr Tranthim-Fryer said. Mr Ward’s body temperature was 41.7C after 20 minutes of resuscitation in an ice bath while being fanned. The van’s rear-pod airconditioning was not working, a fault noted in the GSL maintenance log more than a month before Mr Ward’s death. Mr Powell said he did not check the airconditioning in the pod despite knowing it had a history of faults. He had assumed Ms Stokoe checked it. Mr Hope has heard evidence from witnesses, including GSL’s Kalgoorlie supervisor Leanne Jenkins, who spoke of substandard “unreliable” prison vans which were not suitable for long distance travel. The inquest did not finish within the two-week timeframe and Mr Hope adjourned it until May 11. Outside, Mr Ward’s cousin Bernard Newberry said his family wanted those responsible charged. The family has asked that Mr Ward’s first name not be used.

January 30, 2008 Oldham-Chronicle
SECURITY guards were left red-faced after their prison van got stuck in a town centre car park. Global Solutions Limited (GSL) is employed by the Prison Service to transfer prisoners safely between court and jail. But the driver caused a bit of a stir when the van became jammed in the former Co-op car park at the back of Mecca Bingo on King Street. Police went to investigate but found the prisoners had already been dropped off at Oldham Magistrates’ Court. A police spokesman said: “The driver said he had read the height restriction notice but thought the van would be able to clear it.” The driver and his colleague then freed the van by letting air out of the tyres.

January 29, 2008 News.Com.AU
THE West Australian desert town of Warburton was in mourning yesterday over the death in custody of its former Aboriginal community chairman, who was arrested on Australia Day for allegedly drink-driving. Ian Ward, a 46-year-old father of five and one of the last nomads born in the Gibson Desert, died the following day after collapsing in the back of a security van during a 915km journey to jail in the goldfields city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Major Crime Squad detectives are investigating. Mr Ward was being driven by contractors for the Department of Corrective Services, who noticed he had collapsed as they neared their destination. Mr Ward's nephew Andrew Johns said his large family was gathering in Warburton to remember a man who lobbied for his people's native title rights. "We are very sad today," Mr Johns said. The family understands Mr Ward died of a heart attack in hot conditions in the back of the van. "It is a long way to go and very hot," he said. Police had stopped Mr Ward last Saturday at 9.30pm in his remote home town of Warburton, about 1500km northwest of Perth in the traditional Ngaanyatjarra lands between the Gibson and Victoria deserts. He was charged with one count of drink-driving and taken to the lockup in Warburton. Mr Ward was driven 570km to the courthouse in Laverton, where he appeared on Sunday morning and was remanded in custody. Police say he was being transported to the nearest jail - the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison 352km away - when he collapsed. Mr Ward was being transported by Global Solutions Ltd, having been picked up in Laverton at 11.40am, police say. He was being taken in the rear of the GSL security van. As the van neared Kalgoorlie, he was found to have collapsed. He was conveyed to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital, where he died a short time later.

November 29, 2007 The Telegraph
Group4Securicor is in talks to buy Global Solutions, a company it used to own, for around £350m. Earlier this year, private equity firm Cognetas appointed investment bank UBS to carry out a strategic review of Global Solutions, which runs a number of Britain's prisons and detention centres. However, the credit crunch forced Cognetas to put the review of Global Solutions on hold. Since then, the company has received a number of approaches, including one from Group4Securicor. Cognetas bought Global Solutions, which also manages hospitals, schools and tourist offices, from Danish security firm Group 4 Falk for about £200m three years ago. Group4Securicor is now understood to be carrying out due diligence on the business. However, it is not the only company bidding. Sources said US group GEO and several private equity firms have also made approaches for the company. Global Solutions has previously come under the spotlight for the way it runs its prisons and detention centres, following the Government's privatisation of the sector. Earlier this year, there was a Panorama investigation by an undercover BBC reporter, who worked as a custody officer, in one of Global Solutions' prisons at Rye Hill. None of the parties involved would comment.

MANCHESTER'S new £30m court is at the centre of a new storm after dozens of prisoners were hours late arriving from their cells.  Furious lawyers sat around for up to three hours yesterday waiting for their clients to arrive from police stations, including Bootle Street less than a mile away.  GSL, the private security firm that ferries prisoners to the court, blamed "logistical problems" and has apologised to court authorities.  It is the latest in a string of problems at the court since it opened in May.   Around 40 people were due to be moved from holding cells in Manchester to the court before 10am yesterday, in time for morning hearings.  Less than half were delivered on time and more were dropped off at 11am and 11.45am. Lawyers were still waiting for at least eight clients at 12.30pm. GSL, part of Group 4, said the final transfer was made at 12.45pm.  Court bosses have already threatened to fine GSL for previous failures to get prisoners into court on time.  (Manchester Online, August 31, 2004)

Group 4/Securicor (AKA Wackenhut), UK
June 23, 2009 The West
The West Australian government is reviewing the contract of a security company involved in the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder, Premier Colin Barnett says. Global Solutions, which was acquired by UK-based security services giant G4S last year, provided security for government groups including the Department of Immigration and the WA Department of Corrective Services. GSL employed two guards to transport the elder, 46-year-old Mr Ward, who died in the back of a prison van on a four-hour journey across the WA goldfields in January 2008. Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, was being taken from Laverton to Kalgoorlie to face a drink-driving charge. He died of heat stroke after suffering temperatures of 50C in the rear pod of a van driven by the guards, Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell. Earlier this month, WA coroner Alistair Hope apportioned blame for the “wholly avoidable” death among the guards, GSL and the WA Department of Corrective Services. The Director of Public Prosecutions is considering whether charges should be laid over the matter. Mr Barnett said today that G4S would be scrutinised before their government contract was renewed. “It is an absolute tragedy that a prisoner in the care of the state could end up dying in that condition,” Mr Barnett said. “The coroner’s reported, the attorney-general is dealing with that issue, and we will certainly look at the contract and the performance, and ensure that it is never repeated in Western Australia again.” The transport tender for corrective services is due to come up next year. Mr Barnett said G4S would be judged on their performance. “I’m not involved directly in the administration of that contract, but I assure you we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that future prisoners are treated with respect and safely,“ he said. “It would be quite inappropriate for me to comment on a tender process, but obviously their performance will be one of the factors that will be taken into account when that future tender is awarded.”

June 23, 2009 Brisbane Times
A sacked security guard has offered her apologies to the family of an Aboriginal elder who died in custody, while the West Australian government says it's reviewing her former employer's contract. Nina Stokoe, one of two guards who had charge of the man when he died of heatstroke in the back of a secure van during a 360km drive, accused authorities of providing inadequate vehicles to transport prisoners. Security giant G4S last week sacked Ms Stokoe and the other guard, Graham Powell, claiming the pair failed to follow directions to check on prisoners every two hours during the fatal four-hour journey. Mr Ward, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, died after suffering temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in the rear of the privately operated van which had no air-conditioning. He was being taken from Laverton to Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year to face charges of drink-driving. WA coroner Alastair Hope, who in his findings said Mr Ward had suffered "inhumane treatment", has asked the director of public prosecutions to consider laying charges over the incident. Mr Hope found that Ms Stokoe, Mr Powell, Global Solutions Ltd (since acquired by G4S) and the Department of Corrective Services had all contributed to Mr Ward's "terrible death". Ms Stokoe on Tuesday broke her silence in an interview with the Nine Network, saying she is distraught over Mr Ward's death. In excerpts aired on Fairfax Radio on Tuesday, Ms Stokoe broke down while offering an apology to Mr Ward's family. "I am very sorry that it's happened and I can understand how they feel," she said. "I only wish that it never happened and that he was still around. "I am so sorry that it happened. "Mr Ward will always be on my mind, always, he will never go away." Mr Stokoe said guards endured terrible conditions in the vans supplied by authorities but were afraid of complaining lest they lose their shifts. She accepted her part in Mr Ward's death but said the prison vans were "untrustworthy". "(We've) probably been scapegoats, but at the end of the day we were the ones that were driving the vehicle," she said. "We had no choice what vehicle to drive. "At the end of the day, every day in Kalgoorlie when we drove out to pick up prisoners it's pot luck. "There's many times we have been sat by the side of the road broken down. "Sometimes 15, 20-odd hours those vehicles have been stuck out in the middle of nowhere, broken down, with prisoners on board and without prisoners on board. "Those vehicles were untrustworthy." WA Premier Colin Barnett said the government was reviewing G4S' contract. "It is an absolute tragedy that a prisoner in the care of the state could end up dying in that condition," Mr Barnett said on Tuesday. "The coroner's reported, the attorney-general is dealing with that issue, and we will certainly look at the contract and the performance, and ensure that it is never repeated in Western Australia again." The transport tender for corrective services is due to come up next year.

June 19, 2009 Brisbane Times
Two security guards who had charge of a prison van in which an Aboriginal elder died of heat stroke have been sacked, their employer says. UK-based security services giant G4S said on Friday it had terminated the employment of the two guards, Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell, following the completion of a coroner's hearing into the man's death. West Australian Coroner Alastair Hope last Friday delivered a finding that the man, known only as Mr Ward for cultural reasons, had died of heat stroke. He said he had suffered through temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in the un-airconditioned pod of a van during a 360km journey between Laverton and Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year. Mr Hope apportioned blame for Mr Ward's death between Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell, the private company Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which has since been acquired by G4S, and the WA Department of Corrective Services. G4S Public affairs director Tim Hall said Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell had disregarded orders to check on prisoners at least once every two hours. But he said their dismissal was a result of the Department of Corrective Services withdrawing their work permits on Monday. "The withdrawal of their work permits effectively made any other considerations unnecessary," Mr Hall told AAP on Friday. Mr Hope has asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider whether charges should be laid over the incident.

June 15, 2009 Four Corners
The company linked to the death of Mr Ward was the subject of a damning report in 2005. An investigation by the ABC's Four Corners program found GSL (now G4S) was the subject of a damning report, published in 2005, by Queensland officials regarding the transportation of immigration detainees in 2004. In that incident, none of the detainees was given food during a seven-hour leg of a lengthy trip from Melbourne to South Australia, and only two were given water. The man who wrote the report, the former head of Queensland's corrective services, Keith Hamburger, says he is concerned about the issues raised by the subsequent death of Mr Ward in Western Australia. The Human Rights Commission later found that one of the detainees was so thirsty that he was forced to drink his own urine. Last week the state's coroner found Mr Ward had died of heat stroke after being carted through the desert in 40 degree-plus heat in a prisoner transport van that had faulty air conditioning. The Aboriginal elder, who had been arrested for drink driving, was found with a third-degree burn on his stomach where his body had come into contact with the van's floor. The coroner found the private security guards who drove the van, the company which employed them, GSL, and the WA Department of Corrective Services all contributed to his death. "The criticism of the company related to our procedures and processes," GSL spokesman Tim Hall has told ABC radio. "We accept that there was some ground for criticism." However it is not the first time GSL's procedures have been criticised. Mr Hamburger's findings were equally damning. He found GSL was "responsible for placing the safety of detainees at risk", "humiliating" them, and "disregarding appeals for assistance from detainees in obvious distress". The guards had driven the first leg of the journey to South Australia non-stop for seven hours. None of the detainees was given food, and only two were given water. "I felt quite appalled actually," Mr Hamburger told Four Corners. "I sat in the van. I talked to the staff that did the escort. I saw the CCTV footage. I was very shocked by the whole thing." One of the asylum seekers, now settled in Australia, describes for the first time the journey he endured. "People was in the back shouting and crying and I was banging as well because I needed to go to the toilet," he said. "And they didn't stop for anything. And I have to do it in the car." 'Great concern' -- One year after the Hamburger report was released, the WA government gave the contract for prisoner transport in the state to GSL. "If these issues are being repeated that's a matter of great concern, because this is not rocket science," Mr Hamburger said. "We're dealing here with, as I've said, duty of care. "We've had many years of experience across the board in corrections and detention and police in dealing with these situations. "There's a whole body of evidence around I guess on how to do these things, and so it is concerning. "They should know better."

June 13, 2009 Perth Now
ONE of two guards suspended over the death of an Aboriginal elder in a prisoner transport van, says she has been ''gagged'' from talking about the tragedy. On Friday, State Coroner Alastair Hope recommended Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock consider criminal charges over the "unnecessary and wholly avoidable death'' of Mr Ward, 46, who died on January 27 last year. Officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell drove the Warbuton elder, whose first name cannot be released for cultural reasons, for the 352km Outback journey between the Goldfields towns of Laverton to Kalgoorlie. In his stinging finding, Mr Hope said Mr Ward died when temperatures rose to 50C in the pod of the commercially owned van which had no air-conditioning and little-to-no air flow. Contracted transport company, G4S, formally known as Global Solutions Ltd, stood down Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell on Friday. "The two employees have been suspended and the findings of the coroner, the coroner's report and recommendations will be considered carefully and it will then be decided what the next step should be,'' G4S spokesman Tim Hall told ABC radio yesterday. Ms Stokoe declined to comment on her suspension, saying: "I can't talk about anything, I would like to, but I can't''. Mr Ward's family is planning to sue G4S, which runs other custodial services including court security, over the tragedy. Prison Officer's Union secretary John Welch said the inquest had raised questions about the privatisation of custodial services in WA. Mr Welch said he feared G4S would be allowed to be apply for the contract to run the recently announced Eastern Goldfields prison which was scheduled for completion by the end of 2013. "You wonder why, in the light apparent failures of privatisation, you would want to even consider looking at having at private provider in the Goldfields,'' Mr Welch said. A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Christian Porter said no decision had been made on whether the prison would be public or private, and any discussion on the potential awarding of a private contract was speculative. Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chair Marc Newhouse said another public protest was planned for the city on Saturday to lobby the State Government for improvements.

May 14, 2009 The West
More than 30 family members and supporters of Mr Ward, an Aboriginal elder who had a fatal heatstroke in the back of a prison van, gathered outside the Kalgoorlie Courthouse yesterday to call for those responsible for his death to face tribal punishment. Mr Ward’s widow Nancy and his four sons were among those who wailed in grief as they demanded justice and answers to why the Warburton elder died in such horrific circumstances. The family’s interpreter and relative, Gail Jamieson, said that under traditional law, anyone found culpable of the death should be speared. “The family is just devastated,” she said. “He was treated with no respect and he was a well-respected, outstanding elder. If they were in an Aboriginal culture, they would be speared because us Aboriginal people are also going through two cultures.” The inquest was told no disciplinary action was taken against the two GSL officers responsible for transporting Mr Ward on the day he died. Mr Ward died after a four-hour journey in a GSL prison van from Laverton to Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year when temperatures reached 42C. Global Solutions Limited general manager John Hughes said security officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell were stood down on full pay and were reinstated when an internal investigation found they had not violated company policies or procedures. Questioned by the family’s barrister Michael Rynne, Mr Hughes said any reinvestigation would depend on Coroner Alastair Hope’s findings. GSL’s multi-million-dollar contract could require it to pay a penalty of 4.5 per cent of its value if found to have failed in its duty of care. Mr Hughes said he understood GSL’s obligations included ensuring officers minimised hardship to detainees, conducting regular checks to ensure their safety, security and health and preventing injury. The inquest concludes today.

May 17, 2009 Miami Herald
In the escalating showdown between Miami-Dade County and Wackenhut Corp., former congresswoman Carrie Meek is on both sides. She lobbies for Miami-Dade, which is accusing Wackenhut of bilking the county out of $3.4 million. And she lobbies for Wackenhut, which is suing the county for $20 million in damages. ''It's kind of hard to represent two masters,'' said Robert Meyers, executive director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. But Meek is asking county officials to disregard the conflict of interests and allow her to continue representing both Miami-Dade taxpayers and the security company. She has received $150,000 from the county since mid-2007. She declined to disclose her Wackenhut pay. ''I don't see any reason why I can't continue to represent Wackenhut, and I've always been a strong proponent of the county,'' said Meek, a civil-rights pioneer who represented Miami-Dade in Congress from 1992 to 2001. Allegations that Wackenhut was doctoring timesheets and leaving county transit stations unguarded go back to a whistleblower's civil lawsuit filed in 2005. The county auditor found evidence of overbilling in 2006 and released a report in 2008. In early April, County Manager George Burgess said the Palm Beach Gardens-based company should be barred from doing business with Miami-Dade. Meek didn't file her conflict-waiver request until April 27 -- a year after the audit became public. She said she didn't know the county requires its lobbyists to give notice immediately in case of an ''actual or perceived'' dispute with a private client. ''I can tell you that Wackenhut feels that they're being unfairly judged,'' said Meek, who added that she did not know the lawsuit was coming. ``I can't tell you who is right or wrong.'' LONG-STANDING TIES  -- Meek and her family have long-standing ties to the Palm Beach Gardens-based security company. Her son, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, sold security contracts for the company from 1994 to 2002, and his Senate campaign has received the maximum $10,000 donation from Wackenhut's political action committee. Meek's wife, Leslie, registered with the county to lobby for Wackenhut in 2004, according to public records. The former congresswoman began lobbying for Wackenhut in April 2007, the same month the county hired her to focus on transit issues. She asked the county if she could continue representing both clients after she was reminded last month about the county's policy regarding lobbying conflicts, said Joe Rasco, director of the county Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. ''I think it's time we asked and that they proferred,'' Rasco said. ``I think it's a fair question and we'll be taking a look at it.'' Miami-Dade's lobbying contract describes a conflict of interest as a position contrary to county policy or its financial interests. Representing a client at odds with the county without permission ''shall result'' in the lobbyist's contract being thrown out and/or the lobbyist being barred from working for the county for up to three years. ''It is incumbent on the consultant and its employees, partners and subcontractors to remain mindful of the county's policy and fiscal interests and positions vis-a-vis other clients,'' reads the agreement. Meek didn't make the initial cut in 2006 when the county decided to scale back its Washington lobbying team from eight to three firms and put the contracts out for bid. The county had been spending nearly $1.2 million a year. `SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE' -- ''Paying this much for this many people was simply unacceptable,'' County Commissioner Sally Heyman said in March 2006. But two months earlier, Heyman directed staff to add Meek and former state Rep. Mike Abrams -- who came in fourth and fifth place -- to the lobbying team. ''This was coming out of nowhere,'' Rasco told county investigators, who concluded Heyman did not violate the ethics code because the lobbying office reports to the commission. The commission unanimously approved hiring Meek and Abrams on an ''as-needed basis'' and set their pay at a maximum of $75,000 a year. County officials said the money would come from reserves set aside for hiring outside experts in case of an emergency, such as a terrorist attack or major hurricane. Two years later, Heyman now says the county should consider paring down to two lobbying firms. The county pays two full-time employees in Washington to lobby the federal government, in addition to the team of three law firms plus Meek and Abrams.

May 16, 2009 The West
He literally cooked to death. Trapped in a prison van for four hours, suffocated by temperatures that climbed to more than 50C, the Aboriginal elder had no way to communicate with security officers sitting just a metre away, in the airconditioned cab. His only sustenance was a small bottle of water and a meat pie. When he finally collapsed on the van floor, the metal was so hot it seared his skin. Yesterday, Corrective Services Commissioner Ian Johnson travelled to Kalgoorlie to publicly apologise to Mr Ward’s family, accepting responsibility for the 46-year-old’s death in January last year. It was a dramatic end to a coronial inquest that has revealed a litany of failures in the justice and custodial systems in WA’s outback. Widow Nancy Ward and her children will return to Laverton next week after sitting quietly and with dignity throughout the case, which has attracted the attention of the United Nations and the Australian Human Rights Commission. Mr Ward, a conservation worker, a supporter and interpreter for local police and an advocate and educator for children of the Gibson Desert, was an international ambassador for the Ngaanyatjarra people. His family say he was treated like an animal. Mr Ward had been drinking on Australia Day last year in the remote Goldfields town of Laverton when he was arrested for driving with more than four times the legal alcohol limit. Conducting a quasi-court hearing for Mr Ward at his cell door at the local police station, justice of the peace Barrye Thompson remanded him in custody to face court in Kalgoorlie the following day. Mr Thompson told the inquest he had no formal training when appointed as a JP and could not even remember whether he had read the Bail Act. The Aboriginal Legal Service was not contacted. Guards and police officers testified the prison vans used by Global Solutions Limited and maintained by the State were notoriously unreliable, sub-standard and the air-conditioning was often faulty. GSL’s supervisor in Kalgoorlie, Leanne Jenkins, had warned her management an incident would occur unless the vehicles were replaced. At 11.20am, the GSL prison van pulled into a secure area at Laverton police station where the guards were told they would have a trouble-free passenger. Mr Ward made a comment about the warm day and a guard told him “the quicker he got into the van, the quicker the air-conditioning would kick in”. But the air-conditioning did not work: it had been reported faulty in the GSL maintenance log more than a month earlier. Before making the continuous 360km journey to Kalgoorlie, the guards did not tell Mr Ward there was a duress alarm in the back of the van in case he needed help. Towards the end of the trip, they heard a loud thump. Pulling over on to the side of the road and opening the outer door of the van, the guards felt the heat radiating from the rear pod and they saw Mr Ward face-down on the van floor — unconscious and unresponsive. Reaching into the back of the van felt like a “blast from a furnace”, according to Dr Lucien LaGrange, who assisted in removing Mr Ward’s lifeless body at Kalgoorlie Hospital. Doctors found full-thickness contact burns on his stomach and tried for 20 minutes to resuscitate Mr Ward, whose skin felt like a “hot cup of coffee”. They managed to get a brief return of a heartbeat, but after putting him in an ice bath, his body temperature was still 41.7C. Coroner Alastair Hope is due to deliver his findings on June 12. For now, the Ward family will have to return to a community missing a leader. It is little comfort to them that money was allocated in this week’s State Budget to replace the fleet of transport vans — four years after the Department for Corrective Services undertook to do so. “I am sorry,” Mr Johnson told Mrs Ward yesterday. “I have a deep regret but no matter what I say, it’s not going to change what happened.”

May 14, 2009 The West
More than 30 family members and supporters of Mr Ward, an Aboriginal elder who had a fatal heatstroke in the back of a prison van, gathered outside the Kalgoorlie Courthouse yesterday to call for those responsible for his death to face tribal punishment. Mr Ward’s widow Nancy and his four sons were among those who wailed in grief as they demanded justice and answers to why the Warburton elder died in such horrific circumstances. The family’s interpreter and relative, Gail Jamieson, said that under traditional law, anyone found culpable of the death should be speared. “The family is just devastated,” she said. “He was treated with no respect and he was a well-respected, outstanding elder. If they were in an Aboriginal culture, they would be speared because us Aboriginal people are also going through two cultures.” The inquest was told no disciplinary action was taken against the two GSL officers responsible for transporting Mr Ward on the day he died. Mr Ward died after a four-hour journey in a GSL prison van from Laverton to Kalgoorlie on January 27 last year when temperatures reached 42C. Global Solutions Limited general manager John Hughes said security officers Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell were stood down on full pay and were reinstated when an internal investigation found they had not violated company policies or procedures. Questioned by the family’s barrister Michael Rynne, Mr Hughes said any reinvestigation would depend on Coroner Alastair Hope’s findings. GSL’s multi-million-dollar contract could require it to pay a penalty of 4.5 per cent of its value if found to have failed in its duty of care. Mr Hughes said he understood GSL’s obligations included ensuring officers minimised hardship to detainees, conducting regular checks to ensure their safety, security and health and preventing injury. The inquest concludes today.

April 30, 2009 Miami Herald
Three weeks after Miami-Dade County declared that Wackenhut Corp. bilked taxpayers of millions and would no longer do county business, the security firm fired back with its own show of force: a $20 million lawsuit against the county and two top officials. The escalating fight centers on allegations that Wackenhut Corp. overbilled Miami-Dade Transit for security services at Metrorail stops and failed to adequately staff guard posts. The Palm Beach Gardens-based firm, which does other security work for the county, has held the mass transit security contract for 20 years, though its latest contract expires in November. But the stakes for Wackenhut may go beyond its current business with the county. In its lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Miami, the security company said the move by Miami-Dade to bar the firm from working for the county could jeopardize contracts with other government agencies across the country. The future damages we ''will suffer as a result of this unfair and malicious taint'' on our ''reputation are incalculable,'' Wackenhut said in the lawsuit, which seeks $20 million in damages and asks the court to stop the county from relying on an audit which concludes time sheets were doctored and transit stops unguarded. The suit also names as defendants County Manager George Burgess and County Auditor Cathy Jackson. Wackenhut contends the county audit used improper methodology. ''It has no basis in reality,'' said Wackenhut President Drew Levine. ``We've done our job and done it well.'' Miami-Dade County spokeswoman Victoria Mallette said the county stands by the report authored by the government's Audit Management Services department. ''We want to be made whole,'' said Mallette. ``We haven't been made whole. It would be irresponsible for us to continue doing business with an entity that we believe has overbilled us.'' Earlier this month, Burgess wrote in a memo to commissioners that as a result of the audit the county would seek to recover $3.4 million in alleged overbillings and support an ongoing whistle blower's civil case against Wackenhut. Burgess named several firms to replace Wackenhut guards at Miami-Dade railway stops and bus facilities, the Juvenile Services Department and Public Works Department. The county manager also declared the county will seek ``debarment.'' The county move earlier this month and subsequent lawsuit Wednesday come several years after charges of overbillings and so-called ''ghost posts'' were first raised. The county -- roundly rebuked for poor stewardship of the transit system -- has been criticized for reacting slowly to the allegations. The whistle blower's civil court case against Wackenhut was filed in 2005 and the audit was completed in 2008.

April 11, 2009 Miami Herald
Four years after allegations surfaced that Wackenhut Corp. fraudulently overbilled Miami-Dade Transit for security work it never performed, the county is moving to replace the firm and support a lawsuit aimed at recouping millions paid for alleged ''phantom'' workers at Metrorail stops. County Manager George Burgess, in a memo to commissioners Friday, said he also wants to bar the Palm Beach Gardens-based security firm from doing business with the county in the future. The move is sure to escalate the testy fight between Miami-Dade County and Wackenhut, which has denied wrongdoing and hired a bevy of lobbyists, including former Congresswoman Carrie Meek, to press its case. Wackenhut has held the contract to patrol mass transit stations for 20 years, although the latest agreement -- a no-bid contract that pays the company as much as $17 million a year -- expires in November. Wackenhut issued a written statement late Friday saying it is ``shocked that the County Manager has falsely accused us of intentionally overbilling the county.'' It called claims of overcharging both false and unsubstantiated, while asserting the county has ``a history of mismanaged audits.'' The county action comes after several years of criticism that Miami-Dade government failed to address allegations of bogus charges for empty guard posts and doctored time sheets. The claims were first raised in an ongoing 2005 lawsuit and later detailed in a 2008 county audit, which initially estimated $6.26 million in overbillings but now pegs the total at $3.4 million. ''The evidence of overbilling has been overwhelming and existing for four years,'' said attorney Mark Vieth, who filed the 2005 lawsuit pending in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. He contends that the Wackenhut overcharges are much higher than the county's number. After the May 2008 county audit, County Mayor Carlos Alvarez declared that the security firm had 90 days to rebut the findings or repay the county. Wackenhut did neither, yet the county didn't move until now -- with six months left on the contract. Burgess defended the pace of the audit and the time it's taken to decide a course of action, calling the issues complex and voluminous.

April 6, 2009 Palm Beach Post
More than two years after a federal investigation found guards were sleeping on the job at Florida Power & Light Co.'s Turkey Point nuclear plant, the utility has paid a six-figure fine to resolve the case. FPL sent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a check for $130,000 in January. Six guards slept or served as lookouts for other guards who were sleeping "on multiple occasions" between 2004 and 2006, the NRC found in the 2006 investigation. In one case, in April 2006, a guard was "sleeping while on duty at a post in a vital area of the reactor," according to the NRC. All of the guards were contractors with Palm Beach Gardens-based Wackenhut Corp. None remained on the job after the violations were announced last year. Also last year, FPL paid the NRC a $208,000 fine for four other security violations that involved Wackenhut guards at Turkey Point. In that case, the NRC said FPL didn't properly equip armed responders after two Wackenhut guards disabled their weapons by removing or breaking firing pins. The agency also said FPL provided it with incomplete and inaccurate information.

April 3, 2009 The Age
THE Federal Government is set to dump controversial company G4S as operator of immigration detention centres. The Department of Immigration has announced that Serco, which runs prisons and immigration centres in Britain, is its preferred tender to run Australia's six detentions centres. The contract is believed to be worth up to $500 million. But human rights advocates have hit out at the decision, saying Serco has a poor record in Britain, and detention centres should be operated by the public sector. Advocate Charandev Singh said Serco's record in Britain showed a "prison mentality" would be brought to its operations in Australia. "The Government just wants a clean skin in Australia — somebody with no blemishes (here)," Mr Singh said. "G4S and Serco are basically the same company. They come from the same corporate background, running prisons."

March 21, 2009 The West
The security guard who drove the van in which an Aboriginal elder died of heat stroke has admitted he should take responsibility for the death. Testifying for a second day at the inquest into the death of 46-year-old Mr Ward, Global Solutions Limited driver Graham Powell said yesterday he regretted how Mr Ward died. “In hindsight, if I had to do that journey again, I would certainly be doing it a lot differently,” he said. He agreed with lawyer assisting the coroner, Felicity Zempilas, it was inhumane to transport prisoners in the rear pod of the van over long distances and that the vans were “certainly not designed for that”. Coroner Alastair Hope told Mr Powell he was “troubled” over his evidence about phone calls made after Mr Ward collapsed. Mr Hope said a delay of two minutes between calls was a long time in an emergency. To questions from his counsel Linda Black, Mr Powell said he should have checked the airconditioning, made comfort stops and told Mr Ward explicitly how to communicate with the officers if he was in distress. The inquest has heard Mr Powell and colleague Nina Stokoe did not stop during the four hours they had Mr Ward in the van in mid-40C heat while driving from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in January last year. Mr Ward suffered a full-thickness hand-size burn on his stomach from a hot metal surface inside the van. Senior chemist David Tranthim-Fryer said the prison van temperature would have been above 50C. Evidence from a police re-enactment he helped with revealed the van floor reached 56C and the air temperature at least 50C on a slightly cooler day. The temperature would have been hotter with a person inside because there would have been another heat source. “We opened the back doors and could feel the heat coming out of the pods. The hot air affects you more than anything else,” Mr Tranthim-Fryer said. Mr Ward’s body temperature was 41.7C after 20 minutes of resuscitation in an ice bath while being fanned. The van’s rear-pod airconditioning was not working, a fault noted in the GSL maintenance log more than a month before Mr Ward’s death. Mr Powell said he did not check the airconditioning in the pod despite knowing it had a history of faults. He had assumed Ms Stokoe checked it. Mr Hope has heard evidence from witnesses, including GSL’s Kalgoorlie supervisor Leanne Jenkins, who spoke of substandard “unreliable” prison vans which were not suitable for long distance travel. The inquest did not finish within the two-week timeframe and Mr Hope adjourned it until May 11. Outside, Mr Ward’s cousin Bernard Newberry said his family wanted those responsible charged. The family has asked that Mr Ward’s first name not be used.

March 20, 2009 The West Australian
The guard responsible for transporting an Aboriginal elder who died in custody was previously demoted for breaching procedures and compromising prisoner safety. Giving evidence at a coronial inquest into the death of 46-yearold Mr Ward, Global Solutions Limited security officer Graham Powell said he had been stood down as a supervisor because he breached the company’s policies and procedures. The inquest in Kalgoorlie was told Mr Powell was stood down from GSL for six months in January 2007 because he compromised prisoner security when he failed to ensure prisoners were loaded into a prison van in a secure area. He also breached procedure by smoking in prison vans and allowing staff and prisoners to smoke in cells. Mr Ward’s relatives travelled from around the State to attend the inquest yesterday. Mr Ward’s widow Nancy cried when Mr Powell told how he and fellow security officer Nina Stokoe heard a “loud thud” when Mr Ward collapsed in the back of a prison van. Mr Ward died of heatstroke after collapsing in the back of the GSL prison van during a fourhour, non-stop journey from Laverton to Kalgoorlie-Boulder on January 27 last year. Mr Powell said when he arrived at the hospital he checked the airconditioning in the rear pod of the prison van. “I put my arm inside the prisoner compartment and it appeared to me there was no air coming out the vents,” he told State Coroner Alastair Hope. Mr Powell said he had not checked the prison van’s air-conditioning before leaving for Laverton because it had not been included on a vehicle inspection check sheet. He agreed with Mr Hope that it was highly dangerous not to check the air-conditioning before transporting prisoners.

March 18, 2009 Perth Now
TWO guards responsible for transporting an Aboriginal elder 352km across the West Australian outback joked about how he must have been "freezing his balls off" hours before he died of heatstroke in the back of a corrective services van, an inquest has been told. Giving evidence via video link yesterday, Global Solutions Ltd officer Nina Stokoe said she did not check that the air-conditioning in the back of the corrective services van in which the prisoner died was working - even though it had been faulty and the outside temperature had soared to 42C - because it was not part of procedure. Ms Stokoe said she assumed the air-conditioning was working in the rear because there was no problem with the air-conditioning in the front cab and Ward, whose family does not want his last name published for cultural reasons, would have banged on the side of the van if there was a problem. According to Ms Stokoe, during previous trips, other prisoners often complained that the air-conditioning was too cold, and she and fellow officer Graham Powell joked that, while they were too hot, Ward would be the opposite. "I had a joke with Graham," she told the inquest into Ward's death. "(I said) I bet he's freezing his balls off while we're sitting here stinking hot." Coroner Alastair Hope asked whether it would have been prudent to check the air-conditioning on such a hot day when it had been known to break down and Ward was in a section of the van with only metal seats. "It (the air-conditioning) wasn't on the check list ... I wouldn't know how to check it," Ms Stokoe replied. Ward died on January 27 last year after attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was being transferred from Laverton to prison in Kalgoorlie after being arrested for drink driving on Australia Day. Mr Hope was yesterday also told how the Kalgoorlie-based supervisor for GSL, Leanne Jenkins, warned her superiors just four months before Ward's death that someone would "eventually die" if the company's outdated and poorly maintained vans were not replaced. Ms Jenkins said the only response she received was that any vehicles in need of repairs should not be driven. She said the two vans based at Kalgoorlie always had problems and were not suitable for long trips. Ms Stokoe and Mr Powell made no stops on the 3 1/2-hour journey until they heard a thud in the back of the van when they were just outside Kalgoorlie. When they pulled over to check on Ward, Ms Stokoe said, they did not open the van's back doors completely because it was not procedure and Ward might have been trying to escape. "If he was mucking around and it was an escape attempt, we would look like idiots," she said. After realising he only had a faint pulse, the officers rushed Ward to hospital. The inquest continues today.

