Salem Man Charged With Setting Fire to Co-Worker at Northlands Job Corps Center (2008)

From the Salem Observer

Read the Story Here:

“A local Job Corps participant and a Connecticut man were arrested in Vergennes, Vt., on charges they set another teen on fire in a bathroom.

Deputy State’s Attorney Christopher Perkett said Vergennes police arrested Joshua Bonifas-Kelly, 18, of Salem, on Monday, March 31, and Jason Eagen, 22, of Waterbury, Conn., on felony charges of aggravated assault.

Police responded to the Northlands Job Corps Center on Monday, March 24, following a report that Ryan Coy, 19, had first- and second-degree burns from a fire set to his shirt, Perkett said.”

Filed under: Arrests, Job Corps Centers, Newspaper Reports, Northlands Job Corps, Deputy States's Attorney Christopher Perkett, felony, Jason Egan, Job Corps, Joshua Boniufas-Kelly, Northlands Job Corps Center, Ryan Coy, Salem Observer

Shooting Supsects in San Diego Job Corps (2005)

Excerpts from the San Diego Union Tribune

Read the article here:

Program kicks out students after arrests in teen’s death:

By Janine Zúñiga
STAFF WRITER November 2, 2005

“IMPERIAL BEACH – The two men arrested in connection with the shooting death of a South County high school student last week were enrolled in a federally funded job-training program for low-income teens and young adults.

The shooting took place about 9:30 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of the South Bay Recreation Center, 1885 Coronado Ave. The victim, Donna Hernandez, was in a car with two friends after the homecoming football game at Southwest High.

After Samson Mendoza, 21, and Basilio Bernard, 22, were arrested, Job Corps officials immediately kicked them out of the program, Elias Vazquez, Deputy Director said. Job Corps has a zero-tolerance policy regarding drugs and violence, and the men were kicked out when they did not show up for classes Monday.”

San Diego Job Corps is operated by Career Systems Development Corporation

Filed under: Arrests, Career systems Development Corporation, crime, Job Corps, Newspaper Reports, San Diego Job Corps Center, Basilio Bernard, Career Systems Development Corporation, Donna Hernandez, Elias Vazquez, Samson Mendoza, San Diego Job Corps, San Diego Job Corps shooting, San Diego Union Tribune

More Negativity About Adams and Associates: What Else is New?

It seems that Adams and Associates of Nevada can’t keep itself out of the negative news.  For those of us who worked at a Job Corps Center run by the notorious numbers manipulator, Roy Adams, we are not surprised.  Roy presently reigns over twelve Job Corps Centers in the US:  Atterbury, Exeter, Gadsden, Glenmont, Grafton, Indypendence, Joliet, Little Rock, Shriver, Treasure Island, & Woodstock. Now, Roy is ignoring the law again and apparently is refusing to bargain with the Treasure Island Job Corps Workers Union AFT Local 6319.

Roy’s latest gaffe has the union rejecting his May 25, 2010 pay scheme which includes a pay for performance clause based on employees performance evaluation scores.

I’m going to side-track a bit here:  I worked at Shriver Job Corps in Devens, MA, for almost two years.  During those two years I was often required forego my lunch break despite my working a 8.5 hour day which supposedly included a half hour unpaid lunch. (My job was advertised  as a 40 hour per week position).  During those two years I often worked many hours overtime without pay in order to get my job done.  I never succeeded.  Despite my recruiting more employers to sign up to partner with Shriver than any of my predecessors, and having excellent references from previous employers my two performance reviews from Shriver claimed that I barely met expectations.  I believe that the raise I received amounted to 11 cents an hour. The center was also short-staffed and ill-equipped to do one’s job properly.  Staff were routinely threatened and coerced into submitting falsified reports to the Department of Labor in order to inflate performance reports.  And, as recently as early this year Adams and Associates was required to pay restitution amounting to thousands of dollars to hourly workers at Shriver who were also forced to work overtime and through their lunches in violation of Federal Law. Posts from credible sources (read the comments section of this article) who worked in Human Resource Departments from a few Job Corps Centers have made similar claims that employees are given very low scores on their performance reviews in order to increase Adams’ bottom line  and in addition, the HR employees were unwilling parties to requiring employees to falsify their time cards to state they took a lunch when they did  not.

Filed under: Adams and Associates, Atterbury Job Corps, congress, Department of Labor, Employees, Exeter Job Corps, Gadsden Job Corps, Glenmont Job Corps, Grafton Job Corps Center, Indypendence Job Corps, Job Corps, Joliet Job Corps, Labor unions, Little Rock Job Corps, Shriver Job Corps Center, Treasure Island Job Corps, Woodstock Job Crops Center, Adams and Associates, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Atterbury Job Corps, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Department of Labor, Exeter Job Corps Center, Gadsden Job Corps, Glenmont, Grafton Job Corps, Indyppendence Job Corps Center, Job Corps, Joliet Job Corps, Little Rock Job Corps, Roy Adams, Senator Mark Leno, Shriver Job Corps, Treasure Island Job Corps, Treasure Island Job Corps Workers Union AFT Local 6319, Woodstock Job Corps

Montgomery Job Corps Death

Saturday, May 22, 2010,  Larry Hardaway, was found dead at the Montgomery Job Corps Center.  Police are waiting for the results from the forensic toxicology reports for the cause.

Read the Article from WFSA Channel Twelve News:

Filed under: Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Montgomery Job Corps Center, Larry Hardaway, Montgomery Job Corps Center, toxicology report

Tongue Point Job Corps Center Accredited Through Northwest Association of Accredited Schools or…

National Academy of American Scholars?

This sensational article claims that certain school departments have been falsely claiming to be NAAS (Northwest Association of Accredited Schools) certified, but the NAAS trademark has already been copyrighted with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as belonging to the National Academy of American Scholars. Thus making the schools’ claims illegal. The release posted May 17, 2010, talks about espionage, fraud, terrorists and more… including Tongue Point Job Corps Center, in Astoria, Oregon.

Some excerpts:

“The education departments from the states of Idaho, Utah, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Nevada are suspected of using scarce tax dollars to promote a private business (Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, Inc.) without having first secured a majority voter referendum, or even a public hearing. Illicit partnerships and bribes typically fuel low accreditation standards, consumer fraud, Diploma Mills, and Accreditation scams.”

“Desperate schools and organizations that falsely and illegally claim to have been ‘NAAS’ accredited were in fact sold a scheme of low, incompetent, and inferior standards that were set and defined by an organization whose own standards, ethics, and integrity are so low that it does not accept basic U.S. federal laws, and neither does their accrediting agency adhere to a basic code of corporate ethics…”

“Federal records suggest that their business model, amongst other things, includes both a private partnership with Communist Russia (thus a satellite base of feeder ‘NAAS’ schools in Russia), and a public partnership with an American-based entity that is suspected of violating federal laws.”

The article certainly has shock value but I question whether the schools involved have terrorist thoughts on their mind, might their motive only be simple deception and the use of poor judgement?

Tongue Point Job Corps Center is operated by Management and Training corporation (MTC).

Filed under: Contractors, Fraud, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Management and Training Corporation, Tongue Point Job Corps Center, accredited, Corporate ethics, espionage, Fraud, Management and Training Corporation, MTC, NAAS, National Academy of American Scholars, Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, terrorist, Tongue Point, trademark

Bedbugs, Secrets, Flint/Genesee Job Corps Center and the Media or, Two Versions of an Event

While trolling the internet for buried stories about Job Corps mis-management I found a Facebook Page called The Scupper. This is no ordinary page mind you, its author is apparently a student/staff who wanted to share the truth behind the bed bug infestation at Flint/Genesee Job Corps Center… The Scupper’s site is replete with pictures and information that has so far been successfully white-washed by its “business community liaison ” Verona Terry.  She/he did a great job downplaying the seriousness of the situation and minimizing the size and scope of the infestation.

Excerpt from the Flint News:

“We’ve had some cleaning solutions in the rooms, and we’ve had some exterminations brought in,” said Verona Terry, business community liaison at the Job Corps Center. “Rooms with bedbugs are being sanitized. We’re keeping it under control.”

And, another quote from an “expert” who is downplaying and minimizing the situation (from the same article)

“County Health Officer Mark Valacak said the Job Corps infestation is the first he’s heard of a reappearance of bed bugs in Genesee County.

The bugs were eradicated in most developed countries with the use of DDT after World War II, according to the Mayo Clinic Web site, which says the return of the parasites to this country may have been spurred by increases in international travel.

He compared the insects to mosquitos — usually more of an aggravation than a dangerous health concern. “It’s a nuisance,” Valacak said of the itchy red welts the bug’s bite leaves as its calling card.”

However, if we compare the “The Scupper’s” contentions about this event apparently, Flint/Genesee Job Corps officials decided to write letters to the parents of the students five (5) days after the sanitized version of the bed bug eradication attempts were published in the media.  Why wait five days?  Why bother to inform anyone at all? Would Job Corps officials have notified anyone if the occurence were not published? Who knows. Oh, I forgot to mention… the bed bug news was published on January 8, 2010 and, according to the Scupper, staff still hadn’t been notified of the situation as of  January 22, 2010.

Alutiiq is the operator/contractor for the Flint/Genesee Job Corps Center.

Filed under: Alutiiq, Flint/Genesee Job Corps Center, Job Corps, Newspaper Reports, Alutiiq, Flint News, Flint/Genesee Job Corps, Job Corps bedbugs, Mark Valacak, The Scupper, Verona Terry

From the GAO (Government Accounting Office) Job Corps Training Centers and Concerns About Admission Procedures and Agreements with State and Local Prison Authorities to Enroll Prisoners (2000)

Read the entire letter here:

Excerpt:

“Potential Abuse of the Job Corps Program by Prison Authorities During our investigation, we learned that the Keystone Training Center and YSP had entered into an agreement to enroll YSP clients who were referred by the Juvenile Court for delinquency-related offenses. Enrollment of YSP participants appears to be consistent with the statute. This agreement was made at the local level with the concurrence of the DOL Region II District Director, but the national office was not informed. There is currently no agency policy concerning agreements that Job Corps officials enter into with local jurisdictions to enroll offenders remanded by the courts. According to the Director of the Job Corps, the program itself discourages centers from entering into such agreements because their contracts are performance based and too high a concentration of more troubled enrollees could negatively effect performance outcomes. However, the Director did state that based upon our investigation of this one instance, he would consider examining the issue and, based upon the results of such a review, it would be determined whether policies and procedures need to be established.”

Filed under: Government Accounting Office, Job Corps, Keystone Training Center, GAO, Government Accounting Office, Keystone Training Center

Repost: Senator Tom Coburn’s 2006 Congressional Record Remarks of Job Corps Documented Fraud, Abuse and Waste

MAKING EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30 2006

Text From the Congressional Record

Coburn, Tom [R-OK]

Begin 2006-05-03 10:07:32

End 10:08:03

Watch the actual video testimony here

Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I intend on withdrawing this amendment. I wish to make a few points before I do so.

In the supplemental bill, the Job Corps receives a direction that the Department of Labor can’t manage it, can’t use the resources to manage it. There are documented errors and documented fraud within it.

Mr. President, section 7017 of the Emergency Supplemental would mandate that Job Corps operate with less accountability. Specifically, the language would make Job Corps the only program out of 100s to be operated out of the Secretary’s office with direct contracting authority.

The Office of the Secretary of Labor does not have the staff or resources to effectively manage and conduct oversight on the Job Corps. The language of Section 7017 forbids the Secretary from shifting oversight and management personnel from any other support office in the Department of Labor. Secretary Chao is forbidden to utilize the same oversight and management that every other program normally receives from other support offices within the Department.

Section 7017 ignores recommendations from the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General that warn against the dangers of waste, fraud, and abuse that will go undetected in the Job Corps program when one office controls all aspects of a contract-drafting, soliciting, bidding, and managing. The incestuous relationship between the contractors who operate the Job Corp program and the program officers operating the program will have no independent oversight to guard against improper payments, improper use of resources, fraudulent performance reporting resulting in fraudulent salary bonuses, and non-compliant accounting and record keeping.

Secretary Chao is trying to clean up the Job Corps program so that it effectively serves low income teenagers and young adults with a residential job training program. The Job Corps program needs accountability. According to the Office of Job Corps, the program failed to have aggressive monitoring of performance data making evaluations of the program’s effectiveness unreliable.

The Job Corps contractors are reporting misinformation regarding the number of students that successfully graduate or receive G

EDs. The contractors fail to report that almost 40 percent of the students who go through the program fail to obtain a GED or diploma. This results in fraudulent bonus increases to the contractor’s pay.

The program fails to report that the median stay of a student at a Job Corps location is 8 months, while it takes at least 12 months to successfully obtain a GED. The program also fails to accurately report how many students successful receive

job placement into the skilled jobs for which the Job Corps is supposed to equip the students. They fail to report that only 5 percent of the graduating students are placed in apprenticeships for skilled jobs. The contractors incorrectly consider job placement in unskilled jobs and the military–(obtainable without a high school education)–as benchmarks for success. This results in fraudulent bonus increases to their pay.

