Contracting is a way to hold facility staff accountable for performance - including that related to the "duty of care" and the responsibilities of in loco parentis that some public employees have abused.
A company that will lose its contract has a greater institutional incentive to make sure its employees do right by these wards of the state than any agency that monoplizes the function.
But why does it take these horrible scandals to drive this general truth home?
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Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Walt McNeil on Friday fired the acting superintendent and a juvenile justice officer at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna after an investigation into abuse of a youth.
McNeil said the action was a call for a ''change of culture'' at the school.
''There are systemic operational problems at our Dozier facility that
span the chain of command from top to bottom,'' McNeil said....
Also, in response to the investigation, John Tallon, regional residential services administrator and acting Dozier superintendent, was fired Thursday.
Rex Uberman, DJJ assistant secretary of residential services, will temporarily move his office from Tallahassee to the Dozier campus to oversee daily operations.
DJJ hired Community Trust, a Tallahassee-based consulting firm that specializes in juvenile justice facility management, to manage daily operations at Dozier.
Isaac Williams, Community Trust CEO, will temporarily serve as acting superintendent at Dozier....
These women are not victims. They are abusers. Sex abusers.
Authorities say 30-year-old Shannon Griffin is one of them.
A former TYC guard, Griffin was fired in December for having an alleged sexual relationship with a male juvenile.
If not for the TYC scandal, Griffin most likely would have escaped criminal scrutiny.