March 17, 2009 Perth Now
AN Aboriginal elder who died in the back of a prison van arrived at hospital, unconscious and with third-degree burns, an inquest has heard. Lucien LaGrange, who was working in the emergency department of Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital when Ward arrived in the non-airconditioned van, said a blast of hot air hit him when he opened the back of the vehicle. Respected elder Ward - whose family does not want his first name mentioned for cultural reasons - did not appear to be breathing. "It was like a blast from a furnace - it was extremely hot," Dr LaGrange told Coroner Alastair Hope. "I was struck by how wet and slippery he was. It was almost like he had been coated in soap - he just slid." Dr LaGrange said that despite medical staff placing ice over Ward's body, his body temperature was 41.7C. That day, January 27 last year, the outside temperature climbed to 42C. After many resuscitation attempts, Ward was declared dead about 90 minutes after arriving at the hospital. Ward was being transported 352km from Laverton to Goldfields Regional Prison in Kalgoorlie after being charged with drink-driving on Australia Day. The inquest was told that the company responsible for transporting Ward, Global Solutions Ltd, raised concerns with the West Australian Government about the poor state of its vans before Ward's death, but was told no new vehicles were available. Under a multi-million-dollar contract, GSL is responsible for transporting prisoners, while the Department of Corrective Services is responsible for maintaining the fleet of vehicles. Former GSL employee Thomas Akatsa told the hearing that after the company failed to secure new vans from the Government, he raised concerns with the company's supervisors, including airconditioning faults and overheating, but was told not to talk about it. Mr Akatsa said the vans used to transport prisoners were sub-standard, did not contain toilets and were not suitable for travelling long distances. Despite regular problems with airconditioning in the back of the vans, Mr Akatsa said there was no requirement for staff to check the airconditioning was working. He said that while he always did check, not all officers did, including one of the officers who transported Ward on that day, Graham Powell. The inquest heard that Mr Powell, who is to give evidence today, had been demoted from a supervisor to a driver before the death. One of his colleagues at the time, Lynette Corcoran-Sugars, testified that she requested not to work with Mr Powell, accusing him of breaching procedures and inappropriately using constraints on prisoners. Ms Corcoran-Sugars and Mr Akatsa said that when they transported prisoners from Laverton to Kalgoorlie, they made at least one stop and offered prisoners water, food and a toilet break. The inquest has heard that no stops were made during Ward's journey and that he was given only a 600ml bottle of water and a pie before leaving Laverton. Questions were raised about whether Ward should even have been in custody, with barrister Lachlan Carter for the Aboriginal Legal Service claiming a proper bail hearing, as defined by the act, did not take place. The inquest heard that GSL's motto was "safety first". Mr Hope questioned how this could be the case when the company allowed staff to transport prisoners in vehicles that did not have a usable spare tyre. The inquest continues today.

March 14, 2009 Sunday Mail
Former Defence Secretary John Reid faced fierce criticism yesterday as it emerged the world's largest security firm had won a huge contract from the Ministry of Defence weeks after taking him on as a consultant. Mr Reid - who ran the MoD until May 2006 before resigning from the Cabinet while Home Secretary in June 2007 - was hired by G4S three months ago for £50,000 a year to offer 'strategic advice'. This week, it was awarded a four-year contract to supply private security guards for around 200 MoD and military sites across Britain in a deal thought to be worth tens of millions of pounds. While many former ministers have taken private-sector jobs, it is unusual for such a senior Government figure and sitting MP to work for a company so closely linked to their former department. Opposition MPs last night said Mr Reid's earnings from G4S were 'totally inappropriate', while the Taxpayers' Alliance campaign group called for the rules governing employment for ex-ministers to be reviewed urgently.

March 12, 2009 ABC
A coronial inquest into the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder from the Central Desert will resume today in Kalgoorlie, in south-eastern Western Australia . Mr Ward died in Kalgoorlie hospital in January last year after being transferred in the back of a prison van from Laverton. Temperatures on the day were mid-40 degrees Celsius and the journey lasted for four hours. In Warburton earlier this week, the inquest heard the airconditioning in the back of the van was not working and that Mr Ward died of heatstroke. Mr Ward's family testified he was a hard working and respected elder. The inquiry will today hear from police officers who arrested Mr Ward for drink driving and officers from the private transport company Global Solutions Limited which transported him to Kalgoorlie.

January 22, 2009 Morning Star
DAVID Miliband said that the war on terror was an error, but some people don't regret it. Private security companies like Group 4 made a mint. Now, it wants to spread its good fortune - this month, Group 4 Security gave a £50,000 position to former Labour minister John Reid as an "adviser." Reid fits in this part-time job when he isn't too busy representing the good people of Airdrie and Shotts as their Member of Parliament. Group 4 has plenty of reasons to want access to the contact book of a former home and defence secretary - the firm now supplies the armed guards looking after British officials in Iraq and Afghanistan while locking up prisoners, asylum-seekers and "terror suspects" in Britain, so Reid is worth every one of the five million pennies that they are giving the man. Reid was once a Communist Party member, but abandoned Marxism in favour of new Labour. This is odd, because his career seems to illustrate the crudest and most determinist kind of Marxism. For years, Marxists have been grappling with the subtle and sophisticated ways in which the capitalist class dominates society, but Group 4 opted for a very unsubtle approach - the capitalists just hired Labour's representative. Reid hasn't always hawked his brawn for the money men. Back in 1992, Reid signed a House of Commons motion calling on Sir Norman Fowler to resign from the board of Group 4. The motion said that the House "regrets that the right honourable Member for Sutton Coldfield (Norman Fowler), chairman of the Conservative Party, has not seen fit to resign his directorship of another Group 4 company, Group 4 Securitas, and urges him to do so." It added: "The government should suspend all further moves to privatisation within the criminal justice system." Reid's call for Fowler to resign from Group 4 and for the government to shun the firm came after the company let a number of prisoners escape from their vans on the way to court. Whizz forward a decade and a half and Reid, having demanded that Fowler abandon Group 4, has himself taken a job with the firm. In the meantime, Conservative and Labour governments have not stopped their "privatisation of the criminal justice system," they have expanded it. Group 4 has men with truncheons in Britain and men carrying guns in Iraq. Nor has the firm become any less accident-prone. Group 4 Security prefers to be called G4S because, in ad people's language, the brand is tarnished. Group 4 was even described as a "national laughing stock" by the government's own lawyers in court in 2003 after a riot at an immigration detention centre that it ran which was later burned to the ground. Things haven't improved since. Reid himself sent the firm to new frontiers, where the firm ran new fiascos. When Reid was home secretary, the Law Lords told him that just labelling foreigners "terror suspects" didn't mean that he could lock them up without trial. Reid turned to Group 4 for help. It cobbled together something called "control orders," a house arrest for these "terror suspects" administered by Group 4 and other private firms. Control orders were simultaneously too draconian and too lax - prisoners, including vulnerable men who had been tortured in their home countries, were tagged and monitored by Group 4. Those who stuck by the rules were pushed to the edge of mental illness by the isolation of the strict house arrest. At the same time, Group 4 allowed another prisoner to simply disappear. This may have been embarrassing for the firm and for Reid, but they manfully hid their red faces and entered into a new relationship when Reid left government. Group 4 has risen thanks to the crudest economic determinism - Reid, who authorised the signing of cheques for Group 4 as a minister, ends up getting cheques from the firm. Reid is not alone. A small squad of politicians worked to get Group 4 where it is today. First, Tory chairman Fowler helped the firm get into the prisons business in the 1990s. Group 4 tightened its grip on British jails last year when it took over rival private prisons firm GSL. It bought GSL from an investment company called Englefield Capital, which employs another Labour ex-minister, former defence secretary George Robertson, as an adviser. Group 4 then broke into the international mercenary trade by buying a company called Armor Group, whose armed men guard British officials in Iraq and Afghanistan. Up until this, Armor Group's chairman had been another top politician - leading Tory MP Malcolm Rifkind. Twenty years ago, the idea that a private company would run our jails and wars would have looked like science fiction. By hiring politicians, the "security industry" made it a reality.

January 11, 2009 The Observer
John Reid, the former home secretary, has cashed in on his ministerial experience by taking a £45,000-a-year job with private security company G4S, the Observer has learnt. His appointment comes just days after a parliamentary committee warned that former ministers have been exploiting their insider knowledge "with impunity". Formed from a merger of Group 4 and Securicor, G4S is Britain's largest security firm with contracts ranging from private prisons to the armed guards defending British officials in Iraq. The appointment was disclosed by the advisory committee on business appointments, which polices former ministers' job applications. Reid has been judged free to lobby ministers and officials on behalf of the security company. The public administration committee (PAC) called last week for all lobbying activity to be registered and monitored by a tougher watchdog - claiming the industry's attempt at self-regulation had entirely failed. "We are strongly concerned that, with the rules as loosely and as variously interpreted as they currently are, former ministers in particular appear to be able to use with impunity the contacts they built up as public servants to further a private interest," said a statement from the PAC.

November 11, 2008 South Florida Business Journal
Broward County auditors are raising red flags over how county agencies kept tabs on nearly $6 million in billings by Wackenhut Corp. for security services last year. In a report to be presented to county commissioners on Wednesday, county auditors noted several problems with the way Wackenhut invoices have been processed. Specifically, the report noted that county personnel were not reviewing and validating daily entries on security logs that document hours worked by guards. The audit also found that there was no evidence that hours billed were hours actually worked. County Auditor Evan A. Lukic said the decision to review the county’s oversight of Wackenhut grew out of news reports earlier this year that alleged the Palm Beach Gardens-based security company was overbilling Miami-Dade County for services that were not performed. “We were concerned about the allegations we heard and whether we were possibly experiencing the same thing here,” he said. “We wanted to look at it from how are we controlling the contract and administering it.” At this point in the auditing process, Lukic said, there was no evidence Wackenhut engaged in any wrongdoing. However, based on the audit’s findings Lukic said his department will take a closer look at payments to “make sure that guards who we are paying for are present.” In June 2005, Broward County entered into a three-year agreement with Wackenhut to provide security services. Payments for fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007 totaled more than $14.8 million. In fiscal 2007, Broward County’s Aviation Department topped the list with $2.1 million in security services billings by Wackenhut. The county’s facilities maintenance division paid out $1.66 million to Wackenhut, and the county’s library division was billed nearly $633,000. The report found that during a one-week period, the libraries division paid 233 hours of overtime for security guards and found no evidence that Wackenhut provided the required written notification and payroll documentation to substantiate the overtime payments. When queried by the South Florida Business Journal about the auditor's findings, Wackenhut issued the following statement: "We've worked closely with facilities management through the audit department to insure compliance and to improve our processes." Questions also have been raised about matching guard qualifications to pay rates. In some instances, the audit raised concerns about guards with lesser qualifications billing at a higher rate, resulting in overcharges. In an Aug. 22 letter, Broward’s director of the facilities maintenance division advised Wackenhut President Drew Levine that he would now require the company to provide documentation that links guards’ qualifications with their job classifications. In the meantime, Lukic is asking the Broward County Commission to direct the county administrator to come up with procedures to ensure that billings are validated, that the guards’ qualifications match their job descriptions and that overtime charges are substantiated. In May, a Miami-Dade County audit found that Wackenhut overbilled the county by as much as $6 million over three years for services it did not provide to Miami-Dade Transit, and then falsified records to cover up the over charges. In its response to that audit, which Wackenhut published on its Web site, the company said it has cooperated with the county’s investigation, but “continues to question the audit methodology.” Wackenhut said a lawsuit by a former guard, who accused the company of padding its bills, has caused the increased scrutiny. “It is Wackenhut’s belief that county entities … have been placed under undue pressure and influence by unsubstantiated allegations in this ongoing disputed litigation,” it stated. Miami-Dade continues to review Wackenhut’s response to determine what actions should be taken, county spokeswoman Suzy Trutie said.

June 18, 2008 NBC6
Miami-Dade County said it is poised to make good on its promise to fire Wackenhut Security from its massive contract on Metrorail trains unless it repays taxpayers millions of dollars. NBC6 has obtained internal county memos that confirm that Miami-Dade County is asking other security firms to submit bids to replace Wackenhut on Metrorail trains and other facilities. The county said Wackenhut's only hope of not getting fired is if it returns up to $6 million in taxpayer dollars. The Metrorail and Metromover systems are guarded by Wackenhut Security in a lucrative no-bid contract. The county said it is getting ready to replace Wackenhut, cutting short the existing contract unless Wackenhut makes amends. "It's very troubling," said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez. In May, Alvarez threatened to fire Wackenhut. On Tuesday, it was clear that was no idle threat. "We are prepared to cancel all contracts with the Wackenhut corporation and demand that we get the money that's owed to us," Alvarez said. The county said Wackenhut scheduled guards to work partial shifts while billing taxpayers for a full shift and sometimes billing taxpayers for a post that had no guards at all, NBC6's Jeff Burnside reported. The allegations were the same as those contained in an NBC6 investigation called "A Question Of Security." The amount in question is up to $6 million. An independent audit claimed it was much more. One problem is that any company that replaces Wackenhut might need to hire some of Wackenhut's guards because of the size of the contract. In an internal memo, Wackenhut called that, "underhanded … tactics by third-party instigators." A labor union urged county commissioners Tuesday to improve working conditions in any new contract. Wackenhut had no response on Tuesday, Burnside reported. Previously, the company has disputed the allegations.

May 9, 2008 Miami-Herald
The Wackenhut Corp. overbilled Miami-Dade County as much as $6 million over three years for phantom security guards at county transit stations, according to a long-awaited audit released Thursday. County auditor Cathy Jackson -- who reviewed a sample of the bills -- found that Wackenhut, one of the country's largest security firms, routinely charged the county for empty guard posts at Metrorail stations and along bus routes, and relied on inaccurate and falsified records to try to cover up the overbilling. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez has given Wackenhut 90 days to repay the county or rebut the audit findings or he will cancel the company's no-bid contract, along with a separate Wackenhut contract for guards at a juvenile detention center. Jackson said Wackenhut should also pay the county an additional $233,000 for violating the terms of its contract. Wackenhut's billing is also being examined by public-corruption detectives with the Miami-Dade Police Department. 'There is no disputing that [Miami-Dade Transit] was billed for hours not worked by Wackenhut security officers, which is a very serious offense,'' County Manager George Burgess wrote in a memo to Alvarez. Wackenhut, however, does dispute the audit. The company says Jackson used unreliable records to determine that posts were uncovered, and ignored other records that could prove guards were on duty. FIGURES DISPUTED -- While Wackenhut says it will reimburse the county for any ''substantiated billing errors,'' the company says Jackson's conclusion of $6 million in overbilling from 2002 to 2005 is an exaggerated estimate based on a small sample. ''If you start with a false premise, you end up with a false conclusion,'' said Bruce Rubin, a company spokesman. ``We respectfully but forcefully disagree with the auditor's methodology.'' Jackson based her estimate on a review of 505 billing records -- only .25 percent of the bills submitted in the three years studied -- which found $14,722 in questionable charges. She also found $83,665 in suspicious charges, but these were not included in her sample for estimation purposes. Wackenhut has been providing security for Miami-Dade Transit since 1989, and the contract has been awarded without bidding since 1994. The current contract, which pays Wackenhut as much as $17 million a year, is set to expire in November 2009. The security company, based in Palm Beach Gardens, has also spent the past three years fending off an unusual lawsuit brought by a former guard at the county's Juvenile Assessment Center, who accused her former employer of padding its bill to the county. The former guard's attorney, H. Mark Vieth, has said he believes the overbilling could be as much as $3.6 million a year. He has compiled sworn statements from ex-guards who said they struggled to fill unmanned posts, submitted false records and received pay for hours they didn't work. Jackson ''found exactly what we've been telling the county for a while now,'' Vieth said. ''I could have practically written that report for her. The only difference, really, is that we're auditing 100 percent of the bills and she's found this much fraud'' based on a far smaller sample. Wackenhut has denied wrongdoing in the suit and has challenged Vieth to provide proof of specific instances of overbilling. Vieth has enlisted a team of investigators and bookkeepers to sort through Wackenhut bills, sign-in sheets, log books and other records to prove his case, which is not yet scheduled for trial. If he wins the case -- brought under the county's False Claims Act -- his client will receive 25 percent of any damages and the county will receive 75 percent. REFUSED TO TESTIFY -- Yet the lawsuit has put Vieth at odds with the county. Last month he sought a contempt of court order against Jackson after she refused to testify about the audit before it was completed. Vieth plans to call her again for a deposition next week. The audit was costly to Wackenhut even before its release. The company had been selected by county staffers to win another $4.8 million county security contract -- before county commissioners, worried about the audit findings, decided Tuesday to scrap the bids and start over. In her audit, Jackson said Wackenhut constantly shifted guards around to cover unguarded posts, pulling in supervisors or patrols from the bus routes, but the county was billed as though all these jobs were filled. In some cases, log books at Metrorail stations contained no notes to prove a guard was there, the audit found. In other cases, the logs and other records showed guards in two different locations at the same time. Records showed that one armed guard was on duty for 34 ½ hours in a row -- violating a rule capping guards at 13 ½ hours in a 24-hour period and ''leaving in question the ability of armed employees to remain alert and responsive,'' the audit said. Wackenhut officials said the log books were never intended to be used for timekeeping, and said the absence of notes in the books do not prove a guard wasn't on duty.

May 2, 2008 Edinburgh Evening News
TWO security guards who stole £10,000 of bank notes while on a collection run have been jailed for six months. Group 4 Security workers Gary Docherty, 41, and Hugh Drummond, 47, each helped themselves to a £5000 bundle of £20 notes when a bag burst in their van. Staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh immediately realised there was something wrong when the pair delivered a case which should have contained £50,000 with only £40,000 in it. Police were called in after they found notes in Drummond's rucksack and the officers recovered the rest from Docherty. They previously pleaded guilty to stealing £10,000 on March 28 this year – Docherty's birthday – and were sentenced today. The pair had been collecting cash in plastic cases from branches of the bank when one of the cases burst at Bruntsfield Place. They continued with their run, arriving at the RBS cash collection centre in The Gyle, where the theft was discovered. Solicitor Andy Gilbertson said Docherty, of Clermiston Drive, had worked for the firm for 14 years before he carried out the "spontaneous" crime and had lost his job as a result. He said Docherty had been suffering stress. "It wasn't a matter of if this crime would be detected but a matter of when," Mr Gilbertson added, appealing for a community service order instead of custody. Solicitor Nigel Bruce said Drummond, of Victoria Road, Harthill, Lanarkshire, had spent seven years with the firm, before the "moment of madness".

April 12, 2008 Palm Beach Post
Sen. Jeff Atwater has hired an aide who will get on-the-job training before he becomes Senate president chief of staff, and Atwater's campaign opponent is criticizing the expenditure. Robert "Budd" Kneip is a Palm Beach Gardens businessman with no legislative experience. He founded The Oasis Group, an outsourcing division of Wackenhut Corp. Kneip, who is earning $7,000 a month, needed to come on board early to get the feel of how the legislature runs and how government budgets are developed and negotiated before his new boss officially takes over, Atwater said. Normally the chief of staff is appointed after the legislative leader assumes his role in the fall. Atwater is being challenged for reelection in November by Democrat Skip Campbell, a trial lawyer who formerly served in the Senate alongside Atwater. Campbell criticized Kneip's salary at a time when lawmakers are slashing about $5 billion from the state budget because of plummeting tax collections. "How can we be hiring somebody for on the job training at 7K a month when we're cutting education, food for the poor, Medicaid treatment for the mentally ill? This is one of the most hypocritical actions I've seen in government," Campbell said. Kneip has sat on the advisory boards for Florida Atlantic University and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and served as chairman of the Palm Beach County Task Force on Business Development. In the latter role, he successfully pushed a 2004 referendum for a half-penny sales tax hike to pay for building schools to comply with the constitutional amendment limiting class sizes. Kneip's know-how at implementing state policy at the local level and business acumen are why he's right for the job, said Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican. "He doesn't have the experience in this process," Atwater said. "To have him be able to watch how this works is going to help me as we think about structure, the design, the flow and process of work."

March 13, 2008 The Age
A NIGERIAN man who twice resorted to drinking his urine during a nightmarish seven-hour transfer to Baxter detention centre without food or water will be given $20,000 compensation. Four others who endured the trip in the back of the van with him will also be compensated after the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found they had been subjected to "degrading treatment". The five detainees, whose plight was revealed in The Age, were taken from Maribyrnong in Melbourne to Baxter on September 17, 2004 by guards from GSL, the company that runs Australia's detention centres. A report by commission president John von Doussa found the van did not stop for any breaks in the seven hours from Melbourne to Mildura, breaching the detainees' human rights. The report said the drivers ignored signs that the detainees needed toilet stops, having watched them urinate on closed-circuit camera, and disregarded their banging on the walls. Nigerian man Austin Okoye, 26, suffered the "additional indignity" of twice drinking his urine to relieve his "excessive thirst", the report said. GSL guards were also accused of using excessive force in removing 53-year-old Vietnamese detainee Huong Hai Nguyen from his dormitory at Maribyrnong for the trip. The Immigration Department initially denied Mr Nguyen's allegations. But the department referred the case to the commission after receiving a second complaint from Mr Okoye. In July 2005, Immigration Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe said GSL would be fined $500,000 after the independent report substantiated most of the allegations. Yesterday Mr Metcalfe said GSL would also pay the compensation. "These people were mistreated and they deserve to be compensated," he said. The report said Mr Okoye and Mr Nguyen should get $20,000 each, and the others $15,000. GSL spokesman Tim Hall said the company did not accept the claims about Mr Okoye being forced to drink his urine. But he said GSL endorsed the rest of the report and the Commonwealth would be fully indemnified. The report urged the Government to locate the victims as soon as possible (three of them, including Mr Nguyen and Mr Okoye, have been deported) to provide them with their compensation and a formal apology.

February 22, 2008 The Green Left
A February 22 meeting between Western Australian prisons minister Margaret Quirk, Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington and WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chairperson Marc Newhouse resulted in some ministerial promises of reforms following the the death in custody of an Aboriginal elder on January 27. The elder, from the desert town of Warburton, died after collapsing in the back of a prison van while being transported for four hours in 43oC heat to a jail in the outback city of Kalgoorlie. He had been arrested on January 26 for alleged drink-driving while visiting relatives in the remote town of Laverton, 352 kilometres north of Kalgoorie. The van was driven and staffed by employees of Global Solutions Ltd, an Anglo-French prison management company, which the WA government has contracted to transport prisoners. Professor Richard Harding, the WA government’s inspector of custodial services, told the news media on January 29 that he was not surprised at the Warburton elder’s death, given the state of the prisoner transport fleet. He said that the “government-owned vans are continually breaking down, leaving prisoners stranded in searingly hot conditions in remote areas”. Among other things, Quirk has agreed to overhaul procedures followed when a prisoner is transported. New procedures, to be in place by March 14, will include a health assessment and provision of water and food.

February 4, 2008 News.com.AU
THE contractor that transported an Aboriginal leader who died in custody last weekend has previously been criticised for the treatment of detainees. Government contractor Global Solutions Limited has been accused of the humiliation and sensory deprivation of detainees, who were forced to urinate in their cramped compartments, inadequate provision of food and fluids and the prank strip search of a prisoner. The death of Ian Ward in the sealed compartment of a "bloody hot" van last Sunday as the outside temperature climbed to 43C has prompted an unprecedented attack on the Carpenter Government by the Inspector of Custodial Services, who said the state's chronically deficient prisoner transport system would probably not be tolerated if 95 per cent of prisoners were white, instead of up to 95 per cent of them being Aboriginal. Anger is growing in the desert community of Warburton in WA's Ngaanyatjarra lands over the death of Mr Ward, who collapsed in what may have been an unairconditioned or inadequately airconditioned rear compartment while being transported 352km by GSL. The van transporting Mr Ward left the town of Laverton about midday for Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison to be remanded in custody on a drink-driving charge when he vomited on himself and fell unconscious. His body was wheeled into Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital at 4.30pm on Sunday after the two GSL guards in the van found he had collapsed in the back. Witness Jodie Aurisch said a female GSL guard told an emergency department doctor: "It is bloody hot in the back of the van". GSL and its $70 million prison transport contract with the Carpenter Government are likely to be examined as part of a coronial inquest into Mr Ward's death in custody. It will not be the first time the company faces scrutiny. In 2005, GSL was fined almost $500,000 over mistreatment of immigration detainees. In 2006, GSL was fined a reported $200,000 after guards at Port Phillip Prison in Victoria jokingly strip searched a prisoner as part of a prank called "Sausagegate". A federal government report into GSL's transfer of five detainees from Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Melbourne to Baxter Immigration Facility in South Australia over two days in 2004 found the officers involved had not been adequately trained and treated the detainees inhumanely. In his report into the incident for the Howard government, investigator Keith Hamburger found the van used was unsafe and inhumane and that the detainees had been denied access to toilet facilities, forcing them to urinate in their compartments. The officers were also found to have ignored appeals for assistance from detainees in distress. Melbourne legal advocate Chandarev Singh said GSL had shown "a pattern of lethal indifference". GSL's director of public affairs, Tim Hall, said Mr Singh's "inaccurate and unpleasant personal views" did not warrant comment.

February 1, 2008 The Western Australian
Police yesterday refused to reveal the results of a post-mortem examination on the body of an Aboriginal elder who died after he collapsed in custody while being taken to Kalgoorlie in the back of a van. It is understood police received the results yesterday. Warburton Aboriginal elder Ian Ward collapsed in the back of a Global Solutions Limited van on Sunday after a four-hour trip from Laverton to Kalgoorlie and died a short time later at Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. The 46-year-old, who was being transferred to face a charge of drinkdriving, was found unconscious in the back of the van in the middle of the afternoon when temperatures outside exceeded 40 degrees. It is understood the van’s air-conditioning broke down the previous week and had to be replaced. The van is part of a fleet owned by the State Government but managed by the private prison management company. The State Government’s controversial deal with Global Solutions Limited, the group responsible for prisoner transport, could be tested, depending on the outcome of the investigation into Mr Ward’s death. Opposition Leader Troy Buswell said the death in custody raised serious concerns over the State Government’s “gifting” of the contract to GSL. GSL was controversially awarded the $70 million prisoner transport, court custody and security services contract last year when the company bought out the previous contractor Australian Integrated Management Service. Letters obtained under Freedom of Information laws revealed the Inspector for Custodial Services, Richard Harding, told Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk in April that the plan for GSL to take over the contract was unwise and risky. Despite his advice, Cabinet not only approved the takeover of the AIMS contract by GSL last July, but days later it extended the deal by three years without any public tender process. “Depending on the outcome of the investigation by police and the coroner, the State Government needs to be examining every aspect of the contract and take action against GSL if and when it is appropriate,” Mr Buswell said. Ms Quirk said issues surrounding Mr Ward’s death, including the contract with GSL, was a matter for the police investigation and the coronial inquest and it was not appropriate to speculate.

January 31, 2008 News.Com.AU
PRISONER transport contractors for the WA government were warned about the "parlous state" of their fleet well before an Aboriginal elder died in a prison van. Ian Ward, 46, of Warburton in the Goldfields, died during a Global Solutions Ltd transfer from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in hot conditions on January 27. It is unclear if the airconditioning was off, or faulty. Drivers of the van took Mr Ward, who had been picked up for drink driving on Australia Day, to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital after they found him collapsed. He died a short time later. WA Custodial Services Inspector Richard Harding wrote to GSL last year outlining six concerns, including 'GSL's capacity to cope with the logistical challenge of running a transport service across such huge distances as are involved with Western Australia''. "The parlous state'' of the government-owned fleet upon which GSL would have to rely was among Mr Harding's concerns. GSL is contracted by the WA government to provide prisoner transport services and by the federal government to run immigration detention camps and transport immigration detainees and prisoners. Project SafeCom spokesman Jack Smit said there had been other transportation issues under the watch of GSL, formerly US-owned but bought last month by European security consortium Group 4 Securitas. "This is an ongoing issue partly because it's an out-of-Australia company ... you no longer have people employed who are directly responsible, by contract, to the minister,'' Mr Smit said. A 2005 federal government inquiry found GSL failed to provide medical assessments and treatments for injured detainees who were being transferred to the Baxter detention centre in South Australia from Maribyrnong in 2004. The probe found the van used to transport detainees was "unsafe and inhumane'' with airconditioning design faults. The five were sent an apology and compensated by the immigration department. WA major crime squad detectives are investigating the latest death amid calls from human rights groups for an independent investigation. WA Deaths in Custody watch committee spokesman Marc Newhouse said Mr Ward's death should not have happened. "Clearly the government has already been warned about the state of that fleet, which is government-owned,'' Mr Newhouse said.

January 22, 2008 St Petersburg Times
If you’re guarding a nuclear power plant, your gun better work. That’s the message federal regulators sent Tuesday to Florida Power & Light. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed a $208,000 fine for four security violations at the utility’s Turkey Point nuclear plant, including security workers who deliberately broke the firing pins on their weapons. The violations occurred in 2004 and 2005, according to the commission. The commission, a federal agency that oversees the safety of the U.S. nuclear industry, also faulted the Juno Beach utility for failing to promptly report the violations. Three of the four employees involved worked for Wackenhut, and none of the four work at the plant now, said FP&L spokeswoman April Schilpp. Wackenhut still provides security, and the utility has improved training, she said. The utility has 30 days to appeal the fine, but has no plans to, she said. “The NRC confirms that at no time was plant security compromised,” Schilpp said. “That’s the important thing.”

January 9, 2008 NBC TV6
The CEO of Wackenhut Security, a South Florida company that has been surrounded by controversy, is stepping down. A representative with the company declined to say why Gary Sanders made the decision to quit pending a formal announcement on Wednesday. The change at the top came at a time when Wackenhut Security was facing mounting criticism in various cities, including some in South Florida where its Miami-Dade County operation is the target of a criminal probe. The county audit, which was detailed in an NBC 6 investigation of Wackenhut billing practices, is examining whether Wackenhut overcharged taxpayers millions of dollars. Sanders had been with Wackenhut for more than 25 years.

December 18, 2007 Yahoo Business Wire
Cognetas, an independent mid-market pan-European private equity firm specialising in complex deals, today announces the sale of Global Solutions (GSL) for £355 million to G4S. The sale, subject to EU merger clearance and South African competition commission clearance, is expected to complete in 2008. GSL is a leading provider of outsourced support services to public authorities and corporate organisations worldwide. Services are typically provided under long-term contracts (5 to 30 years) either directly to the end customer or through joint ventures and Public Private Partnerships with government and corporates. GSL has operations in the UK, South Africa and Australia. Its service offering covers three areas: Custodial services, including prison management, escorting, immigration, custody and training; Public Services, for example healthcare, education and Local Authority services; and Business services, comprising utilities, office accommodation and other managed services. Cognetas backed the original MBO of GSL in 2004 in a £207 million (€309 million) transaction. At the time, Cognetas underwrote equity and debt to facilitate certainty for the vendor with an initial commitment of £105 million (€158 million) on behalf of Cognetas Fund I. This was reduced within two months to £54 million (€81 million) by introducing senior debt. The balance of the funding was provided by Englefield Capital on behalf of the Englefield Funds. Since then Cognetas has supported management in the implementation of a growth plan that has seen revenues increase from £291 million in 2004 to over £400 million in 2007 through organic growth, in fill acquisition and expansion of services in its sectors over three continents with the number of staff employed increasing by over 25% to more than 9,500. Nigel McConnell, Managing Partner of Cognetas commented: “We are delighted to be associated with the success of GSL over the past three years and we are pleased to see that the dynamic management team has built the business into a worldwide quality provider of outsourced services. We leave the business on extremely sound and robust grounds which will help sustain its continued growth. I am confident that being part of a larger global business like G4S will take this business forward to a new level and I wish them well”.

December 10, 2007 NBC TV6
Miami-Dade and federal investigators raided the headquarters Friday night of one of the county's largest government contractors. NBC 6 was the first to report in May that Wackenhut Security is under a criminal investigation for overbilling taxpayers millions of dollars, money for work on transit and the downtown juvenile center. NBC 6 camera's filmed public corruption investigators and police removing boxes filled with documents from Wackenhut's Miami-Dade headquarters on Blue Lagoon Drive. Investigators were there for several hours and were being assisted by top Wackenhut executives. Wackenhut has repeatedly declined to be interviewed, but said in a statement that the company was cooperating with authorities. "The Wackenhut Corporation ('Wackenhut') continues to cooperate with Miami-Dade County ('MDC'), and voluntarily provided MDC additional records and documents yesterday to assist and facilitate MDC’s investigation and audit of Wackenhut’s performance under its security contract with the Miami Dade Transit Authority," said Drew Levine, president of the Security Services Division. "Wackenhut is proud of its service and performance under its contracts with Miami-Dade County and is very confident that after a thorough investigation the County will conclude that Wackenhut acted properly and performed its responsibilities under the contract in a highly professional and responsible manner." The company has previously denied overbilling taxpayers. Miami-Dade County is nearing completion of an audit of Wackenhut's billing practices. The preliminary audit found serious discrepancies.

November 29, 2007 The Telegraph
Group4Securicor is in talks to buy Global Solutions, a company it used to own, for around £350m. Earlier this year, private equity firm Cognetas appointed investment bank UBS to carry out a strategic review of Global Solutions, which runs a number of Britain's prisons and detention centres. However, the credit crunch forced Cognetas to put the review of Global Solutions on hold. Since then, the company has received a number of approaches, including one from Group4Securicor. Cognetas bought Global Solutions, which also manages hospitals, schools and tourist offices, from Danish security firm Group 4 Falk for about £200m three years ago. Group4Securicor is now understood to be carrying out due diligence on the business. However, it is not the only company bidding. Sources said US group GEO and several private equity firms have also made approaches for the company. Global Solutions has previously come under the spotlight for the way it runs its prisons and detention centres, following the Government's privatisation of the sector. Earlier this year, there was a Panorama investigation by an undercover BBC reporter, who worked as a custody officer, in one of Global Solutions' prisons at Rye Hill. None of the parties involved would comment.

November 20, 2007 This Is Hampshire
A SECURITY firm employee who was heavily in debt stole £25,000 following an extraordinary blunder by two colleagues, a court heard. The cash had been collected from the London Road branch of Nat West in Southampton - and left overnight at the depot. The following day, Paul Dean spotted the bag and stole it, dropping it off at home before continuing with his deliveries. Police carried out a major investigation during which Dean and a co-driver were suspended from their jobs with Group 4 Securicor. Seven months after the theft last November, they executed a warrant at Dean's home and recovered more than £10,000. Some of the proceeds had been spent on a large slim line television, Mr Anderson added. Southampton Crown Court heard the two men who had left the cash behind were fired and Dean's colleague, though exonerated, had resigned. Dean, 51, of Maclean Road, Bournemouth, admitted theft and was jailed for 12 months. In mitigation, Christopher Gair said Dean lost his wife in a road accident in 1994 and had debts of £24,000. A month before the theft, he had been given two county court judgments against him. "In a moment of madness he took advantage of the money left there," said Mr Gair.

