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NOTE: Much of the overseas news has been gleaned from a series of 'Prison Privatisation Reports International' and 'Privatisation Factfiles' published in London by the Prison Reform Trust. See advertisement to subscribe. Additional information gathered from international news papers.
* Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice is investigating the feasibility of what the Minister, Mr. Liao Cheng-hao, refers to as prisons built and run under BOT (build, operate and transfer) contracts. The minister believes that privately run facilities would help ease overcrowding in Taiwan’s prisons and save public money. At this stage he envisages only using private prisons for low risk offenders.
* The government of Jamaica is considering privately financing and building a new facility to replace its existing, overcrowded remand centre in Kingston. Business Week in December 1997 referred to Wackenhut as being well placed for "planned contests" in Jamaica. But a government spokesperson told PPRI that the plan for a new prison was at a very early stage and that, in any event, there were many local firms capable of financing and carrying out such a project.
* Ireland’s Minister of Justice is considering the feasibility of a 400 place prison at Portaoise being privately financed, designed and built. Proposals from companies include high technology designs to reduce staffing levels currently used in the public sector.
* New Zealand’s Department of Corrections has called for registrations of interest in providing design services for its proposed new private prison. The 275 bed facility is to be built on the site adjacent to the existing Mount Eden prison in Auckland.
* The New Zealand Government is launching a pilot scheme using private security firms to transport prisoners between police stations, courts, prisons and forensic psychiatric units. Prisoners attending court will also be guarded by private guards. The scheme will operate in the Auckland and Northland regions.
* The government has short listed five consortia (including Wackenhut) to bid for 25 year contracts to design, build and run four prisons. Other foreign companies teaming up with local construction firms are Group 4, Management and Training Corporation, Youth Services International and the Bunapuri Group of Malaysia. There will be a 1500 bed maximum security prison in both Northern Province and Free State, an 800 bed youth detention centre in Mpumalanga and a 1500 bed remand prison in Gauteng province. The Youth League of the African National Congress (ANC) is part of one of the bidding consortia, and this has drawn criticism on the grounds that political parties should not be involved in business deals with the government.
Legislation for private prisons has begun in Parliament. A draft Bill says that companies will have to adhere to international conventions and treat prisoners "with dignity and in an humane manner". They will also be able to apply for their prisons to be declared essential services, thus making strikes by staff unlawful. All company staff will have sign a secrecy clause in their contract.
* The South African Government was so impressed with England's’ use of a ship to house prisoners that they are also considering the idea. The release of 45,000 prisoners to ease the critical prison overcrowding problem is also being considered.
* Pretoria Prison’s newly converted C-Max unit opened last September. According to Security Australia wardens wear body armour and carry stun guns that can deliver a 50,000 volt shock that will temporarily paralyse but not kill. They "appear equipped to put down an urban riot … much of the technology was developed in the US, whose own burgeoning prison population has put it at the forefront of such technologies".
* The Ontario Government is inviting companies to discuss the design, construction, financing and operation of one of its two new 1200-bed prisons in a bid to cut costs. Correctional workers staged a province-wide protest on 1 December 1997 as part of an on-going campaign against the plan to replace 14 existing facilities with these two 'super jails'. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union believes that the concepts of both privatisation and 'super jails' flawed. It has produced an alternative plan to restructure the service with regional jails and make cost savings without threat to jobs or public safety. The Police Association of Ontario is also concerned about the effects of privatisation.
The Ontario Government hired Ottawa consultant Jim Robinson to provide an evaluation plan, a selection process, and a request for proposals for this facility. He in turn hired Prof. Charles Thomas of the University of Florida to help him draw up the documents, who, he told NOW magazine in December is "utilised as an adviser on almost every privatisation project". Mr. Robinson also said that he is currently involved with a US company that is interested in bidding for the Ontario contract.
* The Wackenhut-built but province-run, New Brunswick Youth Centre opened on 6 January 1998. It is the first correctional facility in Canada to base its entire rehabilitation program on the principles of a therapeutic community. The government had originally intended it to be privately-run but a strong trade union and community campaign forced the change.
* In Nova Scotia, the provincial government recently published its Custody Configuration Report - the framework document for the future of correctional services - and announced that, initially, two new facilities will be privately financed and built and leased back to the province.
