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Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
December 19, 2004 Orlando Sentinel
Florida has regularly locked up many underage offenders for months or years
longer than they were told, shuffling them from program to program and
forcing them to restart their terms. It's a practice that can harm the
young people the system is supposed to help, stealing a wide swath of their
adolescence and keeping them locked up in a sometimes-violent environment
long after they might have been sent home. Often, even those who stayed out
of trouble and followed the rules were forced to start their terms over, a
six-month Orlando Sentinel investigation found. · The department transferred 3,631
offenders during five years, an average of 726 a year. That, according to
the department's own calculations, was about 10 percent of its annual
admissions. The transfers extended the offenders' stays dramatically -- up
to four times longer than those who were not moved. · The extended stays inflated the
cost of treatment at least by an estimated $20.3 million during the
five-year period studied by the Sentinel. · In the overwhelming majority of
transfers, an offender was moved from one privately run program to another.
Children's advocates argue that all those transfers raise serious questions
about the ability of the department to manage its programs, the bulk of them
operated by private companies. The Sentinel estimated that, during the five
years it studied, transfers cost the state an extra $20.3 million. To
arrive at that number, the paper analyzed a department database -- the most
recent available -- that tracked the comings and goings of 35,107 juvenile
offenders from fiscal 1999 through 2003. Of those, 27,882 began and
completed their treatment during the five-year period the paper examined.
And almost 10 percent were transferred at least once. Twice in the past
three years, the audit branch of the Florida Legislature criticized DJJ for
making so many transfers. The Office of Program Policy Analysis and
Government Accountability looked at the same data as the Sentinel, except
it had three instead of five years' worth. In April, the Sentinel reported
that DJJ and its contractors were responsible for 661 confirmed cases of
child abuse or neglect during nine years, according to data provided by
another state agency, the Florida Department of Children & Families.
Most of the abuse occurred at programs run by private companies. Many of
the department's residential providers are nonprofit, but three of its top
five are not. They are Securicor New Century LLC of Richmond, Va.; Premier
Behavioral Solutions Inc. of Coral Gables; and Correctional Services Corp.
of Sarasota. Combined, they account for a third of the system's beds.
Securicor was involved in at least 792 transfers during five years,
according to DJJ data. For Premier, the number was at least 873; and
Correctional Services Corp. and an affiliate, Youth Services International,
accounted for 736. Industry executives said they emphasize helping kids.
Forest Bank, Agecroft,
UK
August 18, 2004
A GREATER Manchester prison is at breaking point - according to an officer
who has admitted trying to smuggle drugs into it. Norman Edgerton, 40,
appeared at Manchester Crown Court last week after pleading guilty to
possession of heroin with intent to supply. Now the contents of a letter
the former prison officer wrote to the judge, Recorder Cross, have been
revealed. In it, Edgerton criticises management
at the prison, which is privately run by UK Detention Services (UKDS). The
company has rejected the allegations. "It's not good enough to give
officers keys, a badge and no radio, and expect two of them to unlock 86
inmates, run the wing, and hope all goes well. "If officers are to
have any chance of doing their job effectively and within company
regulations, they need and deserve the support and back-up systems that are
there on paper only." He claims that officers ring in sick and quit
their jobs because they feel "helpless, stressed and can no longer
cope". He also alleges that inmates are becoming stressed at the lack
of organisation on the wings. In February, up to
seven prison staff suffered memory blackouts after their drinks were spiked
during a night out. Last year, there was a security alert after allegations
that an officer supplied mobile phones to inmates; and in 2002, an early
Christmas party for prison officers ended in a brawl with police being
called. (Manchester)
Georgetown, Guyana
February
17, 2006 Stabroek News
Three Securicor employees accused of stealing over $1M after being told to
deposit the money at Scotia Bank, yesterday appeared in the George-town
Magistrate's Court. Julian Velloza, 43, of 1059 Tucville, Victor Mc Clean, 46, of 3 George Street, Werk-en-Rust and Mark Argyle, 33, of 5 Nismes Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara
were not required to plead to the indictable charge and they were remanded
to prison by Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan. It is alleged that on
January 20 the trio stole $1,002,080 from Fareeda
Khan. According to the facts of the case, the trio worked at the security
firm where they were required to pick up money from different companies and
deposit it at Scotia Bank. On the day in question they were instructed to
pick up the money from Khan and take it to the bank. When she later checked
she discovered that the money had not been deposited. A report was made and
following investigations, the three Securicor employees were arrested and
charged.
