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Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
December 19, 2004 Orlando Sentinel
Florida has regularly locked up many underage offenders for months or
years longer than they were told, shuffling them from program to program
and forcing them to restart their terms. It's a practice that can harm
the young people the system is supposed to help, stealing a wide swath
of their adolescence and keeping them locked up in a sometimes-violent
environment long after they might have been sent home. Often, even those
who stayed out of trouble and followed the rules were forced to start
their terms over, a six-month Orlando Sentinel investigation found. ·
The department transferred 3,631 offenders during five years, an
average of 726 a year. That, according to the department's own
calculations, was about 10 percent of its annual admissions. The
transfers extended the offenders' stays dramatically -- up to four times
longer than those who were not moved. ·
The extended stays inflated the cost of treatment at least by an
estimated $20.3 million during the five-year period studied by the
Sentinel. · In the
overwhelming majority of transfers, an offender was moved from one
privately run program to another. Children's advocates argue that all
those transfers raise serious questions about the ability of the
department to manage its programs, the bulk of them operated by private
companies. The Sentinel estimated that, during the five years it
studied, transfers cost the state an extra $20.3 million. To arrive at
that number, the paper analyzed a department database -- the most recent
available -- that tracked the comings and goings of 35,107 juvenile
offenders from fiscal 1999 through 2003. Of those, 27,882 began and
completed their treatment during the five-year period the paper
examined. And almost 10 percent were transferred at least once. Twice in
the past three years, the audit branch of the Florida Legislature
criticized DJJ for making so many transfers. The Office of Program
Policy Analysis and Government Accountability looked at the same data as
the Sentinel, except it had three instead of five years' worth. In
April, the Sentinel reported that DJJ and its contractors were
responsible for 661 confirmed cases of child abuse or neglect during
nine years, according to data provided by another state agency, the
Florida Department of Children & Families. Most of the abuse
occurred at programs run by private companies. Many of the department's
residential providers are nonprofit, but three of its top five are not.
They are Securicor New Century LLC of Richmond, Va.; Premier Behavioral
Solutions Inc. of Coral Gables; and Correctional Services Corp. of
Sarasota. Combined, they account for a third of the system's beds.
Securicor was involved in at least 792 transfers during five years,
according to DJJ data. For Premier, the number was at least 873; and
Correctional Services Corp. and an affiliate, Youth Services
International, accounted for 736. Industry executives said they
emphasize helping kids.
Forest Bank, Agecroft, UK
August 18, 2004
A GREATER Manchester prison is at breaking point - according to an
officer who has admitted trying to smuggle drugs into it. Norman
Edgerton, 40, appeared at Manchester Crown Court last week after
pleading guilty to possession of heroin with intent to supply. Now the
contents of a letter the former prison officer wrote to the judge,
Recorder Cross, have been revealed. In it, Edgerton criticises
management at the prison, which is privately run by UK Detention
Services (UKDS). The company has rejected the allegations. "It's
not good enough to give officers keys, a badge and no radio, and expect
two of them to unlock 86 inmates, run the wing, and hope all goes well.
"If officers are to have any chance of doing their job effectively
and within company regulations, they need and deserve the support and
back-up systems that are there on paper only." He claims that
officers ring in sick and quit their jobs because they feel
"helpless, stressed and can no longer cope". He also alleges
that inmates are becoming stressed at the lack of organisation on the
wings. In February, up to seven prison staff suffered memory blackouts
after their drinks were spiked during a night out. Last year, there was
a security alert after allegations that an officer supplied mobile
phones to inmates; and in 2002, an early Christmas party for prison
officers ended in a brawl with police being called. (Manchester)
Georgetown, Guyana
February 17, 2006 Stabroek News
Three Securicor employees accused of stealing over $1M after being told
to deposit the money at Scotia Bank, yesterday appeared in the
George-town Magistrate's Court. Julian Velloza, 43, of 1059 Tucville,
Victor Mc Clean, 46, of 3 George Street, Werk-en-Rust and Mark Argyle,
33, of 5 Nismes Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara were not required to
plead to the indictable charge and they were remanded to prison by
Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan. It is alleged that on January 20
the trio stole $1,002,080 from Fareeda Khan. According to the facts of
the case, the trio worked at the security firm where they were required
to pick up money from different companies and deposit it at Scotia Bank.
