Cca
January 10, 2012
Calif. Inmate’s Perspective on Riot at CCA Prison in Oklahoma
In our struggle for freedom, that weapon has been and will continue to be Truth. I am a California prisoner who was sent involuntarily to NFORK CCA (the Corrections Corporation of America’s North Fork Prison), a private prison in Oklahoma, where I have been for over a year. California thought they could more effectively silence my protests and lawsuits by hurling me hundreds of miles away.
I am once again calling on the Bay View, i.e. Voice of the People:
On Oct. 11, 2011, a riot kicked off where Black inmates were fending off inmates from every other demographic. We faced insurmountable odds and some people were in critical condition afterwards, but the biggest odds against us has yet to be pointed out and is now working diligently to manufacture cover stories to conceal their liability; the odds I speak of is the role of CCA NFORK and COCF (Sacramento-based California Out-of-State Correctional Facility, a unit in CDCR, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) in setting the stage for such a catastrophic event to take place...
LINK - SFBayView.com
January 8, 2012
Sheriff runs jail better than CCA with $1 million savings!
A new report shows the Hernando County Jail successfully passed its first Florida Model Jail Standards inspection since the sheriff's office took over operations in August 2010.
The inspection examined facility structures, housekeeping, sanitation, policies and procedures. A second inspection, by a certified medical professional inspector, examined inmate medical charts, medications dispensed, treatments rendered and protocols followed.
"Through diligence and hard work by a professional group of personnel, (we) were able to meet the necessary standards," Sheriff Al Nienhuis said in a memo to the county...
LINK - HernandoToday.com
December 21, 2011
Crowley (private) prison riot: New details of unheeded warnings emerge in epic lawsuit
Seven years ago inmates at a private prison in southeastern Colorado went on an all-night rampage, chasing the shorthanded staff from the premises, attacking suspected snitches, setting fires and causing millions of dollars in damages. Now documents filed in a long-running legal battle confirm what many prisoners have been saying all along -- that prison officials received ample warning of impending trouble but failed to take action in time.
The 2004 riot at the Crowley County Correctional Facility, operated by the Corrections Corporation of America, has emerged as a kind of case study in the multiple ways things can go wrong in a for-profit prison...
LINK - Westword.com
December 19, 2011
CCA private prisoner transport van crashes, killing two
A prisoner and a corrections officer were killed on Monday when a prison van crashed in Lincoln County.
Officials said the van rolled into the median on Interstate 70 between Limon and Genoa.
There were 11 people in the van when the crash occurred -- nine prisoners and two guards...
LINK - TheDenverChannel.com
December 19, 2011
CCA private prison guard convicted of sexual assault gets 2 days in jail?
In September 2009 Tanya Guzman-Martinez was sent to Arizona's Eloy Detention Center for undocumented workers to await deportation back to Mexico. While in custody, Guzman-Martinez, who is transgendered, requested asylum under the Convention Against Torture; her argument was that she would be persecuted upon returning to Mexico for being biologically male but identifying as female. While Guzman-Martinez was eventually granted asylum in 2010, she nevertheless faced persecution and abuse as a result of being transgendered—just not from Mexican thugs.
According to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the American Civil Liberties Union, Guzman-Martinez was harassed and assaulted by Corrections Corp. of America guards and inmates at Eloy between September 2009 and her release in May 2010. (CCA, which owns Eloy, contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented workers.)...
LINK - Reason.com
November 26, 2011
Nashville prisoner sues CCA for millions after having miscarriage
Metro’s treatment of pregnant prisoners is being called into question again by a Nashville woman who claims that prison staff denied her requests to take a pregnancy test, assigned her a strenuous work schedule and then destroyed her fetus after she suffered a miscarriage.
Lisa Marie Allison has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in Davidson County Circuit Court alleging constitutional violations, negligence, medical malpractice, wrongful death and other claims.
Allison was sent to Metro’s Correctional Development Center on Harding Place in November 2010 for a probation violation and was given a pregnancy test at intake. Although Allison suspected she was pregnant, the test came back negative...
LINK - Tennessean.com
November 18, 2011
CCA charging inmates $5.00 per minute for phone calls!
For inmates at one Georgia prison, a one minute phone call could cost them five times more than they earn for a day of work.
The Correction Corporation Of America's Stewart facility, a private prison in Lumpkin, Georgia, is forcing prisoners to pay five dollars per minute to use the phone, Alternet reports. The exorbitant rate would break most people's budget, but it's especially costly for inmates that the prison who make just one dollar per day to work at the facility...
LINK - HuffingtonPost.com
November 14, 2011
More on private prison costing more than public in Mississippi
Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps will save the state about $10.2 million a year with the closing of the privately run prison in Leflore County.
"I think I made the right decision," Epps said last week.
The Delta Correctional Facility originally closed Oct. 9, 2002. Then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said the state would shut down the prison, citing a lack of funding due to his veto of the Mississippi Department of Corrections budget for private prisons. A state judge later ruled the veto unconstitutional. At the time, the prison housed more than 800 inmates and employed 200 workers...
LINK - CommercialAppeal.com
November 10, 2011
Private prison to close because it can’t operate cheaper than state
Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps says a privately run prison in Leflore County will close in January.
Epps says the state and Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America mutually agreed to cease operations. How the decision affects operations of the Leflore County jail at the same site is unclear.
Epps and CCA officials say plans are to cease operations of the 1,172-bed Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, Miss. on Jan. 15, 2012...
LINK - VCStar.com
October 18, 2011
Oklahoma: 4 Cal CCA inmates still in hospital
Four inmates who were injured in a prison riot at the North Fork Correctional Facility last week remain hospitalized.
Corrections Corporation of America spokesman Mike Machak (MAY'-chak) said Tuesday the prisoners were still being treated at area hospitals. Machak said he couldn't elaborate on the inmates' medical conditions.
A total of 46 inmates were hurt during the riot between prisoners from California. Thirty were treated by prison medical staff and 16 initially were hospitalized...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
October 12, 2011
Oklahoma inmates riot over food
A privately run Oklahoma prison was locked down Tuesday after about 100 inmates rioted over food complaints, leaving 22 injured, officials said.
Greg Williams of the state Corrections Department said seven of the prisoners at North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre were taken to a hospital and 15 were treated for minor injuries in the prison infirmary, KFOR-TV, Oklahoma City, reported. No prison workers were injured.
Williams said the inmates had asked to speak with Warden Fred Figueroa about the quality of the food served in the medium-security men's prison...
LINK - UPI.com
October 12, 2011
Updated: CA inmates in private prison riot in Oklahoma
Beckham County Sheriff Scott Jay said Tuesday's riot at the North Fork Correctional Facility is the worst he has heard about since the private prison opened in 1999.
When he arrived at the scene, Jay said. “We saw mass fighting all over the yard.”
Sixteen inmates were taken to area hospitals to be treated for injuries, according to a statement released about 8 p.m. by the operator of the private prison, Corrections Corp. of America. One had been returned to the prison by evening. The statement also said that 30 inmates were treated at the facility...
LINK - NewsOK.com
October 11, 2011
Authorities responding to disturbance at private prison in Sayre
Law enforcement agencies responded Tuesday to a disturbance at the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, officials said. The private prison is run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America and houses offenders from California.
At 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, prison staff responded to multiple inmate fights in various areas of the facility, according to Steve Owen, CCA senior director of public affairs.
By 3:30 p.m., the fighting had ceased, Owen said...