November 1, 2007 This Is Leicestershire
An "inside man" involved in a plot to steal £1 million from a Securicor van has been jailed for four years. Ex-soldier Neil Colbourne, from Hinckley, worked for the firm in the lead-up to the robbery bid, which would have involved kidnapping a driver's wife. He was among six gang members who were jailed in connection with the case. A court heard how the plan involved two kidnappers seizing a driver's wife at her home in Swanscombe, Kent, and holding her hostage while others raided her husband's security van at gunpoint. But the plan to target a depot in Dartford, Kent, was foiled when a seventh member of the gang, brothel keeper Vincent Calleja, turned himself in to police. Police swooped on the gang's headquarters the night before the heist last June and found two guns and ammunition, balaclavas, and cable ties. They also found keys to a stolen Renault Espace. Four of the men were found guilty on June 29 of conspiracy to rob and were sentenced on Monday at Guildford Crown Court. Ashley O'Driscoll (21), from Eaton Grove, in Mitcham, Surrey, Billy French (22), from Steers Mead, Mitcham, and Michael Cloherty (41), of no fixed address, were each sentenced to 15 years. The father of Billy French, unemployed Clive Tedder (42), from Spencer Roady, Mitcham, received 18 years. Colbourne, now 34, who had an address in Hinckley and Orpington, Kent, had worked as a guard for Group 4 Securicor and was sentenced to four years, while 33-year-old Wayne McKenna-Bruce, from Chislehurst, Kent, was sentenced to three years in prison. The pair's conspiracy to steal pleas were accepted after a court heard they had not known about the full scale of the plot. The seventh member, Vincent Calleja (45), from Tadworth, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob and seven unrelated human trafficking and prostitution charges, and is to be sentenced.

November 1, 2007 PR News
The Wackenhut Corporation ("Wackenhut" or "the Company") today filed a civil action against the Service Employees International Union ("SEIU" or "the Union"). The lawsuit is in response to the SEIU's malicious, four-year, international corporate campaign to force Wackenhut to recognize the Union as the employees' bargaining representative while denying the employees their federal rights to free choice and a secret ballot election. The SEIU's top-down, wholesale, organizing attack also would compromise the quality of Wackenhut's services by forcing the Company to deal with a union that also represents workers other than guards which federal law specifically prohibits as an appropriate unit for representation and bargaining. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit alleges violations of the federal Racketeering Influenced Corporations Act, 18 U.S.C. section 1961 et seq., and seeks injunctive relief, treble compensatory damages and costs.

September 14, 2007 BBC
A security worker has been jailed for stealing almost £130,000 in coins from parking meters on Teesside. Bryn Lynas, 47, of Ormesby, Middlesbrough, was employed to empty the machines in Redcar and Cleveland. At Teesside Crown Court, the former Group 4 Securicor Cash Services employee pleaded guilty to the theft of £128,301 from January 2004 to May 2006. Jailing him for 21 months, Judge Tony Briggs told Lynas he had grossly abused a position of trust. Group 4 was contracted by Redcar and Cleveland Council to empty parking meters. An audit revealed tens of thousands of pounds was missing and when Lynas was arrested last year he told police: "I've got a bag full of money on my back seat." He was interviewed and admitted taking cash from the machines, but said he had been doing it for only 10 months The court was shown footage from a camera covertly placed by police in Lynas' van, in which he repeatedly attempts to prise open cash boxes with a screwdriver. He also admitted money laundering between June 2004 and last May, but disputed stealing £40,000 of the total, claiming that he was not employed on some of the days stated in the case. But Judge Briggs said "the loss of at least £80,000-£90,000" and "dishonesty of this magnitude" required a significant sentence.

September 14, 2007 24 Dash
A security worker who stole nearly £130,000 in coins from parking meters he was employed to empty is facing jail. Bryn Lynas, 47, plundered the machines in Cleveland for two years before his bungled get-rich-quick scheme was uncovered by his bosses. When Lynas was arrested in May last year, after an audit revealed tens of thousands of pounds were missing, he told police: "I\'ve got a bag full of money on my back seat." Officers searched his vehicle and found a bag containing more than £500 stuffed in the footwell of the Renault Megane. Lynas was interviewed and admitted taking cash from the machines, but said he had been doing it for only 10 months. Police inquiries revealed that his partner, Susan Shaw, also 47, had received £23,655 in her bank account from Lynas. She was arrested for a money laundering offence, but had the charges dropped by prosecutors at Teesside Crown Court in August. Lynas, of Ormesby, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court on August 8 to the theft of £128,301 between January 2004 and May last year, and money laundering between June 2004 and last May. His case was adjourned until today for reports. Lynas was employed by Group 4 Securicor Cash Services, which was contracted by the borough council to empty parking meters. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council said it was pleased Lynas had been brought to justice but added the cash collecting contract was re-tendered last year and given to a different company.

September 6, 2007 News Shopper
A FORMER soldier has been jailed for four years for his part in a plot to steal more than £1m from security vans - including his own. Neil Colbourne had worked for Securicor for two years when he was the "victim" of an armed robbery outside the HSBC bank in Sydenham. But he was an accomplice and slipped the money box containing £25,000 out of the back of his van to a waiting vehicle before calling the police claiming he had been robbed. Prosecutor Maria Kariaskos told Guildford Crown Court the 33-year-old later changed his story, saying there was no gun involved. He also failed to pick out the real "robbers" in an identification parade. Officers arrested him after studying CCTV footage of the incident on May 16 last year. He could be seen waiting for a minute-and-a-half until the vehicle being used by the "robbers" arrived. Colbourne, of Station Square, Petts Wood, admitted a charge of conspiracy to steal. He also pleaded guilty to another count of conspiracy to steal for helping a gang to plot a £1m theft from another van. The cash handler and his old Army friend Wayne McKenna-Bruce, aged 33, gave the gang the van driver's name and the registration numbers of his car and of two Securicor vehicles. This enabled them to follow their intended target to his house and plan their attack. McKenna-Bruce, from Sevenoaks, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to steal and was sentenced to three years in jail. James Scobie, representing McKenna-Bruce, said the two defendants thought the driver in the second incident was in on the plot and violence would not be threatened or used.

August 26, 2007 Sunday Mail
A SECURITY van driver who claimed he was robbed by gunmen wearing fake Mexican moustaches has admitted lying to steal more than £300,000. Ian Watt, 44, made up the far-fetched tale about how his Group 4 van was robbed at gunpoint because he was desperate for cash. Watt even went to the trouble of driving himself to a forest outside Edinburgh and bound his own hands to make it look as if he had been assaulted and robbed. Police issued an appeal for witnesses through TV and newspapers and quizzed 500 drivers close to where the alleged robbery was meant to have happened. But they later found CCTV footage of Watt sitting in his vehicle at a time he said he was being beaten, bound and blindfolded by the desperado gang. Then they checked the tracking system on his van and found it did not match his story. Detectives confronted the ex-soldier, who admitted he had buried the load in a nearby wood. Last week he was jailed for 16 months for stealing £271,963.94 in cash, £41,928.72 in cheques and £236.61 in euros. He also confessed to wasting police time. Watt claimed he took the money to help bail out his new girlfriend, who was going through an expensive divorce. A police insider said: "This is one of the most bizarre cases we have ever dealt with. "The guy went to extreme measures to look convincing and on the face of it this was a very serious robbery. "The guys working on the case were incredulous when the truth emerged." Watt had been working for Group 4 security for more than 20 years when he faked the robbery in May.

August 24, 2007 Narco Sphere
Another industry has been privatized in the United States by the Bush administration. This time it is the transportation of migrants for deportation. The Wackenhut Corporation, whose buses wait along the border to be filled with migrants for deportation, is actually owned by a Danish Corporation, Group 4/Securicor. It is known as G4S. Some border residents are concerned that a foreign-owned corporation, and not a U.S.-owned corporation, is handling security and deportations at the border and profiting from it. Wackenhut/G4S took over these duties from the U.S. Border Patrol. The executive director of the watchdog group Private Corrections Institute, Ken Kopczynski, wrote to the Censored Blog: "Great piece on the Minutemen and immigration but Wackenhut is not connected to GEO Group. Group 4 bought out Wackenhut Corporation a number of years ago and sold off the corrections unit to George Zoley and friends. Part of the agreement was that they could no longer use the name Wackenhut which currently is a subsidiary of Group 4/Securicor. Hope this helps and keep at 'em, Sincerely, Ken Kopczynski, executive director, Private Corrections Institute. Imprisoning migrants -- George Zoley is chairman of GEO Group, Inc., which operates privatized prisons across the nation, including prisons in Florence, Arizona. Building prisons for immigrants has been profitable for the GEO Group. In 2007, Geo Group won contracts for a prison in Eagle, Pass, Texas; an immigration detention facility in Jena, La. and a detention facility for U.S. Marshals service in Laredo, Tex., according to its news releases. Headquarted in Boca Raton, Fla., GEO Group, announced in January that it received a new U.S., 10-year contract, for the detention of 2,407 "criminal aliens" at the Reeves County Detention Complex in Texas. GEO took over the county's contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Reeves County is located in southwest Texas, with its county seat at Pecos. GEO said it believes that the facility is the largest privately-operated prison in the world. In Taylor, Texas, another for-profit company, Corrections Corporation of America, imprisons migrant and refugee children at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center. Recently, a prison guard exposed maggots in the food there.

March 23, 2007 The Telegraph
Ministers have been forced to act after receiving disturbing evidence of equipment failures and doctored record-keeping within Group 4 Securicor Justice Services, which operates 60 per cent of tags for offenders released early under the Home Detention Curfew scheme. A 130-page dossier obtained by a BBC journalist, who worked undercover for five months in the security company's Nottingham operations centre, includes the following allegations: A manager secretly taped saying that three paedophiles were not being monitored. A prisoner incorrectly returned to jail for seven weeks because of a blunder by the security company. A violent offender breached his bail conditions by going into a pub 10 minutes after removing his tag the night before his court appearance. An employee mocked Victor Bates, a campaigner against tagging whose wife Marian was shot dead in their jewellery shop after the gunman's accomplice had ripped off his tag. A prisoner convicted of indecent assault on home leave was unmonitored for several days because his tagging equipment failed. The revelations will further undermine confidence in tagging after figures revealed that inmates let out under the system committed more than 1,000 violent crimes including four manslaughters, one murder, 56 woundings and more than 700 assaults since it was introduced in 1999. The investigation also discovered evidence of staff fabricating records to save money. G4S is paid around £45 million a year by the Home Office to administer the curfew system. After being confronted with the evidence G4S, which has admitted there was faulty equipment, has been forced to apologise and has suspended five employees in Nottingham. A spokesman for the Home Office said: "Public protection is the Government's first priority. The findings of this programme are of concern. We are reviewing the contract and will be asking G4S urgent questions to ensure that these allegations are thoroughly investigated and issues arising are addressed." The investigation by a team from BBC Inside Out East Midlands disclosed that the monitoring boxes in tagged offenders homes, which relay information about their movements, routinely broke down. One factor in the failure of the system could be that G4S, which has admitted there was a batch of faulty equipment in Nottingham, uses the mobile telephone network technology rather than fixed lines. Steve Green, the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, said the Home Office had to establish whether the Nottingham problems were nationwide. "I want to urgently know if is this a Nottingham problem or a G4S problem. If it is a G4S problem and this is the way company is run then that puts a huge responsibility on the Home Office to tackle and address because that is not acceptable," he said. Ian Ridgely, chief operations officer at G4S, said: "We believe in a small number of cases that we may not have been monitoring to the level that we would expect to, we apologise for that, we accept that. From that point of view we recognise that the Home Office requires us to work to a very high standard and of course we are sorry that in some minor number of instances, we may not have operated to those standards."

February 20, 2007 Great Yarmouth Mercury
An opportunist thief stole a Securicor van containing more than £35,000 after a guard left the keys in the ignition and the engine running, a court heard yesterday. The Securicor guard had just collected the cash from Norwich city centre car parks leaving his security van unlocked, when Martin Chapman, 31, saw his chance and stole the van containing the cash, Norwich Crown Court heard. Duncan O'Donnell, prosecuting, said the van was later found abandoned at Swanton Road travellers site in Norwich and Chapman was later arrested and £26,000 of the cash was recovered. However Mr O'Donnell said the security guard responsible for leaving the van unattended had since lost his job. Chapman, of Rosedale Gardens, Belton, near Yarmouth, admitted taking a Securicor van and stealing £9,239.50 on October 18. He was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for a year and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work. Guy Ayers, mitigating, said it was an unusual set of circumstances. “It was purely opportunistic. He saw the van left in this way and thought it was careless and took advantage of that particular driver's way of working.” He said Chapman was genuinely sorry that the guard had lost his job. Chapman who was of previous good character was unlikely to re-offending, Mr Ayers added.

August 12, 2006 Daily Telegraph
INDIA'S biggest private airline Jet Airways would suspend a British employee arrested in London over an alleged plot to blow up US airliners, it said today. "(Asmin) Tariq is being suspended pending a full investigation, having not reported for duty for the past couple of days," an airline statement said. Tariq, a Jet security employee, was among 24 people arrested in Britain earlier this week over the alleged plot to use suicide bombers with explosives to blow US airliners out of the sky. One person was later freed. Jet said Tariq, who holds a British passport, was transferred to Jet in March from global security group G4S - previously called Securicor - after the airline ended its contract with the company. Jet, which flies to London and other international destinations as well as serving Indian domestic routes, said under British employment law, it had been obliged to take on employees working for G4S before the contract ended.

May 23, 2006 The Mirror
IN THE latest major Home Office blunder, 2,700 innocent people were branded as criminals. They were labelled robbers, thieves and sex offenders because their names and dates of birth matched those of convicted criminals. As a result, many were refused jobs, turned down for university or threatened with the sack. The shambles was the fault of the Home Office Criminal Records Bureau, which is managed by private-sector IT firm Capita. Unions say the increasing involvement of private firms in government departments will lead to more mistakes. A Unison spokesman said yesterday: "So many different parts of our public services are in disarray, and privatisation has played a big part in this. "There's a conflict between the motivations of private companies and their clients, the government. For private firms there's a pressing need to be competitive and deliver profits to the shareholder. Prison security COMPANY: Group 4 RESPONSIBLE for a catalogue of blunders, including allowing seven prisoners to escape while ferrying them between prison and court in the East Midlands and Yorkshire in 1993. In the same year, a prisoner fled Group 4 custody at a Hull court. Two years ago, killer Gordon Topen escaped from HMP Rye Hill. Now known as Group 4 Securicor, it detains and escorts asylum seekers, and made a profit of £254million last year.

May 19, 2006 The Mirror
A WHISTLEBLOWER last night claimed the UK's deportation system is a shambolic failure that does nothing to ease our spiralling immigration crisis. The Group 4 Securicor officer, who escorts deportees back to their home country, insists an amazing 6 in 10 efforts end in failure. He says many manage to get sent back to UK detention centres by harming themselves or their children on the way to the airport. Others cause such uproar on the plane that pilots insist they are removed. In the worst cases private jets allegedly have to be charted at vast expense to get them home. And the officer claims it will take 23 years to clear out huge backlog of illegal immigrants. He said: "It's about time people knew what a state the system is in. We have a 60 percent cancellation rate on deportations and it's getting worse. "The deportees will use every trick in the book to avoid getting kicked out. The men will kick and spit and scream that they have HIV. The officer said many corrupt officials in foreign countries refuse to let the deportees in - unless they get a large backhander. He said: "We are often going to banana republics where the authorities will say they don't have the right paperwork or deny the deportee is from their country. Then they ask us for bribes." The officer claimed he and his colleagues often have no choice but to pay the backhander with company cash or credit cards that are supposed to be used for expenses. He added: "Although it's not our money, we try and keep the price down as we resent paying bribes." The whistleblower is a Detention Custody Officer with Group 4 Securicor, which has the Home Office contract to run detention centres and escort failed asylum seekers. He is from the West Midlands but works at Group 4's Overseas Escorting headquarters in Crawley, West Sussex. His duties include collecting failed asylum seekers from UK detention centres and escorting them home. He claims that for high-profile or troublesome deportees, Group 4 Securicor charters a private jet to fly them home - at a rate of up to £1,500-an-hour. The officer said: "It's a shocking waste of taxpayers' money. But the bosses say it's the only way." According to a 2005 National Audit Office report, the average cost of deporting an illegal immigrant is £11,000 per person. Group 4 Securicor last night denied company money was used to pay bribes. A spokesman said: "We provide credit cards and petty cash to cover incidental expenses. We deny paying bribes." The company said the whistleblower's claims of a 60 percent failure rate were false, saying "Less than one per cent of our removals result in immigration detainees being returned to the UK." The firm refused to reveal how many deportees fail to leave the UK. The Home Office admitted chartering flights "when economical and efficient to do so". The spokesman added: "We strongly refute these allegations and do not recognise the figures being quoted."

March 16, 2006 The Age
WHEN Devandar Naidu was at work his boss would kick his chair from beneath him. The security guard was subjected over four years to names such as "coconut head" and "monkey face". He would start work at 7am and not be allowed to go home until 10pm. He had to ask his boss's permission to go to the toilet. Yesterday, the NSW Supreme Court awarded the former guard $1.9 million in compensation for the relentless bullying that left him incapable of working again. Outside the court, Mr Naidu's lawyer, Shaun McCarthy, described the award as a "rare victory for the little man against a giant … conglomerate". "He had a nervous breakdown, he will never work again," Mr McCarthy said. The abuse of Mr Naidu at the hands of News Ltd's security and fire manager, Lance Chaloner, was described as "extraordinary" by Justice Michael Adams. The abuse started in 1992, when Mr Chaloner threw tantrums, would kick chairs from under Mr Naidu, and call him names such as "black c---". Although his hours were 7am to 4pm, Mr Chaloner made him work unpaid until after 10pm. When Mr Naidu went on a rare holiday to Fiji with his family, Mr Chaloner insisted that he telephone work every day, which involved a 15-kilometre trip to a phone, and he had to pay for the calls. When he returned, he was told to do manual work at Mr Chaloner's home, and threatened with the sack if he didn't. Mr Chaloner was dismissed by News Ltd in January 1997. The judge said that although Mr Naidu remained at work until mid-1997, he could not operate effectively. He had major depression and post traumatic stress disorder. News Ltd will share the damages with Group 4 Securitas Pty Ltd, the bulk to be paid by Group 4, which employed Mr Naidu.

June 30, 2005 The Statesman
Britain’s asylum policy came under renewed scrutiny on Monday as dozens of Zimbabweans staged a hunger strike in protest at their imminent deportation and Kurdish Turks mourned a teenage detainee who has killed himself. The Archbishop of Canterbury and former Labour leader Lord Kinnock joined protests over the decision to send failed asylum-seekers back to Robert Mugabe’s regime. Dr Rowan Williams said it would be “deeply immoral” to send failed claimants back to a country where they could face persecution and torture. Lord Kinnock said it would be better to let “a couple of dozen” unjustified claimants remain in Britain than risk sending back people who needed protection. Zimbabweans at the Campsfield detention centre in Oxfordshire said they had been told the Government has delayed further deportations for two weeks, which would forestall the embarrassing prospect of Tony Blair hosting the G8 summit that will focus on the plight of Africa while dozens of Africans are in Britain on hunger strike at his government’s policy.

April 9, 2005 The Guardian
Security firms involved in the deportation of failed asylum seekers are facing more and more claims of intimidation and assault. Group 4/Global Solutions Ltd (GSL) topped the league table of complaints by asylum seekers and their lawyers. Campaigners who studied 35 complaints now being pursued by lawyers revealed GSL was involved in 30% of cases. GSL, which deals with by far the majority of deportees in Britain, recently won a 10-year Home Office contract to run Bicester Accommodation Centre for asylum seekers. The firm was criticised last month after the broadcast of the BBC documentary Asylum Undercover, which contained claims of abuse by GSL guards. Most of the alleged assaults analysed involve incidents on the way to or at airports. Most concern incidents resulting in cuts, bruises and swelling, although deportees have complained of head injuries, damaged nerves, and sexual assault.

March 31, 2005 IRR News
Recent unannounced inspections of centres used to hold asylum seekers in transit to detention centres and to ports for deportation have found that no centre meets the minimum requirements in relation to child protection. Officials carried out their first (unannounced) inspections into 'holding' centres for asylum seekers between June and October 2004. The holding centres, all run by private company GSL Ltd, (formerly Group 4) were: Communications House (Old Street, London), Lunar House (Croydon), Electric House (Croydon) and Dallas Court (Manchester). The report states that 'all four holding centres had inadequate provision for childcare and child protection. None had a child protection policy in place, and staff likely to be in contact with children had not undergone enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks.' At Lunar House the inspection team reported that they 'spoke to one woman detainee with a two-year-old child during the mid-afternoon. She and the child had been in other areas of the building since 8am that morning. Neither she nor her child had been offered anything to eat during that time and had to wait for relocation to a residential centre that evening.' They found that this was 'unacceptable'. At Dallas Court, the team found that 'a weekend shift recently complained when they discovered a young woman in the holding room who had miscarried a few days previously. She had been collected from a hospital following psychiatric referral, had not eaten for three days and had to be helped to and from the van. She was subject to a live F2052SH self-harm monitoring form because she kept asking for her baby and said she wanted to die. Having been delivered to the holding room in the morning, she was not due to be collected by another vehicle until more than six hours later.' For the first time it emerged that other private contractors (unnamed in this report) are being used to move asylum seekers - though GSL Ltd remains responsible for the four holding centres inspected here. The inspection teams also found a worrying 'absence of operational or independent oversight, compared to other immigration detention facilities. There was no Independent Monitoring Board, and no on-site monitor to provide daily oversight of service provision, as there is in immigration removal centres (IRCs). Senior Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) staff visited only occasionally, and, with the exception of Dallas Court, had little involvement with the centres.'

January 13, 2005 PR Newswire
The Wackenhut Corporation, the U.S.-based division of the large U.K. and European security contractor, Group 4 Securicor, has apparently persuaded the U.S. National Labor Relations Board ["NLRB"] to pursue allies of Protects USA. Late last week, the NLRB notified Protects USA ally at the non-profit Prewitt Organizing Fund ["POF"] a formal investigation was under way. "They are requesting private information on activists, allies and funding. It's clearly a continuation of G4-Wackenhut's witch hunt for scapegoats," says Protects USA spokesperson Adam Wilson. "Protects USA and POF are not parties in any matter before the NLRB. We will notify the NLRB that the request will be taken under advisement as it comes in tandem with the intimidation lawsuit G4/Wackenhut filed last month to silence Protects USA," said Wilson. Since last summer, Protects USA and similar groups [Denver PROTECTS, New York/New Jersey PROTECTS, California PROOFERS, Albuquerque-based BOCAS] have conducted more than 200 peaceful public information events in 14 states, aimed at educating the public about the current condition of homeland security. U.K.-based G4/Wackenhut filed a lawsuit in federal court on December 6 to silence its U.S.-based critics and stop public advocacy conducted by Protects USA. Protects USA, a citizen-based homeland security advocacy project, seeks to educate the public on the perils of handing over the security of our most sensitive sites to private profiteers with spotty records or worse.

Police may charge private security company Group 4 tens of thousands of pounds after an 11-day hunt to recapture a dangerous escaped murderer.  Gordon Topen, who was 12 years into a life sentence for killing a businessman, broke free fromtwoGroup4 security officer sat Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry, on Good Friday.  West Midlands Police launched a huge manhunt for the murderer - who had been in hospital for a blood transfusion - involving officers, sniffer dogs and helicopters but he evaded capture.  More than 20 Coventry detectives spent 11 days in a nationwide operation to catch the killer who, it was feared, could try to hunt down the Midland ex-girlfriend whose evidence put him behind bars.  He was finally snared when officers in London discovered Topen holed up in a friend’s house following a tip-off.  Now the Sunday Mercury understands that West Midlands Police may hit Group 4 with a bill for the costs of the manhunt if it believes the security firm was negligent in the escape.    (Sunday Mercury, April 25, 2004)

Hastings Youth Academy, Hastings, Florida
June 27, 2007 Florida Times-Union
A detention worker at the Hastings Youth Academy found himself behind bars after a juvenile at the minimum security facility in western St. Johns County told investigators he thought he was going to be stabbed in a confrontation between the two. Kevin Dewayne Ford, 30, of Interlachen was charged with aggravated assault after a surveillance tape showed him pulling what looks like a knife from his pocket and flicking it open during an argument with a 16-year-old Friday, investigators said. In the recording from the center's surveillance system, Ford and the youth are seen near a desk and making gestures as if arguing. Ford is then seen pulling something from his back pocket and walking toward the juvenile, who was then pulled away by another worker, according to police reports. Moments later, Ford appears to put something in his shoe, according to an offense report by the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. No knife was found but other workers who witnessed the argument said they saw one or heard the juvenile being threatened. In addition to aggravated assault, Ford was charged with taking contraband into the Hastings jail. Employees are not permitted to take weapons into the facility. Ford, who'd been with the academy a month, was released Tuesday from the St. Johns County jail on $4,500 bail, according to jail records.

Holden Wal-Mart, Holden, Texas
August 28, 2006 Tyler Morning Telegraph
Just days before jury selection was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Wal-Mart settled a wrongful death lawsuit for an undisclosed amount with the parents of Megan LeAnn Holden, a clerk who was kidnapped from the Tyler supercenter's parking lot and murdered. Attorneys for Ms. Holden's parents, Sheri Kay Dunlap and James Vincent Holden, said the terms of the Wal-Mart settlement were confidential. The Wackenhut Corp, which provided security for the store, was also named in the lawsuit and settled for $1.3 million, according to court records. Ms. Dunlap, "would like to see this as a beginning to Wal-Mart making its parking lots safer for its customers and employees, not just in Tyler, but everywhere," said her attorney, John "Rusty" Phenix, of Henderson. Jury selection for the case was scheduled to begin in U.S. District Judge T. John Ward's Marshall court Tuesday, but, on Friday, Phenix sent a letter to the court announcing the sealed settlement. Attorney Randell "Randy" Roberts, of Tyler, said his client, Holden, was "very glad to have this entire matter behind him." Ms. Holden was abducted Jan. 19, 2005, from the Wal-Mart Supercenter by Johnny Lee Williams Jr., who pleaded guilty last year to capital murder - kidnapping, sexually assaulting, strangling and shooting to death Ms. Holden to death before he allegedly discarded her body in a West Texas ditch. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to five stacked life sentences. Surveillance footage released by law enforcement showed Williams following Ms. Holden to her pickup in the Wal-Mart parking lot, rushing up behind her, shoving her into the vehicle and driving off. Before the abduction, the video showed a security guard talking to the suspect.

Holston Army Ammunition Plant
Holston, Tennessee
Wackenhut (Group 4 Securicor)
December 7, 2007 PR Newswire
Checks, ranging from $200 to $50,000, were distributed to 280 employees at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant this week. Two years after plant workers filed a formal complaint, the Department of Labor awarded the Wackenhut Services Inc. fire and security workers $2.5 million in back pay. According to DOL findings, from 1999 to April 2007 Wackenhut violated the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act, which requires federal contractors to provide pay and benefits commensurable to those found prevailing in the locality. While the final settlement was less than the workers claim, this is the largest SCA settlement for Wackenhut workers to date -- about ten times the previous high. This past June the Army stated, "The money is owed by Wackenhut. Wackenhut should have known all along (the SCA wages applied) based on the original (contract) solicitation." But, Wackenhut claims that federal acquisition procurement regulations allow it to bill the Army for this back pay. "It is shocking that a company with such lucrative government contracts like Wackenhut lacks the necessary organization, experience, accounting and operational controls to pay their employees what is due to them according to federal contracting law," said Valarie Long, SEIU Property Services Division Director. "Now the US Army has to make up for almost a decade of shortchanging the workers."

June 3, 2007 AP
A U.S. senator and a congressman have taken up the cause of contract workers who say they are owed more than $3 million in back pay for fire-protection and security work at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant. The Wackenhut Security Services employees filed a complaint in 2005 claiming their pay and benefits since were below what they are legally required to receive under federal law. There were 85 fire and security workers at the plant at that time and their claim has yet to be resolved. Recently, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., both have sent letters to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao asking the department to resolve the workers' claims.

September 26, 2006 Business Wire
Group 4 Securicor, the London-based global security firm lobbying hard to stay in the race to guard the 2012 Olympics – and which is guarding this week’s Labour Conference – has been rocked by allegations from its own guards at a U.S. ammunitions plant. Security officers have exposed lax practices at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant guarded by Wackenhut Services Inc. (WSI), which is wholly owned by Group 4 Securicor (G4S). The officers allege Wackenhut cheats during security inspections, cuts back on perimeter patrols to save on petrol, and has allowed civilians in rowboats, including teenage girls, to gain access to the plant by water. The Holston plant in Tennessee produces explosives used in various missiles, as well as C4, a military plastic explosive. “I think you can safely say if it goes boom, it comes from here," said an Army spokesperson. The plant is operated for the U.S. Army by foreign-owned BAE Systems, which subcontracts to WSI. Wackenhut, the largest provider of security services to the US government, has a troubled performance record at nuclear weapons and nuclear power sites. Wackenhut’s problems at Holston come as G4S is positioning itself to win security contracts for the 2012 London Olympics, despite its record of problems in Britain and elsewhere. In the UK G4S has been criticized for racism and poor management at a UK prison; for poor services and facilities for detained immigrants; and for slipshod implementation of electronic tagging of criminals released from prisons, sometimes with violent or even deadly consequences. G4S has been found to have violated worker rights in Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, and the US.

International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC
We have received information that over the last few weeks Wackenhut (Group 4 Falck's subsidiary) has dismissed 2 workers for union activities. Both were employed by Wackenhut in Washington DC and worked at the offices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). (Union-Network, March 19, 2004)

Iraq Private Security
January 7, 2007 Chicagoist
On Wednesday it was discovered that an Orland Park firefighter was arrested for felony theft for falsely claiming he was fighting for the military in Iraq. Lawrence Masa was actually working for a private security firm in Iraq and was being paid quite well. During this time Masa made approximately $190,000 as a firefighter and $200,000 as a private security worker. Yesterday, Steven Slawinski, a Lemont Firefighter, was accused of the same crime. Slawinski, a friend of Masa, is charged with Felony theft for falsely claiming he was fighting for the military in Iraq. Slawinski too was working at a private security firm, getting paid $27,000 from the Fire Department while in Iraq. Officials looked into Slawinksi's claims after they realized the relationship between the two and the timing of both men's return to work. Slawinski was making $63/hour as a trainer in Iraq. Since the start of the Iraq war tens of thousands of private security workers have entered the country. With the ease these two had at falsely producing documents stating they were serving in the military, we assume this is much more of a widespread problem. This is just another addition to the slew of problems we face with private military contractors in Iraq. The U.S. Department of State currently recognizes 28 Security Companies doing business in Iraq, it is not known which company Masa and Slawinski were working for, but our look into the companies shows two which specialize in both fire and security. Baghdad Fire and Security is described as providing the following services,"Fire protection and security equipment supply. Install, maintain and commission these systems. Physical security and demining." The second, Group 4 Falck A/S, provides, "Cashing sorting. Ambulance services (vehicles and professional staff). Firefighting services (vehicles, products and professional staff). Prisons and prison management. Global solutions. Facility management and training services." The State Department's disclaimer regarding these companies is, "The U.S. government assumes no responsibility for the professional ability or integrity of the persons or firms whose names appear on the list." The other problems we mentioned above, include abuse at Abu Ghraib (following these allegations the companies involved were awarded additional Pentagon contracts) and a video of firms shooting at Iraqi citizens. Needless to say, previously these firms were acting without any regard for, and any repercussions from, the law. With five words slipped into the most recent Pentagon Budget, however, this should change. Previously, if Congress had not declared war the Military had no jurisdiction over security contractors. Essentially leaving Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan as playgrounds for the firms. We don't discredit the risk the workers of these firms take, but it only makes sense they have some sort of moral authority guiding them. The amendment included in the budget bill simply took the word "war" and replaced it with "declared war or a contingency operation." The Defense Tech article suggests that Journalists embedded in contingency operation zones could also be subject to the change, but this will most likely not remain true as embedded journalists are unarmed and not considered contractors.

Kahului Airport, Maui, Hawai'i
June 17, 2008 Maui News
A federal grand jury in Honolulu has indicted Robert “Butchie” Tam Ho, a former Wackenhut supervisor, for tampering with a witness to an arrest and alleged assault by Tam Ho at Kahului Airport in 2005. Tam Ho has pleaded not guilty to the two felony counts, which carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison. He could not be reached for comment. The former assistant police chief already was being sued in a civil action in 2nd Circuit Court over the same events. Phil Lo-wenthal — the Maui lawyer who, with his lawyer son, Ben, is representing the plaintiffs — said Monday, “We didn’t even know about the tampering” until the indictment was handed up earlier this month. However, he said, the grand jury account tracked closely with the narrative given by his clients: Greg Kahlstorf, president of Pacific Wings; Kahlstorf’s business partner, Frank Ford; William Goshorn, then a pilot for the airline; and Kahealani Reinhardt, then also an airline employee. The name of the witness is given in the indictment as “J.W.,” a Wackenhut employee. On Oct. 20, 2005, Kahlstorf had demanded a meeting with Airports Division and Wackenhut managers after one of his pilots was cited and detained by Wackenhut for being in a restricted operating area — an offense Kahlstorf denied. The airline and the guard company had had uneasy relations since at least February 2004, when Wackenhut guards apparently pressured Pacific Wings to board a passenger who had been turned back by airline security because she did not have acceptable identification. The grand jury reported that Tam Ho left the meeting after a shouting exchange with Kahlstorf. When he returned with two other Wackenhut employees, they made a “citizen’s arrest” and tried to handcuff Kahlstorf for harassment. Kahlstorf did not cooperate, and he and the two other guards fell to the floor. Tam Ho ordered the other Pacific Wings employees out. They left, but one, identified as W.G. (Goshorn, who related his story to reporters in 2005), came back to witness what was happening to his boss. Tam Ho “adopted an aggressive fighting stance and struck W.G. about the head and shoulders several times with his fists,” according to the grand jury report. Goshorn did not fight back, and others (not identified) pulled Tam Ho off Goshorn. Maui police arrived, and Tam Ho, a former assistant police chief, demanded that they arrest Goshorn. After an investigation that included an interview with J.W., they did. Meanwhile, the private guards moved Kahlstorf and Goshorn to the Wackenhut offices, which provides the basis for the civil suit’s allegations of kidnapping. According to the grand jury, J.W. also went to the offices, where Tam Ho told her “she should simply say she was heading home for the day . . . and that she didn’t see what happened.” Although that was not so, that is what J.W. told police. The second count refers to the following day, when, the grand jury said, Tam Ho dictated a written statement to J.W., who entered it into a Wackenhut computer. The jurors said Tam Ho falsely had her write that Goshorn had stopped the door and did not comply with Tam Ho’s request; and that J.W. could not see what was happening but had “observed Tam Ho and him in a scuffle.” The Airports Division investigated the incident and concluded that there was “no evidence that the actions taken by its airport security contractor . . . were inappropriate.” Tam Ho tried to get county prosecutors to charge Kahlstorf and Goshorn with resisting arrest or assault, but the prosecutors declined. They also dropped the initial complaint against the pilot for entering a restricted area. The next month, a Wackenhut guard confronted a Pacific Wings pilot about a parking spot and in a lengthy, videotaped incident spat on and threatened the pilot. That guard was barred from state facilities, and Wackenhut was ordered to train its employees about conduct. The feud did not end there. In another confrontation, Pacific Wings called Maui police, who declined to intervene in what they determined was a civil matter. “This is what the feds are supposed to do” when local police and prosecutors are involved so closely in a dispute, Lowenthal said of the tampering indictment. The civil suit alleges that Tam Ho and other Wackenhut employees “assaulted, battered, kidnapped, unlawfully restrained and intentionally inflicted emotional distress” on the four Pacific Wings people. In April, Tam Ho and Wackenhut separately denied those claims and asserted that the airline group contributed to the incident themselves. Wackenhut could not be reached for comment, but the company has demanded a jury trial. Lowenthal later also asked for a jury trial, but he said Monday his suit will have to hold until the criminal trial is settled, because of the Fifth Amendment implications if Tam Ho were to be deposed for his clients. Tam Ho is free on $10,000 unsecured bail.

