eadlines
Privatized prison health care scrutinized
NJ: Charter Schools Have New Accountability System in New Jersey
IN: Human toll of Social Services deal is laid bare – editorial
CO: University leaders give their warnings
CO: Effort to Privatize Colorado Workers’ Comp Insurance Fund Fails
MI: Privatization plan for prisons moves ahead
OH: Is state’s $3,200/hour consultant 3 weeks late on Turnpike study?

Privatized prison health care scrutinized
About 20 states, including Arizona, Illinois and Maryland, have shifted all or portions of their prison health-care operations to private providers in an attempt to cut costs, a trend that is raising concerns among unions and prisoners’ rights groups. Officials in the states say the companies — which provide medical, dental, mental and pharmaceutical services — are less expensive than employing state workers, in part because using them saves on benefits and pension costs. Human rights groups, however, say that private services are not always providing care that is as good or better than what the state could. Joel Thompson, co-chair of the Health Care Project at Prisoners’ Legal Services in Massachusetts, said using private services can carry its own set of problems. “As with anything privatized or contracted out, you worry about whether the incentive to cut costs becomes too great,” he said. Public employees see the move as yet another attack on unions, and question the delivery of care. “Private correctional health care companies have a track record of cost cutting that put both inmates and staff at risk,” said Kerry Korpi, director of research for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “These companies’ goal is profit, not public safety.”  Washington Post

NJ: Charter Schools Have New Accountability System in New Jersey
When New Jersey approved nine new charter schools on Monday, it also announced a new accountability system aimed at setting uniform standards to evaluate the success of charters over time.  The annual “Performance Framework” will examine academic achievement, financial performance, and governance in the state’s 86 charter schools. Schools will do a self-review, evaluated by the state. Previously, the state simply relied on each school’s initial application plan to hold the schools accountable, said Barbara Morgan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. The Philadelphia Inquirer

IN: Human toll of Social Services deal is laid bare – editorial
John Cardwell could be forgiven for gloating, but he’s doing nothing of the sort. “There are still people hurting,” said the long-time social services advocate. “There’s not much warmth in that satisfaction.” A judge’s ruling last week, however, confirms what Cardwell and other critics warned about when Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration first proposed privatizing Indiana’s welfare system. Advocates charged in 2006 that a $1.6 billion contract with IBM was being pushed through without opportunity for public input and without a cost-benefit analysis. But Mitch Roob, then the FSSA secretary, pushed ahead, to the detriment of low-income families, older Hoosiers and people with disabilities and – as the judge’s ruling shows – to the benefit of Affiliated Computer Systems, Roob’s former employer and the lead subcontractor in the project. Cardwell, chairman of the Indiana Home Care Task Force, said the deal was “based on all the wrong motivations – to give contracts to private companies to make maximum profits off the misery of our poorest residents.” Indeed, replacing county caseworkers with an automated call-center operation proved disastrous to a vulnerable population. It created immediate backlogs and left some Hoosiers without access to needed assistance. Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

CO: University leaders give their warnings
Top higher education officials on Friday said drastic cuts in public funding have left the state’s institutions with dire shortfalls – and students paying far more in tuition. Colorado State University President Tony Frank, who met with The Durango Herald editorial board as part of a statewide tour, said he is concerned that higher education is on its way to privatization. “I’m afraid we’re going to hit 2025 and have privatized higher education without ever having the conversation,” he said.  Durango Herald

CO: Effort to Privatize Colorado Workers’ Comp Insurance Fund Fails
Despite extensive lobbying, the latest attempt to privatize Pinnacol, Colorado’s state-owned workers’ compensation insurer, failed to gain legislative approval. Business Review

MI: Privatization plan for prisons moves ahead
The state Department of Corrections is moving forward with privatizing nearly $500 million in services following Gov. Rick Snyder’s signature in late June on new laws needed to bid the jobs out. The department will try to shave its $1.9 billion budget by bidding out medical and mental health services, including the Woodlands facility for mentally ill inmates in Whitmore Lake, which cost more than $334 million to run annually. The Detroit News

OH: Is state’s $3,200/hour consultant 3 weeks late on Turnpike study?
Governor Kasich wants to privatize the Ohio Turnpike. He’s made that clear. He’s even told us he’s holding out for $3 billion. And his two-year budget included language allowing him to do it. His first step was to hire a consultant to look at how much other states have gotten in exchange for privatizing their toll roads. KPMG was selected in November, and got the green light to proceed in February. Recommendations about the road’s future were due no later than July 1, 2012. That was nearly three weeks ago. So where are the KPMG recommendations? Did they recommend selling the Turnpike? Leasing it? Hiring an outside operator? Transferring it to ODOT? It would be really interesting to know, but so far, ODOT has remained silent about whether or not the report was even delivered on time.If the study is not complete, how much more is KPMG billing the state? With an original price tag of $2.85 million for five months of work, KPMG’s consultants were charging just under $3,200 per hour. Every day of delay could cost taxpayers $25,000. PlunderBund