The Geo Group
January 30, 2009
Prison worker charged in inmate escape
A prison worker is charged with helping an inmate escape.
Marvin Melton used to work at the prison in New Castle. The prison is owned by the state of Indiana by operated by The GEO group. Melton was assigned to guard a minimum security dorm that is away from the main prison but still inside the fence. The dorm is home to what the prison system calls the most trusted inmates.
Friday morning, Melton was arrested and charged with helping one of the inmates walk away from prison. The Department of Corrections says their guard silenced an alarm on a door that Jeffery Kinartail walked out of. Just after midnight, an emergency head count was conducted and it came up one short…
LINK - WTHR.com Indianapolis
November 15, 2008
Editorial: Outside prison bid just a stall tactic
A NEW PLAYER has surfaced in the ongoing saga dealing with California's broken prison inmate health-care system, the GEO Group Inc. of Florida. Just who is GEO Group? Some believe this is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's best chance for a great escape from federal courts, but we believe otherwise.
GEO Group is a private company that manages various prisons throughout the U.S. and other countries. The company has been lobbying the governor's office and the state Legislature since January, spending more than $300,000, with hopes of taking over California's prison system, and thus, giving the state a possible way out from a federal court mandate.
That mandate, which is currently being fought in court, could force California to pay $8 billion to clean up its inmate health care system. As a side note, the Florida firm contributed $50,000 last month to the Proposition 11 campaign, the redistricting initiative backed by Schwarzenegger…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
November 11, 2008
Firm bids to run Calif. inmate medical system
A private prison company that has been lobbying the Schwarzenegger administration and is a campaign contributor to the governor's causes has made a bid to operate an overhauled inmate medical system, a move that could conflict with court-ordered reforms, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
The offer by The GEO Group Inc. of Florida caught the court-appointed receiver overseeing reform of California's inmate health care system by surprise.
In the five-page internal memo obtained by the AP, the receiver's chief of staff repeatedly makes it clear that he believes the bid was solicited by the Schwarzenegger administration and questions the administration's motives…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
August 6, 2008
Private prisons hold on in hard times
One more profit report for you to blame on the slowing economy: The Postal Service announced today it lost $1.1 billion dollars for the quarter that ended in June. Officials blamed higher fuel costs and less mail being sent in lean economic times — it's down 5.5 percent from last year.
Even though we usually do think of it as a government operation, the post office is a private company and the same can be said for some prisons in this country. Most of them are government-run, but about 7 percent of the incarcerated population is housed in prisons run by for-profit corporations.
The biggest of those companies, Corrections Corporation of America, reports profits tomorrow. Like any other company, rising prices have raised their cost of doing business and its customers — federal, state and local governments — are facing tight budgets…
LINK - PublicRadio.org
July 17, 2008
Geo Group Inc (GEO) completely dumped by Unionbancal Corp
Unionbancal Corp completely dumped all -1,140 shares they owned of Geo Group Inc (GEO) as shown by filings made public on 2008-07-16.
The stock is currently owned by 250 funds/institutions with a total activity score of -0.05. With 44.33 % of owning funds reported recently buying shares, 10.34 % maintaining existing share level and 45.32 % selling shares. Full details for Geo Group Inc (GEO) available at Mffais.com/geo.html.
SOURCE: Mffais.com
July 3, 2008
Immigration center plans expansion
The corporation that runs the federal immigration detention center on Tacoma's Tideflats plans to expand the facility's capacity by 50 percent.
When completed, the Northwest Detention Center should be able to hold up to 1,500 immigrants in federal custody.
The GEO Group, the Florida-based company that runs the detention center, has made no formal announcement. Several voicemails left with its spokesman were not returned. Calls to the Northwest Detention Center were referred to a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said the company is handling the expansion and therefore should answer all questions…
LINK - TheNewsTribune.com
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 19, 2008
Privatization Update: May 19, 2008
Privatization Update
May 12-18, 2008
California Privatization
May 13 - California's prison medical care receiver is investigating the death of an inmate who was being housed in Mississippi. 'I'm told it was an asthma-related death,' said receiver's spokesman Rich Kirkland. Corrections officials identified the inmate as Robert Washington, 41, of San Joaquin County. Washington was serving seven years for vehicle theft.
Autopsy results on Washington's death are still pending. Washington died at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, owned and operated by CCA. Washington is the second inmate moved under California's out-of-state transfer plan to have died in custody since the program began two years ago. Anthony Keely, 48, died last May from an apparent heart attack while watching a fight involving other inmates. There are now 3,765 California inmates serving time out of state.
Overall Privatization
May 18 - The federal government is accepting bids for up to three new family detention centers that would house as many as 600 men, women and children fighting deportation cases. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a call for proposals and set June 16 as the deadline. New facilities are being considered on both coasts and on the Southwestern border. The agency calls for minimum-security residential facilities that would provide a 'least restrictive, non-secure setting' and provide schooling for children, recreational activities and access to religious services.
Aramark
May 12 - The company that feeds Florida prisoners has racked up nearly $250,00 in fines since the beginning of the year for violations including not having enough food and staffing shortages. That brings the total fines for Aramark to more than $864,000 since 2001 when the state hired private companies to take over feeding the more than 92,000 inmates in Florida prisons. More than $300,00 of Aramark fines have been rescinded by the Department of Corrections. The department let Aramark off the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines under Corrections Secretary Jimmy Crosby, now in prison for taking kickbacks from contractors. Corrections officials are questioning Aramark's ability to provide quality food in sufficient quantities. The officials also say they are concerned about the company's staffing levels.
CiviGenics
May 14 - A Texas man who smuggled marijuana into the Bowie County Correctional Center while working as a guard pleaded guilty and received a 10-year term of probation. Marquise Hunt, 21, had been working as a guard for CiviGenics for about two months when he was caught bringing three sandwich bags full of marijuana into the jail. A confidential informant
alerted jail officials to the marijuana in Hunt's possession.