June 13, 2008 KITV
The former head of security for Wackenhut at Kahului Airport pleaded not guilty to federal charges on Friday. Authorities charged Robert Tam Ho with two counts of witness tampering. Tam Ho told a subordinate to lie and file a false report about an altercation between Tam Ho and an executive of Pacific Wings, prosecutors said. Tam Ho joined Wackenhut after leaving the Maui Police Department, where he was assistant chief. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

June 8, 2008 Star Bulletin
A former Wackenhut of Hawaii security officer is facing federal charges in connection with an altercation between Wackenhut employees and Pacific Wings airline employees at Kahului Airport in 2005. A federal grand jury returned an indictment yesterday charging Robert Tam Ho with two counts of witness tampering. Tam Ho instructed a subordinate Wackenhut employee to tell Maui police that she did not see Tam Ho assault Pacific Wings security coordinator William Goshorn in an airport conference room on Oct. 20, 2005, when in fact she did, according to the indictment. Tam Ho also directed the worker to write a false statement about the assault, the indictment says. Maui police arrested Goshorn on third-degree assault charges and Pacific Wings President James Greg Kahlstorf for alleged harassment and resisting arrest based on statements from Tam Ho and other Wackenhut employees. Less than a month later, Maui police arrested Wackenhut security officer Eric Brown for allegedly threatening another Pacific Wings employee at Kahului Airport. Wackenhut suspended Brown, and the state Department of Transportation banned him from working on any state property or facility.

November 24, 2005 The Maui News
The Maui County prosecutors office is continuing an investigation into allegations of assault, harassment and violations of airport security rules by personnel with Pacific Wings, a county official said Wednesday. Prosecutors have not "dropped" the case, which involves conflicting claims by the Pacific Wings staff and airport security guards with Wackenhut Corp. "On the contrary, the prosecutor is still in the process of gathering all the reports," the county statement said. "The prosecutor intends to fully investigate both sides of the controversy, to talk to various state personnel who may have knowledge of the case or some particulars thereof."

November 15, 2005 KGMB 9
A Wackenhut security guard was arrested Sunday after threatening to kill a pilot at the Kahului Airport. Pacific Wings pilot Gabriel Kimbrell caught the incident on videotape. "Don't take picture of me!", yelled guard Eric Brown as he lunged toward Kimbrell, and then spit at the camera. "I'm going to kill this (expletive). I don't care," said Brown. "Give me your (expletive) gun. I'm going to shoot this (expletive) in the head." Maui police arrested Brown for second degree terroristic threatening. "The only thing I could think of was to keep filming," said Kimbrell. "I was pretty traumatized." Because of an ongoing beef with the guards, Kimbrell had been ordered by his company's lawyer to videotape any encounters. Sunday's incident stemmed from a parking ticket Kimbrell got when he left his silver truck in this loading-zone at the Kahului airport. KGMB called Wackenhut officials five times today. They did not return our calls. But the Department of Transportation says Kimbrell had been ticketed in that same spot last month. And this time, according to the DOT, as the guard was about to write the ticket, Kimbrell could have just moved his truck but he went to get his video camera instead. "We believe that at this point Wackenhutt has followed proper security procedures and we think they've done the job in checking on any security violations," said Scott Ishikawa, spokesperson for the DOT. While the state's Airports Division investigates the case, the Maui Police Department has about 45-minutes of this tape. The Pacific Wings airline only gave the media less than three minutes worth. The airline's president says the rest of it shows a pattern of harassment. The airline's president refers specifically to a meeting last month in which he says security guards attacked him and handcuffed him. In the end, the airline's president was charged with harassment and resisting arrest. Complaints were filed, investigations launched, and there's still no sign of a resolution.

Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
June 26, 2007 PR Newswire
The City of Los Angeles is launching an investigation into security contractor Wackenhut Corporation/G4S' compliance with the city's Responsible Contractor Policy, a probe that could result in debarment from city contracts for five years. Prior to the investigation, Wackenhut had more than US$5 million annually in contracts with the City of Los Angeles to guard at least two dozen buildings and public places including Los Angeles City Hall East; Mount Lee -- the home of the famous Hollywood sign; the Ed Davis Training Facility, which is the newest and most elaborate LAPD training facility; other parks, performing arts centers, and the Watts and Van Nuys city halls. In addition to launching the investigation, Los Angeles did not select Wackenhut for future city work worth up to an estimated US$20 million over three years. Wackenhut Corporation formerly had the largest piece of this city account. They were first selected in 2004 for a three-year contract along with four other contractors for the Los Angeles security work. In its Notice of Investigation, the Los Angeles City Bureau of Contract Administration (BCA) determined, "after researching [a] complaint (regarding [Wackenhut's] contractor responsibility status) that the issues raised are valid." Accordingly, Wackenhut "[has] been placed under investigation for violations of [the Contractor Responsibility Ordinance] of Los Angeles." Under the Responsible Contractor Program (RCP), the City determines whether the prospective contractor is one that has the necessary quality, fitness and capacity to perform the work set forth in the contract. Irresponsible contractors with poor performance of other contracts; failure to comply with relevant laws and regulations; and shoddy record of business integrity are not eligible for city contracts for up to five years according to the Los Angeles Administrative Code Section 10.40.2(a), Ordinance No. #17367. In March 2007, U.S. Congresswoman Diane Watson co-chaired a public hearing where she heard current and former Wackenhut employees testify to the company's long record of workplace discrimination, labor violations, and management incompetence. In response to charges of racial discrimination by Wackenhut within the Department of Energy's elite anti-terrorist Protective Force, Congresswoman Watson declared, "I'm appalled that we have contractors here with Federal government contracts being paid by taxpayers' dollars ..... practicing the behavior of the 1950's and the 1960's." California Assembly member Mervyn Dymally (D-52) and California Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-26) also co-chaired the Commission on Wackenhut and Security Standards that included Los Angeles City Council member Wendy Greuel and Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor, California State University, Long Beach and National Chairman of the Organization US. The Los Angeles Commission on Wackenhut and Security Standards, a group of prominent religious, community leaders and trade unionists, conducted the hearing. In addition to the hearing, the group sent a letter to Los Angeles' head of the Bureau of Contract Administration, John L. Reamer, expressing their concerns about the company's "well documented record of racism, discrimination and poor security that appears to violate the City of Los Angeles' Responsible Contractor Policy." The March 28, 2007 letter was signed by Rev. Eric P. Lee, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles and Rev. Dr. Lewis E. Logan II, senior Pastor of the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles BCA received evidence that Wackenhut Corporation's answers on the contractor responsibility questionnaire in January 2007 were less than truthful. With respect to early termination of contracts within the past five years, Wackenhut failed to mention losing contracts at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant (August 2006), Indian Point #2 Nuclear Power Plant (2003), and Utah Transit Authority (2002). In addition, Wackenhut's contract to guard Dept. of Homeland Security Headquarters and Army Bases was not renewed. As for recent employment litigation brought by workers, Wackenhut overlooked a number of race discrimination and civil rights cases, including an US$80,000 settlement in a sexual harassment case. Wackenhut also failed to mention governmental investigations for violating laws and rules including investigation leading to the loss of the Dayton Transit contract in Ohio. Problems and failures there included missing incident reports, sleeping on the job, concerns about officers' qualifications, lack of supervision, and unprofessional conduct. As for current investigations of false claim(s) and material misrepresentation(s), Wackenhut neglected to tell the City of Los Angeles about a fraud suit for services allegedly not performed on the Miami-Dade County Transit contract and the County's Juvenile Assessment Center. An ongoing investigation by the NBC affiliate in Miami on parts of a preliminary Miami-Dade county audit revealed that "Wackenhut owes taxpayers up to US$12.1 million for what it calls 'questioned hours' and 'questioned billings'" in addition to various other contract violations. The company also omitted an ongoing investigation by the Department of Energy's Inspector General of falsification of training records. After the hearing, the coalition presented additional materials to the city in the period of the last several months. While Wackenhut had been the incumbent choice for more years of work, the city recently decided not to choose the company for new work. This is in addition to beginning the investigative probe toward potential debarment. Faith Culbreath, president of SEIU Local 2006, which represents security officers at other companies in the Los Angeles area said, "Security workers want to be accountable to the community they serve. That means working for companies that do the right thing by their workers and by the citizens of Los Angeles. Wackenhut abused the public trust and the trust and safety of its workforce."

Malawi
February 1, 2008 Daily Times
SOME of Standard Bank services have been negatively affected due to the on going industrial action by Group 4 Securicor (G4S), the bank has announced. In a statement published Thursday the bank says it has taken some measures to find alternative means for the affected areas. “However, we have been assured by Group 4 Securicor management that normal services will resume soon,” reads part of the statement. The strike started Wednesday with guards demanding a 30 percent annual salary increment which management refused saying they could only manage 12 percent. The court however, stopped the strike after management got an injunction Tuesday evening and employees were told to go back to work on Wednesday morning as the workers’ union also went to court to seek an injunction which the court refused to grant them. According to The Daily Times investigations G4S charges it clients K18, 834.45 for a guard on a 12 hour shift. Those with an Malawi School Certificate of Education (equivalent of O levels ), who are also known as commissioners, are at K29,412.83 while those putting on Securicor Uniform are at K23,477.52. The investigations also revealed that the rates customers pay for a Dog and Handler is K40, 632.32 and a supervisor is at K23, 477.75 and the patrol and alarm guards are at K10, 161.87. However despite netting so much money for the company the starting salary for a guard is K3200 per month (K8 per hour) and those with more experience get about K4000(K11 per hour).There is no guard who gets more than K20, 000. Government has announced with effect from January this year a minimum wage of about K129 per day for those in town up from K87 and K95 in rural areas from K66. G4S is an international company that has branches all over the world. In the United Kingdom their guards do not get less than 5.68 pounds per hour (about K1,700) or K40,000 per 24 hour shift.

September 4, 2007 The Daily Times
Ndirande Police have arrested seven people in connection with the theft of assorted goods valued at over K500,000 on July 24 from Blantyre’s Superior Hotel. Blantyre Police spokesperson Elizabeth Divala Monday said four of the seven were security guards employed by Group 4 Securicor. The seven are Clifford Chatha, 26, Benjamin Chipwete, 28, Dex Hamoni, 24, Mosses Wyson, 27, Lawrence Ludechi, 19, Henry Nkamero, 26, and Mphatso Sigamba, 26. “The seven were arrested on August 25 after some members of the public tipped the police of the suspects’ whereabouts. “Our officers in Ndirande, acting on the tip raided the suspects’ hideout. The seven appeared before Blantyre Magistrate last Thursday and were remanded at Chichiri Maximum Prison waiting for trial”. Divala explained that after stealing the goods the seven kept the entire loot consisting of mattresses, Screens, blankets and telephone receivers at a safe house in Ndirande. Divala said police recovered the stolen materials.

Mangaung Maximum Security Prison
Bloemfontein, South Africa
Group 4
August 18, 2003
South Africa's private prisons and maximum security prisons have turned out to be an enormous waste of money, energy and time.  These are some of the findings made by University of the Western Cape Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen, whose overview of policy developments in the Department of Correctional Services was published recently as part of the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative's series of research papers.  Sloth-Nielsen has called for an investigation similar to that into the arms deal regarding the tender process for existing private prisons.  "The reason for prison privatisation was mainly cost based," she said.  Privatisation, however, was costing the Department of Correctional Services much more than it had bargained for.  In 2001/2002 it was projected that by 2004/2005 the existing projects (those deemed viable by a prisons task team) would cost the department R538-million - up from projections of R143-million in 2001/2002.  "The department agreed that the decision had been unwise, and that Treasury had at the time advised against the transaction.  "The decision to undertake the private prisons projects was, however, a political one, according to the departmental spokesperson."  The official position currently appeared to be that no more private prisons would be contemplated because of the inordinate and unforeseen expense.  Sloth-Nielsen said the concept of C-Max prisons was introduced at a time when the Department of Correctional Services was characterised by the influence of American ideas in the penal sphere.  The intention was originally to create more of these facilities, she said, but this was put on the backburner during 2001 because it had turned out to be "a cost-intensive exercise".  According to Sloth-Nielsen, the new prison for "bad eggs", Supermax near Kokstad, was an even more lasting testimony to the influence of American penal philosophy and practice.  "No impact analysis or land survey was done, which explains why the facility has been built without a kitchen - the site is too steep to transport food in the normal manner.  "It cost R360-million to build - 155% more than budgeted for."  Supermax - reserved for high-risk prisoners - was a "veritable Robben Island on land" in terms of its inaccessibility for family visits.  In addition, the department had not been able to find enough "bad eggs" to fill the prison.  Now the department envisaged a series of "new generation prisons" for medium and low-risk prisoners.  Four would be built within the next two years. Construction would rely on local resources; empowerment and security would be people centred and not technology based, Sloth-Nielsen added.  They would be strategically placed in areas most affected by overcrowding.  The focus would be on rehabilitation.  (The Star)

August 4, 2003
A PROFESSOR of law has called for an arms deal-like investigation into the awarding of contracts for private prisons.  Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen of the University of the Western Cape said that the Department of Correctional Services had admitted "impropriety" in the privatisation process yet nothing had been done about it.  She made these claims in a research document presented at a seminar in Cape Town on Thursday.  "If this matter is not being taken up by any other investigative authority . . . this should be a priority of the [Parliamentary Portfolio] Committee in the same way as the arms investigation has been dealt with," she said.  In the document Sloth-Nielsen says:  Initially seven contracts for private prisons were announced, but only two have been constructed, Mangaung Maximum Security Prison in Bloemfontein, contracted to a UK-based consortium, and the maximum security prison in Louis Trichardt in Limpopo; The process of awarding these contracts was hasty, with the first five tenders awarded months before the legislation was tabled in Parliament; and The Department of Correctional Services itself had noted, "with some acrimony", that the people involved in the project design, contract-drafting and negotiations, had upped and left soon afterwards - to take up senior positions in the companies that had won the tenders. "Again, this gave rise to considerable suspicion about the integrity of the process itself," said Sloth-Nielsen.  A task team, consisting of representatives of Correctional Services and the Treasury, presented a report to Parliament in November last year about the financial arrangements of private prisons.  "For a start, the official view appears to be that the contracts were awarded without proper homework having been done," she said.  The actual cost per prisoner a day at the Bloemfontein private prison is R132.20, compared with R93.67 a day for prisoners in state prisons.  "A debate about the morality of housing 6 000 prisoners in the undeniable [comparative] luxury of uncrowded new facilities, while 182 000 remaining prisoners are left to languish in cells where sleeping by rote is the order of the day, is also required," said Sloth-Nielsen.  "If indeed state officials (or former state officials) benefited materially from the privatisation processes, this must be exposed."  Department of Correctional Services spokesman Russel Mamabolo said on Friday they needed more time to study the 58-page document before they would comment.  (Johannesburg)

March 4, 2003
The chairman of the South African Human Rights Commission visited the privately-run Mangaung Maximum Security Prison outside Bloemfontein on Tuesday to investigate alleged violations of prisoners' rights. SAHRC spokeswoman Phumla Mthala said Jody Kollapen would interview individual prisoners and meet with prison authorities on Tuesday morning. Mthala said the investigation followed several complaints by prisoners to the SAHRC's Free State office about, among other things, detention conditions at the prison. The first complaints were received last year. The aim of the investigation was to look at detention conditions and verify the authenticity of the alleged human rights violations, Mthala said. Earlier on Tuesday Dr Motsoko Pheko, deputy president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and Member of Parliament, told Sapa that he planned to ask Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana in Parliament about alleged gang violence in Mangaung Prison. Pheko said he had received complaints from inmates who feared for their lives due to gang violence in the prison. "When people are punished and sent to prison by court, they should be allowed to serve their sentences without putting their lives at risk," Pheko said. According to Pheko, the murder of a Mangaung Prison inmate last week by a fellow inmate was gang-related. Mangaung Prison is one of two private prisons in South Africa run by the British based company Group 4. It has approximately 2928 inmates.  (South African Press Association)

February 27, 2003
An inmate of the privately-run Mangaung Maximum Security Prison outside Bloemfontein died after an alleged assault by a fellow prisoner, the prison confirmed on Thursday. The prison's managing director, Frikkie Venter, said the deceased was allegedly assaulted in the prison late on Wednesday afternoon.  No weapon was used in the attack. The injured prisoner was taken to the prison hospital where he died while in a doctor's care. Venter said a team was already investigating the incident. He was waiting for a report with full details.  Captain Ernest Mayiki spokesman for the Free State police confirmed that police were investigating a case of murder. Venter expressed his condolences to the family of the deceased. Mangaung Maximum Security, belonging to the company Group Four, is one of two privately-managed correctional institutions in South Africa. It is situated adjacent to the Department of Correctional Services' Grootvlei Prison near Bloemfontein. Two convicts escaped from the prison on New Year's Day.  (South African Press Association)

January 1, 2003
Two reportedly dangerous convicts are at large after the first escape from a privately-managed prison in South Africa on Wednesday.  The prisoners made their daring escape around 1 pm while working out in the gym of the Maung Maximum Correctional Facility near Bloemfontein, Department of Correctional Services spokesman Russel Mamabolo told Sapa.  Both men were regarded as dangerous.  Mamabolo said his department would conduct a thorough investigation into the escape and expected a full report from the management company that runs Maung Maximum, Group 4.  Maung Maximum is one of only two privately-managed correctional institutions in South Africa.  The other is near Louis Trichardt in limpopo.  (South African Press Association)

May 2001
A youngster caught stealing three mangoes out of hunger, recently spent four months awaiting trial in a Johannesburg prison due to bungling by justice officials, the country's top independent prisons' inspector revealed on Friday.  "This boy was prepared to plead guilty.  It is obvious the magistrate and prosecutor were not doing their job properly," Judge Johannes Fagan told guests visiting the new Mangaung Maximum Security Prison outside Bloemfontein.  He blamed prison overcrowding on inept justice officials who fail to process cases speedily.  According to statistics from the Department of Correctional Services, the country's 236 prisons, with an accommodation capacity of 102, 048 was housing about 170,168 inmates by the end of February.  Nearly a third of these, or about 64,000 individuals, were awaiting trial, Fagan said.  (News 24, South Africa)

Medway Secure Training Centre, Rochester, UK
January 5, 2009 Kent News
Inmates at the Medway Secure Training Centre – which houses some of Britain’s most hardened criminals – enjoyed a weekend of tropical fun, playing bongo drums and limbo dancing, and even being given access to an alcohol-free beach bar. During the two-day knees-up, the convicted criminals were also allowed to play games including Scalectrix in a specially-themed youth club and each wing of the jail took part in a competition to come up with the best Hawaiian decorations. Group Four Securicor, which runs the centre, has not revealed the full cost of the party. Taxpayers’ Alliance spokesman Susie Squire branded the weekend event “a waste of money” given the current economic crisis. She said: “Every penny of public money is now incredibly precious. “We’re all tightening our belts in the recession – the public sector should be doing the same. “While we must encourage young offenders to improve themselves and keep busy and active, there’s no need for this sort of frivolity. “I would view this very much as a luxury."

Metro Office Buildings, Nashville, Tennessee
December 10, 2008 Nashville City Paper
Almost a year after the Christmas Eve break-in at the Davidson County Election Commission office, the company contracted by Metro to provide security services was in town explaining its side of the story. The question now is what does the future hold between Metro and Wackenhut, the international security company that has handled the government’s security guard contract for the last 17 years. The two parties are locked in litigation with Metro seeking about $800,000 from Wackenhut Services, Inc., as a result of the election commission break-in, when two laptop computers containing social security numbers and private information of Davidson County voters were stolen. Wackenhut responded by filing suit against Mt. Juliet-based subcontractor Specialized Security Company (SSC). It was SSC, which had the security guard on duty the night the break-in allegedly took place and that’s a fact Wackenhut feels has not been made clear enough. In town this week on damage control was Wackenhut Vice President and Assistant General Counsel Michael Hogsten, who along with Waller, Lansden, Dortch and Davis attorney Tom Lee, met with Metro Council members and members of Mayor Karl Dean’s administration. “From our perspective I think everyone understands that the subcontractor was the entity at the building providing the services on the date of the incident,” Hogsten said. “The facts regarding the incident I don’t think have been portrayed in a very clear way.” From Metro’s perspective, Wackenhut is to blame and therefore owes the $773,00 the government spent to provide identity theft insurance to the voters whose information was stolen on the laptops. It was discovered later the information was apparently not accessed. “They understand our position that the Metropolitan Government feels they breached their contract and that they should reimburse us,” Metro Director of Law Sue Cain said. Councilman unconvinced -- District 4 Councilman Michael Craddock was among the members who met with Wackenhut this week. Craddock said he listened to what Wackenhut had to say and appreciated their perspective, but added his stance on the issue remains unchanged. “I told them at the end of it, ‘If it were my decision I’d fire you,’” Craddock said. “They need to be fired and they need to pay up. They goofed up. There has been a long pattern here. “You’re talking about one of the most serious incidents in the history of Metro government.” Hogsten contends Wackenhut actually has a positive working history with Metro dating back to 1991. The $4.5 million annual security contract was extended in 2007 under Mayor Bill Purcell’s administration and lasts until 2011. Hogsten pointed out the issue became bigger because of the voter information on the laptops. “From our perspective the only reason this became such a big issue is how the laptops were handled and how the confidential information, that was within the city’s responsibility to protect, was dealt with,” Hogsten said. He described the break-in as an incident that would have been difficult for any security guard to prevent. “That guard doing everything right had very little opportunity from preventing that crime from happening at the building,” he said. In its amended complaint against Wackenhut, which was filed Nov. 18, Metro seeks not only to be compensated but also to have its contract found in breach. Metro currently has the right to void the contract, provided it gives a 30-day notice to Wackenhut. Craddock said it was his understanding the contract had not been voided yet because of the pending litigation. Subcontractor at center of issue -- In its suit against SSC, Wackenhut essentially shifted the blame onto the subcontractor, which handled 20 percent of the security services in the contract. Wackenhut has paid $22,000 to Metro so far since the incident occurred. That payment came after an independent audit showed Wackenhut was billing Metro for hours its guards weren’t working. Hogsten said it was Wackenhut’s intention to bring all the involved parties together to talk about an agreement in the near future. A hearing will be held on Dec. 19 to combine the two lawsuits into one case. “There are other aspects of the claims raised by the city that we need to deal with our subcontractor,” Hogsten said. SSC’s attorney John Thomas Freeney said his clients rejected the claims made by Wackenhut in their suit and planned to contest them in court. Metro’s perspective on who to blame can be found in its amended complaint. Even if Metro concedes that SSC, and not Wackenhut, is to blame for the fallout from the election commission break-in, the complaint points out that Wackenhut was responsible for bringing its subcontractor to the table. In its Request For Proposal for Metro’s security services, Wackenhut stated: “We have always enjoyed an excellent relationship with our sub-contractors. This is because we exercise due diligence in qualifying them and ensuring that they have the capability to provide the quality service required to meet our standards as well as those of our clients.” Metro’s complaint states that Wackenhut did not have the low bid in the RFP process, but landed the contract because of its commitment to subcontract 20 percent of the work to small or minority owned business. Wackenhut said it chose SSC from a list of about 20 small businesses that Metro provided. In its complaint, Metro points out that many of the security guards working for SSC were previously employed or even provided by Wackenhut. Hogsten said it was common for security companies to use the same guards from contract to contract. Craddock proposes keeping security services in-house -- Hogsten said Wackenhut did not want its long-standing relationship with Metro to be undone because of one incident, but between the latest complaint and the feeling among Council members, it is likely the contract will ultimately be terminated. If that happens, Craddock said he thought Metro should change the way it provides security at its facilities and start doing so in-house. “I would like to see the administration explore our own security force,” Craddock said. “I would like to see us explore retired firefighters, police officers, something along those lines, but they are Metro employees. I believe we can provide our own security service.”

November 21, 2008 WSMV
A private security company that is trusted to help keep Nashville safe is accused of twisting the facts in order to get the job. Wackenhut wasn't the lowest bidder when Metro was looking for a security company. But Wackenhut got extra points by saying it would subcontract 20 percent of its contract to a local small business, Specialized Security Consultants (SSC), run out of a house in Mount Juliet. Wackenhut was quick to lay the blame on SSC after the Davidson County Election Commission break-in last December and blamed SSC when Metro discovered it was overbilled. But now Metro lawyers have said the two companies really aren't very separate. Metro alleges that Wackenhut moved some its own guards to the SSC roster, Wackenhut did their payroll, ordered their uniforms, performed their background checks and that SSC used Wackenhut's office space. A contract document signed by Wackenhut's general manager promises Wackenhut is not involved in the operation or management of its subcontractor. "If, in fact, that's what has happened," said Councilman Jim Gotto, "then it was just a subsidiary of Wackenhut." Gotto said if Metro lawyers prove the allegations, it's a case of deception. "To the extent that somebody goes in and cheats, if you will, to try to gain an advantage, I think they're doing the whole community a disservice," Gotto said. Metro Finance Director Rich Riebling said they're looking at all of their options, one of which is rebidding the contract. Because of what it calls "negligent misrepresentation," Metro wants out of its five-year contact. Both Wackenhut and SSC's owner were unavailable for a comment.

October 6, 2008 Nashville City Paper
She asked nicely first. Metro Legal director Sue Cain wrote to security contractor Wackenhut Corp. in May to seek reimbursement for costs associated with the Christmas Eve break-in at a Metro office building that exposed the personal data of 337,000 voters to potential compromise. Now the city has filed suit. A thief took a pair of laptops containing the data, though they were later recovered. Subsequent investigation showed that the subcontracted guard on duty had failed to do his job as specified — and that Wackenhut had been billing Metro for work it never did. The company has paid back some $22,000 in overbillings, but the city still wants to be made whole for the $773,000 cost of buying identity protection for every registered voter and sending out letters to advise voters about the protection program, along with the $50,000 cost of auditing Wackenhut after the incident. The lawsuit also seeks a declaratory judgment terminating Wackenhut's contract to provide security services for Metro agencies. The contract still has more than three years to run. James L. Charles, J. Brooks Fox and Elizabeth A. Sanders of Metro Legal brought the action. Other cases of note filed Sept. 26 to Oct. 2 -- Davidson County Chancery Court -- Wackenhut Corp. v. Specialized Security Consultants Inc. and First Mercury Insurance Co. Filed 25 minutes after Metro's complaint on Sept. 26. Wackenhut goes after its subcontractor, Specialized Security of Mt. Juliet, for damages arising from the break-in and the discovery of "allegedly fraudulent" billing practices by Specialized Security. Insurer First Mercury, which had a $2 million errors-and-omissions policy in force on Specialized Security, has refused so far to cover the costs, according to the lawsuit. In addition to damages from Specialized Security, Wackenhut seeks a series of declaratory judgments that would provide it with coverage from the First Mercury policy. Plaintiff's attorneys: Robert E. Boston and Mary Beth Thomas of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis.

June 5, 2008 Tennessean
A Metro Nashville security contractor has agreed to repay the city for services a subcontractor failed to provide but says it's still "working diligently" on a much larger reimbursement request tied to a December break-in. Metro asked Wackenhut Corp. last month for more than $840,000 for expenses related to the theft of two computers from the Davidson County Election Commission. The computers contained Social Security numbers for more than 337,000 Metro voters. In a letter to Metro Law Director Sue Cain this week, Wackenhut executive Drew Levine said the company would reimburse the city for billings for services that Metro says a subcontractor, Specialized Security Consultants, didn't provide. Cain wrote last month that those billings totaled $48,387. More than $770,000 the city spent on mailings and identity-theft protection after the break-in won't be coming as quickly. Wackenhut's Drew Levine wrote that the company was "vigilantly pursuing recovery of these claims" from the subcontractor. Cain said Wednesday that Wackenhut "has been dealing with us in good faith" and that it was reasonable for the company to seek payment from its subcontractor before paying Metro. "It's normal business practice," she said.

May 20, 2008 WZTV
Concerns continue to mount with metro's security provider. The legal department has sent a second letter requesting reimbursement from Wackenhut after the December break-in at the election commission. The social security numbers of more than 300 thousand Davidson county voters were stolen. Since then, the city has paid about 800 thousand dollars for mailings and alerts, as well as for an identity theft protection program. In a recent audit, metro has also learned more than 21 thousand dollars was paid to Wackenhut for security services the company never provided. Now, taxpayers are feeling ripped off and want answers.

May 17, 2008 Tennessean
If city employees routinely lied on their timesheets and got paid for days they didn't work, chances are excellent they'd get fired without a second chance. That's pretty much what the Wackenhut Corp., through a subcontractor, got caught doing. City attorneys are giving the company one chance to clean up its act, or forfeit its multimillion-dollar five-year contract. As it should. "They've got to get this right," said Sue Cain, Metro law director. Cain sent the security company a letter this week asking Wackenhut to pay taxpayers back the $840,000 it cost to clean up a mess it helped make, and explain just how company officials intend for it not to happen again. It was a polite, legal way of saying pay up and clean up, or kiss your sweet government contract goodbye. Remember laptop caper? This is the city contractor involved in the big brouhaha just before Christmas when laptops containing the Social Security numbers of 337,000 registered voters in Nashville were stolen from the election commission. The guard in charge, who worked for a Wackenhut subcontractor, admitted he was listening to festive holiday tunes and eating Italian take-out rather than making his hourly rounds. Granted, an election commission employee left one laptop sitting in open sight of a window. She might as well have had it gift-wrapped. But it was an "all's well that ends well" thing, since some dandy police work led straight to the laptops, which had not been compromised. Mayor Karl Dean acted quickly to authorize the city to pay for identity theft protection on any voter's credit history, if he or she chooses. And Dean ordered an audit of the city's dealings with Wackenhut. It showed that a subcontractor billed Metro for months of Saturdays, when no security guard worked. This week, Cain asked Wackenhut to pay the city back for all those costs, including the numerous unfilled 12-hour shifts billed at $149.76 each. Why not just fire them outright? "We could," Cain said, "but it's expensive to do procurement." First, city officials want to get repaid for what it cost to ensure that folks' identities were safe. Makes sense. Second, they want to make sure government buildings are safe, without having to spend even more money to start over with a new bid process. This is a major contract. Wackenhut held it for years, making $14 million from 2002 until 2007. Wackenhut won the bid again last year, and has been paid $3.96 million since May 2007. "They really have done, except for this, a good job," Cain said. "We wouldn't continue unless the problems have been solved. It is their problem. It was their subcontractor. They have to assure the Metropolitan government that if they are using a subcontractor, their billings are correct." If not, some of the 200 city employees about to be laid off would probably be delighted to work for $12.48 an hour guarding buildings.

May 16, 2008 Tennessean
Metro Nashville is asking a security contractor to reimburse the city more than $840,000 for expenses related to a break-in last year at the Davidson County Election Commission offices. Metro Law Director Sue Cain wrote a letter Wednesday to Wackenhut Corp. lawyer Jim Vines, a former U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee. Wackenhut was responsible for security at the Metro Office Building in December, when thieves stole two laptop computers containing the Social Security numbers of 337,000 voters. Wackenhut subcontracted with a Mt. Juliet firm, Specialized Security Consultants Inc., to secure the building on Second Avenue South. An audit found Wackenhut had billed Metro for some days when security guards actually didn't work at the facility. Cain asked Wackenhut to pay the city $48,387 for the audit by Kraft CPAs; $21,575 for security services that were not provided; $235,757.35 for two mailings to voters, and $534,391.75 for the cost of identity-theft protection for more than 56,000 voters who responded to the city's offer to pay for a year of protection. "The expenditure of these funds was unexpected and has worked a hardship on the government," Cain wrote to Vines. Vines, now based in Washington, D.C., said Thursday afternoon that he had not seen the letter yet. The Christmastime laptop theft outraged many voters and Metro officials. One of the computers sat out in the open on a table about 6 feet from the window the thieves broke through. The other machine was under an employee's desk, waiting to be repaired. City officials said Jan. 3 that the security guard on duty during the incident listened to Christmas music, ordered Italian food and visited the break room, failing to make his hourly rounds of the building. Another guard discovered the break-in through the smashed window after noticing a drop in the building's temperature two days later. The guard who was blamed and fired said neither he nor anyone else was on duty at the time of the break-in, however. Metro asked Wackenhut for more than $100,000 in damages on Jan. 4, and Mayor Karl Dean offered the free identity-theft protection the next week. The laptops were discovered Jan. 17, with tests indicating voters' information had not been viewed or copied. Wackenhut continues to work for Metro, but Cain asked the company to explain in writing why the city shouldn't put the security contract out for new bids. "As we have discussed, the Metropolitan Government is very concerned that it has contracted with Wackenhut over many years and at considerable expense for security services only to learn through this break-in that Wackenhut was not providing the services that were expected and, even more disturbing, had been billing for services that were not provided," she wrote. Wackenhut has a five-year contract to provide security at many Metro buildings. The agreement took effect on May 1, 2007.

January 25, 2008 WSMV
The I-Team has uncovered a cozy relationship between a Metro employee and the security contractor he oversees.  Bill Kostrub said he doesn't want to talk about it, but part of his job with Metro government is approving payments to Wackenhut Security, a company for which he used to work. Wackenhut is now under investigation for billing irregularities at the election commission. “I appreciate your coming out, but all the questions go through Velvet,” he said. He referred reporter Nancy Amons to Velvet Hunter, who is second in command at Metro General Services, where he works. Kostrub's job at General Services includes reviewing the bills for security guards submitted by Wackenhut. Kostrub was a salesman at Wackenhut until October 2006. During the time, Wackenhut was negotiating the contract with Metro to provide security for all of its buildings. In December 2006, while contract negotiations were still going on, Kostrub went to work for Metro. Now he has the power to OK Wackenhut's invoices. Amons shared the findings with Councilman Jim Gotto. "It doesn't sound good. It doesn't look good,” he said. Channel 4 obtained a stack of invoices under the Open Records Act that shows 67 times in the last three months, Kostrub signed off on security guard bills submitted by Wackenhut. The bills cover the months when Metro auditors said Wackenhut appeared to be billing Metro for ghost employees. Metro said guards were supposed to be patrolling the Howard Office Building every Saturday. Tax dollars paid for it, but Metro said there's no evidence the guards were there. At least five of the Saturday bills were approved by Kostrub. “I'm really interested that you used to work for Wackenhut and now you approve their invoices,” said Amons. “And I can appreciate that. Talk to Velvet about it. You guys have a good day,” Kostrub said. "There's nothing wrong with this gentleman working for Metro, but he certainly doesn't need to be working for Metro on this particular contract,” Gotto said. Hunter said late Friday that Kostrup was hired through an open and competitive process and that Metro did not have a problem with his former employment. Channel 4 and the I-Team are not implying that Kostrup did anything wrong; they are just asking if it creates an ethics issue.

