Two instructors assaulted at youth center

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2007/05/11/local/20243112.txt

Two instructors assaulted at youth center

BY JOHN D. HOMAN, THE SOUTHERN

David More is trying his best to restore the Greyhound Bus Station in Carbondale.
(CHUCK NOVARA / THE SOUTHERN)

HARRISBURG - Two educators employed at the Illinois Youth Center at Harrisburg were assaulted Thursday morning, resulting in a hospital visit for one, while the other was treated at the youth center's health department and released.

Names of the injured people have not yet been released.

Buddy Maupin, representative for AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), said it's his understanding that the assaults occurred simultaneously in two different classrooms.

"Both were punched in the face," Maupin said. "It looks pretty premeditated and coordinated by the participating youth. One of the educators was more seriously injured because he wore glasses."

Derek Schnapp, media liaison with the Illinois Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice in Springfield, confirmed the assaults.

"The Harrisburg facility was immediately put in a lockdown status, and we're investigating both of these incidents," Schnapp said. "We will interview both youth and staff. When the investigation is complete, we will forward our findings to the state's attorney's office. This kind of incident is unfortunate and not something we tolerate or condone. We take it seriously and will prosecute."


FULL story at link.

[stillcool]

1. another one of those ...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/stillcool47

http://www.civigenics.com/facilities.aspx
CiviGenics Facilities
IYC Harrisburg Harrisburg, Illinois 64 In-prison Therapeutic Community

CiviGenics is a Massachusetts-based firm that promotes itself as the largest provider of community
corrections treatment services in the United States and the fourth largest private jail/prison operator
in the United States. Its website also boasts that it operates seventeen facilities in seven states and
will soon be opening three more institutions. What the website fails to mention is that Ohio recently
refused to renew its contract with the company after what the director of ODRC called "a series of
contract violations". These included failure to adequately manage treatment programs (the very
programs in which the institution was to have specialized), violations of minimum staffing
requirements, and billing the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections more than
$74,000 for employees who were not at work or not on the payroll (Plain Dealer, 12/1/2000).2
Ohio has since designated Management & Training Corporation (MTC), which runs the Lake
Erie Correctional Institution described below, as the preferred vendor to run North Coast. A
contract is expected this spring.
North Coast opened on February 29, 2000. Just two months and three days later, what was to be
the first of many administrative problems came to light when a judge cited contract violations at
the facility. On the same day, a riot between guards and inmates at the brand new facility resulted
in five inmates being transferred out (Chronicle-Telegram, 6/30/2000). Another inmate
disturbance occurred two days later. A pattern of contract violations, safety problems, and other
issues continued to plague the institution over the course of the following year. The extensive
problems led to four different people serving as warden, one of whom had to serve at two
different points to substitute for sudden departures.
In addition to understaffing and safety concerns, the language of the contract itself became a
problem. The contract contains a clause that commits ODRC to paying CiviGenics for 95
percent inmate capacity regardless of the actual number of inmates being held in the facility.
When the state found that it couldn’t fill the prison with drunken-driving offenders, other inmates
were sent to North Coast (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/19/2000). Although the facility was designed
to hold only felony drunken-driving and nonviolent drug offenders, sixteen percent of the
inmates had been convicted of sexual battery, assault, arson, manslaughter, robbery, or other
similar crimes. The contractual imperative to pay CiviGenics for 95 percent capacity was likely
the cause of these careless inmate assignments.
http://www.policymattersohio.org/pdf/prisexecsum.pdf

Pennsylvania: CiviGenics only bidder.
http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14790135&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478569&rfi=6
07/02/2005

Beaver County Jail lures bid from just 1 company
By: J.D. Prose - Times Staff
HOPEWELL TWP. - Although five companies toured the Beaver County Jail in early June, a Massachusetts company that specializes in treatment programs was the only one to submit a proposal by Thursday's deadline to take over the Hopewell Township facility.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Donatella theorized that many of the larger correctional companies decided against submitting a proposal because of the jail's relatively small inmate population, which averages 350. CiviGenics is considered one of the smaller in the industry.

The bigger correctional firms operate jails and prisons with thousands of inmates. GEO Group, for example, oversees about 1,800 inmates at the Delaware County jail.
"Maybe we're too small," Donatella said. "I think a lot of these companies are interested in handling a lot of inmates."
J.D. Prose can be reached online at [e-mail].

CLUELESS IN GRAFTON. OCSEA activists have defeated another privateer, CiviGenics, at the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in Grafton — Ohio’s first state-run private prison.
----------------------------------------------------------
In less than a year of operation, the prison went through four wardens. A note written to OCSEA officials in January by a member of the union’s anti-privatization army reveals that, "We have been without any deputies for a few weeks. ... The newest rumor is that a large number of employees quitting at the end of this month. They are just not gonna show up for work, and therefore be fired. This prison is in constant turmoil and no one knows who will be in charge from one day to the next. I cannot believe that any corporation can run any type of ‘business’ as we are currently being run."

In November, the press reported that the state withheld nearly $75,000 from CiviGenics because the company billed the DRC for North Coast’s alcohol and drug treatment program, which is not fully staffed. The department views the mistake as frivolous. But OCSEA officials, who’ve been closely scrutinizing every detail of the prison’s management, claim otherwise. A union spokesman calls the company’s move a "straightforward attempt to defraud the state. ... These staffing levels are clear-cut requirements, yet it appears that the company prepared invoices for ghost employees for at least seven months."

In May, 50 inmates surrounded the warden in the yard and refused an order to put their shirts back on. When the incident was caught on videotape — and dubbed the "Shirts Rebellion" — Smith told a local newspaper, "The inmates were definitely in control for the whole evening. It raised a lot of questions with me. They were just not going to do what the warden told them to do."

OCSEA won a grievance last year after an arbitrator prohibited the DRC from using state employees to train private workers in procedures such as unarmed self-defense; the training, he ruled, vio-lated a state contract. But the hearing also forced the DRC officials, testifying under oath, to admit to other failings at North Coast. They owned up to not doing drug testing and background checks on staff and inmates; to leaving class-A tools like shovels and lawn mowers scattered around the prison yard; and to having a high turnover rate among security staff.
http://www.afscme.org/publications/7350.cfm?print=1