LINK - TulsaWorld.com
October 11, 2011
Multiple people suffer injuries in Sayre prison riot
A Sayre Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said prisoners were taken to that hospital in the wake of a riot at North Fork Corrections Facility in Sayre, though she could not confirm what their injuries were or how many prisoners had been hospitalized.
Also, Bill Barrett, spokesman for Great Plains Regional Medical Center in Elk City, said multiple patients were taken to the hospital with injuries. He said some were sent to the emergency room and were being attended to by a comprehensive medical team.
Barrett said the hospital expected to receive more patients in the next few hours. Two helicopters were at the facility to quickly transport victims. It was unknown whether the patients are inmates or prison guards, he said...
LINK - NewsOK.com
October 11, 2011
California Inmates Rioting NOW in Oklahoma Private Prison!
Law enforcement agencies are responding to a disturbance at the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, officials said.
The private prison is run by Corrections Corporation of America, which was not immediately available for comment.
"I have little information," said Joyce Jackson, Oklahoma Department of Corrections communications director. "Basically, there is supposed to be a disturbance with approximately 80 to 90 Hispanic offenders and they have barricaded themselves in the dining area..."
LINK - TulsaWorld.com
October 9, 2011
CCA-run prison remains Idaho’s most violent lockup
In the last four years, Idaho's largest privately run prison has faced federal lawsuits, widespread public scrutiny, increased state oversight, changes in upper management and even an ongoing FBI investigation.
Yet the Corrections Corp. of America ( CXW - news - people )-run Idaho Correctional Center remains the most violent lockup in Idaho.
Records obtained by The Associated Press show that while the assault rate improved somewhat in the four-year period examined, ICC inmates are still more than twice as likely to be assaulted as those at other Idaho prisons...
LINK - Forbes.com
October 7, 2011
Former Bureau of Prisons Director Comes Out of Retirement For Private Prison
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Harley Lappin (55) enjoyed a 25 year career of distinguished service when he announced that May 7, 2011 would mark the beginning of his retirement. He had been director for about 8 years. That announcement also came at around the same time as a revelation that Lappin had been arrested for driving under the influence near his home in Annapolis, MD. According to numerous news sources, the BOP has stated that Lappin’s resignation had nothing to do with the DUI event. Okay, we’ll give him that...
LINK - Forbes.com
October 5, 2011
Corn Field Mowed Down to Find Escaped Sex Offender
Farmers are cutting down a massive North Dakota corn field today in an effort to flush out a convicted sex offender who bolted from a prison transport van and dashed into the field of eight-foot high corn stalks.
Joseph Megna, 29, escaped from the prison van around 4 p.m. Tuesday while the seven-passenger van had pulled over at a rest stop. The van was en route to Washington state where Megna was facing charges of child molestation. He was previously convicted on sex offense charges, and was being transported from Florida to face the new charges, police said...
LINK - ABCNews.go.com
October 5, 2011
Idaho: AP asks judge to open CCA secret settlement
The Associated Press is asking a federal judge to unseal the settlement agreement between an Idaho inmate and private prison company Corrections Corp. of America.
The confidential settlement between Marlin Riggs and CCA was reached last month in a widely publicized lawsuit that alleged rampant violence at a CCA-run prison near Boise. Riggs originally asked for $55 million in damages, saying the prison was nicknamed "Gladiator School" and that guards knew he was about to be attacked but failed to protect him. Riggs said he suffered serious injuries in the attack, and required facial surgery to allow him to breathe normally...
LINK - TheRepublic.com
October 5, 2011
More on escaped sex offender - private van en route to California before escape
Several dozen officers have zeroed on a farm field about five miles northwest of here in the second large-scale search for a suspect in eight days.
Barnes County Chief Deputy Don Fiebiger said 40 to 50 officers have surrounded a 1,000-acre cornfield after a deputy spotted 29-year-old Joseph Megna, a convicted high-risk sex offender who fled a transport van Tuesday afternoon, near a propane tank at a farm about 8 this morning.
An airplane and helicopter are also being used to search for Megna, who is not wearing any restraints...
LINK - InForum.com
October 5, 2011
Another inmate escapes private prisoner tranport company (CCA subsidiary TransCor)
Authorities are closing in on a convicted sex offender who escaped custody from a private company’s transport van west of here Tuesday afternoon.
"Right now, they spotted him back inside of a field, and we've got it saturated with people trying to collapse the perimeter," Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said at about 8:45 a.m.
The Barnes County field is located about three miles north and two miles west of Tower City, in an area the Red River Valley SWAT team was working overnight, Laney said...
LINK - DL-Online.com
October 4, 2011
More on influence and privatization
Private prison companies lost one chance for a big profit last week when one of the largest known privatization campaigns in the country was blocked by a Florida judge for being unconstitutional. But private prison players like The GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America, which would have won big from privatization, and the tactics they use to ensure they stay in good graces with lawmakers have remained in the shadows even as the future of the legislation remains in question.
The plan to privatize 29 correctional facilities across 18 counties in South Florida was introduced by state legislators as an amendment to a budget bill, which, according to Thursday’s ruling, didn’t allow for full consideration of the costs of the planned mass privatization. GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America were set to perhaps see a large windfall from the privatization deals, but lobbying records show the companies invested in lawmakers long before any lucrative contracts were proposed...
LINK - FloridaIndependent.com
September 30, 2011
Tennessee: CCA guard charged for drugs
A corrections officer is now behind bars inside the very prison where she works. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Department has charged 20-year-old officer Jesse Wedell with smuggling marijuana into Silverdale.
Wedell sat in a jail cell, likely second guessing her risky move early Thursday morning.The Hamilton County Sheriff's department says Wedell hid about three quarters of an ounce of marijuana in her private area...
LINK - NewsChannel9.com
September 26, 2011
Private prison giant CCA seeking CA inmates for empty prisons in Minnesota, Colorado
It’s been almost two years since the privately-run prison in Appleton has held prisoners. But in early 2012, the prison’s owner, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), expects to fill Appleton’s Prairie Correctional Facility and another facility in Colorado with 3,256 inmates from California.
In the last ten years, the revenue of CCA, the country’s biggest private prison company, has almost doubled, according to their annual reports. Critics say that CCA’s success, and even the likely reopening of the prison in Appleton, stems from their use of lobbying and campaign donations to push through tougher crime laws and increase detainment of illegal immigrants...
LINK - MinnesotaIndependent.com
September 24, 2011
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry of Texas and his ties to private prisons
He has the talk. No doubt: “And I’m just not real sure you’re a bunch of right-wing extremists,” the Governor of the Lone Star State had told a crowd in 2009, “but if you are, I’m with ‘ya!” The crowd roared, and Perry was quickly embedded inside the American psyche. Many who were paying attention saw this as his first step towards the 2012 Election.
Yet it must be realized: Perry’s swagger is nothing more than the same tired neo-conservative rhetoric now disguised as populist libertarianism. In fact, a closer inspection of Perry’s record yields familiar attributes of a typical Washington politician in the 21st Century. That is to say, he has a tendency to deviate from his stated principles. In his state of Texas, the longest-ever serving governor has been sleeping cozily with the largest concentration of private prisons in the country, while also signing executive orders mandating little girls to be vaccinated against their will...
LINK - CenturyCityNews.com
September 20, 2011
CCA agrees to follow state regs in suit over violent prison conditions?
A potential class-action lawsuit against the nation’s largest private prison company over allegations of violence at the Idaho Correctional Center has been settled in federal court.
The agreement between the inmates and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boise.