Ireland
October 13, 2004 UTV Live
A Belfast judge today praised a have-a-go-hero pensioner who wrestled
an armed robber to the ground. Crown Court Judge Norman Lockie
praised the 70-year-old as he jailed 28-year-old former soldier Richard
David McCarten for 11 years after he agreed to
spend a further year on probation after his release.
Earlier the judge had heard that the plucky pensioner managed to hold McCarten in a headlock despite his loaded pistol going
off. Prosecution lawyer Peter Magill
told the court that a Securicor guard was delivering a cash box to a bank
on the Belmont Road in east Belfast when McCarten
demanded "give me the f****** box" and pointed the modified
pistol at him. He said that as McCarten left he turned to face the guard and again
threatened him with the gun but added that as he went to walk away, the
pensioner grabbed him in a headlock with McCarten
declaring "I`ll shoot you, I`ll shoot you," and pointing the gun
at his chest. He said that during the course of the struggle, the pensioner
did receive injuries to his nose and eye as well as severe bruising to his
left leg and side.
Kampala,
Uganda
February 12, 2005 The Monitor
Since the Monday theft of Shs700 million that was in transit from Stanbic bank, police has mounted a manhunt across the
border into Kenya and Tanzania. Police suspect the Securicor Gray guards stole the money they
were transporting in a bullion van. This is the first heist involving a
financial institution after a long lull, and we can only hope it is not the
tip of the robber's wedge. Unfortunately, the private security firms
that some banks hire to secure the money are proving to be unreliable.
Private security firms proliferated when the public lost confidence in the
ability of the regular police to secure their life and property as the
spate of crimes rose to unprecedented levels. The private security firms
filled the void by hiring former soldiers, paramilitaries, and policemen
without proper screening in some cases. We are now reaping the fruits of
this unsupervised recruitment. Early this year Police revealed that private
security organisations lead in commission of
crimes among the security groups. Of 187 cases of reported crimes that were
committed by security organisations, private
security groups committed 100, police 44 cases, UPDF 36 and prisons one
case. They committed mainly murder by shooting, robbery, theft, corruption
and bribery. Police said it would improve on investigations into the
operations of private security organisations. Uganda is not alone in this.
Metro
Juvenile Detention Center, Nashville, Tennessee
May 28, 2005 Tennessean
A Metro Juvenile Detention Center employee was arrested at Two Rivers Park
late Thursday night, accused of soliciting a 16-year-old former detainee
for sex, police said yesterday. Damon Huddleston, 28, of Stewarts Ferry
Pike and the male teenager were spotted in the park around 2 a.m., before
anything happened, police said. Officers found a fully loaded .40-caliber
semiautomatic pistol in the glove compartment of Huddleston's car, Metro
police department officials said. Huddleston is being held at Metro Jail in
lieu of $57,500 bond. He has been charged with soliciting a minor to have
sex, unlawful handgun possession and contributing to the delinquency of a
minor. Huddleston is employed by Securicor, a private company that operates
the detention center.
