PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
pany — then named Correctional
Services Corp. — embarked on
what would eventually grow into
a rewarding business relationship
with the state of Florida.
Slattery’s company had previously been confined largely to Texas,
New York and New Jersey. In 1995,
it won three contracts in Florida,
and then moved its headquarters to
Sarasota, on the Gulf Coast.
Problems emerged almost immediately. Juvenile court judges
from Miami to West Palm Beach
began fielding complaints about
fetid conditions, violence and staff
abuse at one Correctional Services
Corp. facility, the 350-bed Pahokee Youth Development Center.
DeMuro, the former federal
monitor, was brought in by public defenders in Miami to inspect
Pahokee in 1997. He described
a “negative sub-culture” where
“larger and stronger kids can take
advantage of weaker kids.” Staff
only contributed to the vile atmosphere, he found.
“Staff often curse at youngsters, talk about their family
situations,” DeMuro testified in
a court hearing about conditions
at Pahokee that year. “There is
an inappropriate use of force by
banging kids against the wall and
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
taking them down.”
Jesse Williams, the current company spokesman, acknowledged
that Correctional Services Corp.
had “some issues that we dealt
with effectively 15 years ago.”
By 1999, problems at Pahokee
had become so dire that Correctional Services Corp. risked
losing its contract. Under state
law, that termination would have
prevented the company from securing a new contract in Florida
for at least a year.
So the company employed the
tactic that has kept its record
clean in the eyes of the state: It
voluntarily withdrew from the
contract several months early,
closing the books before damaging
reports might be set down for future consideration.
FIRING THE MONITOR
That clean record would become a
valuable asset four years later, as
the Department of Juvenile Justice sought a private contractor to
run Thompson Academy, the 112bed facility for “moderate-risk”
boys northwest of Miami.
Slattery submitted a proposal,
touting his company’s “history
of successfully operating juvenile
facilities for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.” The
60-page proposal noted that the