January 9, 2008 News Channel 5
Could Metro's drinking water supply be at risk? It's a concern after a shocking lapse in security. First, thieves hit the Davidson County Election Commission office. Now, there's concern other Metro services are at risk due to another security breach. It involves security firm Metro hired Wackenhut. The company employs hundreds of security guards. There is frequent turnover. But what happens when the security guards leave the company? One former employee John Kennedy said when people leave the company, they take their IDs. In his living room closet, he has five Wackenhut shirts and a jacket. He quit in July after working for the security firm for almost a year. He also has official patches, a brass badge and a Metro Water Services security identification badge that expires in 2012. His duties included protecting the city's drinking water supply. He said he still has the key that lets him "walk through gate that has a padlock on it." "I walk in uniform and more than likely I can get into any Metro water facility in town," he said. Kennedy said neither Metro nor Wackenhut ever contacted him about the items. "It's extremely dangerous," Metro Councilman Michael Craddock. "Where does this end?" Craddock is critical of the security company because of this as well as the recent theft of computers from the election commission office. "Not only half a million people had their social security numbers stolen, now our most precious commodity, water, we don't know if it is safe today," he said. Craddock said there's no excuse for Wackenhut not to take back uniforms and badges before employees leave the company. In the wrong hands, he said, someone could do horrible damage because of lax security. Craddock is speaking generally. Kennedy is not a threat. He simply forgot he had the uniforms and identification. He plans to return them. Metro Water Services officials said Wackenhut is responsible. After this practice was brought to their attention, the department contacted the security company looking for an explanation. Wackenhut officials declined comment Wednesday. Metro Water Services officials said the water supply is safe. They admit that the badges and keys not being returned are certainly a problem. But they emphasized that there are layers of security designed to keep the water system secure.

January 9, 2008 WKRN
The city may have been paying for security guards at the Davidson County Election Commission who were not on the clock, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said Tuesday. The Department of General Services is investigating security at the election commission after a theft there last month. Two laptops containing the social security numbers of all registered voters in Davidson County were stolen from the building on December 24. General Services said there is no actual proof security guards used their access cards to get into the building on Saturdays, between October and December. Despite that, Metro was billed for 12 hours shifts on those days. Tuesday, the CEO of the security firm responsible for security at the election commission office, the Wackenhut Corporation, stepped down. The firm did not give specific reason for CEO Gary Sanders’ resignation. Authorities believe the thieves used a rock to break a window to gain access into the election commission. Weeks later, the window has yet to be repaired and plywood remains over the window.

January 7, 2008 Tennessean
The security guard who was fired after computers with voters’ Social Security numbers were stolen from the Davidson County Election Commission says he wasn’t on duty at the time. In fact, Brendan Murphy said in a telephone interview, no one was on duty at the time. Murphy called The Tennessean after reading a story in Friday’s paper about an unnamed guard who was blamed by Metro officials for listening to Christmas music, ordering takeout food and failing to make his hourly rounds as two laptop computers were stolen. He said he was getting “a bad rap,” even though his identity wasn’t known publicly at the time. “I would swear on a stack of Bibles, that window was broken out Saturday (Dec. 22),” Murphy said. Metro police believe the computers were stolen from the Metro Office Building on Monday, Dec. 24, at about 9:45 p.m., when a computer router in the election commission office was unplugged, according to an electronic record. Murphy was working then, and he acknowledges that he slacked off that night. "We'd just never had a break-in before," he said. But Murphy, 40, said he noticed that Christmas decorations and a roll-up window at the election commission were out of place when he started work at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 23. He said neither he nor anyone else worked the previous night due to budget cuts by Specialized Security Consultants, a Mt. Juliet firm that was expected to provide security for 12 hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays. William Jones, vice president of Specialized Security Consultants, declined to comment this morning. The firm is a subcontractor of Wackenhut, which has a security contract with Metro government. Wackenhut’s Nashville general manager, Andrew Bedlack, referred a reporter to Specialized Security Consultants. Murphy said he didn’t notice the election commission’s smashed exterior window the night he discovered the Christmas decorations and the roll-up window, and he admitted that he failed to report those irregularities to his bosses. He said he assumed an election commission worker had come in on the weekend, forgotten his or her key and raised the window to get in the office. Murphy said he believes a thief came back into the office through the smashed window on Dec. 24 and unplugged the computer router. He said he wouldn’t have heard anyone coming through a window that was already broken. Another guard discovered the burglary on Dec. 26. The computers are still missing.

January 6, 2008 Nashville City Paper
The legal fur is flying over the theft of two laptop computers from the Davidson County Election Commission containing 337,000 Metro voters’ Social Security numbers. The city’s legal department sent a demand letter to Metro security contractor The Wackenhut Corporation’s Nashville office Friday seeking at least $100,000 for damages caused by a Christmas Eve burglary of the election commission and subsequent theft of the laptops. In addition, a local law firm with some recent ties to Metro politics filed a lawsuit late Friday on behalf of three voters over the laptop theft. Metro Director of Law Sue Cain’s letter to Wackenhut – an international security firm – stating the company’s contract with Metro calls for Wackenhut to “indemnify and and hold harmless Metro” for any damages related to negligence on the company’s part. In a hearing with Metro Council members this week over the laptop theft, Department of General Services Director Nancy Whittemore said a security guard was on-site at the time of the break-in, but admitted to not doing his job and spent the time listening to Christmas music. The unnamed guard has since been terminated from Specialized Security Consultants, Inc., the Mt. Juliet-based subcontractors of Metro’s security provider Wackenhut, according to Whittemore. “At the time of the break-in and theft, we have been advised that your security guard breached his responsibilities and was negligent in the performance of his duties,” Cain’s letter states. “The damages incurred by the Metropolitan Government as a result of that break-in and theft were the result of the negligent acts and omissions of your guard.” In statements prior to the hearing, election commission officials admitted the two laptops had been left out in the office contrary to Election Commission protocol that they should be stored in a secured, locked space. In addition, Metro officials admitted security cameras were not plugged into a digital recording device at the time of the break-in. Metro, Wackenhut and Specialized Security Consultants all became the target of litigation late Friday over the laptop thefts and the possible harm that could come to Metro voters should their personal information fall into the wrong hands. Three Davidson County voters – including former Oak Hill Mayor Raymond T. Throckmorton III – filed suit in Circuit Court demanding the parties take steps to protect Metro’s 337,000 registered voters from any harm that could come to their credit ratings. In addition to seeking Class action status for the 337,000 voters, the suit demands Metro procure multiple credit reports for each voter and “hold harmless each voter whose personal information has been compromised.” The suit also lodged additional allegations about the night of the break-in, including statements the guard ordered food and visited a break room. The suit was brought by attorneys John Ray Clemmons and Gary Blackburn. Both men were advisors to former Congressman Bob Clement’s unsuccessful campaign for mayor against Mayor Karl Dean.

March 16, 2006 The Tennessean
A Metro board awarded a five-year security contract yesterday to a bidder whose proposal is $4.7 million more than a competitor's proposal. The high bid had been rejected earlier by a city official. The Metro Procurement Appeals Board reversed a decision by the city's assistant finance director and purchasing agent, Jeff Gossage, who had said The Wackenhut Corp.'s plan wasn't worth the higher cost. The company's bid was $24.5 million over five years. Gossage instead had awarded the contract to Murray Guard, which had proposed charging the city $19.7 million to place security guards at various Metro office buildings and other facilities. "The difference in our bid and Wackenhut's bid is almost $5 million over five years," said Murray's legal counsel, Harlan Mathews. "Metro will pay a premium of a million dollars a year if they accept that one." But Wackenhut officials argued that their higher cost would be worth the money in employee benefits and, as a result, employee retention and work quality. The proposal outlines medical benefits, a 401(k) investment plan, paid holidays and other perks. "Price was not supposed to be the most important factor or the sole determining factor" in Metro's contract award decision, said attorney Jim Murphy, who represented Wackenhut at the board meeting. Murphy is a former Metro law director. "We had a problem in closing the gap (between) dollars and performance," Gossage said. He said the selection committee should not have considered benefits for workers in its scoring. "The proposed price (from Wackenhut) is clearly unreasonable."

March 16, 2006 The Tennessean
A Metro board awarded a five-year security contract yesterday to a bidder whose proposal is $4.7 million more than a competitor's proposal. The high bid had been rejected earlier by a city official. The Metro Procurement Appeals Board reversed a decision by the city's assistant finance director and purchasing agent, Jeff Gossage, who had said The Wackenhut Corp.'s plan wasn't worth the higher cost. The company's bid was $24.5 million over five years. Gossage instead had awarded the contract to Murray Guard, which had proposed charging the city $19.7 million to place security guards at various Metro office buildings and other facilities. "The difference in our bid and Wackenhut's bid is almost $5 million over five years," said Murray's legal counsel, Harlan Mathews. "Metro will pay a premium of a million dollars a year if they accept that one." But Wackenhut officials argued that their higher cost would be worth the money in employee benefits and, as a result, employee retention and work quality. The proposal outlines medical benefits, a 401(k) investment plan, paid holidays and other perks. "Price was not supposed to be the most important factor or the sole determining factor" in Metro's contract award decision, said attorney Jim Murphy, who represented Wackenhut at the board meeting. Murphy is a former Metro law director. "We had a problem in closing the gap (between) dollars and performance," Gossage said. He said the selection committee should not have considered benefits for workers in its scoring. "The proposed price (from Wackenhut) is clearly unreasonable."

Miami-Dade County Metrorail, Miami, Florida
May 17, 2009 Miami Herald
In the escalating showdown between Miami-Dade County and Wackenhut Corp., former congresswoman Carrie Meek is on both sides. She lobbies for Miami-Dade, which is accusing Wackenhut of bilking the county out of $3.4 million. And she lobbies for Wackenhut, which is suing the county for $20 million in damages. ''It's kind of hard to represent two masters,'' said Robert Meyers, executive director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. But Meek is asking county officials to disregard the conflict of interests and allow her to continue representing both Miami-Dade taxpayers and the security company. She has received $150,000 from the county since mid-2007. She declined to disclose her Wackenhut pay. ''I don't see any reason why I can't continue to represent Wackenhut, and I've always been a strong proponent of the county,'' said Meek, a civil-rights pioneer who represented Miami-Dade in Congress from 1992 to 2001. Allegations that Wackenhut was doctoring timesheets and leaving county transit stations unguarded go back to a whistleblower's civil lawsuit filed in 2005. The county auditor found evidence of overbilling in 2006 and released a report in 2008. In early April, County Manager George Burgess said the Palm Beach Gardens-based company should be barred from doing business with Miami-Dade. Meek didn't file her conflict-waiver request until April 27 -- a year after the audit became public. She said she didn't know the county requires its lobbyists to give notice immediately in case of an ''actual or perceived'' dispute with a private client. ''I can tell you that Wackenhut feels that they're being unfairly judged,'' said Meek, who added that she did not know the lawsuit was coming. ``I can't tell you who is right or wrong.'' LONG-STANDING TIES  -- Meek and her family have long-standing ties to the Palm Beach Gardens-based security company. Her son, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, sold security contracts for the company from 1994 to 2002, and his Senate campaign has received the maximum $10,000 donation from Wackenhut's political action committee. Meek's wife, Leslie, registered with the county to lobby for Wackenhut in 2004, according to public records. The former congresswoman began lobbying for Wackenhut in April 2007, the same month the county hired her to focus on transit issues. She asked the county if she could continue representing both clients after she was reminded last month about the county's policy regarding lobbying conflicts, said Joe Rasco, director of the county Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. ''I think it's time we asked and that they proferred,'' Rasco said. ``I think it's a fair question and we'll be taking a look at it.'' Miami-Dade's lobbying contract describes a conflict of interest as a position contrary to county policy or its financial interests. Representing a client at odds with the county without permission ''shall result'' in the lobbyist's contract being thrown out and/or the lobbyist being barred from working for the county for up to three years. ''It is incumbent on the consultant and its employees, partners and subcontractors to remain mindful of the county's policy and fiscal interests and positions vis-a-vis other clients,'' reads the agreement. Meek didn't make the initial cut in 2006 when the county decided to scale back its Washington lobbying team from eight to three firms and put the contracts out for bid. The county had been spending nearly $1.2 million a year. `SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE' -- ''Paying this much for this many people was simply unacceptable,'' County Commissioner Sally Heyman said in March 2006. But two months earlier, Heyman directed staff to add Meek and former state Rep. Mike Abrams -- who came in fourth and fifth place -- to the lobbying team. ''This was coming out of nowhere,'' Rasco told county investigators, who concluded Heyman did not violate the ethics code because the lobbying office reports to the commission. The commission unanimously approved hiring Meek and Abrams on an ''as-needed basis'' and set their pay at a maximum of $75,000 a year. County officials said the money would come from reserves set aside for hiring outside experts in case of an emergency, such as a terrorist attack or major hurricane. Two years later, Heyman now says the county should consider paring down to two lobbying firms. The county pays two full-time employees in Washington to lobby the federal government, in addition to the team of three law firms plus Meek and Abrams.

April 11, 2009 Miami Herald
Four years after allegations surfaced that Wackenhut Corp. fraudulently overbilled Miami-Dade Transit for security work it never performed, the county is moving to replace the firm and support a lawsuit aimed at recouping millions paid for alleged ''phantom'' workers at Metrorail stops. County Manager George Burgess, in a memo to commissioners Friday, said he also wants to bar the Palm Beach Gardens-based security firm from doing business with the county in the future. The move is sure to escalate the testy fight between Miami-Dade County and Wackenhut, which has denied wrongdoing and hired a bevy of lobbyists, including former Congresswoman Carrie Meek, to press its case. Wackenhut has held the contract to patrol mass transit stations for 20 years, although the latest agreement -- a no-bid contract that pays the company as much as $17 million a year -- expires in November. Wackenhut issued a written statement late Friday saying it is ``shocked that the County Manager has falsely accused us of intentionally overbilling the county.'' It called claims of overcharging both false and unsubstantiated, while asserting the county has ``a history of mismanaged audits.'' The county action comes after several years of criticism that Miami-Dade government failed to address allegations of bogus charges for empty guard posts and doctored time sheets. The claims were first raised in an ongoing 2005 lawsuit and later detailed in a 2008 county audit, which initially estimated $6.26 million in overbillings but now pegs the total at $3.4 million. ''The evidence of overbilling has been overwhelming and existing for four years,'' said attorney Mark Vieth, who filed the 2005 lawsuit pending in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. He contends that the Wackenhut overcharges are much higher than the county's number. After the May 2008 county audit, County Mayor Carlos Alvarez declared that the security firm had 90 days to rebut the findings or repay the county. Wackenhut did neither, yet the county didn't move until now -- with six months left on the contract. Burgess defended the pace of the audit and the time it's taken to decide a course of action, calling the issues complex and voluminous.

June 18, 2008 NBC6
Miami-Dade County said it is poised to make good on its promise to fire Wackenhut Security from its massive contract on Metrorail trains unless it repays taxpayers millions of dollars. NBC6 has obtained internal county memos that confirm that Miami-Dade County is asking other security firms to submit bids to replace Wackenhut on Metrorail trains and other facilities. The county said Wackenhut's only hope of not getting fired is if it returns up to $6 million in taxpayer dollars. The Metrorail and Metromover systems are guarded by Wackenhut Security in a lucrative no-bid contract. The county said it is getting ready to replace Wackenhut, cutting short the existing contract unless Wackenhut makes amends. "It's very troubling," said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez. In May, Alvarez threatened to fire Wackenhut. On Tuesday, it was clear that was no idle threat. "We are prepared to cancel all contracts with the Wackenhut corporation and demand that we get the money that's owed to us," Alvarez said. The county said Wackenhut scheduled guards to work partial shifts while billing taxpayers for a full shift and sometimes billing taxpayers for a post that had no guards at all, NBC6's Jeff Burnside reported. The allegations were the same as those contained in an NBC6 investigation called "A Question Of Security." The amount in question is up to $6 million. An independent audit claimed it was much more. One problem is that any company that replaces Wackenhut might need to hire some of Wackenhut's guards because of the size of the contract. In an internal memo, Wackenhut called that, "underhanded … tactics by third-party instigators." A labor union urged county commissioners Tuesday to improve working conditions in any new contract. Wackenhut had no response on Tuesday, Burnside reported. Previously, the company has disputed the allegations.

May 9, 2008 Miami-Herald
The Wackenhut Corp. overbilled Miami-Dade County as much as $6 million over three years for phantom security guards at county transit stations, according to a long-awaited audit released Thursday. County auditor Cathy Jackson -- who reviewed a sample of the bills -- found that Wackenhut, one of the country's largest security firms, routinely charged the county for empty guard posts at Metrorail stations and along bus routes, and relied on inaccurate and falsified records to try to cover up the overbilling. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez has given Wackenhut 90 days to repay the county or rebut the audit findings or he will cancel the company's no-bid contract, along with a separate Wackenhut contract for guards at a juvenile detention center. Jackson said Wackenhut should also pay the county an additional $233,000 for violating the terms of its contract. Wackenhut's billing is also being examined by public-corruption detectives with the Miami-Dade Police Department. 'There is no disputing that [Miami-Dade Transit] was billed for hours not worked by Wackenhut security officers, which is a very serious offense,'' County Manager George Burgess wrote in a memo to Alvarez. Wackenhut, however, does dispute the audit. The company says Jackson used unreliable records to determine that posts were uncovered, and ignored other records that could prove guards were on duty. FIGURES DISPUTED -- While Wackenhut says it will reimburse the county for any ''substantiated billing errors,'' the company says Jackson's conclusion of $6 million in overbilling from 2002 to 2005 is an exaggerated estimate based on a small sample. ''If you start with a false premise, you end up with a false conclusion,'' said Bruce Rubin, a company spokesman. ``We respectfully but forcefully disagree with the auditor's methodology.'' Jackson based her estimate on a review of 505 billing records -- only .25 percent of the bills submitted in the three years studied -- which found $14,722 in questionable charges. She also found $83,665 in suspicious charges, but these were not included in her sample for estimation purposes. Wackenhut has been providing security for Miami-Dade Transit since 1989, and the contract has been awarded without bidding since 1994. The current contract, which pays Wackenhut as much as $17 million a year, is set to expire in November 2009. The security company, based in Palm Beach Gardens, has also spent the past three years fending off an unusual lawsuit brought by a former guard at the county's Juvenile Assessment Center, who accused her former employer of padding its bill to the county. The former guard's attorney, H. Mark Vieth, has said he believes the overbilling could be as much as $3.6 million a year. He has compiled sworn statements from ex-guards who said they struggled to fill unmanned posts, submitted false records and received pay for hours they didn't work. Jackson ''found exactly what we've been telling the county for a while now,'' Vieth said. ''I could have practically written that report for her. The only difference, really, is that we're auditing 100 percent of the bills and she's found this much fraud'' based on a far smaller sample. Wackenhut has denied wrongdoing in the suit and has challenged Vieth to provide proof of specific instances of overbilling. Vieth has enlisted a team of investigators and bookkeepers to sort through Wackenhut bills, sign-in sheets, log books and other records to prove his case, which is not yet scheduled for trial. If he wins the case -- brought under the county's False Claims Act -- his client will receive 25 percent of any damages and the county will receive 75 percent. REFUSED TO TESTIFY -- Yet the lawsuit has put Vieth at odds with the county. Last month he sought a contempt of court order against Jackson after she refused to testify about the audit before it was completed. Vieth plans to call her again for a deposition next week. The audit was costly to Wackenhut even before its release. The company had been selected by county staffers to win another $4.8 million county security contract -- before county commissioners, worried about the audit findings, decided Tuesday to scrap the bids and start over. In her audit, Jackson said Wackenhut constantly shifted guards around to cover unguarded posts, pulling in supervisors or patrols from the bus routes, but the county was billed as though all these jobs were filled. In some cases, log books at Metrorail stations contained no notes to prove a guard was there, the audit found. In other cases, the logs and other records showed guards in two different locations at the same time. Records showed that one armed guard was on duty for 34 ½ hours in a row -- violating a rule capping guards at 13 ½ hours in a 24-hour period and ''leaving in question the ability of armed employees to remain alert and responsive,'' the audit said. Wackenhut officials said the log books were never intended to be used for timekeeping, and said the absence of notes in the books do not prove a guard wasn't on duty.

April 7, 2008 Miami Herald
In August 2006, Miami-Dade County's top auditor found evidence that Wackenhut Corp. had billed the county nearly $1.6 million over a three-year period for 69,000 hours worth of work that its employees -- private security guards who patrol Metrorail platforms and trains -- were never paid for. Auditor Cathy Jackson sent those findings -- which suggest that the private security firm may have overbilled the county -- to Wackenhut that month. They were never publicly released. Nineteen months later, the audit still hasn't come out, the impact of the potentially damaging draft remains unclear and Jackson could be facing jail time because she refuses to discuss it. Jackson's report, begun some 30 months ago, is at the center of an unusual lawsuit that accuses Wackenhut of widespread fraud for allegedly overbilling Miami-Dade millions of dollars for unguarded ''ghost posts'' on the transit system and at the Juvenile Assessment Center. Wackenhut, which has controlled the Metrorail security contract for nearly 20 years, denies the charges -- many of them based on sworn statements from dozens of former guards and managers. 'The audit is the result of baseless allegations by individuals who believe, or have been made to believe, that there is a pot of gold at the end of an imaginary rainbow,'' said Wackenhut spokesman Bruce Rubin. ``Unfortunately for them, these are things only found in fairy tales.'' The accusations have also spawned a short-lived inspector general's investigation, a criminal probe and three years of bare-knuckle civil litigation littered with accusations of purloined documents and witnesses coached to lie. County public-corruption detectives raided Wackenhut's Miami office in mid-December after a tipster said a top company manager was shredding documents just three weeks after receiving an investigative subpoena. Wackenhut lawyers insist the tip was part of a larger campaign aimed at embarrassing the company. Defense attorney Steven Chaykin said the company voluntarily turned over all the records -- plus two garbage bags of meaningless shred unrelated to the Metrorail contract. ''That bogus tip,'' Chaykin said, ``is a perfect example of the false accusations being wrongfully made against Wackenhut by those seeking to malign Wackenhut.'' Arching over all the inquiries surrounding Wackenhut is a lawsuit in which lawyer H. Mark Vieth seeks to recover millions that he claims the company has overbilled Miami-Dade County since 2001. While Miami-Dade would receive 75 percent of any money Vieth's suit recovered, the lawyer says he has received little cooperation from the county. ''They haven't lifted a finger to help me, but they've done plenty to thwart me,'' Vieth said. ``I've never seen a group of people so resistant to having millions of dollars thrust into their hands like the county.'' A case in point is Jackson's audit, which started in late 2005 shortly after the lawsuit was filed. During a deposition last month, the auditor refused to answer Vieth's questions about her findings -- even questions that a county attorney advised her to answer. Vieth has asked a judge to hold Jackson in contempt of court over her refusal to answer. A contempt hearing is set for later this month. Jackson has previously argued that she should not have to discuss the document -- stamped ''draft'' and ''for discussion only'' -- until it's complete. She believes that releasing the report in draft form violates exemptions provided to auditors under the state public records law. Wackenhut also wanted the document kept under wraps. But an appeals court ordered the company to turn it over to Vieth and his six whistle-blower clients. The company declined to comment specifically on the draft audit's finding that Wackenhut received $1.6 million for employee hours that employees were not paid for. But Wackenhut spokesman Rubin said the report is an incomplete snapshot of Jackson's work, and company executives believe they have explained the seeming irregularities raised in it. ''Whatever the findings are, Wackenhut will resolve this to everyone's satisfaction,'' Rubin said. Jackson did not respond to interview requests. County Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Manager George Burgess also refused to discuss Jackson's audit, the contempt charges, the civil suit or the criminal investigation. Alvarez and Burgess, along with former Transit Director Roosevelt Bradley, are set to give depositions later this month in the civil suit. Vieth's lawsuit, filed on behalf of a former juvenile-center security guard named Michelle Trimble, was brought under the county's False Claims ordinance. That law lets private citizens and whistle-blowers who uncover public fraud collect damages. In sworn depositions, Trimble and dozens of other former guards say Wackenhut never had enough staffers to fulfill its county contracts. They say they doctored time sheets, logbooks and other records to cover up staffing shortfalls -- often with the knowledge of company supervisors. 'On many occasions, over a hundred occasions, there are times where I put in officers' names who did not work,'' said Eric Rowe, who worked for Wackenhut until 1999. ''I had pushed myself to the limit trying to straighten out these ghost posts and open posts, and I just couldn't control it,'' said former Wackenhut supervisor Starlin Horne. Others described the ''Wackenhut Incentive Plan'': Guards would work a 10-hour day shift, and then agree to stick around for three or four hours to fill an empty post on the second shift. The guards testified they would go home early, after Metrorail's busiest rush hour had ended, but get paid as if they worked the full double shift. Regardless, in terms of actual dates and times at which the alleged fraud occurred, Wackenhut lawyer Angela De Cespedes Wenke argued at a recent court hearing that Vieth still has not produced a ``single iota of proof that any Wackenhut employee was paid for time that they did not actually work.'' The Wackenhut lawyers also say the broader allegations are merely unfounded claims of disgruntled ex-employees. While guards may have been shifted around to cover vacant posts -- a routine occurrence in the large operation -- the county was not overcharged, they say. Terry Grant, a veteran Transit security manager who oversees the Wackenhut contract, testified that his office could find no evidence of fraud in a 2006 review prompted by Vieth's suit. Vieth, however, says he has compiled a list of instances in which guards appear to be filling in at multiple posts at the same time. In one extreme example, a guard appears to have been paid for 54 hours over a three-day period -- five straight shifts of 10 or more hours, with only two 3 ½-hour breaks, records show. Citing internal Wackenhut audits and Transit agency letters to the company, Vieth said both sides have known about the staffing problems and billing issues at least since 1999. Wackenhut earns more than $17.5 million annually under a contract it has held with Miami-Dade Transit since 1989 -- on a no-bid basis since 1994. The company receives another $1.4 million a year at the Juvenile Assessment Center. Vieth has argued that as much as $4 million of the annual Wackenhut bills are bogus. If he prevails, the ultimate payout could be tens of millions, because the False Claims Act includes a provision for triple damages. As the litigation drags into its third year, Wackenhut keeps a high-powered lobbying roster to maintain its relationship with County Hall. Former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek is a registered lobbyist for the firm. Her son, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, and his wife, Leslie, have also lobbied for Wackenhut in the past. The firm recently added two prominent Cuban-American lobbyists: former County Manager Sergio Pereira and political operative Armando Gutierrez. Still, it's clear that the controversy has already cost Wackenhut. In late 2006, the firm appeared to have won a $4.8 million contract to provide screening and security at several county government buildings. But County Manager Burgess pulled back the award at the 11th hour, citing the ongoing audit and Vieth's allegations. It is still pending. In early 2005, shortly after The Miami Herald reported some of the original fraud allegations, former Transit director Bradley ordered his security staffers to more vigilantly enforce the contract. Spot inspections increased in 2006 and 2007, and Wackenhut was forced to pay nearly $500,000 in so-called liquidated damages for violations such as guards working excessive hours and ''insufficient manpower'' to fill all posts. Since July 2006, the county has also reduced the requirements -- and the gross pay -- for Wackenhut, paring back dozens of positions that had been required on a daily basis. Transit says the posts were cut to save money while not endangering safety. Vieth sees it differently. The cuts, he said, came in areas that Wackenhut had left vacant in the past -- the so-called ghost posts: ``I certainly gave them the heads up that if they wanted to save some money, these were the places to look.''

January 9, 2008 NBC TV6
The CEO of Wackenhut Security, a South Florida company that has been surrounded by controversy, is stepping down. A representative with the company declined to say why Gary Sanders made the decision to quit pending a formal announcement on Wednesday. The change at the top came at a time when Wackenhut Security was facing mounting criticism in various cities, including some in South Florida where its Miami-Dade County operation is the target of a criminal probe. The county audit, which was detailed in an NBC 6 investigation of Wackenhut billing practices, is examining whether Wackenhut overcharged taxpayers millions of dollars. Sanders had been with Wackenhut for more than 25 years.

December 10, 2007 NBC TV6
Miami-Dade and federal investigators raided the headquarters Friday night of one of the county's largest government contractors. NBC 6 was the first to report in May that Wackenhut Security is under a criminal investigation for overbilling taxpayers millions of dollars, money for work on transit and the downtown juvenile center. NBC 6 camera's filmed public corruption investigators and police removing boxes filled with documents from Wackenhut's Miami-Dade headquarters on Blue Lagoon Drive. Investigators were there for several hours and were being assisted by top Wackenhut executives. Wackenhut has repeatedly declined to be interviewed, but said in a statement that the company was cooperating with authorities. "The Wackenhut Corporation ('Wackenhut') continues to cooperate with Miami-Dade County ('MDC'), and voluntarily provided MDC additional records and documents yesterday to assist and facilitate MDC’s investigation and audit of Wackenhut’s performance under its security contract with the Miami Dade Transit Authority," said Drew Levine, president of the Security Services Division. "Wackenhut is proud of its service and performance under its contracts with Miami-Dade County and is very confident that after a thorough investigation the County will conclude that Wackenhut acted properly and performed its responsibilities under the contract in a highly professional and responsible manner." The company has previously denied overbilling taxpayers. Miami-Dade County is nearing completion of an audit of Wackenhut's billing practices. The preliminary audit found serious discrepancies.

November 28, 2007 NBC TV6
Crime is on the rise aboard Miami-Dade's Metrorail and Metromover at a time when the county is reducing the number of hours that security guards work to keep riders safe. That's according to an NBC 6 analysis of statistics. But behind those stats are real people, real victims that Jeff Burnside found. "So you were sitting where about?" asked NBC 6 reporter Jeff Burnside. "On one of those windows seats right here," said crime victim Nick Cabrera, 17. "And next to it. And then the ones facing the window. And then he goes and he grabs my chain." Cabrera is no statistic. Someone tried to rob him on the Metrorail pulling into Culmar station. "And then he was chasing me all around this platform," said another teenage victim, Daniel Gomez. "And I ran all the way down to the first door on the Metrorail." There was frustration in his eyes when he described what happened next. "Right when we stopped, one of them took my bag and the other decided to punch me in the face." Gomez got robbed and injured on a Metrorail train pulling into the Martin Luther King, Jr. station. "I told my friend, 'Let's go! Let's go!'" said Gomez. "And I started running after the guy that grabbed my bag. They were trying to take my mp3 player." Two people. Two victims. NBC 6 found that, after years of declining crime, the crime rate on the Metrorail and Metromover is now increasing. An NBC 6 analysis shows there were more assaults, robberies and batteries in the first 8 months of this year -- 92 -- than all of last year, 87. Guards are targets too, comprising the vast majority of assault victims this year. And NBC 6 discovered crime statistics on large transit systems nationwide such as New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and others show Miami's rate is among the highest for serious crimes per passenger mile, according to the National Transit Data Base, a U.S. government agency. "And I was screaming," said Gomez, "telling him to come back." People like Gomez board the system 84,000 times a day. The chance of becoming a victim is small. Yet a serious crime now occurs an average of every 2 and a half days. "When I actually needed help, no one was here to help me," said Cabrera. "That was terrible." Amid this spike in crime, the county has reduced the number of hours for guards by 7 percent since April 2006. The security contractor is Wackenhut, which has been fined by the county for having empty posts. Former guards say Wackenhut is sometimes short-handed. "There's a lot of these stations that are dangerous for just one officer," said former Metrorail guard Omar Rosario, who is suing Wackenhut for being fired. Wackenhut declined an interview but stated the system "is among the best protected transit systems in the United States." And the public is assured "a safe and courteous commute." It accuses NBC 6 of "maligning" its name. Security guard Chermaine Joseph-Quetel was killed last year. The county says she's the fifth guard killed since the system opened in 1984. "They need more guards at the stations because people are getting killed," said 72-year-old Betty Dawkins no longer carries her purse on Metrorail. The community activist has a simple message. "Hire more guards to meet the needs of the people." The people spoke up earlier this month. The group Dawkins helps handed out leaflets demanding more guards. Miami-Dade Transit officials declined to speak on camera. By telephone, they said the spike in crime simply parallels more crime everywhere, and since U.S. transit systems report crime statistics differently, the County says comparisons are unreliable. But they acknowledge that reducing the number of guards is one of many factors that can impact the crime rate.

July 25, 2007 NBC TV6
Protesters in downtown Miami on Tuesday demanded that Miami-Dade County commissioners ban the Wackenhut security company from any county contracts. The protesters from the Service Employees International Union protested outside the county government building as commissioners were meeting inside. The protest came after an NBC 6 investigation into a preliminary county audit of Wackenhut's contract. The investigation showed millions of dollars paid by county taxpayers to Wackenhut were unaccounted for. "And on top of that, there are allegations of ghost posting -- empty posts, people not showing up, understaffing," one protestor said. "So, not only is it a question of safety, but also legitimacy with the taxpayer fraud." The final Miami-Dade County audit of Wackenhut is not due for some time.

