AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: OAPSE News, Spring 2007

….Since taking office in January, Ohio Treasurer Cordray has canceled a privatization contract, saving Ohioans more than $600,000. He has recouped more than $400,000 in fees inappropriately charged the state by a leading Ohio bank. And he has exposed more than 7,000 properties owned by the state that are abandoned and run-down. These properties could be used by communities to improve neighborhoods and provide services, but instead have become a drain on local government budgets…..

Posted by Info Center at 11:02 AM in Victories | Permalink

Source: By LUCILLE HUSTON, The Review (OH), June 29, 2007

HAMMONDSVILLE — Tempers flared and criticism was leveled at the Edison Local Board of Education during its meeting Thursday night. The cafeteria was full of OAPSE/AFSCME union members from throughout the State of Ohio, including the Ohio president from Girard in Trumbull County and a union representative from Columbus.

The reason for the criticism and discontent was the board’s plan to contract bus services to a private company.

……[Fred McGraw] also cited a report from a Kent State University professor concerning a study on contracting bus services. He claimed the district would have a loss of control, a higher costs, dissatisfaction because problems experienced by parents and students would not go directly to the school and because there would be hidden costs.

In some districts, he said the private companies attempt to purchase fuel through the school because it is tax free, and added that this is illegal as some have discovered.

Posted by Info Center at 10:32 AM in Schools K-12 | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press, Jun 28, 4:45 PM ET

An initiative to farm out tax collection to private agencies survived a challenge Thursday from House lawmakers who said the program was improper and should be eliminated.

.......... The IRS says it has set strict standards on the collection tactics to protect taxpayer privacy and prevent harassment. Visits to taxpayer homes are banned, as are late-night calls.

But critics say tax collection is inherently a public function and inadequate IRS resources don't justify handing over that job to private collectors. Besides the effort to curtail funding for the program, several bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to kill it outright.

Posted by Info Center at 10:30 AM in Federal | Tax Collection | Permalink

Source: By Steve Peoples, Providence Journal (RI), Friday, June 29, 2007

A day after his office acknowledged that a sweeping plan to privatize state services was largely dead, Governor Carcieri yesterday reversed course and said he would use “every legal means necessary to push forward” on plans to replace state employees with private workers across state government.

Posted by Info Center at 10:28 AM in Overview/General | Permalink

Source: By BOB ANDERSON, Livingston Advocate (LA), Jun 29, 2007

LIVINGSTON — The Livingston Parish Council voted Thursday night to send a bill to Waste Management of Louisiana for late pickup of garbage.

.......After hearing parish residents complain about late trash pickups and difficulty in contacting Waste Management, the council voted unanimously to send the company a bill for tardy garbage collection when the parish is able to prove cans were left uncollected for more than a day.

Posted by Info Center at 10:23 AM in Waste Management | Permalink

Source: By Johnny Brannon, Honolulu Advertiser (HI), Friday, June 29, 2007

Mayor Mufi Hannemann yesterday said he has no intention of dumping the firm that operates the city's Waimanalo Gulch landfill, despite criticism over a malfunctioning load-weighing scale and other problems.

......Djou said the malfunctioning scale — which may have caused the city to lose revenue from trash haulers before it was repaired and recalibrated Tuesday night — was "the straw that broke the camel's back" after several other high-profile problems.

Among the most serious is an outstanding $2.8 million state fine issued last year for numerous health and environmental violations at the landfill.

Posted by Info Center at 10:21 AM in Horror Stories | Waste Management | Permalink

Source: By Clayton Hardima, Muskegon Chronicle (MI), Thursday, June 28, 2007

One by one, union members and officials faced the Muskegon Heights Board of Education Wednesday night and made impassioned pleas to board members to reject privatizing school custodial services and save custodians' jobs.

They cited their dedication to their work, years of service and the family feeling they said existed among employees of the district.

......... Bryant estimated that privatizing custodial services would save the district $200,000 to $225,000. If the decision to not privatize is made, the money will have to be found elsewhere. Bryant said the decision would affect 141/2 custodial positions.

Posted by Info Center at 12:09 PM in Custodial | Schools K-12 | Permalink

Source: By Steve Peoples, Providence Journal (RI), Thursday, June 28, 2007

Governor Carcieri is backing off a controversial move to replace 180 state employees with private workers at the state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital and veteran’s home. And his plans to expand privatization across a host of state services appear to be dead — at least for now, his office confirmed yesterday.

