The Feds are under huge pressure to downsize prisons, yet are required to continue to supervise inmates.
Halfway houses can be part of this solution, but government can't just hand out the contracts to anyone who states they are qualified.
This article makes the provider sounds bad, but (when you think about it) government failed to do even the most basic research or supervision...
The Psycho-ologist
big A little a Bouncing B the system may have got you but it won't get me.
Joined: Jan '08
Posts: 439
Hi WhyNOT.
I am chuckling. I am sure we both probably know A LOT of agencies run like this by people like this with contracts from various government agencies.
This was great read. Thanks for posting.
Its like my best friend said, "You can't expect a babysitter to act like the mother, especially if you pay her below market rate, and don't bother to check her references or pop by to check on your child."
Privatization and "contracting out" work operate on that same ethos. The feds/states, attempt to get their job done by contracting out to the lowest privately owned bidder.
In my humble opinion, this model never works and always seems to have a direct and negative impact on the services rendered.
No matter what industry, this model, only gives incentives to the top brass of these privately owned "non for profits" or even "for profits", to do the shadiest work ever in the cheapest manner, all while keeping the profits in the hands of the top brass.
I work part time as a "contract adjunct". At one of the "colleges" where I worked, there were professors with dubious credentialing teaching hard core science courses as well as rampant, unethical behavior between professors and students, such as easing up on course requirements, not teaching or covering all the required material, or even holding the required number of classes.
The big culprit: No over-site, from the main campus which was in Westchester, and greedy upper management.
I can say the same thing about several social service agencies I have either dealt with or worked for.
It costs money to have adequate over-site. It also costs money to hire "real professionals". Although due to this bad economy many "real professionals" may take jobs with companies headed by crooks like the guy mentioned in your link. However, the result is always the same: The lack of over-site, causes the professionals to behave VERY unprofessionally and at times, dissolve their own personal and work ethics, just to stay employed.
Just think of how many adjunct, or "fee for service persons", who end up doing HORRENDOUS things, under pressure from the cheapskate big bosses, who are often very unethical, and don't even have the credentialing they would need to really run a quality organization and are only interested in keeping their low bid contracts with the government or state.
What you are posting sounds so similar to things like this:problems with for profit colleges
which operate on the same principles as the article you are mentioning.
By the way, If there is a New Years party for all the embittered clinicians, activists, intellectuals erm I mean Brooklynites, I am so there. Too bad I can't make Festivus.
I will tell a story of a charter school that was headed by a completely unqualified person. He was willing to open a school in Harlem, back before any of the charter chains had arrived.
90 students were enrolled by desperate parents. He employed no teachers. They did nothing for 3 months. The Board of Ed finally closed them down.
I think the story took place in 2002. I witnessed it firsthand. The Daily News ran a piece on it, but it seems to be too long ago to be on line...
Thanks for posting - I read this a few weeks ago and found it interesting. Did you read the series about the halfway houses in NJ?
Another recent development in mental health/substance abuse/social services is the increased use of 3/4 houses, which are little more than human cattle cars. I've had patients who lived in them and they sound like horrible places that offer nothing beyond shelter (we're talking six grown men in bunkbeds in a small, windowless room). Many of them are now in homes built during the real estate boom that could not be sold after the bust and have now found a new "purpose".
BTW, I assume your misspelling of the word "sloppiness" was tongue-in-cheek?
Yes, I read the series, and agree with your assessment of the housing.
As alluded to above, I was disappointed that the series did not focus more on the government's role. In my view, the Gov workers clearly did not do Due Diligence prior to awarding this contract, or in supervising it.
Our tax dollars can buy better services. Housing providers such as this one make the reputable, respectable providers look bad by association. It sucks.
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