On the day in question they were instructed to pick up the money from
Khan and take it to the bank. When she later checked she discovered that
the money had not been deposited. A report was made and following
investigations, the three Securicor employees were arrested and charged.
Ireland
October 13, 2004 UTV Live
A Belfast judge today praised a have-a-go-hero pensioner who
wrestled an armed robber to the ground.
Crown Court Judge Norman Lockie praised the 70-year-old as he
jailed 28-year-old former soldier Richard David McCarten for 11 years
after he agreed to spend a further year on probation after his release.
Earlier the judge had heard that the plucky pensioner managed to hold
McCarten in a headlock despite his loaded pistol going off.
Prosecution lawyer Peter Magill told the court that a Securicor
guard was delivering a cash box to a bank on the Belmont Road in east
Belfast when McCarten demanded "give me the f****** box" and
pointed the modified pistol at him.
He said that as McCarten left he turned to face the guard and
again threatened him with the gun but added that as he went to walk
away, the pensioner grabbed him in a headlock with McCarten declaring
"I`ll shoot you, I`ll shoot you," and pointing the gun at his
chest. He said that during the course of the struggle, the pensioner did
receive injuries to his nose and eye as well as severe bruising to his
left leg and side.
Kampala,
Uganda
February 12, 2005 The
Monitor
Since the Monday theft of Shs700 million that was in transit from
Stanbic bank, police has mounted a manhunt across the border into Kenya
and Tanzania. Police
suspect the Securicor Gray guards stole the money they were transporting
in a bullion van. This is the first heist involving a financial
institution after a long lull, and we can only hope it is not the tip of
the robber's wedge. Unfortunately, the private security firms
that some banks hire to secure the money are proving to be unreliable.
Private security firms proliferated when the public lost confidence in
the ability of the regular police to secure their life and property as
the spate of crimes rose to unprecedented levels. The private security
firms filled the void by hiring former soldiers, paramilitaries, and
policemen without proper screening in some cases. We are now reaping the
fruits of this unsupervised recruitment. Early this year Police revealed
that private security organisations lead in commission of crimes among
the security groups. Of 187 cases of reported crimes that were committed
by security organisations, private security groups committed 100, police
44 cases, UPDF 36 and prisons one case. They committed mainly murder by
shooting, robbery, theft, corruption and bribery. Police said it would
improve on investigations into the operations of private security
organisations. Uganda
is not alone in this.
Metro
Juvenile Detention Center, Nashville, Tennessee
May 28, 2005 Tennessean
A Metro Juvenile Detention Center employee was arrested at Two Rivers
Park late Thursday night, accused of soliciting a 16-year-old former
detainee for sex, police said yesterday. Damon Huddleston, 28, of
Stewarts Ferry Pike and the male teenager were spotted in the park
around 2 a.m., before anything happened, police said. Officers found a
fully loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol in the glove compartment
of Huddleston's car, Metro police department officials said. Huddleston
is being held at Metro Jail in lieu of $57,500 bond. He has been charged
with soliciting a minor to have sex, unlawful handgun possession and
contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Huddleston is employed by
Securicor, a private company that operates the detention center.
Nevada
Parole and Probation, Las Vegas, Nevada
April 8, 2005 Las
Vegas Review-Journal
A state contract employee was arrested Thursday on allegations of
taking cash payments to ease restrictions for people serving house
arrest. Detectives from the Department of Public Safety's Investigation
Division and the Parole and Probation Division arrested Henry Michael
Palmer, 42, at his Las Vegas office. Palmer is employed by Securicor EMS
as a case manager overseeing offenders on house arrest. Securicor is a
private firm that has contracted with the state Division of Parole and
Probation to assist in the use of electronic monitoring for the agency's
House Arrest Program. Securicor cooperated in the investigation.
