One of the largest security companies in the world, G4S has been hit with record financial penalties from the British Government for mishandling the country's prison system. The figure of $US3.9 million (£2.8 million) paid for the period 2016/2017 was revealed by British media, relating to the violation of the security company's contracts with the British Government.
The fines, levied by the Ministry of Justice, relate to lapses in the provision of basic services and the company's apparent failures to prevent prison inmates from engaging in illegal behaviour such smuggling contraband, rioting, roof climbing and recruiting other inmates into criminal gangs.
The fines bring the total financial penalties paid by the security contractor in the last nine years to US$9.9 million (£7 million) which the Ministry of Justice has preferred to call "financial remedies."
G4S is a British security contractor and one of the most highly valued companies on the London Stock Exchange. It is also the largest private employer in Europe and Africa with almost 600,000 employees around the globe.
Its operations around the world have often courted controversy, particularly relating to the company's human rights policies, such as its management of Australian refugee detention centers on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea that have been repeatedly been condemned by human rights organizations for the conditions in which inmates are held.