May 15 - In Texas, the Grassroots Leadership organization has sent a letter to Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert to voice the groups concern about the plan to send Fort Bend County inmates 500 miles away to the privately run Dickens Correctional Center. 'My organization, Grassroots Leadership, is a 28 year-old southern-based organization that opposes the use of for-profit prisons, jails, and detention centers.
The Dickens County facility itself has been the site of many disturbing reports over the past year,' said Bob Libal, Texas Coordinator of Grassroots Leadership. Libal noted several serious incidents pertaining to the Dickens County Correctional facility, including: Moving prisoners hundreds of miles from family members is bad public policy. Studies show that isolation of prisoners from their family members increases recidivism and undermines public safety. Children of these inmates will suffer from lack of contact while parents and spouses have additional anxiety from not being able to see their loved ones. Conditions at the Dickens County Correctional Center are historically unsafe and unsanitary. DCC became the subject of national scrutiny last year after the suicide of Scot Noble Payne, an Idaho inmate held at the prison.
The Idaho Department of Corrections health director called the facility the worst prison he'd ever seen and 'beyond repair.' The current management of DCCC has had a string of management problems at other facilities. Management of the facility has changed ownership from the GEO Group to another private prison corporation, CiviGenics. CiviGenics has had its own record of poor jail operations in Texas. A guard at CiviGenics Texarkana facility was indicted on civil rights charges in 2005 for alleged sexual activity with a female inmate.
Similarly, at CiviGenics Waco unit, a guard was indicted for sexual contact with a female inmate. And just last month, an inmate took his own life at CiviGenics managed prison in Ector County, Texas. It is important to note that counties can retain liability for incidents which happen at private facilities.
Cornell
May 15 - Cornell has named Brantley, Georgia as one of three candidates for a 1,200 to 1,500-bed facility that would house illegal aliens awaiting deportation. Before further exploring Brandley County sites, Cornell asked for a unanimous resolution of approval and the commissioners gave it to Cornell. Chairman Terry Thomas expressed reservation, especially about Cornell's promise to house no violent offenders. 'I'm skeptical about the fact that it's to be used only for illegal aliens,' Thomas said. 'Plus, I'm cautious about it because it will be operated under contract and those are given on a competitive basis. What happens if Cornell losses the contract" The Brandley County Development Authority also endorsed the facility. 'We are contacting Cornell and saying we have met your first requirement and actually have gone a step further by having the Development Authority pass its own resolution,' County Manager Chuck Madray said. Cornell has requested that the county provide it with four possible sites. Madray said four privately owned tracts have been lined up. 'We have verbal agreements from all four of the landowners,' Madray said. 'All would be willing to sell.' The next move is up to Cornell. 'We're asking them to tell us what the next step is,' Madray said.
Corrections Corporation of America
May 13 - CCA has informed Bay County, Florida that it would be abandoning its local operations in 150 days, or Oct. 1. 'Where our path will take us, we don't know,' Bay County Commissioner Chairman Jerry Girvin said of the question left in CCA's wake. 'It's been a long-term relationship, but it's probably one that's run its course, and it's time to go separate
directions.' Girvin said the two most probable options would be to either run the jail as a county department or turn operations over to the Bay County Sheriff's Office. CCA, which has operated the area's jails for more than 20 years, citied financial concerns as the reason for pulling out of Bay County. Locally, CCA employs 290 people. Warden Joe Ponte said the average jail employee makes about $28,000. CCA entered into a new contract with Bay County in 2006 that stipulated a per-inmate rate of $46.18 per day. Last year, the company was paid $15.8 million. The six-year contract
also called for CCA to expand on the facility, which would serve as the area's only jail once the downtown location is closed. County officials said the work should be complete before CCA's October departure. At times, officials have indicated CCA's bang for the buck has not been sufficient.
Since first beginning work in Bay County in October 1985, the private correctional company has weathered a number of storms that caused local officials concern. Last November, CCA released nine inmates early by accident. In June 2007, an inmate fashioned a plastic utensil into a lock-pick and broke out of his cell. In 2005, a CCA nurse was fired after an inmate gave birth inside the jail annex four hours after complaining of labor pains. Another nurse, as well as a supervisor, was fired for having sex with an inmate. In 2004, a nurse was shot in a hostage standoff after inmates escaped from their cells. CCA said such instances were not a factor in the decision to leave town. Recently, county officials have made strong statements directed at CCA in regard to the company's mishaps.
'They're going to run it right, or we'll get somebody who will run it right,' said County Commissioner Mike Nelson, following the accidental inmate release.
May 14 - The Colorado Department of Corrections is returning 120 prisoners who have been housed in an Oklahoma prison to Colorado prisons. Many of the inmates had been housed at a private prison in Sayre, Oklahoma, since January of 2007 because of a shortage of bed space at Colorado prisons. The prisoners will be taken mostly to two private prisons run by CCA, which also runs the Oklahoma prison.
The GEO Group
May 15 - About 170 workers will be laid off at the South Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center in Florida. The center, which is a 100-bed forensic psychiatric hospital whose patients are admitted by court order, is managed by GEO Care under contract with the state Department of Children and Families. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez said the state Legislature decided to close the facility in its recently approved budget. The company hopes to accommodate 30 to 40 percent of the employees at other facilities. Because of the slowing economy, the Legislature cut $5 million from the state budget. GEO Care is a part of GEO Group.
May 16 - Guards are confirming sexual assaults claims at the South Texas Detention Complex run by the GEO Group. Guards say the sexual abuse of female immigrants there has been going on for years and that GEO is trying to cover it up. ICE is now sending a Detention Facilities Inspection Group team to review compliance with ICE detention standards and will make
recommendations based on the results of its review.
