PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
as an issue in Florida’s oversight
process, according to a review of
hundreds of pages of state contracting documents.
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice looks at past performance when choosing contractors,
but evaluators rely on companies
to self-report their contracting
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
aware of past problems. “This is
a close-knit industry with a very
high volume of reporting and connectivity,” he said.
Over the last decade, Slattery’s
company has secured 13 contracts
in Florida collectively worth more
than $175 million.
In 2005, Slattery sold Correc-
“We’re dealing with human beings. We’re not dealing
with an automobile that can wait to be repaired.”
history. In some of the most egregious instances of negligence and
failure to report serious incidents,
however, Slattery’s companies
pulled out of their contracts early,
rather than wait for the government to take action. In other cases, the contract’s end date worked
in the company’s favor. Executives
could then technically say they
had never had a contract canceled.
Moreover, state officials don’t
examine a potential contractor’s record in other states if the company
already has contracts in Florida.
Jesse Williams, the spokesman
for Slattery’s current company,
asserted that the state is well
tional Services Corp. to a rival
private prison company, the GEO
Group Inc. The deal netted him
more than $6.7 million in severance and stock proceeds, according to securities filings.
In a complex arrangement,
Slattery gave up a portfolio of
14 immigration detention facilities and adult prisons across the
country as part of a $62 million
sale, while buying back one division for $3.75 million: Youth Services International.
As this new Slattery venture
continued to grow in Florida, the
old problems surfaced again. At
one of its largest facilities, a program for boys near Fort Lauderdale
called Thompson Academy, staff
members were quitting in droves,