Money Can Be Saved on Prisons Without Diminishing Public Safety, ACLU of Texas Tells Lawmakers (2/25/2003)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUSTIN, TX--In testimony today before the Texas House Corrections Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said that the state's prisons have become too expensive because the system incarcerates too many non-violent offenders who should be home supporting their families.
"In recent years, Texas prison spending grew faster than spending on either healthcare or education," said Will Harrell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Texas.
"Today, one out of every 100 Texas adults is incarcerated in a state or local facility, and one in 20 is under some type of supervision of the criminal justice system," he added. "That's a higher ratio than any other state and most Third World countries, but it hasn't made us safer. Our crime rate has not declined as much as states that incarcerate significantly fewer people. We need to find a better way."
Harrell said that the revolving penitentiary door has been closed for violent criminals--and rightly so -- but now the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.
Texas prisons are projected to overflow as early as next month. As lawmakers scramble to address this immediate crisis, few people are taking a step back to consider long-term solutions, the ACLU said.
In his testimony today, Harrell noted that Texas protects the public safety of its citizens when it incarcerates violent offenders, but with non-violent offenders, "we reach a point of diminishing returns when too many people are incarcerated; we continue to throw money at the situation by incarcerating the offender while no longer affecting public safety one way or the other."
Texas today faces its gravest budget crisis in decades, and some lawmakers are looking to Texas prisons for budget savings. If budget cuts must be made, 70 percent of Texans said in a recent poll that prisons should be cut before other priorities like healthcare, education and transportation.
"But clearly the cuts cannot come out of programs, like drug treatment and education, which actually help reduce crime over the long term," said Harrell. "Short-sighted approaches will quickly backfire."
Harrell said that few experts have examined the impact on families of incarcerating non-violent offenders. "We do know that children of incarcerated parents are five times more likely to be incarcerated themselves than their peers. Something must be done to break this cycle."
Many other states like Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, California, and Michigan recently reduced some drug-related and other non-violent prison sentences and saved money in their state budgets. Harrell said the budget crisis should compel legislators to look closely at how those other states went about saving money without jeopardizing public safety.
The ACLU believes that a considerable amount of money can be saved by reducing sentences for petty non-violent crimes. Texas should focus more on a fair and just system, alternatives to incarceration, and implementing family-focused probation requirements for non-violent offenders.
"When money is tight, we need to be not just tough, but tough and smart about how we deal with crime and punishment," said Harrell. "Texas cannot afford to pay for incarceration when there is no longer a corresponding improvement in public safety."
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Public Policy run by WIA funding ~TYC contractors housing inmates have lost contracts,No changed their name......
TYC contractors housing inmates have lost contracts, closed doors elsewhere
12:44 AM CDT on Sunday, July 29, 2007
By HOLLY BECKA and JENNIFER LaFLEUR / The Dallas Morning News
hbecka@dallasnews.com; jlafleur@dallasnews.com
Robert Schulze was scared. He threatened to harm himself unless he was moved to another youth prison location. He lost 23 pounds in two months.
[Click image for a larger version] LARA SOLT / DMN
LARA SOLT / DMN
Joanna Garza, 15, plays with her baby Arionna at WINGS for Life, a TYC mother-baby program run my a nonprofit that has faced multiple lawsuits nationwide.
None of that raised concerns at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, a sprawling private youth prison in West Texas run by the GEO Group Inc. Nurses there never gave Robert his prescribed antidepressants, and prison officials never put the 19-year-old inmate on suicide watch.
Ten days later, he hanged himself from the top bunk of his solitary cell.
Texas Youth Commission investigators presented a grim report on the prison's failings to Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials in February. They could have discovered even more disturbing details had they looked beyond Texas' borders.
A three-month Dallas Morning News investigation found that private contractors housing juvenile inmates in Texas repeatedly have lost contracts or shuttered operations in other states after investigators uncovered mismanagement, neglect and physical and sexual abuse.
In Colorado, a suicide finally prompted state officials to close a private youth prison that investigators said was plagued by violence and sexual abuse. In Arkansas, former employees of a private juvenile facility said inmates were shackled and left naked on the ground in sleeping bags. And in Michigan, a private contractor was sued for allegedly allowing mentally ill inmates to languish in solitary confinement.