Oakhill Secure Training Unit, Oakhill, UK
March 24, 2005 Milton
Keyes Today
THE Home Office is closely monitoring the Oakhill Secure Training Unit
where inmates – who are among the most dangerous teenagers in the
country – started two 'mini riots' in the past month. And an officer
says he fears for the safety of him and his colleagues because the young
people in the centre, known as trainees, rule by intimidation and bad
behaviour goes unpunished. In one incident during the past month a
female officer was jumped by four youths and had her keys taken. There
were also two 'mini riots' in which up to 10 teenagers attacked staff.
The officer said: "Some days it can be quite terrifying. I've known
officers walk out of a shift and just burst into tears in their car.
"During the training courses they said it would be challenging, but
it would be rewarding because these kids would lead better lives. But
before long an officer will get seriously hurt – or worse." The
centre, dubbed 'Jokehill', which is run by Securicor Justice Services,
was designed to educate and rehabilitate the 12 to 17 year olds who have
been convicted of offences including rape and murder. But ever since it
opened in August, Oakhill has been dogged with problems. Equipment,
including computers, CD players and DVD players are constantly destroyed
and even the security doors in the education block are hanging off their
hinges. The officer also said staff feel they are not supported by the
management and when the Youth Justice Board came to inspect the centre,
the trainees were promised a McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken meal or
£5 for their telephone card if they behaved themselves. He added:
"They need to change the rules. They need harder, stricter rules
and more discipline. The Youth Justice Board do not see what we see
every day." MP Phyllis Starkey said she has spoken to prisons
minister Paul Goggins about the problems at Oakhill and as a result a
senior member of Home Office staff is monitoring the centre. Dr Starkey
said: "The Home Office was not satisfied with the way it was
progressing, which is why they have reduced the speed with which people
are brought into the centre. "The number will only be increased
when they are satisfied procedures are tightened up." An Oakhill
spokesman said: "It is standard procedure when populating any
secure establishment in the start up period to take a phased approach
and was the case with each of the other three secure training centres.
"It is taking slightly longer at Oakhill to reach full capacity as
the centre requires further staff. Group Securicor are working hard to
recruit and rigorously train new employees to ensure appropriate
staffing levels are met. We expect the number of young people to rise as
new staff are taken on." When asked about the two mini riots and
key taking incident, she added: "Like any secure environment,
incidents of a varying nature do occur. However at Oakhill these are
de-escalated as quickly as possible using staff who are comprehensively
trained to deal with such matters."
Okeechobee Juvenile CF,
Okeechobee, Florida
December 5, 2004 Palm Beach
Post
Jimmy Haynes lost his job as a "behavioral specialist" at a
juvenile drug treatment center for punching a 15-year-old in the face.
Nine days after Haynes was fired from the privately operated center in
Orlando, he was hired by a state-run juvenile detention center less than
15 miles away. Haynes worked there for seven weeks before supervisors at
his new job realized their mistake. He wasn't the only one. A Palm Beach
Post review of records from the state and 40 of its private contractors
uncovered at least 200 employees hired at juvenile justice centers in
recent years after they were fired from similar jobs for violence,
misconduct or incompetence. The taxpayer-funded privately operated
companies that run the bulk of Florida's juvenile justice system hired
workers who had sexual relationships with teenagers they were supposed
to protect. They hired workers who kicked, punched, choked, tackled and
head-butted teens in their care. Supervisors across the state repeatedly
checked "do not rehire" and "not eligible for
rehire" in the files of employees fired for such offenses. But
managers at other centers never knew of those histories. And a few
companies knew about their workers' histories but were so desperate to
find people willing to work for $8 to $9 an hour that they looked the
other way. Here's how the state and its private contractors enable bad
employees to get juvenile justice jobs again and again: •Even though
state laws require them to open their employees' files, some contractors
cling to a corporate culture of secrecy, giving neutral references.
•State investigations of employee misconduct can drag on for three
months or more, allowing bad workers to find new jobs while their cases
sit unresolved. •Each of the state's numerous private contractors
operates in isolation, without access to a central database of juvenile
justice workers' job histories. To cut costs, Florida outsourced nearly
all of its residential programs. The state now has one of the highest
rates of privatization in the country — about nine in 10 centers are
managed by contractors. A grand jury investigated abuses at the Florida
Institute for Girls, a maximum-security prison for teenage offenders in
suburban West Palm Beach. One worker was criminally charged for having
sex with two teen inmates, and another was arrested for assault. In four
separate incidents, workers broke girls' arms in violent restraints.
