During their July meeting, each member of the Office of Juvenile Affairs Board was presented with a compendium on privatization of juvenile facilities in Oklahoma and other states prepared by OPEA. The extensive document, entitled “Privatization of Secure Juvenile Facilities: What can we learn from past mistakes?,” reported on failed attempts by for-profit providers to run institutions for troubled youth.
“Our sister states have tried unsuccessfully to privatize their juvenile facilities,” said OPEA Policy and Research Director Trish Frazier. “The report tells of unqualified and untrained staff, youth suicides, and abuse and neglect of those that the state entrusted the corporations to detain and treat. These corporations shamelessly emphasized the bottom line over public safety and the care of the juveniles.”
The document is troubling to read because of the personal stories of the youth and their families as they struggle to obtain help from the system. The Texas and Louisiana stories report on corruption of public officials who also profited from the misery of the families. In Texas at Coke County, the monitors colluded with the private vendor to present a filthy, vermin infested facility with continued contracts and quality awards.
In addition to the information from other states, the compendium contains monitoring reports and letters between the Avalon Corrections and the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth regarding the Union City facility that was privatized during the Keating administration. The OJA Board discontinued the Union City contract in 2003. The OCCY reports document lack of staff training, poor education programs for the youth and inadequate staff at the facility to name a few of the issues that continued through the course of the contract.
According to OJA Director Gene Christian, the Board will take two votes at its September 18 meeting. The first vote will be to issue a request for proposal (RFP) to for a private contractor to build a new facility. The second vote will be to issue an RFP for the operation of a new facility.
If the RFPs are passed by the Board, they will be released for proposals to return in January. The agency anticipates decisions would be made in March 2010.
“OPEA supports the first RFP for a construction contract,” said Frazier. “OJA employees deserve a decent working environment and the state’s troubled youth should live in an atmosphere conducive to treatment, learning and rehabilitation.”
“Our rallying cry is ‘Keep it professional, keep it public’ because we know state-operated facilities are in the best interest of the youth and taxpayers,” concluded Frazier. “The dedication of the workers in these facilities is amazing. They have compelling stories of the youth in their care, sometimes as young as 11 or 12. OJA workers serve the people of Oklahoma, not some corporate boardroom thousands of miles away.”
The sections of the compendium are available by following the links below. Click on the section title to view the document. Every OPEA member should review the information and visit their legislators about what can happen when state services are sold to profit-making corporations.
Privatization of Secure Juvenile Facilities
Oklahoma
Texas
Louisiana
Arkansas
Colorado
OPEA would like to thank Private Corrections Institute at http://www.privateci.org/ for their help in this important research project.
For more information contact Trish Frazier, trishf@opea.org.
Posted on
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
by Trish Frazier