PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
not dealing with an automobile
that can wait to be repaired.”
The state stopped admitting
new youth to Pahokee in August
1999, after the facility failed an
annual audit. But once again, the
state government did not cancel
Slattery’s contract. The Florida
Department of Juvenile Justice
instead allowed the company
to withdraw from the contract
eight months early.
In a brief news release at the
time, the company said it was
closing Pahokee and three other
facilities across the country that
were “unprofitable” in the most
recent quarter. There was no
mention of the state’s findings.
Slattery said the company would
continue to review facilities for
profitability to ensure the “highest quality services for our contracting agencies and a fair return
for our shareholders.”
NATIONAL TROUBLES
In the midst of the abuse allegations at Pahokee, Correctional
Services Corp. was enjoying robust earnings. By 1999, annual
revenues reached more than $223
million, up from $99 million three
years before. That year, the com-
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
pany acquired a rival, Marylandbased Youth Services International, started by W. James Hindman,
the founder and former chairman
of Jiffy Lube International, Inc.
In addition to five new facilities
in Florida, the deal gave the company access to new markets in the
mid-Atlantic and the Midwest.
With more facilities to run, the
problems only intensified.
In June 1999, a 16-year-old inmate sexually assaulted a female
staff member who was left alone
in an unlocked building at the
Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School outside of Baltimore, according to
state court documents.
Problems at Hickey became so
dire that the Justice Department
initiated an investigation. Its subsequent report, released in 2004,
concluded that Hickey staff repeatedly tried to conceal evidence
of physical assaults, disclosing
only about two-thirds of all incidents. The facility was so inadequately staffed that boys were
entering other boys’ rooms and
assaulting them.
The Justice Department found
that the conditions violated “the
constitutional and federal statutory rights of the youth residents.”
The report landed less than two
weeks after the company’s contract ended and the state took
over the facility. The company in-