Oakhill Secure Training Unit,
Oakhill, UK
March 24, 2005 Milton Keyes Today
THE Home Office is closely monitoring the Oakhill Secure Training Unit
where inmates – who are among the most dangerous teenagers in the country –
started two 'mini riots' in the past month. And an officer says he fears
for the safety of him and his colleagues because the young people in the
centre, known as trainees, rule by intimidation and bad behaviour
goes unpunished. In one incident during the past month a female officer was
jumped by four youths and had her keys taken. There were also two 'mini
riots' in which up to 10 teenagers attacked staff. The officer said:
"Some days it can be quite terrifying. I've known officers walk out of
a shift and just burst into tears in their car. "During the training
courses they said it would be challenging, but it would be rewarding
because these kids would lead better lives. But before long an officer will
get seriously hurt – or worse." The centre, dubbed 'Jokehill', which is run by Securicor Justice Services,
was designed to educate and rehabilitate the 12 to 17 year olds who have
been convicted of offences including rape and murder. But ever since it
opened in August, Oakhill has been dogged with problems. Equipment,
including computers, CD players and DVD players are constantly destroyed
and even the security doors in the education block are hanging off their
hinges. The officer also said staff feel they are
not supported by the management and when the Youth Justice Board came to
inspect the centre, the trainees were promised a McDonalds, Kentucky Fried
Chicken meal or £5 for their telephone card if they behaved themselves. He
added: "They need to change the rules. They need harder, stricter
rules and more discipline. The Youth Justice Board do
not see what we see every day." MP Phyllis Starkey said she has spoken
to prisons minister Paul Goggins about the
problems at Oakhill and as a result a senior member of Home Office staff is
monitoring the centre. Dr Starkey said: "The Home Office was not
satisfied with the way it was progressing, which is why they have reduced
the speed with which people are brought into the centre.
"The number will only be increased when they are satisfied
procedures are tightened up." An Oakhill spokesman said: "It is
standard procedure when populating any secure establishment in the start up period to take a phased approach and was the
case with each of the other three secure training centres. "It is taking slightly longer at Oakhill to reach
full capacity as the centre requires further staff. Group Securicor are
working hard to recruit and rigorously train new employees to ensure
appropriate staffing levels are met. We expect the number of young people
to rise as new staff are taken on." When asked about the two mini
riots and key taking incident, she added: "Like any secure environment,
incidents of a varying nature do occur. However at Oakhill these are
de-escalated as quickly as possible using staff who
are comprehensively trained to deal with such matters."
Okeechobee Juvenile
CF, Okeechobee, Florida
December 5, 2004 Palm Beach Post
Jimmy Haynes lost his job as a "behavioral specialist" at a
juvenile drug treatment center for punching a 15-year-old in the face. Nine
days after Haynes was fired from the privately operated center in Orlando,
he was hired by a state-run juvenile detention center less than 15 miles
away. Haynes worked there for seven weeks before supervisors at his new job
realized their mistake. He wasn't the only one. A Palm Beach Post review of
records from the state and 40 of its private contractors uncovered at least
200 employees hired at juvenile justice centers in recent years after they
were fired from similar jobs for violence, misconduct or incompetence. The
taxpayer-funded privately operated companies that run the bulk of Florida's
juvenile justice system hired workers who had sexual relationships with
teenagers they were supposed to protect. They hired workers who kicked,
punched, choked, tackled and head-butted teens in
their care. Supervisors across the state repeatedly checked "do not
rehire" and "not eligible for rehire" in the files of
employees fired for such offenses. But managers at other centers never knew
of those histories. And a few companies knew about their workers' histories
but were so desperate to find people willing to work for $8 to $9 an hour
that they looked the other way. Here's how the state and its private
contractors enable bad employees to get juvenile justice jobs again and
again: •Even though state laws require them to open their employees' files,
some contractors cling to a corporate culture of secrecy, giving neutral
references. •State investigations of employee misconduct can drag on for
three months or more, allowing bad workers to find new jobs while their
cases sit unresolved. •Each of the state's numerous private contractors
operates in isolation, without access to a central database of juvenile
justice workers' job histories. To cut costs, Florida outsourced nearly all
of its residential programs. The state now has one of the highest rates of
privatization in the country — about nine in 10 centers are managed by
contractors. A grand jury investigated abuses at the Florida Institute for
Girls, a maximum-security prison for teenage offenders in suburban West
Palm Beach. One worker was criminally charged for having sex with two teen
inmates, and another was arrested for assault. In four separate incidents,
workers broke girls' arms in violent restraints. Securicor New Century
hired Marvin Thomas at a facility outside Okeechobee 53 days after he was
fired from another center for lying about abuse. Investigators said Thomas
attempted to cover up an incident in which a co-worker threw a boy to the
ground and beat him. Thomas lied to his bosses, according to the previous
company's records, and tried to intimidate several boys into not telling
anyone what happened. Thomas did not return phone calls from The Post.
