UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 FORM 3 INITIAL STATEMENT OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP OF SECURITIES 1. Name and Address of Reporting Person Keens, Donald H c/o The Wackenhut Corporation 4200 Wackenhut Drive #100 Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410-4243 USA 2. Date of Event Requiring Statement (Month/Day/Year) 2/17/00 3. IRS or Social Security Number of Reporting Person (Voluntary) 4. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol Wackenhut Corrections Corporation WHC 5. Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer (Check all applicable) ( ) Director ( ) 10% Owner (X) Officer (give title below) ( ) Other (specify below) Senior Vice President, Intertnational Services 6. If Amendment, Date of Original (Month/Day/Year) 7. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line) (X) Form filed by One Reporting Person ( ) Form filed by More than One Reporting Person ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table I -- Non-Derivative Securities Beneficially Owned | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| 1. Title of Security |2. Amount of |3. Ownership |4. Nature of Indirect | | Securities | Form: | Beneficial Ownership | | Beneficially | Direct(D) or | | | Owned | Indirect(I) | | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table II -- Derivative Securitites Beneficially Owned | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| 1.Title of Derivative |2.Date Exer- |3.Title and Amount | |4. Conver-|5. Owner- |6. Nature of Indirect | Security | cisable and | of Underlying | |sion or |ship | Beneficial Ownership | | Expiration | Securities | |exercise |Form of | | | Date(Month/ |-----------------------|---------|price of |Deriv- | | | Day/Year) | |Amount |deri- |ative | | | Date | Expira- | |or |vative |Security: | | | Exer- | tion | Title |Number of|Security |Direct(D) or | | | cisable | Date | |Shares | |Indirect(I) | | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| 1995 Option |12/19/95 |12/18/05 |Common Stock |12,000 |11.8750 |D | | - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 2000 Option |2/17/00 |2/16/10 |Common Stock |10,000 |8.4375 |D | | - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| Explanation of Responses: SIGNATURE OF REPORTING PERSON /s/ Donald H. Keens BY F. E. Finizia as Attorney-in-Fact DATE 2/23/00