Briefs

• Private prisons may have worn out their welcome in California. Gov. Gray Davis' (D) latest budget proposal calls for a shutdown of five facilities when their contracts expire on June 30. The state expects to save $5.1 million annually. In addition, the plan would eliminate the remaining four for even greater cost savings. The closures appear non-controversial because California prisons have a surplus of minimum-security prison beds. Some private facilities have employed poorly trained staffs with low pay and benefits; others have failed to provide legally mandated programs for inmates.

• Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is having problems with its profit margins. The company recently commenced a restructuring plan that will close seven facilities that lost a combined $600,000 in the third quarter of 2001. In addition, CSC has cut its executive staff by 25 percent, and this year has frozen the wages of its 4,000 employees. Some of the company's facilities have failed to provide adequate security staff, treatment programs and educational services. At its Victor Cullen Academy in Maryland, CSC was forced to pay the state a $600,000 penalty; one of the chief complaints: staff members were physically abusing teenagers. Its stock traded as high as $16.88 in 1998, but today sits at $1.50.

• The Tulsa (Okla.) jail is still having problems with erroneous releases of inmates. In a recent one-week span, two inmates were released into the community only to have law enforcement officials inform the jail, which is managed by Corrections Corporation of America, that they should still be locked up. Federal authorities wanted one for handgun possession. Fortunately, he was arrested for driving a stolen vehicle, assault and battery, and resisting arrest. Jailers later learned that he was arrested earlier on charges of writing counterfeit checks and shouldn't have been released because of a request from the U.S. Marshals Service. In a separate incident, a female wanted in Osage County for assault with a dangerous weapon, was released from the Tulsa jail after posting bond on a DUI charge. Apparently, she turned herself into Osage County authorities. The incidents mark the second time in less than a year that multiple inmates have been released erroneously from the same jail.