WITNESS
Richard P. Seiter, Ph.D., joined Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) as Executive Vice President and Chief Corrections Officer in January 2005. Dr. Seiter is a career correctional administrator and has extensive experience in the corrections industry at both the federal and state levels. He has served in a variety of roles with the Federal Bureau of Prisons including the Assistant Director for Industries, Education and Training (1989-1993), during which time he served as Chief Operating Officer of Federal Prisons Industries, a government corporation that sells goods manufactured by inmates. He also served as warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Greenville, Illinois (1993-1999) and warden at the Federal Prison Camp in Allenwood, Pennsylvania (1981-1982). Dr. Seiter was Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction from 1983 to 1988 and oversaw the operations of 18 prison facilities, a staff of 8,000, and an annual budget of approximately $400 million. He was also responsible for a prison construction program of approximately 10,000 beds at a cost of $500 million.
Dr. Seiter was also the first Chief of the National Institute of Corrections National Academy of Corrections. From 1999 to 2004, he served on the faculty in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Saint Louis University. During this time, Seiter was promoted to tenured full professor, and authored two textbooks on corrections, Corrections: An Introduction (2005) and Correctional Administration: Integrating Theory and Practice (2002), both published by Prentice Hall. He has published extensively in professional journals, and from 1998 to 2002 served as editor of Corrections Management Quarterly, published by Aspen Publishers. Dr. Seiter holds a B.S. in Business Administration and earned his M.P.A. and Ph.D. in Public Administration from Ohio State University.
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STATEMENT
As the need to increase prison capacity became a national problem, the private sector (through the construction and management of correctional facilities) became a viable option for public agencies unable to keep up with demand. Private industry allows governments to meet their rising capacity needs while at the same time providing capital and flexibility for (often) desperately needed bed and program space expansion. Private entities have provided the public sector with a reasonable way of maintaining positive conditions such as need-based treatment, programming, training and/or education.…
Claims that private prisons are not accountable to the public are unwarranted. In reality, private prisons almost always have extremely detailed requirements by which their accountability is easily measured and monitored. …This accountability begins with the public sector determining the types of services needed, creating a rigorous RFP, and opening it for competitive bidding. The RFP requirements often list expected outcomes, and may include liquidated damages for failure to maintain expected staffing levels, inmate involvement in program activities, and other RFP requirements. Public customers usually assign full-time contract monitors to constantly measure performance against the contract requirements. Contracts also provide the government customer the ability to cancel contracts with private companies if standards are not met. It should also be emphasized that private companies gain new government customers primarily by demonstrating their capabilities in existing facilities. This provides another, significant form of public accountability.
…In addition, many private corrections companies are committed to the high standards and accreditation process of the American Correctional Association (ACA). This is especially significant considering that 44 percent of all privately managed facilities are ACA accredited while only 10 percent of publicly-managed facilities are accredited at this level of professional excellence.…
Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission
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