The dramatic reversal was prompted not by repeated pleas from handicapped hospital residents at State House rallies, nor by several rounds of anti-privatization television and radio ads produced by the largest state employees union, Rhode Island Council 94, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Posted by Info Center at 11:07 AM in Health | Victories | Permalink

Source: By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Washington Post, Thursday, June 28, 2007

…… Contracting specialists said companies are increasingly being called upon to handle duties once considered appropriate only for government workers. And because the number of federal procurement workers responsible for overseeing spending has not kept pace, the spending on such contracts often soars far beyond approved estimates, the specialists said. …….. A review of memos, e-mail and other contracting documents obtained by The Washington Post show that in a rush to meet congressional mandates to establish the information analysis and infrastructure protection offices, agency officials routinely waived rules designed to protect taxpayer money.

Posted by Info Center at 11:06 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By SARAH CASSI, The Express-Times (PA), Thursday, June 28, 2007

EASTON | Northampton County administrators are up in arms over county council's refusal to reject bids for a county information technology contract, a move officials contend could have saved $850,000.

Three companies bid for the four-year IT contract: Computer Aid Inc. of Allentown, $9,151,000; CMC Americas, Baton Rouge, La., $9,287,652; and Affiliated Computer Services of Dallas, $10,002,873.

...... Fiscal Affairs Director Vic Mazziotti asked council to reject all three bids and rebid the contract. Instead, council voted 7-1 last week to keep the Affiliated Computer Services bid, the most expensive of the three.

Posted by Info Center at 10:54 AM in Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By JAMES YOO, The Record (NJ), Wednesday, June 27, 2007

....... In shared arrangements, he added, only towns that give the services benefit, not the ones who get it. Municipalities that pay for a library or other services will have nothing to show for their money if the contract ends, he said.

Boonstra suggested a third option: privatization of services. That would eliminate the need to chip in for pension and benefits, he said.

Posted by Info Center at 9:22 AM in Library | Permalink

Source: By JENNIFER LIBERTO, St Petersburg Times (FL), June 26, 2007

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement closed an investigation and cleared two private prison companies of criminal charges Monday. Lawmakers had asked FDLE to investigate for criminal activity, after state auditors reported that the companies improperly collected more than $12.7-million in overpayments. Gov. Charlie Crist has approved FDLE's final report, which clears the GEO Group, Inc., and the Corrections Corporation of America of criminal wrongdoing. The 22-page report, released Monday, points out weaknesses in the originally negotiated contract that allowed for some over payment and also quotes heavily from interviews with those who denied "inappropriate relationships."

Posted by Info Center at 1:10 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Source:By Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org, June 26, 2007

……. States leery of tax increases increasingly are looking at raising revenue by selling assets — from Indiana’s lease of its turnpike last year to California’s proposal to sell control of its state lottery — but Missouri’s bitter battle could serve as a cautionary tale.

...... Sujit CanagaRetna, a tax and budget expert at the Council of State Governments, predicts that despite the prospect of political fights, governors will continue to push leasing and privatization plans because states need the money for new projects and don’t want to raise taxes. “It’s definitely a trend that’s here to stay,” he said.

Posted by Info Center at 1:08 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Higher Education | Permalink

Source: Simmons, Ric, "Private Criminal Justice" . Wake Forest Law Review, Vol. 42, 2007 Available at SSRN

This article charts the rise of a private criminal justice system in this country, provides a rough blueprint of what a fully functioning private criminal justice system will look like, and offers suggestions as to how to guide its development.

The article begins by describing the failures of the public criminal justice system, and then examines the ways in which these failures have given rise to two alternatives to the traditional system of criminal justice: privatization of law enforcement and restorative justice. The article then analyzes each of these alternatives, and then combines the two in order to demonstrate what a private criminal justice system would look like in the near future. Finally, the article considers potential criticisms of a private criminal justice system and offers suggestions as to how to guide the development of this new system in light of these criticisms.

Posted by Info Center at 1:03 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, New York Times, June 25, 2007

…… So just how much of the intelligence budget goes to private contracts? Because that budget is highly classified, and many intelligence contracts are allocated without oversight or competitive bidding, it seemed we would never know. Until last month, that is: a procurement executive from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence gave a PowerPoint presentation at a conference in Colorado and let slip a staggering statistic — private contracts now account for 70 percent of the intelligence budget.

Posted by Info Center at 11:15 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By Amanda M. Wimmer, The Northwestern (WI), June 24, 2007

Nearly two months after its building and grounds director was reassigned in the wake of an investigation of inappropriate computer use, the Oshkosh school district is considering eliminating its contract with the company that former building and grounds director Dwayne Turpin works for.

Sodexho, a global food service and facilities management company, the company hired in 2003 to manage the school district's maintenance and facilities, is paid more than $250,000 per year to provide management staff and other maintenance services.

.......... Earlier this month, Superintendent Ron Heilmann recommended the board terminate the contract with Sodexho and hire its own buildings and grounds director. The change would save the district about $134,000 per year, Heilmann said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:55 AM in Maintenance | Schools K-12 | Permalink

Source: Labor News, June 22, 2007

AT&T announced this week that it will be bringing back from overseas nearly 650 Tier I DSL technical support jobs and locating them in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, later this year. The jobs are coming back to the United States as part of the agreement CWA reached with AT&T last fall to return the tech support work that had been contracted overseas.

Posted by Info Center at 10:26 AM in Offshore | Permalink

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism, June 21, 2007

From the Project for Excellence in Journalism study overview: "Exactly how many Americans are serving in Iraq and what they are doing there might not seem like complicated questions. Stories in the media regularly talk about the 150,000 U.S. military personnel in the Iraq theater. Coverage of events inside Iraq, which includes the actions of U.S. troops there, was the third-biggest news story in the American media for the first quarter of 2007, according to PEJ research. But those numbers do not include some 30,000 employees of U.S. and European-based Private Security Companies (PSCs), who work in some of Iraq’s most dangerous areas. These PSC employees are not like other contractors in Iraq. Many of them carry weapons and are hired to protect important people, facilities and convoys. They have been involved in firefights and scores of them, the exact number is unclear, have perished. Yet there are many basic unanswered questions about these armed forces, which add by 20% the number of foreign troops in the country."

Posted by Info Center at 10:24 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: This site is hosted by the Service Employees International Union, wholly independent of ACS.

You got to wonder if folks who depend on ACS for services are at all worried about the Cerberus buyout in the works. Given the number of government contracts ACS has, you hope that someone in D.C. is paying attention.

Posted by Info Center at 10:49 AM in Information Technology | Websites/databases | Permalink

Source: By Allison Klein, Washington Post, Thursday, June 21, 2007; Page B01

A security officer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center pulled a handgun and fired 10 rounds at a fellow guard during the morning rush hour yesterday at the hospital's main gate, striking no one but sending stray bullets into two cars and a utility pole, D.C. police said.

....... He is an employee of a private company based in Virginia that has a contract with Walter Reed to provide security.

Posted by Info Center at 10:41 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: SAL LUCIANO, executive director of Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Hartford Courant (CT), June 21, 2007

The 2007 legislative session ended with the deafening sounds of silence - and for the third year in a row, no meaningful reform of the state contracting system. ……. For years we have said that privatization equals corruption. We have seen costly failures in numerous areas where our members work, such as social services, child welfare and corrections.

Posted by Info Center at 10:36 AM in Laws/Legislation | Permalink

Source: By MIKE BRASSFIELD AND STEVE BOUSQUET, St Petersburg Times, June 21, 2007

Citing the Suncoast Parkway as an example of a useful toll road, Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a bill smoothing the way for the state and private companies to build more tollways in the decades to come.

....... "The day we privatize our public roads and turn them over to private companies is the day we start selling this great state off, " said Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors. "It's going to be a big mistake."

Posted by Info Center at 10:30 AM in Laws/Legislation | Transportation | Permalink

Source: CorpWatch, May 15th, 2007

CorpWatch and its partners today released an alternative annual report (.pdf) on Halliburton titled: "Goodbye Houston" The new report was prepared in association with Halliburton Watch and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.

The new report (the fourth in the series) is being issued on the eve of Halliburton 's annual general meeting in Woodlands, Texas, on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007. An in-depth, hard-hitting report, "Goodbye Houston," provides a detailed look at Halliburton 's military and energy operations around the world as well as its political connections. It includes a series of recommendations for the company and its shareholders as well as for the United States policymakers.

Posted by Info Center at 10:27 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By STEVE SCHULTZE, Journal Sentinel (WI), June 20, 2007

Wisconsin officials have improperly denied benefits to W-2 applicants who are unemployed but considered capable of working, a state Court of Appeals panel ruled (.pdf) Tuesday. The 2-1 ruling from the Milwaukee appeals court branch found that the state's creation of a "job ready" category and subsequent denial of cash assistance to those clients of the Wisconsin Works welfare reform program were at odds with the 1996 law.