Also Online
Texas' youth jail operators have troubled histories
GEO Group's facilities were closed in Louisiana, Michigan
Nonprofit is no stranger to scrutiny
Firm's leaders linked to problems
Resources:
Read the state auditor general's March 2007 report on TYC: Overall conclusion | Full report (.pdf)
GEO Group Inc.'s answers to The News' questions (.pdf)
Interactive graphic: Mistreatments at TYC contract facilities
Interactive graphic: Texas private contracts around the nation
Archive: Complete coverage of the Texas Youth Commission scandal
Last year, TYC spent nearly $17 million of its $249 million budget to do business with these and other private contractors. The agency houses about 450 young inmates with 13 private operators.
Legislative reforms passed in the wake of the TYC sex abuse scandal largely overlooked private contractors and focused instead on agency-run prisons.
"They are a much under-examined problem in the TYC system," said Scott Medlock, a prisoners' rights attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project, which has filed a class-action lawsuit against TYC alleging widespread inmate abuse.
The News focused its investigation on three private contractors with the largest number of TYC inmates and high numbers of complaints – GEO Group, Cornerstone Programs Corp. and Associated Marine Institutes.
Those contractors have been dogged by problems in Texas strikingly similar to what led officials in other states to take action. Such problems include difficulties in attracting qualified employees, high turnover rates and inadequate care for inmates – sometimes with tragic consequences.
States that hire contractors with poor performance records "obviously have a very low regard for our children," said Isabelle Zehnder, director of the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse, a child advocacy organization in Washington state. "They're letting money or circumstances stand above children."
[Click image for a larger version] LARA SOLT / DMN
LARA SOLT / DMN
An inmate folds his clothes in his cell at Garza County Regional Juvenile Center in West Texas. The facility is operated by Cornerstone Programs Corp., which closed a Montana facility in 2006 after violations including neglect and failure to report child abuse were reported.
Many states use private companies to run adult and juvenile prisons. Contractors argue they are more innovative and can do the job cheaper. Texas' three largest private contractors acknowledge having some problems in the past, but insist they run good programs that help juvenile inmates. "No correctional facility, public or private, is immune to incidents that are inherent in the management of offender populations," said GEO spokesman Pablo Paez.
But Michele Deitch, an expert on prison privatization at the University of Texas at Austin, said research showed that privatization did not save money and that "private facilities tend to have many more problems in performance, such as higher levels of assaults, escapes, idleness."
TYC officials said they were reviewing the agency's policies on contractors but could not comment about changes under consideration. However, just days after detailed questioning by The News, TYC canceled bid requests for new contract facilities. Bidders included contractors currently operating facilities in Texas that had a history of problems in other states.
The vetting process
TYC first turned to contractors in 1974 to relieve overcrowding. Contract care facilities vary from group homes to large prisons, and over the years contractors have come to provide specialized services not available at TYC prisons, such as care for pregnant inmates.
TYC's executive director makes the final decision to hire a private contractor after a five-phase review process that includes checks on the contractor's ability to provide adequate medical care and educational and behavioral treatment.
Companies with contracts terminated in the last year "for deficiencies in performance" anywhere in the country are ineligible to bid. And, under a new policy enacted in March as the TYC sex abuse scandal unfolded, the agency reserved the right to declare ineligible bidders with canceled contracts in the last three years.
"We ask for contracts [canceled] within 36 months, because this provides us with additional information that might be important – [such as] funding, or lack of funding," said Mark Higdon, TYC's business manager for contract programs. "It might not be performance. It might be something else, and we can look at that also."
While a contract cancellation would clearly be a red flag for TYC, there are many loopholes through which worrisome contractors can pass.
Arkansas officials, for example, let an agreement with Associated Marine Institutes expire after an audit found the contractor had mismanaged its billing and failed to provide proper services to young inmates. Elsewhere, companies have negotiated deals allowing them to withdraw from their contracts, or simply shut down after states have removed youth from their facilities.
Neither of these would constitute a terminated contract as defined by Texas.
Critics say that TYC requires private contractors to provide less background information when bidding than it should. For example, TYC does not request major incident reports or disclosure of lawsuits against contractors, nor does it do any independent research.
In Florida, by contrast, companies must list and explain any "correctional facility disturbances" – major incidents, such as escapes or deaths – in any of the company's prisons. Such disturbances may be the result of inadequate staffing, poor training or other factors and raise warnings about a company's practices.
TYC should require contractors to provide all incident reports, said Ms. Deitch, a lawyer with 20 years' experience in criminal justice policy issues.
