Community Education Centers
In December 2008, CEC Correctional Officer Odessan Andrew Allen Zehr was charged with accepting bribes to smuggle contraband into the company's Ector County Correctional Center. In May, 2009, CEC Correctional Officer Amber Hinds was indicted on charges she attempted to smuggle drugs into the Texarkana, Texas facility. In September, 2009 McLennan County, Texas Sheriff Larry Lynch said he would no longer accept payments from CEC. Private prisons need the permission of the local sheriff to operate, so the payments presented the appearance of a conflict of interest. In March 2011, the Liberty County, Texas jail failed an inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Violations included key administrators who did not have state licenses, plumbing problems and inoperative communications systems. In October 2011, a CEC Correctional Officer, James Allen Roach pleaded guilty to charges he had smuggled tobacco and marijuana to inmates at the Liberty County, Texas facility. In January, 2012, the Deputy Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Lydell B Sherrer, pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges related to jobs at the facilities. In July 2012, the New Jersey State Legislature held two days of hearings on halfway houses in the state. Shortly after the hearings, the state imposed a fine of $45,000 on contractors including Community Education Centers for not notifying state authorities promptly when inmates escaped. Six inmates had escaped from facilities run by the firm. In 2013, "The New York Times" reported that the firm was the largest provider of halfway house services in Pennsylvania with almost 1,300 beds. A study by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections that inmates who transitioned through halfway houses (run by the state or a contractor) were more likely to return to jail than those who were released directly from prison. In May 2013, a CEC Correctional Officer, Latondra Natrell Brown, was arrested for allegedly smuggling contraband to inmates at the Liberty County, Texas facility. In June 2013, nine Correctional Officers were convicted of smuggling contraband into the Ector County Correctional Center, and received sentences in federal prison.
Misconduct
Community Education Centers, Inc. abbreviated CEC was a private corrections company based in West Caldwell, New Jersey and operated residential reentry facilities, jails, and in-prison drug treatment programs in seventeen American states and in Bermuda. In June, 2007 CEC acquired a jail management company, CiviGenics. In 2011, New Jersey and its counties spent about $105 million on halfway houses. Of that amount, about $71 million went to Community Education Centers. The firm operated fourteen jails, mostly in Texas. In addition to contracts with cities, counties and states, the firm also provided reentry services in four states to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In June, 2012, "The New York Times" published the results of a 10-month-long investigation into the halfway houses operated by the firm in New Jersey. Almost three quarters of one group of inmates at a New Jersey facility tested positive for various drugs. Drugs were widely available at least at the New Jersey sites in the series covered by "The New York Times"' report.