June 28, 2007 Miami New Times
Former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek is not letting retirement slow her down, especially when it comes to protecting the interests of a big-name client. On May 22, the Wackenhut Corporation -- under criminal investigation for allegedly pilfering tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from Miami-Dade County -- enlisted Meek, the first African-American from Florida elected to Congress since Reconstruction, to help the private security conglomerate hold on to its county contracts. Meek, who left Congress in 2002 so her son Kendrick could assume her throne, did not return phone calls seeking comment. In the past, she has declined to talk about her lobbying clients, who have included homebuilder Lennar Homes, the Limestone Product Association, as well as Miami-Dade County. According to county records, Wackenhut has a history with the Meeks. The company hired Kendrick as a lobbyist in 1998, the year it won a multi-year contract to patrol Metrorail and Metromover. Wackenhut also retained the legal services of his wife, Leslie, in 2004. "Wackenhut sought me to speak on their behalf with some of the county commissioners," Carrie says, adding she is aware of the company's troubles. This past March, County Manager George Burgess declined to award a $4.9 million contract to Wackenhut. His reason: The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, with assistance from the county inspector general, is investigating Wackenhut for possible grand theft. Recently NBC 6 reported that a preliminary county audit indicates Wackenhut overbilled Miami-Dade at least $12.1 million since 1998 to provide security guards at Metrorail stations and Metromover platforms, including $1.5 million in man-hours never paid to 34 employees. The company's deal to patrol the Juvenile Assessment Center is also under scrutiny by internal auditors and law enforcement. Wackenhut officials have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

September 7, 2006 Miami New Times
Mark Mitnick, a portly, even-tempered 43-year-old bachelor, had worked as a grocery clerk, card dealer, bartender, factory worker, airman first class, and assistant manager at Pizza Hut. In October 2001 he spotted an ad in the newspaper for a job as a Wackenhut security guard. He had the necessary experience. The pay looked nice. A month later he spent Thanksgiving, his first day of work, patrolling Metromover platforms between the Bayside and College North stations. It was just him and some homeless guys. Soon things got complicated. During his first year as a guard, four different supervisors asked him to sign for time he didn't work, according to a sworn deposition he gave this past June. After receiving a promotion in 2002, he claims he tried to submit an honest record of hours. "I came to find out quickly that it's unacceptable," he said. Occasionally during the next two years, Mitnick admits, he asked guards to sign for hours not worked at posts they hadn't manned. "I was trying not to lose any contract hours," Mitnick said, referring to Wackenhut Corporation's massive security accord with Miami-Dade County. In late 2004, after climbing to the rank of acting major, Mitnick claims he decided to stop lying about hours once and for all. "I think maybe enough is enough," he opined in his deposition. Mitnick contends that a few months later, in January 2005, his boss ordered him to move some boxes full of company records out of a train station storage room. The request came around the time the county's Office of the Inspector General began auditing another Wackenhut job site, the Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC), where thousands of juvenile arrestees are processed. Mitnick's boss allegedly wanted him to move the containers into a company vehicle. Someone would destroy them the following morning. "He told me ... we need to protect the company and our contract," Mitnick said in the deposition. But he refused. "I told him I wasn't going to be a part of destroying anything that may be used in court...," Mitnick said in his deposition. "As far as I was concerned, that was criminal." A month later Mitnick was fired for allegedly losing thousands of dollars' worth of Metrorail passes. He denied any wrongdoing; indeed he never even had access to the passes. "He didn't do nothing wrong," one of his superiors, Maj. William Acosta, recalled in a deposition. An investigative report written by Wackenhut's human resources director cleared Mitnick of wrongdoing. What's more, his personnel file reflected six years of squeaky-clean service. In the past year, Mitnick and three other former Wackenhut guards — Omar Rosario, Michelle Trimble, and Ben Gilbert — have sued Wackenhut, claiming they were fired for piping up about systematic understaffing and overbilling. Trimble claims that, beginning in 1998, Wackenhut stole more than $20 million — $4.5 million per year — from taxpayers by submitting trumped-up records. The former employees assert that the security company and its county overseers have endangered citizens by inadequately staffing the transit system and the JAC. Indeed a two-month New Times investigation — which included review of nineteen sworn depositions by current and former Wackenhut employees, nine taped statements from guards and supervisors, and internal Wackenhut audits and memos — turned up the following: • Wilberto Colon, a guard and supervisor hired in 2001, claims 1500 Metrorail posts were abandoned annually between 2001 and 2004. He says Wackenhut's administrative supervisors encouraged the practice. • Villanueva Velasquez, a guard who has worked for the company intermittently since September 1999, claims administrators called him at home several times and told him to head to a nearby train station and sign for unworked hours. • Rudolfo Vazquez, project manager of the JAC from 1998 to 2005, contends that at each week's end, he wrote favored employees' names in open time slots on sign-in sheets. His supervisor and Wackenhut executives knew about the practice, he asserts. • Pelagues Cine, who supervises Wackenhut employees at the JAC, claims that since he began working at the facility in 1997, every one of his supervisors has doctored time records. Staff shortages there "absolutely" make for dangerous situations, he says. For its part, Wackenhut has denied all allegations of wrongdoing at the JAC and Metrorail. Citing a 78 percent decline in crime on the transit system — and efficient operation of the juvenile facility — since taking over, the company says there's no problem. The complaints, Wackenhut says, come from a few disgruntled employees. On January 19, 2006, the company's regional vice president, Rene Pedrayes, told Miami-Dade commissioners: "We have the proper staff, the proper supervision, the proper rovers in place, and there is nothing we should be ashamed about in the seventeen years we've provided the service to the riding public." Wackenhut attorney Robert Kilbride implored Miami New Times to allow the legal process to take its course before publishing a story. "We believe that the truth will exonerate us ... and all behind-the-scenes manipulators and distorters will be unmasked," he wrote in response to a list of faxed questions. Yanir Hill was hired as Wackenhut's human resources director in 2003 — around the same time Mitnick was fired. After reviewing the guard's objections, she decided to investigate. A voluminous March 3, 2005 memo directed to her superior, Eduardo Esquivel, indicated Mitnick had done nothing wrong. His case was just the beginning, she reported. Employees had complained to her in exit interviews about huge staff shortages that forced them to work more than 200 hours in two weeks. Wackenhut still couldn't fill all the required posts, they claimed. "[Metrorail guards] talked to me about being uncomfortable with signing times on sign-in sheets and not being there those times," she said in her deposition. "We are facing a major problem with morale [on Metrorail]," Hill concluded in her memo regarding Mitnick's termination. "The officers feel mistreated and feel they have no job security ... they feel betrayed by their chain of command and have lost faith and respect in said chain of command." In late 2005 she claimed she told Esquivel about the faked time sheets. According to her sworn deposition, "if it was not in writing, he did not want to hear it." Hill says Maj. Arnold Bair, a Wackenhut higherup, overheard the conversation and pulled her into his office. "Close the door; I'm going to show you something," she recalls Bair mentioning before handing her a thin stack of paper and saying, "It [is] an audit I did before. Be careful." The audit mirrors many of the claims made by current guards and supervisors. It details more than 100 billing discrepancies between December 1998 and April 1999. "Great emphasis seems to be placed on ensuring that the invoice total hours never reflect a lack of coverage on a station," Bair wrote in the report. Time sheets had been doctored "after the fact" with correction fluid. Bair told Hill he had submitted the report to Wackenhut brass in mid-1999. Bair claims a company vice president assured him he would "talk to the [county] and compensate them for any losses." (Esquivel denies seeing the audit. He also claims neither to have received a report from Hill about Mitnick's termination nor heard about unmanned posts.) In response, Rene Pedrayes contends the company "tweaked" Metrorail sign-in procedures. "There was no loss of hours ... no money reimbursed," he said in a deposition. The county did not see a copy of the audit until last year, when it was presented to them by the Herald. The county's Juvenile Assessment Center is housed in a five-story glass and concrete building on NW Second Street in downtown Miami. Back in the mid-Nineties it took police officers up to six hours to search, fingerprint, identify, book, and charge an arrested juvenile. After the facility opened in 1997, cops began dropping off youths at the JAC and leaving in less than fifteen minutes. These days about 1200 juveniles are brought to the facility every month on charges ranging from murder to petty theft. They are held together in a large, open room for anywhere from four to twenty-four hours, guards say. A handful of Miami-Dade Police officers oversees between six and seven Wackenhut employees, who are charged with processing and supervising the youths until they are picked up — either by the State Department of Juvenile Justice or their parents. The JAC is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Nine current and former Wackenhut employees have admitted to a private investigator gathering evidence for the plaintiff that they were paid for hours not worked at the JAC. Their taped statements describe practices similar to those on Metrorail. (New Times contacted all of those interviewed. Three confirmed the truth of the statements, two had no comment, and four could not be reached.) The stories of two former project managers at the JAC — Luis Garofalo and Rudolfo Vazquez — reveal how this might have happened. Vazquez began working as a guard at the JAC soon after it opened and took over as its project manager a year later. In two taped statements, he claims staff shortages were constant. Sometimes, he contends, guards had to work sixteen-hour shifts. Though all of the guard positions weren't always covered, he alleges he always reported the completion of 920 contract hours. Reporting anything less was not acceptable to management. (This is confirmed in Ben Gilbert's deposition.) Guards say they were hopeful the staffing and other shortfalls would end in February 2002, when the county approved two vans and salaries for two additional guards. The guards never appeared, and the vans spent the next two years sitting in a company parking lot, bleeding taxpayers of $3200 a month, according to Bair. In January 2005 the county's Office of the Inspector General seized the facility's time records and Vazquez was fired. Wackenhut assigned Major Bair to look into the allegations. According to his deposition, Bair noted numerous "questionable" things about time sheets at the JAC (correction fluid used on sign-in records). Bair informed his superior but was not told to investigate further. Vazquez claims he was terminated for committing fraud. But Wackenhut is unclear on this point. "While employed at the JAC, Rudy Vazquez signed-in for, and was paid for, the time he actually worked," the firm maintains in its answer to Trimble's lawsuit. Bair maintains he discovered Vazquez clocked in simultaneously as a JAC supervisor and a county parks and recreation employee. Luis Garofalo, a former Metrorail supervisor, replaced Vazquez in February 2005. On paper, Garofalo appears to have done his 40-hour-per-week job diligently. During the first week of August 2005, he signed in for 96 hours in a variety of capacities, which a schedule obtained by New Times reflects. Yet one year after Garofalo's hiring, a guard named Tameeka Allen alleges she discovered paperwork that seemed to show he had worked one of her eight-hour shifts. She says she reported her discovery to Wackenhut's Palm Beach headquarters, which deployed a company investigator to interview the staff. The investigator questioned four guards at the JAC, who all told him they hadn't seen Garofalo during times he was signed in. "[Officers] don't understand how he can be working all those hours when a lot of times he won't be in for a full shift," a guard, LaSawn Rene Merrick, said in a taped statement taken August 1, 2005. Another guard recalled seeing paperwork that showed Garofalo claiming 40 hours of a vacationing guard's time. In his December 2005 deposition, Bair asserted that no one at the JAC had been paid for time not worked since he came to oversee the facility in August last year. "Not while I was the supervisor," Bair stated. Garofalo resigned this past March while under investigation. Furthermore, Wackenhut never expressly addressed Attorney Vieth's charges that Garofalo had billed the county for false or inflated hours in its answer to the guards' suit, but maintains its overall innocence. "Wackenhut denies that any investigation by [the inspector general] or anyone at Wackenhut revealed that false or inflated hours were billed to the county."

Miami Fort Power Plant, Cleves, Ohio
December 20, 2004 Cincinnati Enquirer
A security guard at a Cinergy power plant in Cleves has been accused of making a false report of a bomb threat and other security breaches. Adam D. Griffin, 19, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., was charged inducing panic, a fourth-degree felony, and three misdemeanor counts of making a false alarm, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff's office. Griffin is an employee of Wackenhut Security Corp. and was working as a night security guard at Cinergy's Miami Fort power station.

Milwaukee County, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
March 4, 2009 Journal Sentinel
A firm that is paid more than $1 million annually to provide security for the Milwaukee County Transit System has its guards spend less than 3% of their time riding buses, a fraction of the 85% rate called for in its contract. Instead, most of the bus security officers spent much of their workdays riding in pairs in vans, patrolling throughout the county, according to a county audit released Wednesday. "Very little time is spent actually riding buses," the audit said. Most of those rides were only a few blocks in length. The audit underscores criticism leveled by Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. against Wackenhut Corp., which has provided bus security for Milwaukee County Transit System buses since 1993. Clarke's complaints that Wackenhut spent too little time on buses prompted county officials to order the audit a year ago. The audit found that a separate firm that manages the transit system for the county didn't expect Wackenhut officers to spend the vast majority of their time riding buses, despite the contract provision. By consent of Milwaukee County Transit System officials, the security officers have emphasized patrolling and responding to calls for help from bus drivers, the audit said. Auditors recommended that officers should spend more time riding buses and suggested abandoning the practice of having officers work in pairs. In its formal response to the audit, transit system officials said it had already begun increasing the number of hours security officers spent on buses. They now spend about 30% of their workday riding buses, officials said. Clarke said the figure should be far higher. "It's a travesty," Clarke said. "The taxpayers aren't getting what they are paying for." He'll urge transit system officials to have Wackenhut put a greater emphasis on having officers on buses, particularly from noon to 8 p.m., when most fights and assaults happen, the sheriff said. Other security steps are important, too, such as sending security officers to areas where "large numbers of students transfer or problems are more likely to occur," said Anita Gulotta-Connelly, the bus system's managing director. She said the officers also can stay in touch with many bus drivers by monitoring key intersections. The vehicle patrols by security officers are important because they permit rapid response to fights or other incidents on buses, she said in her response to the audit. Transit system spokeswoman Jackie Janz said consideration would be given to having the officers work solo. "Our security plan is always evolving," Janz said. System officials strive to find the right balance in how security resources are deployed, she said. Cameras logging incidents -- The installation of video cameras on buses has been an important security improvement, she said. Vivid footage from those cameras showing assaults on drivers and passengers and aired on local television also led to the audit request. The audit found 3,216 calls for service by drivers - anything from fights to snowballs thrown at buses to rousting sleeping passengers - in 2008. With 1.35 million bus trips and an average busload of 38, that translates to a 99.76% chance that passengers won't face any problems riding the bus, the audit said. Other data included in the audit: 100 assaults on buses last year, the most over the past nine years. It also listed 1,229 disorderly conduct episodes; 24 robberies; 55 thefts; and two sexual assaults for 2008. The bus drivers union would welcome an increased security presence on the buses, said Rick Bassler, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998. Union wants armed guards -- Union leaders have repeatedly told Wackenhut executives and transit managers that they want more security officers on the buses, as well as armed sheriff's deputies and police officers, both uniformed and undercover, to provide a deterrent, Bassler said. Even Guardian Angels volunteers in red berets helped in the last year, but drivers prefer sworn law enforcement officers because "when you've got someone on there with a gun (who) can arrest people, that's huge," he said. The Sheriff's Department sends the union reports that show deputies are riding buses every day, often issuing tickets, following up with schools about problems with student riders and focusing their efforts on the most troublesome routes, Bassler said. It's not clear from those reports exactly how much time the Wackenhut officers are spending on buses, he said. On another security issue, Bassler said bulletproof shields will soon be installed around drivers' seats on about 25 buses, something the union has long pressed for. Union representatives will work with transit managers to determine the routes where the shields can best be used, he said. Wackenhut was paid $1.13 million last year for a staff of 30. That includes 20 security officers and 10 managers. The audit found no problems with the way security officers dealt with minorities or issues of cultural diversity. County supervisors asked for that review based on some reported problems. Wackenhut officials didn't return a phone call late Wednesday.

June 4, 2008 WTMJ 620
Four teenagers have been arrested in the beating of a 15 year-old classmate on a Milwaukee County Transit bus. The Sheriff's Department is still looking for a fifth suspect. A St. Charles Youth and Family Services student who tried to start a fight with the victim on May 29th joined four classmates in repeatedly hitting and kicking him in his head. The victim escaped serious injury by covering his face. "We obtained surveillance camera video that depicted a violent mob beating," said Sheriff David Clarke. "It's the kind of incident that led to the death of Charlie Young, and the incident in which Samuel McClane was pulled from his car and savagely beaten on West Hampton Avenue, or the businessman pulled from his car and beaten following Juneteenth Day." "These gang-style beatings are serious." The four suspects are all 15 or 16 years old and all have extensive juvenile records for a variety of offenses including second degree sexual assault, aggravated battery, burglary, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, possession of a dangerous weapon in a school zone, and disorderly conduct. In a press conference Wednesday, Clarke vented his frustrations with the private security firm contracted to patrol county buses, St. Charles' students, and Milwaukee's juvenile justice system. "These students have been a constant problem since the school year started, with over 30 documented instances of causing some sort of disturbance or criminal acts on county buses," Clarke said. "They are a menace." "I think St. Charles is responsible for the behavior of their students, including to and from school," he added. "They might not see it that way, but I do." "And part of the problem is that [these suspects'] ages force us to refer them to juvenile authorities, where they are viewed and treated simply as delinquents and are given probation and allowed to rejoin civilized society...only to commit further acts even more appalling than the last." "Juvenile justice in Milwaukee is a broken system." Clarke called for an immediate revocation of reduced bus fares for St. Charles students, saying "the County cannot afford the liability of injuries or death that may occur on these public transportation routes by students from this facility. If we can't keep them off public transportation, at least they should have to pay the same fare that law-abiding passengers pay." The Sheriff also called for a review of Wackenhut Security, which has had a contract with Milwaukee County for bus patrols since 1992 but does not have officers on the buses themselves.

February 1, 2008 Trading Markets.com
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on Thursday blasted the private security firm hired to guard local buses, questioning whether the $1.1 million annual cost was worth it. Wackenhut Corp., an international company headquartered in Florida, has provided security for Milwaukee County Transit System buses since 1993. Clarke said in a letter to the County Board that the company had "top-heavy administration that leads to fewer people actually performing a security function." He called for a county audit of the firm's contract with the bus system, a move readily agreed to Thursday on a 6-0 vote by the board's Finance and Audit Committee. Although Clarke is generally a proponent of privatization to help lower costs of government services, he faulted the company for a lack of public accountability. Clarke said Wackenhut had refused to provide detailed information about its bus security operations to his department. He also said Wackenhut guards spent too little time riding buses. "If you are going to deal with disorder on the buses, you've got to ride the buses," he said. Mark Schaefer, general manager of Wackenhut's Milwaukee operation, declined to comment on Clarke's criticisms. Of Wackenhut's 32 employees working locally on bus security, four are managers, transit system spokeswoman Jackie Janz said. The firm won the bus security contract in 1993 over other firms that bid, Janz said. The contract was re-bid in 1998 and 2003, she said. Anita Gulotta-Connelly, managing director of the bus system, praised Wackenhut, saying the firm last year responded to more than 3,200 security complaints. "We are very pleased with the level of security they have been able to provide," she said. Complaints from riders -- Clarke said he's received many complaints from riders and bus drivers about rowdiness, harassment of riders and occasional assaults on buses or at bus stops. Clarke assigned deputies from his tactical unit to help with bus security starting in 2006. He credited the move with improvements, but said he couldn't back off the deputy coverage without worrying about a surge in problems. He said Wackenhut security guards often simply release troublemakers rather than turn them over to local law enforcement. Clarke said he did not seek the audit because he wanted the Sheriff's Department to assume Wackenhut's duties and contract revenue. However, Clarke said: "I wouldn't mind doing it with the proper resources." He said $1 million would only pay for about 15 deputies, far too few for the job.

December 19, 2007 Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. has called for an audit of Wackenhut Corp., claiming the company is doing a poor job despite its nearly $1 million-a-year contract to provide security on county bus routes. Buy a link hereIn a letter to Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and County Board Chairman Lee Holloway, Clarke asked for a "qualitative and quantitative audit" to be performed amid questions about Wackenhut's deployment levels. "There has been little oversight of this program, and self-reporting has allowed Wackenhut to operate without accountability and in relative anonymity," Clarke wrote in his letter, dated Tuesday. A copy of the letter was faxed by the Journal Sentinel to Wackenhut Corp.'s office in Milwaukee, but officials there didn't immediately comment. Harold Mester, public information manager for the County Board, said Holloway didn't get a copy of the letter until Wednesday afternoon and wanted to read further before commenting. Walker could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Clarke said the county has been contracting with Wackenhut since 1993 to provide security on bus routes. In January 2006, he said, his office assigned deputies to Milwaukee County Transit System security due to rider complaints about disorder and criminal conduct on county buses. Clarke said his office used its own personnel to restore order with the idea of handing the services back to Wackenhut. "After nearly two years, we have not been able to turn this over to Wackenhut," Clarke said in the letter, "not because we haven't established an acceptable amount of order, but because we fear that we will have to come back due to Wackenhut's mismanagement." Clarke said his office attempted to get deployment data from Wackenhut and, after initial resistance, Wackenhut officials said they didn't retain the data the sheriff's office was looking for. "They have flat-out stonewalled our effort to obtain data necessary for us to make deployment decisions with our limited resources," Clarke said in the letter. A spokesman for Walker said it would be up to county supervisors to decide whether to order an audit of Wackenhut.

Mount Gambier Prison, Australia
The South Australian coroner has handed down his findings into the hanging death of a prisoner at Mount Gambier Prison, in the state's south-east, almost three years ago.  Troy Phillip Turner was found hanging from the front of the shower stall in his cell on the morning of September 2, 2001.  State coroner Wayne Chivell says the 36-year-old's death was "yet another case" where an "easy hanging point" had been available to a prisoner.  He criticised the South Australian prison system for its "piecemeal" approach to safe cell design, rather than adopting a comprehensive approach like Victoria.  The coroner also described the decision not to cut down Mr Turner and attempt resuscitation as "inappropriate", saying the matter calls for the urgent attention of Group 4.  (ABC, August 9, 2004)

Mozambique
April 1, 2009 All Africa
Mozambican guards working for the London-based security company G4S are threatening to take strike action on 13 April over the failure of the company to pay them for overtime. According to a Tuesday report on the independent television station STV, the G4S guards complain they are forced to work four hours overtime a day (i.e. 12 hours rather than the standard eight hour shift). The G4S workers' commission says the guards work from 06.00 until 18.00, but are only paid for eight hours. G4S is thus once again in flagrant breach of the Mozambican labour law, which sets the working day as eight hours, and anything above this must be paid for as overtime. On 19 March, the workers held a one day strike. According to Boaventura Sibinde, secretary of the National Union of Private Security Workers, in addition to the overtime issue, the workers were protesting against the company's decision to cut the funeral allowance from 5,000 meticais (about 185 US dollars) to 3,900 meticais. In the wake of this strike, representatives of the G4S management, and of the strikers met with Labour Ministry officials. This meeting agreed that overtime payment would be restored, backdated to January. The money owing was to be paid at the end of month, but this did not happen. Sibinde was infuriated that, on 26 March, the G4S chairman declared that he did not recognise the minutes of the meeting re-establishing the overtime pay, because he alone could take such a decision. The company representatives at the meeting had no decision making power he alleged. A G4S manager, Pedro Baltazar, told STV that he had not yet received the formal notice from the workers' commission of the strike set for 13 April. But he claimed that the disagreements between the company and its workers would be solved "gradually". G4S has an ugly record of trampling on workers rights all over the world. It has been in battles with the Mozambican Labour Ministry about unpaid overtime and severance pay before, but evades its responsibilities through interminable appeals through the slow moving Mozambican legal system. Thus on 31 October last year, the Maputo City Court ordered the G4S subsidiary Wackenhut to pay 300 guards sacked in 2006 9.5 million meticais (about 356,000 dollars) in compensation. But the Mozambican court system is so liberal that even the most open-and-shut cases can be appealed. G4S-Wackenhut announced that it was appealing, which means this case must go before the Supreme Court.

December 10, 2008 All Africa
Former security guards at the US embassy in Maputo have won their case for compensation against their employer, the security company Wackenhut, but will not see the money any time soon, since the company promptly announced that it was appealing against the decision of the Maputo City Court. This case has been dragging on since 2006. Wackenhut, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the London-based company Group Four Securicor (G4S), sacked 300 security guards when the US embassy decided not to renew its contract with Wackenhut, as from 15 October 2006. Wackenhut unilaterally dismissed these workers, which gave them rights to large sums of severance pay. But Wackenhut then changed its mind. The company said that, as from January 2007, it would introduce eight hour, rather than 12 hour shifts. Premises guarded 24 hours a day would now have three shifts instead of two. Rather than hire new staff, Wackenhut recalled the 300 people it had just sacked. It wrote to them, canceling the earlier notice, and telling them all to take paid leave until 4 January. Wackenhut was too late. Armed with the letters of notice, the workers demanded their severance pay, and were supported by the Labour Ministry. The Labour Inspectorate ordered Wackenhut to pay the severance money within ten days, or risk being sued for disobedience under the Mozambican Criminal code. Wackenhut still refused to pay, and so the workers opted to sue the company. The case eventually appeared before judge Gracinda da Graca Muiambo, of the 12th section of the Maputo City Court. She gave her ruling, in favour of the workers, on 31 October, but the absence of any sense of public relations among the Mozambican judiciary means that only now has the ruling come to the knowledge of the press. Judge Muiambo ordered Wackenhut to pay the guards a total of 9.5 million meticais (about 390,000 US dollars). According to extracts from her ruling, published in Wednesday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais", the court found that the letters giving notice to the guards were sent out between 12 July and 20 August 2006, but that no severance pay followed. On 1 October the workers found that Wackenhut had changed its mind, when it sent them letters ordering them to stay at their posts because "a solution had been found". But the workers did not want to go on working for Wackenhut, and so refused to receive the second letter. Based on the letter of notice, they stopped going to the US embassy, and their posts were occupied by guards from another company, Safe Tech Lda. Wackenhut went on paying the workers their normal monthly wages until January 2007. The court noted that at no time did the company management meet with the workers to negotiate renewing their contracts. It sacked them, and then tried to cancel the sackings, without ever discussing the matter with the workers or their trade union representatives. The court pointed out that as soon as the workers received notice that their contracts with Wackenhut were being ended, this created "expectations that they would be paid due compensation". Furthermore, the whole point of a period of notice is "to allow workers to seek alternative jobs". The workers' refusal to return to Wackenhut, judge Muiambo added, should not be interpreted as "bad faith". Rather it was a sign "that they had lost confidence in the accused (Wackenhut), since they believed that at any moment the company could once again cancel their work contracts". Some of them might have been in the process of obtaining new jobs. Why should they give those up just because Wackenhut had summoned them back? But the clinching argument was legal. There is absolutely nothing in Mozambican law that obliges workers to accept a job offer. But the law is very clear that issuing a worker notice that his or her contract has been cancelled carries with it the obligation to pay compensation. The court ruled that since Wackenhut had indeed unilaterally cancelled the contracts of the 300 guards, it was obliged, under the 1998 labour law, to pay compensation. The court, calculated this, based on the length of service of each guard, down to the last cent. (To be exact, Wackenhut was ordered to pay 9,486,448 meticais and 53 centavos). On top of this, Wackenhut must pay all the legal costs of the case. But, like any defendant with a smart lawyer, Wackenhut has taken advantage of the extremely liberal appeals procedures under Mozambican law, under which even the most open and shut cases are appealed right up to the Supreme Court. So it could well be several more months (or even years, given the backlog of appeals before the Supreme Court) before the workers see any of their money.

November 10, 2007 All Africa
Mozambique's Administrative Tribunal has rejected an appeal by the Mozambican branch of the security company Wackenhut, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the London-based Group Four Securicor (G4S), against an order by the Labour Ministry to pay over 11 years of overtime owing to its security guards. There is no doubt about the substantive facts in the case. Wackenhut actually admitted that between 1994 and 2005 it had not paid any overtime. Hundreds of Mozambican guards had been working 12 hour shifts, four hours more than the standard eight hour day. After repeated demands from its workers that the company pay what it owed them, in 2005 Wackenhut agreed to send the overtime dispute to arbitration. The arbitration panel gave its ruling on 2 May 2006, and declared that Wackenhut did have to pay the overtime, though it added that the exact sum claimed by the workers of 33.9 billion old meticais (about 1.3 million US dollars) had not been proved. Wackenhut seized on this reservation as an excuse not to pay anything at all. In late 2006, the Labour Ministry called Wackenhut to several meetings at which it attempted, unsuccessfully, to persuade the company to pay up. A note from the General Inspectorate of Labour, sent on 25 August 2006, ordered Wackenhut to pay the money within seven days. A second Labour Ministry note, of 30 August, warned Wackenhut that failure to comply could lead to the closure of its operations in Mozambique. Wackenhut appealed against the Ministry's order to the Administrative Tribunal, the body which deals with the legality of administrative acts. The appeal was dated 7 January 2007. However, the law on administrative disputes states that administrative acts must be appealed against within 90 days. Since the Labour Ministry order was date 25 August 2006, Wackenhut should have appealed by 25 November. The company's delay in taking any action should have been sufficient for the Tribunal to throw the appeal out at once. Nonetheless, the First Section of the Administrative Tribunal has now delivered a lengthy verdict, dated 30 October. (This long delay is nothing sinister - indeed, it is all too typical of Mozambican appeal procedures). The appeal fell at the first hurdle: the Tribunal declared it had "no object" - meaning that the decisions it was appealing against did not fall into the category of "administrative acts" at all, and therefore did not fall under the Administrative Tribunal's mandate. For the General Inspectorate of Labour could not coerce Wackenhut into paying the money, and on its own had no power to punish the company. To take the matter further, it needed to accuse Wackenhut of the crime of disobedience, using the law courts. This, the Tribunal said, was "a judicial, not an administrative procedure". In short, the Tribunal has told Wackenhut that it was knocking on the wrong door, since the disputes do not fall within the sphere of Administrative Law at all, but within that of Labour Law. They should thus be judged by the ordinary law courts (which, in the absence of specialised Labour Tribunals, handle disputes between workers and their employers). Furthermore, the instructions from the Labour Ministry took the form of mere "communications". The correct channel for appealing against a communication from the General Inspectorate of Labour is to take the matter to the Minister of Labour, the Tribunal pointed out. And since Wackenhut did not contact the Minister within the ten days stipulated for such a move, it lost the right to appeal. The Administrative Tribunal could have left matters there - but it went much further, and accused Wackenhut of lying about the decision of the arbitration panel. For while the arbitration ruling did decide that the workers' figure was unproved, and while it did (unjustly, and arguably unconstitutionally) say that only those still on the Wackenhut payroll were entitled to the overtime pay, and not those who had left the company, it did not give Wackenhut the right to pay whatever it liked. For the key arbitration ruling, and one which Wackenhut ignored, was that, within ten days of the arbitration decision, the Wackenhut management should have presented a proper calculation of the overtime hours worked "based on the legal formula to be provided by the Ministry of Labour". Wackenhut did not contact the Ministry to seek this "legal formula", and it did not provide its own calculation of the overtime worked between January 1994 and February 2005. Since Wackenhut had not given the basis on which any other figure could be calculated, the Ministry then thought it was entirely within its rights to demand that Wackenhut pay the 33.9 billion meticais. Or, as the Administrative Tribunal puts it, "the arbitration decision gives the Labour Ministry the discretionary power to provide a basis for calculating the payment of the overtime". This was the power that the Ministry had used to order Wackenhut to pay up, and it could not be argued, as the Wackenhut appeal claimed, that the Ministry lacked the power to make this demand. The figure had not been conjured out of thin air. Initially, the workers and their trade union committee had claimed a rather larger sum - 34.3 billion meticais. This figure was submitted to a technical commission set up by the arbitration panel. The three parties who had appointed the arbitrators (the union committee, Wackenhut and the Ministry) also appointed the technicians. But the two technicians appointed by Wackenhut did not collaborate, and Wackenhut reneged on a promise to support the technical commission by providing it with data, computers and office space. It was thus the technicians appointed by the ministry and the union that revised the sum demanded downward. They excluded 42 employees who had not worked as guards, which reduced the sum owing to 33.9 billion meticais. Despite boycotting the technical commission, Wackenhut then made its own proposal to the arbitrators. It said it was willing to pay overtime, but only for the period February 2004 to February 2005, and only on the assumption of two hours overtime per worker per day, which it calculated at 4.3 billion meticais. The union rejected this figure outright. At the end of the arbitration, Wackenhut increased it to the round figure of five billion meticais which it said the union could distribute as it saw fit. There is nothing secret about any of this - it is all in the arbitration document, but you wouldn't guess that from Wackenhut's public statements. Wackenhut's real problem was not with the Labour Ministry, but with the Arbitration panel which delivered a ruling it did not like. The company's response was to lie about that ruling, and pretend it was implementing it, when in fact it refused to do what the Panel ordered - namely to meet with the Ministry and fix a sum for the overtime to be paid. Employers can appeal against arbitration - but not to the Administrative Tribunal. Had Wackenhut wanted to overturn the arbitration ruling, its correct course of action was to appeal to a civil section of an ordinary Maputo law court.

October 10, 2007 All Africa
The Mozambican Labour Ministry has claimed that the security company Group Four Securicor (G4S) has apologised for the bad relations between the government and G4S in the past. According to a Ministry press release, the apology came when the new manager of G4S's operations, Cassie van der Merwe (formerly head of G4S in Zambia), met on Monday with Labour Minister Helena Taipo, the Deputy Minister, Soares Nhaca, and the General Inspector of Labour, Joaquim Siuta. Van der Merwe told the top leadership of the Ministry that he is well aware that G4S has a bad reputation in Mozambique, and he apologised for 'the mistakes made in the past'. He claimed that efforts are now being made to establish a good working environment and labour justice in the company, and the first step towards this was a collective agreement already reached with the local trade union committee. The problems van der Merwe has inherited date from the time when Jon Mortimer was general manager in Mozambique of Wackenhut, the US-based security company that is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of G4S. Under Mortimer's management, Wackenhut was involved in two acrimonious battles with its workforce. One involved a refusal to pay overtime for no less than 11 years (between 1994 and 2005), which led the Labour Inspectorate to demand that the company pay its workers almost 34 billion old meticais (about 1.36 million US dollars) for the unpaid overtime. Wackenhut refused to do so and took the issue to court. In a separate dispute, Wackenhut sacked 300 security guards after the US embassy decided not to renew its contract with Wackenhut in October 2006, but failed to pay them the redundancy money to which they were entitled. Again the Labour Inspetorate demanded that Wackenhut pay up, and again Wackenhut refused. Mortimer gave a press conference in December 2006, at which he claimed the Ministry had no power to give the company instructions. As for the money owed to its workforce, Mortimer said that any worker who did not like the company's decisions could take it to court. These public statements were too much for Taipo, who cancelled Mortimer's work permit, declaring that his attitude had contributed to the 'lack of stability' in Wackenhut's labour relations. Unable to work in Mozambique any longer, Mortimer retreated to South Africa. According to the Ministry's release, Taipo welcomed the new approach taken by van der Merwe. She told him that the disturbed labour environment at Wackenhut had arisen because the company failed to respect Mozambican legislation, which she described as 'a fundamental condition for investment in the country'. She stressed that her ministry 'is open to supporting companies that prioritise the human factor, and promote labour justice as a contribution to social peace'. But Taipo is not simply going to accept van der Merwe's word that matters have improved in G4S. She recommended that the Labour Inspectorate visit the company to check on the real situation there.

September 7, 2007 All Africa
The Mozambican Labour Ministry, through the Labour General Inspectorate, has fined the multinational giant "G4S-Securicor Services Moçambique, Lda" with an amount equivalent to 730 minimum statutory minimum wages in the country for hiring nine illegal foreign workers. This follows a joint inspection carried out by the Labour Ministry with the Mozambican Police, and the illegal workers were suspended immediately from work. According to a press release from the Labour Ministry received by AIM on Thursday, the fine amounts to 1,184,760 meticais (about 46,000 USD), which is the maximum penalty provided for by the Mozambican Labour Law. Current Labour Law states that any illegal worker should be immediately suspended from their duties and the offender fined with a sum equivalent from 10 up to 80 statutory minimum wages. The foreigner is suspended until his situation is regularized. The current minimum wage in Mozambique is equivalent to 63 USD. The illegal workers include Portuguese and South African nationals holding positions of shift and project managers. In Mozambique, the G4S subsidiary, Wackenhut, has also two separate disputes with its work force. One of these concerns its failure to pay overtime for 11 years (1994-2005) and the second is over unpaid severance pay for guards who were given notice after the US Embassy refused to renew its contract with Wackenhut.

National Park Services
Wackenhut (Group 4)
September 13, 2007 AP
Private security guards who have protested what they call poor working conditions at Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell voted Wednesday to unionize. The Wackenhut Services Inc. workers voted 31-2 to join the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, district organizing coordinator Jeff Hornstein said. Fifteen guards did not vote. The secret ballot election was held at a community hall a few blocks from Independence National Historical Park, which is also protected by the National Park Service. Wackenhut did not respond to two previous attempts by workers to gain recognition, Hornstein said. Marc Shapiro, senior vice president at Florida-based Wackenhut, said in order for the balloting to be valid, it must follow standards set by the National Labor Relations Board. "If it is an election that is sanctioned by the NLRB, we would certainly support it," Shapiro said. The voting followed a meeting during which two employees spoke of low wages, unpaid sick days, no health insurance, and spending their own money to winterize their uniforms. "We have to make sure we stay warm," guard Lamontez Bentley said. "We simply cannot afford to get sick." The meeting was attended by U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-Pa., who promised to ensure that the company improves conditions for workers "protecting our national treasures." "I'm going to put their feet to the fire for sure," Brady said. Hornstein asked Brady to work in Congress to withhold contracts from Wackenhut, which the government has hired to protect sites including nuclear weapons facilities and the Department of Homeland Security complex. Wackenhut, which has more than 35,000 employees, is owned by U.K.-based G4S.