In it, CCA doesn’t acknowledge the allegations but agrees to increase staffing, investigate all assaults and make other sweeping changes at the lockup south of Boise. If the company fails to make the changes, the inmates can ask the courts to force CCA to comply...
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
September 14, 2011
Lawmakers looking into private prison abuses
Allegations of poor treatment of prisoners in the private prison in Shelby Montana are to be investigated by Montana lawmakers. It has been alleged that prisoners were being held after being eligible for parole and that each prisoner is issued with two rolls of toilet paper per week, no more. Rudy Stock, a businessman from Helena added to the list of shortcomings. He has been visiting his son in the Crossroads Correctional Center run by Corrections Corporation of America(CCA) since February. If an audit of the facilities supports the allegations, the prison would not meet American Correctional Association standards.
Spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, Bob Anez, has said he is working on responses for the December meeting. The state pays CCa a per diem fee of $53.84 per person incarcerated.Ref. Montana Watchdog...
LINK - AllVoices.com
September 14, 2011
CCA settles (another) multi-million $$ lawsuit by police officer shot 5 times by CCA escapees
Former Metro Police Sgt. Mark Chesnut has settled a lawsuit against a private prison company that housed an inmate who escaped and then shot him five times.
Chesnut sued Corrections Corporation of America, accusing the company of being negligent in its supervision of Joseph Jackson Jr., a Mississippi prisoner who escaped during a medical visit. Chesnut’s lawsuit asked for $16.5 million in damages resulting from physical and emotional pain for him and his wife.
Chesnut’s attorney, David Raybin, said the former sergeant would not comment and he declined to discuss the amount of the settlement...
LINK - Tennessean.com
September 14, 2011
CCA pays off brutalized inmate in multi-million-dollar lawsuit
An inmate who sued a privately run Idaho prison over allegations of extreme violence and medical neglect has reached a settlement with the private prison company Corrections Corp. of America.
Meanwhile, dozens of other inmates who also sued the Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA in federal court are in settlement talks with the company that could end the potentially class-action case by the close of the week...
LINK - TheRepublic.com
September 13, 2011
Montana lawmakers seek audit of CCA private prison
Three state lawmakers said they will request a legislative audit of a contract between the Department of Corrections [1] [1](DOC) and the company that operates the private prison in Shelby following allegations which included inmates being held beyond their parole and a claim prisoners are given two rolls of toilet paper a week and told by guards to use their hands if they run out.
The three, members of the Legislature’s Law and Justice Interim Committee [2], said they would request the audit after hearing the claims made Friday regarding the DOC and the Corrections Corporation of America [3](CCA) by Helena businessman Rudy Stock, who said he has visited his son at the Crossroads Correctional Center [4]nearly 80 times since Feb. 1...
LINK - Montana.Watchdog.org
September 8, 2011
Private prison (CCA) supervisor pleads guilty to molesting female detainees
A former residential supervisor at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor pleaded guilty this week to molesting women he was transporting them from the center to the airport or bus terminal.
Donald Dunn pleaded guilty to two federal deprivation of rights charges, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Dunn admitted to touching illegal female immigrants “in a sexual manner” between December 2009 and May 2010, the release said. He said that he would stop the vehicle along the way, order them to get out and convince them he was conducting a legitimate search, it said...
LINK - Statesman.com
September 4, 2011
Arizona prison businesses are big political contributors
Corrections Corp. of America, the country's largest private-prison operator, says it thrives by offering better service at a lower cost than state-run prisons. It's an argument echoed by the three smaller rivals bidding on a 5,000-bed private-prison contract with the state of Arizona.
But when it comes to other ways of winning business, such as employing platoons of lobbyists, doling out campaign contributions and working through political connections, CCA stands head and shoulders above its competitors, in Arizona and across the country...
LINK - AZCentral.com
August 3, 2011
CCA boasts of increased profits from Calif paying for more out-of-state inmates (AB 109)
Total management revenue for the second quarter of 2011 increased 5.6% to $430.7 million from $407.7 million during the second quarter of 2010, primarily driven by a 5.4% increase in average daily inmate populations. Management revenue from our federal partners increased 4.7% to $185.9 million generated during the second quarter of 2011 compared with $177.5 million generated during the prior year period.
Management revenue from our state partners increased 6.9% to $216.4 million during the second quarter of 2011 compared with $202.5 million during the second quarter of 2010. State revenue increased primarily as a result of higher inmate populations from the state of California...
LINK - MarketWire.com
July 20, 2011
Private prison “pay-to-play” scandal in Arizona
Much has been made of Governor Brewer’s intimate ties to Corrections Corporation of America. Her Chief of Staff, Paul Senseman, is a former CCA lobbyist, and his wife is currently a lobbyist for the company. Brewer’s campaign manager and senior policy advisor, Chuck Coughlin, runs a consulting firm that also lobbies for CCA in Arizona. Brewer accepted a total of $60,000 in contributions from people associated with CCA for her campaign and the tax increase initiative that she was pushing last year. The scandal made waves after the passage of SB1070, raising questions about CCA’s role in drafting legislation that would potentially provide the company with millions more in contracts for immigrant detention facilities in Arizona...
LINK - TucsonCitizen.com
June 24, 2011
Private Prison Report: Gaming the System
Approximately 129,000 people were held in privately managed correctional facilities in the United States as of December 31, 2009; 16.4 percent of federal and 6.8 percent of state populations were held in private facilities. Since 2000, private prisons have increased their share of the‚ market substantially: the number of people held in private federal facilities increased approximately 120 percent, while the number held in private state facilities increased approximately 33 percent. During this same period, the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent. Meanwhile, spending on corrections has increased 72 percent since 1997, to $74 billion in 2007. The two largest private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, combined had over $2.9 billion in revenue in 2010...
June 1, 2011
CCA hires BOP Director Harley Lappin - after he awards numerous federal contracts to company?
CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), America's leader in partnership corrections, announced that effective June 1, 2011, Harley G. Lappin, 55, shall serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Corrections Officer (CCO). In this role, Mr. Lappin will be responsible for the oversight of facility operations, health services, inmate rehabilitation programs, purchasing and TransCor, the Company's wholly-owned transportation subsidiary. He succeeds Richard P. Seiter, who announced his decision to step down as CCO earlier this year, effective May 31, 2011.
Mr. Lappin, as a career correctional administrator, previously served as the Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) -- the nation's largest correctional system, a position he held since 2003, prior to retirement in May 2011. He served in a variety of roles with the Bureau of Prisons for more than 25 years, beginning in 1985, including Regional Director, Warden of the United States Penitentiary in Indiana, and Warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina, among other positions. As Director of the BOP, Lappin had oversight and management responsibility for 116 federal prisons, 14 large, private contract facilities and more than 250 contracts for community correction facilities, in total comprising more than 215,000 inmates managed by 38,000 employees, with a $6.4 billion budget...
LINK - MarketWire.com
May 25, 2011
CA budget plans sink CCA stock
Last week, we reported on how a Supreme Court decision had hammered shares of Corrections Corp. of America. That, says Avondale Partners analyst Kevin Campbell, was well wide of the mark: The real cause of investors' ulcers was an outline of California's proposed budget, which now seeks to cut almost $260 million in prison spending.
Austerity on that scale would take a big bite out CCA's bottom line, Campbell said, because California accounts for about 30 percent of the company's earnings per share. But, Campbell adds, the chances of the prison funding cuts becoming final is 10 percent at the most.
