A pair of recent lawsuits against a private youth prison operator in
Florida amplify claims that the company, Youth Services International,
has frequently covered up reports that staff sexually abused young
people held inside its facilities.
According to a
suit filed in October in federal court,
the top administrator at one YSI youth prison regularly made sexual
advances toward teenage boys held there in 2010 and 2011 and on at least
one occasion brought inmates home with him and into his bedroom. A
separate case filed in Florida court
in November alleges that a female guard at another YSI facility in 2012
began an "intimate and sexual relationship" with a 14-year-old inmate.
Florida officials at the Department of Juvenile Justice did not
investigate these alleged incidents until months and even nearly a year
after they occurred, according to accounts from the mothers of the
victims and documents obtained by The Huffington Post. This was in part
because the for-profit prison operator failed to immediately report the
alleged episodes as required under its contracts with the state.
The lawsuits reinforce the
findings of a recent Huffington Post investigation
that revealed more than two decades of abuse and neglect inside private
prisons operated by Youth Services International and other companies
run by its founder, James Slattery. The series focused particular
attention on the state of Florida, which has become emblematic of a
nationwide trend in which growing numbers of prisoners of all ages are
placed inside institutions operated by for-profit companies. Florida has
entirely privatized its youth prisons.
The articles detailed multiple instances of young inmates at YSI
facilities in Florida complaining of having been beaten, sexually
assaulted or neglected by guards only to have their reports buried or
minimized. Former staff at these prisons told HuffPost that the company
systematically discouraged employees from reporting mistreatment and
other violations in order to avoid imperiling future state contracts.
Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice largely relies on
contractors to self-report serious events such as fights, assaults or
escapes. Former YSI employees told HuffPost that the state's system
created incentives for the company to under-report and cover up
incidents of staff misconduct or violence.
Citing the HuffPost investigation, a top Florida lawmaker has
called for legislative hearings on abuses inside YSI's prisons. The first is scheduled for Wednesday.
The new allegations fit a pattern documented in HuffPost's earlier
investigation, one in which company employees failed to report serious
incidents to state authorities. A former employee at Thompson Academy --
the YSI prison where the top administrator allegedly brought inmates
home -- says he alerted higher-ups to the administrator's behavior in a
formal complaint in October 2011. But corporate officials never called
outside authorities as required, according to the employee and state
juvenile justice records.
"They used to tell us, 'If something's going on, don't call the
police, call a supervisor,'" said the former employee, Kamel Warren.
"They don't want people to come in, investigate and find out what was
really going on in this facility."
State juvenile justice officials did not learn of the administrator's
actions until 11 months after the alleged events occurred. Even then,
the reports came only after an outside attorney representing former YSI
employees heard about the incidents and went directly to the state,
according to DJJ complaint logs.
Correspondence obtained by HuffPost shows that supervisors at YSI were
aware of the allegations involving the administrator but did not report
them to the state.
Trips outside a youth prison facility are allowed only in special
circumstances, according to state regulations, and a parent typically
must give consent. Tomonica Allen, the mother of one of the boys, said
she knew nothing of the outside activities until after her son was
released. "Every time my child left, why didn't they inform me that he
was gone for two, three, four hours?" she said in an interview. "Why
didn't I ever know this until he got out?"
The other lawsuit alleges a similar cover-up on the part of YSI.
Employees did not report the improper relationship between the guard and
the inmate to the state until months later, when the girl's mother
discovered the relationship and started calling local police.
State records indicate that Department of Juvenile Justice
investigators are looking into the allegations brought up in both
lawsuits. But the department has made no formal conclusions, even though
officials have been aware of some of the allegations for nearly two
years.
A spokeswoman for Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice declined
to comment on the two cases, citing the pending investigations.
A lawyer representing YSI, Michael Elkins, wrote in an email that the
company intends to "vigorously defend" against the allegations that
the Thompson Academy administrator brought boys home with him. Chris
Slattery, a YSI vice president who is the son of chief executive James
Slattery, said the company "immediately reported" to the state once
officials learned of the allegations involving the employee who started a
relationship with an inmate.
The federal lawsuit centers on allegations that Craig Ferguson, the
top administrator at YSI's Thompson Academy from 2010 through 2012, took
boys home with him on at least one occasion and touched them
inappropriately both while off campus and at the prison.
Ferguson often summoned the plaintiff to his office inside the facility late at night and would
take his shirt off in front of him
and rub the boy's back, shoulders and thighs, according to the suit. If
the boy declined the advances, Ferguson "would get upset and irritated
with plaintiff, and send him back to his bed."
Allen, the plaintiff's mother, whose son was 15 when he was sent to
Thompson in early 2011, said he started mentioning the outside trip to
Ferguson's home after he was released. She said her son told her that
Ferguson instructed the boys not to tell anyone they had been there.
Her son, whose name is being withheld because he was a juvenile at
the time, told her he didn't go into Ferguson's bedroom that day, but
other boys did.
Ferguson no longer works for YSI. In a phone interview after this
article was published Monday, he denied all of the allegations about
taking boys home, taking his shirt off and touching them
inappropriately, calling the assertions "foolishness."
