addressed and Zoley's PR is just what the company
needs to re-establish credibility, rumors of more
problems keep popping up.
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
May 13, 2000, Saturday MICHIGAN
Pg. a5
HEADLINE: LaSata wants prison to get closer scrutiny
MICHIGAN BRIEFS
LANSING--State legislators will
conduct a hearing on the Michigan Youth
Correctional
Facility this summer, following an investigation by The
Grand Rapids Press that questioned the private prison's
ability to handle its young wards.
"I'm equally
concerned with the safety of corrections officers as well
as the inmates at the facility," said state Rep.
Charles LaSata, R-St. Joseph, chairman of the House
Appropriations corrections subcommittee.
LaSata also
told The Grand Rapids Press that he would ask the
state
Department of Corrections for quarterly
reports on the youth prison, instead of the now-required
yearly reports.
LaSata is the second state
lawmaker to call for hearings in response to The Grand
Rapids Press investigation.
State Sen. William
VanRegenmorter, R-Georgetown Township, chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, said he has not scheduled a hearing
but hopes to tour the prison next week.
The
Press' five-month investigation into the treatment of
juveniles in prison found it was more violent than the
state's six maximum-security prisons. Young inmates
attack one another and guards and try to kill
themselves, according to prison reports obtained by the
newspaper.
The state sends the facility most of
its juveniles sentenced as adults. The facility has
about 330 inmates.
The prison is owned and
operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corp. of Florida.