Ashfield Prison
Premier
March 19, 2003
Premier's Ashfield "worst" prison in England and Wales. (News).  Plans to extend the role of private providers in prison services suffered a setback this month when a PFI jail for young offenders was described as the worst in the country.  An inspection found that conditions at Ashfield, near Bristol, were so bad that many inmates were frightened to leave their cells. Under pressure staff relied on inmates to act as "mini-officers" in the reception wing, and escort van drivers were used as officers on other wings.  Staff delegated responsibility to inmate orderlies to a worrying extent that went as far as "role reversal". Martin Narey, the director-general of the Prison Service, described privately run Ashfield as the worst prison in England and Wales "by some measure".  But he added: "The introduction of the private sector into the running of prisons has brought immense benefits. My best prison is probably a private-sector prison."  Ashfield is a 44m [pounds sterling] prison holding up to 400 sentenced young offenders aged between 15 and 21. It is run by Premier Custodial Services, a joint venture company owned 50% by Serco Ltd and 50% by Wackenhut Corrections (UK) Ltd, under a 25-year PFI contract.  The criticism came only days after the chancellor, Gordon Brown, said there should be "no principled objection" to further extending the private sector's role in prison management. The failings in Premier's operation of Ashfield were exposed in an inspection report by Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons. Describing her report as "depressing" she found that bullying was rife and that many inmates were "afraid to leave their cells".  A spot-check revealed that nearly half of the inmates remained in their cells during the day, and less than a quarter were in education. Owers said a central problem was the poor quality and low morale of staff because of the inadequate salaries paid by the company.  She also criticised the company for its unwillingness to do anything not in the contract. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 5 February, Narey said that Premier has lost around 2m [pounds sterling] in revenues so far.  It is the second time that Premier has been warned over its performance at Ashfield in recent years. In December 2001, the company was issued with an improvement notice for noncompliance with the PFI contract. At the time it had the most reported incidents of self-harm in the 15-17-year age group of any young offenders establishment in the UK.  Under the terms of Premier's contract--and normal under PFI deals in the prison sector--the banks that financed the prison's construction decide whether they choose another private operator or allow the public sector to take over.  Local Northavon MP Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat) said the private sector had failed to deliver on even the most basic aspects of the contract. "It is time that the Prison Service took the management of Ashfield back under its control," he said.

February 5, 2003
The reputation of the private sector as a manager of prisons suffered a blow yesterday when the government's Youth Justice Board announced it was withdrawing all sentenced juveniles from the first privately run young offenders' institution.  The board announced its phased withdrawal of 172 young offenders after the chief inspector of prisons published a scathing report on conditions at the Ashfield young offenders' institution near Bristol .  Anne Owers said Premier Prison Services, Ashfield's operator, failed to provide "the minimum requirements of a safe environment".  Describing her report as "probably the most depressing" she has issued in the 18 months she has been in post, Ms Owers found that bullying was not addressed and that many young people were "afraid to leave their cells". A spot-check during her inspection revealed that nearly half of the young inmates remained in their cells during the core day, and less than a quarter were in education.  There was no effective resettlement strategy.  Ms Owers said one of the main underlying problems at Ashfield was the poor quality and low morale of staff because of inadequate salaries paid by the operator.  Some officers at Ashfield had not undergone an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check, which is meant to provide better protection against pedophiles.  The Prison Officers' Association, which has always been opposed to privatisation, called for Ashfield to be taken immediately into public ownership.  Brian Caton, the union's general secretary, said Ashfield provided evidence of the "immorality of running private prisons with the emphasis on making profit rather than running a good service on behalf of society".  Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the "utterly damning report" raised questions as to why the Prison Service had allowed such a situation to develop in the first place.  (Social Affairs Correspondent)

Bicester Detention Center
Oxford, UK
Group 4
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.

Bronzefield Women's Prison
Ashford, West London
UKDS (Sodexho)
March 2, 2006 The Sun
A LIVE bullet has been found in the jail holding House of Horrors killer Rose West. It was the second security scare at all-women Bronzefield Prison in Ashford, West London, which earlier freed a jailbird by mistake. The jail was locked down for eight hours after the bullet discovery and all 450 prisoners were confined to their cells. Explosives experts and sniffer dogs helped to scour the £200million private prison from top to bottom, but nothing more was found.

February 27, 2006 The Sun
THE private jail holding serial killer Rose West freed a prisoner by mistake, it was revealed yesterday. The woman, who was facing drugs charges, was on the loose for four days after the blunder. Livid Home Office chiefs have ordered a major probe into the first “escape” from state-of-the-art Bronzefield women’s prison in Ashford, West London. The £200million jail run by UKDS opened two years ago. West, 52, moved there from Durham jail last year. She is locked up forever for the Gloucestershire murders of ten girls, including her daughter Heather, 16. The freed lag was released after being told to gather her belongings. A source yesterday said: “This is the first time a con has escaped from Bronzefield and it was all the prison’s fault. “It wasn’t a case of mistaken identity. It was either rank incompetence or a paperwork error. “It would be catastrophic if Rose West was released by mistake. “She has changed her appearance dramatically by shedding three stone and ditching her thick specs for contact lenses.” The freed 40-year-old lag, being held on remand, was returned to Bronzefield earlier this month. UKDS last night declined to comment.

Brixton Prison
Securicor
June 11, 2003
Companies like Securicor and Group 4 were first awarded contracts to carry prisoners between jails and courts 10 years ago.  Since then, several of their charges have escaped either from courts or from vans en route.  (BBC News)

June 10, 2003
Three prisoners are on the run after escaping from a security van during an armed hijack in south London.  Armed men reportedly disguised as postmen stopped the Securicor van, shooting the driver in the knee and hitting a guard with a gun.  A Prison Service spokesman said: "The driver was threatened by a man with a shotgun who proceeded to shoot the driver in the knee through the door of the van.  "The other security staff on board, the passenger, was pistol-whipped.  (BBC News)

Castle Crown Court
Global Solutions Limited
August 5, 2004
A WORKINGTON man who admitted a series of sex offences against a teenage girl slashed his forearm moments later in the cells at Carlisle Crown Court, it has emerged.  But just minutes after the judge presiding over the case warned the 35-year-old that a prison sentence was inevitable, Carruthers used a prison razor blade to cut his arm.  (News and Star)

Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre
Oxford, England
GEO Group (formerly run by Group 4, Global Solutions)
June 19, 2008 Telegraph
Four detainees are on the run after escaping from a controversial immigration centre that has been the scene of much unrest. Seven people initially broke out of the facility although three were recaptured by police shortly after the alarm was raised at 4 am. The break-out happened just five days after a fire at the Campsfield immigration detention centre in Oxfordshire. The blaze was in a communal room at the centre on Saturday afternoon and around 20 detainees staged a rooftop protest. At the time, detainees said tensions began simmering among Jamaican inmates at the 215-man detention centre when staff brought dogs into their accommodation. In August last year 26 detainees escaped from the centre in a mass break-out. A Thames Valley police spokesman said that officers remained on the scene supporting the Home Office in their efforts to bring the situation under control. Superintendent Howard Stone said police were also working with the GEO Group UK Ltd, which controls the privately run centre on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. "We are working with GEO as well as the UK Border Agency to ensure everything is done to locate the missing detainees as quickly as possible," he said. "However, I would ask that if members of the public see anyone acting suspiciously and believes they may have been involved in this incident to contact the police immediately." GEO signed a three year contract with the Home Office to run the centre in March 2006 with an option to extend it until 2011. A GEO spokesman said: "Yes, it is correct there has been another outbreak at the detention centre. We know who the escaped detainees are and the police are now working to recapture them."