The government hopes that the needs of mentally ill offenders will be best met by replacing the existing Halifax Correctional Centre and Nova Scotia Forensic Psychiatric Service and building new facilities together on one site. Professional expertise and infrastructure such as kitchen, laundry and heating systems will be shared. The new prison and psychiatric unit will be staffed by public employees.
* Alton Manning, a 33 year old black remand prisoner, died on 8 December 1995 at UK Detention Services-run HM Prison Blackenhurst in the English west Midlands. An inquest started in January 1998 but was adjourned at the request of UKDS lawyers. The coroner and the jury heard that Manning died after UKDS staff attempted a body search for drugs (the pathologist reported that no drugs or alcohol were found). The pathologist established that the cause of death was respiratory impairment/restriction during restraint leading to asphyxia. There was evidence of airway occlusion due to pressure on the neck, and restriction of chest movement whilst on the ground with pressure applied to the back of the chest. Manning suffered bruising on the neck and back, eight separate visible areas of injury to the face as well as abrasions to the arms and legs.
* Trade unions have launched a final effort to halt plans by the Prison Service in England and Wales to privatise the industrial functions at Coldingley prison in Surrey. Unions claim that the proposals for prisoners' employment contravene the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on forced or compulsory labour. Work is compulsory only for convicted prisoners but the crux of the issue is whether prisoners will be forced to work if Wackenhut is to meet its commercial targets. The unions also believe that if privatisation goes ahead, the rest of the services providing employment and training opportunities will be privatised.
* Two companies operating private prison, court escort and electronic tagging contracts have filed accounts for the 1996 financial year. Premier Prison Services Ltd. made a pre-tax profit of 1.25m pounds and Securicor Custodial Services Ltd. Made a pre-tax profit of 935,699 pounds.
* The Prison Service is planning yet another new private prison, an 840 place prison to be built at Peterborough. It will be the first purpose built prison to house both men and women, but local residents are petitioning against it. Meanwhile, the Scottish Prison Service is considering two more private prisons.
* The chief inspector of prisons has published what he calls "a thoroughly good report" on Group 4-run HM Prison Buckley Hall, the fourth English prison to be privately managed. Soon after its opening, there followed a series of security breaches and other problems, the biggest concerning the provision of education and work. Although he set out 47 examples of good practise, he also recommended over 80 improvements. Since his report, two improvement notices (for contract failure at Buckley Hall) have been served on Group 4.
* In order to develop a case for returning privately-run prisons to the public sector, the Home Secretary asked the Prison Service to review comparative costs to see if they matched. Although the figures have not been independently scrutinised, costs are thought to be ten per cent cheaper in the private sector. This is due to fewer staff and worse wages and conditions. But all other costs were more expensive and the number of assaults on staff and prisoners were also higher.
* The Prison Service unit responsible for privatisation and contracting out - the Contracts and Competition Group (CCG) - has been offering free advice, information and consultancy to foreign governments.
* In order to operate its prison and escort services contracts, in recent years Group 4 has hired 40 former Prisons Services staff, including 14 governor grades and two psychologists. The National Association of Probation Officers has called for an independent inquiry into what it considers "a clear conflict of interest".
* The UK’s second privately financed, designed, built and run prison opened on 1 December 1997. HM Prison Altcourse, at Fazakerly in north west England, is run by Group 4. The prison will initially hold high security prisoners and, from May 1998, maximum security prisoners also.
* After five years of unsuccessful contract bids, UK Detention Services Ltd., which is now jointly owned by Correction Corporations of America and Sodexho (which, in turn, owns 20 per cent of CCA), has won its second UK contract. It will run a new prison at Salford in north west England.
* Wackenhut’s joint venture company in the UK has won a 25 year contract to finance, build and run what it calls a 400 bed ‘correctional institute’ near Bristol, south west England. The facility is expected to open in October 1999. Wackenhut now has four prison contracts in the UK, as well as running two regional prisoner escort services, an immigration detention centre and the prison industries at one public sector prison.
* Ten days after Securicor Services Ltd. opened its first private prison ( HM Parc at Bridgend, Wales), David Jenkins, a remand prisoner on suicide watch, hanged himself by his shoelaces. There was a full staff complement but only 1/8 of the intended number of prisoners.