Prison Health Services
May 12 - A former nurse at the York County Prison in Pennsylvania filed a federal lawsuit alleging gender and race discrimination. Oral Marsh, who is black, alleges in the lawsuit that she was subject to a pattern of discrimination including racially themed comments and abuse. March claims that she was hired in October 2005 and fired almost a year later without warning or reason. Marsh was one of only four black nurses out of almost 70 working at the prison. She is seeking an unspecified amount of lost wages, health benefits and other compensation. The lawsuit names York County and Prison Health Services. The county contracted with PHS for medical care at the facility until 2006.
Wackenhut
May 14 - In New Hampshire, three nuclear power plant security officers were the triggermen during separate accidental shootings during the past nine months. The most recent incident involved an off-duty Seabrook Station security officer who accidentally shot a 9mm bullet through his hand and will face criminal charges after making some medical progress. The second incident occurred when a power plant officer trainer pulled the trigger of his Springfield Armory handgun and shot a .45 caliber bullet through the floor of his apartment and into the living space below. A third recent shooting occurred when a guard was holstering a 357 SigArms pistol and a round went off in the nuclear plant armory. Seabrook power plant officers are not employed by the plant, but by Wackenhut, a $3 billion global security provider.
May 16 - Metro Nashville is asking Wackenhut to reimburse the city more than $840,000 for expenses related to a break-in last year at the Davidson County Election Commission offices. Metro Law Director Sue Cain wrote a letter to Wackenhut lawyer Jim Vines, a former U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee, requesting the reimbursement. Wackenhut was responsible for
security at the Metro Officer building in December, when thieves stole two laptop computers containing the Social Security numbers of 337,000 voters. Wackenhut subcontracted with a Mt. Juliet firm, Specialized Security Consultants, to secure the building. An audit found Wackenhut had billed Metro for some days when security guards actually didn't work at the facility. Cain asked Wackenhut to pay the city $48,387 for the audit by Kraft CPAs; $21,575 for security services that were not provided; $235,757.35 for two mailings to voters; and $534,391.75 for the cost of identity-theft protection for more than 56,000 voters who responded to the city's offer to pay for a year of protection.
May 12, 2008
Privatization Update: May 12th
Privatization Update
May 5-11, 2008
CiviGenics
May 7 - McLennan County commissioners authorized the hiring of 12 new jailers in response to an unfavorable order from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Commissioners voted to hire the new jailer after a two-hour, closed-door meeting with the county's attorneys. The jail has been teetering on its maximum capacity for several years and has been operating with variances from the jail standards commission. Jail commission officials told county commissioners they would be required to transfer prisoners to other facilities if they remained out of compliance with the 48-to-1 prisoner-to-staff ratio as required by state law.
McLennan County judge Jim Lewis said the county has been using funds from what would have been their salaries to pay CiviGenics, a private detention company that operates the county-owned jail, to house 85 overflow inmates from the county's jail. Now the county will pay roughly $203,000 to hire the dozen new jailers plus continuing to pay CiviGenics for holding inmates.
Cornell
May 5 - Andy Rebar, tax collector for Luthersburg, Pennsylvania township spoke to a group of 126 local, county and state officials about the Cornell facility that he said has not kept their promises to the township. He said he was "wholeheartedly" in favor of the private prison, which promised annual funding of $57,000 to $62,00 to the township but instead only $15,290 was received. Rebar said the township has hired a legal team and will fight this. He asked for help from other officials by writing a letter of support.
Corrections Corporation of America
May 5 - In the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey, a detainee had fallen, injured his head and became incoherent. CCA guards had put him in solitary confinement, and later that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive. But outside, for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was in coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why. Mr. Bah's name is one of 66 on a government list of deaths that occurred in immigration custody from January 2004 to November 2007. The list, complied by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Congress demanded the information is the fullest accounting to date of deaths in immigration detention, a patchwork of federal centers, county jails and privately run prisons that has become the nation's fastest-growing form of incarceration. The list has few details, and they are often unreliable, but it serves as a rough road map to previously unreported cases like Mr. Bah's. And it reflects a reality that haunts grieving families like his: the difficulty of getting information about the fate of people taken into immigration custody, even when they die. No government body is required to keep track of deaths and publicly report them. No independent inquiry is mandated. And often relatives who try to investigate the treatment of those who died say they are stymied by fear of immigration authorities, lack of access to lawyers, or sheer distance. Critics say this piecemeal process leaves too much to the agency's discretion, allowing some deaths to be swept under the rug while potential witnesses are transferred or deported. They say it also obscures underlying complaints about medical care, abusive conditions or inadequate suicide prevention. In January, the House passed a bill that would require states that receive certain federal money to report deaths in custody to their attorney generals. But the bill is stalled in the Senate, and it does not cover federal facilities. The only tangible result of Congressional concern has been the list of 66 deaths, which names Mr. Bah and many other detainees for the first time, but raises as many questions as it answers.
May 11 - At the agency in Washington responsible for foreign detainees' medical care, internal documents reveal a tendency to conceal the truth by withholding complete medical records or be offering misleading public explanations. In March 2006, immigration officers took Francisco Castaneda into custody. Medical staff suspected that Castaneda, then 34, had penile cancer. A lesion on his penis was bleeding and oozing. The staff sought approval for a biopsy, but the Division of Immigration Health Services denied the procedure for 10 months. Along the way, as he fought deportation, Castaneda filed several grievances. "I am in a considerable amount of pain and I am in desperate need of medical attention," he in June. "I feel that I am entitled to a healthy life." In July, David Lusche, an CCA physician assistant at the Otay Mesa facility in California, where Castaneda was being held, realized that his grievances were still pending and that an audit of the compound's medical files was approaching. At 2:26 a.m. July 28, he e-mailed a colleague, asking him to retrieve a handwritten grievance from Castaneda that Lusche had left in a drawer in an examining room. "We need to write something different, or make some amendment, on the Grievance for Francisco Castaneda," Lusche wrote. "Your response starts, 'Grievance not resolved.' Those words are going to attract all kinds of attention during an ICE Jail Standards audit. Could you somehow 'patch up' that Grievance with an amendment then put it in my box. I just want to avoid problems when the Auditors show up." After pressure from the ACLU, a biopsy was finally scheduled for early February 2007. But immigration officials suddenly released Castaneda from custody days before the surgery. One week later after the review, UCLA doctors gave Castaneda a diagnosis of invasive squamous cell carcinoma. On February 14, surgeons amputated his penis. In October 2007, after rounds of chemotherapy, he testified before a congressional panel looking into detainee medical care. On February 16, 2008, Castaneda died. U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson denied a government request to dismiss the lawsuit brought on Castaneda's behalf. In his March 11 ruling, the judge said lawyers had "submitted powerful evidence that Defendants knew Castaneda needed a biopsy to rule out cancer, falsely stated that his doctors called the biopsy "elective," and let him suffer in extreme pain for almost one year while telling him to be "patient" and treating him with Ibuprofen, antihistamines, and extra pairs of boxer shorts." Pregerson added; "Defendants' own records bespeak of conduct that transcends negligence by miles. It bespeaks of conduct that, if true, should be taught to every law student as conduct for which the moniker "cruel" is inadequate.