June 14, 2008 Daily Mail
A special prison service riot unit known as the Tornado Team was sent into a controversial detention centre yesterday to quell a violent stand-off between staff and illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. The 50 elite officers – dressed in Robocop-style black boiler suits and helmets and carrying batons and shields – marched into the Campsfield centre near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, after an initial disturbance when several fires were started. Crews from 15 fire engines tackled the blazes which caused thick black smoke to billow from one of the detention buildings. The Tornado Team was supported by about 50 police officers – some, equipped with riot gear and dogs, entered the camp while others secured the perimeter as a police helicopter hovered overhead. All the 200 inmates were herded into the camp’s exercise yard while fire crews took two hours to put out the blazes and make the area safe. But the detainees, all men, then refused to return to their buildings – creating another stand-off. At one point the illegal immigrants could be heard violently hammering on the 25ft high steel fence that surrounds the yard. A senior prison officer said outside: ‘No one in there is going anywhere.’ The Home Office said last night: ‘The UK Border Agency asked police for assistance and officers have secured the perimeter, which has not been breached. 'Specially trained prison officers known as a Tornado Team have been sent to the site in riot gear.’ Last August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield after a fire was started. But last night all the men were believed to have been accounted for. Tornado Team members are picked from serving prison officers and undergo four months of specialist training. Their boiler suits are fire-resistant, as are their padded gloves and steel-capped Army-style boots. Extra protection comes from plastic protectors on their forearms and shins. Every officer carries an American-style PR-24 sidearms baton. It can be used for defence, held along the forearm, or to attack by using a protruding metal attachment which can be spun round in confined spaces such as cells or corridors to keep assailants at bay. As an additional precaution, squad members wear face protectors to stop flames spreading under their protective suit. They use personal radios to contact their head at the scene, who is known as Silver Commander. He in turn takes orders from a Gold Commander, in charge of the overall operation and based at the Prison Service headquarters in London. Campsfield has been dogged with controversy since it was converted from a youth detention centre to handle illegal immigrants in 1993. Last year alone, there were two other disturbances not including the breakout. It is run by the UK subsidiary of American company the GEO Group, which signed a five-year contract in March, 2006. The Home Office said all the detainees were being escorted back to their accommodation blocks by 7.30pm. A spokesman added: ‘The situation has calmed down. There has been no resistance from the detainees to going back to their rooms. The operation is being wound down at the site.’ A GEO spokesman was unavailable for comment last night.

June 14, 2008 The Times
Inmate disturbances and fires broke out this afternoon at a troubled immigrant detention centre that has previously suffered riots, blazes and escapes. Two plumes of smoke rose from the centre in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. The problems at Campsfield House detention centre, which holds more than 200 foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, have prompted calls for its closure. Thames Valley police were called in this afternoon to help the security teams at the privately-run centre. A police helicopter hovered above the centre, and the riot squad was put on standby. More than a dozen fire engines have been attending the fire, and one detainee is said to have been hospitalised with smoke inhalation. There have been no other injuries reported at this stage. Campsfield House is managed by the Reading-based GEO Group UK Ltd, on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. It has been beset with problems since it opened, and detainees rioted twice last year. In March, fires were started and CCTV cameras smashed, after a detainee was removed for deportation. Seven staff and two inmates were injured. A fire in August allowed 26 inmates to escape - eight of them were still at large at last report. All the escapees were foreign criminals, awaiting deportation. In December, staff were forced to evacuate a block, again after a detainee was removed. Other inmates wrongly believed that the man, Davis Osagie from Benin in West Africa, had been murdered by prison officers. Authorities moved 128 inmates to other detention centres after December’s riot. David Pitman, who lives down the street from Campsfield, said he saw smoke coming from the detention centre and heard the inmates shouting. “This seems to happen more and more often,” he said. “Last time there was trouble and the police hadn’t arrived on the scene so I had to chase one of the escapees with a torch. “I have a young daughter and I worry for her safety with these criminals running around free. Something needs to be done about the security in there.” The centre’s independent monitoring board criticised GEO for failing to prevent the rioting, despite being warned after the first clash that the rioting could happen again. An audit report this year, commissioned by the Border and Immigration Agency, disclosed racism and tension in some of the country’s 10 immigration detention centres. It found that officers at several centres had taunted detainees - describing them as “black bastards” in one case - and found “turbulent” atmosphere in some units. At Campsfield, it said, there was a “tense” environment atmosphere where staff were afraid of detainees. One member of staff said: “If this was white British people in here we would be a lot stricter, it is because they are black people that we are afraid.”

November 26, 2007 Oxford Mail
Detainees at an immigration detention centre near Oxford have warned the atmosphere is on a knife-edge as campaigners marked its 14th anniversary. While protesters rallied outside Campsfield House, detainees spoke of a tense atmosphere and warned of a new riot. Speaking to the Oxford Mail from inside the centre in Kidlington, detainee Michael Sinclair said: "People are not getting any justice in here. They have been talking about a riot. "People have been plotting. I am frightened because you never know what will happen - it is very dangerous." Father-of-five Mr Sinclair, whose mother lives in Blackbird Leys, came to Oxford from Jamaica in 1999. He met his wife, who lives in East Oxford with three of his children, in 2003 but was unsuccessful in securing a spouse's visa and returned to Jamaica to re-apply. His visa was refused again, and desperate to see his wife and children, he returned to Britain on a false passport but was caught and jailed in March. The 41-year-old has been detained in Campsfield House since October and is currently facing deportation. Fellow detainee Rohan Walker, 27, said: "People are not getting any justice." When asked if he thought another riot was likely, he said: "People have been talking about that. You never know when it could happen." Around 50 demonstrators from the Campaign to Close Campsfield staged a two hour protest outside the centre on Saturday afternoon. The group chanted and listened to speeches. Member Bob Hughes, 60, said the centre was on the verge of serious unrest. The university lecturer, from St Clements, Oxford, said: "It is continuously on the boil. As far as we know the conditions are dreadful." Mr Hughes said the anniversary of the centre, which opened on November 23, 1993, made the current situation particularly troubling. Neither The GEO Group UK, which runs the centre, or the Home Office, were available for comment.