A month later (15/12/97), another prisoner attempted suicide but was found on the off-chance by a custody officer. The size of the prison is 40 per cent smaller than other 800 cell prisons, which restricts prisoner movements and allows for fewer staff.
* Group 4 will soon open the first private Secure Training Centre for 40 offenders aged between 12 and 15 years old. In December the Daily Mail reported that the annual cost per child will be 250,000 pounds - more expensive than staying at the Ritz Hotel in London.
* Twenty four new prisons could be needed in England and Wales within the next seven years , if the prison population continues to grow at its present rate.
Premier Prison Services Ltd. latest prison, HM Prison Lowdham Grange in Nottingham, has opened amidst controversy. A proposed scheme for contracting with a number of firms to provide employment for prisoners has been criticised by trade unions for allowing those companies to undercut existing local wage rates.
* Companies such as pharmaceutical and medical firms are being asked to sponsor special drugs courts in the north of England when public funds run out. In April 1998, the Substance Misuse Treatment and Enforcement Programme (STEP) will begin piloting courts which will fast-track offenders through the judicial system. A similar scheme operates in Miami, Florida.
* A former CCA lobbyist is suing the company and its chairman and CEO, Dr. C. Crants, over an alleged share holding agreement that was not honoured. Bill Cornelison claims that he was promised 6,000 shares in CCA in recognition of his work, and is suing for $12.7m in compensation. In papers filed for his law suit, Cornelison makes allegations about some of CCA’s past practices. As well as claiming that Hamilton County, Tennessee was defrauded over a $25m insurance policy, he alleges that the company: wire-tapped a former Silverdale (Chattannooga) chief of security; engaged in a criminal conspiracy to violate US narcotics law "by and through agents of CCA"; fired a former shift supervisor at Silverdale because he refused to remain silent about CCA’s alleged criminal conduct. This resulted in a raid by federal agents and a grand jury indicting a number of CCA employees and two prisoners on drug charges.
* The USA dual crisis of overcrowded prisons and lack of corrections funding has spawned another market for the private sector - bed brokering. Firms such as Dominion Management of Oklahoma (which has matched 8,000 prisoners with prison places since 1993) and Inmate Placement Services (IPS) of Nashville, are cashing in. Bed brokering is now causing an increasing number of prisoners to be transferred to prisons away from their home states. This impacts on their ability to organise a legal defence and places greater stress on families. There are also untested legal implications, such as which authority is responsible if a prisoner escapes or is abused, and which state’s regulations apply in a facility where prisoners came from two or more states.
* When CCA wanted to build a prison in Youngstown, Ohio, the city sold the company a 101 acre site for just one dollar, gave it a five year partial tax break, free utility connections and protection against losses and court damages. CCA spent $57m building the 2,016 bed Northeast Ohio Correctional Centre. Then in July 1997 CCA sold the facility to its affiliated company, CCA Prison Realty Trust (a Real Estate Investment Trust, REIT) for $70m, making a $13m profit. The rationale behind CCA’s REIT is that with prison overcrowding, increasing incarceration rates and lack of funds for new prisons, the company could cash in on buying and financing publicly managed prisons.
* A teenage boy once jailed at a juvenile prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America is suing the firm, alleging employees mistreated him. The boy claims that CCAm employees hog-tied him more than 30 times. The boy also states that on at least three occasion's they improperly used pepper spray on him. The boy was housed at the prison between July 1996 and January 1997. He spent the next year at a state mental hospital. Governor David Beasley did not renew the state's contract with CCAm. On July 1, the Department of Juvenile Justice started running the prison, now called the Northeast Centre (Columbia). Beasley and lawmakers were upset with CCAm's management of the prison almost from the time it was opened in July 1996. Reports sent to Beasley showed CCAm employees lack the training to do a good job. Many supervisors had no prior experience and CCAm provided only one week of training for officers (Allard, The State, 3.2.98).
