PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
tice, according to internal department memos and company correspondence obtained by HuffPost.
Diab had previously worked at
the company’s troubled Pahokee
facility and today serves as corporate regional vice president.
A few weeks after the state’s
special review of Thompson in
2004, Diab met with DJJ regional
director Darryl Olson to discuss
concerns he had about Blanton’s
behavior, according to department correspondence.
In an April 2004 letter to department officials and corporate
higher-ups at the company, Diab
complained that Blanton had
been conducting unannounced
visits — allowed under the contract terms – and intimidating
staff and demanding documentation from employees who lacked
the requisite information.
Diab also complained that
Blanton encouraged employees
to call him with concerns about
the program, “thus undermining
the management of the facility,”
according to a letter the administrator sent to the state.
In an interview, Blanton acknowledged that he stuck out
within the culture of the Department of Juvenile Justice, some-
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
times coming off as confrontational where colleagues generally
projected an air of collaboration with the private contractors
whose programs they inspected. “I
dance to my own music,” he said.
The usual spirit of cooperation
flowed from a basic understanding
about the nature of the employment cycle, according to the former department executive staffer
who requested anonymity: Many
state employees wound up going
to work for the same private contractors they regulated.
“It was widely known in the
department that the relationships
you are able to build on the outside are where your next paycheck
is coming from,” the former employee said. “It’s your way of guaranteeing yourself work when the
next administration comes in.”
Blanton did not live by that
code. A 66-year-old AfricanAmerican man from upstate New
York in a department dominated
by whites, he says he took particular interest in the welfare of the
youths housed in Florida’s juvenile
prisons, who were overwhelmingly
black and Latino. He makes no
apologies for confronting his bosses and the private prison companies alike when he found evidence
that young people incarcerated
under the state’s authority were
being neglected or abused.