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 ...

Prolonged Sitting on Steel Stools Claim Survives Summary Judgment

Gabriel B. Nock, a prisoner at the Dover Community Correctional Center (DCC) in Dover, Delaware, filed suit in federal district court against Correctional Medical Services (CMS), the health services provider at DCC, and Spectrum Behavior Sciences, the provider of counseling services at DCC.
Nock’s pro se § 1983 suit alleged that the defendants subjected him to physical and mental abuse. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that the misconduct occurred after their contracts had expired and Nock had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. Nock was ordered to file an answering brief but failed to do so. Thus, the motion was ruled on without an answer.
Most of the specific instances of abuse alleged by Nock occurred after the state’s contract with CMS had expired. The only incident that occurred prior to the expiration of the contract was when Nock “was humiliated by having a ‘Listen-up’ (which is when an inmate calls the attention of the entire program to stop, look and listen) called on him while “he was in the shower naked.” Because that misconduct was not medical in nature, the motion was granted with respect to ...

Oklahoma County Jail Responsible for Initial Cost of Treating Prisoners’ Pre-Existing Conditions

by David Reutter

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has held that a county’s liability for prisoners’ medical care includes pre-arrest health conditions. The Court further held that a county must pay the initial cost of such treatment, but may seek reimbursement from the prisoner via means of a civil judgment.
The matter was before the Supreme Court after the Oklahoma County district court entered summary judgment to HCA Health Services of Oklahoma, Inc. (HCA). The controversy was created by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s office, which refused to pay HCA $2,250,575.58 for medical services rendered to prisoners between February 2003 and September 2006.
Over that period, OCS had brought prisoners in need of medical care to HCA for treatment. OCS determined that much of the expense charged was for treatment of conditions that pre-existed the prisoners’ arrests, and refused payment. After the district court entered judgment in favor of HCA, OCS sought an interlocutory appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court found OCS had a federal constitutional and state statutory duty to provide medical treatment for prisoners in custody. It found that two Oklahoma statutes pertained to this duty. ...

by John E. Dannenberg

When a private prison corporation sued Director Jeanne Woodford of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for alleged defamatory statements made against the corporation's performance on a CDCR contract, which were made in the proper discharge of Woodford's official duties, she was held absolutely immune from suit by the privilege granted in California Civil Code § 47.

Maranatha Corrections, LLC is a private prison company with which CDCR had contracted to operate a community correctional facility in southern California. To fulfill its obligation to provide telephone services for the prisoners, Maranatha had contracted with Global Tel*Link (Global), the same contractor that CDCR uses in its prisons. As in its prison contract, Global paid a hefty kickback from excess profits built into its prisoner-only telephone rate. CDCR transfers its Global kickback funds into the Inmate Welfare Fund (IWF), allegedly to be used for prisoner programs. [The benefit to prisoners is questionable, however, since all IWF revenues first flow into the state's General Fund, from which the Legislature then appropriates prisoner-friendly expenditures in its annual budget. To the extent that IWF fund contributions exceed IWF appropriations, the excess remains in the General Fund, amounting to a ...

by Matt Clarke

On March 15, 2007, a federal court in Louisiana held that the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) may be liable for the sexual assault of a prisoner by a CCA captain at a CCA-run prison in Louisiana.

Brian B. Mitchell, a Louisiana state prisoner, was incarcerated at the Winn Correctional Facility in Winnfield, Louisiana--a CCA-run private prison--when he was twice sexually assaulted by Charlie Roberts, a CCA employee. Following the first sexual assault, which occurred while Roberts was a lieutenant shortly before his promotion to captain, Mitchell complained to the warden. Instead of investigating the complaint, the warden told Mitchell that if he ever lied about one of his captains again, he would be receive a transfer to a worse prison. The second sexual assault occurred four months later. In that sexual assault, Mitchell was forced to perform oral sex on Roberts following a urine drug test.
Even though the urine test was clean, Roberts threatened to lock up Mitchell for having a dirty urine test if Mitchell refused to perform oral sex on him. Mitchell complied, but spat the semen out onto his t-shirt and contacted the FBI.

DNA testing showed that the semen belonged to ...

