April 29, 2008
Privatization Update: April 29th
California Privatization
Maranatha
April 23 - A Bakersfield businessman lost one part of a two-year legal battle with California prison officials recently when a state appellate court affirmed a lower court's rulings and ordered him to pay the state's legal fees. CDCR wrote a letter accusing Terry Moreland, a developer who previously ran a private prison in San Bernardino County, through his company Maranatha Corrections of misappropriating more than $1 million worth of phone call funds. The letter was released to the media and Moreland sued the department for libel and defamation, saying the published accusations hurt his reputation and business. Moreland's attorney, George Harris, said the appellate court's decision only affects one aspect of the case: whether the state defamed his client. The basic case alleging that the state breached it contract, Harris said, will continue at the trial court level. Moreland now owes the state more than $71,000 in legal cost for the original case and the appeal. The state lawyers invoked a statute meant to protect free speech of state government executives and others in issues of public interest. The statute can require people who sue for defamation to pay legal fees if they lose. The dispute over the phone call revenue cost Moreland the $8.1 million annual contract for his 500-bed Victor Valley Modified Community Correctional Facility, in Adelanto. Moreland resisted the state's push to audit the phone funds to see how they were being spent. He then sold the facility in 2005. Whether the state had claim to the phone money wasn't addressed by the trial or appellate courts, nor was it decided by a November 2004 report by the state Office of Inspector General. The inspector general found Maranatha and affiliates collected $1.6 million worth of the inmate phone money between 1997 and 2004. Deciding who got to keep the money was outside the scope of its investigation, the report said, but inspectors advised corrections officials to be more specific in future contracts.
Corrections Corporation of America
April 21 - Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has signed into law a bill that gives a privately owned jail the authority to house federal and state inmates. The Adams County Correctional Center is currently under construction and is slated to be completed in December 2008. Barbour said signing "this legislation is appropriate as the state continues to find alternative housing solutions for our growing inmate population." The correctional facility is owned and operated by CCA.
April 23 - Metro Nashville's correctional facilities have had a rough few months: In February, an inmate with an escape record broke out of the Metro Detention Facility through air vents. In January, a mentally ill inmate at the same jail was found not to have left his cell for recreation, a shower or medical treatment, in nine months. After a jail worker complained to the Metro Public Health Department, the inmate was forced to come out for a shower and a mental evaluation. In the same month, another inmate at Metro Detention was charged in the beating death of his cellmate in the high-security segregation unit. Earlier this month,
Warden Brian Garner was removed and "awaiting reassignment" by CCA, which operates the jail. What is going on in CCA facilities?
April 25 - State Rep. Mike Turner is questioning Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner George Little about the spate of questionable practices and incidents that have landed CCA in the news. Tennessee contracts with CCA to run their prisons and jails. Turner mentioned the Time magazine story that alleges CCA counsel Gus Puryear allegedly whitewashed incident reports on escapes and unnatural deaths, so as not to alarm the company's clients. Turner also cites a news article on an inmate at an CCA-run correctional Facility who went nine months without a shower, as well as the recent Nashville Scene article that reported how guards at that same facility falsely claimed a jail-cell surveillance camera wasn't working, just one day after an inmate was found in her cell with a broken skull.
April 25 - Specimens tested have confirmed norovirus, known as the "winter vomiting disease", as the cause of an outbreak at a private Eloy Detention Center owned by CCA. Pinal County, Arizona is reporting that more than 300 detainees have become ill with symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Pinal County Public health and Environmental health officials are working with detention center staff to manage the spread of the infection. The virus is spread through fecal-oral contact and is usually cleared up in one to three days.
The GEO Group
April 24 - A riot one year ago at the New Castle Correctional Facility cost The GEO Group more than $1.1 million in police protection, repairs and improvements. Though the taxpayers of Indiana dodged this bullet, they are not out of the woods quite yet. What remains to be is the cost of ongoing legal proceedings in Henry County, where 28 inmates are charged with dozens of felony and misdemeanor crimes. Seven of the men have pleaded guilty and their cases now are complete, but 21 others are holding jury trials, and they could rack up significant costs for taxpayers. Taxpayers are already paying for the defendants' attorneys, depositions, and in at least two cases, private investigators. The April 24, 2007 riot at New Castle quickly became national news as television helicopters flew above the prison recreation yard and showed images of the melee live. Inmates burned mattresses and threw beds and other furnishings out of the windows of the housing units. Police stormed the perimeter and used tear gas to
secure the facility. Two prison guard were injured and treated at the local hospital. The riot was led by Arizona inmates, the first of whom were moved across the country a month earlier as the Arizona Department of Corrections tried to ease its overcrowded prisons by filling unused beds in Indiana. Gov. Mitch Daniels looked to the deal with Arizona as a cash cow, but it never fully developed, since Arizona called off all transfers days before the riot. Arizona's exodus from New Castle now has begun. The
first 120 inmates were flown back to their home state last week, and those transfers will continue during the next couple of months. What's left is for Arizona, Indiana, The GEO Group and Henry County Prosecutor Kit Crane to work out an agreement on how, and where, to house Arizona offenders who still face riot-related charges. New Castle remains the state's only
privatized prison.
Wackenhut
April 26 - Leaders of the Metro Public Transportation Agency in Missouri announced that Wackenhut couldn't deliver enough trained security guards to meet deadlines in a MetroLink security contract. Metro has decided to part ways. "It was around the availability of personnel," Transit agency President Robert Baer said. "Training of personnel. The certification. Licensing of personnel." Securias Security Services will finish the three-year contract and has already assumed responsibility.