* Texas: state officials have given approval to begin renting more than 1,000 cells in county jails and private prisons. According to reports, cell rentals have been signed at one lockup that was the target of allegations of abuse of out-of-state convicts. Wayne Scott, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said contracts have been signed to hold up to 280 Texas convicts at the Taylor lockup, run by CCAm; up to 250 at the county-owned Bowie County Jail in New Boston; and up to 390 at the privately run Dickens County Correctional Centre in Spur. Missouri removed several hundred of its convicts from private jails in Texas, including the ones in Limestone and Gregg counties, because of complaints about conditions and treatment of their prisoners. Montana pulled 258 felons from the Dickens County Jail last September after a series of escapes, disturbances and complaints about housing, medical treatment and food (Cox International Media Inc, 6.2.98)
* Correctional Services Corporation (formerly Esmor) has finalised a contract with Grenada County to operate a 160 bed jail in Grenada, Mississippi. This will be the first private prison in the state. The company has 18 contracts to manage facilities in Florida, New York, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Washington State.
* The East Mississippi Correctional Facility Authority has chosen Wackenhut to negotiate a contract to design, construct and manage a 500-cell mental health correctional facility in Lauderdale County. The company believes that this will be the first privatised mental health prison for state prisoners.
* Plans to privatise Florida’s prison system have resurfaced after the legislature initially rejected the idea. CCA and Wackenhut want to privatise the state’s five regions at one go, rather than one at a time as previously proposed.
* In the past year, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has collected $15,553 from three firms and is still owed $6,344 by two others for providing state help to private prison operators. The Dove Development Corp., the former operator of the Frio Detention Center in Pearsall, owes $4,794 for state help in quelling an uprising in September 1996 and apprehending an escapee - unfortunately, the company has gone out of business.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which supervises private prisons, is increasing scrutiny and is now employing a prisoners’ complaints investigator.
Forty-nine states, the District of Columbia and three territories have been awarded over $400m in new grants from the federal Department of Justice, to help build or expand correctional facilities for violent and juvenile offenders.
* Texas’ policy of getting tough on criminals has led to the prison population rising from 48,000 in 19990 to 144,600. Parole for violent offenders is at its lowest for 20 years and prisoners are expected to serve up to 90 per cent of their sentences.
* Robert Dearing, deputy director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, was a paid consultant for the Bobby Ross Group Inc. (BRG) at the same time as he was investigating complaints about conditions at a BRG prison in Texas last year. Montana corrections officials had described conditions at the Dickens County Correctional Centre as substandard and found 29 areas of non-compliance with the contract. They subsequently moved their prisoners out and cancelled the state’s contract with BRG. Dearing however, gave the facility a clean bill of health.
* Capital Corrections Resources Inc (CCRI) is selling its Texas prisons to Civigenics inc. Capital’s business has declined since revelations on a training video tape showed guards at its Brazoria County Jail beating prisoners and setting dogs on them. Following the video’s release, Missouri and other states which sent prisoners to Capital’s Texas facilities, cancelled their contracts and transferred the prisoners elsewhere. Civigenics operates private detention facilities in 13 other states.
* Corrections National Corporation of Texas is proposing to build and run a 700 bed high security geriatric and special needs prison hospital in Pittsburgh.
* A youth development centre which opened at Pahokee, Florida in January 1997 and is run by Correctional Services Corporation, has been criticised by a judge for inflicting cruel and unusual punishment. He concluded that the facility was at best unsuitable for many of the 350 teenagers in its care - and at worse, abusive.
Prison privatisation has caused conflict between the Florida corrections system and private companies, according to a new report by Florida’s Office of Program Analysis and Government Accountability. It also claims that the Department of Corrections and the Corrections Privatisation Commission "have not worked co-operatively ... but moved towards operating a dual corrections system that may be duplicative".
* Details of prison companies’ recent political donations have emerged. Last year, CCA gave $6,000 each to the Democrats’ Commonwealth Victory Fund, the Joint Republican Caucus and the Virginia State Legislative Black Caucus (amongst other donations). Correctional Services Corporation , who put in a cheaper bid for a Juvenile Prison and received higher points, believe that this resulted in CCA winning the bid.
* The Corrections and Criminal Justice Coalition, who represent 180,000 correctional officers across the US, agreed in its September conference, to a series of new anti-privatisation initiatives, particularly in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Montana, Florida and the District of Columbia.