"All of those charges are false," he said. "People find motivation to
do these type of things just for money. I'm surprised they would go so
far with an untruth."
Warren, the former Thompson Academy employee,
filed a sexual harassment complaint against Ferguson to YSI's corporate office in Sarasota, Fla., in October 2011 that also
mentioned the administrator taking boys home.
Warren wrote that Ferguson "hid a lot of things from investigators and
lawyers. He has taken kids to his house and church with him. He bribes
kids and staff."
Warren told HuffPost that a YSI senior vice president, Jesse
Williams, acknowledged the allegations that Ferguson took boys home and
said the company would investigate.
But
state records show the first time the DJJ learned of the incident
was more than four months later, in March 2012, when an outside
attorney called in to report the allegations. Warren and other guards
had mentioned Ferguson's behavior to the lawyer, Michael Hoffman, who
was representing them in a separate wage dispute. Hoffman went on to
represent Allen's son in the federal suit.
Elkins, the YSI lawyer, provided a
redacted draft copy of the DJJ's investigation into the case, which confirmed that Ferguson took boys away from the facility but could not confirm whether he had taken them to his home.
Ferguson also pointed to the DJJ inspector general's preliminary
findings, which he said proved the allegations against him "are lies."
"That came back unsubstantiated, and I knew that it would," he said.
Elkins noted that a judge dismissed a lawsuit involving Ferguson last
year brought by the same lawyer, Hoffman, in state court. The judge
dismissed the case because Hoffman failed to meet a filing deadline and
had showed up late for a hearing.
The DJJ draft report also concluded that
Warren and other lower-level employees should be held accountable
for failing to report the incident, even though Warren did report the
administrator's actions to his superiors at the company, who then did
not relay the allegations to state authorities. The report found that
corporate officials were not accountable, however, noting that one of
the executives involved was in an "administrative position" and did not
have direct contact with youth or guards.
Neither YSI nor state officials responded to additional questions about the investigation.
In the other lawsuit, filed in state court in November, the mother of
a former inmate at YSI's Broward Girls Academy alleges that a female
guard, Talisha Reddick, initiated a sexual relationship with her
daughter when the girl was an inmate there.
Reddick would "punch, hit, slap and physically beat [her] and would
also deny [her] bed sheets, food and sanitary items" if the girl refused
to comply with her sexual advances,
according to the lawsuit. The suit says Reddick continued to pursue the relationship for months after the girl left the facility.
The lawsuit accuses YSI of allowing Reddick to "take advantage of and
manipulate" the girl, "whose capacity to protect herself was
substantially diminished as a result of her youth, mental health issues
and incarceration."
Reddick did not respond to calls seeking comment. Chris Slattery, the
company vice president, wrote in an email that YSI believes the
allegations are "without merit."
The girl's mother, Bridget Hester, said in a recent interview that
she started noticing strange behavior in her daughter after she was
released from Broward Girls in September 2012. She constantly missed
classes at school, and would disappear at night and on weekends.
Several months later, a friend told Hester she had seen the girl
kissing an older woman in a burgundy car. A few days later, in January
2013, Hester said she confronted a woman driving a car that fit the
description who was dropping her daughter off outside a relative's home.
She sped away, but the girl told her afterward that the woman was
Reddick, Hester said.
Her daughter became despondent and refused to go to school, Hester
said, and she ended up getting arrested with a group of girls in
connection with an attempted carjacking last January. She is now serving
time in a state-run prison for young female offenders.
Hester said her daughter opened up about her relationship with
Reddick after the arrest, saying she often met the YSI employee for sex
in Miami hotels.
Hester said she called Jasir Diab, a YSI regional vice president, on
Jan. 21 last year to report Reddick. She also called local law
enforcement and the Broward Girls Academy over the next few weeks.
State records show
that Pamela Rollins, who heads the Broward Girls facility, called in
the complaint to the DJJ on Jan. 28, a week after Hester said she told
Diab about the misconduct. Neither Rollins nor Diab responded to
requests for comment for this article.
Slattery said YSI reported the allegations "the same day it was
brought to our attention." He said the company has no records of earlier
conversations about the alleged improper relationship.
The DJJ's inspector general is still investigating the allegations,
and the matter is also under criminal investigation by police and
prosecutors in Palm Beach County.
This article has been updated to include comments to HuffPost
from Craig Ferguson, the former Thompson Academy administrator, made
after publication.
For more on Youth Services International, read HuffPost's two-part investigation, "Prisoners of Profit":
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/youth-services-international-lawsuits_n_4589550.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
This
is the tin man as governor, a chief executive who shows no heartfelt
connection to the state, appreciation for its values or compassion for
its residents. Duke Energy is charging its electric customers billions
for nuclear plants that were botched or never built. Homeowners are
being pushed out of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and
into private insurers with higher premiums and no track records. Federal
flood insurance rates are soaring so high that many property owners
cannot afford the premiums but also cannot sell their homes. The
governor sides with the electric utilities and property insurers. He
criticizes the president rather than fellow Republicans in Congress for
failing to fix the flood insurance fiasco they helped create.