Securicor President and CEO Gail Browne said her company hired Thomas just
as it was taking over from a previous contractor and that his reference
checks may have been lost in the transition. To state officials, the
arithmetic of privatizing juvenile justice is irresistibly simple.
Contractors compete to offer the lowest price, and a treatment center can
be outsourced for as much as 10 percent less than when it was government-operated.
In nearly every case, the cuts are shouldered by rank-and-file workers, who
have lost pension plans and thousands of dollars in wages under
privatization. Workers who do the same job at the few state-run residential
juvenile programs start at $22,571 a year — about $1,000 more in South
Florida. By contrast, the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, a trade
group of state contractors, says the typical starting pay for workers at
private centers is $17,500 to $18,000 a year. Usually they work eight-hour
shifts. But because contractors can be fined if they don't have enough
workers on duty, some employees work 16 hours straight if their
replacements don't show up. Everyone agrees that it takes a special type of
person to handle the job. But most companies either can't afford or aren't
willing to pay for such people. The Post found that contractors hired
people whose recent work experience included stints at a doughnut shop, a
turnpike tollbooth and a grocery store. Some got jobs fresh off being fired
by private security firms, while other new youth care workers were still
teenagers themselves. At Sarasota-based Correctional Services Corp.'s rural
JoAnn Bridges Academy, youth care workers start
at $7.21 an hour, or $15,000 a year. The highest paid workers at any
Correctional Services Corp. program, Broward County's Thompson Academy,
start at $8.89 an hour. That's $18,500 a year in a county where the median
annual rent tops $10,000. References often don't reveal whole story. Left
unmentioned are violent rages, suspicions of sex with teens and reports of
gross incompetence. Companies worry that if they break their silence, they
could be sued for giving a negative reference. As a result, supervisors at
other juvenile facilities did not know that: •One employee deliberately
instigated a fight between teens, and another was fired after he took kids
from a drug treatment program to his home to smoke. •A youth care worker
was fired from a Broward County facility for threatening a fellow employee
with a handgun; he was hired a month later at a center in Daytona Beach.
•Another missed a mandatory drug test because he was in jail for violating
his probation. •Several others were fired for allowing juvenile offenders
to escape, and one for not even noticing a teen was gone. •One fell asleep
while guarding a girl on suicide watch. Because many private companies have
either ignored or were ignorant of the public records law, some have been
forced to rely on personal references from people such as pastors, even
when the person admitted to knowing little about a potential employee. Some
fired employees got new juvenile justice jobs with recommendations from
friends or co-workers who didn't know or wouldn't say what really happened
at a previous company. At least 138 juvenile justice workers listed as
active when their records were obtained by The Post previously had been
arrested and punished for felony charges ranging from credit card and check
fraud to cocaine trafficking and burglary. Youth counselor Wendell Campbell
was found guilty of battery by an Okeechobee County circuit judge in
October 2000, five months after he attacked a 19-year-old offender at the
Eckerd Youth Development Center. Witnesses told a sheriff's deputy that
Campbell, 22 at the time, was upset because the young man told Campbell to
go to hell. Campbell, 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, grabbed the 5-foot-6,
136-pound offender by the throat and pushed him against a wall. The teen's
face turned blue, a co-worker said, as Campbell choked him for almost 40
seconds. The case was documented in court, state and Eckerd's own records.
But two years later, Campbell was hired at the Okeechobee Redirection Camp,
managed by the California-based company Owl Global. Supervisors found the
charge of battery during background checks and received permission from the
state to hire Campbell, said Geff Stinson, the
company's human resources director. But contractors still are not required
to notify the state when they fire an employee. That means that the state's
juvenile justice agency, the only official watchdog of dozens of separate
taxpayer-funded contractors, doesn't know when or why former employees left
each company. Without that basic information, state officials cannot tell
their contractors whether an applicant has been fired elsewhere.