Five years of staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse, inadequate medical care, security lapses and other problems finally forced Kentucky and Hawaiian officials to remove about 600 female prisoners from a privately-operated prison.

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private-prison company, runs the Otter Creek Correctional Center (OCCC) in Wheelwright, Kentucky. The facility was a medium-security men’s prison until Indiana removed its male prisoners in 2005 following a riot several years earlier.

When CCA threatened to close OCCC in the fall of 2005, which would have resulted in the loss of local jobs, the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) sent 400 female prisoners to the facility. More than 160 female prisoners from Hawaii soon joined them.

Inadequate Medical Care, 
Deaths, Resignations

Problems at OCCC began almost immediately. OCCC prisoners regularly complained about inadequate medical care, including denial of access to treatment and medication shortages. Also, the number of grievances filed at OCCC was almost twice as high as at the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women, and the CCA prison had a higher number of staff vacancies.

The Community Alliance on Prisons, a Hawaii-based organization that advocates for prisoners and their families, reported receiving numerous complaints from OCCC prisoners regarding inadequate ...

On September 29, 2010, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against private prison firm GEO Group, alleging that the company and some of its male supervisors permitted a “sexual and sex-based hostile work environment” at two GEO-operated prisons in Florence, Arizona.

According to the suit, female employees at the Arizona State Prison-Florence and Central Arizona Correctional Facility were sexually harassed and assaulted by male staff members, and women who reported such incidents to supervisors faced retaliation.

The case has its origins in a sexual harassment complaint filed with the Arizona Civil Rights Division and the EEOC by a female GEO employee in June 2009. The lawsuit alleges that male staffers verbally and physically harassed female employees, such as grabbing and pinching a female employee, and forcing a female employee onto a desk and kissing and inappropriately touching her. The suit also alleges that GEO Group was aware of the harassment but failed to take steps to stop or prevent it.

The Arizona Attorney General’s office had previously investigated the complaints and filed suit. Under federal law, the EEOC may collect punitive and compensatory damages – remedies unavailable under Arizona state law. On April 11, 2011 the district ...

By David M. Reutter

With the expansion of the prison industrialization complex in recent decades, many communities have turned to prisons as a means to generate economic activity.
Considering the success of other small, rural areas in this endeavor, it comes as no surprise that the citizens of Hardin, Montana decided in 2006 to issue $27 million in tax-free bonds to build a 464 bed prison. What has surprised those citizens and the bondholders is that despite the prison being complete, it sits empty.

Hardin is a community with a population of about 3,300. To stimulate its economy, the City formed the Two Rivers Authority. While Hardin has no need for a big jail, it figured to cash in on the Montana Department of Corrections’ (MDOC) need for additional prison beds and treatment facilities. Barring that, the Authority saw the possibility of obtaining prisoners from outside local, state and federal government agencies.

The plan included allowing CiviGenics Texas, Inc. to operate the prison. The feasibility study prepared by GSA Ltd. of Durham, N.C. concluded that with an 80% occupancy level, enough revenue could be generated to cover all operational and debt service costs with a small profit. Of course, in ...

By David M. Reutter

The Michigan Department of Corrections’ (MDOC) efforts to comply with the requirement to deliver medical services are not effective. That is the conclusion drawn in an audit report issued in March 2008 by Michigan’s Office of the Auditor General. That conclusion comes as no surprise to those familiar with the MDOC. PLN previously reported on the continuing deficiencies in MDOC prisoner care, which has resulted in several prisoner deaths. See: PLN, May 2007, p. 1.

The Auditor’s report began by noting that MDOC spent $213.7 million for prisoner health care services in 2005-06, which equates to an annual cost of $4,223 for each of MDOC’s average of 50,595 prisoners. To provide those services, MDOC has a medical care contract with Correctional Medical Services (CMS) and a pharmaceutical company for delivery of prescription medicines, who receives a “fixed per prisoner per month rate plus the cost of pharmaceuticals.

It was found that efforts to provide prisoner with dental care were effective. The delivery of care to chronically ill prisoners, however, was found to be severely deficient. Chronic condition medical evaluations, routine annual health care screenings, and clinic visits resulting from prisoner requests for health care services were ...