Texas' Youth Jail Operators Have Troubled Histories

[MagickMuffin]

Source: Dallas Morning News

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.

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.

MORE @ link

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/072907dnmettyccontracts.37bfd89.html#

---

What can you say about this abuse except maybe justice will prevail...

[Dogmudgeon]

1. More Teen Gulags

Do a search on "teen gulag" for some enraging reading.

--p!

[Maestro]

2. The report was given to Goodhair. Oh boy, now

something will surely be done. :sarcasm: He doesn't care about the youth prison system because it doesn't affect him. The repuke mantra of privitization is better is not really holding water here. The state either needs to take control of the youth system or supervise it much more closely. We can't let Dumbya's policy of letting business police themselves continue anymore. It didn't work for Enron and it's not working here.

[ninkasi]

3. Turning over youth detention centers

and prisons to private companies is a recipe for disaster. Nobody should be able to make a profit on places that should focus on rehabilitation. The privatized places are going to focus on profit before anything else. This is shameful, and unacceptable.

Our current so-called "justice" system is sadly lacking in helping those who have broken the law to be rehabilitated, and returned to society as productive citizens. This is what happens when profit dictates policy, and conservatives are given power. The human quotient is removed, and corporate profit is above all else.

[shenmue]

4. This is what comes of privatizing everything...

The goal becomes making as much money as possible, instead of serving the law and the public interest. Now they don't have to answer to anyone else. That's what they wanted, not saving the public money, for pity's sake.

Beware the bait-and-switch of privatization. It is a lie.

[Doctor_J]

5. Did GEO's profits take a hit because of Robert's suicide?

If not, nothing will come of this.

:puke: