Department of Justice (DOJ) Acting Inspector General William M. Blier announced today the release of a report on the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) residential reentry center contracts with the Kintock Group, Inc. (Kintock). Kintock received three contracts, with a maximum estimated value of about $36.9 million, for the operation of three RRCs, also known as halfway houses, at facilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as to provide home confinement services. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) assessed Kintock’s performance and compliance with the contract requirements, as well as the BOP’s oversight of the contract.
The DOJ OIG found areas of improvement for both the BOP and Kintock related to the quality of contracted rehabilitation services, oversight of contract performance, and justification for the determinations of contract price reasonableness.
The OIG’s findings included the following:
- The BOP Did Not Receive the Full Value of its Contract with Kintock. We determined that Kintock did not provide all of the rehabilitation services stipulated in its contracts with the BOP, and that the BOP did not have monitoring procedures that ensured the services were provided. As a result, the BOP accepted and paid for a reduced value of services as Kintock’s negotiated contract price was based on the inclusion of a full array of reentry services.
- BOP Needs to Take Action to Ensure Compliance with Staff Qualification Requirements. Kintock staff in key positions did not always meet the education and experience qualification requirements as established in the contracts, and the BOP did not have adequate policies and processes in place related to documenting residential reentry center staff qualifications.
- Inmate Individualized Program Plans Should be Improved. We found that the Individualized Program Plans Kintock maintained for residents were not sufficiently documented. Additionally, the BOP rarely identified these deficiencies during its monitoring activities and did not have detailed quality performance standards to assist in assessments of service quality or Kintock’s contract performance.
- The BOP Should Ensure Price Reasonableness Determinations are Adequately Justified. We determined Kintock’s invoices were accurate and adequately reviewed by the BOP. However, the OIG also noted a historical lack of competition for residential reentry center contracts and a lack of justification for determinations of price reasonableness when certified cost and pricing data was not obtained.
- The BOP Should Identify and Remedy the Cost for Services Not Provided by Kintock and Put to Better Use Future Spending by Ensuring All Contracted Services Are Received. The BOP structured its residential reentry center contracts into a single daily rate, which covered costs associated with services and facilities, and the BOP paid the full daily rate while not receiving all contracted services as noted above. As a result, we were unable to determine the costs associated strictly with the services which were not provided and questioned about $30 million Kintock invoiced the BOP. We also identified the remaining available funds on the BOP’s contracts with Kintock, totaling $38 million as funds that could be put to better use.
The DOJ OIG made 11 recommendations to improve the BOP’s management of the Residential Reentry Center contract with Kintock. The BOP agreed with all 11 recommendations.