On July 1, 2024, Virginia’s Department of Corrections (DOC) closed four prisons and was set to terminate its contract with private prison giant GEO Group, Inc. just over a month later, taking back operational control of its only privately operated prison, Lawrenceville Correctional Center (LCC), on August 4, 2024.

The medium-­security prison in Brunswick County has been managed by the Florida-­based firm since 2003. It was unclear how its loss would affect the company, which reported 2023 revenues of $2.41 billion and net income of $113.8 million. DOC spokesperson Kyle Gibson said the measure was taken to “enhance public safety in the commonwealth.” As PLN reported, LCC had DOC’s second-­largest prisoner population when it reported seven deaths in 2021. [See: PLN, Feb. 2022, p. 44.] Another 12 deaths were reported in 2022.

Brunswick County Sheriff Brian K. Roberts began his law enforcement career in 1998, the year that LCC opened. He had called it an asset to the rural county, until September 2022, when he said the lockup had become a liability. That was after the county’s Office of Emergency Communication received 204 calls from the prison between January 2021and May 2022, including 39 drug overdoses and 21 prisoners found unresponsive. ...

When Tennessee lawmakers adopted a new $52.8 billion state budget on April 18, 2024, it hiked outlays for the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to $233 million, a $9.8 million increase that mostly went to private prison giant CoreCivic, which operates four of the state’s 15 prisons. Yet just months earlier, both CoreCivic and DOC were called out in a performance audit released by the state Comptroller of the Treasury on December 12, 2023.

The report, which covered a four-­year period ending July 31, 2023, found significant deficiencies at the state lockups, the most serious related to understaffing, lack of sufficient rehabilitative programs and violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

With regard to staffing, auditors found both DOC and CoreCivic faced “an ongoing and deeply rooted challenge of attrition” that left DOC with 30% of guard positions vacant—42% in CoreCivic prisons. In fact, state officials assessed $10.8 million in liquidated damages against CoreCivic from July 2020 to June 2022 for failing to meet required staffing levels.

Along with high staff vacancies, the turnover rate for DOC guards averaged 37%. At CoreCivic lockups, the rate was an astounding 146%—including the state’s highest rate, 188%, at the firm’s Trousdale Turner ...

On February 21, 2024, a riot broke out between rival groups of detainees held for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) at a GEO Group lockup in El Centro, California. Injuries were reported to detainees and staff of the private prison giant, but the number and extent were unclear. The prison was immediately placed on lockdown, which wasn’t completely lifted until February 29, 2024.

Detainee Malik Washington reported that violence erupted between two normally cordial groups of migrant detainees known as the Sureños and Pesos while they were playing soccer on the prison recreation yard. As GEO Group guards attempted to quell the disturbance, Washington said, their walkie-­talkies erupted with frantic calls of “code yellow” from two other areas in the prison, the Mike Unit and the Nancy Unit. That’s when he said it “became apparent that these were not just random incidents, but part of a well-­orchestrated and timed attack meant to send a clear message.”

The violence appeared to be a thumb of the nose to USMS officials, who claimed they had conducted a “thorough inspection” shortly before of areas where migrant detainees are held. Despite a three-­year-­old executive order signed by Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) in ...

The leading cause of death among people held in local jails is suicide. The family of Christopher Lapp, 62, learned that the hard way when he killed himself at Virginia’s Alexandria Adult Detention Center in 2021, while being held on federal bank robbery and armed carjacking charges. Almost three years later, on January 22, 2024, they reached a $1.75 million settlement with the jail’s contracted psychiatrist.

According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by Lapp’s ex-­wife, Lisa Lapp, both as executor of his estate and on behalf of their 16-­year-­old daughter, he had a history of mental illness that included bipolar and delusional disorders. Though Lapp had a Ph.D. in nuclear science and worked as a nuclear physicist, he suffered a “severe psychiatric decline” and psychotic break in 2018, culminating with an armed robbery of a Wells Fargo bank branch, after which he also stole a getaway car from the teller at gunpoint.

While in pretrial detention at the jail, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia; but due to this same condition, he denied being mentally ill and discounted the need for treatment. He was found incompetent to stand trial, however, and ...

by David M. Reutter

On August 30, 2023, a Florida court entered final judgment awarding $6 million to the estate of a detainee who died at Santa Rosa County Jail (SRCJ) from pneumonia left untreated by employees of the jail’s medical contractor, Armor Correctional Health Services. The jury that made the award had added $10 million in punitive damages for the estate of Misty Michelle Williamson, but Judge Clifton A. Drake of the First Judicial Circuit Court struck that before issuing final judgment.

After her arrest for unauthorized use of her son’s credit card, Williamson, 44, entered SRCJ in good health on October 31, 2016. But by the morning of December 9, 2016, she was complaining of chest pains, sinus congestion, shortness of breath, elevated pulse, and non-­productive cough. However, no action was taken by Armor employees then or later that evening, when Williamson made a second trip to the infirmary.

Her condition continued to worsen over the next three days. Finally, on December 14, 2016, Williamson was sent to an outside hospital. Staff there diagnosed her severe sepsis, severe pneumonia, respiratory failure and hypertension, a condition also known as Systematic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. Recognizing that she was in respiratory ...