The proposals require the support of Republicans on multiple fronts, including the passage of the budget, the extension of tax increases, and a constitutional amendment to guarantee funding for a shift of inmates from state prisons to county jails. Even with support from Republicans, which we view as unlikely, the tax increase and constitutional amendment still require voter approval as well....
LINK - NashvillePost.com
May 4, 2011
California and private prisons
Private prisons are making subtle advances into California–albeit via the back roads. This week, an initial group of California inmates arrived at GEO Group’s North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan–part of a larger strategy initiated by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to relieve some of the overcrowding in California’s prisons.
For decades, private prisons have been a contentious issue in California. While states like Texas and Florida have embraced privatization as a cost-effective supplement to state-run institutions, California has resisted. Not that private prisons haven’t tried to make gains into one of the country’s largest correctional markets. A foray into housing low-level offenders in Community Correctional Facilities run by private companies was discontinued in 2007 after massive lobbying by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. The Correctional Corporation of America tried building a prison in California City on speculation, hoping to take in overflow from the state system, only to sit vacant until it obtained a contract to house federal prisoners...
LINK - KALWNews.org
March 18, 2011
Expose on Private Prisons (CCA, ICE, ALEC, etc)
A Boom Behind Bars
Private jail operators like the Corrections Corporation of America are making millions off the crackdown on illegal aliens
Selvin Cardenas's three months in the U.S. immigrant detention system began in the usual way, with a knock at his door. At 5 a.m. on Apr. 21, 2009, three men in suits spotted him through the window of his Houston home. "We're here for you," one of them said. "You're Selvin Cardenas. Open up the door."
Cardenas says he arrived in Miami legally from his native Honduras in 1990, at the age of 32, working aboard a ship. He moved to Houston and for nearly two decades lived there working as a pizza deliveryman, dishwasher, and truck driver. He has four kids born in the U.S., in addition to one born in Honduras, and when the agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appeared, his instinct was to wake his children and say goodbye...
LINK - BusinessWeek.com
March 2, 2011
Private Prison Expose: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) problems nationwide
Back in July, 2000, the Idaho Correctional Center opened as the state's first privately run prison.
Recently, I.C.C, run by Corrections Corporation of America, has come under fire after a lawsuit filed by the America Civil Liberties Union, alleging misconduct, mismanagement and more.
For the past two months, KBOI 2News has combed through more than 1,000 pages of documents, including the state's contract with C.C.A. We have also spoken with more than a dozen people trying to learn exactly what's happening inside Idaho's private prison which many believe has become a public problem...
LINK - KBOI2.com
February 17, 2011
Private Prisons - CCA treatment of detainees exposed
Aisha comes from a rural area near Mogadishu in Somalia. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said of the fighting and war-torn conditions that led her to flee her homeland.
She is too traumatized to share details of her treatment in Somalia, a place where women are often raped and brutalized by soldiers, and where young boys are forced at gunpoint into military service. “I had a smuggler take me out of Somalia,” she said, then described her long and difficult journey to freedom.
Instead of freedom, however, she was taken into custody and confined inside a detention facility in Otay Mesa run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private prison company that operates the maximum security facility for U.S. Homeland Security...
LINK - EastCountyMagazine.org
February 6, 2011
Maine considers private prison bill
Prospects of building a privately run prison in the economically depressed town of Milo appear to be gaining momentum with a new administration in the State House and legislation being prepared to pave the way for such a project.
Republican Sen. Douglas Thomas' bill has yet to be fleshed out, but it's clearly aimed at authorizing a prison in the Piscataquis County town of about 2,400, which has a double-digit unemployment rate and has been buffeted by a loss of businesses not to mention devastating fire in 2008 that wiped out a third of its downtown...
LINK - Boston.com
January 19, 2011
More Abuse Reported at Private Prison
"Gov. Neil Abercrombie has promised to bring back all Hawaii inmates serving prison sentences on the mainland because of previous allegations of mistreatment by guards at Saguaro,"according to the Jan. 14 newspaper report.
Eighteen Hawaiian inmates sued CCA in December 2010, claiming that guards stripped, beat, kicked and threatened to kill them, banged their heads on tables while they were handcuffed, and that "the warden himself" threatened their families. Those inmates claim that CCA "deliberately destroyed and failed to preserve evidence of their wrongdoing, including videotapes," and "deliberately falsified reports."
Hawaii's governor also cited a December 2010 "riot" at another CCA prison in Arizona, Red Rock Correctional Center, which holds about 50 Hawaiian prisoners. The Saguaro prison holds about 1,800 Hawaiians...
LINK - CourthouseNews.com
December 24, 2010
CDCR issues press release on AZ riot, praising CCA?
Eloy Police Department investigators, managers from private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation investigators are examining a riot that broke out at the prison Thursday afternoon.
Ten inmates were injured and seven of them transported to outside hospitals for treatment of moderate to serious injuries. One of the seven remains hospitalized Friday for treatment of injuries, which are described as not life-threatening...
LINK - 2010 PR Archive
December 24, 2010
CA inmates riot at AZ private prison
...The incident, during the lunch hour in an area that only houses California inmates, involved approximately 110 inmates. No staff was hurt during the incident, which drew trained response teams from other areas of the prison as well as mutual aid from the Eloy Police Department as a precautionary measure.
According to a press release, prison staff responded immediately and quelled the disturbance, having to use pepper spray to dispel the altercation. Inmates complied with orders, and within 10 minutes they stopped fighting and lay down.
The 1,596-bed Red Rock Correctional Center is owned by Corrections Corporation of America and houses medium-security male inmates for the state of California and the state of Hawaii and detainees of the U.S. Marshals Service...
LINK - TriValleyCentral.com
December 24, 2010
More on CA inmate riot at AZ private prison
Officials with a privately run prison near Eloy are continuing to investigate a riot at the Red Rock Correctional Center, where about 50 Hawaii inmates are housed.
Initial reports were that Hawaii inmates were not involved in the riot.
A news release issued yesterday by Corrections Corporation of America said facility staff has identified 43 inmates who are believed to have been involved in the incident.
The prison was locked down and inmates were in administrative segregation pending further investigation and disciplinary action...
LINK - StarAdvertiser.com
December 17, 2010
Feds settle suit over medical care at immigration jail
A federal lawsuit filed against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency over medical care at an immigration jail in Otay Mesa was settled Thursday with an agreement that the government will provide a broader range of treatment and increase mental health care.
The settlement covers the immigration jail run by the Corrections Corporation of America under a contract with ICE. The lawsuit, filed in 2007 by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties, alleged that detainees had to endure lengthy waits for medical treatment, did not get the medications needed for chronic illnesses and had poor mental health care.
The settlement applies only to the ICE detention facility at the jail, and as part of the deal the agency did not admit that any of the allegations were true...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
December 8, 2010
E. Coli reported at privately-run Idaho prison
Health officials found evidence of E. coli bacteria at a privately run Idaho prison south of Boise.
Five inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center became sick around Dec. 1.
Tests from at least two identified a toxin associated with bacteria that can cause serious food poisoning.
Sarah Correll, staff epidemiologist at the Central District Health Department, said no new cases have been discovered and the inmates who were sickened are recovering...
LINK - KSRO.com
November 30, 2010
FBI investigating private prison company for civil rights violations
The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed is knocked unconscious.
No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.
Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
November 4, 2010
Prison Privateer “GEO Group” gets CDCR 2580-bed contract in Michigan, CCA gets 3256 more beds
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced today it has contracted for nearly 2,600 additional beds in out-of-state prison facilities in an effort to reduce inmate overcrowding and increase access to rehabilitation programs.
