Private Prison Empire Rises Despite Startling Record Of Juvenile Abuse

Over the past quarter century, James F. Slattery’s for-profit prison enterprises have run afoul of the Justice Department and authorities in New York, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and Texas, the Huffington Post reports. The alleged offenses range from condoning abuse of inmates to plying politicians with undisclosed gifts while seeking to secure state contracts.

Despite that history, Slattery’s current company, Youth Services International, has retained and even expanded its contracts to operate juvenile prisons in several states. The company has capitalized on budgetary strains across the country as governments embrace privatization in pursuit of cost savings. Nearly 40 percent of the nation’s juvenile delinquents are today committed to private facilities, according to the most recent federal data from 2011, up from about 33 percent twelve years earlier.