PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
In 2001, an 18-year-old committed to a Texas boot camp operated by one of Slattery’s previous
companies, Correctional Services
Corp., came down with pneumonia and pleaded to see a doctor as
he struggled to breathe. Guards
accused the teen of faking it and
forced him to do pushups in his
own vomit, according to Texas law
enforcement reports. After nine
days of medical neglect, he died.
That same year, auditors in
Maryland found that staff at one of
Slattery’s juvenile facilities coaxed
inmates to fight on Saturday mornings as a way to settle disputes
from earlier in the week. In recent
years, the company has failed to
report riots, assaults and claims of
sexual abuse at its juvenile prisons
in Florida, according to a review
of state records and accounts from
former employees and inmates.
Despite that history, Slattery’s
current company, Youth Services
International, has retained and
even expanded its contracts to operate juvenile prisons in several
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
states. The company has capitalized on budgetary strains across the
country as governments embrace
privatization in pursuit of cost savings. Nearly 40 percent of the nation’s juvenile delinquents are today committed to private facilities,
according to the most recent federal
data from 2011, up from about 33
percent 12 years earlier.
Over the past two decades,
more than 40,000 boys and girls
in 16 states have gone through one
of Slattery’s prisons, boot camps
or detention centers, according to
a Huffington Post analysis of juvenile facility data.
The private prison industry
has long fueled its growth on
the proposition that it is a boon
to taxpayers, delivering better
outcomes at lower costs than
state facilities. But significant
evidence undermines that argument: the tendency of young
people to return to crime once
they get out, for example, and
long-term contracts that can
leave states obligated to fill pris-
The Huffington Post uploaded and annotated the documents
— including court transcripts, police reports, audits and
inspection records — uncovered during this investigation.
Browse the documents behind this report.