As the late business historian Alfred Chandler, Jr. once said, the visible hand of the corporation has been of far greater importance to capitalism than has Adam Smith’s so-called invisible hand of the market.

Although modern forms of capitalism are justified, and often sanitized, by rhetorical appeals to competition, competition contradictorily tends toward monopoly by eliminating “weaker” firms in any given market. Competition is integral to the rationalizing logic of capitalism writ large, but anathema to individual capitalist firms.
The essential inconsistencies of modern capitalism, however, often serve as the fault lines from which social movements can emerge.

And what better place to begin than with the Tennessee-based private prison firm, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). CCA, in its own words, “is the nation’s largest owner and operator of partnership correction and detention facilities and one of the largest prison operators in the United States, behind only the federal government and three states. [The company] currently operate[s] 67 facilities, including 47
company-owned facilities, with a total design capacity of approximately 92,000 beds in 20 states and the District of Columbia.”

Very few corporations are more notoriously devoted to Chandler’s “visible hand” theory than Corrections Corporation of America. With less than ...

Widespread fighting among black and Hispanic California prisoners at the privately-operated North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Oklahoma last year left dozens of prisoners injured.

The disturbance began shortly before noon on October 11, 2011 and was described by some news reports as a riot and by others as a series of random, uncoordinated brawls. Six local police units responded, and order was restored after police and prison employees used chemical irritants and pepperball rounds to quell the fighting. The facility is man-aged by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

At least 46 prisoners suffered injuries – 57 according to one news report; of those, 8 were removed by helicopter, four were hospitalized for weeks and one lapsed into a coma.
There were no fatalities, and no staff members or law enforcement officers were hurt.

The Associated Press reported that some Hispanic prisoners had barricaded themselves in a dining hall; another news source put the number of prisoners who participated in the riot at 600. Although some of the prisoners involved were affiliated with the Surenos prison gang, it was unknown whether the fighting was gang-related.

“My considered opinion is that it looks like they had way too many inmates out ...

by Matt Clarke

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) has challenged the findings of a state audit of the prisoner health care services it provides. The challenged audit reported that UTMB improperly charged the state for about $40 million in prison medical-related costs while reporting a $95.1 million deficit. UTMB also complained that the $900 million allocated by the Texas legislature for prisoner health care for FY 2011-2012 was inadequate, and threatened to cancel its contract. The legislature later approved a supplement to UTMB’s funding. Meanwhile, in a glaringly inappropriate attempt to close the state’s budget gap on the backs of its most disadvantaged citizens, Texas lawmakers passed a bill that imposes a $100 annual medical co-pay on prisoners.

UTMB provides health care services to about three-quarters of the more than 152,000 state prisoners in Texas. The audit found that UTMB charged the state for over $16.2 million in disallowed costs not directly related to prisoner health care, charged $6.6 million that was not allowed under the prison health care contract over a two-year period, and gave its prison health care employees $14.1 million in pay increases over a three-year period, all while reporting a $95.1 million ...

PHS Hit with $312,000 Verdict for Inadequate Care of Pennsylvania Prisoner

On February 17, 2012, a Pennsylvania state jury slapped Prison Health Services (PHS) with a $400,000 verdict for inadequate medical care of a prisoner at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Albion. The award was reduced to $312,000 because the jury ...

There are cuts to health care and there are health care cuts. At least one Arizona prisoner has personal knowledge of the unfortunate difference.

Prisoners and their advocates have accused the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) of being so obsessed with reducing costs that prison officials routinely deny medical care for serious, even life-threatening conditions.

A diabetic prisoner alleged that he lost sight in one eye and partial sight in the other after waiting months for his insulin injections. Another claimed he was denied medication for epilepsy and suffered repeated seizures for weeks. And one prisoner’s face was permanently disfigured after medical staff failed to treat a cancerous growth on his lip for seven months; consequently, doctors had to remove most of his lip and mouth.

But arguably the worst cut occurred after a prisoner discovered a growth on his penis which then went untreated for two years. The growth was ultimately diagnosed as a cancerous tumor, forcing the amputation of his penis. The cancer then spread to his stomach.

Coupled with Arizona’s prisoner suicide rate, which is more than double the national average (14 suicides were reported in fiscal year 2011), critics such as Arizona Prison Watch point to ...

As previously reported in PLN, Michael Taaffe, 56, retired from his $91,020-per-year position with the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) in March 2011. He had been employed as an assistant administrator with the ODOC’s Health Services Division, and served on a three-member panel in 2009 that recommended Correctional Health Partners (CHP) as a contractor to manage the prison system’s medical care. CHP was awarded the contract, worth approximately $1.2 million annually.

Three days before his retirement Taaffe went to work for CHP, which resulted in an ethics complaint filed against him. Under Oregon state law, public employees are prohibited from having a “direct beneficial financial interest” in a contract awarded by an agency with the employee’s participation. This prohibition “continues for two years after the employee leaves public service.” [See: PLN, Feb. 2012, p.46].

Although Taaffe was not solely responsible for granting the contract to CHP, he worked closely with the company while employed by the ODOC. “Michael Taaffe did work directly with CHP, as did many other staff in Health Services,” state prison officials noted. “His role was to analyze CHP reports and to track DOC costs based on those reports.” Moreover, after Taaffe went to work for CHP, ...

by David M. Reutter

Residents in a South Florida community near a proposed 1,500-bed privately-operated immigration detention center waged a successful yearlong opposition campaign that culminated in the cancellation of the project in June 2012.

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) purchased a 24-acre plot in the town of Southwest Ranches 15 years ago, with the intention of eventually building a prison or detention facility on the property. The land was located just outside the city of Pembroke Pines near an existing state women’s prison, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) preliminarily selected the site for a detention center in 2010. ICE contracts with CCA to operate 13 facilities nationwide that hold immigration detainees.

Documents filed in Broward County by Southwest Ranches officials described ICE’s intention. “ICE requires approximately 1,500 to 2,000 new detention beds to meet local demand in the Miami Metropolitan area. Ideally, this demand would be met by one 1,000-1,500 bed facility, with the capacity to expand to 2,000 beds.”

The proposed CCA-run facility, the Southwest Ranches Detention Center, would be almost three times the size of the Krome Detention Center in Miami, making it the largest such facility in South Florida. CCA said the $75 million prison ...

Following a two-year investigation and a jury verdict in a civil suit, a special prosecutor announced in June 2011 that criminal charges would not be forthcoming against Bill Balkwill, former sheriff of Sarasota County, Florida.

The jury verdict was entered in a lawsuit filed by Prison Health Services (PHS) that alleged Balkwill had improperly awarded a contract to another company to provide medical care for jail prisoners. The criminal investigation focused on Sheriff’s Office property that was found in Balkwill’s possession months after he retired.

PHS’s lawsuit, filed in circuit court, claimed that Balkwill awarded a $9 million jail medical contract to Armor Correctional Health Services in August 2006 after he received gifts and perks from Armor officials. One of those perks involved a fishing trip on Lake Okeechobee. Armor’s CEO and lobbyist also took Balkwill and his wife to expensive dinners prior to the contract being awarded. [See: PLN, Dec. 2009, p.22; Jan. 2009, p.36; March 2008, p.44].

In an attempt to prove that Balkwill had communicated with Armor executives before awarding the contract, PHS sought to examine his laptop for emails and other evidence.

The Sheriff’s Office began an investigation in April 2009. It found that Balkwill had ...

The First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the grant of summary judgment to a physician assistant at the York County Jail (YCJ) in Maine, concluding that a material dispute existed as to whether the physician assistant acted with deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of an HIV-positive detainee.

In April 2008, Raymond D. Leavitt, a Maine state prisoner, filed suit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages against various correctional officials and healthcare providers. He alleged that he was denied HIV treatment for the entirety of his 167-day stay at YCJ and for the first 17 months of his incarceration at the Maine State Prison (MSP), where medical care was provided by Correctional Medical Services (CMS).

Leavitt, who had been taking HIV medications before he was incarcerated, claimed that the delay in reinitiating his antiretroviral therapy for HIV resulted in short- and long-term negative consequences to his health.

Initially proceeding pro se, Leavitt eventually obtained the services of an attorney. In March 2010, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, finding insufficient evidence that they had acted with deliberate indifference to Leavitt’s serious ...

Federal prosecutors have charged the former mayor of Walnut Grove, Mississippi with sexually assaulting a prisoner while acting under color of law. He also was charged with telling the prisoner to lie during an investigation into the incident. [See: PLN, April 2012, p.1].

William Grady Sims, 61, was first elected mayor of Walnut Grove in 1981. He was accused of sexually assaulting a female prisoner held at the Walnut Grove Transition Center (WGTC) operated by GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison company.

WGTC houses prisoners from the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Ironically, Sims was employed as WGTC’s warden in 2009 when he took the prisoner to a motel room and had sex with her.

Separately, state auditors found that Sims’ relationship with private prison firms was illegally costing local taxpayers. On October 25, 2011, State Auditor Stacey Pickering ordered Sims to repay $31,150 for ordering private prisons in the area to be serviced by city employees and equipment.

“The demand against Mayor Sims represents multiple instances where city employees were directed by the mayor to do work at a private prison facility in Walnut Grove,” Pickering said in a news release. “Taxpayers of Walnut Grove have been paying for ...