August 7, 2007 The Times
Ministers were warned less than two weeks ago that an immigration centre from which 14 men are on the run was unsuitable for holding them. They were also told that the policy of putting foreign prisoners in immigration centres “bursting at the seams” presented a high risk that could trigger disorder. Fourteen foreign prisoners are on the run after fleeing from Campsfield House immigration removal centre during the second outbreak of rioting on the premises in five months. The convicted prisoners, who were among 26 who escaped from the centre run by GEO Group UK, had served sentences in jails but were being held in the centre near Oxford while awaiting deportation. It emerged yesterday that officials from the Home Office had met detainees at the centre last Wednesday and Friday to discuss their grievances, including overcrowded and squalid conditions, a high rejection rate for bail applications and delays in repatriating migrants who wish to go home. But at 10.30pm on Saturday a fire broke out in a portable building at the centre where food is prepared. The detainees took advantage of the disorder to break out of the centre but 12 were recaptured soon afterwards, including a Bangladeshi who approached the home of a prison officer and asked to be hidden. Explaining that the search for the missing men has been scaled down, a Thames Valley Police spokesman said: “We have not got large numbers of officers on the ground searching for them any more. [But] we are still looking for them and their identities have been circulated to all forces.” A report into the earlier disturbance at the centre highlighted the risk that the Home Office was running by placing prisoners in immigration centres, which have much lower security than prisons. “The impact of foreign national prisoners is the biggest external issue affecting Campsfield House. It is putting the centre under great strain,” the report by Bob Whalley, a former Home Office senior civil servant, said. At the end of May more than 50 per cent of the 198 detainees in the centre were foreign prisoners. The inquiry report cautioned: “The fabric is not suitable for foreign national prisoners. It has none of the strength of a prison, nor does it offer any flexibility for dealing with difficult incidents or detainees.” Staff had complained of the large influx of foreign prisoners, “many with serious criminal backgrounds and ‘streetwise’ in their experience of prison”, the report said. It added that little was known about many foreign prisoners who arrived at immigration centres. After serving time in jail many of the prisoners found the more relaxed regime at Campsfield House disorientating. The report said that some became manipulative or bullying. It cautioned: “Some will find the dual pressure of further time in custody and uncertain date of release frustrating, to the extent that, ‘with nothing to lose’, the temptation to join in gratuitous disorder may prove too much. A concentration of discontented detainees may prove so volatile that an otherwise innocuous event may prove a trigger point for concerted disturbance.” The report said: “There are several groups of foreign national prisoners presenting high risk in terms of potential for disorder. There is little to inhibit them if an opportunity to engage in wanton disorder presents itself. The greater their frustration at the position, the greater the risk of disorder.” Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman, attacked the Government for putting foreign prisoners who were awaiting deportation into immigration removal centres. “We need immigration detention centres as part of the process of removing people who have no right to be here, but what we shouldn’t be doing is mixing up immigration offenders with other criminals, and that’s where the big failure lies.” Lin Homer, chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, said: “We have recently looked at the regime in Campsfield and we are putting in place a number of improvements with the centre operator.” Troublespot -- 1993 Campsfield centre opens 

 1997 50 detainees take part in disturbance 

 2001 90 go on hunger strike 

 2002 David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, announces its closure 

 2003 Decision reversed after riot at another detention centre 

 2004 Local council rejects plans to expand Campsfield to hold 300 

 2006 GEO Group wins five-year contract to run Campsfield 

 March 2007 Disturbance as staff try to remove Algerian for deportation. Sixty detainees transferred out because of the damage 

 August 2007 Disturbances and 26 detainees flee. Twelve recaptured and 14 still on the run Source: Times database

August 3, 2007 BBC
Detainees at an Oxfordshire detention centre are suspending their ongoing hunger strike while they wait for a response from the Home Office. More than 150 detainees at Campsfield House Immigration Centre near Kidlington in Oxford have been refusing to eat since Tuesday night. They have complained to officials about the overcrowded conditions and claimed they are being held illegally. The Home Office said it would respond to concerns by Friday afternoon. Campsfield was rife with scabies, but only staff were issued with gloves. Campaign to Close Campsfield -- In a statement, the Campaign to Close Campsfield also said the centre "is a health hazard with 70% of people infected with flu". "Paracetamol is the only medicine made available and two weeks ago even this ran out. "Campsfield was rife with scabies, but only staff were issued with gloves. "Although detainees are held as civil detainees, not convicted prisoners or prisoners on remand, food, toilets and showers are a lot worse than in prisons." It said some detainees were being held even though they had won appeals against deportation or had agreed to go back to their countries of origin. Troubled history -- On Wednesday, the Home Office promised it would respond to the concerns within 48 hours. Formerly a Young Offenders Institute, Campsfield was converted into an immigration detention centre in 1993 amid a storm of protest from local residents. Run by the American company GEO, which specialises in operating detention facilities, Campsfield holds up to 200 male asylum seekers at a time. Within six months of opening the centre experienced a major problem when six asylum seekers escaped following a rooftop protest. A number of low-level disturbances inside the centre and regular public protests outside its gates has since occurred at Campsfield.

April 3, 2007 The Guardian
A private prison was criticised by its staff and a judge yesterday following the collapse of a manslaughter trial over the death of a prisoner on suicide watch. Four officers from Rye Hill prison, near Rugby, run by Global Solutions Ltd, were cleared of all charges in connection with the death of Michael Bailey, from Birmingham, who was serving a four year sentence for cocaine dealing. He was found in March 2005 hanged by his shoelace from the door to his cell in the segregation block. Daniel Daymond, 23, of Rugby, Paul Smith, 39, of Warrington, and Samantha Prime, 29, also of Rugby, were acquitted at Northampton crown court of charges of manslaughter by gross negligence in connection with Bailey's death. Ben King, 21, of Southbrook, Daventry, along with Mr Daymond, was cleared of perverting the course of justice by doctoring log books for suicide watches. All were cleared on the direction of the judge, Mr Justice Grigson. He said: "No one who has heard the evidence in this court can have any doubt that the death of Michael Bailey was a tragedy, not least because it was avoidable." Outside the court Bailey's mother, Caroline, said: "This case clearly shows there were failures in Rye Hill prison and GSL ... I hope the outcome of this case brings changes." Paul Smith, manager of the segregation unit where Mr Bailey killed himself, resigned from GSL before the court case. He said after his acquittal. "Straight from the start I had expressed concern about the level of support and training. I told senior management about it and they didn't do anything." In a statement released through his solicitor, Mr Daymond said: "[Michael Bailey's] death was a tragedy that was wholly avoidable. I hope that today's decision will focus attention on the way in which Rye Hill Prison is run." A spokesman for GSL said: "This whole matter will be looked at very carefully. Self-harm is an issue that prisons work very hard to avoid." The jail was the subject of criticism by the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, who found the staff were inexperienced.

