From Walkerton to Wackenhut?
Tories privatization kick target prisons
by Charlie Angus
highGrader Magazine Summer 2000
When 14-year-old Sara Lowe was sentenced to a six month stint in a Texas juvenile detention centre, her parents thought it might turn her life around. The rebellious teenager had become too difficult to deal with, and the institution, run by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, promised intensive counselling, support and schooling. What Sara Lowe received, however, was something much different.
According to CBS Marketwatch, Sarah Lowe was subjected to repeated rapes and threats from members of the almost all-male staff. One guard threatened to murder her if she told her family.
When the Lowe family found out what had been done to their daughter they launched a lawsuit alleging widespread and systematic sexual abuse of the female prisoners at the institution. Eleven other girls came forward as plaintiffs.
This wasn't the first time that Wackenhut was making the headlines for problems at its institutions. With 30,000 prisoners and 33 institutions across the U.S., Wackenhut has emerged as one of the two big players in the new prisons for profit industry. But the company, along with other competitors, has been dogged by numerous allegations of abuse, graft and understaffing at various facilities.
An August 1999, a major prison riot at a Wackenhut facility in New Mexico took the life of rookie guard Ralph Garcia. His pay for having to deal with rival gang violence in the prison was a lowly $7.98 an hour.
The riot resulted in a 500 page legislative report on the state of New Mexico's prisons. The report pointed the finger at Wackenhut for inadequate staffing, low pay and high turnover among employees.
In Louisiana, the newly opened Jena Youth Facility, which was heralded as a "model correctional facility", became the focus of numerous investigations by the U.S Justice Department.
In one year, the facility had five different wardens and the staff turned over three times. The U.S. Department of Justice found the youths were subjected to "cruel and unusual punishments" and concluded that Jena is a "dangerous place to be."
A Louisiana-based journalist, who followed the Jena situation, says the problems at Jena stemmed from the need to extract profit from the operation.
"You have some highly paid corporate officers and you have shareholders. And so you have to find places to cut costs. Staff were undertrained. They received minimum wage. The investigations by the Justice Department found the prisoners weren't fed properly. They were underclothed. It was like Oliver Twist."
After less than two years in operation, Wackenhut, in the face of a number of lawsuits, turned over administration of Jena to the State of Louisiana.
In Florida, five guards at a Wackenhut operation were fired for having sex with inmates. As well, allegations of sexual abuse against female inmates in three separate Texas facilities cost the company a $12 billion state contract. According to an article in the American Statesman, female inmates traded sex with guards for basic living amenities like shampoo and underwear. The starting wage for a guard in that facility? $6.85 an hour.
The Lowe case eventually settled out of court on the caveat that the Lowe family never mention the facts of the case in court.
The day the decision was announced Sarah Lowe killed herself. It took two shots from a gun the first shot to the chin failed, so the wounded girl tried a second time with a shot to the temple.
Sara's sister Jenny was quoted on CBS: "She didn't want any money. She just wanted an apology for ruining her life."

Welcome to Ontario
If Rob Sampson, Minister of Corrections, has his way, Wackenhut and its main competitor, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), could be coming to a town near you. Both companies are likely bidders as the Province moves to turn over its jails to private, for-profit corporations. Both companies are in the forefront of the storm of allegations about the failings of privatized prisons.
The Ministry has already privatized a boot camp for young offenders and is pushing ahead with plans to close smaller jails, and build a series of large superjails (see Big Changes at the Crowbar Hotel HighGrader Christmas 1997) which will then be turned over to private operators.
On the slate for privatization is a privatized boot camp for adults near North Bay, two youth facilities and two new superjails slated for Penetanguishine and Thunder Bay.
Ross Virgo of the Corrections Ministry said that tenders have not been put out on these contracts yet, but that the projects are going ahead.
Liberal MPP Dave Levac believes the privatization of jails is a major threat. "The reality is very simple. Prison privatization is a failed experiment. Why should Ontario be pushing ahead with privatization when U.S. states which have tried it are now passing laws against them?"
Levac believes that the issue about finances and cost cutting has diverted attention from the more fundamental moral issue.
"The government has been very crafty in trying to sell this in terms of efficiency and saving money. We need to talk about this as a moral issue. We don't sell blood. We don't sell organs. We shouldn't be selling bodies."
Crafty or not, the Ministry of Corrections has been backing up their privatization push with a hefty stick. And two communities in Northern Ontario Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay have apparently been cowed by this stick.
Both communities were among the 80 municipalities across Ontario that passed resolutions against privatization of local jails. No problem, replied the Minister in letters to each of these upstart municipalities, step out of line and we will ensure that no more money from our Ministry is put into your community.
Put simply: shut up about privatization or we'll not only leave you out of the bidding for future facilities, we'll close your existing jails. In the face of this threat, both the Sault and Thunder Bay backed down.
Levac is disgusted, "Shame on this government. Shame on the councils for not having the fortitude to stand up, for caving in. Why would a government resort to such bullying tactics unless it's to push ideology?"
The ideology in question, privatization, has been a hallmark of the Common Sense revolution. But so far the Tories have been slow to make a success of it. Attempts to privatize the Liquor Control Board and TV Ontario were put on the back burner because of low public support.
As well, privatizing hydro utilities has already led to charges of price gouging. But by far the biggest headache is coming from the public outcry over the deaths from the E coli outbreak in Walkerton. Regardless of who the Tories look to blame, the issue continually keeps coming back to the privatization of water labs by the province.
Yet now, with these other efforts stalled or creating political turmoil, the government is pushing ahead with its prison agenda. Levac believes it has nothing to do with finances and everything to do with "hot button" politics.
"The first bill this government brought in after coming back in 1999 had nothing to do with health, education or the environment. It was a law to outlaw squeegee kids. Think about it. There are only 200 squeegee kids in the province but they use the safety issue as a hot button issue. It's the same with going after prisons."

