An audit by the Orange County Comptroller's Office has uncovered severe shortcomings in the practices of Allied Universal, the company contracted for providing security at key correction facilities including the county jail and juvenile assessment center, as per a report from ClickOrlando. The firm, which holds a $5.7 million contract with Orange County, reportedly failed to comply with several hiring and staffing requirements necessary for the safety and security of the facilities it guards.
The findings of the audit, which ranged from the lack of basic employee documentation such as driver's licenses and employment history to insufficient staffing of mandatory female guards at the juvenile center, indicate lackluster protocol adherence on the part of Allied Universal which has compromised the integrity of security operations, this was evidenced by the discovery that in four weeks, juvenile center shifts went by without the contracted requirement of a female guard's presence, as detailed in the Orlando Weekly.
Moreover, essential training for guards on critical issues such as suicide prevention, child abuse reporting, and emergency procedures, as mandated by the contract, was found to be severely lacking; one guard hadn’t received suicide awareness and prevention training since 2018, and not one of the four guards audited had completed training for child abuse reporting. "Failure to complete required screenings before guards start working at their posts could risk the safety of hired guards, Corrections employees, inmates, and the general public," the audit report reads, according to Orlando Weekly.
Phil Diamond, the County Comptroller, explained that the audit served as a "risk assessment" to address potential follies with the company which had been flagged in the past, and to avert possible tragedies stemming from these regulatory lapses; "Thankfully this didn't come about because we were investigating the aftermath of a tragedy," Diamond told Orlando Weekly in an attempt to underscore the proactive rather than reactive nature of the audit.
The report put forth an action plan of recommendations which includes ensuring the completion of all hiring requirements before guards are posted and developing procedures for timely refresher trainings; responses to these recommendations have been received from both Allied Universal and the corrections department, with both acknowledging the need for improvement.