……. The ruling came in the cases of two Milwaukee women, Yolanda Weston and Sherrieck Nelson, who sought help from W-2 in 2005. Both had held jobs before, but were unemployed and unable to find work. Both had children and were broke when they sought help from Milwaukee W-2 agencies Maximus Inc. and the YWCA.

....... Even though the state officially enrolls relatively few "job ready" people in the program, many more are discouraged from completing W-2 applications because they've been told they seemed to be capable of working and would likely be denied benefits, DeLessio said. She and other advocates have accused Gov. Jim Doyle's administration of using that tactic to trim the W-2 rolls.

Posted by Info Center at 10:21 AM in Laws/Legislation | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By Brad Bumsted, Pittsburgh Tribune Review (PA), Wednesday, June 20, 2007

In an effort to save 2,000 jobs at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, members of the Teamsters Union fanned out Tuesday at the Capitol to lobby against Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed lease of the turnpike to a private company.

Posted by Info Center at 11:53 AM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Matt Smith, San Francisco Weekly, June 20, 2007

...... This beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin County shore, as well as hundreds of acres of exquisite city parkland, will soon become private if Mayor Gavin Newsom and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin have their way.

Mayor Newsom last week submitted a resolution aimed at privatizing Harding Park Golf Course and Lincoln Park Golf Course, the latter of which is a cliff-side monument to San Francisco and America's early-20th-century fascination with the expanding the things and places society holds in common.

Posted by Info Center at 11:49 AM in Parks & Recreation | Permalink

Source: By Ryan J. Foley, The Associated Press (WI), June 14, 2007

A sheriff’s constitutional powers to run a jail do not include the right to hire and fire employees who feed inmates, a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today. In a 4-3 decision (.pdf), the court said a public employees’ union can challenge Brown County Sheriff Dennis Kocken’s decision to lay off its workers and privatize food service at the jail.

….. The decision means the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union can file a complaint with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission over the matter.

Posted by Info Center at 11:51 AM in Food Services | Laws/Legislation | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By MONICA DAVEY, New York Times, June 16, 2007

At this rate, critics of Gov. Mitch Daniels grouse, all of Indiana will be run by private corporations. What will be next, anti-Daniels bloggers demand. Will the governor hand over the keys to Indiana University and Purdue to some private consortium? Will he lease to a company the thousands of public toilets that dot the state? In his two and a half years in office, Mr. Daniels, who previously served in the Bush White House as budget director, has already placed in the hands of private companies plenty of public business: some welfare-applicant screening, running a prison and, most notably, operating the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road, which slices across the northern edge of the state.

…… Yet that is precisely how his critics now view him — as Governor Privatize. “We knew this would be part of his grand scheme,” said David Warrick, a union leader who represents 25,000 public workers in Indiana and Kentucky. “He’s bent on privatizing everything he can get his hands on.”

Posted by Info Center at 11:49 AM in Overview/General | Permalink

Source: By MIKE DONILA, St Petersburg Times (FL), June 19, 2007

CLEARWATER - With state-mandated property tax cuts looming, city leaders are contemplating a different idea for the city's signature recreation facilities and swimming pools:

Turn them over to a third party to run, even if it may mean users would have fewer options and would pay higher fees.

Posted by Info Center at 11:29 AM in Parks & Recreation | Permalink

Source: JOSHUA STOWE, South Bend Tribune (IN), June 19. 2007 6:59AM

An Indiana State Police records outsourcing arrangement will continue to force Hoosiers to pay more for some crash reports, while giving them a more convenient way to get others. The convenience: Under the arrangement, Hoosiers since Jan. 1 have had two ways to buy crash reports from any local police agency in the state. For $12, they can buy a report from a private company by going online to www.BuyCrash.com. Or, for a lesser fee -- for instance, $5 in South Bend -- they can buy a report directly from their local police agency.

........ Although a $12 fee for an Indiana State Police report might not present a large financial burden for a person involved in an accident, he says, it could impair the ability of a citizens' group to gather and present data on multiple accidents that occurred along a particularly dangerous stretch of road.

Posted by Info Center at 11:24 AM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Michael Mandel, Business Week, June 18, 2007

Whenever critics of globalization complain about the loss of American jobs to low-cost countries such as China and India, supporters point to the powerful performance of the U.S. economy. And with good reason. Despite the latest slow quarter, official statistics show that America's economic output has grown at a solid 3.3% annual rate since 2003, a period when imports from low-cost countries have soared. Similarly, domestic manufacturing output has expanded at a decent pace. On the face of it, offshoring doesn't seem to be having much of an effect at all.