March 16, 2007 Oxford Mail
Staff are counting up the costs at Campsfield House immigration detention centre after detainees ran riot and started a fire. About 60 detainees were moved to other detention centres, including Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, on Wednesday night. Anti-Campsfield campaigners claim the revolt at the centre, in Kidlington, was sparked when an Algerian detainee was removed from his room for deportation. Police are investigating the fire as suspected arson. A former member of staff, in his 20s, who asked not to be named, praised former colleagues who he said tried to tackle the fire at the centre at 6.30am on Wednesday, before firefighters arrived. He said: "They kicked windows out and tried to tackle the fire themselves. "I spoke to one of the seven members of staff who needed hospital treatment and he told me that there has been serious damage to blue block and yellow block and the library has been destroyed. "Only about 30 detainees kicked off, but it will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to put the damage right. "The ironic thing is that the GEO group that runs the site has been getting detainees to paint internal areas and blue block has only just been painted." The former worker claimed that more than 190 detainees were housed in an area which mean for 130 and that it was not 'fit for purpose'. Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris said: "There will need to be an investigation of why there has been yet another serious disturbance at Campsfield House, which has been a subject of a number of critical reports by successive chief inspectors of prisons." Dr Harris, a member of the House of Commons select committee on human rights, added: "My select committee is already conducting an inquiry into detention of failed asylum seekers, following concerns about physical abuse during removals. "The Home Secretary himself a few years ago declared that Campsfield House was not appropriate for the 21st century, but then of course the Government decided to keep it open anyway. They will need to look at that question again."

March 14, 2007 BBC
Seven staff and two inmates have been injured in a fire after a riot broke out at an immigration removal centre. Emergency services were called to deal with the incident at Campsfield removal centre near Kidlington, in Oxfordshire, early on Wednesday. A BBC reporter saw a dozen riot officers carrying shields enter the centre to join about 35 police officers who were dealing with the incident. The nine injured people are thought to be suffering from smoke inhalation. The seven immigration staff at the centre and two detainees have been taken to hospital. A Home Office spokesman said the riot teams were working to get the centre completely under control as soon as possible. "The perimeter of Campsfield has not been breached and all detainees have been accounted for," he added. They used force to drag the person from the bed and after that everything kicked off. Campsfield detainee: In a statement Thames Valley Police said: "The detainees were evacuated and nine people have been taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. No serious injuries have been reported. "The fire has now been extinguished. Five fire engines and 30 firefighters attended the incident. The fire was relatively small and mainly generated a lot of smoke." 'Fighting stopped': A detainee, who did not want to be named, told BBC News 24: "This place is falling apart - computers are getting smashed. "They've stopped fighting now but they're destroying every bit of equipment they can find - computers getting smashed, shops are getting broken into, they're stealing everything." "They used force to drag the person from the bed and after that everything kicked off," he said. Sarah Cutler from Bail for Immigration Detainees, which provides workshops at Campsfield offering legal advice to detainees, said she was not surprised by the disturbance. "There are big problems at the moment," she said, adding that many people were being held for months. Riot gear: Those included "people who want to go back to their country of origin, have told the Home Office they want to go back, but are still detained because they can't get it together to remove them". A Home Office spokeswoman said the continuing incident began at 0630 GMT. BBC reporter Rajesh Mirchandani, speaking outside the centre, said he had seen members of a prison service fast response team enter the site. "They're riot trained and they went in carrying riot gear." He said he could see a helicopter hovering overhead and police dog units and mounted police were now patrolling the perimeter of the centre. The Home Office spokeswoman said: "Police, fire and ambulance teams are on the scene and a number of Tornado units from the Prison Service have been deployed to the centre." Campsfield can hold 196 adult male detainees, but it is not known how many are currently being held there.

July 22, 2006 The Independent
A Kurdish teenager killed himself after spending more than four months in an immigration detention centre, an inquest has heard. Ramazan Kumluca, 18, is the youngest asylum-seeker to have committed suicide while facing deportation from Britain. Campaign groups yesterday called for the closure of all detention centres, comparing them to Victorian workhouses. Mr Kumluca is one of more than 30 asylum-seekers who have killed themselves in the past five years after being told their applications had failed. He had travelled from his home in Turkey to Italy and then on to Britain where he claimed asylum last year, saying that his life was in danger over a £20,000 debt owed by his father. He also claimed that if he was sent back to Italy (under rules that asylum must be claimed in the first safe country reached) he was at risk of exploitation. Mr Kumluca was refused asylum and denied bail because there were fears he would not report back for deportation. He was sent to Campsfield House in Oxfordshire, an immigration removal centre that holds around 100 men at any time. The average stay for detainees at the centre is 14 days, but because the teenager was fighting his deportation order he was held for four and a half months. An inquest at Oxford Old Assizes heard he had been plunged into despair during his incarceration and had complained of insomnia, headaches and anxiety. A fellow inmate, Abdulwase Kamali, told the court Mr Kumluca had appeared "sad" the day before he killed himself. He said: "Ramazan said he had been told by immigration he would be sent back to Italy, and he said if he was sent back to Italy he would be used in sex films. He said he would slash himself or hang himself." On 27 June last year, Mr Kamali and other Muslim detainees alerted warders after calling Mr Kumluca for morning prayers and finding his door would not open. He was found hanging from the door closing mechanism. After investigating his death, a Prison and Probation ombudsman cleared staff of any wrongdoing. The jury returned a verdict of suicide. Outside the court, Bob Hughes, of the pressure group Campaign to Close Campsfield, said: "Here we have an institution full of people being driven deliberately to despair by government policy." "He added: "We believe these people should be allowed to get on with their own lives. Centres like Campsfield are a huge national scandal and shame. Campsfield House has been a removal centre since 1993 and is privately run by the company Global Solutions Limited. In 2002, the then Home Secretary David Blunkett pledged that the centre would be closed, but a year later it was decided to keep it open and expand the number of places. Since 2000, at least 25 asylum-seekers have killed themselves while living in the community after being told they would be deported. Mr Kumluca was the seventh to have committed suicide in a detention centre. More than 2,600 adults and children are being held in detention centres prior to deportation. In January this year another asylum-seeker Bereket Yohannes, from Eritrea, was found hanging at Harmondsworth Removal Centre. An inquest will be held into his death.

June 17, 2006 Indy Media
On Monday 12th of this week a Somalian man went onto a roof at Campsfield; he had been detained for four months (probably illegally, since the government cannot deport people to Somalia) and took a rope and a plastic bag with him. GEO, the new management at Campsfield, asked the police to leave and said they would deal with the matter themselves; we do not know whether they used violence against the Somalian detainee; he has been removed from Campsfield, no doubt to somewhere even worse as is usual in these cases. There have been 12 suicides in immigration detention, and several hundred attempted suicides and cases of self harm requiring medical treatment. GSL lost the contract to run Campsfield to GEO (Global Expertise on Outsourcing), presumably on cost grounds. GEO took over at the beginning of the month. They have changed their name from Wackenhut, and have a discreditable history of running penal institutions in the USA and Australia. GSL's manager, Andy Clark, who had been more willing than his predecessors to allow volunteers and education classes in Campsfield, decided he could not work with GEO; at least two of the people who ran education classes and workshops have been sacked or left, and GEO apparently intends to provide much reduced hours of education (as required under the contract), run by its own officers. But of course the most serious problem is not the conditions inside the centre, but the fact that people are detained there who have committed no crime, been charged or suspected of no crime, with no judicial process and no time limit, often with no access to lawyers, and always with great uncertainty about what is happening to them or about to happen to them.

May 23, 2001
The global private security firm Group 4, is an "Investor in People."  This may come as a surprise.  For since Campsfield opened, almost unnoticed, in the bleary period just before Christmas in 1993, this improvised brick compound has become to many the unacceptable face of the British government's asylum system.  Within weeks, the country's first specialized facility for confining them while their cases were decided was provoking hunger strikes.  Within months, detainees were climbing on to its roofs to protest at the conditions.  Still in its first year of operation, there was a mass escape over its 20ft perimeter fence, and a "disturbance" - involving fires and smashed furniture - which resulted in the deployment of riot police and injuries to detainees, who needed several ambulances and hospital treatment.  Official reports on Campsfield in 1995 and 1998 by two different chief inspectors of prisons found fear, boredom and stress among inmates.  Among the Group 4 staff, the inspections found inexperience, poor pay and exhausting shift work.  This cycle of protest and disorder and repressive countermeasures continued unabated during the late 1990s.  (Guardian Newspapers)

May 14, 2002
As many as 15 asylum seeker accomadation centres could be built across the UK despite an angry response from residents in the locations chosen for the three pilot "villages".  The government plans to build the centres at Throckmorton, near Pershore on Worcestershire, RAF Newton, in Nottinghamshire, and at Bicester, Oxfordshire.  More than 3,000 villagers have signed a petition objecting to a development in their area.  Some local people are anxious about plans to house large numbers of asylum seekers near them, particularly following the riot and fire which destroyed the $100m Yari's Wood centre.  Steve Mitchell, chairman of Pinvin Parish Council, promised to fight the plans "every step of the way".  (BBC News)

Doncaster Prison
South Yorkshire, UK
Serco (formerly known as Premier)
April 23, 2006 24 DASH
Prison officers are calling for all jail wardens to be better armed claiming they should be given metal batons in order to defend themselves from assault. The Prison Officers Association (POA) conference next month will vote on whether the extendable baton should be allowed in many more prisons. The union's national general secretary Brian Caton said he supported the proposals and predicted the motions would be passed. Currently, staff at private prisons such as Doncaster do not carry batons. "We would say that's wrong," Mr Caton said. "Prisoners in private prisons are no less violent, they're no less difficult. "You are twice as likely to be attacked in a private prison as in a public prison." Last July the Chief Inspector of Prisons warned that staff at a privately-run prison were being bullied by inmates. Anne Owers demanded urgent action after discovering unsafe conditions at Rye Hill jail, near Rugby in Warwickshire, which is run by GSL UK Ltd. Inexperienced officers were ignoring misbehaviour and evidence of contraband in order to "survive" on the wings, the report said.

April 12, 2006 Politics.Co.UK
The government has been forced to defend its use of private contractors to run Britain's prisons in the wake of a critical report from the chief inspector. Anne Owers says that while Doncaster is "by no means a bad local prison", where relationships with staff and inmates are generally good, physical conditions are "sometimes squalid". Many prisoners lack basics such as pillows, toilet seats and working televisions, some cells are dirty and covered in graffiti, and she highlights "institutional meanness" in making prisoners pay to change their account number which allows them to call home. In her report, Ms Owers notes the prison has good points, in particular in its resettlement of offenders and community re-entry facilities, but warns the problems were all in areas "not specifically mandated by the contract under which the prison is run". "There remains a concern that, in focusing on meeting their contractual obligations, prison managers had allowed important areas to slip below what was safe and decent; and indeed may have sought savings in precisely those areas," she said. Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, seized upon today's report as an example of the "manifest failings of private prisons". "It exposes the fallacy promulgated by the Home Office that private prisons have helped to improve prison conditions, raised standards or fostered advances in the decent treatment of prisoners and staff. Doncaster shows that this is not the case," she said. "Unsurprisingly, the chief inspector draws attention to the fact that those areas in which the prison is failing are those in which it was not contractually obliged by the Home Office to meet particular standards."

April 12, 2006 The Mirror
DONCASTER prison has been described as "squalid" and showing signs of "institutional meanness" in a damning report by the jails' watchdog. Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers expressed concern that prison chiefs had let standards slip at the 800-inmate jail and made savings to meet Home Office contract targets. She claims the medium security jail, which is run by private company Serco - formerly known as Premier Prison Services - had deteriorated since it was last inspected in 2003. Her report said one example of "meanness" was charging inmates 50 pence to change family telephone numbers on the automated phone system, which was branded "particularly unfair" because of the shortage of paying jobs in the jail. The chief inspector said: "Respect was seriously undermined by the physical conditions in which many prisoners lived, which in some cases were squalid. Many prisoners lacked pillows, adequate mattresses, toilet seats, working televisions, notice-boards and places to store belongings. "Some cells, especially on the young prisoners' wing, were dirty and festooned with graffiti." First night cells were "squalid" with no hot water, "lumps of foam" as mattresses and "dirty" bedding, said the report. In other areas, bedding was "heavily soiled". Ms Owers also pointed out bullying problems were not properly addressed at the prison and only 29 per cent of young ethnic minority prisoners reported that staff treated them well. In 2003, Ms Owers said Doncaster was a good jail which needed to increase the amount of purposeful activities available - such as work or education - and improve first night facilities. On her return last November, she found it had not tackled these problems and had slipped back in a number of other areas. But, overall, she said Doncaster was "by no means a bad prison". Making 156 recommendations for improvement, Ms Owers said: "Our main concern was not only that managers had failed to tackle problems we pointed out in our last inspection, but that the prison had deteriorated in some important respects - all in areas not mandated in the prison's contract. Yorkshire and Humberside regional offender manager, Paul Wilson, said: "I am satisfied that Serco has responded quickly and appropriately to the inspectorate's recommendations and that the director and his staff are committed to continuous improvement of standards of offender management."

