Privatized Prisons

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I have worked State facilities and privatized prisons/jails. I am curious about which privatized prison corporations yall have worked at, and your opinion. I worked for WCC (Wackenhut Corrections Corporation) and PHS ( Prison Health Services). At one time I was going to work for CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) but decided not to take the job. I have also heard of MTC. Just curious about yalls experiences with privatized prisons...............

Specializes in Corrections, ICU, HIV.

I have worked for the DOC run prison system as well as privatized medical. I have worked for Prison Health Services and Correntional Medical Services. I was so not impressed. I love corrections and in my current state of residence we have only privatized medical. PHS and CMS were not so great but I must say CMS was worse. It is not the staff thay have but the way they treat them. They don't pay well enough this is for sure, and what one person said earlier is so true, they work short and expect absolutle loyalty from their staff. If they need you to work over time or at a different post, wheter your trained, feel comfortable in that post, or whether your child is sick, they just don't care. They need the job done and they are just not very concerned with how it gets done. I found this to be the case at upper management levels, not at the prison level. But this kind of upper level managment doesnt do much for staff retention. One of our prisons is run by CCA, they are not so great with their pay and they also work everyone on a shoestring. It is really too bad that these kinds of companies don't try harder to work with their staff.

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Corrections is a core governmental responsibility. I wouldn't work in a privatized correctional system.

The only way to fix the problem of poor pay and inadequate staffing is to aggressively pursue the establishment of a unionized private corrections system.

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I have been at the same facility for 8 yrs now and I must say that I love where I'm at. When I first started there I worked for CMS for almost 3 yrs. and ended up leaving just before the pulled out. The pay was far less that what I currently make, benefits were minimal, and the management sucked. I went back into corrections a short 10 months later when the state took over and I can't imagine working for a privatized company again. The state pays far better than CMS did and much better benefits.

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I work at MTC in East Texas. It is a private prison, but is a treatment center as well. We have DWI, SAFPF, and ISF offenders. The company I work for is PNA, and we have about 26 facilities in Texas, new mexico, and Arizona. PNA is a wonderful company.....they are so supportive. I am the HSA of the medical unit at the facility, and we are getting so big.....we have gone from 323 offenders in March to over 1200 now (may) and are expecting 500+ more in the next couple of months. So, it is sometimes really stressful. We are not as big as UTMB, but that is good. Everyone is treated as an individual and we work well together.

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Specializes in Step Down/ Rehab, Psych & Correctional.

I have worked for state run FL DOC as well as for privatized prisons (Wackenhut-now Geo) as well as PHS in other states...the private ones seem to pay less as well as poor admin., management and security...never again!

Also- in response to the pay issue between ADNs and BSNs...generally the pay is only different if the BSN is in a management position...no matter what setting you work in these days...

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I don't know what's better, since I haven't been in corrections nursing that long. But working for the state Doc must be better, because my state let the DON and administrator switch to the state from the current MHM.

Nothing against MHM, it's just that it seems like the state should be paying me directly, and quit giving a share of my pay to a middle-man. Privitazation is not saving the state any money, from what I understand.

And if I ask some nurse who works for the state why we are privatized nurses and they are not, and they say, "It's mandated," one more time, I will scream. Yeah, it's mandated, it's not like gravity, and nobody has any say in the matter, for cryin' out loud.

This subject really tees me off.

Op

I have worked for state run FL DOC as well as for privatized prisons (Wackenhut-now Geo) as well as PHS in other states...the private ones seem to pay less as well as poor admin., management and security...never again!

Also- in response to the pay issue between ADNs and BSNs...generally the pay is only different if the BSN is in a management position...no matter what setting you work in these days...

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I have worked for every For-Profit privatized company. CMS and PHS have merged. The new company's name is Corizen. Again, the key word is For Profit. These companies include Armor, MHM, Corizen, CCS, CCA, GEO, and others. As an RN, you are considered a widget and the primary goal of every company is to maximize profit so often that means chronic vacancies. Of course, high vacancy rates can be very dangerous given the correctional environment. If there are issues, the Justice Department can intervene. This is called a Consent Decree. Be sure you check before you consider employment if the jail or prison is under a Consent Decree. Familiarize yourself with the Decree. I would also recommend you check into the bonus structure of the private company. For example, will your boss be getting a bonus for keeping costs down. If so this could compromise staffing and also compromise you.

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