But new evidence suggests that shifting production overseas has inflicted worse damage on the U.S. economy than the numbers show. BusinessWeek has learned of a gaping flaw in the way statistics treat offshoring, with serious economic and political implications. Top government statisticians now acknowledge that the problem exists, and say it could prove to be significant.

Posted by Info Center at 2:28 PM in Offshore | Permalink

Source: By Alex Nixon, Kalamazoo Gazette (MI), Tuesday, June 12, 2007

More of the state's child and family services would be handled by private, nonprofit organizations under a proposal before Lansing lawmakers.

Proponents say the measure could save $19 million from next year's Michigan Department of Human Services budget, which is expected to be more than $4.51 billion.

Posted by Info Center at 1:19 PM in Laws/Legislation | Nonprofits | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A Montgomery County state senator wants Pennsylvania to get out of the retail wine and liquor business -- and one of his proposals involves selling a 51 percent stake in the state store system to a private equity firm to "wring out" inefficiencies before selling it off completely.

Other possibilities include an outright sale or contracting long-term leases.

Posted by Info Center at 10:56 AM in Asset Sale/Lease | Liquor Stores | Permalink

Source:By JAMES DREW and STEVE EDER, Toledo BLADE (OH), Friday, June 8, 2007

The top internal auditor at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation said yesterday that it is unclear if $637 million that has passed through the agency's prescription drug program since 2002 was properly spent by an outside company hired to administer pharmacy benefits to Ohio's injured workers.

The company, ACS State Healthcare, told the bureau that the millions have flowed into one bank account, mixed in with money from 12 other customers around the nation that have hired the firm to manage prescription benefits, according to an internal audit.

Posted by Info Center at 10:46 AM in Health | Permalink

Source: By Heather Ratcliffe, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH (MO), Thursday, Jun. 07 2007

A delay in letting paramedics into the city jail and "substandard" emergency care by staff there may have doomed an inmate who suffered an asthma attack, according to a blistering report by the fire department.

........ And autopsy findings obtained Wednesday showed no trace of the drug that jail nurses said they repeatedly administered to ease Kimble's breathing

........ "People don't generally die of an asthma attack when they go to the hospital," Wallach said. "I fully believe our evidence will show if she was treated properly, she would have been fine."

Sam Simon, the city director of public safety, pledged to learn more about what happened, and about the medical care provided under contract for more than $5 million a year by Correctional Medical Services. The Creve Coeur-based private company has come under heavy criticism in Missouri and elsewhere for years.

Posted by Info Center at 10:50 AM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: NALC Postal Record (.pdf), June 2007

..... Horror stories about the foolhardy Postal Service campaign to expand Contract Delivery Service are becoming as common place as dandelions sprouting on lawns all across the nation.

Posted by Info Center at 3:27 PM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Governing Magazine, May 2007

A privatization program unravels in its first year and raises questions about how it could go so far south so fast.

Everything went wrong: Calls were dropped and applications lost. Unwarranted layoffs were followed by panicked retention maneuvers. Misinformation was magnified by bureaucratic goofs. However one measures failure, Texas bungled its recent attempt to privatize the operation of four major programs administered by its Health and Human Services Commission--a $900 million deal.

Posted by Info Center at 3:23 PM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: Snapshots (.pdf), March 2007:

When nonprofits contract with local governments, the nonprofits may experience challenges, but they may also gain prestige and funding for programs. Since nonprofits may find that they are distracted from their mission by management challenges and the demands of regulation and oversight, they should carefully weigh both the benefits and the costs of being government contractors.

Posted by Info Center at 3:18 PM in Nonprofits | Overview/General | Permalink

Source: Office of Management & Budget news release (.pdf), June 4, 2007

According to a new report, the government continues to increase the total number of contracting professionals in the acquisition workforce. Today, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy released the Annual Report (.pdf) on the Federal Acquisition Workforce showing the government hired more than 2,600 new employees into the contracting field for Fiscal Year 2006. This hiring resulted in a net increase of about 350 people since FY 2005 and 1,200 people since FY 2000.

...... FAI has produced annual acquisition workforce reports since 1976 and all reports will soon be available at www.fai.gov.

Posted by Info Center at 11:13 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By Tim Shorrock, Salon.com, Jun. 01, 2007

More than five years into the global "war on terror," spying has become one of the fastest-growing private industries in the United States. The federal government relies more than ever on outsourcing for some of its most sensitive work, though it has kept details about its use of private contractors a closely guarded secret. Intelligence experts, and even the government itself, have warned of a critical lack of oversight for the booming intelligence business.