Securicor New Century hired Marvin Thomas at a facility outside
Okeechobee 53 days after he was fired from another center for lying
about abuse. Investigators said Thomas attempted to cover up an incident
in which a co-worker threw a boy to the ground and beat him. Thomas lied
to his bosses, according to the previous company's records, and tried to
intimidate several boys into not telling anyone what happened. Thomas
did not return phone calls from The Post. Securicor President and CEO
Gail Browne said her company hired Thomas just as it was taking over
from a previous contractor and that his reference checks may have been
lost in the transition. To state officials, the arithmetic of
privatizing juvenile justice is irresistibly simple. Contractors compete
to offer the lowest price, and a treatment center can be outsourced for
as much as 10 percent less than when it was government-operated. In
nearly every case, the cuts are shouldered by rank-and-file workers, who
have lost pension plans and thousands of dollars in wages under
privatization. Workers who do the same job at the few state-run
residential juvenile programs start at $22,571 a year — about $1,000
more in South Florida. By contrast, the Florida Juvenile Justice
Association, a trade group of state contractors, says the typical
starting pay for workers at private centers is $17,500 to $18,000 a
year. Usually they work eight-hour shifts. But because contractors can
be fined if they don't have enough workers on duty, some employees work
16 hours straight if their replacements don't show up. Everyone agrees
that it takes a special type of person to handle the job. But most
companies either can't afford or aren't willing to pay for such people.
The Post found that contractors hired people whose recent work
experience included stints at a doughnut shop, a turnpike tollbooth and
a grocery store. Some got jobs fresh off being fired by private security
firms, while other new youth care workers were still teenagers
themselves. At Sarasota-based Correctional Services Corp.'s rural JoAnn
Bridges Academy, youth care workers start at $7.21 an hour, or $15,000 a
year. The highest paid workers at any Correctional Services Corp.
program, Broward County's Thompson Academy, start at $8.89 an hour.
That's $18,500 a year in a county where the median annual rent tops
$10,000. References often don't reveal whole story. Left unmentioned are
violent rages, suspicions of sex with teens and reports of gross
incompetence. Companies worry that if they break their silence, they
could be sued for giving a negative reference. As a result, supervisors
at other juvenile facilities did not know that: •One employee
deliberately instigated a fight between teens, and another was fired
after he took kids from a drug treatment program to his home to smoke.
•A youth care worker was fired from a Broward County facility for
threatening a fellow employee with a handgun; he was hired a month later
at a center in Daytona Beach. •Another missed a mandatory drug test
because he was in jail for violating his probation. •Several others
were fired for allowing juvenile offenders to escape, and one for not
even noticing a teen was gone. •One fell asleep while guarding a girl
on suicide watch. Because many private companies have either ignored or
were ignorant of the public records law, some have been forced to rely
on personal references from people such as pastors, even when the person
admitted to knowing little about a potential employee. Some fired
employees got new juvenile justice jobs with recommendations from
friends or co-workers who didn't know or wouldn't say what really
happened at a previous company. At least 138 juvenile justice workers
listed as active when their records were obtained by The Post previously
had been arrested and punished for felony charges ranging from credit
card and check fraud to cocaine trafficking and burglary. Youth
counselor Wendell Campbell was found guilty of battery by an Okeechobee
County circuit judge in October 2000, five months after he attacked a
19-year-old offender at the Eckerd Youth Development Center. Witnesses
told a sheriff's deputy that Campbell, 22 at the time, was upset because
the young man told Campbell to go to hell. Campbell, 6-foot-3 and 250
pounds, grabbed the 5-foot-6, 136-pound offender by the throat and
pushed him against a wall. The teen's face turned blue, a co-worker
said, as Campbell choked him for almost 40 seconds. The case was
documented in court, state and Eckerd's own records. But two years
later, Campbell was hired at the Okeechobee Redirection Camp, managed by
the California-based company Owl Global. Supervisors found the charge of
battery during background checks and received permission from the state
to hire Campbell, said Geff Stinson, the company's human resources
director. But contractors still are not required to notify the state
when they fire an employee. That means that the state's juvenile justice
agency, the only official watchdog of dozens of separate taxpayer-funded
contractors, doesn't know when or why former employees left each
company. Without that basic information, state officials cannot tell
their contractors whether an applicant has been fired elsewhere.
Exacerbating those problems is that many companies must hire new
employees often — and quickly. In several cases, employees were hired
and trained before the positive results of their drug tests or
background checks arrived. "There's tremendous pressure to fill
vacant positions," said Mark Fontaine, who represents private
contractors as head of the Florida Juvenile Justice Association. The
typical youth care worker at a private company lasts less than eight
months, according to an analysis of employment data by The Post, and
62.5 percent will quit or be fired in any given year. Some of the worst
churn has been at the Florida Institute for Girls in suburban West Palm
Beach. Since the facility opened in 2000, 82.1 percent of its workers
have left before working a full year. Fontaine said he is not surprised
that the annual turnover rate is just 19.4 percent in Florida's
government-run detention centers, where employees can qualify for state
pension plans and earn a yearly wage as much as $6,000 higher than at a
private facility. "I don't care who you work for," Fontaine
said, "if you pay your people $6,000 more, you're going to get more
people working that you want working for you and fewer that you don't.
That's just a fact." Lobbyists for Florida's private juvenile
treatment contractors have asked legislators for more money, saying they
can barely get by. But it is clear some of the companies don't always
choose to spend every available dollar on improving their centers. From
1999 to 2003, for example, the top three executives at Correctional
Services Corp. took home nearly $4.5 million in total combined
compensation, according to documents filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The company's founder, President and CEO James F.
Slattery, collected more than $2.2 million in salary, bonuses and other
compensation in that time, an average of $442,000 a year. Florida's top
juvenile justice official, charged with overseeing the entire system of
public and private facilities, gets $115,000 a year. Correctional
Services Corp. also spends generously when it comes to making friends in
Tallahassee. The company spent at least $270,000 on state campaign
contributions during the past decade, with company executives personally
donating thousands more. From 1999 to 2003, the company generated
revenue of $882 million from the prison and youth programs it runs in
Florida and other states but reported a net income of just $77,000.
State officials say it isn't any of their business what its
taxpayer-funded contractors pay its workers or how much they spend on
kids. "One of the reasons we privatize is the theory that private
corporations can do it better and cheaper than we may be able to,"
said Steve Casey, the Juvenile Justice Department's deputy secretary.
"So to a degree, we try to stay out of that."
Parc, Brigend, Wales
April 8, 2005 IC Network
A PRISON worker claimed yesterday she was sacked after she had an
affair with a prisoner. The
20-year-old prison assistant said she began the affair with the man
while he was serving part of his eight-year sentence at Parc Prison in
Bridgend.
October 7, 2004 BBC
A teenage inmate found hanging in his cell had not been checked for more
than two hours, a jury inquest has heard.
Ian Powell, 17, was on remand at HM Parc Prison in Bridgend when
he was found hanged from a light fitting.
The jury also heard how two days before his death, a probation
officer had found other accommodation for him but had not had time to
tell the prison. A verdict of
misadventure was recorded. Ms
Stringer told the jury how despite efforts to find him suitable
accommodation none could be found at the time of his court appearance
and he was remanded in custody at HM Parc prison.
September
7, 2004 Western Mail
A nurse at a Welsh prison has been sacked after falling
for an inmate. Married Carol
Evans, 43, had an affair with serial Cardiff burglar Alan John, 27,
while working as a nurse and counsellor at Parc Prison in Bridgend.
Her managers at the Securicor-run jail were tipped off about the
relationship when they were spotted together and sacked Carol from her
£25,000-a-year job on the grounds of misconduct. Other nurses had
complained about the couple's behaviour.