New Mexico Legislature
August 24, 2007 AP
The Albuquerque businessman implicated in a courthouse construction scheme that cost taxpayers more than $4 million has worked on public projects around New Mexico for years. Michael Murphy, 58, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering for his alleged role in a scheme that used inflated contracts and change orders to skim money from the construction of the $83 million Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courthouse. The Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story published Friday that Murphy had powerful friends, including former state Sen. Manny Aragon, who is also charged in the courthouse scandal. Murphy bought a home from Aragon last year. Murphy's work includes the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, renovations to the downtown jail, the Metropolitan Courthouse and a student center at Highlands University in northern New Mexico. In 2004, Bernalillo County signed another contract with Murphy's company for "construction administration services as needed." The deal, which expires in 2008, allows Murphy's Public Private Projects Inc. to work on a variety of county projects. His company has been paid about $1.1 million altogether for its work on the county jails and other county projects. Murphy, who once served on the board of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, had his beginning in the 1970s in the homebuilding industry. He went on to work for high profile clients, including private prison operator Wackenhut Corrections Corp.

New York Legislature
December 7, 2005 WWTI
Delays in issuing contracts for guard services continues to raise the security risks for state employees and people visiting state buildings while wasting taxpayer funds. That's according to state Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office. A state comptroller's audit conducted in 2001 and 2002 found that private security companies hired by the State's Office of General Services provided hundreds of unlicensed and unqualified guards to protect state buildings, universities and other facilities. In response, OGS awarded "emergency" contracts for guard services to Burns International Security Services and the Wackenhut Corporation in June 2002. OGS later agreed to rebid security contracts to find permanent security providers. So far, they have not, even as security remains a high-priority issue.

North Augusta, North Carolina
November 2, 2007 WRDW News 12
The family of Alecia and Jade Arangelin say the man who killed them, Robert Herring, was a monster. The family says there were signs of abuse against Alecia at Robert's hands. By why he killed her daughter too, is a thought that will haunt them forever. "He was insane. He was a psycho. He was a monster. I don't want anybody saying nice things about him because he murdered my sister and my niece. He was an evil person and that's what I want everybody to know," says Alecia's sister and Jade's aunt, Tanya Sullivan. She's talking about her brother-in-law Robert Herring, a former Wackenhut employee, who police say murdered his wife and stepdaughter before turning the gun on himself. "I want people to know what kind of a person he was. I don't want them to think he just snapped in the moment, he didn't just snap, he planned this. He assaulted my sister many times," adds Sullivan. But why the attack happened now, when there weren't any recent signs of trouble, baffles this grieving family. "We were all on vacation this past weekend. I stayed in the same room with him up in Blue Ridge. Everything seemed okay." "So no sign of why right now?" we asked. "No, no," Sullivan said. "So why Jade?" we asked. "We don't know why he did this to Jade," Sullivan said. "She was asleep in her bed. He shot her first they said. My sister, they said she sat up in bed so she had heard the gun shots but they said it probably all happened within a minute, and then he went and shot my sister. Jade was asleep in her bed. Why would he do this to my niece? My innocent 17-year-old niece?" Haunting questions with no answer, but they believe this could have been avoided. "Back in December of last year, my sister was assaulted, severely assaulted...I'm surprised she didn't die at that time," explains Sullivan. At the time, Alecia had been married to Robert Herring for less than one month. "She was so traumatized. She was bleeding out of her eyes, her nose, her ears." But Alecia stayed and escaped another close call in May. "He called me and said 'Tanya, I'm out at this house and I'm drunk. I've got a gun and I'm going to kill her.'" That's the night Tanya says Robert was cited for public disorderly conduct. If more had been done then, she says Alecia and Jade would still be here today. The public viewing is scheduled for tonight at Rowland Funeral Home on Martintown Road in North Augusta from 6 pm until 8 pm. The funeral is tomorrow (Saturday, November 3) at Big Stevens Baptist Church in North Augusta at 2 pm. The family is asking that friends and family who come, don't wear black and white. They feel colors would be more appropriate for the upbeat ceremony planned to celebrate the lives of Alecia Arangelin and Jade Arangelin.

Oakhill Secure Training Unit, Oakhill, UK
May 14, 2008 Channel 4
The consortium running Oakhill young offenders' centre is given 60 days to bring it under control. Simon Israel reports It was once a flagship young offenders' centre. But now the private consortium that runs Oakhill has been given 60 days to bring it under control and to meet its contractual obligations. Last year the centre's director was replaced after two highly critical inspections. Since then there has been little progress in stopping attacks on staff and the restraint of youngsters held inside. Today the prisons minister, David Hanson, said G4S, formerly Group 4, has been given been ordered to improve a series of failings, including staff training.

March 17, 2008 The Times
A privately run child jail should be closed temporarily after high levels of assaults on staff and “staggering” use of force to control children, a report published today recommends. Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, makes the unprecedented suggestion to close the jail after finding a lack of control and order at Oakhill secure training centre. Teachers were visibly frightened of the children, young girls and boys were badly behaved and staff embattled at the centre, run by G4S, formerly Group 4, in Milton Keynes. Youngsters were allowed to sprawl on bench tops to do their work and used offensive language unchecked by teachers. Force was used 757 times in nine months to control children, and on 532 occasions at least three members of staff were involved, including one holding a child’s head. There had been 377 assaults on staff in the first nine months of last year. Classrooms have become war zones, teachers say -- Staff lacked the skills to challenge the 48 children aged 13 to 17 at the centre, which moved out a quarter of its residents last year because of concerns about the lack of order and control on the premises. Today’s report is the fourth, and most critical, highlighting significant weaknesses at Oakhill since it opened in 2004 on a 25-year contract. Ms Owers said the scale of improving Oakhill was daunting, with staff turnover running at almost 60 per cent a year: “It might be more realistic to empty the centre briefly, so that it can be relaunched with a properly trained and reinvigorated staff, focused on plenty of good-quality, purposeful activity, dynamic security, and an emphasis on appropriate behaviour within clear boundaries.”

July 13, 2007 The Guardian
A quarter of young offenders at a troubled privately run child jail have been moved out and a new director appointed after official concern over the rising use of restraint by staff to control violent teenagers. The Youth Justice Board said last night it had acted after two unpublished inspection reports confirmed concerns about control at the Oakhill secure training centre, near Milton Keynes. The latest figures show it recorded the highest use of distraction restraint techniques, which involve inflicting pain on a youngster's nose or thumb, in the child jail network. They were used on 110 occasions in 2006 in a centre which holds only 80 trainees. Non-painful restraint was used 921 times. The centre is run by G4S, formerly Group 4. The announcement was made as MPs debated the outcome of the inquest into the death of Gareth Myatt, 15, who died in nearby Rainsbrook secure training centre after being restrained. The outcome is uncertain of a Lords vote next week on regulations expanding the circumstances in which restraint can be used in child jails. The YJB admitted that recruiting staff to Oakhill had been a problem. It said it had cut the number of children there from 80 to 60 because "without the required staff on duty there will always be a risk". A YJB statement said: "There has been a rise in the number of incidents of violence by young people on other young people and against staff, as a result of which the use of restraint has increased. This happens from time to time." The YJB said it would continue to monitor the situation at Oakhill to ensure that restraint was used as a last resort: "With the new director in post we will expect to see rapid improvements in the centre." The centre, one of five in the national network of child jails for the most persistent teenage offenders, has had a troubled history. A 2005 inspection report said it had been struggling to care for trainees with limited staff, and a "difficult and challenging period" at the end of 2004 led to its first management shake-up. The second director, Lee Barnes, left two months ago. The new director, Malcolm Stephens, who joined on Monday, said he was committed to working with the YJB to provide the highest standards of specialist care. The director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Frances Crook, described the change of director at Oakhill as significant, particularly bearing in mind the recent change to the rules on the use of physical restraint at secure training centres. "If staff at Oakhill have experienced difficulties with order and control, then replacing rules that explicitly spelt out appropriate circumstances for restraint with catch-all terminology and ultra-vague references to 'good order and discipline' will only make things worse."

Oakington Asylum Reception Center, Cambridgeshire
October 1, 2008 The Sun
FOUR illegal immigrants were on the run yesterday after a Colditz-style escape through a web of tunnels. The Vietnamese men are thought to have stumbled on details of the network beneath their detention centre on the internet. They realised sunken grass paths that “criss-cross” the site’s grounds marked out the passages. The four, who were all facing deportation, lifted turf over one and found concrete slabs. They removed one slab — carefully re-laying the grass — and hid it in a locker. The men then waited until dark to crawl into the network. Fleeing -- They found their way under a perimeter wall before smashing above ground and fleeing into surrounding countryside. Oakington Immigration Centre in Longstanton, Cambs, twigged at a 10pm roll-call last week. Cops haven’t found them. A source said: “It’s like something out of Colditz and so embarrassing.” The passageways, which house electrical ducting, used to link World War Two bunkers at the ex-airbase. The centre source added: “They could have found out about them in the site’s IT room.” The 352 all-male centre houses illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. They are locked up from 10pm to 7.30am, but are free to roam at other times. Group 4 Securicor, which runs the site for the UK Borders Agency, now faces a fine of up to £3,000 for each escaper. The agency confirmed: “We are working to re-capture four detainees. They don’t pose a threat.”

March 4, 2005 Interactive Investor
The government asked the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman to investigate allegations of abuse at the Oakington immigrant detention centre, said Home Office Minister Des Browne. The independent probe was established after a BBC television documentary showed staff at the centre racially and physically abusing asylum seekers. Ombudsman Stephen Shaw's remit will be to investigate the allegations made in the documentary and review the centre's own probe into the affair, Browne said.  Oakington is run by Global Solutions Ltd. GSL was formed after Group 4 Falck merged with with Securicor in 2004. Electra Partners Europe and Englefield Capital each took 50 pct stakes in GSL last July, according to GSL's website.

March 3, 2005 Financial Times
A BBC film showing asylum seekers being assaulted, racially abused and sexually humiliated by guards has prompted demands for a public debate into how government policy is fuelling human rights abuses and miscarriages of justice. The film, shown last night, has generated adverse publicity for Global Solutions, one of the government's largest contractors, which runs Oakington detention centre near Cambridge and the in-country escorting contract featured in the undercover documentary. The Home Office said it was taking the matter "extremely seriously" and would decide on what further action to take once it had all the facts. GSL was formed in 2004, when Group 4 Falck of Denmark merged with Securicor, its UK rival. It inherited a number of public-private partnership contracts, from healthcare and schools to the construction and servicing of the new GCHQ, one of the largest buildings developed under the private finance initiative. What has shocked human rights and refugee groups is that Oakington had been considered one of the better-run and more humane detention centres. The documentary has fuelled concerns that the abuses at Oakington are but the symptoms of a wider malaise across the system that has long generated protests to the Home Office from human rights lawyers.

November 9, 2004 The Guardian
Children detained in the Oakington asylum reception centre in Cambridgeshire are not being cared for properly, with some found to be suffering distress, according to the chief inspector of prisons. Anne Owers says in a report published today that when she visited the privately run centre she found that 41 children were being detained, some for weeks. The chief inspector's report also discloses that the agreed procedures for detaining the children of asylum seekers had not been followed. "The centre made conscientious attempts to identify and support children at risk of harm, but residential staff lacked the necessary qualifications or support from social services," she says.

Oak Ridge Nuclear Stockpile (AKA Y-12), Oak Ridge, Tennessee
January 17, 2008 AP
Seven guards have been caught sleeping at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge since 2000, a federal spokesman said Wednesday. Three were fired and the rest were disciplined, said Steven Wyatt, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a Department of Energy unit that oversees the Y-12 complex. The administration reported Monday only two guards had fallen asleep at their posts in four years at the high-security plant, about 20 miles west of Knoxville. But Wyatt said Wednesday that did not cover the full extent of Wackenhut Services Inc.'s Oak Ridge security contract, which began in January 2000. Six cases of guard-napping involving seven officers were found during the seven-year period. Y-12, a potential terrorist target containing the key ingredients for a "dirty bomb," makes uranium parts for every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It also dismantles old weapons and is the nation's primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium. Wackenhut Services' napping-guard record in Oak Ridge came up for questioning after its parent company, The Wackenhut Corp., recently lost a security contract for 10 nuclear power plants after sleeping guards were found at a Pennsylvania station. However, Florida-based Wackenhut Services Inc. is considered an independent subsidiary of The Wackenhut Corp., and has its own board of directors. "Given how serious NNSA considers our responsibility of safeguarding our nuclear facilities, we feel it is important to provide you with a complete accounting of inattention incidents involving security police officers found sleeping on the job at Y-12," Wyatt explained. Three officers were found "intentionally sleeping on duty" and were terminated -- two guards in 2000 and one in 2002. The other cases were less blatant, with discipline ranging up to three weeks' suspension without pay and 12-month probation for all of them.

May 12, 2006 Knoxville News Sentinel
Two brothers suspected in the fatal shooting of a Roane County deputy and his ride-along passenger have claimed for years that they were the targets of a potentially deadly government plot. Rocky Joe Houston, 46, and his brother, Clifford Leon Houston, 47, both of Ten Mile, are accused in a double homicide Thursday at a home in the Dogtown Road-Barnard Narrows Road area of Roane County, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The shooting occurred near where they live. According to a slew of lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court by the brothers dating as far back as 2001, the pair repeatedly has claimed that their lives are at risk in a plot by an army of government workers bent on stopping the Houstons from exposing public corruption. Rocky Houston has filed at least nine lawsuits in federal court in the past five years, taking aim at officials ranging from Roane County deputies and judges to TBI agents to federal court clerks and judges. His brother has filed a half-dozen federal complaints with similar allegations. The lawsuits offer a peek inside the lives and minds of the pair. Rocky Houston's voluminous court filings reveal that he was a longtime employee of Wackenhut Services Inc., a private security force employed at the U.S. Department of Energy's myriad facilities in Oak Ridge. He was hired there as an armed security guard in 1988, court records show. He was fired in August 2003. In his termination letter, Wackenhut Director Steve Gibbs described Rocky Houston as a time bomb. "Your pattern of behavior, including threatening a judge attempts to intimidate and arrest another judge, threats and harassment to an attorney, engaging in notorious misconduct, including barricading yourself in your family's compound and refusal to surrender to lawful authorities, which culminated in the involvement of multiple law enforcement agencies and required the governor of the state of Tennessee to authorize a SWAT team to bring you to justice constitute a complete disregard for (Wackenhut) policies and your responsibilities as an armed (guard) defending a highly sensitive federal facility," Gibbs wrote.

February 7, 2006 AP
The government's annual cost to provide security at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge has nearly doubled to more than $111 million since 2000, auditors said in Knoxville on Monday in placing most of the blame on overtime for guards. The Department of Energy's inspector general, which has criticized security overtime at the weapons and uranium storage complex in Oak Ridge before, said that "understandably, this trend was exacerbated by the enhanced security posture resulting from the events of Sept. 11, 2001." However, Inspector General Gregory Friedman wrote that overtime had become so routine at the Y-12 plant that security contractor Wackenhut Services Inc. would actually profit from it. The inspector general said Wackenhut, Y-12's security contractor since 1999, would receive about $1.8 million in additional profits in 2005 from recovering "fixed expenses" that included a 104% increase in overtime hours since 2000. Of Wackenhut's $8.9 million award fee in 2005, almost $1 million was based on overtime premiums.

June 28, 2005
OAK RIDGE — A federal inspection found that Oak Ridge guards routinely worked excessive overtime and, in some instances, received less training than recommended for high-security nuclear installations. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General released the report today. The IG reviewed the Oak Ridge training program because of an allegation that a security police officer had received credit for training never received. The report said that allegation was confirmed and that an inspection turned up a number of other shortcomings. The IG report said, "Protective force personnel at the Y-12 National Security Complex routinely worked in excess of 60 hours per week, despite a 60-hour maximum threshold for safe operations established in the DOE Protective Force Program Manual. There was evidence that working excessive overtime negatively impacted the ability or willingness of some protective force personnel to complete required physical fitness training." When Wackenhut took over the Oak Ridge security contract in January 2000, the overtime for guards was about 50 percent, Burleson said. The company attempted to get that to less than 25 percent and was successful until the events of Sept. 11, 2001. "We shot right back up," he said. The IG report also found that Oak Ridge security police spent, on average, about 40 percent less time on "combat readiness refresher training" than was specified in the 2004 training plan. Inspectors found that some "planned" training time was formally reported as "actual" training time to DOE. Also, some guards reportedly signed attendance rosters for training sessions without receiving the training, the report said.

December 16, 2004 New York Times
In the predawn hours of Sept. 2, at the plant that stores the nation's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, guards wearing body armor and carrying loaded submachine guns were dispatched to intercept a group of men who had apparently set off an intrusion alarm. But the target group turned out to be a second team of guards, who were conducting a mock attack with laser-tag equipment. The armed guards, a "shadow force" maintained in reserve during such drills, rushed through the dark, ready, people involved said, to shoot at a group whom they believed were intruders. Such a deployment is virtually unheard of, security experts said, and had it led to a shooting, the incident could have destroyed the ability to hold such drills, a crucial tool in determining if the plant is adequately defended. The plant, called Y-12, is owned by the Department of Energy but is defended by a contractor, Wackenhut. "For two minutes, it was mass confusion," said one of the guards on duty that night. "People asked several times, 'Is this a drill?' Nobody would clarify."

August 22, 2004
Tenn. -- Staccato bursts of a machine gun rip through the woods near the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, a warhead parts factory and uranium storehouse that has been criticized for lax security.  A security patrol officer is running through a firing range exercise with two instructors deep within the Department of Energy's 33,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation.  Wearing black fatigues, flak vest and gas mask, he hits the ground and unleashes a blast from an M249 assault weapon at distant targets.  "Yeah, we had some issues," said Jean "John" Burleson, whose 400-plus contractor guard force at Y-12 was accused of cheating on performance drills in an inspector general's report in January.  "But make no mistake about it. If you attack us, we are still capable" of dealing with you, the Wackenhut Services Inc. executive said.  Peter Stockton, a consultant for Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based public watchdog group, is not convinced.  "We have a bunch of sources down there, from guards to management, and nobody is happy with what is going on," said Stockton, who was special assistant to former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "They don't believe the improvements are really adequate."  The inspector general reported Jan. 23 the exercises were "compromised" and their results "tainted" because two guard supervisors saw the attack plans the day before the drills.  The incident cost Wackenhut about $200,000 in fees. The company still received a "good" performance grade from DOE, an overall score of 93 out of 100 and a $2.3 million fee for the six-month period ending Jan. 9.  "It looked terrible," Brumley said. "But to this day, I do not believe that it was improper the way it was done. It was perceived wrong."  The inspector general also found "compelling testimony" from current and former guards that cheating had been going on since the mid-1980s. Brumley said that was probably true.  (AP)

Orange County Juvenile Detention Center, Orlando, Florida
April 19, 2007 Local 6 TV
Trained correctional officers will be replaced by hired private security guards at the Orange County Juvenile Assessment Center, Local 6 News has learned. Sources told Local 6 News that on Oct. 1, the state-trained correctional officers will be replaced by officers from Wackenhut. Wackenhut is a private security company usually hired to guard property or screen people entering facilities. The correctional officers will be transported to a newly added prison space for Orange County, the report said. "It is our belief that we can better utilize our resources of correctional officers at the jail as opposed to the Juvenile Assessment Center," Orange County Director of Public Safety Jerry Demmings said. "The Juvenile Assessment Center is the gateway, if you will." Demmings dismissed any concern of inadequate safety or protection when the private officers take over. "I have no question that the Juvenile Assessment Center will continue to be a safe place," Demmings said. As many as 70 juvenile offenders can be housed at the Juvenile Assessment Center, according to the report. Orange County has been one of the only Central Florida counties with correctional officers at a juvenile center. Most of the other counties contract the work out to private security companies, the report said.

Palmetto Youth Academy, Palmetto, Florida
June 11, 2008 WWSB
A teacher at a Manatee County detention facility is charged with child abuse after reportedly injuring a student. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office says the incident happened Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Palmetto Youth Academy in the 14000 block of Harlee Road in Palmetto. The academy is a secure detention facility that is run by Department of Juvenile Justice, and deputies say where the 15-year old victim was in detention. Deputies say 32-year-old Wanick Damour hit the boy in the mouth with a closed fist, and the victim had to get two stitches to close the laceration. Another teacher/case worker at the facility witnessed the event. It was also caught on surveillance camera, but is not being released at this time according to the sheriff's office. Damour admitted to hitting the teen saying he was in fear for his safety and has had nothing but trouble from the victim since he started working at the facility. The facility is managed and run by G4 Securicor, in which we're told would employ Damour. He is in the Manatee County Jail being held without bond.

Parc Prison, Bridgend, Wales
June 8, 2009 South Wales Echo
A PRISONER assaults another inmate at least once a day at a privately-run jail in South Wales. There were 381 attacks in a single year at Parc Prison in Bridgend, which includes a young offender institution, according to figures released today. South Wales Central AM Leanne Wood, below, who requested the statistics, said: “This is a damning indictment of the present criminal justice system which is chronically overcrowded. “It is much more difficult to maintain control and this could be an explanation for the increase in prisoner- on-prisoner attacks.” The figures, given to Plaid Cymru by the Howard League for Penal Reform, showed prisoner-on-prisoner attacks at Parc soared by 68% from 227 in 2004 to 381 last year. Attacks at Category B HMP Cardiff, which has a capacity of 784, fell by 64% from 53 to just 19 in 2008. Four fires were started at the capital’s jail last year, compared with 2004. At Parc, they rose from 13 to 18. Attacks on prison officers at Parc fell from 57 to 53, and at Cardiff from 15 to four. Ex-probation officer Ms Wood called for the Ministry of Justice to take over Parc, which is operated by Group 4 Securicor, now called G4S. “I’ve always been of the view prisons are better run in the public sector with experienced prison officers employed on decent wages, terms and conditions. “These figures provide further evidence of the need for all prisons to be in the public sector, and for a strategy designed to reduce the prison population.” Howard League director Frances Crook said: “This shocking rise in violence is far above what might be expected as we lock up ever increasing numbers of men, women and children whose mental health problems and addictions will never be properly treated within our flooded and failing jails. “As these are recorded statistics, it is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg with real levels of assaults, rapes and arson much higher than the Prison Service is admitting. Overcrowded, squalid prison conditions lead to rioting, violence and chaos.” Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said: “Figures on increased violence and shocking levels of self-harm in prison, as well as reflecting improved repor- ting of incidents, also point to the urgent need to reserve prison for serious and violent offenders only. “For prison staff to have a chance to reduce re-offending, they should not have to shoulder the additional burden of trying to care for people who are mentally ill and at risk of suicide and self-harm.” A spokeswoman for Parc, which has 580 staff and is Wales’ biggest jail, said: “Parc’s figures would appear disproportionately higher than other prisons due to our complex population mix and higher operational capacity at 1,200. “In general terms, both young offenders and young people prisoner-on-prisoner assaults are far more prolific than that of adult offenders, hence our figures are skewed on the high side due to our younger population. “If however you compare our proven cases of assault like for like, our figures are broadly similar to other establishments, if not lower,” she said.

April 2, 2009 BBC
Inspectors have criticised Parc Prison in Bridgend for not having enough resources to carry out its role as a training prison for Wales. An official report said there were only 70 education spaces for 1,200 male prisoners at the private jail. The Prison Reform Trust said prisoners needed to learn adequate skills to be properly prepared for their release. Parc said it was reviewing the matter but the local MP said inmates must have up to 40 hours a week on training. Bridgend MP Madeleine Moon told BBC Radio Wales: "We've all got to be worried about that because if we don't use the opportunity while these people are in prison to give them access to the skills that they need to have a different life on the outside, we're wasting the time in the prison. She said academic staff at the prison were "working their guts off" but they had too much to do.

November 16, 2008 BBC
Inadequate mental health care provision at a young offenders' institution has been criticised as scandalous by Wales' children's commissioner and an MP. Both Keith Towler and the MP Madeline Moon have demanded urgent action by the Welsh Assembly Government to address the issue at Parc Prison in Bridgend. Currently, young offenders with mental health care needs have to be sent to England to serve their sentences. The assembly government said it was committed to support young offenders. Mr Towler and Ms Moon have called on the assembly government to set up a community mental health service at Parc, the only institute for young offenders in Wales. The category B prison, Wales' only private jail, has more than 1,000 male adults and young offenders. Primary health care, such as GP services, is provided to the private prison by Primecare, but other health services such as dealing with serious and enduring mental illnesses are the Welsh Assembly Government's responsibility. "Parc Prison has never had an in-reach mental health service - a child and adolescent mental health service - reaching into the prison and we have a serious problem here," Ms Moon told the BBC's Politics Show Wales. "Parc was opened specifically so that Welsh youngsters could serve their sentence in Wales as close to their families and communities. "Those most needy youngsters with mental health problems have had to be sent to England," she added. Ms Towler agreed with Ms Moon's view that the situation was a national disgrace. "These are children in need regardless of their behaviour and they deserve a response that can meet that mental health requirement," said Mr Towler. "The stark fact is that we do not have those resources available. "It is a scandal," he added. Levels of serious mental health illnesses are believed to be higher among young offenders and female prisoners, according to professionals working in mental health care. Reports dating back to 2002 have outlined concern of a lack of adequate mental health care.

August 22, 2008 BBC
A father on remand accused of murdering his baby son has been found hanged in his prison cell, it has been revealed. David Cushing, 35, from Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly county was in Parc Prison, Bridgend on remand awaiting trial for the murder of four-week-old Alexander. Mr Cushing was found hanging from a door last Saturday, three days before he was due at Cardiff Crown Court. An investigation has been launched but a South Wales Police spokesman said there were no suspicious circumstances. Police investigating Mr Cushing's last Saturday death said he was not high-risk and was not on suicide watch by prison officers.

April 13, 2008 Wales on Sunday
AN OFFICIAL report has uncovered “serious failings” at a prison pharmacy where a health chief was suspended last year after prescription drugs went missing. The damning report into HM Prison Parc, in Bridgend, also reveals how prescription drugs intended for inmates had gone missing inside the jail. The conclusions come just months after Wales on Sunday exposed how healthcare manager Rachel Bourne had been suspended following the disappearance of medical drugs. It has now emerged that Ms Bourne has been reinstated, but a second, unnamed person was still suspended pending an investigation. An unannounced inspection back in October revealed “several irregularities” in the pharmacy’s management at the prison, for remanded and sentenced 15 to 18-year-olds. Chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers wrote: “We identified serious failings with the pharmacy that required immediate rectification.” * Private prescriptions were being dispensed for staff; * medicines sent to wing treatment rooms had not been received and some medications no longer required on wings were left outside the pharmacy and then “went missing”; * policies covering use of the out of hours medicines cupboard were not followed; Ms Bourne, who was contracted to work for the jail through the national independent health firm Primecare, was at the centre of an inquiry into the disappearance of vital medication for prisoners stored in the healthcare wing. Following the discovery, Primecare carried out a full investigation into the claims, which were made public by the guards at the jail. A spokeswoman for G4SJustice Services Limited, which manages Parc, said Ms Bourne has since been reinstated. “Allegations were investigated by Primecare as part of their disciplinary process. “We are happy with how they conducted the investigation and happy with the outcome,” she said. The prison report made a series of recommendations, including ensuring that the pharmacy door remained locked at all times, and that medicines should remain locked up. Other failings at the prison included inadequate mental health provision and healthcare beds being used to separate badly behaved young people, which was considered “an inappropriate use of scarce specialist accommodation”. But Ms Owers added: “Our inspection found that the unit was now more settled and was providing a reasonably safe and respectful environment, with plenty of purposeful activity and a sound approach to resettlement.” Parc is a category B training prison, which is managed by private firm, Group 4 Securicor (G4S). A spokeswoman for G4S Justice Services Limited said all recommendations, which fall within Parc’s jurisdiction, have been carried out. “For those, which do not fall within our control, the relevant parties have been provided within the information to act where necessary,” she said.

March 5, 2008 IC Wales
VIOLENT attacks at a privately-run prison leapt by more than a third, according to official statistics. There were 315 violent incidents at Parc Prison, Bridgend, last year, compared with 241 the previous 12 months – a rise of 35 per cent. Eight-five per cent of all assaults in Wales’ four prisons took place at Parc, which is home to sex offenders and youths, as well as adult non-sexual offenders. Meanwhile, attacks at Cardiff jail, Adamsdown, almost halved from 47 in 2006 to 25 last year. The figures were released in a Parliamentary answer to Cardiff Central MP and Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Jenny Willott. She said: “It is completely unacceptable that in Welsh prisons, there is at least one violent incident every day and that one in seven inmates is a victim of prison violence. “How can we expect offenders to be rehabilitated within the penal system if they are exposed to such high levels of violence? These figures suggest there is a real risk they may become more dangerous criminals than when they went in.” Parc, which opened in November 1997, houses more than 1,100 inmates. It is Wales’ only private prison and is managed by Group 4 Securicor. A spokeswoman said all incidents of violence were recorded, “from the very minor to the major”, but she said there were very few incidents of serious violence. She said young offenders at Parc meant the institution had more incidents. She also said national prisons’ overcrowding impacted on figures. The spokeswoman said: “The high-risk nature of Parc’s population, added to the complexity of offenders housed, which includes adults, young offenders and young people, make it impossible to make any comparisons to any other Welsh establishments.

December 2, 2007 Wales on Sunday
UNDER-FIRE Parc Prison faces more questions this weekend after it emerged almost 1,400 prisoners managed to self-harm while held there in the past five years. Astonishing figures released to Wales on Sunday revealed that seven out of every 10 prisoners found to be self-harming in Welsh jails had done so at Parc. Prison bosses have defended the figures, insisting it is unfair to compare it with other jails. But prison reform campaigners said inmates’ mental state should be monitored more closely, while Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan, who obtained the figures, blamed it on the strain put on jails due to overcrowding. A total of 1,393 prisoners have self-harmed in Parc Prison since the start of 2003. That was out of a total of 2,013 across Wales’ five jails, according to figures held by the Department of Justice. One had killed himself. Cardiff Prison recorded 351 incidents of self-harming, Swansea 264 and Usk and Prescoed four between them. Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said prisoners should be monitored more carefully for signs they could self-harm.

December 2, 2007 Wales on Sunday
SHADOW Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan is to hold talks with Parc Prison bosses Group 4 Securicor after failing to get the answers she wanted on their huge number of sacked officers. She is set to meet with the firm later this month after the Department of Justice was unable to answer questions about what disciplinary proceedings were taken against staff and whether criminal charges or prosecutions followed their dismissals. In addition, numbers kept by the Government on reasons for dismissal did not tally with the actual number of those sacked. Ms Gillan said: “I want to know exactly what happens to these officers and have got an appointment to see G4. “I want to know how prisons can operate functionally if there are no records kept on officers disciplined. They can then go and get a job elsewhere. “And the numbers of reasons for dismissals don’t add up to the number of dismissals in the original answer, so the Government can’t even get that right. Once again it just shows what a shambles this government is in.” Delyn MP David Hanson, a Justice Minister, said: “Disciplinary proceedings cease once a member of staff has been dismissed from service. “The Prison Service does not maintain records of criminal charges or prosecutions that are instigated against a former employee.” The reasons figures on the number of dismissals and reasons for those dismissals did not tally was “due to a difference between the local and central records held at Her Majesty’s prison and young offenders institution Parc,” he explained. A spokesman for Group 4 Securicor confirmed the company was to meet with the MP.

December 2, 2007 Wales on Sunday
A WARDEN who was sacked from Bridgend’s Parc Prison today claims there is a culture of bullying among prisoners and staff. Now the guard plans to take the company which runs the prison, Group 4 Securicor (G4S), to a tribunal claiming wrongful dismissal. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted Wales on Sunday following our revelation that shadow Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan is asking questions about the running of the private jail. She has demanded answers over Parc’s record of sacking 42 officers in the past 10 years. The former warden, who insists he holds an unblemished 10-year employment record, claims staff disputes with management explain the prison’s high turnover. But G4S have strongly denied the claims, saying: “The management team at Parc upholds rigorous standards of employee behaviour and expects its officers to act responsibility and professionally at all times. We do not tolerate bullying or harassment of any kind.” The warden, a former Royal Welsh Fusilier, was sacked for gross misconduct in July over allegations he sexually harassed a female guard while on duty. But he claims that was not true and that charges were brought because he complained about the prison’s “bullying culture”. Now, as he prepares for his tribunal, citing wrongful dismissal and victimisation, the married guard explains: “I’m one of the officers that was dismissed this year. I was dismissed for gross misconduct following a complaint by a female member of staff. “I believe the allegation was made because I gave evidence about a member of staff who was bullying others. Because of the allegations made against me, I feel I have been labelled a sex offender.” The guard says he received five commendations for prisoner care during his time at Parc, including one for saving a prisoner’s life who attempted suicide. He said: “When I was dismissed I was two months’ short of my 10th anniversary,” he said. “I was one of the 350 staff who opened the jail in November 1997. I was never disciplined in all this time until this disciplinary and was sacked for not owning up to something I didn’t do.” The prison, which has a history of racism and poor management, has dismissed eight officers this year alone – just one less than the total figure of all the other Welsh jails combined have in an entire decade. And the guard said: “Staff don’t like the way they are treated by management. They feel there is a lack of training. Some don’t want to be there. They are trained for half a day, once a week. They don’t feel they’re learning anything. It’s about time the Assembly looked at what was going on. I have lost my livelihood. I have been accused of something I haven’t done.” On Friday, G4S said bullying was not tolerated at Parc but refused to comment on the guard’s forthcoming tribunal.

November 18, 2007 Wales on Sunday
A WELSH MP has demanded answers after shock new figures showed Bridgend’s Parc Prison has sacked an astonishing 42 officers in the past 10 years. Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan, who obtained the figures, said she would be seeking to find out exactly why the figure was so high. The private prison, which has a history of racism and poor management, has dismissed eight officers this year alone – just one less than the total figure of all the other Welsh jails combined have in an entire decade. But a spokesperson for Group 4 Securicor, which runs the jail, said it simply “reflects the facility’s stringent disciplinary policy”. Ms Gillan said: “I need to know why so many people have been dismissed by Parc Prison. “How many disciplinary proceedings followed the dismissals of prison officers? What were the reasons? “Something has gone badly wrong and I want to know why. So far I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it. “I think questions need to be asked. Also, I think we need to find out what the outcomes were.” The prison provides more than 1,000 places for adults, young offenders and non-convicted juveniles. The figures have led to fears the prison could have reverted to the turbulent years it experienced after opening in 1997. It was criticised in a Prison Inspectorate report in 1999 when it emerged a racist group with links to the Ku Klux Klan were virtually running an entire wing and management had to avoid housing black prisoners there. One inmate had pictures of Hitler and newspaper cuttings about racist attacks pushed under his cell door. In 2004 it was rated the worst performing privately-run prison in Wales and England. Last year it failed to meet inspection tests and in the past five years there have been three changes in management at Parc. Six officers were dismissed in 1999 and five in 2000, but numbers dropped to one or two a year between 2001 and 2004. But in 2005 nine officers were sacked in one year and six more were dismissed last year. In comparison, in the whole of the past 10 years, Cardiff Prison has sacked six officers, Swansea two and Usk just one. The prison does not recognise the Prison Officers Association, the main union for prison workers. The spokesperson for Group 4 insisted it just treated ill-discipline more seriously than at other prisons. “We can confirm that 42 officers have been dismissed from Parc Prison over a period of 10 years,” he said. “This figure reflects the facility’s stringent disciplinary policy. G4S upholds rigorous standards of employee behaviour and expects its officers to act responsibly and professionally at all times. “All dismissals are conducted in accordance with G4S HR Policies which take account of all appropriate employment legislation. G4S works to ensure that Parc operates to the highest standards that have been established by the Ministry of Justice.” Imran Hussain, of the Prison Reform Trust, said private prisons such as Parc tended to take on “inexperienced” officers who may not be up to scratch on disciplinary offences. “Private prisons like Parc tend to have less experienced staff and a higher turnover – that’s a point both the Chief Inspector of Prisons and the National Audit Office have made,” he said. “Places with a higher turnover add to the stress of already undervalued and overworked prison officers but also makes it much harder to secure a safe environment for prisoners.”