“Reducing overcrowding in our prisons is a priority,” said Scott Kernan, CDCR Undersecretary for Operations. “Our ability to place offenders out of state offers us much needed flexibility, which ultimately creates a safer environment for inmates, our staff and the public.”
CDCR entered into a new contract with the GEO Group Inc., and plans to extend an agreement with the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to house additional inmates out of state. CDCR also has notified CCA of its intent to award additional contracts for beds not currently under contract...
LINK - CDCR Today Blog
November 4, 2010
Meeting on private prisons canceled
KINGMAN - A public meeting to hear comments about the privatization of Arizona’s prison system originally scheduled for Monday has been canceled.
The meeting to be held in Kingman depended on participation by Mohave County elected officials. The meeting was to discuss efforts to privatize the state prison system, American Friends Service Committee spokeswoman Caroline Isaacs said.
Most of the county’s elected officials, including the county supervisors; the city councils of Kingman, Bullhead City and Lake Havasu; Arizona State Reps. Doris Goodale and Nancy McClain; and state Sen. Ron Gould did not respond. The rest of them said they had prior commitments, Isaacs said...
LINK - MohaveDailyNews.com
November 2, 2010
Private prisons helped draft Arizona immigration law?
Many voters today will be motivated by anger at politicians, whether it's over too much spending or not enough jobs. They should be just as worried about the things they don't see -- the unknown forces influencing decisions at all levels of government.
National Public Radio's investigative report last week about the origins of Arizona's immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, is one example. It turns out that border security wasn't the only, or perhaps even the major, reason it passed. During a December meeting in Washington at which the law was written, representatives of the Corrections Corporation of America -- the largest private prison company in the nation -- were in the room with Russell Pearce, the bill's chief sponsor...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
October 11, 2010
Federal Contractor Misconduct Database: CCA
Ranking: 118
Corrections Corporation of America
Corrections Corporation of America manages prisons, jails and detention facilities and provides inmate transportation services. CCA houses approximately 80,000 detainees in more than 60 facilities, 43 of which are company-owned. CCA currently partners with all three federal corrections agencies (the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement), nearly half of all states and more than a dozen municipalities...
LINK - ContractorMisconduct.org
October 4, 2010
Bus carrying 24 maximum-security inmates crashes
A prison bus carrying 24 maximum-security inmates from Arizona to Mississippi has been involved in an accident, but authorities say there are no major injuries.
Arizona Department of Public Safety officials say the Corrections Corporation of America bus rear-ended a work truck on Interstate 10 in Tucson around 5 a.m. Wednesday.
The Arizona Daily Star says the bus was transporting the inmates from a privately run prison in Eloy to a prison in Mississippi...
LINK - KTAR.com
September 15, 2010
Corrections gave up $18 million in uncollected penalties
Over the past four years New Mexico has potentially given up more than $18 million in never-assessed penalties despite repeated contractual violations by two private prison operators, a new legislative report says.
By contract New Mexico can levy penalties against GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) when staffing vacancies at the facilities they manage in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10 percent or more for 30-consecutive days.
That penalty has been triggered regularly, state records show and the new report by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) confirms...
LINK - NewMexicoIndependent.com
August 31, 2010
Money Yields Clout at the Capitol
An out-of-state company that contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Capitol politicians – has secured an exclusive contract with the State – worth nearly $700 million.
Critics say this deal is a prime example of pay-to-play politics at the Capitol – and it involves prisoners – who have become a very valuable commodity for Corrections Corporation of America – a private prison operator based in Tennessee.
California's prisons are costing taxpayers roughly $8 billion a year...
LINK - CBS13.com
June 24, 2010
May - June Privatization Update
OVERALL PRIVATIZATION ISSUES
• The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that employees of private prison companies hired to run federal prisons can be sued for allegedly violating an inmate’s constitutional rights. An inmate at a federal prison run by the GEO Group slipped on a cart left in a doorway and injured both elbows. As GEO employees were preparing to transport him to an outside hospital, the inmate said they made him wear a jumpsuit and wrist restraints, despite causing him excruciating pain. The inmate is suing GEO and its employees for allegedly violating the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment. (Courthouse News)
• A new study by a longtime privatization proponent claims that sending 25,000 California inmates to out-of-state, for-profit prisons could save the state up to $1.8 billion over a five year period. The report by The Reason Foundation-Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation states that California spends $162 per inmate per day vs. $42 in Texas, based on data from the American Correctional Association (ACA)...
June 19, 2010
Vermont inmates at Tennessee private prison (CCA) act out
Vermont prisoners being held at a private prison in Tennessee had ongoing complaints about the facility before a lockdown in May when the inmates had to be subdued with chemical grenades, officials said.
About 35 Vermont inmates were put on lockdown on May 12 after they refused to return to their cells and started destroying sinks and toilets in their housing unit at the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, about 35 miles northeast of Memphis. Prison officials said no one was injured.
Vermont contracts with Nashville-based prison operator Corrections Corporation of America to house inmates in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arizona to alleviate overcrowding...
LINK - RutlandHerald.com
June 10, 2010
Another Hawaii inmate dead at CCA private prison in Arizona
A second Hawaii inmate has died at a private prison in Arizona this year.
Hawaii Public Safety Department's deputy director for corrections, Tommy Johnson, says investigators will travel to Saquaro Correctional Center in investigate the death of 23-year-old Clifford Medina.
He was pronounced Tuesday, half an hour after his cellmate reported him unresponsive. Medina was serving time for burglary, theft, jumping bail and assaulting a law enforcement officer...
LINK - KOLD.com
June 3, 2010
APNewsBreak: ACLU, Idaho settle prison lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union has reached a settlement with the Idaho Department of Correction in a lawsuit over violence at a privately run prison near Boise.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit against Corrections Corporation of America and the state earlier this year, saying the Idaho Correctional Center is so violent that inmates refer to it as "gladiator school" and that guards deliberately expose prisoners to brutal beatings from other inmates.
The ACLU's lawsuit against CCA still stands...
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
June 2, 2010
CCA docked $2,600 a day for using unqualified counselors
Corrections Corporation of America has been fined more than $47,200 and counting for not having qualified drug and alcohol counselors at a prison that it manages in Idaho.
The $2,600-a-day tab will continue to run until the Nashville-based prison operator addresses the problem by getting staff members accredited or by hiring more qualified people, said Jeffrey Ray, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Correction.
The department for whom CCA operates the 2,080-bed Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise imposed the damages after CCA had failed by May 13 to meet certain requirements for counselors under its contract...
LINK - Tennessean.com
June 1, 2010
ICE investigating sexual assaults at CCA-operated private prison
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating allegations that a guard at a central Texas detention facility sexually assaulted female detainees on their way to being deported.
Agency spokesman Brian Hale said Friday the guard has been fired and Corrections Corporation of America, which manages the prison, is on probation pending the investigation's outcome.
Several women who were held at T. Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor, Texas, were groped while being patted down and at least one was propositioned for sex, ICE said...
LINK - KansasCity.com
April 27, 2010
Prison privateer CCA gets sued again over inmate beating
A former Idaho inmate is suing a private prison company, saying guards watched as he was beaten by a fellow inmate in an attack that went on for so long that his assailant had time to stop and drink some water before continuing.
Attorneys for Hanni Elabed filed the lawsuit against the Correction Corporation of America in U.S. District Court last week, saying their client was left brain-damaged and may never fully recover from the assault at the Idaho Correctional Center near Boise.
