November 18, 2007
Privatization Updated (November 18, 2007)
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
California Privatization
Nov. 17 - A guard at the Leo Chesney Community Correctional Facility for women in Live Oak was arrested on suspicion of having sex with an inmate. Mark Steven Susoeff, 45, was arrested after an investigation by the Internal Affairs Division of the CDCR. The minimum security facility is owned and operated by Cornell but overseen by the state. Susoeff allegedly had sex with the inmate on two occasions, once in January and once in March. The state began to investigate after the inmate reported the incident. Susoeff was placed on administrative leave.
Corrections Corporation of America
Nov. 16 - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say an 8-year-old girl was separated from her pregnant mother and left behind for four days at a detention center set up to hold immigrant families together while they await outcomes to their cases. Officials say they had to transfer the Honduran woman because she twice resisted attempts to deport her and was potentially disruptive. ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said guards and ICE staff watched the child after her mother was removed from the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility. But others are critical of the agency's handling of the case, saying it put the child at risk and is another example of why the facility should be closed. Since opening last year, the Hutto facility has been exempt from state child-care licensing requirements. ICE officials told the state Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that parents would be at the facility with their children and would be responsible for their care, so state regulation wasn't needed.
The GEO Group
Nov. 16 - A former guard at the Val Verde Correctional Facility was arrested after he was indicted for violating the civil rights of an inmate in October 2006. Emmanuel Cassio is alleged to have walked into a cell and "struck the inmate with his fist." The inmate then made a derogatory remark to Cassiom who is then alleged to have punched the inmate a second time. If found guilty of the offense, Cassio faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison, a fine not to exceed $250,000 and three years' supervised release.
Management and Training Corp.
Nov. 14 - In Willacy County, Texas, two detention center sergeants Juan Trevino and Albert Vasquez were arrested and charged with conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants between Sept. 1 and Nov. 8, 2007. Detention center officers Carlos Garcia, 36 and Ben Sanchez, 36 were also arrested and charged with attempting to drive 28 undocumented immigrants into the United States. Trevino and Sanchez are charged separately in a criminal complaint. Their arrests were the result of an investigation by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The four men worked as detention officers for Management and Training Corp. which provides security services for the Willacy County Detention Center. Officials allege that Trevino recruited Vasquez, Garcia and Sanchez to pick up and transport immigrants who were smuggled into the country through locations using MTC company vehicles. Garcia and Sanchez were wearing MTC uniforms and officials found a loaded .357 magnum pistol in the center console of the van when they attempted to drive the MTC F-450 van past a checkpoint. Customs and Border Protection agents at the checkpoint became suspicious because the ban was overcrowded, some passengers were sitting on the vehicle floor, none were shackled and many had luggage.