"It is absolutely important that the contracting agency has this kind of background info," she said. "If problems occur, there can be liability concerns for the state agency, and the costs of dealing with the problems can far exceed any savings from going with a low-cost contractor."
Elizabeth Lee, the new acting coordinator for TYC contract care, acknowledged the agency has no "established process for collecting information" on how its contractors performed in other states. The important thing to consider, she said, is what they're doing in Texas "and what we're doing to monitor the care of our kids."
Correcting contractors
TYC regularly reviews contract facilities. It checks program areas, such as staffing and security, at least once a year. It also uses statistical information, such as rates of confirmed mistreatment and the number of escapes, to evaluate operators. TYC quality assurance monitors also make at least two unannounced visits per year.
If a facility has significant problems, it is put on a corrective action plan, which outlines improvements and deadlines for them.
The Coke County youth prison, for example, was placed on a corrective action plan in February after Robert Schulze's suicide. The plan required Coke to improve staffing and procedures in solitary confinement. Records show that Coke was also placed on a corrective action plan in July 2006 for deficiencies in case management, which includes inmate monitoring and record keeping.
Earlier this month, TYC monitors visited WINGS for Life in Marion, just outside San Antonio, which houses female inmates and their babies, to follow up on a corrective action plan necessitated by deficiencies in staff training and documentation.
"If a facility fails any critical measure, we have to come back and check it," said Jim Humphrey, the TYC quality assurance supervisor for WINGS.
TYC has the authority to fine contractors for problems, but it has never done so in 33 years of outsourcing, officials said.
"If it comes to that, we would just stop the contract," said Paula Morelock, who recently retired after 17 years as TYC's contract care coordinator.
But it rarely does that.
The News could find only a few instances of TYC not renewing contracts because of poor performance. TYC is required to retain contractor records for only a few years, so a full review of the program was not possible.
In 2001, TYC terminated its contract with FIRST Program of Texas in Longview after repeated problems. One young woman said that when she was at FIRST, it had chronic staff shortages.
"A lot of stuff took place that shouldn't have," said Michelle, a 22-year-old who asked that only her first name be used. "There were lots of problems ... like staff having sex with the youth there and improper restraints and lack of supervision."
In 2004, TYC removed its youth from the Hemphill County Juvenile Facility, then run by Correctional Services Corp., a former state contractor, because of "grave concerns for the safety of youth."
The move followed a December 2003 complaint signed by about 30 inmates. Still, an agency review conducted shortly after the letter was sent gave the facility "above average" scores on all performance measures.
The facility was later placed on a corrective action plan. A February 2004 update from TYC staff to Ms. Morelock said: "Although they have not completed all items, the team does believe that youth are safe and that the program is stable."
But staffing shortages followed, and in June 2004, TYC removed its youth from the facility.
"We feel like we do a lot of good monitoring and do our very best to ensure that the youth receive quality services," Ms. Morelock said.
When contracts expire, TYC determines whether the facility met the terms of its agreement. The contractor completes a renewal packet, and then youth commission officials visit the facility to determine whether to extend the contract for another two years.
More often than not, Ms. Morelock said, contracts are renewed.
Critics say that TYC needs to change its policy and open the process to outside bidders each time a contract comes up for renewal.
A question of oversight
TYC already has come under fire for lax employment guidelines that allowed contractors to hire convicted felons or even sex offenders. A Texas state auditor report in March urged TYC to ban contractors from hiring employees with convictions and to require background checks of applicants.
Even with background checks, some workers with criminal records have slipped through.
A registered sex offender employed by the GEO-run Coke County Juvenile Justice Center was fired in March. Ms. Morelock said the facility told TYC that it ran a background check on the worker, but his criminal records did not turn up. GEO said the correctional officer's prior record was not uncovered because juvenile records in Texas are sealed. [See dallasnews.com for further GEO comment.]
The Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, which licenses county facilities, found the Garza County Regional Juvenile Center in Post out of compliance last year because it failed to do criminal background checks on employees before they were hired.
In a unique arrangement, TYC contracts with the county, which in turn hired a private operator, Colorado-based Cornerstone Programs, to run the Garza facility.
TYC relied on the county to vet the contractor's background, Ms. Morelock said. A Garza County official said he did not know what, if any, backgrounding of Cornerstone had been done.
It's impossible to know whether other employees of private contract facilities have criminal records because, unlike workers at state-run facilities, their names are not public information.