Exacerbating those problems is that many companies must hire new employees
often — and quickly. In several cases, employees were hired and trained
before the positive results of their drug tests or background checks
arrived. "There's tremendous pressure to fill vacant positions,"
said Mark Fontaine, who represents private contractors as head of the
Florida Juvenile Justice Association. The typical youth care worker at a
private company lasts less than eight months, according to an analysis of
employment data by The Post, and 62.5 percent will quit or be fired in any
given year. Some of the worst churn has been at the Florida Institute for
Girls in suburban West Palm Beach. Since the facility opened in 2000, 82.1
percent of its workers have left before working a full year. Fontaine said
he is not surprised that the annual turnover rate is just 19.4 percent in
Florida's government-run detention centers, where employees can qualify for
state pension plans and earn a yearly wage as much as $6,000 higher than at
a private facility. "I don't care who you work for," Fontaine
said, "if you pay your people $6,000 more, you're going to get more
people working that you want working for you and fewer that you don't.
That's just a fact." Lobbyists for Florida's private juvenile
treatment contractors have asked legislators for more money, saying they
can barely get by. But it is clear some of the companies don't always
choose to spend every available dollar on improving their centers. From
1999 to 2003, for example, the top three executives at Correctional
Services Corp. took home nearly $4.5 million in total combined
compensation, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The company's founder, President and CEO James F. Slattery, collected
more than $2.2 million in salary, bonuses and other compensation in that
time, an average of $442,000 a year. Florida's top juvenile justice
official, charged with overseeing the entire system of public and private
facilities, gets $115,000 a year. Correctional Services Corp. also spends
generously when it comes to making friends in Tallahassee. The company
spent at least $270,000 on state campaign contributions during the past
decade, with company executives personally donating thousands more. From
1999 to 2003, the company generated revenue of $882 million from the prison
and youth programs it runs in Florida and other states but reported a net
income of just $77,000. State officials say it isn't any of their business
what its taxpayer-funded contractors pay its workers or how much they spend
on kids. "One of the reasons we privatize is the theory that private
corporations can do it better and cheaper than we may be able to,"
said Steve Casey, the Juvenile Justice Department's deputy secretary.
"So to a degree, we try to stay out of that."
Parc, Brigend, Wales
April 8, 2005 IC Network
A PRISON worker claimed yesterday she was sacked after she had an
affair with a prisoner. The 20-year-old prison assistant said she began the
affair with the man while he was serving part of his eight-year sentence at
Parc Prison in Bridgend.
October 7, 2004 BBC
A teenage inmate found hanging in his cell had not been checked for more
than two hours, a jury inquest has heard. Ian Powell, 17, was on remand at
HM Parc Prison in Bridgend when he was found
hanged from a light fitting. The jury also heard how two days before his
death, a probation officer had found other accommodation for him but had
not had time to tell the prison. A verdict of misadventure was recorded. Ms
Stringer told the jury how despite efforts to find him suitable
accommodation none could be found at the time of his court appearance and
he was remanded in custody at HM Parc prison.
September 7, 2004 Western
Mail
A nurse at a Welsh prison has been sacked after falling for an inmate.
Married Carol Evans, 43, had an affair with serial Cardiff burglar Alan
John, 27, while working as a nurse and counsellor
at Parc Prison in Bridgend. Her managers at the Securicor-run jail
were tipped off about the relationship when they were spotted together and
sacked Carol from her £25,000-a-year job on the grounds of misconduct.
Other nurses had complained about the couple's behaviour.
August 10, 2004 BBC
Parc Prison in Bridgend has been rated the worst performing
privately-run prison in Wales and England. A report published by the
Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for prisons also found that there was a
lack of separate health-care facilities for juveniles, and issues of staff
morale. The research was carried out over a period of 12 months,
ending in February this year. In response, the prison said that
things had improved since then. The prison, run by Securicor,
provides over 1,000 places for adults, young offenders and non-convicted
juveniles. The report found that by the end of February 2004 it had
fallen to 132nd place on HM Prison Service's performance standard weighted
scorecard, thus making it the poorest performing privately-run prison in
Wales and England. The research also highlighted a number of concerns
which had been raised before. These included a "repeated failure
to fill the 28-bed Juvenile Remand Unit", and the "continuing
inability to meet certain contractual requirements." The
"failure" to provide separate healthcare facilities for juveniles
was also pointed out, as were the "totally inadequate level of dental
provision" and "issues" of staff morale. In addition,
the report found that there were seven outstanding inquests into deaths in
custody at the prison. These dated back, it said, as far as 21
September 2002 and included the final inquest into the death in custody of
a 17-year-old trainee found dead in his cell on 6 October 2002.