August 10, 2004 BBC
Parc Prison in Bridgend has been rated
the worst performing privately-run prison in Wales and England. A
report published by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for prisons
also found that there was a lack of separate health-care facilities for
juveniles, and issues of staff morale. The research was carried
out over a period of 12 months, ending in February this year. In
response, the prison said that things had improved since then. The
prison, run by Securicor, provides over 1,000 places for adults, young
offenders and non-convicted juveniles. The report found that by
the end of February 2004 it had fallen to 132nd place on HM Prison
Service's performance standard weighted scorecard, thus making it the
poorest performing privately-run prison in Wales and England. The
research also highlighted a number of concerns which had been raised
before. These included a "repeated failure to fill the 28-bed
Juvenile Remand Unit", and the "continuing inability to meet
certain contractual requirements." The "failure" to
provide separate healthcare facilities for juveniles was also pointed
out, as were the "totally inadequate level of dental
provision" and "issues" of staff morale. In
addition, the report found that there were seven outstanding inquests
into deaths in custody at the prison. These dated back, it said,
as far as 21 September 2002 and included the final inquest into the
death in custody of a 17-year-old trainee found dead in his cell on 6
October 2002.
Polk Youth Development
Center, Polk City, Florida
March 23, 2005 Lakeland
Ledger
Chronic mold has all but shut down school at the Polk Youth
Development Center, a state prison for highrisk youths managed by a
private contractor. Inmates are getting only two hours of classroom
instruction and the teaching staff has been pared from 25 to eight.
"We have a requirement to educate these kids, and we just simply
are not able to do that," said Dennis Higgins, director of
alternative education for the Polk County School District. Teachers and
staff have complained for several years of mold at the facility for
high-risk youthful offenders, the largest of its kind in Florida with
350 beds. But in recent months, School District personnel began
complaining of breathing difficulties and throat problems, Higgins said,
and four or five filed workers' compensation claims. The company now
running PYDC is Securicor New Century, part of a global conglomerate
based in England. It also manages the Avon Park Youth Academy in South
Polk, under contract to the state Department of Juvenile Justice. John
Morgenthau, chief executive officer of Securicor's Tallahassee-based
operations, said Tuesday that he couldn't discuss the matter. "We
have an agreement in our contract with the DJJ that any media will be
directed to the office of DJJ," he said. "The contract says
we've got to play by their rules." PYDC has been plagued in recent
years with problems such as overcrowding, inadequate staffing and inmate
abuse by workers who lacked adequate training. These and other problems
came to light last year in a Ledger investigation that found nearly 60
cases of inmate abuse between June 1998 and June 2003, more than any
other juvenile program in the state. The company that had run the
center, Correctional Services Corp. of Sarasota, lost its contract in
2003 to Premier Behavioral Solutions. Thirteen months into its $9.8
million-a-year contract, Premier bowed out, citing insufficient state
funding for mental-health treatment and the center's large size.
Securicor
United Kingdom
September 20, 2006 The Independent
A LIVERPOOL man was on the run for 26 days and did not even know it.
David Parker was jailed after his mother Ann Marie Patchell took him
into a police station, unaware a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
Mrs Patchell is now calling for an inquiry into the handling of her
son's case. The 22-year-old had earlier been paroled on a tag from
Walton jail after serving a six-month sentence for affray and dangerous
driving. But, he says, on August 10 the tag fell off as he walked down
the stairs at his Fazakerley home. He called Securicor who sent a
technician to replace the tag, and Mr Parker continued with his call
centre job and curfew. But a month later the second tag came off and he
was told to report to Lower Lane police station where he was arrested,
returned to Walton and had 26 days added to his sentence. It later
emerged a warrant had been issued for his arrest since the first time
the tag fell off. Merseyside police say they never received the warrant,
otherwise they would not have allowed him to remain at large.
November 26, 2005 EDP24
A Kosovan who fled to this country after seeing his family murdered in
front of him was yesterday jailed for trying to escape deportation. Imer
Neziri, 24, was on the run for more than four months after he jumped
from a Securicor van taking him from Norwich prison to a detention
centre near Cambridge, in June. On June 30 he jumped out of an emergency
hatch in the secure van as it slowed to go round Norwich's Thickthorn
roundabout, injuring himself as he hit the tarmac, but managing to get
away.