"The fact that [these] facilities are private simply adds one more layer of opaqueness to the process," said Ms. Deitch, the UT adjunct professor.
A few of the TYC legislative reforms will carry over to private operators. Their guards' training hours must match that of TYC employees, their younger inmates must be separated from older ones, and contractors must now conduct fingerprint background checks on all employees and volunteers in contact with youth.
"Some of the contractors were already doing that [fingerprinting], but just as a safeguard we're putting it in the contract that they all have to do it now," said the TYC's Ms. Lee.
TYC officials say the most valuable part of the agency's monitoring is staff visits to facilities.
"They're looking at grievances, they're talking to kids, they're talking to staff and they're reviewing incident reports," Ms. Lee said.
In general, though, TYC relies heavily on its contractors to police themselves.
Contractors are required to forward inmate abuse allegations, although agency monitors have raised concerns that not all make it to TYC.
Contractors also must report serious incidents to local law enforcement, but TYC reviews found facilities that failed to do so.
Critics of privatized juvenile care think more state oversight is necessary.
"Child welfare and juvenile justice systems have both a legal and moral obligation to protect kids from harm, which means they have a responsibility to exercise due diligence when it comes to placing youths in psychologist frequently hired by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to review juvenile care.
"Whether we look at this situation in terms of public policy or simple morality, the question we have to ask is whether our society ought to be in the business of funding gulags for children."
12:44 AM CDT on Sunday, July 29, 2007
By HOLLY BECKA and JENNIFER LaFLEUR / The Dallas Morning News
hbecka@dallasnews.com; jlafleur@dallasnews.com
Robert Schulze was scared. He threatened to harm himself unless he was moved to another youth prison location. He lost 23 pounds in two months.
[Click image for a larger version] LARA SOLT / DMN
LARA SOLT / DMN
Joanna Garza, 15, plays with her baby Arionna at WINGS for Life, a TYC mother-baby program run my a nonprofit that has faced multiple lawsuits nationwide.
None of that raised concerns at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, a sprawling private youth prison in West Texas run by the GEO Group Inc. Nurses there never gave Robert his prescribed antidepressants, and prison officials never put the 19-year-old inmate on suicide watch.
Ten days later, he hanged himself from the top bunk of his solitary cell.
Texas Youth Commission investigators presented a grim report on the prison's failings to Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials in February. They could have discovered even more disturbing details had they looked beyond Texas' borders.
A three-month Dallas Morning News investigation found that private contractors housing juvenile inmates in Texas repeatedly have lost contracts or shuttered operations in other states after investigators uncovered mismanagement, neglect and physical and sexual abuse.
In Colorado, a suicide finally prompted state officials to close a private youth prison that investigators said was plagued by violence and sexual abuse. In Arkansas, former employees of a private juvenile facility said inmates were shackled and left naked on the ground in sleeping bags. And in Michigan, a private contractor was sued for allegedly allowing mentally ill inmates to languish in solitary confinement.
Also Online
Texas' youth jail operators have troubled histories
GEO Group's facilities were closed in Louisiana, Michigan
Nonprofit is no stranger to scrutiny
Firm's leaders linked to problems
Resources:
Read the state auditor general's March 2007 report on TYC: Overall conclusion | Full report (.pdf)
GEO Group Inc.'s answers to The News' questions (.pdf)
Interactive graphic: Mistreatments at TYC contract facilities
Interactive graphic: Texas private contracts around the nation
Archive: Complete coverage of the Texas Youth Commission scandal
Last year, TYC spent nearly $17 million of its $249 million budget to do business with these and other private contractors. The agency houses about 450 young inmates with 13 private operators.
Legislative reforms passed in the wake of the TYC sex abuse scandal largely overlooked private contractors and focused instead on agency-run prisons.
"They are a much under-examined problem in the TYC system," said Scott Medlock, a prisoners' rights attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project, which has filed a class-action lawsuit against TYC alleging widespread inmate abuse.
The News focused its investigation on three private contractors with the largest number of TYC inmates and high numbers of complaints – GEO Group, Cornerstone Programs Corp. and Associated Marine Institutes.
Those contractors have been dogged by problems in Texas strikingly similar to what led officials in other states to take action. Such problems include difficulties in attracting qualified employees, high turnover rates and inadequate care for inmates – sometimes with tragic consequences.
States that hire contractors with poor performance records "obviously have a very low regard for our children," said Isabelle Zehnder, director of the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse, a child advocacy organization in Washington state. "They're letting money or circumstances stand above children."