The GEO Group
May 6 - Startling allegations of sexual assault are coming out about a facility that holds illegal immigrants. It's said to be happening in Pearsall, Texas, where some GEO guards may be victimizing the women they are supposed to be protecting. Many of the immigrants held here are women. Some have fled abuse in their home country, only to be reportedly abused again behind these bars. A former detainee told a Texas media outlet that sexual abuse came from the guards. She said while she was there she rejected advances by one of the guards, but said other girls were too scared to put up a fight. "Some of the GEO guards tried to force themselves on the girls and that they've told them that if they ever said anything about it, that they have the power with ICE to deport them," explains this former detainee. The former detainee said, "some of the girls ended up pregnant by some of the officers there." She added one of those who got pregnant was a girl from Guatemala, names Marley. Last May, a GEO guard reported being told by another guard that he'd had sex with Marley, who already has been deported back home. That guard accused of having sex with Marley was Joseph Canales. After the incident report, Canales was fired, but ICE will not say if they referred the case for prosecution. The US Attorneys Office has said there no case against Canales. Still, there are other sexual assaults that have been uncovered. An ICE officer sent an email to his supervisors notifying them that a detainee had told him about a GEO sergeant who was having sex with one of the female detainees. The ICE officer said that some GEO guards prey on the female detainees by lying to them and promising they can help them stay in the United States. "If they had the opportunity," he explained, "some of the guards were touching, groping, but if they had the opportunity they had sex with them. If ICE can keep it under wraps, they will keep it under wraps." To keep it under wraps, he said he was fired for reporting what was going on. And he is not alone. Another former GEO guard who said she, too, was fired after reporting sexual abuse. A spokesman for GEO says they didn't know of any sexual assault cases.
May 10 - A GEO prison guard has been charged with beating his live-in girlfriend's daughter while she slept because of her loud snoring. Charles Williamson struck the 14-year-old four or five times with the wooden handle of a claw hammer. Williamson, 46, is a guard at the New Castle Correctional Facility. He was charged with two counts of battery and faces one count of criminal confinement after the girl complained she had been handcuffed to her bed. The girl's mother, Bobbie Jo Davis, 42, was being held at the jail on neglect charges. After Williamson beat the girl, Davis told him he shouldn't have beaten the girl but did not seek medical attention for her. When the girl complained of a headache the next morning, Davis gave her an aspirin and sent her to school. Police were later called to the school when the girl told teachers she had been beaten.
Wackenhut
May 9 - Wackenhut over-billed Miami-Dade County as much as $6 million over three years for phantom security guards at county transit stations, according to a long-awaited audit. County Auditor Cathy Jackson found that Wackenhut routinely charged the county for empty guard posts at Metrorail stations and along bus routes, and relied on inaccurate and falsified records to try to cover up the over-billing. Mayor Carlos Alvarez has given Wackenhut 90 days to repay the county or rebut the audit findings or he will cancel the company's no-bid contract, along with a separate Wackenhut contract for guards at a juvenile detention center. Jackson said Wackenhut should also pay the county an additional $233,000 for violating the terms of its contract. Wackenhut's billing is also being examined by public-corruption detectives with the Miami-Dade Police Department. Wackenhut disputes the audit.
May 4, 2008
Detention Dollars: Tougher immigration laws turn the ailing private prison sector into a revenue mak
At the beginning of the decade, the private prison industry was in a tailspin. After several profitable years in the 1990s, companies contracting prison beds to public corrections agencies were losing revenue at an alarming rate.
Capital earned during the 1990s had been poured into a speculative prison-building boom that backfired. State corrections agencies, a mainstay of what was then a relatively new industry, had begun pulling inmates out. There were too many prison beds and too few prisoners.
[…]
Then, in early 2000, CCA announced a lucrative new contract. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was to house 1,000 detainees at the company's San Diego Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa, built as part of the late-1990s construction boom. The agency agreed to pay a per diem fee of $89.50 for every person held…
LINK - SignOnSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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.
March 26, 2008
GEO private prison guard charged with multiple counts of sexual assault
A K-9 officer at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility was charged yesterday with multiple counts of institutional sexual assault for allegedly taking an inmate to a nearby grist mill for sex in his pickup truck, Delaware County authorities said.
Michael Waters, 37, an employee of the GEO Group, the Florida-based company that runs the county prison, admitted to having oral and vaginal sex with the female work-release inmate, according to the criminal complaint…
LINK - Philly.com (Philadelphia Daily News)
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
February 25, 2008
Adelanto prison riot sends 22 inmates to area hospitals
When rescue personnel arrived at the medium-security federal prison, the riot was still in progress, said Schramm. Personnel treated the injured parties in a safe and secure location within the prison, said Ledesma. "We all worked together as a team to make sure all of the patients were transported where they needed to go," said Ledesma.
It is still unclear what started the trouble. Officials from the privately-run prison had no comment on the situation.
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
February 25, 2008
21 injured in SoCal prison riot over the weekend
A riot at a privately run prison left more than 20 inmates injured over the weekend. Authorities say one inmate was critically hurt during Saturday's violence at the Desert View Modified Community Correctional Facility in Adelanto. The other 20 inmates suffered minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals. It wasn't clear what started the riot…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
February 24, 2008
19 injured in riot at prison in Adelanto
Nineteen people were injured Saturday in a riot at the Desert View Modified Community Correctional Facility in Adelanto, authorities said. San Bernadino County Fire Department officials said one victim suffered serious injuries and needed to be airlifted to a hospital. The others suffered minor injuries and also were taken to area hospitals, said Tim Franke, a fire dispatch supervisor.
A 2006 annual report by Boca Raton, Fla.-based The GEO Group, which owned the facility at the time, described Desert View as a medium-security prison with 643 inmates.
LINK - LATimes.com
February 8, 2008
Queens, NY - Residents Balk At Prison Contract
The GEO Group Inc., an international company which manages prison facilities, was given a two-year extension on Dec. 3, despite constant protests from nearby residents. […] The prison was opened in July 2005 on a trial basis. It holds prisoners detained by the U.S. Marshalls on drug- and weapons-related federal charges. Prior to 2005, it was used as a detention center for illegal residents, who were to be extradited by U.S. Customs officials. Despite strong and visible protests from the community, Queens Private Detention Facility, as it is now called, was awarded a two-year contract with four two-year extension periods, meaning the prison could potentially stay in the neighborhood for another 10 years without having to change the terms of its deal…
LINK - ZWire.com
February 2, 2008
February 2, 2008: Privatization Update
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
Overall Privatization Issues
Feb. 1 - Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to tighten up rules for the state's growing private-prison industry, which is virtually unregulated by the state. A legislative proposal drafted by the Governor's office and introduced by Republican Senator Robert Blendu would bar private prisons from importing murderers, rapists and some other dangerous or seriously ill felons to Arizona. It would also require the companies to share security and inmate information with state officials. "It is a matter of public safety," said Dennis Burke, Napolitano's chief of staff. "Other states are exporting their worst criminals to Arizona, and we can't even know what they are doing and what steps they are taking to protect Arizonans." But private prison officials and other industry supports say the bill could threaten the industry. "If you change the rules of the game midstream, were are going to resist it because we invested based on the current rules," said Tony Grande, senior vice for Corrections Corporation of America. Now, more than 9,000 felons from Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and other states and the federal government are housed in 6 of 11 privately run prisons in Arizona. But unlike other states, Arizona has no restrictions on the kind of out-of-state inmates that can be brought there. And private prison companies in Arizona are not required to share detailed information on inmates, staffing and security measures or have their facility design approved by state officials. Such requirements are in place in other states with significant private prisons. Of the 15 states that expressly authorize private prisons, Arizona is one of the least restrictive. Arizona laws require companies to carry insurance to cover law enforcement costs in cases of escape, notify state officials when they bring new prisoners into the state and return prisoners to their home states to be released. But there are no penalties if the companies don't comply and no way to check on releases. Blendu's bill would bring together several restrictions found in other states and give the state the ability to assess fines if the private companies don't comply.
Correctional Medical Services
Feb. 1 - Continued poor performance by the Delaware Department of Correction's medical vendor could hamper the department's efforts to get out from under supervision by the U.S. Justice Department, according to a new report by an independent monitor overseeing the state prison system. Correctional Medical Services, a private company Delaware pays millions of dollars a year to provide medical care to inmates, suffers from a "lack of stable and effective leadership," independent monitor Joshua Martin wrote. "Moreover, there has been consistent turnover at staff-level positions, and, at (Young Correctional Institution) in particular, there is a problem with staff insubordination that needs to be addressed because it affects inmate medical and mental health services negatively," Martin wrote in his report. "The monitoring team has also faced difficulty in receiving consistent and accurate information from CMS." While Martin found that the DOC has made some improvements, he concluded that many CMS staff lacked proper credentials or were working outside their areas of expertise. The monitoring team also found that for three months last year, no inmate at the Smyrna prison received a referral to an outside specialist because "the person who was assigned to schedule appointments for inmates was on sick leave, and CMS had failed to find a temporary replacement." Inmate medical files were found stashed in boxes, while others were out of date, doctored or missing. At the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution, a book used to keep track of inmates suffering from highly contagious flesh-eating bacteria was lost, the date irretrievable.
Corrections Corporation of America
Jan. 29 - Six black nurses in Indiana are suing the private prison company operating a Marion County jail, alleging they were fired or forced to leave their jobs because of racism or exposing medical practices that put inmates at risk. The 10-count complaint alleges Corrections Corporation of America retaliated against the six because they had complained to their supervisors that inmates did not receive prescribed medications, were given wrong medications or were given other patients' drugs to save money.
The suit alleges CCA created a racially hostile work environment in which one white supervisor wore clothing with a Confederate flag emblem and another white supervisor had a drawing in which black nurses were identified as "monkeys." The nurses also said they were forced to work in an unhealthy and dangerous work environment including being ordered to escort dangerous inmates and having to walk through sewage with garbage bags on their feet when the plumbing in a restroom overflowed. The lawsuit said the alleged actions occurred over the last two years.
Jan. 30 - The Washington Department of Corrections plans to stop sending inmates to private, out-of-state prisons and to begin shipping home the 1,200 inmates at those facilities this summer. The state prison system has rented out-of-state prison beds since 2003 to ease overcrowding, but the scheduled opening in January 2009 of the new Coyote Ridge prison will likely allow the Department of Corrections to keep all prisoners in state. According to DOC projections of bed capacity, about 300 inmates currently at private prisons run by CCA will be shipped home by November. By April
2009, 360 more will return, with the rest arriving by July 2009. Also the Legislature is considering a bill that would ban out-of-state transfers for inmates who are in regular contact with their families, or who participate in parent-teacher conferences. The out-of-state transfers have put DOC at odds with its own program to keep fathers connected with their children. Research has shown that inmates who keep close contact with their families have lower recidivism rates, and their children are less likely to be incarcerated. The out-of-state transfers also put more pressure on prisons because CCA will take only healthy, well-behaved inmates.
Jan. 31 - Hawaii prison officials hope to use federal money to build new tent-like structures to house up to 449 prison inmates on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island to ease overcrowding in state prisons and jails. The proposal amounts to the largest single expansion of the state prison system in twenty years. The housing would be 7,064-square-foot "Sprung Instant Structure" made from a membrane stretched over an aluminum skeleton. Each structure could house up to 64 inmates. Together those structures would provide housing for up to 256 men and 192 women inmates. The objective is to make more space available inside secure correctional facilities around the state.
Jan. 30 - An immigrant detention center that holds children with their families could double in population under an agreement between Williamson County and federal officials to add up to 250 female detainees. Since opening in 2006, the T. Don Hutto Residential Center has held immigrant families while they await decisions in their immigration cases. The 512-bed facility has 250 people living there, and the county's agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could add up to 250 noncriminal immigrant females in a separate area. The detention center has faced heavy criticism by protesters for what they call the wrongful imprisonment of children. It has also caused liability concerns for the county, after a guard was fired after he was accused of sexually assaulting a female detainee in May. County commissioners debated whether to keep their contract with the federal government and Corrections Corporation of America, the private company that owns and operates the facility. The contract expires Jan. 31, 2009. Commissioner Cynthia Long said she is comfortable adding more female detainees, saying new measures have been put in place to prevent future incidents. Some of those include more staff training and education on how to operate video and security equipment. The contract change surprised some residents opposed to the facility.
The GEO Group
Jan. 31 - A federal lawsuit was filed against the GEO Group, the Florida company that runs the jail in Delaware County, Pennsylvania and numerous other states. The suit listed a single plaintiff; Stephen Bussy, 53, a home health-care worker who was strip-searched after a drunken driving arrest last year. Bussy represents a class of people nationwide who were allegedly victimized by strip-searches for minor offenses in GEO Group jails, the suit says. The suit lists damages at $5 million, but lawyers say that is considered to be a baseline figure for that type of class-action suit. Last month three guards from George W. Hill Correctional Facility said all prisoners entering the facility were strip-searched, including people held for minor violations, such as failing to make child support payments or those held because they could not pay outstanding traffic tickets. Federal judges across the nation have ruled that blanket strip-search policies for people arrested for minor crimes violates the U.S. Constitution's protection from "unreasonable" search and seizure. Office from GEO Group would not comment on the suit. But in past interviews, GEO has refused to discuss the corporation's policy on strip searches. Some of the lawyers filing the suit have been working with a group of attorneys that won a $7.5 million settlement from Camden County for allegedly strip-searching thousands of people illegally in its prison. Two of the attorneys also sued the Philadelphia Corrections Department seeking $15 million for allegedly conducting more than 20,000 illegal searches. The suit is pending.
TransCor
Feb. 2 - A privately contracted guard is in jail after Bradford County, Florida deputies charged him with having sex with two inmates he was transporting. Shaun McFadden is charged with two counts of having sex with an inmate in custody. The incident began after McFadden, an armed guard who works for TransCor, took four prisoners to the county jail. McFadden returned a short time later and told authorities he needed to take the two women to a local hospital for physicals so they could be cleared for further transport. McFadden and the women, who were handcuffed and shackled, then left. A police report said the women and McFadden had planned the move. The women told police they intended to drink and smoke with McFadden, while one also planned to escape. The women told police McFadden had consensual sex with them at a motel. One of the women said she became fearful that McFadden might harm her and fled while he was in the shower. When police arrived, they found McFadden and the other woman still in the room.
January 27, 2008
Privatization Updated (January 27, 2008)
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
Overall Privatization
Jan. 24 - Idaho Governor Butch Otter announced a plan to lawmakers to let prison companies own and operate for-profit lockups in Idaho, arguing it's better for corporations to pay up-front costs of housing a growing inmate population than it is for the state to sell bonds for such projects. Currently, Idaho law prevents corporations from building for-profit prisons. Under Otter's proposal, companies could own their own facilities, although only after the state issues a permit for a new facility. Inmates from elsewhere could be brought here, but Idaho prisoners would have priority and could "bump" inmates from other states to make room for them.
CiviGenics
Jan. 23 - Montana has asked a District Court judge to dismiss a lawsuit file din December by the city of Hardin and its economic development are, Two Rivers Authority. The lawsuit asked that the judge throw out Attorney General Mike McGrath's opinion that state law doesn't allow a new detention facility in Hardin to hold inmates convicted out-of-state. Two Rivers needs to house inmates to repay the $27 million in revenue bonds that funded the jail. Two Rivers and CiviGenics, which contracted to operate the facility, have tried to get contracts with the state of Wyoming and the Bureau of Indian Affairs detention division.
Jan. 23 - Two guards were charged with conspiring to deliver marijuana and Ecstasy to a federal inmate housed in the Liberty County jail in Texas. Shondalyn Jones and Manitra Taylor both employed by CiviGenics, were taken into custody after they accepted the illegal drugs and $1,000 from an undercover agent. The unidentified federal inmate who was buying the drugs was the informant who tipped authorities about the delivery.
