PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
reports, despite overseeing nearly
three times as many beds.
Among the other key findings
from HuffPost’s investigation:
Staff underreport serious incidents such as major fights and
staff assaults in an effort to keep
the state in the dark and avoid
additional scrutiny — a viola-
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
fails to document such incidents.
Staff turnover at YSI’s prisons
is rampant, leaving inexperienced guards to manage a tough
population.
At YSI facilities, food is often
in short supply and frequently
undercooked. Youth interviewed
by HuffPost recounted being
Even as reports of negligence and poor treatment of
inmates have piled up, his companies have kept their
records clean by habitually pulling out of contracts before
the government takes official action, HuffPost found.
tion of the company’s contracts
as well as Department of Juvenile Justice rules requiring that
contracted staff report such incidents to state authorities.
Though state guidelines prohibit
“unnecessarily harsh or indecent
treatment,” YSI guards have frequently resorted to violence in confrontations with youth, slapping
and choking inmates and sometimes fracturing bones, according
to police reports. Former employees told HuffPost that YSI often
served bloody, raw chicken and
sometimes finding flies inside
pre-cooked dishes. In order to get
enough food, youth are allowed to
gamble through card games and
sports bets while trading “picks”
— the right to take someone else’s
food at the next meal.
Former employees r