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Your support makes all the difference.A HIGH-LEVEL inquiry has been set up by the Home Office to investigate claims that the director of a company asked to run a private jail has been named in lawsuits that allege the torture of prisoners in the United States.
Peter Lloyd, the Home Office minister, told an all-party committee of MPs yesterday that he had no evidence to support claims that the Corrections Corporation of America was unfit run a British prison due to open next month.
CCA is part of the consortium that won the contract to manage Blakenhurst prison in Redditch, in the West Midlands. Nevertheless, Mr Lloyd told the Home Affairs Select Committee that an executive director of the prison service would be sent to the US to study allegations made in BBC's Public Eye programme last week. The programme claimed that CCA's overseas business director, T Don Hutto, had been named in a series of cases brought by prisoners who said they had been maltreated in jails in Arkansas.
But Mr Lloyd told the committee that his preliminary inquiries showed the lawsuits were brought in the Seventies at a time when Mr Hutto was cleaning up the state's penal system. Mr Hutto could not be held responsible for its failings.
Mr Lloyd also faced questioning over allegations made in the Public Eye programme that a senior civil servant worked for Group 4, the private security firm, at the same time as he was employed by the Home Office. According to members of the committee, Charles Erickson admitted on film that he recruited staff for Group 4 while he was still at the Home Office. Later, Mr Erickson took a post at Group 4.
Mr Lloyd said he would look at the allegations but added: 'I see absolutely no reason to believe them.'
He said Mr Erickson gave the Home Office notice that he wanted to work for Group 4 and was moved to a part of the department where there could be no conflict of interest.
Pressed over Group 4's record since it took over the service escorting prisoners to court in the East Midlands, Humberside and parts of Yorkshire, Mr Lloyd said: 'They got off to a disappointing start.' But he said he shared the blame for some of the blunders that had dogged the first two weeks of the operation.
Seven inmates have escaped or been mistakenly released and many others arrived at court late. The minister said privatisation should have been phased in, rather than introduced across the region on the same day.
Mr Lloyd also confirmed that the director-general of the prison service, Derek Lewis, could see his earnings reduced if the escapes continue. Mr Lewis has a salary of pounds 125,000, but can augment this with bonuses if the service performs well.
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