Polk Youth Development
Center, Polk City, Florida
March 23, 2005 Lakeland Ledger
Chronic mold has all but shut down school at the Polk Youth Development
Center, a state prison for highrisk youths
managed by a private contractor. Inmates are getting only two hours of
classroom instruction and the teaching staff has been pared from 25 to
eight. "We have a requirement to educate these kids, and we just
simply are not able to do that," said Dennis Higgins, director of
alternative education for the Polk County School District. Teachers and
staff have complained for several years of mold at the facility for high-risk
youthful offenders, the largest of its kind in Florida with 350 beds. But
in recent months, School District personnel began complaining of breathing
difficulties and throat problems, Higgins said, and four or five filed
workers' compensation claims. The company now running PYDC is Securicor New
Century, part of a global conglomerate based in England. It also manages
the Avon Park Youth Academy in South Polk, under contract to the state
Department of Juvenile Justice. John Morgenthau, chief executive officer of
Securicor's Tallahassee-based operations, said Tuesday that he couldn't
discuss the matter. "We have an agreement in our contract with the DJJ
that any media will be directed to the office of DJJ," he said.
"The contract says we've got to play by their rules." PYDC has
been plagued in recent years with problems such as overcrowding, inadequate
staffing and inmate abuse by workers who lacked adequate training. These
and other problems came to light last year in a Ledger investigation that
found nearly 60 cases of inmate abuse between June 1998 and June 2003, more
than any other juvenile program in the state. The company that had run the
center, Correctional Services Corp. of Sarasota, lost its contract in 2003
to Premier Behavioral Solutions. Thirteen months into its $9.8
million-a-year contract, Premier bowed out, citing insufficient state
funding for mental-health treatment and the center's large size.
Securicor
United Kingdom
September
20, 2006 The Independent
A LIVERPOOL man was on the run for 26 days and did not even know it.
David Parker was jailed after his mother Ann Marie Patchell
took him into a police station, unaware a warrant had been issued for his
arrest. Mrs Patchell is
now calling for an inquiry into the handling of her son's case. The
22-year-old had earlier been paroled on a tag from Walton jail after
serving a six-month sentence for affray and dangerous driving. But, he
says, on August 10 the tag fell off as he walked down the stairs at his Fazakerley home. He called Securicor who sent a
technician to replace the tag, and Mr Parker
continued with his call centre job and curfew. But a month later the second
tag came off and he was told to report to Lower Lane police station where
he was arrested, returned to Walton and had 26 days added to his sentence.
It later emerged a warrant had been issued for his arrest since the first
time the tag fell off. Merseyside police say they never received the
warrant, otherwise they would not have allowed him to remain at large.
November 26, 2005 EDP24
A Kosovan who fled to this country after seeing
his family murdered in front of him was yesterday jailed for trying to
escape deportation. Imer Neziri,
24, was on the run for more than four months after he jumped from a
Securicor van taking him from Norwich prison to a detention centre near
Cambridge, in June. On June 30 he jumped out of an emergency hatch in the
secure van as it slowed to go round Norwich's Thickthorn
roundabout, injuring himself as he hit the tarmac, but managing to get
away.
November 10, 2005 Leeds Today
A security firm allowed a tagged offender from West Yorkshire to breach his
curfew order 22 times - and didn't bother to inform police, MPs were told. Officers only discovered the breaches after
they caught the offender red-handed, misbehaving in the middle of the night
when he should have been indoors by 10pm at the latest. Home Office
minister Fiona MacTaggart today pledged to make
sure that proper action has been taken against Securicor, warning that such
serious breaches would "automatically affect the contract with the
company involved".