May 6, 2005 The Mirror
VALENTINE'S Day killer Paul Dyson slit his wrists and scrawled "Sorry" on his jail cell wall before admitting responsibility for his girlfriend Joanne Nelson's death. The former bouncer, charged earlier this week, smuggled a small blade into his prison. A guard found him slumped on the floor of his cell in the early hours. Doncaster Prison, where Dyson is being held, opened nine years ago and was Britain's first private jail. It is run by Premier Prisons, which is partly American owned. The jail has been hit by controversy in the past, with allegations of bullying and high numbers of suicides.

Dovegate Prison
Staffordshire, United Kingsom
Premier
September 4, 2003
Staff at a private jail were so inexperienced they were unwilling or unable to confront inmates, the chief inspector of prisons said today.  Faults at Dovegate prison in Staffordshire included a "cumbersome" system to deal with insubordination, which allowed prisoners to "exploit the situation" and avoid punishment, Anne Owers said.  Operator Premier Custodial Group was also accused of maintaining a "policy facade" disguising a lack of effective systems.  The report, though praising the jail for its facilities and innovations, was seized on by prison reformers and trades unionists who have long claimed privatised jails were inadequately staffed.  The 800-inmate category B jail near Uttoxeter held sophisticated offenders who were "capable of exploiting any weaknesses or naivety in the staff who supervise them," said Ms Owers.  "There was a worrying lack of experience and confidence among a young, locally recruited staff, few of whom had any previous prison experience and who were operating with low staffing levels and high staff turnover," the report said.  "We observed an inability or unwillingness to confront prisoners appropriately." Few prisoners had privileges taken away even if they misbehaved, leading to the whole system being "seriously undermined".  Inspectors said in their report: "Drug use appeared prevalent, yet drug reduction measures were given low priority."  They also found that a so-called "personal officer" scheme designed to build a personal relationship between staff and inmates existed "in name only".  A survey by Ms Owers' team found that 17 per cent of inmates reported being kicked, punched or assaulted by another prisoner.  But there was reluctance to stop bullying even though an anti-bullying strategy had supposedly been put in place.  Premier has a 15-year contract with the Home Office to run Dovegate, which opened in July 2001, although how much it is paid remains secret.  (Birmingham Post)

September 3, 2003
Homemade weapons and illicit hooch have been found at a privately run prison where staff were so inexperienced that they were unable to confront the inmates, according to a report by the chief inspector of prisons.  The inspection at the 800-inmate Dovegate prison, near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, was carried out in April and found that in contrast to the staff, the prisoners were so sophisticated that they were able to exploit any weakness among the staff.  Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, said Dovegate, with its young staff recruited locally, provided further evidence for the critics of the private prison sector. The company, Premier Custodial Group, operated the prison with low staffing levels and a high turnover.  But she said the prison, which opened in July 2001, also provided evidence of good relations between staff and prisoners. The prison was praised for its cleanliness and the time spent out of cell by inmates in useful activities.  It was to the credit of the prison that the potentially dangerous mix of sophisticated inmates and inexperienced staff had resulted in a mostly safe prison based on mutual respect, Ms Owers said. But she criticised the "cumbersome" system for dealing with insubordination which allowed prisoners to avoid punishment.  A search carried out the week before the inspection uncovered the weapons and alcohol, suggesting that regular cell searches were not thorough.  Kevin Rogers, Dovegate's director, defended the prison's staffing policies and said it managed with fewer staff than most state-run prisons because of the "open minds of the new recruits" and union agreements which allowed it to run a more flexible working system.  (The Guardian)

Dover Asylum Screening Centre
London City Airport
Group 4 (formerly run by Global Solutions)
September 12, 2005 BBC
Immigration detainees have been forced to sleep on tables or plastic chairs because of sub-standard provisions, the prisons watchdog has revealed. Facilities at Gatwick Airport, London City Airport and Dover Asylum Centre were inappropriate for overnight stays, the chief inspector of prisons said. City Airport was "unsuitable" for holding children, the report said. The government said it takes detainees' welfare seriously but that facilities may need independent monitoring. Holding centres at ports and airports hold foreign travellers whose permission to be in the country needs to be examined by immigration officers. But none of the centres inspected, all run by private company GSL UK Limited, had adequate child protection arrangements, according to the report. Inspectors found detainees were sleeping in inadequate conditions, there were no regular healthcare visits and suicide-prevention measures were not good enough.

August 16, 2005 BBC
Facilities at four short-term immigrant holding centres have been condemned as "inadequate" by the prisons watchdog. Dover Asylum Screening Centre, a centre at London City Airport and two at Gatwick Airport are not suitable for overnight stays, its report says. Detainees were found to have slept on tables or plastic chairs, it adds. Immigrants are only supposed to be detained for a few hours, but Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said people were sometimes held overnight, and occasionally for up to 36 hours. Ms Owers said none of the centres had adequate child protection arrangements. A spokesman for GSL UK Limited, which was in charge of the centres at the time of the inspections, said it was inappropriate to comment as the company no longer ran them. The centres have since been taken over by Group 4 Securicor.

Downview Women's Prison
Banstead, UK
Aramark
March 27, 2007 IC Surrey
REPLACING prison food with over-priced outside catering fare is a recipe for disaster in a women's jail. This is the opinion of prison visitors whose latest report says inmates much preferred 'porridge' the way it is. Aramark, the company which has taken over the canteen at Downview Women's Prison, is typical of the caterers who have taken over the food at many jails. And the report by the Independent Monitoring Board claims the new system is not being welcomed anywhere. The report says: "We were warned in advance by other independent monitoring boards who had experienced a similar change to expect a disastrous transfer - and it has been. "The decision to privatise the canteen may bring cash benefit to the Treasury but the introduction of Aramark to run the prison canteen has so far been a disaster. "For prisoners the canteen is one of the most important facets of their lives but prices have risen sharply,the inventory has shrunk, revisions take ages to implement and the administration is poor. "In contrast the old prison-run canteen at least understood the needs of the prisoners and charged prices that matched their wages. "It worked and this seems to be the same story repeated throughout as prison after prison has lost control of its canteens." In a report which praises "committed and dedicated" staff, the board said all the faults it found with Downview were beyond their control.