Steven Owens, the public affairs director for CCA, says the Tennessee-based company doesn't comment on lawsuits other than through court filings...
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
April 22, 2010
Private prisons give big $$$ to CA lawmakers
A company that operates private prisons – and which is hoping to pluck inmates out of California’s overcrowded lockups and into its for-profit prisons – has donated $1,000 each to 10 state lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, in recent days.
Private prisons could be a hot-button issue during this summer’s budget talks. In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a constitutional amendment to require the state to spend more on universities than keeping inmates behind bars. Privatizing prisons is one way to do that, the governor has said.
Schwarzenegger, whose ballot measure efforts last year received $100,000 from the Corrections Corp. of America, has been supportive of sending inmates to private prisons. More than 8,000 state inmates are already housed in the company’s out-of-state lockups, with the governor’s proposed budget funding more than 10,000 private prison beds, according to the Department of Finance...
LINK - LATimes.com
April 14, 2010
Private (CCA) Prison Guards Let Man Die, Family Says
Private prison guards let a suicidal prisoner suffer seizures, lapse into a coma and die of a drug overdose, and merely "put the decedent in an observation cell and ... check(ed) his vital signs every six hours," his family claims in Federal Court. The family sued the Corrections Corporation of America and several of its employees, including two doctors.
Corrections Corporation of America runs the West Tennessee Detention Facility, where Alan Young died on April 11, 2009, according to the complaint. Young's family claims the prison staff knew he was suicidal and that he was saving up the psychotropic medications he was given daily so that he could take them all at once to commit suicide.
The staff "did not take any measures to ensure that he was actually taking the medication that they were giving him," according to the complaint...
LINK - CourthouseNews.com
March 23, 2010
Arizona inmates out of Walsenburg CCA prison
All Arizona inmates formerly held at the Huerfano County Correctional Center have been transferred out of the facility, clearing the way for the closure of the prison early next month, corrections officials said Monday.
Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and operates the facility, announced in January that it will close the prison in April.
Officials at the private prison company said Monday the prison officially will close April 2.
Steve Owen, director of communications for Nashville-headquartered CCA, said by 2 p.m. the inmates were in custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections...
LINK - Chieftain.com
March 23, 2010
CCA jail officer accused of doctor shopping for drugs
A Hernando County Jail corrections officer faces charges of "doctor shopping" to obtain prescriptions for 2,100 tablets of the pain medication oxycodone.
Hernando sheriff's deputies arrested Chris Abare, 46, of Hudson on Tuesday for withholding information from physicians in Hernando and Pasco counties from whom he was receiving the prescriptions.
A report said that between July and January, Abare got prescriptions for more than 2,100 oxycodone tablets from nine doctors. Authorities said the doctors signed sworn statements saying that Abare failed to tell them he was receiving prescriptions from other physicians...
LINK - TampaBay.com
March 23, 2010
County seeks CCA records
County officials know all about public records requests. They get them all the time from citizens and the media.
This time, however, it is Hernando County making a rare public records request of its own.
Hernando officials want Corrections Corporation of America to release inventory and budgetary information to help the county analyze whether CCA or Sheriff Richard Nugent could offer the best deal of running the Hernando County Jail...
LINK - TampaBay.com
March 17, 2010
Another suit from Hawaiian inmate alleging rape by CCA guard in Kentucky
A Hawai'i prison inmate who alleges she was sexually assaulted by two guards at a Mainland prison has sued the state and the private operator of the prison.
The suit, filed Monday, alleges that the plaintiff was attacked June 16, 2008, by male corrections officers at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky.
The woman is serving a life prison sentence for murder and kidnapping convictions...
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
March 9, 2010
Privatization Update - March 1-7, 2010
March 1 – The Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a public records case involving CCA, the nation’s largest for-profit private prison firm. The case was originally filed in May 2008 by Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, a non-profit monthly publication that reports on criminal justice issues. CCA had denied Freidmann’s request for documents related to lawsuits filed against the company and for reports or audits that found contract violations by CCA, among other records. The Chancery Court of Davidson County ruled in Friedmann’s favor on July 29, 2008 and CCA was ordered to produce the requested documents...
March 2, 2010
CCA too expensive, may lose another contract
After researching the matter, Sheriff Richard Nugent believes he can take over operations of the Hernando County Jail and save the county money.
Due to the current economic condition of the county and the continually rising cost of the county's contract with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to operate the jail, Nugent said Tuesday he has conducted research into the possibility of his office assuming the task.
The sheriff will make a presentation to county commissioners at their meeting next Tuesday...
LINK - HernandoToday.com
February 28, 2010
Protesters gather in front of CCA immigration prisons
Around 50 people, mostly from area Catholic Churches, assembled in front of the North Georgia Detention Center On Main Street at noon Thursday to call for fair treatment and human rights for inmates they say don’t belong inside the walls.
The chill of February did not discourage them from gathering with signs advocating dignity and fairness according to P.J. Edwards, with Georgia Detention Watch, who wishes the immigration detention facilities would go away.
“The vast majority of these detainees aren’t criminals, they aren’t a threat to society, and this level of detention isn't really unnecessary,” Edwards said. “There are alternatives like parole and community based ‘checking in’ that are shown to be effective and much less expensive...”
LINK - AccessNorthGA.com
February 24, 2010
Women Call Private Prison Guards Predators
Two former inmates of a Corrections Corporation of America prison say CCA employees preyed on them sexually and banished them to solitary lockdown when they complained. One woman claims a CCA guard paid her "sugar daddy" on the outside, then demanded, and received, sex in prison.
Jessica Rubio and Serbennia Chase filed separate, $20 million federal lawsuits against the private prison contractor, alleging civil rights violations at the company's Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF) at the District of Columbia Jail.
Rubio, who was arrested and sentenced in 2008 for sexual solicitation, says CTF employee "Sgt. Powell" paid her for sex four times when he should have been helping her "turn her life around..."
LINK - CourtHouseNews.com
January 28, 2010
Private prison company CCA finds gold in CA (thanks, Gov)
In the intensifying debate over budget-driven releases of state prison inmates, the state's cash problems are well known. But at least one private correctional company is reaping major rewards.
In three years, a private-prison construction and management company, the Corrections Corporation of America, has seen the value of its contracts with the state soar from nearly $23 million in 2006 to about $700 million three months ago – all without competitive bidding. Even in a state accustomed to high-dollar contracts, the 31-fold increase over three years is dramatic.
During the same period, the company's campaign donations rose exponentially, from $36,750 in 2006, of which $25,000 went to the state Republican Party, to $233,500 in 2007-08 and nearly $139,000 in 2009. The donations have gone to Democrats, Republicans and ballot measures. The company's largest single contribution, $100,000, went to an unsuccessful budget-reform package pushed last year by Gov. Schwarzenegger…
LINK - CapitolWeekly.net
January 26, 2010
Costs for CCA’s out-of-state private prisoner contract soars
The price tag for California's out-of-state prisoners has jumped in three years from $20 million in late 2006, to $630 million in 2009-10.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as well as the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) addressed rising out-of-state prisoner costs in a recent hearing by the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review.
