Florida's Youth Abused In Private Facilities

Arianna Huffington Huffington Magazine This Week: Juvenile Injustice Posted: 11/01/2013 n this week's issue, Chris Kirkham takes an in-depth look at a private prison empire based in Florida. What he learns about the Youth Services International prison system is deeply disturbing -- the result of six months spent scouring thousands of pages of state audits, lawsuits, local police reports and probes by state and federal agencies, along with interviews with former employees and prisoners. In Florida, YSI manages more than $100 million in contracts. And despite a record of abuse and mistreatment at its facilities, the company has continued to win business in several states. Unwilling or unable to perform the necessary oversight, Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice "routinely awards contracts to private prison operators without scrutinizing their records," Chris writes. As one former Department executive tells him, "They don't want the providers to look bad, because they don't have anyone else to provide this service. Bottom line, the state of Florida doesn't want responsibility for these kids." As a result, young people have faced a range of abuses, from being served bloody, raw chicken to being "choked and slammed head first into concrete walls," as a 2010 lawsuit chronicles. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/huffington-magazine-this-_6_b_4184159.html -------------------------------------------