Examples of mismanagement illustrated in past Inspector General Reports include doctoring of program performance resulting in bonus pay, unethical use of resources, lack of cost controls and resource management. These examples makes the point for Secretary Chao–that the Job Corps program is in desperate need for accountability and oversight.

The September 30, 2005 Inspector General report, San Diego Job CORPS Center: Student Attendance and Training Data Overstated, stated that the number of vocational completions was overstated by over 50 percent. Training records did not support that students had completed all the vocation’s tasks with an appropriate level of proficiency.

In the March 30, 2005 Inspector General report, Kittrell Job Corps Center: Manipulation of Student Attendance and Training Records, the Inspector General found that Kittrell managers manipulated student attendance and training records to improve the center’s reported performance. Reported performance of high school diploma attainment and job placements was also was not reliable. This unreliable data affected Job Corps financially because reimbursed operating expenses and incentive fees paid to contracted center operators and based on reported performance.In the 2001 independent auditor’s report on the schedule of Job Corps expenses for the Turner Job Corps Center, the Inspector General found inadequate controls over payroll processing, that included hiring two instructors without proper credentials and keeping inaccurate records of leave. There was also lack of accountability over inventories of consumable supplies, evidence that the center underreported medical and dental expense, and the purchase of property and equipment that Department of

Labor did not approve prior to acquisition.

In the January 31, 2000 report entitled OIG Questions $1.3 Million of Additional Costs Claimed by Contractor Report No. 18-00-003-03-370, the Inspector General found that the contractor Will H. Hall & Son, Inc. received an additional $2,365,622 due to delays at their construction site. The Inspector General found that this contractor failed to substantiate its claim that various events under the Department of Labor’s contract constituted compensable construction delays caused by the Department

of Labor. Certain amounts claimed were either double counted as both direct and indirect costs, already covered under the original firm fixed-price contract, or based on estimates instead of actual costs incurred.

Section 7017 of the Emergency Supplemental will virtually guarantee that we will see many more examples of [Page: S3939]

waste, fraud and abuse within the Job Corps program. Furthermore, why is the Senate being asked to make a program change to a 40-year-old program within an Emergency Supplemental bill? Why hasn’t the Department of Labor been consulted in making this unprecedented move away from accountability? Why hasn’t the Appropriations Committee or the Committee

on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a single hearing about this radical change to the Job Corps program?

Due to time constraints and my desire to move Senate business forward, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

Filed under: congress, Department of Labor, Fraud, government oversight, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Kittrell Job Corps Center, Legislative and Congressional Reports, Management and Training Corporation, number manipulation, Turner Job Corps Center, Congressional Record, Department of Labor, Job Corps contractor fraud, Job Corps Fraud, Kittrell Job Corps Center, Management and Training Corporation, Oversight, Senator Tom Coburn, Turner Job Corps Center

Topix and 760 responses to Job Corps Expels Four Students

For some very interesting reading please visit Topix to read the 760 responses readers had to the story, “Job Corps Expels Four Students…”

Some excerpts:

“The program is a cesspool of business arrangements between Dept of Labor and private companies. I am involved with 2 in Maryland. At Woodland and Woodstock. The vendor who operates both is Adams and Associates. I have uncovered so much corruption, crime and coverup its unbelievable.”

“I do not want to list the outrageous negative things going on at Woodland for fear of being found out and getting fired. Fear is the operative word here. George Bush could get lessons from Woodland management in how to keep people fearful.”

The 760 comments contain negative responses for Job Corps and also some praises. What makes the reading so interesting is the remarks from employees who work at Job Corps centers, it appears that only a few “insiders” sing praises of the inner workings of their Job corps center, most of the rest talk about corruption and greed.

It makes sense to me that students would not be afforded the opportunity to know what was happening behind closed doors at OMS meetings or Retention meetings where the numbers are manipulated and skewed.  Thus, their experiences might have been different from staff experiences.

Filed under: Adams and Associates, Contractors, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Newspaper Reports, number manipulation, Woodland Job Corps Center, Woodstock Job Crops Center, Adams and Associates, corruption, greed, Topix, U.S. Department of Labor, Woodland Job Corps Center