July 7, 2005 New Zimbabwe
A ZIMBABWEAN woman could be flown back to Britain after she was erroneously
deported just hours after a judge halted all deportations to
Zimbabwe. The woman who cannot be named for legal reasons was said to
be in hiding at an unnamed location in Zimbabwe on Thursday after she was
shunted onto a Zimbabwe-bound plane by a security firm. A senior
British High Court judge angrily condemned the deportation of the woman
following a mistake by Securicor, which was responsible for escorting her
out of the country. Justice Collins called on the Home Office
secretary Charles Clarke to halt all removals of failed asylum seekers to
Zimbabwe pending a further High Court hearing. Britain’s stance on
the forced removals of Zimbabweans was thrown into confusion when a Home
Office official told a separate hearing that deportations had already been
halted. He said the Home Office had cancelled the removal directions
after the woman lodged an application for judicial review with the High
Court. But the fax sent by the Home Office to Securicor was dealt
with by a temporary member of staff who was not fully trained and did not realise the significance of the fax. "How
anyone could fail to appreciate the significance of a fax from the Home
Office telling them removal directions had been cancelled frankly escapes
me," the judge said.
March 24, 2005 Rochdale Observer
A CONVICTED criminal removed his electronic tag before brutally murdering a
60-year-old man in the street. Robert Clegg was 17 when he went on a drink
and drugs binge and attacked disabled grandfather-of-three Bob Boardman
with a knife and baton in Yorkshire Street shortly before Christmas 2003.
Clegg stabbed him a total of 30 times in the face, head, back and chest and
beat him so viciously every bone in his face was smashed. At the time of
the murder, which took place at about 11.30pm, Clegg was tagged and should
have been at home in Clara Street, Deeplish,
under a 9pm curfew. But a BBC 3 documentary that was screened on Monday
revealed he removed the tag on several occasions without punishment. A
senior police officer in Rochdale said that tags
were regarded in the force as ‘a waste of space’ and curfew orders were
frequently abused and not properly enforced by the private company in
charge of enforcement. Clegg was placed under a curfew order in November
2003 after being caught stealing a car and in possession of a knife and a
loaded air rifle. The documentary claims that over the first three weeks of
that sentence, he removed his tag or tampered with it 13 times. On 9
December he removed it altogether before going out drinking, but Securicor,
the firm appointed by the Home Office to enforce the tagging order, took no
action against him. Two days later he was still without his tag and left
his care home after telling a social worker he had a knife. Later that
night he attacked Mr Boardman. Mr Boardman’s widow, Margaret, said: “Securicor should
have gone out and got Clegg and taken him back and locked him up. They
didn’t do their job.” A Securicor Justice Service spokesman said it was not
possible to discuss individual cases. He added: “In relation to our
technology, this has proved to be reliable and robust. It is subject to
rigorous testing and approval by the Home Office as well as having to pass
our own stringent quality checks and procedures.”
December 18, 2004 Manchester On Line
A FAMILY is celebrating today after it learned that a security guard
who was jailed for 14 years for being 'the inside man' in a £6m robbery is
to have his conviction quashed. Graham Huckerby,
45, was sentenced two years ago after being found guilty of conspiracy to
rob at Manchester Crown Court. But the Manchester Evening News has learned
that the Court of Appeal in London, which heard the case in November, has
decided that the conviction is unsafe and should be quashed. An official
announcement will be made on Tuesday. Mr Huckerby was said to have taken a bribe to enable an
armed gang to escape with £4m in cash and £2m in cheques
from his Securicor vehicle as it arrived at the Midland Bank district
sorting office in Ordsall, Salford.
The raid happened on July 3, 1995. None of the cash was ever recovered
despite a huge police investigation estimated to have cost £10m. The appeal
was based on defence claims that Mr Huckerby was suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the robbery. He had been
a victim of another robbery while working for Securicor a few months earlier.