California was ordered in 2006 by the federal government to relieve the overcrowding in California prisons, which at the time, was nearly 200 percent of planned prison capacity, according to Scott Kernan with the CDCR. The recent final federal order was issued Jan. 13, 2010 by a three-judge District Court panel requiring a cut in prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity within two years — a reduction of approximately 40,000 inmates…
LINK - CalWatchDog.com
January 20, 2010
California Out-of-State Correctional Facility Program
Overview of Out-of-State Bed Program
Mission. The California Out-of-State Correctional Facility (COCF) program is administered by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Its mission is to transfer inmates out of state for the purpose of temporarily alleviating overcrowding within existing state prisons.
Number of Inmates. The department currently has 8,021 male inmates housed in fi ve out-of-state facilities. Inmates housed in these facilities are generally highersecurity level inmates. Most inmates have been transferred involuntarily. Inmates with serious medical and mental health issues are generally excluded from the program...
January 13, 2010
CCA confirms plans to house CA state inmates at California City private prison
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has not renewed its contract with Corrections Corp. of America to manage more than 2,000 inmates now housed in California under the Criminal Alien Requirement program.
The contract, which has been awarded to Cornell Cos., will take about $22 million annually – about 12 cents per diluted share – off CCA's bottom line, estimated Avondale Partners analyst Kevin Campbell. Nashville-based CCA – which did get a renewed BOP deal to manage 1,200 inmates in New Mexico – had been expected to earn $1.40 per share in 2010.
In a statement, CCA President and CEO Damon Hininger said the company believes the BOP's move is based primarily on "escalating federal wage determination costs in California, and does not reflect the quality of operations our company and staff have provided to the BOP…"
LINK - NashvillePost.com
January 8, 2010
Kentucky Gov Orders Female Inmates Removed from CCA Private Prison
Kentucky's governor has ordered some 400 female inmates removed from a corporate-run prison after allegations of sexual misconduct by male guards.
Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the women moved from Otter Creek Correctional Complex to a state-run prison starting by July 1.
The move comes four months after the Kentucky Department of Corrections called for security improvements at the prison in a report on 18 alleged cases of sexual misconduct by guards there.
The prison is operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America…
LINK - ABCNews.GO.com
December 23, 2009
Inmate On The Run After Escaping CCA Custody
Authorities are looking for an inmate who escaped from custody and jumped into the Withlacoochee River.
According to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, Terry N. Davis, 47, escaped custody just after 1 p.m. near Allen's Bait & Seafood on Elkins Road in Inglis.
Davis is described as a white male with brownish-gray hair and blue eyes. He is believed to have taken off his jail-issued orange jumpsuit. He is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 155 pounds…
LINK - CFNews13.com (Citrus County, Florida)
December 14, 2009
Another CCA private prison employee charged with raping inmate
A former education director at the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility has been indicted on a second degree felony count of criminal sexual penetration of an inmate.
Charles Buccigrossi, 65, former education director at the Correctional Corporations of America facility, made sexual contact with an inmate, according to a Grants Police Department report. Officers were dispatched to the prison on Aug. 10 in response to investigate the allegation…
LINK - CibolaBeacon.com
December 9, 2009
CCA lets inmate escape, inmate shoots cop, CCA blames cop for getting shot?
Private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America is denying responsibility in the shooting of a Nashville police officer, allegedly by an escaped inmate.
Sgt. Mark Chesnut claims in a lawsuit filed in October that the Nashville-based company was negligent in Joseph Jackson Jr.'s escape from an offsite doctor's office while he was an inmate of CCA's Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, Miss.
Chesnut stopped a rental car carrying Jackson and his cousin - Courtney Logan of Louisville, Ky. - on June 25, just hours after the escape…
LINK - WSMV.com
December 4, 2009
Corrections Corp of America to close Minnesota private prison due to lack of inmates
Corrections Corp. of America said Friday that it plans to close a Minnesota correctional facility around Feb. 1, 2010 because it has too few inmates.
The Prairie Correctional Facility, based in Appleton, Minn., has 1,600 beds and has housed offenders from Minnesota and Washington. But Corrections Corp. said the facility has seen the number of inmates it houses reduced due to overcapacity in the states' systems.
"Without an inmate population large enough to significantly utilize the facility, maintaining operations at the Prairie facility isn't economically viable," Corrections Corp. President and CEO Damon Hininger said in a statement…
LINK - CNBC.com
November 26, 2009
Warrant issued for CCA female guard for rape of private prison inmate
A former female correctional officer has been charged with three felony counts of second-degree rape after being accused of having sex with an inmate at a private prison in Holdenville.
A warrant for the arrest of ex-correctional officer Michelle Kalinich was issued Nov. 6, but she had not been taken into custody Wednesday, a Hughes County sheriff's employee said.
It is against state law and considered rape for a correctional officer or jailer to have sex with an inmate, even if both are willing participants…
LINK - NewsOK.com
November 4, 2009
Schwarzenegger creating hundreds of jobs in Oklahoma?
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America is creating 217 new jobs in Oklahoma, after finalizing a contract with California to house an additional 1,400 inmates at a facility in Sayre, Okla.
Under the same contract, CCA also will house additional California inmates at a facility in Arizona. The contract increases CCA's system-wide number of California inmates to 10,468, up from 7,900.
When hiring is complete, Sayre's North Fork Correctional Facility will employ 529 people…
LINK - BizJournals.com
October 14, 2009
Private prison managers forced employees to have sex - retaliation if refused
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the settlement of a pattern or practice discrimination lawsuit against Dominion Correctional Services, LLC and Corrections Corporation of America, both doing business as Crowley County Correctional Facility, for $1.3 million and significant remedial relief on behalf of 21 female former workers who were allegedly subjected to a sex-based hostile work environment and retaliation at an all-male, privately run medium security prison in Olney Springs, Colo.
In its lawsuit (EEOC v. Dominion Correctional Services, LLC and Corrections Corporation Of America, Civ. No. 1:06-cv-01956-KVH), filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the EEOC charged that female employees at the prison were subjected to unwelcome sexual harassment that included male managers forcing them to perform sex acts in order to keep their jobs. Two chiefs of security, who reported directly to the warden and to whom all security personnel at the prison reported, were allowed to resign after numerous complaints of sexual harassment and rape, according to the EEOC. In the settlement, the defendants did not admit liability…
LINK - EEOC.gov (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Official Website)
October 6, 2009
Local inmate sues over jail sexual abuse
A Hawaii woman imprisoned in Kentucky says she was sexually abused by a prison guard and claims the jail tried to cover it up. Monday afternoon, Totie Tauala's attorney formally filed seven counts against the corporation that runs the facility.
Tauala is the first to formally come forward of about 19 Hawaii and Kentucky women who make similar sexual abuse allegations. They were all serving sentences at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Kentucky.
A warning: some of the details in this case are disturbing…
LINK - KHNL.com
October 6, 2009
Napolitano announces reforms at immigrant detention centers
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday a package of reforms aimed at making detention centers for immigrants in Arizona and throughout the nation safer, more humane and less costly.
The reforms include separating immigrants with criminal records from those who are merely seeking asylum and finding alternatives to detention for those who pose no real danger to the public.
Alternatives could include putting ankle bracelets on immigrants to keep track of their whereabouts, Napolitano said. She estimated that alternatives would cost $14 per day at most compared with more than the $100 per day it costs to detain someone. Detaining immigrants cost nearly $2 billion in 2008…
LINK - AZCentral.com
October 1, 2009
Prison privateer CCA abuse/neglect case from San Diego heads to U.S. Supreme Court
A lawsuit filed by a now-deceased man over inappropriate medical care while he was in the custody of U.S. immigration officials in San Diego is set to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Francisco Castañeda, an immigrant from El Salvador, died in February 2008 after a battle with penile cancer. Castañeda had sought medical care for symptoms while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a contract detention facility in San Diego, and later at an agency facility in the Los Angeles area.