August 1, 2007 BBC News
The presence of mentally ill prisoners in HMP Parc, Wales's only private jail is a "constant concern," according to a new report. The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said it was also concerned there was no psychiatrist who specialised in young people with mental illness. However, the report commended the company which runs Parc, Group 4 Securicor (G4S) on recent improvements. Parc, near Bridgend, has around 1,110 places for adults and young offenders. The IMB, which monitors the state of prison premises and the treatment of inmates, issued the report covering the period between March 2006 and February 2007. Deportation -- According to its findings, there were more than 80 referrals of prisoners with mental healthcare needs between March and November 2006. Also in November 2006 a mental health team at Parc treated 52 cases, the majority of them adults. Both the IMB and G4S voiced an "urgent need" for a dedicated "young offenders own interest" unit in south Wales. John Homfray, chair of the Independent Monitoring Board at the jail, said the 15-place health care facility was used like a "cupboard" to keep mentally ill patients. He told Radio Wales: "What happens is that if somebody goes on a normal wing and is found to be mentally ill - and therefore can't cope properly on that wing or causes terrible disruptions - then they get transferred to health care.

November 2, 2006 IC Wales
A prisoner 'pretending' to be ill attacked his guards and tried to escape while being checked over in the middle of a busy hospital. The HM Prison Parc inmate caused chaos when he lashed out in the middle of the Princess of Wales Hospital casualty department, in Bridgend. During the scuffle, a chain was wrapped around the prison officer's neck. Hospital staff, ambulance crews and by-standers raced to help the prison officers as they fought to bring the man under control during what jail bosses have confirmed was an attempted security breach. A spokeswoman for Group 4 Securicor Justice Services, which runs Parc Prison in Bridgend, said: 'There was an attempted security breach by an adult male. 'The prompt actions of prison and hospital staff ensured this attempt was unsuccessful. The individual concerned remains in lawful custody.'

August 9, 2006 24Dash.com
A privately-run prison which has had three changes of director in four years and recently allowed an inmate on remand to walk free by mistake, has been criticised in a report released today. A HM Chief Inspector of Prisons report found that HMP & YOI Parc in Bridgend, south Wales, was unable to meet the inspectorate's tests of safety, respect and purposeful activity. But it noted that the prison was moving forward under a new director. The Category B prison, which houses around 900 convicted men and convicted or on-remand young offenders, recently hit the headlines for allowing 20-year-old Martin Burnell to walk free on July 4. Burnell, 20, who was in custody for alleged muggings, was eventually recaptured by police later that month. The prison, which opened in November 1997 and is the only private prison in Wales, is managed by Group 4 Securicor Custodial Services on behalf of the Prison Service. Inspectors found during their visit between January 9 and 13 that although Parc was not unsafe and there were relatively low levels of use of force and segregation, serious faults emerged. They expressed concern that reception, first night and induction procedures were weak; there were gaps in the management and support for prisoners at risk of self-harm or suicide; and a good violence-reduction strategy was not being operated properly on the wings, nor were managers monitoring this. Other major concerns included officers on lightly staffed units not being able to routinely engage with prisoners, black and ethnic prisoners having an even more negative perception of the jail than their white counterparts and a lack of evidence of an action plan to deal with issues raised in the recent critical Commission for Racial Equality investigation. Inspectors also noticed that although prisoners were out of their cells for up to 11 hours a day with many attending workshops, there was little work achieved. On one morning, it was observed that only 6 of the 69 prisoners in workshops were actually working; and there was little work-skills training. Inspectors reserved praise for the prison's juvenile unit which they said was "well run and focused on the needs of young people." They said the unit's training planning was done well, and staff engaged positively with the young men there. Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said: "Though this was a disappointing inspection, we were clear that the prison was moving forward under a new director. "The pockets of good practice show what can be achieved, given motivation, leadership and resources. "But it is of some concern that Securicor, who managed the prison, and the Office for Contracted Prisons, had not taken decisive action earlier to halt and reverse the drift downwards. "Parc can be a significant resource for Wales. But its role needs to be clarified, and its contract examined to ensure that it provides the right incentives and sufficient resources for that role. "There is now a Director of Offender Management for Wales, with direct oversight of Parc, and we would urge that she and her team undertake that task with some urgency, to ensure that progress this time is sustained and developed." Sian West, acting Director of Offender Management for Wales, said: "I am satisfied that the report is a fair and accurate reflection of Parc prison at the time the inspection took place." She added: "I firmly trust that this progress will be maintained into the future and will be working closely with Parc over the coming months to monitor that progress." Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Inconsistent leadership, as the prison has got through three directors since the last inspection, seems to be the main reason for Parc's slide downhill. "The Chief Inspector's detailed report of its failure to meet the tests of a healthy prison should now enable Parc to move forward." Jerry Knight, Custody and Rehabilitation Director for Group 4 Securicor Justice Services, said: "We have taken various steps to action the recommendations in the report to ensure that the continued improvement of HMP & YOI Parc is sustained. "Within the past six months, the Prison Service has published performance tables which, when considering improvements, placed Parc 9th out of 134 establishments in England and Wales." He added: "The report acknowledges that solid foundations are in place at Parc to sustain performance improvements in the future."

July 19, 2006 BBC
An investigation has been launched at the privately-run Parc Prison at Bridgend after an alleged mugger was freed by mistake before trial. Martin Burnell, 20, from St Mellons in Cardiff, was on remand in connection with seven city street robberies. He is alleged to have robbed teenage boys and young women of mobile phones and cash in a week-long crime spree. Prison officials said he was released from custody "in error". A judge has issued a warrant for his arrest. Martin Burnell was released on 4 July after spending 10 weeks on remand. But the mistake was only spotted when his case came up at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday.

July 1, 2006 BBC
A 20-year-old man has been discovered hanged in a single-person cell at a south Wales prison. Parc Prison at Bridgend, a category B jail, said the man was pronounced dead at 0520 BST on Thursday. South Wales Police are investigating and the prison is carrying out an internal inquiry. Group 4 Securicor, which runs the prison, confirmed the death and said: "We have informed his family and offered our condolences". An inquest is due to be opened. Parc houses about 900 adult prisoners and young offenders, including those on remand. It has been open eight-and-a-half years and is Wales' only privately-run prison.

Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, York County, Pennsylvania
January 6, 2009 Chicago Tribune
Federal energy regulators have proposed a $65,000 penalty for Exelon Corp. after guards at the utility holding company's nuclear plant in Pennsylvania were seen napping on the job. Exelon terminated its contract with security service provider Wackenhut Corp. in 2007 and shifted to an in-house team, not long after Wackenhut security officers at Exelon's Peach Bottom plant were videotaped dozing while on duty. The tapes showed the armed guards taking brief naps in the nuclear plant's "ready room," where they are free to relax when not on patrol but must be ready to respond if called. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched a review of procedures at the plant in September 2007, after learning of the existence of video recordings, the NRC noted Tuesday. The investigation, completed in July, found "multiple occasions" in which guards were "inattentive" and other guards had failed to tell their supervisors about the behavior. Chicago-based Exelon "has made wide-ranging changes to its security program at Peach Bottom and at other plants it owns as a result of these events," the NRC noted Tuesday, in a release that pointedly didn't use the words "nap" or "sleep." The commission said it will continue to emphasize that "inattentiveness on the part of those charged with the vital task of protecting and operating our nuclear power plants [is] completely unacceptable."

February 28, 2008 AP
The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged Thursday that more should have been done to thoroughly investigate a tip that security guards routinely took naps while on the job at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant. It wasn’t until a videotape of guards sleeping in a “ready room” at the Peach Bottom plant in south-central Pennsylvania surfaced several months later that the NRC announced in September a special investigation. The tip was in the form of a letter, which the NRC received last spring from a former employee who was writing on behalf of current employees. After the NRC received the letter, it allowed the Exelon Corp., owner of the plant, to investigate the allegations. In doing so, Exelon found no evidence that guards were taking nap breaks. NRC Chairman Dale Klein testified Thursday during a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee hearing that one reason may be because there was collusion by the guards to sleep during their shifts. He said the letter’s author asked not to be contacted, and Klein said the agency made a mistake by honoring that request. “We were not as rigorous as we should have been,” said Klein, adding that the NRC is taking action to prevent similar problems at all nuclear plants. After the videotape surfaced, Exelon Corp. fired the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Wackenhut Corp. as its security guard provider at Peach Bottom and its other plants. While acknowledging there was wrongdoing, company and nuclear oversight officials at the hearing sought to minimize the risk that the sleeping guards posed. Christopher Crane, Exelon’s chief operating officer, said the guards in the ready room were not at a guard post, but were instead in a staging area to assist other guards if there was an incident. The company has 17 reactors at 10 plants nationwide in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said the event was inexcusable, and he was concerned there was a culture at the plant that discouraged employees from coming forward to report problems. He said the NRC had reported a “white” finding for the incident based on their agency’s color-coded threat analysis, which means the sleeping guards presented a low to moderate threat.

January 20, 2008 York Daily Record
U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, said federal officials should have taken a closer look into initial claims that Wackenhut Corp. security guards had been sleeping on the job at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. A more comprehensive investigation into the plant's security problems alleged in a March letter drafted by John Jasinski to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission may have uncovered other evidence of guard inattentiveness, he said. "They should have erred on the side of a greater investigation," Platts said. "Given the information that there was a breach, they should have had broader look into all layers of security." In March, Jasinski, a former head of Wackenhut Corp. security at the power station, sent a letter to the NRC that described how guards had witnessed other officers sleeping inside the plant's bullet-resistant enclosures, or guard towers, and other areas at the plant. Commission and plant officials both looked into Jasinski's claims, but were not able to substantiate the allegations, said Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman. "In regards to the letter," he said, "there was not a lot of tangible proof that guards were inattentive in the guard towers." While the commission wasn't able to tackle evidence of security problems at the plant, Kerry Beal, a former Wackenhut officer, did record his fellow guards sleeping in a secure location within the power station. Between March and August, Beal videotaped members of security team sleeping in the plant's ready room. In September, CBS News aired Beal's videos which eventually led to the plant terminating its contract with Wackenhut and creating a new in-house force, Exelon Nuclear Security. In the wake of Beal's recording, both the NRC and Exelon launched investigations to find out why guards couldn't keep their eyes open while on duty. "When the video did come out," Sheehan said, "we had tangible proof that guards were inattentive instead of a letter that made vague assertions that guards had been inattentive in the towers." But some lawmakers have taken issue with the NRC's response to the power station's security failures and have committed to conducting reviews of how the commission handled the situation. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement that the NRC's failure to act on "credible allegations of sleeping security guards" has raised troubling questions. "It appears that there has been a systematic failure, by both NRC officials and the nuclear plant licensee, to ensure that these high-risk facilities are secure and employees are not discouraged from expressing concerns about safety," he said. Next month, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee will meet with NRC officials to discuss the issue. Also, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has requested that the Committee on Environment and Public Works hold a federal field hearing that would focus on the recent security lapses at the power station.

December 14, 2007 Patriot-News
Wackenhut, one of the largest security firms in the world, just lost its contract to protect 10 nuclear power plants. One of them was Three Mile Island. The company can blame it all on a simple video tape that documented about 10 of its employees sleeping on the job at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County. Chicago-based Exelon Corp., owner of the TMI, Peach Bottom and Limerick plants in Pennsylvania, released a statement today saying it would not renew its contracts with the security firm when they expire next year. Instead, Exelon will take responsibility for plant security in house. Exelon fired Wackenhut from Peach Bottom shortly after the video tape was made public in late September. Today's announcement severs Exelon's relationship with the security company at all of its plants by July of 2008.

December 4, 2007 AP
A former plant operator suggested "brutal" 12-hour shifts made guards inattentive at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. "Your body is not designed to work 12 hours a day," Robert Hall said at a public meeting Monday at the nearby Peach Bottom Inn. "The schedule is brutal. It's a killer." Peach Bottom spokeswoman Bernadette Lauer said plant security officers overwhelmingly elected to work the 12-hour shifts, however. The meeting was held to discuss U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission follow-up inspections on security officer attentiveness at the plant. Between March and August, Wackenhut security officer Kerry Beal videotaped fellow security officers napping in the plant's ready room. Guards in the ready room are allowed to read, study or relax, but are expected to remain ready to respond to a plant emergency. The power station has terminated its contract with Wackenhut and put its own security force, Exelon Nuclear Security, in place on Nov. 1. NRC officials and Exelon Nuclear representatives met to discuss follow-up inspections the NRC has been conducting. The agency sent a team in September to evaluate security. That inspection confirmed guards had been sleeping on the job and the ready room had been dimly lit and poorly ventilated and provided little to stimulate the officers. The plant has improved temperature control and installed a computer the officers can use. A second team visited Nov. 5. Among other findings, the team found Exelon failed to provide proper oversight of its former Wackenhut security force, and communication among officers was weak, NRC security inspector Dana Caron said. Supervisors discouraged security officers from reporting inattentiveness, Caron said.

October 30, 2007 The Patriot-News
The Wackenhut security officer who used a video camera to expose sleeping co-workers at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station will not be allowed to keep his job when plant owner Exelon takes over security operations at the York County facility. Kerry Beal, who lives in southern Lancaster County, was notified by mail Saturday that his application for a position with the Exelon-led force at Peach Bottom was being turned down. “We regret to inform you that you do not meet the selection criteria established for a position with Exelon Nuclear Security at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station,” said the letter, signed by Matthew Smith, manager of site human resources at Peach Bottom. Beal’s video resulted in investigations by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Exelon. The NRC, which licenses commercial nuclear plants, concluded that as many as 10 security officers employed by the global security firm Wackenhut slept while on duty, a violation of federal licensing regulations. Exelon responded by firing Wackenhut from Peach Bottom and launching a review of its contracts with the company at nine other plants, including Three Mile Island and Limerick. Exelon announced it would take over responsibility for security at Peach Bottom and would allow Wackenhut employees to apply to keep their jobs. Wackenhut’s last day at Peach Bottom is today. None of the 10 officers identified in the video will be hired by Exelon, said Bernadette Lauer, a company spokeswoman. Lauer said Beal’s decision to video tape co-workers and later release the video to WCBS-TV in New York city, were not factors in the company’s decision to turn down his application. “We’re grateful that he raised the issue so we can address it,” she said. “But it had nothing to do with him not being hired by Exelon.” Beal’s attorney, David Wachtel, said his client was disappointed and concerned about his future. “We will get all the facts and see what to do,” Wachtel said, but added that “it looks like retaliation.” If so, Beal could file a claim of discrimination under the Energy Reorganization Act. The act prohibits employers from firing or discriminating against workers who refuse to engage in any practice prohibited under the ERA or the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan would not comment on Exelon’s decision to reject Beal’s application. Beal filmed members of a security team at Peach Bottom sleeping in a “ready room” at the plant on four occasions between February and August. The NRC, which is continuing to investigate, issued a subpoena for the hard drive of Beal’s personal computer. The subpoena is being challenged by his attorneys.

October 5, 2007 York Dispatch
A March letter to the federal agency charged with oversight of Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station warned of security guards sleeping while on duty. Because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission knew about the issues and did nothing, an unnamed security guard videotaped his colleagues sleeping at the nuclear power plant in June, said Peter Stockton, a senior investigator for the national watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, or POGO. "The NRC knew about this, about the problems at Peach Bottom way before the videotape became news," Stockton said. "They knew about it and did nothing." The tape, which aired on WCBS in New York, showed guards nodding off while on duty. It prompted power plant operator Exelon to fire its security provider, Wackenhut. And the tape set off an investigation by the NRC, which concluded last week. The NRC and Exelon will hold a public meeting to discuss the incident at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Peach Bottom Inn at 6085 Delta Road in Peach Bottom Township. Letter from former employee: The March letter, written by a former employee of Peach Bottom, said security guards were exhausted and fatigued after working excessive over-time and having difficulty adjusting to 12-hour shifts. As a result, guards were taking "power naps which last 10 to 15 minutes or longer." The former employee wrote the letter on behalf of some security guards, who feared reprisal if they came forward, Stockton said. "The officers are becoming very adept at coordinating amongst themselves. Officers fall asleep quickly while on duty and are able to wake momentarily when called for radio checks and then fall right back to sleep," the letter said. POGO provided the letter, but withheld the former employee's name. The NRC confirmed the authenticity of the letter, and that an agency inspector on site at Peach Bottom had received it. "We did not ignore the concerns, we looked at them," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC's Region 1, which includes Peach Bottom. "Resident inspectors are trained to watch for those issues and when we get an allegation, we also convey it to the company." However, Sheehan said "based on the information we were provided at the time, we were unable to substantiate the concern." Guards knew: Security guards knew the NRC's methods for identifying personnel sleeping on duty, according to the letter, which included contacting Wackenhut and informing them of complaints prior to taking any investigatory actions. "They know how the NRC and licensee operate and feel no one wants to really find out if anyone is sleeping, because they already know they are," the former employee wrote in March. "Our moral and religious obligations have been met and only you can decide whether you will act accordingly or hide behind policies and procedures that have proven ineffective in the past." U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, said he is "disconcerted" with the reports he has seen. The NRC agreed to give a special briefing to Platts and U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., he said. "I will be looking for not just what went wrong at the plant, but also what the NRC did with the information it had," Platts said. Sheehan said while the NRC will discuss the investigation next week, it could be until the end of October that it releases any possible penalties assessed on Exelon.

September 25, 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer
Exelon Corp., the nation's largest producer of nuclear energy, said yesterday that it was moving to terminate a contract with Wackenhut Corp. to provide security at Exelon's Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station after reviewing videos of guards "nodding off or sleeping" at the York County, Pa., power plant. Alerted by a reporter from New York's WCBS-TV, both Exelon and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said last week that they were investigating security at the Susquehanna River plant. Chris Crane, chief operating officer of Exelon Generation, said that station representatives showed the videos to Exelon officials on Friday and that Exelon quickly decided to end Wackenhut's role at the plant. Peach Bottom is one of 10 sites where Exelon produces energy from 17 nuclear reactors. "This is not acceptable, and we will not tolerate it," Crane said in a statement. "I want to be clear that nothing has happened at Peach Bottom that represents a security or safety threat to the public. We are dealing with unacceptable behavior, and we will fix it." In a conference call with reporters, Crane said the videos had been taken by a Wackenhut security officer over the course of several months, starting in February. Crane said the guards shown to be inattentive were not responsible for patrolling the plant, but were on duty in a "ready room" so they could respond immediately if a security threat was detected. Crane said the video raised concerns about Wackenhut's performance. He said Exelon planned to review the contractor's role throughout Exelon's nuclear facilities, for which Wackenhut has provided security since 1999. Exelon also owns Philadelphia's Peco Energy Co. A spokesman said Wackenhut does not provide security to Peco. Crane said the video of the guards "clearly shows behaviors that are not tolerable." Guards in the room are allowed to read while on duty, or to use training programs on computer terminals, but are required to stay awake and alert, he said. Peach Bottom guards are paid $18.78 to $21.32 an hour, Exelon said. Crane said that while the problem was apparently limited to one of four security crews, it was worrisome that the videos had been taken over several months. "If this has been going on on a crew for a period of time, it's got to have some tacit acceptance in that crew," he said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has two resident inspectors at Peach Bottom, said Thursday that it was sending a five-member team to assess plant security and Exelon's response to the situation. "We continue to believe the site is secure," Samuel J. Collins, the NRC's regional administrator, said in a statement. Plant personnel are required to report security lapses, but it is unclear whether the guard who recorded his sleeping colleagues had done so. "The employee says he has, but there is no corroborating evidence," Crane said. Exelon said the guards involved - "fewer than 10," a spokesman said - had been barred from the site, pending completion of Wackenhut's own investigation. Crane said Wackenhut was providing replacement personnel to augment the plant's security force. Based in Florida, Wackenhut is a subsidiary of G4S P.L.C., a British-based multinational that calls itself "the world's leading provider of security solutions." Marc Shapiro, a G4S senior vice president, said Wackenhut was confident its investigation would show the Peach Bottom problem to be isolated. "We know this is an anomaly, and not representative of our company," Shapiro said. Activist groups have long complained that nuclear plants pose large security risks. The issue gained new prominence after the 9/11 attacks raised concerns that terrorists could build a so-called "dirty bomb": a conventional device that would spread toxic nuclear materials. The NRC has periodically cited nuclear-plant operators for security lapses. Last month, an NRC inspector found an armed guard asleep at a gate outside the Indian Point nuclear generating station in Buchanan, N.Y., about 35 miles north of New York. Indian Point is operated by Entergy Corp. of New Orleans, the nation's second-largest nuclear operator.

Polk Youth Development Center (AKA Sabal Palm Alternative School), Polk City, Florida
May 19, 2008 Lakeland Ledger
A 350-bed correctional facility previously used to house juveniles is being renovated into an adult prison capable of holding nearly 400 prisoners, and inmates could begin moving in as early as July. The former Polk Youth Development Center east of Polk City will house inmates who are trusted to work off site under supervision, assisting in road construction, maintenance and litter patrol, said Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman at the state Department of Corrections. Not every inmate will have the security clearance to work off site, but most will, she said. The Florida Legislature this year approved $4.8 million for remodeling and staffing the facility, Plessinger said. In January the development center - which had been one of the state's largest juvenile jails - was closed permanently, capping a history marred by faulty equipment, chronic mold and environmental safety hazards, and even inmate abuse at the hands of poorly trained guards. Formerly operated by the Department of Juvenile Justice, the DOC's acquisition of the facility at 10980 Demilly Road is fueled by Florida's booming inmate population. Currently, there are 97,099 inmates in Florida's prisons and another 156,616 offenders on community supervision, up from 72,432 inmates and 153,477 supervised offenders in 2002. That's a 34 percent increase in the prison population in the last six years, and the numbers are expected to climb. "Based on continued upward trends in inmate population growth, the department would greatly benefit by the addition of these beds," James McDonough, the DOC's former secretary, wrote in a Jan. 22 letter to the Governor's Office, seeking acquisition of the Polk Youth Development Center and Sago Palm, another juvenile facility in Pahokee. "Collectively, the acquisition of these facilities offers an additional 500 to 600 beds at a fraction of the cost necessary to completely construct a new correctional facility," said McDonough, who has since resigned as DOC secretary. Walter McNeil, a former DJJ secretary and Tallahassee police chief, was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist to replace McDonough. Unlike a regular prison with cells housing up to two inmates each, the work camp will be more like a dormitory, with multiple bunk beds in an open setting allowing for more capacity. Management of the facility will fall to the superintendent of Glades Correctional Institution in Palm Beach County. Under the DJJ, the Polk City youth jail suffered years of neglect. Things got so bad early in 2005 that the Polk School District pulled its teachers and staff, who complained of breathing difficulties attributed to mold, dirty, old carpets, and other health hazards contributing to poor air quality. At the time, the jail was managed by Securicor New Century, a private contractor, which blamed problems on the previous contractor, Premier Behavioral Solutions, as well as a lack of state funding. Teachers eventually returned to the jail after numerous repairs were made in April 2005, but the School District ceased teaching juvenile inmates in early January, just before its closing. A June 2006 Ledger examination revealed a number of other problems at the detention center, including: Inadequate staffing. Nonexistent vocational programs caused by a lack of air conditioning. Tattered bedding and linens. Poor food quality. Chronic roof leaks. Few incentives to promote good behavior or build self-esteem among inmates. Such problems, along with allegations of physical abuse, motivated dozens of offenders - some as young as 14 - to complain through Florida's abuse hot line. Many of their complaints were unfounded, but some warranted investigations by the Department of Children & Families. The DCF refused to release its findings under the state's privacy laws protecting juveniles, but the DJJ made public some examples of physical abuse uncovered by the investigation, such as adult workers punching and kicking inmates and failing to log such incidents. Advocates for children, along with the DJJ, attributed many of the problems to the large size of the detention center, as well as the severity of emotional and mental problems of the youths housed there. Rex Uberman, the DJJ's assistant secretary for residential services, did not return telephone calls seeking comment for this story. But the DOC's Plessinger said the size of the facility more than likely contributed to its closing. "I think the Legislature wanted DJJ to focus on smaller facilities," she said.

April 27, 2007 Polk County Democrat
A 34-year-old Polk County juvenile correctional officer was arrested Monday for having sex with a 15-year-old he met online. Irish Streeter was charged with two felony counts of lewd battery by a suspect over 18 on a victim under 16. During a two-day investigation, Special Victims Unit detectives identified a 15-year-old victim from Mulberry who engaged in sexual intercourse with Streeter after chatting with him online. Streeter admitted to detectives that he had sex with the victim but claimed he did not know her age. He was booked into the county jail without incident. Bond was set at $6,000; Streeter is out on pre-trial release. Streeter is employed by Group 4 Securicor, a private contractor under the auspices of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, to work as a correctional officer at the Polk Correctional Facility in Polk City.

June 20, 2006 The Ledger
Fights that broke out Monday at the Polk Juvenile Detention Facility have Polk County School District officials questioning whether teachers at the facility's school are safe. That means classes at Sabal Palm, the on-site alternative school operated by the School District, could shut down for the second time this year. The previous closure came after concerns were raised about mold and air quality at the school. About 30 inmates were involved in a fight Monday morning while waiting for classes to begin at Sabal Palm. Several Sabal Palm teachers helped break up the fight. Sabal Palm staff and district officials blame the outbreak on a lack of security personnel and Group 4 Securicor Youth Services (G4S) staff overseeing the facility. Polk school Superintendent Gail McKinzie canceled class after the disturbance Monday. She said she will cancel school again if there is any indication that district staff members are unsafe. "If they can't provide a safe environment for our school people there, then we will not hold class," she said. John Morgenthau, G4S's Chief Operating Officer, said that staffing is not a problem, and Monday's commotion was a normal occurrence at a facility housing more than 200 inmates. Most of the all-male inmates at PCJF, ages 14 to 21, have repeat felony convictions. About 9:30 a.m Monday a couple of the 30 or so students waiting for class began fighting. Other students joined in until it was a brawl, said Katie Brooks, a teacher's aide at Sabal Palm. Three of the male teachers helped the G4S staff break it up. The other Sabal Palm teachers and staff locked themselves in classrooms until the fighting died down, Brooks said. The Polk County Sheriff's Office was not called, sheriff's spokes-woman Donna Wood said. Monday morning was the first time Brooks said she and her colleagues felt unsafe at the school. But the disturbance was not unexpected, she added. An outbreak like Monday's was due to happen because the facility is so understaffed, she said. McKinzie agreed. She's heard reports that since last week G4S was having difficulty maintaining the mandated ratio of inmates to staff members. The facility employs a sufficient number of people, she said. But many employees have shown up for work late or not shown up at all.

June 12, 2006 The Ledger
More than two-thirds of the staff working at the Polk Juvenile Correctional Facility reported symptoms -- such as runny noses, sneezing or headaches -- related to poor indoor air quality caused by mold, according to a recent survey by the Polk County Health Department. That percentage is more than double the typical rate for a building's occupants. But the complaints aren't so severe that staff needs to evacuate the facility while the mold is removed this summer, said Wesley Nall, author of the survey and environmental supervisor for the health department. PCJF is a state-run youth detention center for more than 200 inmates, most of whom are repeat felony offenders. Inmates attend classes at an on-site school named Sabal Palm. The Polk School District provides the teachers, curriculum, technology and materials for the school. The DJJ requested a health assessment of the facility after two independent reports confirmed mold in the detention complex's buildings and poor indoor air quality. Nall conducted the review in April. In early March, the district pulled its nearly 40 teachers and employees out of Sabal Palm. The staff complained of poor indoor air quality and adverse health reactions to the mold. School began again in April with classes moved out of the mold-heavy school building into less polluted rooms on the grounds. Nall surveyed the Sabal Palm teachers, facility staff and a random sampling of inmates. He found that 97 percent of the school staff and 71 percent of the facility staff said they had complaints about the air quality. School staff complained most about stuffy air, foul odors and dust. Facility staff complained to a lesser degree about stuffiness and odors. Some facility staff members complained about cold temperatures in the building. At PCJF, the Polk school district provides the teachers and materials to run the school. The DJJ contracts with Group 4 Securicor Youth Services (G4S) to manage the school. The company also runs seven other detention sites, including Avon Park Youth Academy in South Polk. G4S is in charge of providing the guards, medical staff and general maintenance, said John Morgenthau, the company's chief operating officer. Morgenthau doesn't doubt the veracity of the health report, but he questioned how much good such an air-quality survey does. "I bet if you went into Applebee's (restaurant) and gave everyone there the same survey, you'd get the same results," he said. Still, he said G4S recognizes there is a problem at the facility and is working with the DJJ to mitigate the mold as easily as possible.

March 18, 2006 Lakeland Ledger
A myriad of air quality issues have forced the Polk County School District to indefinitely close the school at a juvenile detention center in Polk City. Sabal Palm, an alternative school located at the Polk Juvenile Correctional Facility, has not held class since March 3. A leaky roof, faulty plumbing and a shoddy air conditioner have created such a moist environment that the mold count is too high to safely continue class, said Dennis Higgins, the district's senior director for alternative education. "I couldn't in good faith not make the recommendation to take out our teachers," he said. The correctional facility is a detention center with a mental health component. It houses 205 inmates, age 14 through 21, most of whom were repeat felony offenders from throughout the state. The Polk School Board provides the school with 33 teachers, staff and administrators for the school. About 19 of the 33 filed workers' compensation claims in February, most citing respiratory problems caused by mold in the building. Two weeks ago, Higgins pulled all of his staff out of the school because he said the air quality was too poor to give teachers a safe working environment. The district hired an environmental consultant to test the air quality of the buildings. The results should be available next week, Higgins said. This isn't the first time the school has been closed. A year ago, the school shut down for two months for a similar air quality concern. "This is such a pervasive problem," Higgins said. "The Department of Juvenile Justice simply fails to adequately monitor or maintain their facilities." The Department of Juvenile Justice contracts with Group 4 Securicor Youth Services (G4S) to manage the school. The company also runs seven other detention sites, including Avon Park Youth Academy in South Polk. G4S is in charge of providing the guards, medical staff and general maintenance, said John Morgenthau, the company's chief operating officer. G4S staff does janitorial work like cleaning and changing light bulbs as well as fixing toilets and replacing ceiling tiles. The big problems -- like a chronically leaking roof, blown water heaters and boilers, and faulty air conditioners -- are left up to the Juvenile Justice Department for fixing, he said.

Port Philip Prison, Australia
June 8, 2008 The Age
A PRISONER subjected to an obscene practical joke by prison officers has won damages in a case known in prison circles as "Sausagegate". The private operator of Port Phillip Prison has agreed to pay Kirk Steven Ardern a large sum for physical and psychological injuries suffered in May 2005. The Sunday Age understands the payout is less than $100,000, but private prison operator GSL has already been fined almost $200,000 by Corrections Victoria. Ardern had been made to believe he was leaving the prison to buy doughnuts, but was then coerced into inserting what he was told was a package of contraband drugs and cash into his rectum. But he had been tricked, and was angered and humiliated after the package — a meat sausage — was revealed during a strip-search and subsequent mock interrogation. The sausage was described as being "15 to 20 centimetres long". Three prison officers suspended on full pay for six to nine months over the incident were sacked, and two others were counselled. Ardern was released on parole soon after the incident but is now at Fulham Prison, near Sale, after being jailed in October 2006 for bashing an elderly couple in their Hughesdale home. GSL Australia director of public affairs Tim Hall said the behaviour of the staff involved was inexcusable. GSL is facing a scandal in Western Australia over the death in February of a 46-year-old man who died after a four-hour trip in a sealed compartment of a police van when the outside temperature was 43 degrees. And in March, a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report found GSL had breached the human rights of five detainees it was taking from Melbourne's Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre to South Australia's Baxter facility in September 2004.

June 7, 2005 Herald Sun
THE Corrections Commissioner is awaiting the outcome of an investigation into the alleged abuse of a prisoner at Port Phillip Prison before deciding whether to penalise the prison's private operator. Two prison guards have been stood down and could face criminal charges over the incident sources describe as a practical joke gone wrong. The incident is believed to revolve around a prisoner who was coerced into internally concealing a sausage to smuggle it out of the prison on a day leave trip, before being strip searched by guards allegedly in on the joke. Two more guards could be stood down over the alleged incident. It is believed two prisoners may also be charged with a criminal offence, possibly rape. The alleged abuse victim is understood to have later learned the event was a joke on him and reported it to authorities.

December 7, 2004 The Age
Port Phillip Prison's new youth unit was a whitewash that failed to deliver promised training and counselling programs, one of its former "peer educators" said yesterday. Martin Camm, 48, said he quit his mentoring role to younger prisoners because there were too few peer educators and too many men who needed help. Mr Camm told a coroner's inquiry into the death in custody of Anthony Douglas Kennedy that peer educators were encouraged to rate as "low" the risk of their youthful charges doing harm to themselves in written assessments, or there would be more forms to fill out and the prisoners would be isolated in their cells. Mr Kennedy, 20, was found hanging from a shower fitting in Beechworth Prison on November 21, 2002, two days after he was moved from Port Phillip Prison. An attempt a week earlier to move Mr Kennedy to Beechworth was abandoned when he threatened to kill himself if he was moved. Mr Camm said only a few of the promised programs were available to prisoners and he was unable to refer Mr Kennedy, who was distressed at the loss of both his parents, to a grief and loss program. "I could not do it," he said. "There was only three or four of us as peer educators doing 75 men. It was just a whitewash. What it was portrayed to be in the media was not what it was."

A MOBILE phone has been found in a cell at the maximum security Port Phillip Prison.  The phone was found in the cell of Mark Wilcox, an inmate of the jail's Scarborough South section of the privately run Laverton prison.  It is the ninth mobile to be found at Port Phillip in the past three years and has again sparked concern at how contraband could be getting in.  A prison officer using a phone detecting device on night duty found the Nokia mobile and a charger about two weeks ago.  In October last year, the operator of Port Phillip Prison, Group 4, was warned after a string of security breaches.   Last year, career criminal Hugo Rich was found with three phones and a digital camera in his cell.   Weeks earlier, another mobile had been found with a loaded revolver and syringes in the cell of kidnapper Kevin Farrugia.  (Herald Sun)

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