November 10, 2005 Leeds Today
A security firm allowed a tagged offender from West Yorkshire to breach
his curfew order 22 times - and didn't bother to inform police, MPs were
told. Officers only discovered the breaches after they caught the
offender red-handed, misbehaving in the middle of the night when he
should have been indoors by 10pm at the latest. Home Office minister
Fiona MacTaggart today pledged to make sure that proper action has been
taken against Securicor, warning that such serious breaches would
"automatically affect the contract with the company involved".
July 7, 2005 New Zimbabwe
A ZIMBABWEAN woman could be flown back to Britain after she was erroneously
deported just hours after a judge halted all deportations to Zimbabwe. The
woman who cannot be named for legal reasons was said to be in hiding at an
unnamed location in Zimbabwe on Thursday after she was shunted onto a
Zimbabwe-bound plane by a security firm. A senior British High Court judge
angrily condemned the deportation of the woman following a mistake by Securicor,
which was responsible for escorting her out of the country. Justice
Collins called on the Home Office secretary Charles Clarke to halt all removals
of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe pending a further High Court hearing.
Britain’s stance on the forced removals of Zimbabweans was thrown into
confusion when a Home Office official told a separate hearing that deportations
had already been halted. He said the Home Office had cancelled the removal
directions after the woman lodged an application for judicial review with the
High Court. But the fax sent by the Home Office to Securicor was dealt
with by a temporary member of staff who was not fully trained and did not
realise the significance of the fax. "How anyone could fail to
appreciate the significance of a fax from the Home Office telling them removal
directions had been cancelled frankly escapes me," the judge said.
March 24, 2005 Rochdale Observer
A CONVICTED criminal removed his electronic tag before
brutally murdering a 60-year-old man in the street. Robert Clegg was 17 when he
went on a drink and drugs binge and attacked disabled grandfather-of-three Bob
Boardman with a knife and baton in Yorkshire Street shortly before Christmas
2003. Clegg stabbed him a total of 30 times in the face, head, back and chest
and beat him so viciously every bone in his face was smashed. At the time of the
murder, which took place at about 11.30pm, Clegg was tagged and should have been
at home in Clara Street, Deeplish, under a 9pm curfew. But a BBC 3 documentary
that was screened on Monday revealed he removed the tag on several occasions
without punishment. A senior police officer in Rochdale said that tags were
regarded in the force as ‘a waste of space’ and curfew orders were
frequently abused and not properly enforced by the private company in charge of
enforcement. Clegg was placed under a curfew order in November 2003 after being
caught stealing a car and in possession of a knife and a loaded air rifle. The
documentary claims that over the first three weeks of that sentence, he removed
his tag or tampered with it 13 times. On 9 December he removed it altogether
before going out drinking, but Securicor, the firm appointed by the Home Office
to enforce the tagging order, took no action against him. Two days later he was
still without his tag and left his care home after telling a social worker he
had a knife. Later that night he attacked Mr Boardman. Mr Boardman’s widow,
Margaret, said: “Securicor should have gone out and got Clegg and taken him
back and locked him up. They didn’t do their job.” A Securicor Justice
Service spokesman said it was not possible to discuss individual cases. He
added: “In relation to our technology, this has proved to be reliable and
robust. It is subject to rigorous testing and approval by the Home Office as
well as having to pass our own stringent quality checks and procedures.”
December 18, 2004 Manchester
On Line
A FAMILY is celebrating today after it learned that a security guard who was
jailed for 14 years for being 'the inside man' in a £6m robbery is to have his
conviction quashed. Graham Huckerby, 45, was sentenced two
years ago after being found guilty of conspiracy to rob at Manchester Crown
Court. But the Manchester Evening News has learned that the Court of Appeal in
London, which heard the case in November, has decided that the conviction is
unsafe and should be quashed. An official announcement will be made on Tuesday.
Mr Huckerby was said to have taken a bribe to enable an armed gang to escape
with £4m in cash and £2m in cheques from his Securicor vehicle as it arrived
at the Midland Bank district sorting office in Ordsall, Salford. The raid
happened on July 3, 1995. None of the cash was ever recovered despite a huge
police investigation estimated to have cost £10m. The appeal was based on
defence claims that Mr Huckerby was suffering from post-traumatic stress
disorder at the time of the robbery. He had been a victim of another robbery
while working for Securicor a few months earlier.