Castañeda, who had been in the United States since age 10, had landed in detention after a short drug-related sentence in state prison triggered deportation proceedings…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
September 28, 2009
CCA sergeant accused of paying pimp for sex with inmate
A D.C. Jail sergeant has been suspended while corrections officials probe allegations that he had sex with an inmate after paying for it through her pimp, according to officials and court documents.
The investigation has also led to the forced leave of two other corrections officers, one of whom was later fired over an unrelated issue, officials said. The three were removed from the D.C. Jail property, "after allegations of inappropriate behavior arose with an inmate," according to Walter Fulton, facility program manager at the Correctional Treatment Center.
Authorities said they would not further discuss the allegations because of an ongoing law enforcement investigation, but some details were outlined in a lawsuit filed in D.C. federal court this month…
LINK - WashingtonExaminer.com
September 27, 2009
State prison contract changes hands
After 15 years of managing Alaska prisoners housed out-of-state, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has lost its contract to Cornell Corrections.
Cornell's will charge the state about $19,446,000 a year to house 900 prisoners, while CCA's plan would have cost $18,724,000 — $722,000 less a year.
Either way the state will realize savings over the $20,669,000 it now pays through a contract with CCA…
LINK - AlaskaDispatch.com
September 7, 2009
CCA not reporting all sexual assaults on inmates to state?
A privately run prison in Eastern Kentucky plagued with allegations of sexual improprieties involving guards and inmates did not report all sexual abuse incidents to the state.
A Herald-Leader review of sexual-incident reports dating to 2006 showed that at least one alleged assault involving Otter Creek Correctional Center staff and a Kentucky inmate was not reported to the state by Corrections Corporation of America. Also, state correction officials said, Otter Creek hasn't followed the same reporting standards for sexual assaults as the state's 13 state-run prisons.
State prison officials confirmed that they never received a report from CCA about Randy Hagans, the prison's former chaplain. Hagans was charged with third-degree sexual abuse for alleged contact with an Kentucky inmate. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 21, court records show…
LINK - Kentucky.com
September 3, 2009
Hawaiian female inmates finally back home from private Kentucky prison
All but one of the remaining Hawai'i inmates housed at the embattled Otter Creek Women's Prison in Kentucky are back in Hawai'i and are likely to remain close to home.
The state decided to remove the prisoners from the facility following allegations that 23 Otter Creek inmates, including seven from Hawai'i, were sexually assaulted by prison personnel.
State Department of Public Safety director Clayton Frank said 128 prisoners arrived back in Hawai'i on Monday. Fifty-nine are being housed at the Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International Airport; 69 are at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua…
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
September 1, 2009
Private prison firm to give back pay to guards
The largest U.S. private prison firm, in settling a national class-action lawsuit, has agreed to payments worth up to $7 million in back pay and attorney fees for more than 30,000 guards and other employees.
The agreement by the company, Corrections Corporation of America, was approved in February and promptly sealed. But it was unsealed last week in Kansas by U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum.
The guards and other workers had claimed they were regularly required to work off the clock, in violation of federal labor laws…
LINK - KansasCity.com
August 22, 2009
Hawaii: Mainland prisons cheap but problematic
State corrections officials have long claimed that housing Hawaii convicts at privately operated prisons on the mainland is much cheaper than incarcerating them on the islands. Problems at a private prison housing Hawaii women in Kentucky indicate that it is operating on the cheap, in comparison not only with Hawaii prisons but with public facilities in Kentucky.
More than half of the 128 female inmates from Hawaii will return to the islands for incarceration here following allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers. Hawaii officials should have known from monthly monitoring reports over the past 19 months that the Otter Creek Correctional Center in eastern Kentucky was plagued by understaffing, poor employee morale and security concerns…
LINK - StarBulletin.com
August 19, 2009
Hawaii pulling its women inmates out of troubled Kentucky prison
Women inmates from Hawai'i will be removed from a Kentucky prison for safety reasons after allegations that some were sexually abused by prison guards, the state Department of Public Safety announced yesterday.
Clayton Frank, the department's director, said 40 women inmates were transferred back to the Islands on Monday and most of the 128 women remaining at Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright will return within a month. Several women serving lengthy sentences will be moved to other Mainland prisons, according to the department.
Frank said many inmates wanted to stay at Otter Creek because they believe they are benefiting from its prison services…
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
August 16, 2009
Private prison plagued by problems, reports show
A private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been plagued by allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers is chronically understaffed, leading to poor employee morale and security concerns, according to a state monitor's reports.
AdvertisementThe monthly reports provide a glimpse into life inside the Otter Creek Correctional Center, where at least five workers have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years. Kentucky State Police are expected to present another case to a Floyd County grand jury this month…
LINK - Courier-Journal.com
August 7, 2009
CCA tries to keep court settlement payments secret
On July 27, 2009, The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri arbitrated on behalf of Prison Legal News, a monthly publication that reports on criminal justice-related issues, in a class-action lawsuit against Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), a private prison company based in Nashville.
ACLU moved to intervene in the suit for the sole purpose of unsealing the settlement agreement. As a matter of public policy, documents filed in federal court should be open to inspection by the public. "It is important to ensure the availability of court records for public accountability. It serves the interests of the 1st Amendment", said Doug Bonney, Chief Counsel for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri.
The class action suit was settled on February 12, 2009; however, the settlement was sealed by the court upon motion by the parties. Thus, the exact terms of the settlement are unknown, including the maximum monetary amount that CCA will have to pay…
LINK - KCTribune.com
August 2, 2009
CCA gets contract extension despite sex abuse allegations?
At least five workers at the private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years, and investigations into more alleged assaults are under way. Despite that, the state has agreed to extend for 60 days its contract with Corrections Corp. of America to house up to 476 inmates at Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright.
The state is continuing to negotiate a two-year extension of the contract it has had with CCA since 2005, according to Finance Cabinet officials. The 60-day extension does not increase the $53.77 CCA is paid per day to house each inmate. Last year the state paid CCA more than $8 million for its Otter Creek operation…
LINK - Courier-Journal.com
July 30, 2009
Report finds detainees’ rights routinely violated in U.S. immigrant detention
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been systematically violating its own minimum monitoring standards in regulating immigration detention centers across the country, according to a new report released Tuesday. The report is based on an analysis of previously unreleased inspection data on dozens of ICE facilities between 2001 and 2005.
In recent months, Facing South has reported on the problems in U.S. immigrant detention, highlighted by the mounting number of immigrant deaths in ICE detention centers. For the past year, reports of abuse, neglect, inhumane treatment, and inadequate health care in immigration custody have been surfacing across the country. Immigrant rights groups have criticized ICE's detention standards and inspection procedures, and have also steadily lodged complaints about detainees' rights being violated…
LINK - SouthernStudies.org
July 25, 2009
Private prison guard pleads guilty to smuggling drugs into prison
A former Hernando County corrections officer who promised to deliver drugs to inmates at the county lockup pleaded guilty Friday to three drug-related charges.
Circuit Judge Jack Springstead sentenced Charles M. Dunn, 27, to 13 months in state prison.
Dunn offered to deliver oxycodone pills to inmates for a $500 fee, according to arrest reports. He later denied ever giving inmates drugs but claimed it is easy to get illegal narcotics into the jail because staffers don't make thorough checks…
LINK - TampaBay.com
