PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
curred no penalties and the state
agreed to implement reforms, but
ultimately closed the facility the
following year.
“These kids were just warehoused,” said Stacey Gurian-Sherman, a juvenile justice advocate
and former state juvenile justice
staffer in Maryland who helped
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
nile inmates rioted and took over
the facility. After the disturbance,
police in Las Vegas charged two
former female guards with having sexual relations with inmates.
Both women pleaded guilty.
That same year, 18-year-old Bryan Alexander died of pneumonia
while confined at a Correctional
“The staff is untrained, and they end up working double
and triple eight-hour shifts. So the kids get abused
at worst, neglected at least, and they come out with
many more problems than when they walked in.”
expose some of the problems at
Correctional Services Corp. facilities. “The staff is untrained,
and they end up working double
and triple eight-hour shifts. So
the kids get abused at worst, neglected at least, and they come out
with many more problems than
when they walked in.”
At a Florida Correctional Services Corp. facility called Cypress
Creek, north of Tampa, six juveniles
escaped between 2000 and 2001.
In 2001, at a youth prison run
by the company in Nevada, juve-
Services Corp. boot camp outside
of Fort Worth, Texas. A report
from the Texas Rangers, the state’s
premier law enforcement unit, laid
out a chilling portrait of neglect.
Other inmates at the facility
had told investigators that they
knew something was wrong with
Alexander in early January. He
had stopped eating, his lips turned
purple, and he shivered even while
taking hot showers. He begged a
nurse and drill instructors to take
him to the hospital, but they told
him he was faking it, according to
the Texas Rangers’ report.
As Alexander pleaded for help,
one drill instructor told him to