[Click image for a larger version] LARA SOLT / DMN
LARA SOLT / DMN
An inmate folds his clothes in his cell at Garza County Regional Juvenile Center in West Texas. The facility is operated by Cornerstone Programs Corp., which closed a Montana facility in 2006 after violations including neglect and failure to report child abuse were reported.
Many states use private companies to run adult and juvenile prisons. Contractors argue they are more innovative and can do the job cheaper. Texas' three largest private contractors acknowledge having some problems in the past, but insist they run good programs that help juvenile inmates. "No correctional facility, public or private, is immune to incidents that are inherent in the management of offender populations," said GEO spokesman Pablo Paez.
But Michele Deitch, an expert on prison privatization at the University of Texas at Austin, said research showed that privatization did not save money and that "private facilities tend to have many more problems in performance, such as higher levels of assaults, escapes, idleness."
TYC officials said they were reviewing the agency's policies on contractors but could not comment about changes under consideration. However, just days after detailed questioning by The News, TYC canceled bid requests for new contract facilities. Bidders included contractors currently operating facilities in Texas that had a history of problems in other states.
The vetting process
TYC first turned to contractors in 1974 to relieve overcrowding. Contract care facilities vary from group homes to large prisons, and over the years contractors have come to provide specialized services not available at TYC prisons, such as care for pregnant inmates.
TYC's executive director makes the final decision to hire a private contractor after a five-phase review process that includes checks on the contractor's ability to provide adequate medical care and educational and behavioral treatment.
Companies with contracts terminated in the last year "for deficiencies in performance" anywhere in the country are ineligible to bid. And, under a new policy enacted in March as the TYC sex abuse scandal unfolded, the agency reserved the right to declare ineligible bidders with canceled contracts in the last three years.
"We ask for contracts [canceled] within 36 months, because this provides us with additional information that might be important – [such as] funding, or lack of funding," said Mark Higdon, TYC's business manager for contract programs. "It might not be performance. It might be something else, and we can look at that also."
While a contract cancellation would clearly be a red flag for TYC, there are many loopholes through which worrisome contractors can pass.
Arkansas officials, for example, let an agreement with Associated Marine Institutes expire after an audit found the contractor had mismanaged its billing and failed to provide proper services to young inmates. Elsewhere, companies have negotiated deals allowing them to withdraw from their contracts, or simply shut down after states have removed youth from their facilities.
Neither of these would constitute a terminated contract as defined by Texas.
Critics say that TYC requires private contractors to provide less background information when bidding than it should. For example, TYC does not request major incident reports or disclosure of lawsuits against contractors, nor does it do any independent research.
In Florida, by contrast, companies must list and explain any "correctional facility disturbances" – major incidents, such as escapes or deaths – in any of the company's prisons. Such disturbances may be the result of inadequate staffing, poor training or other factors and raise warnings about a company's practices.
TYC should require contractors to provide all incident reports, said Ms. Deitch, a lawyer with 20 years' experience in criminal justice policy issues.
"It is absolutely important that the contracting agency has this kind of background info," she said. "If problems occur, there can be liability concerns for the state agency, and the costs of dealing with the problems can far exceed any savings from going with a low-cost contractor."
Elizabeth Lee, the new acting coordinator for TYC contract care, acknowledged the agency has no "established process for collecting information" on how its contractors performed in other states. The important thing to consider, she said, is what they're doing in Texas "and what we're doing to monitor the care of our kids."
Correcting contractors
TYC regularly reviews contract facilities. It checks program areas, such as staffing and security, at least once a year. It also uses statistical information, such as rates of confirmed mistreatment and the number of escapes, to evaluate operators. TYC quality assurance monitors also make at least two unannounced visits per year.
If a facility has significant problems, it is put on a corrective action plan, which outlines improvements and deadlines for them.
The Coke County youth prison, for example, was placed on a corrective action plan in February after Robert Schulze's suicide. The plan required Coke to improve staffing and procedures in solitary confinement. Records show that Coke was also placed on a corrective action plan in July 2006 for deficiencies in case management, which includes inmate monitoring and record keeping.
Earlier this month, TYC monitors visited WINGS for Life in Marion, just outside San Antonio, which houses female inmates and their babies, to follow up on a corrective action plan necessitated by deficiencies in staff training and documentation.
"If a facility fails any critical measure, we have to come back and check it," said Jim Humphrey, the TYC quality assurance supervisor for WINGS.
TYC has the authority to fine contractors for problems, but it has never done so in 33 years of outsourcing, officials said.
"If it comes to that, we would just stop the contract," said Paula Morelock, who recently retired after 17 years as TYC's contract care coordinator.
But it rarely does that.
The News could find only a few instances of TYC not renewing contracts because of poor performance. TYC is required to retain contractor records for only a few years, so a full review of the program was not possible.
In 2001, TYC terminated its contract with FIRST Program of Texas in Longview after repeated problems. One young woman said that when she was at FIRST, it had chronic staff shortages.
"A lot of stuff took place that shouldn't have," said Michelle, a 22-year-old who asked that only her first name be used. "There were lots of problems ... like staff having sex with the youth there and improper restraints and lack of supervision."
In 2004, TYC removed its youth from the Hemphill County Juvenile Facility, then run by Correctional Services Corp., a former state contractor, because of "grave concerns for the safety of youth."
The move followed a December 2003 complaint signed by about 30 inmates. Still, an agency review conducted shortly after the letter was sent gave the facility "above average" scores on all performance measures.
The facility was later placed on a corrective action plan. A February 2004 update from TYC staff to Ms. Morelock said: "Although they have not completed all items, the team does believe that youth are safe and that the program is stable."
But staffing shortages followed, and in June 2004, TYC removed its youth from the facility.
"We feel like we do a lot of good monitoring and do our very best to ensure that the youth receive quality services," Ms. Morelock said.
When contracts expire, TYC determines whether the facility met the terms of its agreement. The contractor completes a renewal packet, and then youth commission officials visit the facility to determine whether to extend the contract for another two years.
More often than not, Ms. Morelock said, contracts are renewed.
Critics say that TYC needs to change its policy and open the process to outside bidders each time a contract comes up for renewal.
A question of oversight
TYC already has come under fire for lax employment guidelines that allowed contractors to hire convicted felons or even sex offenders. A Texas state auditor report in March urged TYC to ban contractors from hiring employees with convictions and to require background checks of applicants.
Even with background checks, some workers with criminal records have slipped through.
A registered sex offender employed by the GEO-run Coke County Juvenile Justice Center was fired in March. Ms. Morelock said the facility told TYC that it ran a background check on the worker, but his criminal records did not turn up. GEO said the correctional officer's prior record was not uncovered because juvenile records in Texas are sealed. [See dallasnews.com for further GEO comment.]
The Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, which licenses county facilities, found the Garza County Regional Juvenile Center in Post out of compliance last year because it failed to do criminal background checks on employees before they were hired.
In a unique arrangement, TYC contracts with the county, which in turn hired a private operator, Colorado-based Cornerstone Programs, to run the Garza facility.
TYC relied on the county to vet the contractor's background, Ms. Morelock said. A Garza County official said he did not know what, if any, backgrounding of Cornerstone had been done.
It's impossible to know whether other employees of private contract facilities have criminal records because, unlike workers at state-run facilities, their names are not public information.
"The fact that [these] facilities are private simply adds one more layer of opaqueness to the process," said Ms. Deitch, the UT adjunct professor.
A few of the TYC legislative reforms will carry over to private operators. Their guards' training hours must match that of TYC employees, their younger inmates must be separated from older ones, and contractors must now conduct fingerprint background checks on all employees and volunteers in contact with youth.
"Some of the contractors were already doing that [fingerprinting], but just as a safeguard we're putting it in the contract that they all have to do it now," said the TYC's Ms. Lee.
TYC officials say the most valuable part of the agency's monitoring is staff visits to facilities.
"They're looking at grievances, they're talking to kids, they're talking to staff and they're reviewing incident reports," Ms. Lee said.
In general, though, TYC relies heavily on its contractors to police themselves.
Contractors are required to forward inmate abuse allegations, although agency monitors have raised concerns that not all make it to TYC.
Contractors also must report serious incidents to local law enforcement, but TYC reviews found facilities that failed to do so.
Critics of privatized juvenile care think more state oversight is necessary.
"Child welfare and juvenile justice systems have both a legal and moral obligation to protect kids from harm, which means they have a responsibility to exercise due diligence when it comes to placing youths in psychologist frequently hired by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to review juvenile care.
"Whether we look at this situation in terms of public policy or simple morality, the question we have to ask is whether our society ought to be in the business of funding gulags for children."
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