Community Education Centers
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Community Education Centers, Inc. (CEC) was a private corrections company based in West Caldwell, New Jersey that operated residential reentry facilities, jails, and in-prison drug treatment programs in seventeen American states and Bermuda.[1][2][3]
In June 2007, CEC acquired the jail management company, CiviGenics.[4]
In 2011, the state of New Jersey and its county governments spent $71 million of the $105 million budget allocated for halfway houses on contracts awarded to Community Education Centers.[5]
The firm operated fourteen jails, mostly in Texas. Its largest “secure facility” was the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornbury Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania with a capacity of 1,883.[1] It also had contracts for twenty six “residential reentry” facilities, more commonly called halfway homes. The largest of these was Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey with a capacity of 1,196.[1] It also offered a number of residential treatment programs funded by Native American tribes in six states.[1]
In addition to contracts with cities, counties, and states, CEC also had contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide reentry services across four states.[6]
In August 2012, officials from Mercer County, New Jersey found that 73% of randomly sampled inmates from the CEC-operated Albert M. “Bo” Robinson Assessment and Treatment Center tested positive for drugs. CEC did not fulfill its government contracts to provide therapy and job training to inmates. Critics argued that CEC continued to receive government contracts because its senior vice president was Bill Palatucci, a close friend of then-Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie.[7]
Typical contracts involved CEC providing housing for $70/day per inmate, achieving roughly half the operating costs of government facilities by cutting corners on contract requirements. Minimal supervision allowed inmates to retain their connections to criminal organizations, such as Delaney Hall becoming controlled by the Bloods gang and its drug trade.[3][7]
In April 2017, GEO Group, one of the world's largest for-profit prison corporations, acquired Community Education Centers.[8]