On February 8, 2024, the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of California declined to dismiss all the claims brought by the family of a San Diego Jail detainee who died in custody of drug withdrawal while under the care of the lockup’s contracted medical provider, Correctional Healthcare Partners (CHP).

In the early morning hours of March 10, 2022, William Hayden Schuck, 22, was arrested for DUI after he wrecked his car in Ocean Beach and responding cops found drugs inside. At booking into San Diego Central Jail, an intake nurse noted that Schuck was incoherent and making nonsensical statements. Schuck stated that he had been awake for the past 44 hours. Although 6’2” tall, he weighed only 131 pounds.

Jail guards transported Schuck to a local hospital for an evaluation, where he refused treatment. Hospital staff gave guards medical records indicating that he needed follow up care because he had a family history of ischemic heart disease, a condition which can cause arrythmia and heart failure. But CHP medical staff at the jail did not review these records or provide follow up care. Nor did they test him for drugs or recommend that he be placed in an ...

Writers are intimately familiar with the effort it takes to organize ideas and direct them through a keyboard into text. Most have the comfort of knowing their draft work waits for them to take the next step. But incarcerated writers do not have that comfort.

In November 2023, Christopher Blackwell and other writers serving time at Washington Correctional Center lost their work for the third time that year because of a technical glitch by prison telecom giant Securus. While those on the outside can restore deleted files or easily consult information used to write a piece, the sole repository for the work of these incarcerated writers was the “drafts” folder on Securus tablets provided by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) that mysteriously and suddenly emptied itself.

Unlike typical computers, these tablets lack basic file-saving capabilities, forcing writers to rely on the platform’s limited features. The sudden deletion resulted in the loss of hundreds of hours of writing. Blackwell described the pain of losing entire drafts and starting over. Fellow prisoner Darrell Jackson lamented the emotional cost of rewriting pieces about sensitive topics like trauma and structural racism.

Securus offered two free e-stamps as compensation—a meager sum amounting to less ...

by David M. Reutter

On December 6, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed denial of qualified immunity (QI) to defendant officials with Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg Police Department (HPD) and the contracted medical provider for Dauphin County Booking Center (DCBC), PrimeCare Medical, in a suit accusing them of failing to treat a detainee who died in custody of a fatal fentanyl overdose. However, the Court affirmed denial of a claim that Defendants failed to intervene to prevent a violation of Terrelle Thomas’ right to medical care, finding no such right exists.

HPD Officer Daril Foose and Adult Probation Officer Dan Kisinger observed Thomas and another man exit a Harrisburg bar on December 14, 2019, getting in a vehicle and driving away. A traffic stop ensued, during which the cops saw that Thomas had ingested a white powdery substance. He explained that it was the remnants of a candy cigarette, but as he said this, the cops also allegedly saw rocks of cocaine fall from his pocket.

Despite this evidence of drug ingestion, no care was provided to Thomas after he was arrested to treat withdrawal or to assure he had not ingested a dangerous amount of ...

The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s Division of State Audit released a performance audit of the state Department of Correction (DOC) on December 12, 2023. Covering a four-year period ending the previous July 31, 2023, the audit found significant deficiencies at the DOC’s 10 state prisons, plus four more operated under contract by private prison giant CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corp. of America). The most serious problems identified related to understaffing, lack of sufficient rehabilitative programs and violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

Regarding staffing, auditors found both DOC and CoreCivic facilities faced “an ongoing and deeply rooted challenge of attrition” of employees. Overall, DOC prisons averaged a 30% vacancy rate for security staff in 2023, while the rate for CoreCivic was even worse: 42%. State officials assessed $10.8 million in liquidated damages against CoreCivic from July 2020 to June 2022 for failing to meet required staffing levels.

Staff vacancies went hand-in-hand with employee turnover, averaging 37% for security staff at DOC facilities in 2023. CoreCivic lockups averaged an astounding 146% turnover rate; the highest rate at any state prison, 188% was recorded at the company’s Trousdale Turner Correctional Center (TTCC). The company’s contract with DOC sets its maximum ...

Before food service in West Virginia’s prison system was taken over by Aramark Correctional Services, the nation’s largest for-profit food service provider in prisons and jails, all meals were prepared by prisoners, often using fresh vegetables grown in gardens and greenhouses as part of a culinary arts program.

But according to a report released by the state Center on Budget & Policy (CBP) on September 12, 2023, the institutional gardens were discontinued and fresh fruit and vegetables mostly disappeared from prison menus after Aramark assumed kitchen operations. At the Mt. Olive Corr. Center, for example, a 2022 menu included bread or pasta for “[n]early every meal.” There was a “rotation of sugary desserts, but no fruit.” Of 70 lunches and dinners in a five-week menu cycle, only 26 included a salad, and one-third of those weren’t “from fresh greens but potato salad, coleslaw, and pasta salad.”

State Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) Commissioner William Marshall testified before a legislative committee in April 2023 about “the poor quality food being served in DCR facilities” that house juveniles. As repeatedly reported in PLN, the problems with sub-par food from services like Aramark have been well-documented in numerous other prison systems and ...