DOJ Report Finds Major Money and Health Issues In West Texas Prison
PECOS - The
Reeves County Detention Center is receiving national attention after a government audit found major money and health care issues.
Located just outside of
Pecos sits the large 24-hundred- bed
Federal Prison housing mostly immigrants who have committed low-level crimes.
It’s a facility known for having several riots due to poor health care and food.
Which is exactly some of the problems stated in the audit papers.
Page after page, the report shows problems with the lack of correctional and medical staff, isolating inmates in unsuitable areas, and major financial discrepancies. Starting with the
Bureau of Prisons improperly paying 1.95 million dollars in fringe benefits it was not entitled to receive.
The facility is run by the
GEO Group, a for-profit prisons
operator based out of
Florida.
The GEO Group contracted with the prison back in
2007 and will be with Reeves County through 2017. The GEO Group uses a subcontractor for its health services but is still understaffed, in fact 34 out of 37 months the unit didn’t have enough employees.
The government made 17 recommendations to the facility, some with very specific guidelines.
CBS 7 reached out numerous times to the prison for comment but did not receive a call back.
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The Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, is under fire following the release of
The Justice Department’s
Inspector General Report which criticized prison operations saying it was understaffed and failed to address persistent security problems.
The Reeves County Detention Center first came under heavy scrutiny in late 2008 following the death of an inmate and two riots that caused an estimated $1 million in damage.
The prison houses mainly immigrants who’ve committed low-level crimes, including drug possession and entering the
United States illegally more than once.
The report covered activity at the prison from
October 2008 to
December 2013 discovered multiple issues at the prison, including too little medical and correctional staff, use of an improper area of the prison to isolate inmates and failure to address reported deficiencies in security, health services and record-keeping.
The facility, which is made up of two compounds, is overseen by the
U.S. Bureau of Prisons but has been run since
2003 by The GEO Group, a for-profit prisons operator based in Florida.
The audit examined the contract awarded to The GEO Group in 2007, which runs through 2017 and is worth an estimated $493 million, the second largest ever awarded by the
Justice Department, according to a Justice Department news release.
During the audit it was discovered that nearly $3 million in expenses charged to the government was considered to be “unallowable or unsupported,” or money that could have been better spent elsewhere. The report also found that without an adjustment, nearly $
100,
000 in improper charges would occur through the end of the contract.
Prior to a riot in 2009, the prison had limited its staffing to save costs, the report said.
The riot was one of two that occurred after an inmate died of an epileptic seizure while placed in solitary confinement.
After the 2009 riot, staffing was increased to meet a requirement of more than 90 percent, the report said.
But the prison's health services unit continued to be short-staffed. During
December 2010 to December 2013 health services were understaffed 34 out of 37 months.
From 2007 to
2013, Bureau of Prisons staff provided 94 notices for unacceptable performance to The GEO Group, and nearly half of them concerned security, health services and record-keeping.