Correctional Medical Services
Jan. 23 - An independent audit reveals Michigan's $300 million a year prison health care system is fractured and inefficient, leading to unnecessarily high costs, impeding inmate access and diminishing the quality of care. A federal court case, media attention and reports of inmates dying because of inadequate care prompted Gov. Jennifer Granholm to order the review in 2006. A U.S. District Court ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and called the state's system "systematically defective" and "dangerous". The revamping won't include firing Correctional Medical Services, an often-criticized private company that has provided HMO-style managed care in the Michigan prison system for the past 10 years. In fact, the contract with the company has been extend by a year. The report, however, says the state should "seriously reconsider the advantages and disadvantages of continuing to contract out provider services." The report is critical of CMS, saying there are long patient waiting lists, and the company lets many medical provider shifts go unfilled. "We were told that CMS can unilaterally choose to reduce provider staffing from five days a week to two days a week, if it has trouble recruiting, and that CMS is not subject to any penalty or disincentive," the report said. Some staffing cutbacks violated the state contract, according to the report. The commission found that the department had a monitor for the CMS contract "but it is not clear what he actually did. This contract has been running for over 10 years, and we were not provided a single monitoring report."
Corrections Corporation of America
Jan. 21 - In May of last year, a CCA guard had sex with a female detainee at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center. But the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, falls within a loophole only recently fixed through Congressional action that prevented the prosecution of the guard. With more than 400 pages of documents logging the ICE investigation into the incident, no charges were ever filed against the guard. According to U.S. federal code, "Whoever knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who is in official detention; and under the custodial supervisory, or disciplinary authority of the person so engaging; or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than one year, or both." However, the law only applies to prisons under the U.S. Attorney General, which does not include ICE detention centers, an oversight and loophole in the law only changed in July 2007.
Jan. 26 - A secretary at a privately run Kentucky prison where Hawaii women inmates are housed apparently smuggled a handgun into the facility and shot herself in the warden's office. The apparent suicide of Carla Meade, 43, represents a major security breach at the Otter Creek Correctional Center. Meade got a small pistol past the facility metal detector, and that company officials are examining the screening equipment to determine if it is functioning properly. Company security protocol includes checks of hand-carried clothing and random pat-downs of employees, and all workers must pass through a metal detector each day.
The GEO Group
Jan. 25 - An Indiana state prison that was the site of riot last year was locked down after three guards were treated for minor injuries after a fight with inmates. Four to six inmates at the New Castle Correctional Facility fought with the guards during outdoor exercise.
January 13, 2008
Privatization Updated (January 13, 2008)
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
Overall Privatization Issues
Jan. 8 - An Oklahoma lawmaker wants to levy a $2-a-day fee for prisoners imported from other states to private prisons. Rep. Brian Renegar said there are 4,375 out-of-state inmates now imprisoned in Oklahoma. Renegar said the inmates come at a cost to taxpayers for food stamps and other benefits paid to families of inmates relocated to the state. His proposed legislation would raise $3.6 million, which would be earmarked for mental health and drug abuse programs in state prisons. Under the proposal, private prisons would be charged daily for each imported inmate. He said the prisons could pass on the cost to prisoners. Renegar worried about the growth of private prisons in the state, noting officials in Lindsay are currently considering a 500-bed facility that might be used to house out-of-state prisoners. "Before long, if we are not careful, we are going to be a penal colony," Renegar said. He said the Department of Corrections had to send a SWAT team to a private prison in Lawton on New Year's Eve after an inmate took a dentist and a dental assistant hostage for a brief period of time.
The GEO Group
Jan. 9 - The GEO Group announced it received a 20-year contract to house detainees at a facility in Georgia from the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee. Under the contract, which includes three five-year options, GEO will house up to 768 detainees at the Robert Deyton Detention Facility. GEO leases the facility from the county under a 20-year agreement, with two 5-year renewal options. GEO expects to start taking in detainees in February. The facility is expected to generate $16 million in annualized operating revenue with an 80 percent occupancy guarantee.
GRW
Jan. 8 - A lawsuit filed on behalf of two Hawaii female prison inmates who claimed they were sexually assaulted by a guard in a privately run prison in Colorado has been settled for an undisclosed amount of money. Lawyer Myles Breiner said the state won't have to pay any share of the settlement because Hawaii was indemnified against inmate lawsuits under its contract with GRW Corp. to hold the women inmates at the Brush Correctional Facility in Colorado. The inmates claimed guard Russell Rollison pushed one of them against a wall and threatened to write up both inmates for misconduct if they did not perform a sex act for him. One of the inmates saved semen from the encounter that was later turned over to investigators with the Colorado Department of Corrections. Rollison resigned and was charged with two counts of felony sexual contact with an inmate in a penal institution.
Wackenhut
Jan. 7 - The guard who was fired after computers with voters' Social Security numbers were stolen from the Davidson County Election Commission in Tennessee says he wasn't on duty at the time. In fact, no one was on duty at the time. Brendan Murphy notified local media after reading a story about an unnamed guard who was blamed by Metro officials for listening to Christmas music, ordering takeout food and failing to make his hourly rounds as two laptop computers were stolen. Murphy said he nor anyone else worked that night due to budget cuts, though the company is contracted and paid to provide security. The Department of General Services said there is no actual proof security guards used their access cards to get into the building on Saturdays, between October and December.
Jan. 9 - It has been discovered that uniforms and IDs belonging to ex-guards are not being returned. One employee told the local Tennessee media that he stopped working for Wackenhut almost a year ago and he still has five Wackenhut shirts and a jacket, his official patches, a brass badge, and a security identification badge that expires in 2012, and a the key that lets him "walk through gate that has a padlock on it." Wackenhut officials declined to comment.
Jan. 9 - The CEO of Wackenhut is stepping down. The change at the top came at a time when Wackenhut was facing mounting criticism in various cities, including some in South Florida where its Miami-Dade County operation is the target of a criminal probe. The county audit is examining whether Wackenhut overcharged taxpayers million of dollars.
Jan. 9 - Miami-Dade and federal investigators raided the headquarters Friday night of one of the country's largest government contractors. Wackenhut is under a criminal investigation for overbilling taxpayers millions of dollars, money for work on transit and the downtown juvenile center. Public correction investigators and police removed boxes filled with documents from Wackenhut. Investigators are nearing completion of an audit of Wackenhut's billing practices. The preliminary audit found serious discrepancies.