Municipal Opposition
So far prison privatization hasn't managed to hit the province's political radar screen. But in Penetanguishine, which is slated to be home to the province's first privatized superjail, the issue has created a storm of controversy.
Last November, the Ministry announced that the new 1200 bed facility would be turned over to the private sector. Municipal leaders were outraged.
Wayne Redditt is a member of a local citizen's committee opposed to the privatization venture.
"The municipality entered into this deal because they thought they were going be getting a lot of good paying OPSEU (Ontario Public Sector Employees Union) jobs. People were told it was going to be a publicly run facility. Then after the election we are told that it will be private. People here didn't expect to be treated like guinea pigs."
Public meetings and rallies have fanned the flames against the venture. And so far Sampson's big stick threat doesn't seem to be working. With work already well advanced on the $90 million facility, the province can't very well threaten to cut off funds.
Redditt says local people haven't been mollified by government promises.
"The Ministry came here to a public meeting. They told us the jail would be safe because it would have the best concrete, the best structural steel and the sharpest wire. But that wasn't what we were concerned about at all. The information we have found on these institutions is appalling."
Redditt says a major concern for residents is whether or not proper staffing and pay in a private jail will match that in a public sector prison.
"The only room these companies have to make a profit for their shareholders is taking it out of wages. You have employees who are poorly paid and there are high turnovers."
As well, Levac says that the promised 300 staff positions has been "taken off the table."
Ross Virgo, a spokesman for the Ministry of Correctional Services, maintains that the Province will be establishing a code of "standards" before allowing the private companies to assume control.
As well, says Virgo, "There will be ongoing monitoring at these facilities and the presence of Ministry personal."
Redditt isn't impressed.
"The Ministry says they are going to learn from the mistakes made in the United States. Well hallelujah brother, the places we are talking about are California, which has a bigger population than Canada, Ohio, which has a higher population than Ontario. These people weren't hicks. They weren't stupid people. I just don't see how Ontario is going to be able to negotiate a better deal."

Appalling Record?
With no Canadian companies in the field, the most likely contenders are Wackenhut and CCA. Both companies have come under withering fire across the United States.
One of their most vocal critics is Brian Dawe, Director of Corrections USA, a clearinghouse centre on prison issues. Speaking from his office in Newton, New Hampshire, Dawe says the privatization boom in the United States has gone to bust.
"In the late 1980s prison privatization was growing very rapidly across the U.S. In the beginning there was no information network to let people know what was going on in other jurisdictions. You had people in North Carolina who didn't have a clue about the debacle at the prison in Youngtown, Ohio, or New Mexico or Colorado."
Dawe is an irrepressible font of statistics on abuse, escape rates, assaults and employee turnover in the private versus public systems. Overall, he says, the fundamental issue comes down to the focus of a company.
"If anybody in Ontario thinks there's going to be a board meeting at CCA headquarters in Nashville Tennessee or at Wackenhut head office in West Palm Beach Florida and the topic of conversation is `how do we keep the good folks of Ontario safe,' you're out of your mind. The only thing that will be mentioned is `why aren't we making enough money there. How do we cut corners?' Because the only thing the shareholders care about is making money and that's how this whole thing plays out."
Dawe says that privatization of prison guards is only part of the problem faced in the prison for profit movement. He points to attempts to privatize kitchen and other support staff. He says that at one jail in Massachusetts, on the very first day of a newly privatized kitchen operation, guards recognized a convicted felon working behind the counter.
"The privateers hired this guy right out of jail. You don't think he's going to be bringing in contraband to the jail? Are you kidding me? You don't hire a $6 an hour burger flipper and expect to get security. You just don't."
Dawe says he would be surprised if Wackenhut or CCA even survives in the prison business over the next ten years. He says liability issues and lawsuits have been seriously eroded the corporate bottom line.
As Ontario moves ahead with its plans, North Carolina became the latest in a number of states to take back control of prison populations from the private sector.
Is Ontario running to catch a train that won't leave the station?
No says, Brian Dawe, "Ontario is running to catch a train that's going to crash into a wall."

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