......... Because of the cloak of secrecy thrown over the intelligence budgets, there is no way for the American public, or even much of Congress, to know how those contractors are getting the money, what they are doing with it, or how effectively they are using it. The explosion in outsourcing has taken place against a backdrop of intelligence failures for which the Bush administration has been hammered by critics, from Saddam Hussein's fictional weapons of mass destruction to abusive interrogations that have involved employees of private contractors operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Aftergood and other experts also warn that the lack of transparency creates conditions ripe for corruption.

Posted by Info Center at 1:42 PM in Federal | Permalink

Source: Chris Hedges, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sun, Jun. 03, 2007

Armed units from the private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad streets twice in two days last week. It triggered a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, a reminder that the war in Iraq may be remembered mostly in our history books for empowering and building America's first modern mercenary army.

There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, although there are no official figures and some estimates run much higher.

Posted by Info Center at 10:06 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By JANE NORMAN, Des Moines Register, June 4, 2007

U.S. Postal Service carriers are protesting what they see as a disturbing new trend in Iowa and across the United States: the use of private contractors to deliver the U.S. mail.

Posted by Info Center at 10:04 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: Associated Press (TX), May 31, 2007

HOUSTON -- A 25-year-old prison escapee was captured Wednesday on a jogging trail behind the Harris County Jail _ headquarters for one of the largest contingents of law enforcement officers in the state of Texas.

...... The private prison, which can hold up to 450 inmates, is operated under contract by The GEO Group, Inc., a private corrections firm based in Boca Raton, Fla. Opened in 1993, it houses low-risk offenders who have violated their parole or mandatory supervision.

Posted by Info Center at 10:02 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By Mary Beth Schneider, Indianapolis Star (IN), June 4, 2007

It's one of the smallest privatizations that Gov. Mitch Daniels has undertaken: the outsourcing of 66 jobs in state government printing, copying and mail services.

But to those employees, the decision to move their jobs to a contract with industry giant Pitney Bowes Inc. has been huge.

Posted by Info Center at 9:57 AM in Printing/Copying | Permalink

Source: By Caroline Isaacs, Arizona Daily Star (AZ), 06.04.2007

None of the findings in Indiana's report on the riot that occurred in its New Castle facility, where some Arizona inmates are housed, are surprising to anybody who has been paying attention to prison privatization over the past 30 years. Ever since we began this experiment in for-profit incarceration, serious problems have cropped up over and over again in private prisons nationwide.

Many private prisons are woefully understaffed, and high turnover rates mean that staff are inexperienced and unsure of what to do in a crisis. The analysis released by the Indiana Department of Corrections bears this out, citing "unseasoned staff" as a cause of the riot.

Posted by Info Center at 9:56 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: Sunday, Associated Press (IL), June 03, 2007

ULLIN, Ill. — Police used tear gas to force 46 inmates out of a prison area where they had barricaded themselves and set fire to mattresses and books, authorities said.

....... Local law enforcement "were able to bring the disturbance under control within 30 minutes," said Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, which owns the facility. He said authorities had inmates back in housing units within an hour.

Posted by Info Center at 9:54 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By Matt Sundeen, State Legislatures (subscription required), May 2007

...... The monetization of transportation assets—commonly referred to as privatization agreements, public-private partnerships, or more simply as P3s—is attracting a lot of attention as lawmakers grapple with concerns about a lack of resources for transportation.

“It allowed us to pay for our entire 10-year transportation plan,” says Indiana Senator Tom Wyss about a 2006 agreement to privatize the Indiana Toll Road. “Other states wish they could have the same thing,” he says.

But the concept has as many critics as supporters. “It’s a state yard-sale,” counters New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski of a proposal to privatize several toll roads in his state. “Roads are a state asset that give people freedom of movement and are essential to national security. They want to turn it over to a private entity that’s in it for the money, not the public interest,” says Wisniewski, who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Posted by Info Center at 3:22 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: BY TAMARA AUDI, Detroit FREE PRESS (MI), June 1, 2007

The president of Detroit's City Council said Thursday the city would have to "give serious consideration" to a surprise, $60-million bid from a private equity firm to lease the U.S. portion of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The bid came weeks after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick publicly outlined a plan to plug the city's yawning budget gap by leasing the tunnel to the City of Windsor for an up-front payment of $58 million after fees and expenses.

Posted by Info Center at 3:04 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink