Corrections Corporation Of America
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 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 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 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 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
July 22, 2009
Private prison guard killed while COMMITTING home invasion robbery
A home invasion suspect who was fatally shot was a prison guard in Arizona, a spokeswoman for a nationwide private prison corporation said Wednesday.
Corrections Corporation of America official Louise Grant said Danny Torres, 27, had worked at Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy since April 2008. The company, which has 17,000 employees, runs the private, medium-security facility.
The Pima County Sheriff's office described the Friday night invasion…
LINK - AZCentral.com
July 19, 2009
Private prison in KY now under investigation for 19 sex assaults
An investigation into sex assaults involving Hawai'i and other female inmates at a private Kentucky prison has widened and now includes 19 alleged attacks over the past three years.
Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner is representing three Hawai'i women who allege they were sexually assaulted at Otter Creek Correctional Center within the past 12 to 18 months. The most recent sex assault was reported June 23 and allegedly involved a male corrections officer.
Meanwhile, Kentucky officials say they have launched an investigation into 16 alleged sex assaults at Otter Creek involving Kentucky women. Some of the allegations date back to 2006…
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
July 17, 2009
CCA private prison under investigation for staff rape of inmates
The state Department of Corrections is investigating allegations of sexual abuse against as many as 16 Kentucky women housed at the privately run Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright.
Kentucky State Police also are investigating allegations, reported June 23, that a Hawaiian inmate was sexually assaulted by a corrections officer at the women's-only, Floyd County facility.
State police expect to present that case to a Floyd County grand jury in the next several weeks, spokesman Mike Goble said, adding that detectives also are looking into allegations made by inmates since the June 23 report…
LINK - Courier-Journal.com
July 16, 2009
Four Confirmed Swine Flu Cases at Idaho Prison
Test results received from cultures sent to the Idaho State laboratory on Tuesday have confirmed that four inmates housed at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise have contracted the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. As a continued measure to control the spread of infection, prison officials say, access will be restricted to staff only — until such time as it is determined that the possibility of contracting the virus has passed.
According to spokeswoman Linda Sevison, "Per standard protocol, facility management and health services staff are working closely with the Idaho Department of Health and Human Services and officials with the Idaho Department of Corrections. Education on proper hygiene practices will continue for staff and inmates. The medical needs of the affected inmates are being provided for by facility medical staff."
The Idaho Correctional Center is a 1,805-bed facility located south of Boise and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. The facility opened in 2000 and is operated under contract with and oversight by the Idaho Department of Correction…
LINK - KIVITV.com
June 29, 2009
CCA says “some sort of breakdown” allowed escape, cop shooting
The company that operates the Mississippi prison where a man escaped and later was arrested in the shooting of a Metro officer admits there was some sort of breakdown that allowed Joseph Jackson to escape custody.
Related: Watch This Story
Police and prison officials are trying to determine how Jackson, and his suspected accomplice, Courtney Logan hatched a daring plan that led to Jackson's escape from custody and ultimately the shooting of Metro officer Sgt. Mark Chestnut on Thursday.
"Without a doubt, there is a breakdown somewhere. We definitely want to determine where that is," said Steven Owen of Corrections Corporation of America, the company that operates the Mississippi prison that housed Jackson…
LINK - WSMV.com
June 28, 2009
CCA refuses court order to open records
The state's appeals court will determine whether Nashville's Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that runs state prisons, is equivalent to a governmental entity when it comes to turning over records.
A former prisoner-turned-activist, who won the case at the Chancery Court level, is suing for the release of several documents, including audits and contracts.
Appellate judges heard arguments Thursday from the corporation's attorney, Joe Welborn, and Memphis civil rights attorney, Andy Clarke, who is representing prison-rights activist Alex Friedmann. It takes weeks, if not months, for the appeals court to make a decision…
LINK - Tennessean.com
June 26, 2009
CCA private prison escapee shoots police officer
A Nashville police officer was shot multiple times Thursday afternoon by a motorist he stopped along Interstate 40.
Two suspects were taken in custody shortly after the shooting. One of them is a Mississippi prison inmate who escaped from custody Thursday morning.
Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron identified the wounded officer as Sgt. Mark Chesnut, who was reported alert and talking to doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center shortly after the 1:20 p.m. shooting…
LINK - CommercialAppeal.com
June 14, 2009
Another private prison detainee dies in custody
An autopsy shows a detainee at a federal immigration detention center in south Georgia died of natural causes.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said Thursday 39-year-old Roberto Martinez Medina died of myocarditis, an inflammatory heart disease.
Martinez, a Mexican national, was being held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin - which is operated by the same company that plans to open a similar facility in Gainesville, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Martinez died March 11 at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus…
LINK - AccessNorthGA.com
May 21, 2009
Corrections report: Indians faced strip searches
A new report finds that Native American inmates were subjected to group strip searches before and after sweat-lodge ceremonies at the private Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby.
The finding is 1 of many in a Department of Corrections report on allegations of mistreatment and discrimination against Native American inmates. The private prison operates under a contract with the state.
Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn., says it is still reviewing the report…
LINK - KPax.com
May 18, 2009
Mentally ill detainees’ treatment at hospitals worries advocates
… Menasche said she was told in a meeting with Ziemer and ICE officials that ICE detainees are being automatically denied these rights, without any individual assessment of whether such a step is needed. The policy comes from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Menasche said.
She also said that before shackling a patient, the law requires that specific findings have to be made in the individual's case.
The detainees are taken to API from a private immigration jail in Otay Mesa run by Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in the nation. It has contracts to provide thousands of jail beds to the federal immigration agency…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
May 10, 2009
Oklahoma seeks exit clause in private prison deal
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is seeking an exit clause in a proposed contract to house inmates at private prisons.
The state is ending a five-year contract with the private Corrections Corporation of America and hopes to have a new deal in place by July 1.
Under the new proposal, the Corrections Department is requesting clauses allowing it to end the contract for any reason or to buy a private prison…
LINK - KJRH.com
April 24, 2009
Private prison guard (CCA) indicted for sex with inmate
A correctional officer at the Hamilton County Workhouse has been indicted by the Hamilton County Grand Jury for having sex with a female prisoner.
Kenon Dontae Arnold, an employee of the Corrections Corporation of America, is charged with having sexual contact with an inmate…
LINK - Cattanoogan.com
April 3, 2009
Revealed: 90 immigrants have died in US custody in last 5 1/2 years
At least 90 immigrants have died while in US custody since October 2003, a document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed Friday. At least 32 deaths occurred at facilities run by private contractors. The document — which has received little to no attention — also displays an apparent carelessness on the part of prison officials, whose records of the deaths change and omit inmate deaths over time.
Moreover, it shows that prison officials are now recording even fewer details about immigrants' deaths, possibly in response to periodic scrutiny of the list. A previous list that covered the period up until 2007 included the locations of deaths; the current list records either the location or the facility where the inmate was held, without any evident pattern.
The list also reveals that one private company, the Corrections Corporation of America, had at least 18 deaths under its watch, and that 32 of the 90 deaths occurred while immigrants were held in private prisons. 37 of the deaths occurred at regional facilities and 20 at federal centers…
LINK - RawStory.com
March 24, 2009
More than 700 Arizona inmates headed to Walsenburg prison
Huerfano County Correctional Center will soon transfer all of its Colorado inmates to other state facilities to make room for nearly 752 Arizona inmates, corrections officials said Monday.
According to Allan Cramer, public information officer at the Corrections Corporation of America-run facility, Colorado inmates will be moved from Huerfano to three of the organization's other facilities in Colorado.
"We are going to take the little more than 600 inmates that we have here and put them in facilities in Crowley, Bent and Kit Carson counties. We will then backfill the Colorado inmates with Arizona inmates," Cramer said…
LINK - Chieftain.com
February 10, 2009
Private prison company CCA profits jump thanks to Calif, Feds
Private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America said Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit jumped 16 percent on increases in its per diem rates and prison population. Corrections Corp. earned $40.5 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with $34.9 million, or 28 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.
Revenue rose 8.8 percent to $414.4 million from $380.8 million in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 30 cents per share on $420 million in revenue. The increase in revenue was mainly a result of a 5.2 percent increase in per diem rates, along with 4.1 percent growth in inmate populations.
Management revenue from federal customers rose 7.5 percent to $162 million, while management revenue from state customers increased 13 percent to $218.3 million. Corrections Corp. attributed the larger inmate populations to increased populations from the states of California and Idaho, as well as from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
LINK - Forbes.com
February 3, 2009
The Big Business of Family Detention
When President Barack Obama made it his first act in office to shut down Guantánamo Bay prison, he effectively ended one shameful chapter in our country's embarrassingly large book of human-rights abuses. It was not so much redemption as a reminder that this country has a long, long way to go when it comes to detention, due process, and the Geneva Convention. It's not just alleged terrorists that are suffering from our inhumane treatment. It's also children.
The United States is currently holding 30,000 immigrants in detention while they await hearings. The country operates three family immigrant detention centers, the most notorious of which is the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, a former prison currently under the private management of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The 600-bed center detains families who are awaiting asylum or immigration hearings, a major departure from past federal policy. Pre-September 11, families charged with immigration violations (which are not criminal violations) or who came to the country asking for asylum were generally allowed to live independently as long as they agreed to attend a hearing…
LINK - Prospect.org (The American Prospect)
February 3, 2009
Immigration detention center considered for L.A. area
The federal government is looking for contractors to build a possible detention center in the Los Angeles area that would hold up to 2,200 illegal immigrants and others suspected of violating immigration laws.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said last week that the agency was "exploring the feasibility of such a project," though she said no definitive decisions had been made.
"ICE is continuing to review its options to determine how to best meet the agency's future local and national detention needs," she said…
LINK - LATimes.com
January 30, 2009
Mental health worker at prison faces contraband charges
A prison employee believed to be romantically involved with an inmate was arrested Thursday on charges of introducing contraband into a correctional facility, officials said.
Tina L. Ortiz, 35, of Chipley is accussed of bringing a cellular phone into Bay Correctional Facility with the intention of giving it to an inmate, according to a Bay County Sheriff's Office release.
Ortiz was working at Bay Correctional Facility, a prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America, as a mental health specialist assistant, Bay County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ruth Corley said…
LINK - Panama City NewsHerald.com
December 16, 2008
Oklahoma: In get-tough stance, DOC withholds prison payments
Taking a tougher approach, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has withheld more than $589,000 in payments to private prison operators in the past year because of staffing shortages.
Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing has had five payments of $40,000 or more withheld since December for failing to fill vacancies within 45 days, including several positions in the medical field. In April, the state withheld $59,191 in payments because 19 positions remained unfilled within 45 days. Among them was a clinical supervisor slot that DOC officials said had been open for 457 days.
The Davis Correctional Facility in Holdenville also has had about $76,000 in payments withheld since August because of staffing incidents. Both facilities are owned by Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville…
LINK - TulsaWorld.com
December 16, 2008
Authorities: Female jailer caught exposed
Shannon Nicole Copeland, of 1613 Fairy Ave., was met at the jail by Sheriff Frank McKeithen and jail administrator Rick Anglin as she began her shift Sunday. A search of her person revealed a CD of nude photographs of herself and several printed nude images, according to a Bay County Sheriff's Office release.
A search of an inmate's cell uncovered additional nude photos of Copeland, 23, who told investigators she engaged in sexual misconduct with the inmate and had brought him marijuana, the release said.
Copeland, a control room operator who had been entrusted with the movements of inmates, was a former employee of Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, and had been retained by the jail as an uncertified detention specialist after the transition…
LINK - NewsHerald.com
December 8, 2008
Vigil seeks end to Hutton center contract
More than 100 people held a vigil Sunday night outside the Williamson County Courthouse to ask county commissioners to halt a contract with the T. Don Hutto Residential Center where dozens of immigrant children and families are detained.
"The practice of incarcerating families and children, with little regards to their civil rights, is destructive … to our community as a whole," retired pastor Milton Jordan said.
Protesters held signs that said "Prison is no place for children" and "Shut down T. Don Hutto" while singing the civil rights standard "We Shall Overcome," the Austin American-Statesman reported in its online edition…
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle)
September 4, 2008
CCA: Depositions begin in inmate lawsuit
Attorneys for a mentally ill inmate who went months without showering have begun taking depositions in their suit against Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, which alleged the company denied him adequate mental health care and access to mail.
Mary Braswell, who filed the suit on behalf of her grandson, Frank Horton, is seeking punitive damages on the grounds that Horton's civil rights were violated during his incarceration at the Metro-Davidson County detention facility.
AdvertisementJohn Clemmons, one of Braswell's lawyers, said he couldn't speak about the case because it's ongoing…
LINK - Tennessean.com
September 4, 2008
Officials in prison towns adjust to bad neighbors, tout benefits
Vicki Kilvinger, mayor of Florence, Ariz., admits when people hear the name of her town, they often think of prisons. Florence, Ariz., not only has nine prisons, but there's also Florence, Colo., home of the Supermax prison.
But Kilvinger and a number of officials who live in prison communities see a lot of advantages to housing a community of offenders inside fences.
They debunked concerns raised by some Pahrump residents leery that a planned federal detention center being built by Corrections Corporation of America will reduce property values, bring unsavory relatives and friends to town to visit the inmates, lead to escapes and not result in the good-paying jobs that have been promised…
LINK - PahrumpValleyTimes.com
August 21, 2008
CCA Shows a Flair for Creative PR Fiction
So this is hilarious. Corrections Corporation of America, the widely condemned prison company in Green Hills, has launched a Pravda-styled website aimed at providing "factual information" about its operations.
The site makes out CCA to be as sweet and innocent a business as your daughter's lemonade stand. Sadly, as the company's PR push notes, a "local daily paper" has willfully mis-characterized the outfit's open and efficient approach to doing business.
That's right: Only The Tennessean has raised pertinent questions about CCA. No one else has said a word, correct?…
LINK - NashvilleScene.com
August 14, 2008
CCA to close Memphis facility, lay off 92
Corrections Corp. of America will lay off 92 Memphis employees starting Monday, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America (NYSE: CXW) will close the 200-bed Shelby Training Center in Memphis, which houses male offenders for the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, said Steve Owen, a company spokesman.
The company will cease operations at the facility at the end of August. The facility anticipates a permanent reduction in population as the county will begin sending its juveniles to the care of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services…
LINK - BizJournals.com
August 14, 2008
Ex-inmate helps make Bush nominee ‘controversial’
Had this been like most nominations for federal judgeships, the chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America might have been packing up his office and heading for the courthouse by now.
But a determined opponent — a former prisoner at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Clifton, Tenn. — has worked tirelessly to see that would not happen.
And he may have succeeded.
More than a year after President Bush nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville, the 40-year-old's appointment appears to be in serious trouble, thanks in no small part to Alex Friedmann, a convicted armed robber turned inmate advocate…
LINK - AP.Google.com (The Associated Press)
August 13, 2008
CCA: Fla. prison accused in inmate’s staph death
The family of an inmate who died from a drug-resistant staph infection claims she contracted it because she had been deprived of water for bathing and toilet use at a privately operated state prison.
A lawyer representing the estate of Emma Nobles, who died of MRSA Dec. 15, 2005, at a Tallahassee hospital, made that allegation in letters to two state agencies. The letters are a preliminary step for a possible wrongful death lawsuit.
Water was turned off for days at a time at the prison for women in nearby Gretna, apparently as a cost-cutting measure, the attorney, Patrick R. Frank, said in an interview Wednesday…
LINK - FortMillTimes.com
August 11, 2008
New chief leads CCA amid scrutiny
Damon Hininger was named president and chief operating officer of private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America late last month.
He takes a key leadership role in Nashville-based CCA at a time when its industry is under close scrutiny — and sometimes ensnarled in lawsuits — for what prison reform activists see as poor treatment or even abuse of inmates.
One celebrated case in Nashville, the death of prisoner Estelle Richardson under suspicious circumstances in a Metro detention center in 2004, continues to have repercussions today with calls to further investigate a case that local criminal authorities say is a cold one — although not a closed one. CCA settled a civil lawsuit linked to Richardson's death two years ago…
LINK - Tennessean.com
July 30, 2008
Prison operator CCA must open records, judge rules
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America must follow public records law and open its files for viewing, a Chancery Court judge ruled Tuesday, a decision that could lead to more transparency in a historically hidden industry.
Alex Friedmann, an ex-offender and vice president of advocacy group Private Corrections Institute, had filed suit after CCA denied his request for records about prison operations and lawsuits they were part of.
CCA, which operates the Metro Davidson County Detention Facility and six other detention facilities across Tennessee, maintained the company did not have to comply with public records requests because it is private…
LINK - Tennessean.com
July 29, 2008
Judge: Private prison company must produce records
A Nashville judge has ruled that private prison company Corrections Corporation of America is subject to Tennessee's open records laws.
Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman on Tuesday ordered CCA to provide information on settlements, judgments and complaints against the company to a person who had requested it.
Joe Welborn, an attorney representing CCA, said the company will appeal…
LINK - WaayTV.com Huntsville, Alabama
July 23, 2008
Bills, lawsuits attempt to thwart private prisons’ escape from FOIA
Two Democratic lawmakers are looking to hold private prisons housing federal inmates to the same Freedom of Information Act standards as federal facilities. But while their bills sit in Congress, the First Amendment Center reports, open government advocates are coming at the issue from a different angle.
Two recent lawsuits aim to increase the flow of information from private prisons using FOIA, according to the First Amendment Center. Last month, the ACLU filed a FOIA suit against the Department of Homeland Security in hopes of forcing the agency to hand over records on the deaths of immigrant detainees who were in the custody of private prisons.
And in May, the Center reports, Prison Legal News, a monthly magazine on prison issues, took the largest private prison-management service in the U.S., Corrections Corporation of America, (CCA) to court in Tennessee. CCA, whose headquarters is in Nashville, had refused the magazine's public-records request…
LINK - RCFP.org (The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press
June 21, 2008
CCA denies minimum wage charge
Representatives of Corrections Corporation of America denied accusations employees at a federal detention center in Pahrump will be paid minimum wage and the facility will overburden local emergency services…
…Stephen L. Holbo, a retired lieutenant with 30 years experience in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, charged CCA operates prisons at a much reduced cost, adding, "Mostly that reduced cost is due to paying correctional officers minimum wage, much below the cost of a more highly-trained and continually trained government correctional officer."
The federal detention center is expected to employ 200 to 250 individuals with an annual operating budget of $25 million to $40 million. Assistant Federal Detention Trustee Scott Stermer told a small crowd at the Bob Ruud Community Center during a public hearing in June 2007 the contractor chosen will be required to pay at least $17.45 per hour to the lowest paid detention officers…
LINK - PahrumpValleyTimes.com
June 16, 2008
Opinion: “Too many profiting from incarceration trend”
According to the Department of Justice Web site, approximately 2.3 million people are currently incarcerated. A recent article in the Norman (Okla.) Transcript places the cost of this incarcerate at about $49 billion dollars. This cost falls on the taxpayer. That cost is approximately $338 for each of the 144 million individual personal income tax filers this year.
It starts to become clear that the real "truth in sentencing" has nothing to do with crime and punishment, but more to do with people filling their pockets with your tax money. It's easy to see that there is money to be made in the business of incarceration; simply look at the number of private-sector enterprises that have entered into the realm. Companies like Corrections Corporation of America (www.correctionscorp.com), The GEO Group (www.thegeogroupinc.com), and the Bob Barker Company (www.bobbarker.com). They are just a few of the many companies making profits from incarcerating individuals, typically at the expense of taxpayers…
LINK - ZWire.com
June 16, 2008
Private Prisons: Guards accused of using inmate food as toilet
An Inverness attorney plans to sue the company the runs Citrus county's jail, claiming employees are treating inmates like human toilets.
Attorney Greg Jones has called a news conference today to announce his suit against "Corrections Corporation of America and their employees regarding the urination and defecation in the food of a former inmate…"
LINK - ABCActionNews.com
June 15, 2008
Colorado: Appeals court rules inmates may sue CCA in prison riot
Some inmates at the Crowley County Correctional Facility won a new trial last week.
The 234 inmates had sued the owners of the private prison, Corrections Corporation of America, following the 2004 riot at the Olney Springs lockup, charging that they were punished unfairly for that event even though they said they were not involved.
The inmates sued the prison in two cases filed in Crowley County district court in 2005 and 2006, but saw both cases dismissed by District Judge Michael Schiferl on grounds that they hadn't fully exhausted all their administrative appeals through the Colorado Department of Corrections…
LINK - Chieftain.com (The Pueblo Chieftain)
June 13, 2008
Update: Puryear’s judicial appointment in peril
A year ago today, Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV was nominated for a federal judgeship in Nashville and appeared headed to an easy confirmation.
Now Puryear's confirmation seems unlikely. In addition to questions raised about his qualifications and actions as general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America, Puryear's fate is now caught in intense election-year battles between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate over lifetime judicial appointments.
Senate Democrats are looking to approve as few of Republican President Bush's appointments as they can before his term expires, hoping Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency. Republicans did the same during the final months of the Democratic Clinton administration…
LINK - Tennessean.com
See related articles posted:
Puryear judicial nomination draws clash - 04.22.08
Corrections Corp. Defends Quality Program - 03.17.08
Ex-CCA Official: Puryear Misled Clients - 03.14.08
TIME Magazine's Expose on CCA, general counsel - 03.13.08
Senators Raise Doubt Over Testimony of Nominee - 03.07.08
Former Inmate Opposes Tennessee Judicial Nominee - 02.28.08
Judicial nominee's ties; qualifications criticized - 02.25.08
June 5, 2008
Suit over immigration jail overcrowding is settled
A class-action lawsuit alleging chronic overcrowding at an immigration jail on Otay Mesa was settled Wednesday. The lawsuit said the overcrowding at the facility, run by the Corrections Corporation of America for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, subjected immigration violators to health and safety risks. It also alleged the conditions violated due-process rights under the Constitution.
Before the suit was filed in January 2007, the jail was so overcrowded it was "triple celling" hundreds of detainees, the suit alleged. That involved putting three people into cells designed for two, with the third sleeping on the cell floor in a plastic shell or "boat."
The facility housed 1,000 people at one point. After the suit was filed, federal authorities moved out more than 100 inmates, according to the ACLU. According to ICE, the facility now holds no more than 700 people…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune Online)
June 4, 2008
Florida: Sheriff Tapped to Run Jail
Running the Bay County jail is not the most glamorous of jobs, but Sheriff Frank McKeithen has offered to take on the task to the delight of the Bay County Commission. At Tuesday's regular Commission meeting McKeithen made clear that he could not garuntee there would be no problems under his watch.
"I'm not going to tell you there will never be a hostage situation or jail break or issues in jail but I will tell you that there will be far less than what CCA has had to deal with in that facility downtown," said McKeithen.
Last month Bay County expressed disappointment that Corrections Corporation of America would not run the new jail at a rate of $43 a day per prisoner, but Tuesday they said McKeithen's offer of $50 per prisoner a day was reasonable…
LINK - WMBB.com News Channel 13 - Panama City, Florida
May 27, 2008
County Jails Welcome Immigrants
The immigration crackdown is filling county jails across the country with immigrants who have been torn away from their jobs and homes. Tens of thousands of arrested immigrants are bedding down in county jails while they await court dates and eventual deportation.
As the immigration crackdown escalates, county commissions and sheriff departments are increasingly signing contracts with the federal government to house arrested immigrants. For the most part, county governments are eager to receive immigrants into their jails.
The per diem payments they receive from two federal agencies—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)—are covering shortfalls in county budgets, funding the hiring of new deputies, and paying for jail expansion projects. Although some localities are complaining of jail overcrowding and a diffusion of law enforcement priorities, more and more local governments are cashing in on the immigration crackdown…
LINK - Americas.irc-online.org
May 25, 2008
Indiana: Dead inmate’s family sues sheriff and jail
A Marion County Jail II inmate was denied blood-pressure medication before he collapsed and later died of hypertension, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Marion Superior Court.
The lawsuit was filed by attorneys who have filed other complaints challenging medical care at the privately run jail. It says the jail's medical staff failed to give Brian Keith Allen, 33, regular doses of his medication, despite at least one high blood pressure reading.
He collapsed Nov. 25, 2006, and died five days later in a hospital. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of his estate and his mother, Ella Mae Allen, names Corrections Corporation of America, two medical staff members and Sheriff Frank Anderson…
LINK - IndyStar.com
May 22, 2008
Companies Cashing in on People’s Prison Stripes?
Many small towns have come to depend on prisons for jobs, but are private prisons taking advantage of the incarcerated to turn a profit?
Or are correctional systems offering much-needed services to those behind bars?
For more, Farai Chideya talks with Louise Grant — vice president of marketing and communications for the Corrections Corporation of America — and Rose Braz, campaign director of Critical Resistance, an organization opposed to the expansion of prisons…
LINK - NPR.org (Audio Report & Interview)
May 22, 2008
Enforcement on Steroids: Homeland Security’s Emerging Immigration Police State
…The United States holds around 350 detainees in its "legal black hole" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and people around the world are rightly appalled by the lack of due process afforded them. Three times that many people, picked up within the United States, have been ordered deported but can't be returned to their country and are now facing the prospect of "indefinite detention" — they could potentially die in prison if the Bush administration and its allies have their way. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the government didn't have the authority to detain immigrants forever, but Homeland Security has resisted the order.
In addition to its own detention facilities — they're not called "jails" because those being held include many who aren't charged with a crime — ICE leases thousands of beds in 312 county and city prisons, where a majority of immigrant detainees are held.
These include dozens of private, for-profit prison facilities. The immigration detention system has proven a cash cow for companies like Halliburton, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group. "Housing federal detainees typically brings in more per 'man-day,' an industry term for what is earned per detainee," than they can get from state prison systems," wrote Leslie Berestein in the San Diego Union-Tribune…
LINK - Alternet.org
May 21, 2008
Holding Hutto’s feet to the fire
When a coalition of community activists gathers in Taylor, Texas, this weekend, they'll trot alongside a barbed-wire fence (we're told the inner barricades have come down) and descend upon the controversial T. Don Hutto Residential Center, where a teddy bear has been placed on every bed and children's artwork lines the halls.
As they inch the bullhorns and signs reading "Texas shame" and "Children need sunshine too" closer to the center, the PR-scrubbed scene will be marred by something the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Corrections Corporation of America, and Williamson County doesn't want: hundreds of protesters shouting for the release of immigrant children and undocumented detainees.
The center — an immigrant-detention facility funded by Homeland Security, operated by privately owned CCA, and administered by the county — made news when it was criticized for incarcerating detainees in conditions that, until recently, were abysmal. The 470-bed detention center is one of two in the country that confine families on immigration violations while they await disposition of their cases…
LINK - SACurrent.com (San Antonio Current)
May 15, 2008
Colo. inmates return from out-of-state prison
The Colorado Department of Corrections is returning 120 prisoners who have been at an Oklahoma prison to Colorado prisons today, authorities say.
Many of the inmates had been housed at a private prison in Sayre, Okla., since January 2007 because of a shortage of bed space at Colorado prisons, said Ari Zavaras, executive director of the DOC.
The prisoners will be taken mostly to two private prisons run by Corrections Corporation of America, which also runs the Oklahoma prison.
"There are two ways to solve the issue of the prison-bed shortage: reduce demand and increase capacity," Zavaras said…
LINK - DenverPost.com (The Denver Post)
May 5, 2008
Privatization Update: May 5th
Privatization Update
April 28-May 4, 2008
CiviGenics
May 1 - Columbiana County Commissioners voted to enter into a consent agreement with former jail employees to resolve a lawsuit filed earlier this year with the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals. The lawsuit sought a court order requiring commissioners to comply with a decision by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, which ruled last November five former employees were entitled to retirement benefits dating back to 1998, when a private company took over operating the jail. CiviGenics, the company hired by commissioners were required to continue contributing into the OPERS on their behalf even though the county no longer operated the jail. The attorney cited a state law that requires contributions continue to be made into a public employee pension plan of a public employee whose job was abolished due to privatization. This applies if the employee went to work for the private operator and continued to perform the same or similar job duties. Commissioners fought the ruling for the next several years until the OPERS board issued it's ruling six months ago. When commissioners failed to act quickly enough to suit the attorney, the lawsuit was filed with the appeals court. The agreement to resolve the lawsuit requires commissioners to pay both the employee and employer share of OPERS dating back to when the five employees were hired by CiviGenics and to continue contributing into their public employee pension plan as long as they remain employed by CiviGenics. The figure is to include penalties and interest. This would be the second largest settlement commissioners would have to pay out because of their decision to privatize the county jail. In 2002, commissioners agreed to pay $300,000 to former jail employees to resolve outstanding labor complaints arising over privatization.
May 4 - A female guard of CiviGenics who works at the Liberty County jail in Texas has resigned after being questioned by Liberty County Sheriff's Office investigators about having sex with an inmate. The case has been accepted by the District Attorney?s Office and will be presented to a grand jury. The grand jury could return an indictment for Violation of Civil Rights of a Person in Custody By Having Sex With That Person. This is a state jail felony, punishable by confinement for a period of 180 days to two years in a state jail and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
Corrections Corporation of America
May 3 - Edgar Bailey, 35, is on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Top 10 Most Wanted List after a clerical error allowed Bailey to leave the South Central Correctional Facility. Bailey was "inadvertently released" by CCA. The error seems to have occurred because of confusion over a court ruling. Bailey was convicted of premeditated murder and felony murder for the killing of Anthony McAffee on June 19, 2001. He had appealed his case; the premeditated murder count was reversed and a new trial was to be scheduled. The felony murder count, however, remained. Bailey has been on the loose for nearly two weeks, and authorities were alerted only after Hamilton County District Attorney Boyd Patterson discovered the error and notified CCA.
May 4 - Edgar Bailey was apprehended at his father's house early this morning. Bailey surrendered to U.S. marshals and is being held in the DeKalb County jail awaiting extradition to Tennessee.
Wackenhut
April 29 - New Hampshire police are investigating an accidental shooting in the apartment of a nuclear power plant security officer, the second accidental discharge by an off-duty nuclear plant security officer this year. The most recent shooting involved a 9 mm handgun and was "contained within the apartment." The police chief said details, including the date of the incident, whether any injuries resulted and the security officer's identity, will not be immediately released due to an ongoing investigation. On Jan. 25, power plant security trainer Joshua hill pulled the trigger of his Springfield Armory handgun and shot a .45 caliber bullet through the floor of his apartment into the living space below. "He was cleaning his weapon and didn't realize it was loaded," said Seabrook Police Chief Patrick Manthorn. Both security officers are employed by Wackenhut.
May 4, 2008
Lawsuits raise questions about private prisons
As immigration laws have become tougher, the federal government has found itself with a logistical challenge: where to house a population that has swollen to more than 30,000 detainees. The solution? Turn them over to the private sector.
Detention contracts have helped turn once-ailing private prison companies into a multibillion-dollar growth industry with record revenues, healthy stock prices and ambitious expansion plans.
One of them, Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, has applied to build a nearly 3,000-bed prison in Otay Mesa, where it now runs a facility holding up to 700 detainees awaiting deportation or decisions on their immigration cases. The company is the nation's largest private prison operator…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
April 30, 2008
Put for-profit detention centers on ICE (Opinion)
In 2007, the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) rounded up more than 30,000 immigrants in raids. While more than 186,000 immigrants were deported in 2006, an alarming 300,000 were detained in immigrant detention centers, such as the T. Don Hutto Center in Taylor, in 2007 alone. According to ICE, the purpose of immigrant detention centers is to "detain and remove criminal and other deportable aliens … in part of the strategy to deter illegal immigration and protect public safety."
Despite what ICE ostensibly promotes, these for-profit detention centers are not achieving their intended goals, as they do not create a disincentive for coming to the U.S. The risk of crossing over illegally is a small price to pay for the safety and high labor demand on the other side of the border. Additionally, undocumented immigrants are often hesitant to report crimes to authorities due to the fear of being detained, in which case detention centers may be hindering communities more than helping them.
Privatized detention centers are going up all over the United States as a way to deal with the growing number of undocumented immigrants. As a result, not only are we detaining immigrants in our country, but because of the move toward privatization, these facilities are able to make a profit from these prisoners. The industry leader, Corrections Corporation of America, has seen its stock price rise to as much as $22 a share, and in 2006 its revenue was $1.3 billion with profits of $105 million. According to industry experts, in order to make a profit these companies not only need to ensure that more prisons are built, but also need to keep them filled to an estimated 90-to 95-percent capacity rate. These for-profit detention centers demand immigrants' bodies and labor, and it is disturbing to think about how this demand will be met…
LINK - DailyTexanOnline.com (The Daily Texan - Online)
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.
April 25, 2008
CCA gets approval for federal inmates
When Bill 3175 became law Monday, it helped to secure jobs and economic prosperity for the future of Adams County. The bill signed by Gov. Haley Barbour allows the Adams County Correctional Center, under construction by the Corrections Corporation of America, to house both federal and state inmates.
"This new facility is not only helping to fill a need for more prison beds but is also enhancing the economy of southwest Mississippi by providing at least 300 new full-time jobs," Barbour said.
CCA marketing director Steve Owen said now that the facility has the OK to house federal inmates the prison can pursue contracts to house federal prisoners…
LINK - NatchezDemocrat.com (Mississippi)
April 8, 2008
Privatization Update: April 8, 2008
Privatization Update
March 31-April 6, 2008
Correctional Medical Services
April 1 - New Jersey has canceled its $85 million annual contract with CMS that has provided medical, dental and pharmaceutical services to state prisoners since New Jersey privatized its inmate health care system in 1996. The state Treasury Department notified CMS that it planned to replace it with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. CMS, whose contract expired, had sought a 4.73% increase to cover costs associated with caring for the 27,600 inmates in state prisons and an additional 14,000 inmates being held in county facilities until a state cell is available. The move ends a contentious 11-year relationship with CMS that was launched during the-Gov. Whitman's push to privatize government services. It comes months after the state auditor and the state inspector general issued separate reports critical of the company. Treasury spokesman Tom Vinz said the state believes the new arrangement will "improve both the bottom line as well as services."
April 5 - Fifteen current and former inmates at Young Correctional Institution filed a federal lawsuit alleging their medical care while behind bars was not only negligent but amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. In at least one incident in 2006, a CMS nurse used the same needle on multiple inmates, perhaps all 15, to draw blood and inject medicine, exposing all to blood-borne diseases including hepatitis C and possibly HIV/AIDS. At least three allege they have contracted hepatitis and possibly other illnesses since that incident.
Corrections Corporation of America
March 31 - Hawaii lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill ordering an audit of two CCA facilities in the wake of national media accounts alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data to make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems than was actually the case. Hawaii pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct performance audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawaii inmates, including reviews of food, medical, drug treatment, vocational and other services provided to Hawaii inmates. The audit also would scrutinize the way the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private prisons and enforces the terms of the state's contract with CCA. According to the bill, there has never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawaii has contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the Mainland. Time Magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify violent incidents such as inmate disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults as if they were less serious events to make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge.
April 2 - Five inmates at the privately run Marion County Jail II in Indiana filed a class-action lawsuit based on claims of improper medical treatment and access to medication, unsafe and inhumane conditions, and a broken grievance process. The suit names Corrections Corporation of America and Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson, who oversees CCA's contract to run the jail. The medium-security jail, which houses 1,043 inmates, serves as an auxillary to the county-run Marion County Jail. Attorney Paul Ogden also filed a suit against CCA in January on claims of dangerous work conditions and racial discrimination against several black nurses. That suit also raised concerns about the handling of medications for inmates, with some given incorrect medication and some denied prescription drugs.
Cornell
March 31 - More than eight months after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials removed 600 detainees from an Albuquerque, New Mexico jail, they say they won't house immigrants there again. The federal immigration agency says it has enough space elsewhere for detainees arrested. ICE was housing hundreds of detainees awaiting deportation at the Regional Correctional Center. That facility faced allegations by immigrant lawyers and criticism by a federal judge of sub-par conditions. Complaints included sweltering heat inside, frozen food and poor medical attention. After the agency yanked all of its inmates last summer, an ICE official said he had 'serious doubts' about the ability of Cornell to provide a safe environment for detainees. Cornell officials say they've worked hard to improve the facility and meet ICE's requirements. The company will continue looking for other customers for the 993-bed facility, which it leases from Bernalillo County. The U.S. Marshals Office currently houses detainees at the jail.
April 3 - Eight immigrant teenagers held at a facility for unaccompanied minors filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were abused and denied access to attorneys. The teens from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Cuba were being held at the San Antonio facility run by Cornell under a contract with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Undocumented minors caught by authorities in the U.S. fall under the care of ORR while their immigration cases are decided. Susan Watson, an attorney for Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, said the teens were beaten and subjected to other excessive force in violation of their constitutional rights. At least one teen was knocked unconscious, but complaints to facility administrators were ignored, according to the lawsuit. The allegations raised by the immigrant teens were not the first against Cornell. Arkansas fired Cornell from the operation of a juvenile facility in November 2006 after finding employees inappropriately injected youth with anti-psychotic medication to control behavior. An in September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials removed 600 detainees from an Albuquerque, New Mexico facility (this incident is addressed in the March 31 Cornell entry), citing failure to maintain safety, health and well-being standards there.
The GEO Group
April 1 - Texas officials want to know how a convicted felon escaped from a GEO Group owned jail. No one noticed he was gone for a full day, even though an eyewitness to the escape immediately told two GEO guards. The women who witnessed the escape said she was taken aback by the guard's lack of urgency. "He never asked me if he was white, Hispanic, African American. I described the clothing," she said. "All he asked was, 'Was he wearing tennis shoes?'" The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force was notified the following day of the escape and launched a massive manhunt for Esequiel Pena. Pena was being held in an 8-story level room at the GEO Group Holding Jail when he escaped. It is believed Pena squeezed through a fence and then made his way to a fire escape and disappeared. A concerned citizen spotted Pena at an apartment complex and called the Boerne Police Department. Pena was arrested without incident at the apartment complex.
Prison Health Services
April 3 - A registered nurse with the city prison system has been charged in a hit-and-run accident that killed a 15-year-old girl. Michelle Johnson, 40, was charged with manslaughter, homicide by vehicle and related offenses. Johnson, who has worked for PHS since 2006, struck Mary Otto. Otto had been walking on a median when Johnson allegedly ran a red light, hit Otto and kept driving. The teen was transported to an area hospital, but she died shortly after arriving. The next day, witnesses led police to a 2006 Toyota Sequoia, with considerable front-end damage, parked in the prison parking lot. Police seized the vehicle and later tied it to Johnson, who is not the owner of the vehicle. Johnson was suspended from her job.
April 3, 2008
Inmates suing CCA private prison in Indiana
A civil rights complaint and a lawsuit filed Wednesday by inmates raise questions about medical care, safety and the grievance system at a privately run Marion County jail.
The allegations about Jail II have come less than a year after the county closed more than 30 years of court oversight because of crowding at the main lockup. Jail II — touted by officials as one of the best jails in Indiana — opened in 1997 to relieve pressure on the Marion County Jail…
LINK - IndyStar.com
April 2, 2008
Privatization Updated (March 2008)
Privatization Update
March 24-30, 2008
Overall Privatization
March 26 - The new controversial film AMERICA DRUG WAR, premiered on Showtime March 5th, and is creating a storm of controversy surrounding the content. The Sustainable Action network's gold is to raise further awareness about the effects of privately run prison systems. Don Lichterman, the founder of the Sustainable Action Network says that 'once prisons became privatized in America, and started trading on Wall Street every day, the facts show gross examples that in order for these prisons to make money every year; they need to fill their facilities.' The prisons need to be filled with people in order to create profits and revenues for these private companies. Lichterman then says that 'Kevin Booth spells this out in such an easy to understand way in his documentary film that audiences will be captivated.'
March 26 - Idaho state lawmakers have told Department of Corrections leaders it's too late in the session for them to even consider a proposal for a new 1,500-bed prison that would cost the state more than $190 million. Brent Reinke, the head of the state prison agency, had been meeting with House and Senate leaders since last week but says the plan is now finished, at least for this year. He had a bill drafted, but it never got a hearing. Lawmakers told him selling 30-year bonds to finance a new prison south of Boise was too expensive an item to consider quickly in the waning days of session. Now, Reinke says he'll refine his proposal over the summer and may present a new plan to the 2009 Legislature, as part of his solution to house a growing Idaho prison population. The result of delaying the matter another year is more Idaho inmates will stay out of state longer, he said.
Cornell
March 26 - The Webb County Commissions Court in Texas unanimously voted to rescind all action taken with respect to an earnest-money contract approved earlier this moth with Cornell for the sale of the Webb County Juvenile Detention Center. The decision means the private corrections company will not immediately purchase the facility for a rehabilitation center for federal prisoners. Neighborhood residents and Laredo Independent School District officials had expressed their concern about the proposed halfway house's proximity to two schools, but court members said the decision was based on Cornell's counteroffer, which mandated that the sale go through by June instead of the fall.
Corrections Corporation of America
March 24 - While other inmates at the Metro Detention Facility in Tennessee took an hour out of their cells most days, a mentally ill inmate named Frank Horton never left his cell for any recreation or a shower, for nine months straight. It's unclear if he even saw a doctor. Living conditions for the inmate, a nonviolent offender before entering prison, changed only after an employee complained to the Metro Public Health Department on Jan. 31 and he was forced out for a shower and a mental health evaluation. Horton, 23, refused to leave his solitary cell for the allotted 60 minutes a day for a shower and recreation. When he was finally forced out, a nurse said, he seemed cooperative but was incoherent. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said he wouldn't respond directly to any questions about Horton, 'as that may violate federal privacy protections for medical/mental health information.' He said the facility has policies on enforcing minimal showering for hygienic and health reasons, but would not provide a copy of that policy. Both Metro's health department and the Davidson County Sheriff's Office have contractual power to oversee operations at the Metro Detention Facility, but they disagree about whose responsibility it is to ensure that basic hygiene is enforced. The situation raises questions about the treatment of inmates at the 1,200-bed prison where many of Nashville's convicted felons serve their time. The South Nashville site has been in the news in recent months: A man was arrested in the January beating death of his cellmate in the high-security segregation unit. A prisoner with a storied escape history broke out through the air vents in February, The warden, Brian Gardner, was removed from his post this month and is 'awaiting reassignment' by CCA. CCA was in the national spotlight last week after a former employee accused the company of underplaying serious safety incidents at its facilities. The accusations were aimed at Gus Puryear, a former lawyer for CCA nominated to be a federal judge.
March 25 - An inmate who had his ear ripped off during an attack by another prisoner has filed a lawsuit against CCA. Kevin Swafford claims his ear couldn't be reattached because it wasn't properly packed in ice, staff was negligent and his civil rights were violated, according to the lawsuit. Swafford was attacked on March 26, 2006, at the South Central Correctional Center in Tennessee. Swafford claims he told a CCA guard that another inmate threatened him a day before the attack. Swafford claims the guard overheard the threats and did nothing. Louise Grant, a CCA spokeswoman, said it didn't have any information on the case and would not be able to comment on pending litigation.
The GEO Group
March 26 - A K-9 officer at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility was charged with multiple counts of institutional sexual assault for allegedly taking an inmate to a nearby mill for sex in his pickup truck. Michael Waters, 37, an employee of the GEO Group, who runs the county prison, admitted to having oral and vaginal sex with the female work-release inmate. Other GEO employees at the prison have experienced similar lapses in recent years. The jail's former work-release supervisor is registered as a Megan's Law sex offender. Joseph Henderson is currently on probation after pleading guilty in 2006 to sexually assaulting a female inmate while transporting her back to prison. Former guard Henry Meyers pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit bank robbery. Myers was indicted in 2005 for casing banks in three armed heists and was sentenced to three years in prison. In 2004, a GEO lieutenant at the county prison was fired for beating an inmate 'to a pulp', as the then-warden put it, and two other guards received probationary sentences after an inmate claimed in 2002 that they handcuffed him, pummeled him with a basketball and pulled his pants down. John Reilly, the prison's acting superintendent acknowledged that some GEO employees have previously had trouble staying of jail themselves.
March 25 - A guard at the Val Verde Correctional Facility was arrested for allegedly bringing marijuana into the jail for an inmate or inmates in the facility. Jose Ybarra, 20, was arrested and charged with the offense of prohibited substances and items in adult or juvenile correctional or detention facility or on property of Texas Department of Criminal justice or Texas Youth Commission. The sheriff's office investigator noted that Ybarra said he was paid $200 to deliver the marijuana to an inmate tank in the facility that houses suspected members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang. Ybarra had access to the tank in the course of his work as a guard employed by The GEO Group. Ybarra has worked for the jail since October 2007.
March 31, 2008
Hawaii: Audit of private prisons possible
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data to make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems than was actually the case.
Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and Kentucky…
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
March 27, 2008
Inmate sues CCA after being attacked
An inmate who had his ear ripped off during an attack by another prisoner in Wayne County has filed a lawsuit against Nashville-based prison operator Corrections Corporation of America.
According to the lawsuit, 33-year-old Kevin Swafford claims his ear couldn't be reattached because he did not receive proper treatment after the attack. He also says the staff was negligent and his civil rights were violated.
Prison officials say Swafford was attacked in March 2007 at the South Central Correctional Center in Clifton in Wayne County…
LINK - KnoxNews.com (Knoxville, Tennessee)
March 24, 2008
Sector Snap: Private Prisons Rise
Shares of for-profit prison operators are rising after analysts reacted positively to meetings with Geo Group management.
Banc of America analyst T.C. Robillard said Geo Group Inc. expects to win contracts for more than 10,000 new beds in 2008, and said that tighter state budgets won't hurt prison operators. He wrote that the company is benefiting from strong demand and he believes it will reach his profit forecasts…
LINK - Money.CNN.com
March 24, 2008
CCA inmate didn’t leave cell to shower for 9 mos
Sheriff, Metro health officials disagree who's responsible; grandmother wants answers…
While other inmates at the Metro Detention Facility took an hour out of their cells most days, a mentally ill inmate named Frank Horton never left his cell for any recreation or a shower — for nine straight months. It's unclear if he even saw a doctor.
Living conditions for the inmate, a nonviolent offender before entering prison, changed only after an employee complained to the Metro Public Health Department on Jan. 31 and he was forced out for a shower and a mental health evaluation…
LINK - Tennessean.com
March 20, 2008
Opinion: “Stop importing murderers and sex offenders into Arizona!”
On September 17, 2006, two Washington state inmates - each serving more than fifty years for murder - escaped from a private prison in Florence. One inmate was captured within hours by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office; the other made it all the way to Washington State before he was caught almost a month later.
It wasn't luck. It took these two murderers less than an hour to defeat the prison's physical plant and administration. They made it from their cells to the street without detection. The prison they ran from is operated by the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), a private company that has repeatedly failed to detect and deter escapes. Today, there are a total of eleven private prisons in Arizona. Six of them take all of their prisoners from out of state.
LINK - ZWire.com (Casa Grande Valley News)
March 20, 2008
CCA wants to build a mega-prison in San Diego County
The private prison company that operates a detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Otay Mesa is proposing to build a nearly 3,000-bed mega-prison nearby.
According to county records, Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America has applied for a permit to build a "secure detention facility" in two phases on a parcel of about 40 acres northwest of Alta and Lonestar roads. A portion of the latter road has yet to be constructed.
The proposed prison would have 2,880 beds and would employ 375 people, according to an application the company filed.
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com
March 19, 2008
Colorado: Lawmakers approve flexibility for private prison contracts
A legislative committee has approved a proposal that would provide financial incentives for private prisons to develop innovative security programs, or provide education.
The House Judiciary Committee approved House Bill 1363, and sent it to the full House for debate…
LINK - KRDO.com (Colorado Springs - Channel 13, ABC News)