November 11, 2004 Scotsman
A security guard jailed for 14 years for his role in what was then the
biggest theft of cash in transit since the Great Train Robbery of 1963
began an appeal against his conviction today. Former police officer Graham Huckerby, 44, was convicted two years ago of being the
“inside man” in a £6.6 million armed robbery of his Securicor van outside a
Midland Bank cheque clearing centre. But in the
Court of Appeal today, it was argued his conviction should be quashed
because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to an
earlier robbery in which a colleague was stabbed. Huckerby,
of Clifton Road, Prestwich, always said he
allowed the gang into his vehicle because they held him at gunpoint and
said they were holding a colleague hostage. But at the trial in 2002, he
was convicted of conspiracy to rob after apparently taking a £1,000 bribe
from the group who pulled off the multi-million pound raid in Salford in July 1995. He had failed to activate any of
the security systems in place to raise the alarm and had apparently
received £1,000 into his bank account from the alleged conspirators two
months earlier.
February 10, 2004
Police today outlined the terrifying events which led to the tragic murder
of a man moments after the armed robbery. Force spokesman Chief Insp Steve Glover said three masked men swooped on a
cash delivery van outside the Nationwide building society in the shadow of
Birmingham's Bullring. As they confronted the three Securicor guards,
calling at the bank to fill up the cashpoint
machine, a handgun was pulled out. One of the security guards managed
to barricade himself inside but the armed gang forced their way through the
glass door and confronted him. They fled into Worcester Walk, a
passageway opposite. It was here that a shot rang out and the victim was
fatally injured. Police believe he was a 28-year-old man from Walsall but officers said they were still trying to
confirm who he was and what he was doing in Birmingham. (Birmingham)
Southwest
Regional Juvenile Detention Center, Fort Myers, Florida
September 14, 2005 The News-Press
The Southwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center is back to being run by
state employees after a private contract of two years ended as a failed
experiment — not because of performance, but the bottom line. Securicor New
Century, the Virginia-based firm that contracted with the state to run
detention operations, lost money on its $2.41 million annual contract to
operate the 60-bed center in Fort Myers in 2003 and 2004. The company was
among three bidders in 2002, but it didn't bid on the state's request for
proposals at the same contract level to continue this year. No one else did
either.
United
Kingdom
December 18, 2004 Manchester On Line
A FAMILY is celebrating today after it learned that a security guard
who was jailed for 14 years for being 'the inside man' in a £6m robbery is
to have his conviction quashed. Graham Huckerby,
45, was sentenced two years ago after being found guilty of conspiracy to
rob at Manchester Crown Court. But the Manchester Evening News has learned
that the Court of Appeal in London, which heard the case in November, has
decided that the conviction is unsafe and should be quashed. An official
announcement will be made on Tuesday. Mr Huckerby was said to have taken a bribe to enable an
armed gang to escape with £4m in cash and £2m in cheques
from his Securicor vehicle as it arrived at the Midland Bank district
sorting office in Ordsall, Salford.
The raid happened on July 3, 1995. None of the cash was ever recovered
despite a huge police investigation estimated to have cost £10m. The appeal
was based on defence claims that Mr Huckerby was suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the robbery. He had been
a victim of another robbery while working for Securicor a few months
earlier.
November 11, 2004 Scotsman
A security guard jailed for 14 years for his role in what was then the
biggest theft of cash in transit since the Great Train Robbery of 1963 began
an appeal against his conviction today. Former police officer Graham Huckerby, 44, was convicted two years ago of being the
“inside man” in a £6.6 million armed robbery of his Securicor van outside a
Midland Bank cheque clearing centre. But in the
Court of Appeal today, it was argued his conviction should be quashed
because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to an
earlier robbery in which a colleague was stabbed. Huckerby,
of Clifton Road, Prestwich, always said he
allowed the gang into his vehicle because they held him at gunpoint and
said they were holding a colleague hostage. But at the trial in 2002, he
was convicted of conspiracy to rob after apparently taking a £1,000 bribe
from the group who pulled off the multi-million pound raid in Salford in July 1995. He had failed to activate any of
the security systems in place to raise the alarm and had apparently
received £1,000 into his bank account from the alleged conspirators two
months earlier.
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