The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Private prisons" ...
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Some donors get new posts
The investigation found that people who contributed to Gov. Jeb Bush's campaign and major donors to the Republican Party of Florida were far more likely to get plum appointments to the state's powerful boards and commissions during the Bush tenure than those who contributed t the Florida Democratic Party of Bush's opponents.
Tags: Governor Jeb Bush; Republican Party of Florida; Florida Democratic Party; appointees; elected officials; Commission on Ethics; Division of Elections; Common Cause of Florida; Florida Prepaid College Board; Judicial Qualifications Commission; Land Acquisition and Facilities Advisory Board; Miami-Dade County School Board District; Governor's Mansion Foundation; Overseas Private Investment Corporation; Prison Rehabilitative Industries; Diversified Enterprises Board
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Inside Jobs. Mr. Schwalb is putting his inmates to work for the private sector. As prison population surges, service economy offers rich source of chores. Labor, business are livid.
This article talks about FPI -- Federal Prison Industries. In the past FPI has only produced goods for the government, but now it may start producing goods for the private sector as well. This article explains how that might work, and what potential problems may arise.
Tags: FPI; Federal Prison Industries; private sector; producing; manufacturing; goods; prisoners; work; jobs
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Private Prisons Don't Work: For-profit facilities face a barrage of criticism-and overbuilding has cut into profits and hurt stock prices.
Private prisons were once popular, and even profitable. But after multiple security breeches, states have begun to become leery of private institutions. As a result, private prisons have dramatically declined.
Tags: prisons; private prisons; Prison Realty Trust; security; inmates; prisoners; for-profit facilities
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The Inmate Bazaar
Governing reports on the issue of prison privatization using the example of Holdenville, OK. Holdenville took a gamble building a $34 million prison and hoping that the state would send prisoners there to relieve overcrowding rather than sending them -- and a $41/day per diem -- to prisons in Texas. Since the prison opened in Holdenville, other private prisons have also opened up across the state, many housing overflow prisoners from across the country. The model of treating prisoners as commodities raises some problems of its own, however.
Tags: prisons; corrections
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Bailing Out Private Jails
The American Prospect looks government contracts to privatize federal prisons when the same companies have come under much scrutiny for problems with their privatized state prisons. The same problems created by the desire to cut costs in for-profit state prisons can be expected in the new federal prisons, the Prospect reports.
Tags: private jails; private prisons; Corrections Corporation of America; Wackenhut Corporation; Federal Bureau of Prisons
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Prisoners of the City
Cleveland Magazine looks at the controversial residency requirement for all city employees in Cleveland. The story reports on a new bill that could prohibit the requirement, thus allowing the city employees to live "nearer family members and escape the troubled Cleveland Municipal School system." The report features a fire captain's allegation that "the residency requirement is a way for the city to keep money made in this community in this community." It also finds that "without the requirement, competition for city jobs would be especially hard for people who have gone through the Cleveland public school system."
Tags: teachers; firefighters; houses; City Hall; private schools; redevelopment; neighborhoods
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Kids Behind Bars
A Press investigation sheds light on the inadequate treatment of juvenile inmates in Michigan. The five-part series reveals the "dire consequences - rapes, assault, attempted suicides - " that children as young as 14 face in "hostile prisons ill-equipped to handle them." The investigation focuses on "Michigan's only private prison, set up for teen-aged boys and young men" and finds that it has "quickly become the most violent prison in the state.." The analysis of the prison's records shows that "in five month, a dozen boys have tried to kill themselves, " but "juveniles were receiving little or no counselling in prison ... even after trying to kill themselves." The reporter draws the conclusion that "the prison was too short-staffed to stop the assaults."
Tags: FOIA; inmates; juveniles; suicide; rape; assaults; security; crime; murder; misconduct
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The Promise and Peril of Private Prisons
This three-part series shows how a group of exported felons created jobs and contributed to the economic growth of small towns in the south where other industries failed. Most of them are murderers, sexual offenders from Wisconsin's over crowded prisons who were relocated to prisons in small towns in Tennessee and Texas. The move, however, also brought perils to these towns. A local guard was beaten up by inmates. He is now permanently disabled.
Tags: Inmate imports; prisoners; private prisons; CAR
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Steel Town Lockdown
Mother Jones reports, "Corrections Corporation of America is trying to turn Youngstown, Ohio, into the private-prison capital of the world." Since opening the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in 1997, the author writes, CCA has done a poor job of maintaining an efficient and safe prison facility. This article discusses how CCA has benefited from the private-prison boom.
Tags: Corrections facilities; Private prisons; Corrections Corporation of America
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Throwaway Kids
A four-part series by the Sun-Sentinel investigating "the treatment of children in privately run psychiatric centers in Florida... revealed deplorable conditions in many of the facilities... The series found that these centers had become dumping grounds for foster children and kids no one else wanted. State officials admitted that at least one-quarter of the children did not belong there.... All of this came at an enormous price to taxpayers, who were paying for the treatment at a cost of up to $300 a day per child."
Tags: residential prison guards sexual abuse discipline punishment