Two former Pennsylvania state court judges who were accused by federal prosecutors of running a multi-million dollar scheme to send juvenile offenders to privately-run prisons in exchange for bribes have been sentenced.

Former judge Mark A. Ciavarella, Jr., 62, who presided over the juvenile court system in Luzerne County, brought national attention to the “kids for cash” scandal and highlighted what many legal experts say is a dangerous practice in juvenile justice proceedings – children appearing in court and pleading guilty to crimes without representation by attorneys.

Prosecutors alleged that Ciavarella had sentenced thousands of juveniles to be confined in two private detention centers – PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care. He was paid almost $1 million for sending youths as young as ten years old to the facilities, many for first-time or minor offenses. The state of Pennsylvania has since expunged more than 5,000 juvenile criminal records in cases handled by Ciavarella. [See: PLN, June 2010, p.26; Nov. 2009, p.42; May 2009, p.20].

According to Laurence H. Tribe, a constitutional law expert, “It was a terrible lesson. It highlighted the dangers for juveniles who don’t know their rights, haven’t talked to a lawyer, and are urged by ...

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has agreed to a confidential settlement in a negligence suit following an escape from one of the company’s private prisons.

On April 2, 2007, prisoner Billy Jack Fitzmorris, held at the CCA-run Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, was taken to a hospital in Youngstown after he suffered a head injury.

Fitzmorris used toe nail clippers to cut plastic flex cuffs used to restrain him to a hospital bed. He then overpowered a CCA guard, stole a car, robbed two banks and broke into an accounting business where he took an employee, Karen Zappitelli, hostage. He eventually released Zappitelli and surrendered to authorities after the police brought him a pizza. Zappitelli sued CCA, arguing that the company was negligent in allowing Fitzmorris to escape.

Zappitelli claimed that she suffered anxiety, sleeping problems and nightmares as a result of the hostage-taking incident, which lasted three hours, and was now afraid of being alone.

In the middle of a jury trial in state court, after 16 witnesses had testified, CCA agreed to settle the suit on confidential terms.

Zappitelli’s attorney, Rex Elliot, with the Columbus law firm of Cooper & 
Elliott LLC, said the settlement would allow Zappitelli and ...

On July 20, 2010, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in part a district court’s denial of summary judgment to prison officials on the medical claims of two Arkansas state prisoners.

Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADOC) prisoner Mack Langford, who is in his eighties, “suffers from a variety of physical maladies and shows signs of mild mental retardation and dementia.”

In April 2003, Langford’s repeated complaints of severe stomach pain, vomiting blood and other symptoms were dismissed as “gas” and “treated” with antacid tablets. After he was found unconscious, Langford was hospitalized and “doctors discovered a problem with [his] gallbladder, ... and found cysts in both his kidneys.” After he was released from the hospital he continued to experience back and stomach pain.

“Starting in November 2004, Langford was examined at least sixteen times by Dr. Nnamdi Ifediora, an employee or contractor of Correctional Medical Services, Inc. (‘CMS’), the company that provides medical services in Arkansas prisons. Dr. Ifediora ... referred Langford to specialists, from whom he sought diagnostic recommendations.”

In August 2005, imaging tests “revealed a possible mass in one of Langford’s kidneys and cysts in both kidneys.” Langford again complained of stomach pain on November 28, 2005 ...

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that alleged deficiencies in health care at the San Diego Correctional Facility (SDCF) in Otay Mesa, California has been settled, according to a December 16, 2010 press release issued by the ACLU.

The suit named as defendants the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as officials and employees of ICE and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the private company managing SDCF.

Originally filed in 2007 by the ACLU, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, and the law firm of Cooley LLP, the lawsuit alleged that detainees at SDCF were routinely subjected to long delays before receiving treatment, denied necessary medication for chronic illnesses and refused essential referrals prescribed by medical staff.

According to the ACLU, “the lawsuit specifically cited the cases of 11 detainees, including several whose bipolar disorders and depression went untreated, a man who was forced to wait more than eight months for eye surgery and nearly suffered permanent disfigurement, and detainees who never received medical attention despite suffering from a variety of maladies including Type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, abscessed and broken teeth, and severe ...

A $3,000 campaign contribution from private prison firm GEO Group has put a spotlight on a county councilman in Pennsylvania. The contribution was made only days after Ron Angle, president of the Northampton County Council, urged his colleagues to explore a proposal from GEO in October 2010.

GEO Group proposed that Northampton County seek a contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to house immigration detainees. The detention contract would be farmed out to GEO.

Angle and other supporters of the project touted it as a way to bring jobs to the area and increase tax revenue for the Bangor Area School District without adding new students. GEO’s donation to Angle came after the County Council authorized County Executive John Stoffa to act quickly in exploring the company’s proposal.

“They didn’t buy any influence,” Angle said of the contribution from GEO’s political action committee. “They bought my disinfluence.” Angle said he spent $650 of GEO Group’s donation to poll residents about their opinion on building the detention center on a 128-acre site in their community.

