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| Halfway house employees resign over drug use |
| By Houston Chronicle |
| Published: 09/13/2004 |
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Drug use by employees at a privately run halfway house for paroled felons led to seven resignations last week after the facility's corporate owners called for staffwide drug tests. The departure of the seven workers - including administrators, security guards and caseworkers - was the latest problem at the Ben Reid Community Correctional Facility in Texas, which houses up to 500 felons in northeast Houston. The facility is operated by the Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc., the nations' third-largest private prison operator, under a $4.8 million annual contract with the state Department of Criminal Justice. Drug use allegations at the halfway house at 10950 Beaumont Highway prompted administrators last Tuesday to ask all 80 staff members to submit to urine tests. "We picked up word that there might be a problem with substance abuse with the staff and, out of an abundance of caution, we said, 'We're just going to do a test on everybody,' " Paul Doucette, a spokesman for Cornell, said last Thursday. "Unfortunately, it proved to be true." The facility is designed to help parolees adjust to life outside prison, providing substance abuse prevention, sex offender therapy, life skills and job placement assistance programs. The seven employees who resigned did so after testing positive for drug use, in violation of the company's zero-tolerance drug-use policy, Doucette said. He said they are not under criminal investigation. In May, its director of employee training, Roy Thomas, 50, was arrested after a police officer, acting on a tip, searched his car and found 212 tablets of hydrocodone, an addictive painkiller, and 123 tablets of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, police said. Assistant District Attorney Andrea Kolski said Thomas was indicted on Aug. 26 on a charge of possession with intent to distribute the drugs, a felony for which he could face up to life in prison. He remains free on a $20,000 bond. Thomas resigned several days after his arrest. He was not on duty when he was arrested and there was no evidence that the drugs were connected with his job, Kolski said. Thomas' attorney, David Wyborny, said Thomas denies the charges. Cornell fired the Ben Reid House's director and several high-level managers last year, citing poor management and violations of numerous company policies. Also last year, the company sent a search team with drug-sniffing dogs into the facility. Possible trace amounts of cocaine and marijuana were detected, but no significant quantity of drugs, Doucette said. State officials who oversee the Cornell contract said last week's drug tests underscore the managers' efforts to address any problem that may exist. Cornell Companies operates 71 correctional facilities nationwide under contract with local, state and federal agencies. They include a similar halfway house in Dallas County, a juvenile detention facility in San Antonio and a federal prison in Big Spring. In August, the company's shareholders met in Houston and criticized Cornell's management, calling for the removal of the chairman and chief executive officer, Harry Phillips. |
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