December 2, 2007
Privatization Updated (December 2, 2007)
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
CiviGenics
Nov. 27 - CiviGenics, who is due to take over a troubled privately run Texas prison in 2008 made a sales pitch to Idaho Department of Corrections officials, saying it hopes the management shake-up and $1.2 million in proposed renovations will overshadow past problems and persuade Idaho to ship more inmates to the lockup. CiviGenics will manage Dickens County Correctional Center starting Jan. 1 after winning a competitive bid. Until now, The GEO Group ran the facility. In March, Idaho prison officials called Dickens under GEO's oversight "the worst" prison they'd seen, citing what they called an abusive warden, the lack of treatment programs and squalid conditions they said may have contributed to the suicide of inmate Scot Noble Payne, who was held for months in a solitary cell. Idaho is nearly ready to move 54 prisoners who remain at Dickens at a new GEO-run facility near the Mexican border, after shifting 69 inmates elsewhere this summer. Dickens County and CiviGenics officials came to Boise, Idaho to offer assurances they'll remedy concerns over their 15-year-old prison as they aim to stay in the running to house some of the hundreds of prisoners that Idaho plans to ship elsewhere in coming months to ease overcrowding.
Cornell
Nov. 26 - The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency says it is reconsidering its July move to pull about 700 detainees from the Regional Correctional Center in New Mexico. The agency is considering moving "a limited number" of detainees back to the privately run jail early next year. ICE transferred all of its detainees from the RCC to other holding facilities around the U.S. after what it called "serous incidents," although the agency has declined to say what those incidents were. The agency also has said the center didn't meet several of its detention standards and that it has been reviewing conditions at the jail. At the time, a high-level Department of Homeland Security official said the agency had "serious doubts about their (Cornell's) ability to provide the safe and humane environment we want for out detainees." Cornell spokesman Charles Seigel said the company hadn't received word that ICE would be returning. Fewer than 200 inmates, all in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, remain at the jail, which has an official capacity of 993 prisoners. In the seven months surrounding ICE's decision to move inmates, 19 jail employees were fired. During that same period, inmates filed 218 grievances at the jail.
The GEO Group
Nov. 29 - The mother of an Idaho inmate who killed himself in a Texas prison earlier this year has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the private prison company, The GEO Group, that runs the lockup. In her claim, Shirley Noble says The GEO Group abused and neglected Scot Noble Payne before he slashed his throat on March 4th.
Wackenhut
Nov. 26 - SEIU wants the Exelon Corp. to terminate Wackenhut from all nuclear security detail in Exelon's 10 nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The union sent out advertisements in newspapers in Illinois and Pennsylvania. In September, Exelon announced the ending of their contract with Wackenhut at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County, PA, after it was confirmed that Wackenhut guards were sleeping on the job. Now SEIU is encouraging communities surrounding the remaining Wackenhut sites to contact their congressional representatives and insist that Exelon take the same action in Illinois and Pennsylvania. "Wackenhut overworks its guards, underpays them, skimps on, and sometimes fudges training, fake drills, and then, when problems come to light, they fire scapegoats and claim to be shocked, shocked, by sleepy guards," the ad says.
November 25, 2007
Privatization Updated (November 25, 2007)
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
Corrections Corporation of America
Nov. 20 - Bay County Florida commissioners have fined CCA $140,000 for mistakenly releasing 10 inmates from the county jail earlier this month. The fine stems from an incident that happened Nov. 1. CCA released ten inmates enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program, before they had completed their sentences. All of the inmates surrendered after CCA discovered the mistake and notified them. A review by the county contract monitor cited poor staff judgment, broad booking procedures, inadequate staffing, and a seven-hour delay between the time the incident occurred and the time it took CCA to notify the contract monitor. Also corrective measures were taken such as notifying the county within 30 minutes of an incident and creating new booking and classification procedures.
Wackenhut
Nov. 20 - A private guard working at St. Lucie County's juvenile detention center is accused of sexually assaulting a female detention center while they were on early morning duty. Leroy Masters, an employee of Wackenhut, which provides security at the juvenile detention center for Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, was arrested. Masters faces sexual assault charges. Masters and the 25-year-old woman were talking in an office when the woman went to use the restroom. She told police Masters followed her in before she could close the door and forced himself on her. Masters followed her out of the restroom, and into the dining area. Where Masters allegedly pushed her down across a table and attempted to rape her.
November 11, 2007
Privatization Updated (November 11, 2007)
An update on the true "cost" of private prisons in the United States.
Overall Privatization Issues
Nov. 5 - As Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections plans to build three more prisons, a state House bill would ensure that the state, not private companies will operate them. The bill prevents private companies from operating the new or any existing prisons in Pennsylvania.
Corrections Corporation of America
Nov. 5 - An investigation is underway at the Bay County jail Annex after nine inmates were released from the jail prior to the completion of their court-ordered drug program and then told them to come back. The Bay County Jail Annex released nine inmate's in the facilities lifeline substance abuse program, which is a 120-day program. "The county is going to put every effort to find out how this happened and make sure it never happens again," said Commissioner Mike Nelson. Warden Ponte said the mistake happened when inmate's completion certificates were printed early. "I apologize, this shouldn't have happened. We are doing everything we can to prevent this from happening in the future," said Ponte. The Bay County Jail is managed by Corrections Corporation of America.
The GEO Group
Nov. 9 - The GEO Group announced that is has signed contract amendments with CDCR extending the terms of GEO?s contracts for the management and operation of two 600-bed and one 625-bed, medium community correctional facilities located in McFarland and Adelanto for another five years. The initial per diem rate for each of the three contracts is $60.00 per inmate, subject to an annual adjustment consistent with the adjustment received by CDCR from the Legislature for publicly operated facilities. The contract amendments will take effect on December 15, 2007 and are expected to generate approximately $40 million in annual revenues.