Dungavel Detention Centre
Lanarkshire, Britain
Wackenhut
September 21, 2003
Campaigners have reacted angrily to reports that the Dungavel asylum centre's capacity is to be increased . The Home Office has confirmed that it is looking at a £3m project to increase capacity by a quarter to 194. This would involve new pre-fabricated buildings with bars on the windows being built at the centre in south Lanarkshire. The Scottish National Party accused the Scottish Executive of "dishonesty" and of hiding the plans. This is one of a number of plans to increase the size of detention of state Home Office spokesman MSPs have clashed over who is responsible for Dungavel as the UK Government is currently in charge of immigration and asylum, but education in Scotland is a devolved matter. An executive spokesman said again on Sunday that immigration and the operation of Dungavel is reserved to Westminster and the Home Office. Collusion claim A Home Office spokesman said: "This is one of a number of plans to increase the size of detention of state. "If it goes ahead the capacity will increase to 194. But the extra space will not be used for families and instead will house single males." Linda Fabiani, SNP MSP for Central Scotland, accused the executive of colluding with the Home Office. She said: "Ministers are being very dishonest about this. They should be deeply ashamed at what they are allowing the Home Office to do. "They're going to have to take notice of the people in Scotland who know that they are breaching human rights." The MSP claimed the plans were prove that Dungavel was being used like a prison. She said: "They (the executive) have chosen to make this place a prison and are actually building prison facilities with bars on the windows. "They are locking children up in that environment." Labour MSP Elaine Smith, the member for Coatbridge and Chryston, said the plans should have been revealed months ago. Labour MP Michael Connarty, a campaigner against the detention of children at the centre, said he was concerned. He said: "We need to move away from this type of facility. "I'm concerned we seem to be consolidating Dungavel's role. It is a prison establishment and unsuitable for children." (BBC News)

September 11, 2003
Westminster has effectively ruled out educating children held at the Dungavel asylum centre in local schools.  Immigration Minister Beverley Hughes said she wanted the "best possible education" provided for children inside the centre.  In a special debate in the Scottish Parliament, Scottish National Party leader John Swinney appealed to MSPs to follow their consciences and end the policy of detaining children.  The privately-run centre in South Lanarkshire, which can hold up to 150 asylum seekers, has caused controversy by holding children in the former prison for long periods with their parents.  An SNP motion in parliament called for "an end to the detention of children" at the Dungavel Immigration and Removal centre.  It also sought an end to "a system of detention of children at Dungavel which denies them access to social contact and to educational and other services in the local community".  In an impassioned speech, Scottish Socialist MSP Rosie Kane made clear her opposition to Dungavel.  She said: "Detention of innocent people is wrong. Dungavel and other detention centres all over the UK are wrong.  (BBC News)

September 6, 2003
About a thousand people have joined a human rights demonstration outside the controversial Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire.  The event was planned to coincide with the second anniversary of the centre's opening.  Organisers the Scottish Trades Unions Congress (STUC) said the protest reflected growing public concern over the treatment of asylum seekers there.  A spokesman said it was outrageous that asylum seekers and their families had been detained in Scotland over the past two years, having committed no crime and with no charges against them.  (BBC News)

August 15, 2003
The long-term detention of children in immigration removal centres should stop, the chief inspector of prisons has said.  Anne Owers' call is made in a report on the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire, the only such centre in Britain where children are regularly held for long periods.  Opposition politicians and churches in Scotland have demanded the closure of the 62-bed family unit at Dungavel.  The privately-run centre holds up to 148 failed asylum seekers and other immigration detainees.  (BBC News)

Forest Bank Prison
Agecroft, UK
Sodexho
April 29, 2008 Manchester.com
The inquiry into why a man wrongly released from Forest Bank jail in Salford was able to murder a man on a double-decker bus has criticised the criminal justice system. Anthony Joseph was released from the private prison in Agecroft despite an outstanding warrant for his immediate arrest from Liverpool crown court over a burglary offence. Anthony Joseph, 23, stabbed Richard Whelan several times on the top deck of a bus in London in July 2005 only hours after he was released. The report, which was commissioned by the Home Office last December, criticises the "lackadaisical" and "nonchalant approach" of the criminal justice system when it comes to some offenders. Officials at Forest Bank jail in Manchester have said they were not aware there was an outstanding arrest warrant for Mr Joseph. The report also criticises the lack of communication between law enforcement bodies. Earlier this month, government figures revealed that a tenth of the prison drug finds in England and Wales during 2007 were in Forest Bank. But the prison governor claims this reflects the jail's high detection rate.

August 14, 2006 BBC
A prison officer from a private jail has been arrested over claims he made nuisance calls to inmates' relatives. The 41-year-old man, who works at Forest Bank Prison, in Salford, Greater Manchester, was arrested after prisoners and families complained. The officer was held on 2 August and later bailed until 30 August. A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said a man had been arrested on suspicion of misuse of telecommunications systems. Forest Bank, which opened in 2000, is run by United Kingdom Detention Services (UKDS). A spokesman for UKDS said it had nothing to add to the police statement.

December 21, 2005 The Guardian
Inmates threw a bucket of excrement over prison staff as government inspectors toured a privately-run jail, it emerged today. The chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, revealed the incident - known in jail lingo as "potting" - as she raised concerns about falling safety standards at Forest Bank jail, Greater Manchester. The 800-inmate men's jail, which is run by UK Detention Services, suffered 25 prisoner assaults a month and there had been 2,500 disciplinary hearings in just six months, she said. Drugs were "rife" with four out of 10 compulsory drug tests coming back positive, her inspection team found. The director of the Prison Reform Trust charity, Juliet Lyon said: "This damning report reveals a prison that has become all too comfortable with violence, drugs and bullying. When a bucket of excrement is thrown at staff, during the inspection itself, you have to ask whether anyone is in control at Forest Bank. "This is the latest in a series of worrying reports suggesting that high staff turnover and lack of control in some private prisons is creating a 'Lord of the Flies' environment that is dangerous for prisoners and staff, and almost guaranteed to increase the chances of re-offending on release."