November 11, 2004 Scotsman
A security guard jailed for 14 years for his role in what was then the biggest
theft of cash in transit since the Great Train Robbery of 1963 began an appeal
against his conviction today. Former police officer Graham Huckerby, 44, was
convicted two years ago of being the “inside man” in a £6.6 million armed
robbery of his Securicor van outside a Midland Bank cheque clearing centre. But
in the Court of Appeal today, it was argued his conviction should be quashed
because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to an earlier
robbery in which a colleague was stabbed. Huckerby, of Clifton Road, Prestwich,
always said he allowed the gang into his vehicle because they held him at
gunpoint and said they were holding a colleague hostage. But at the trial in
2002, he was convicted of conspiracy to rob after apparently taking a £1,000
bribe from the group who pulled off the multi-million pound raid in Salford in
July 1995. He had failed to activate any of the security systems in place to
raise the alarm and had apparently received £1,000 into his bank account from
the alleged conspirators two months earlier.
February 10, 2004
Police today outlined the terrifying events which led to the tragic murder of a
man moments after the armed robbery. Force spokesman Chief Insp Steve
Glover said three masked men swooped on a cash delivery van outside the
Nationwide building society in the shadow of Birmingham's Bullring. As
they confronted the three Securicor guards, calling at the bank to fill up the
cashpoint machine, a handgun was pulled out. One of the security guards
managed to barricade himself inside but the armed gang forced their way through
the glass door and confronted him. They fled into Worcester Walk, a
passageway opposite. It was here that a shot rang out and the victim was fatally
injured. Police believe he was a 28-year-old man from Walsall but officers
said they were still trying to confirm who he was and what he was doing in
Birmingham. (Birmingham)
Southwest
Regional Juvenile Detention Center, Fort Myers, Florida
September 14,
2005 The News-Press
The Southwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center is back to being run by
state employees after a private contract of two years ended as a failed
experiment — not because of performance, but the bottom line.
Securicor New Century, the Virginia-based firm that contracted with the
state to run detention operations, lost money on its $2.41 million
annual contract to operate the 60-bed center in Fort Myers in 2003 and
2004. The company was among three bidders in 2002, but it didn't bid on
the state's request for proposals at the same contract level to continue
this year. No one else did either.
United
Kingdom
December 18, 2004 Manchester On Line
A FAMILY is celebrating today after it learned that a security guard
who was jailed for 14 years for being 'the inside man' in a £6m robbery
is to have his conviction quashed.
Graham Huckerby, 45, was sentenced two years ago after being found
guilty of conspiracy to rob at Manchester Crown Court. But the
Manchester Evening News has learned that the Court of Appeal in London,
which heard the case in November, has decided that the conviction is
unsafe and should be quashed. An official announcement will be made on
Tuesday. Mr Huckerby was said to have taken a bribe to enable an armed
gang to escape with £4m in cash and £2m in cheques from his Securicor
vehicle as it arrived at the Midland Bank district sorting office in
Ordsall, Salford. The raid happened on July 3, 1995. None of the cash
was ever recovered despite a huge police investigation estimated to have
cost £10m. The appeal was based on defence claims that Mr Huckerby was
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the
robbery. He had been a victim of another robbery while working for
Securicor a few months earlier.
November 11, 2004
Scotsman
A security guard jailed for
14 years for his role in what was then the biggest theft of cash in
transit since the Great Train Robbery of 1963 began an appeal against
his conviction today. Former police officer Graham Huckerby, 44, was
convicted two years ago of being the “inside man” in a £6.6 million
armed robbery of his Securicor van outside a Midland Bank cheque
clearing centre. But in the Court of Appeal today, it was argued his
conviction should be quashed because he was suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder due to an earlier robbery in which a
colleague was stabbed. Huckerby, of Clifton Road, Prestwich, always said
he allowed the gang into his vehicle because they held him at gunpoint
and said they were holding a colleague hostage. But at the trial in
2002, he was convicted of conspiracy to rob after apparently taking a £1,000
bribe from the group who pulled off the multi-million pound raid in
Salford in July 1995. He had failed to activate any of the security
systems in place to raise the alarm and had apparently received £1,000
into his bank account from the alleged conspirators two months earlier.
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