* Residents of Fallsburg, a town 90 miles of New York City, discovered last February that CCA had bought a local hotel and 180 acres of land. Although no planning application has yet been made to the Town Planning Board, the company is thought to be interested in developing the site as a halfway house for drug dependent offenders.
* George Zoley, Wackenhut’s CEO, told Business Week recently that international contracts now account for 20% of the company’s revenues and 30% of its profits. "If we maintain market share and growth rate, we will be a $1 billion company… by the year 2004" he said. As at 19/12/97, the company had 45 awards and/or contracts for 45 facilities in the US, UK and Australia. Ten facilities are due to open this year.
* Securicor New Century, a subsidiary of UK firm Securicor, has won its first contract in the US. It will operate a 104 bed high security facility for juveniles in Florida.
* Tennessee’s legislators are finalising plans to privatise some two-thirds of the state’s correctional facilities. And according to The Nation, top CCA executives and board members have contributed at least $110,000 to state candidates since 1993.
* The New Mexico Corrections Department has accused CCA of allegedly overcharging the state $2m over the past eight years, for operating the women’s prison in Grants.
* The design of CCA’s new facility being built at Lawrenceville, Virginia, will allow the company to employ just five guards during the day and two at night, to supervise 750 prisoners.
* California’s prison population is 150,000 and this is expected to triple in the next 25 years due to the state’s three strike laws. Overcrowding is rife, with some prisons holding nearly double their capacity.
* Avalon Community Services Inc. of Oklahoma’s corporate mantra is "minimum security prisons - maximum profit margins". Through acquisition and new contract awards, the company predicts that its revenues will grow from $3.3m in1996 to over $30m by the end of 1998
* The Oklahoma Sheriffs Association is seeking to join a lawsuit filed by a Tulsa County sheriff in a bid to prevent a new county jail being privatised. The original lawsuit claimed that it would be unconstitutional for the state to delegate power from an elected official to a private company. The Tulsa County Deputy Sheriffs Fraternal Order of Police also has a lawsuit pending, which claims that the Criminal Justice Authority was formed illegally and has no power over the new jail.
* Georgia’s Department of Corrections has been unable to privatise its low security halfway houses and diversion centres and prison programmes for substance abusers and sex offenders. The state has already privatised three prisons and health care services, although the original health care provider, Prison Health Services Inc., lost its contract within the first year after being fined for inadequate staffing.
* Ten years after it adopted opposition to privatisation as official policy, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLUF) has restated its position. The ACLUF’s National Prison Project recently joined with the Law Enforcement Alliance of America to oppose privatisation; their view is that "the move to privatisation is a dangerous distraction from the difficult decisions that need to be made to restructure our criminal justice policies".
* Ohio’s first privately run county jail has opened, run by Civigenics of Massachusetts. The company, formed just over two years ago, operates several county jails in Colorado and has acquired a number of companies that provide drug and alcohol counselling services.
* CCA’s North east Ohio Correctional Centre at Youngstown - a sign outside the prison shows CCA’s daily share price - has had numerous problems since it opened in May 1997. Following a series of stabbings, some of the 2,000 prisoners from Washington, DC, and Nevada have filed a lawsuit alleging unsafe conditions. State and local officials have also complained that they have no authority over the prison as the prisoners are from other states. A proposal to introduce legislation which would give Ohio authorities powers to oversee private prisons is being opposed by CCA.
* The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association is campaigning to prevent a second private prison being built in Ohio. A 500 bed prison for offenders convicted of drink driving is being planned at Grafton.
* Federal Extradition Transportation of Memphis have been involved in a number of incidents. Two security guards were jailed in Dalton, Georgia on 27/12/97 after fighting with each other while escorting nine prisoners from Tennessee. They had been drinking alcohol in the security van and were jailed for drunk driving, making a false report, reckless conduct and providing alcohol to prisoners. In Kansas, a van crashed killing a guard and injuring four prisoners; there have also been escapes from their vehicles.
* Residents of Forest City, Iowa are campaigning to prevent the state’s first private prison being built. The city council has agreed to spend $360,000 connecting utilities to the site - owned incidentally, by a city counsellor - on which CCA wants to build a prison. At a public meeting last year, residents voted 2-1 against the proposal. Meanwhile, the No Prison campaign is pressurising the Iowa legislature to implement legislation which prohibits the building of any private prisons.
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