December 21, 2005 The Times
A PRIVATELY run jail is out of control, with high levels of assaults and a culture on the wings of drug abuse, according to a highly critical report published today. Prison officers were covered with a bucket of excrement by inmates at Forest Bank jail as inspectors toured the building. The incident known in prison slang as "potting" was the latest in a number of similar attacks on prison staff. Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, criticised the culture at the jail which was "steeped in serious drug abuse". In one month alone, more than 2kg of cannabis, 60g of heroin and 4.6g of cocaine were found at the jail, run by United Kingdom Detention Services. Ms Owers was so alarmed by the prison in Salford, Greater Manchester, that she immediately alerted senior Prison Service officials to the extent of the failings. "There had been a significant deterioration in safety so that urgent management attention and remedial action was required to rebuild staff confidence and properly regain control of the prison," the inspection report said. A surprise inspection in July at the jail, run by UKDS, a subsidiary of Sodexho Alliance which runs three prisons, found routine intimidation of staff, prisoner assaults on other prisoners running at 25 a month and staff turnover of 25 per cent a year. There had been 2,500 prisoner discipline hearings in six months and 40 per cent of compulsory drug tests were positive. Ms Owers said: "There were a series of assaults against staff, including one unsavoury incident when a bucket of excrement was thrown into an office and over two staff who were there, while we were at the prison. This was by no means the first such 'potting' incident in the prison's recent history. We were told there were two or three others in the previous couple of months." The report depicts a prison where drugs are rife and that a high level of staff turnover meant custody officers were unable to tackle problems. It is the second report in less than six months in which Ms Owers has found serious problems of control at a privately run jail. In July she found that staff at Rye Hill jail near Rugby had little confidence in controlling prisoners and the premises were "almost out of control". Staff turnover at the prison, operated by GSL, formerly part of the Group 4, was running at 40 per cent a year. Private sector involvement in the prison system has helped to spur the public sector to improve its performance and introduced innovation into the jail system. But staff turnover at private jails is higher than State-run jails - reflecting lower pay for officers compared with those in State prisons. It is also difficult to get information about what goes on in private jails with "commercial confidentiality" used as a reason not to disclose details. One prison watchdog said: "The private sector do not like anyone knowing too much about what goes on in their prisons. If they could get away with giving out no information at all, they would."

March 3, 2005 BBC
Police are searching for a "dangerous" prisoner who escaped while he was being taken to hospital in a taxi. Convicted robber Neil Brennan, 21, was handcuffed to two prison officers as they travelled from HMP Forest Bank to Hope Hospital, Salford, on Wednesday. The taxi was stopped by two men who threatened the guards with a gun, forcing them to unlock the handcuffs. Brennan escaped with the men. Greater Manchester Police said Brennan "may pose a danger to the public". Det Ch Insp Sam Hawarth said the hijacking had been well-planned and that he believed Brennan may have injured himself deliberately as part of the plot. He said he expected the Prison Service to review its means of transporting prisoners in the wake of the escape. "It would appear that using taxis in this manner is a regular practice, but it is not one we were aware of," he said. The prison guards who were taking Brennan from the privately-run HMP Forest Bank were not injured but were left "shocked".

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)

Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Glasgow, England
Sodexho
January 25, 2002
THESE were the shocking scenes inside Glasgow's largest hospital this week. A joint management and union inspection team found filthy conditions throughout Glasgow Royal Infirmary in areas used by patients and staff.   Now unions at the hospital are demanding Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm sack the private cleaning contractor Sodexho for failing to deliver decent services.   Bloody surgical "scrubs" from an operating theatre are dumped in a lift used to carry patients' meals. Staff say the area is infested with cockroaches.   DANGER MOVE: A porter moves bags of contaminated material, but is wearing no protective clothing.  Workers say tunnels below the Victorian-built hospital have been turned into firetraps by piles of waste.   And staff have to wash themselves in a stinking bathroom among damaged brickwork that could harbour germs. There are more piles of filth on the floor.   Despite this chief executive Maggie Boyle slammed our investigation and promised: "The cleaning contract for the hospital is routinely monitored and any problems identified are addressed."   However, North Glasgow Unison secretary Carolyn Leckie today called for Sodexho's contract to be terminated.   She said: "What we found is the result of years of under-funding. This is made worse by private firms milking profits and potentially putting patients at risk."   Staff shortages are so severe two men have to shift 10tonnes of linen a day, a job previously done by eight people.   Ms Leckie said: "We want to an end to privatisation.   The Trust can't solve this problem on its own. We desperately need extra resources from the Scottish Executive."  (John McCann)

Global Solutions Limited (now Group 4)
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.

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”.

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.

August 26, 2007 The Observer
A possible sale or flotation of Global Solutions, which runs a number of Britain's prisons and detention centres, has been shelved by private equity owner Cognetas, according to City sources. UBS, the investment bank that was appointed last month to undertake a strategic review of the prisons group, is understood to have advised Cognetas against a move while global credit and stock markets are still on tenterhooks. 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. The company has stoked occasional controversy, most recently after the BBC's Panorama programme looked into the way Global Solutions ran Rye Hill prison, near Rugby, Warwickshire. The jail was the subject of a report by the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, who found the staff were inexperienced. There has also been criticism of the way it runs asylum centres - last year, a prisons inspectorate inquiry was ordered into Yarl's Wood, an immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire that was formerly run by Global.

June 14, 2007 The Telegraph
Global Solutions, a company that runs some of Britain's prisons and detention centres, may be about to change hands for around £400m. Private equity firm Cognetas, which owns Global Solutions, has appointed investment bank UBS to carry out a strategic review of the business, according to sources familiar with the matter. It is understood that the review is likely to examine a float, sale, refinancing and possible future acquisition for the business. Sources stressed that the strategic review might not necessarily lead to an imminent sale of Global Solutions, which Cognetas bought in 2004 from Danish security firm Group 4 Falck for around £207m. The move comes as Global Solutions - which also builds and manages hospitals, schools and tourist offices for several public organisations around the world - has come under the public 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. Global Solutions' detention centres for asylum seekers have also been criticised. Last year, a prison inspectorate inquiry was ordered after two refugees had to go to hospital following prolonged detention in Yarl's Wood, an immigration removal centre formerly run by Global Solutions. Cognetas declined to comment.

February 16, 2006 BBC
A councillor has called for an urgent review of security after two prisoners escaped from Derby Crown Court in the space of a week. Derby city councillor Richard Smalley said one of the prisoners was on remand for allegedly being involved in a post-office robbery in his ward. Kabbar Kamara, 25, from Liverpool made his escape after being refused bail. He appeared in a court on the top floor before getting away in a manner likened to the fictional character Spiderman. Unsuccessful search. He punched his way through the dock, ran from the court and into a toilet. He squeezed through a window, climbed onto a roof, jumped down to another level and dropped 12 feet to the ground. Police used a helicopter and dogs to search for him but without success. Previously Fabian Wilson, 23, from Derby absconded after appearing in court charged with breaching a community service order. Mr Smalley, deputy Conservative leader on the city council, said: "I think it's of paramount importance that the way offenders or alleged offenders are handled within the court is looked at and tightened up." Security at the court is handled by GLS, formerly Group 4. A spokesman said a review would be conducted to identify any lessons that could be learned from the escapes.

Group 4/Securicor (AKA Wackenhut, G4S)
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 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."

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 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.

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.

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”.

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 arme