Local residents did not see a GEO-run facility as being a good neighbor. Based on that response, Angle urged the County Council in ...

We have been experimenting with prison privatization in the U.S. now for over twenty-five years. The privatization idea originated out of a notion that the private sector, with its competition-driven efficiency and innovation, could operate prisons of higher quality and lower cost than the public sector. Create a market for incarceration services, the argument ran, and the market will work its magic, improving prison conditions and rehabilitative outcomes while saving the taxpayers millions of dollars. That market has effectively been created over the past quarter century and we have now arrived at a place where prison privatization has been studied extensively and evaluated rigorously.

Although hyperbole continues to propel prison privatization policy along, research findings are incontrovertible: even in the best private prisons, quality of prisoner care is no better than in public prisons and the cost advantage of privatization, which initially accounted for minimal savings, is steadily eroding as the private prison industry matures.
The big promises of prison privatization – less cost, higher quality – have simply not materialized. Despite these disappointing results, prison privatization advocacy maintains traction in diverse jurisdictions as policymakers from Ohio to Florida and from Maine to California seek expedient solutions to budget shortfalls ...

In December 2010, California Inspector General David Shaw sent a letter to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), informing CDCR officials about concerns related to housing California prisoners in out-of-state privately-operated facilities.

The concerns arose when the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) visited five out-of-state facilities that house California prisoners. Those facilities included the Florence Correctional Center, La Palma Correctional Center and Red Rock Correctional Center in Arizona; the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi; and the North Fork Correctional Facility in Oklahoma – all operated by CCA.

The state has since contracted with GEO Group to house prisoners at the North Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan, effective May 1, 2011. Presently, the CDCR contracts for approximately 12,800 private prison beds outside of California.

The out-of-state program was initiated in 2006 in an effort to address the problem of California’s severely overcrowded prison system. With 33 adult facilities housing around 170,000 prisoners, roughly twice their design capacity, California’s prisons are so dangerously overcrowded that former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger deemed them a threat to the safety, security and well-being of both prisoners and guards.

Lawsuits were filed and the federal courts intervened, placing prisoner medical and mental health ...

A $3,000 campaign contribution from private prison firm GEO Group has put a spotlight on a county councilman in Pennsylvania. The contribution was made only days after Ron Angle, president of the Northampton County Council, urged his colleagues to explore a proposal from GEO in October 2010.

GEO Group proposed that Northampton County seek a contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to house immigration detainees. The detention contract would be farmed out to GEO.

Angle and other supporters of the project touted it as a way to bring jobs to the area and increase tax revenue for the Bangor Area School District without adding new students. GEO’s donation to Angle came after the County Council authorized County Executive John Stoffa to act quickly in exploring the company’s proposal.

“They didn’t buy any influence,” Angle said of the contribution from GEO’s political action committee. “They bought my disinfluence.” Angle said he spent $650 of GEO Group’s donation to poll residents about their opinion on building the detention center on a 128-acre site in their community.

Local residents did not see a GEO-run facility as being a good neighbor. Based on that response, Angle urged the County Council in ...

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that alleged deficiencies in health care at the San Diego Correctional Facility (SDCF) in Otay Mesa, California has been settled, according to a December 16, 2010 press release issued by the ACLU.

The suit named as defendants the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as officials and employees of ICE and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the private company managing SDCF.

Originally filed in 2007 by the ACLU, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, and the law firm of Cooley LLP, the lawsuit alleged that detainees at SDCF were routinely subjected to long delays before receiving treatment, denied necessary medication for chronic illnesses and refused essential referrals prescribed by medical staff.

According to the ACLU, “the lawsuit specifically cited the cases of 11 detainees, including several whose bipolar disorders and depression went untreated, a man who was forced to wait more than eight months for eye surgery and nearly suffered permanent disfigurement, and detainees who never received medical attention despite suffering from a variety of maladies including Type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, abscessed and broken teeth, and severe ...

Florida’s Department of Health (FDH) issued an emergency order in March 2011 that placed restrictions on a psychiatrist accused of sexual misconduct while treating female prisoners at the Hernando County Jail (HCJ). At the time of the alleged misconduct the jail was managed by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA); since August 2010, HCJ has been operated by the county.

In a March 22, 2011 order, the FDH found that the actions of Dr. James A. Yelton Rossello “regarding his patients were egregious and constitute a threat to the public health and safety.” The order restricted him from providing medical, mental health or psychiatric treatment to patients, specifying that he may treat female patients only under the supervision of a third-party licensed medical professional.

Each of the prisoners Rossello was accused of preying upon in his windowless office at the CCA-run jail were in their early to late 20s. While interviewing a 24-year-old patient identified as “C.A.,” he told her he had been married for about 24 years and was “faithful 98 percent of the time,” but that when confronted with women like her “he became a bad boy.”

In early 2009, Rossello asked C.A. to allow him to see her ...