by David M. Reutter

Florida lawmakers have handed a victory to the private prison industry by passing a bill (SB 1722) that allows Florida prisoners to be exported to out-of-state facilities, which are mostly privately-operated. When Governor Charlie Crist signed the bill into law in June 2009, Florida joined 15 other states that permit their prisoners to be housed far from home en masse.

“It’s a safety valve,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican State Senator Victor Crist (no relationship to the governor). “This is not a mandate. It’s a passive safety net.” That safety valve, said Governor Crist, is available in case the state needs to avoid releasing prisoners early due to overcrowding.

Whether and when Florida begins shipping prisoners out-of-state will depend on how long the economic downturn continues. In late 2008, Florida became the third state to reach a prison population in excess of 100,000 prisoners. Currently there are 106,000 available beds in the state prison system, with over 5,000 unused. A 3,300-bed facility in Suwannee County was built but has not been opened due to budgetary constraints.

Budget problems caused the Florida legislature to end planned prison construction to meet an expected need for 124,000 beds by ...

by Matt Clarke

On April 7, 2009, Oklahoma State Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee was accused of asking the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) to conduct a study analyzing the cost of closing certain state prisons and using private, for-profit facilities to house prisoners formerly held in those DOC prisons. Senator Coffee is a known advocate of prison privatization.

The study, issued by DOC Director Justin Jones, concluded that it would cost the state over $23 million to close the Oklahoma State Reformatory (OSR) at Granite, the James Crabtree Correctional Center (JCCC) at Helena, and the Mack Alford Correctional Center (MACC) at Stringtown.

A breakdown of the costs for closing OSR included $1.5 million for private prison beds, $2.5 million for DOC employee severance pay, $1.4 million in annual “mothball” maintenance and $3 million due to the loss of the prison farm. Further, the economic loss for the Granite area would be about $12.2 million in payroll, $72,000 in prison canteen sales tax and $120,000 in payments to the Quartz Mountain Regional Water Authority.

The cost for closing JCCC was $9.5 million. Additionally, Helena would lose $10.7 million in payroll plus $59,960 in prison canteen sales tax and $146,390 ...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that a Sheriff does not have constitutional authority to hire and fire personnel providing food service at a county jail.

The Court’s ruling came in an appeal filed by unions that represent employees of the Brown County Jail, who provide the jail’s food service. The Brown County Circuit Court had granted an injunction to Sheriff Dennis Kocken that prohibited the unions – Wisconsin Council 40 AFSCME, AFL-CIO and Local 1901, AFSCME, AFL-CIO – from pursuing any type of action before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC), or seeking injunctive relief that would impede Sheriff Kocken’s ability to hire Aramark Corporation as a food service provider for the jail.

The Circuit Court held that the unions had to withdraw their WERC complaint because the Sheriff had constitutional authority to hire and fire personnel providing the jail’s food service. Thus, the legislature could not interfere with that authority, which did not make the Sheriff subject to a collective bargaining agreement.

While “the constitution nowhere defines what powers, rights, and duties shall attach or belong to the Office of Sheriff,” the framers intended that office to have “those generally recognized legal duties and functions belonging to it ...

by David M. Reutter

While the economic downturn has caused the price of goods and commodities to decrease in the free world, the cost of items in Florida’s prison canteens has skyrocketed under a new contract.

Florida law requires that items sold in prison canteens “shall be priced comparatively with like items for retail sale at fair market prices.” That provision was enacted in 1996, along with another directive that transferred canteen profits from the Inmate Welfare Fund to the state’s General Revenue Fund.

In other words, rather than utilizing canteen profits to fund recreation programs, chapel activities and other services for prisoners, those profits now go directly to funding state operations. The result is that activities previously funded by the Inmate Welfare Fund have been eliminated or must rely on donations to operate.

The state’s General Revenue Fund netted about $30 million in fiscal year 2007-2008 as a result of the canteen contract between the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) and Keefe Commissary Network. Keefe began operating the FDOC’s canteens in 2003; the company’s current contract began on March 29, 2009 and extends for the next five years.

Keefe’s most recent contract with the FDOC included price increases that ...

On August 28, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas unsealed a settlement agreement in a nationwide class-action lawsuit against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison firm. On July 27, 2009, Prison Legal News had filed a motion to intervene in the suit ...

by David M. Reutter

The corporate philosophy of cutting corners to enhance profits is catching up with Aramark Correctional Services, causing the company to lose prison and jail food service contracts and putting other contracts in jeopardy. Aramark has discontinued its contract with Florida’s entire prison system, while the company recently lost contracts in several other states as well as overseas.

In 2002, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) was pushed into privatizing its food service at the behest of former Governor Jeb Bush, who forced many state agencies into privatization with disastrous results.

The first week after the FDOC’s privatized food service went into effect, there were improvements. The initial meal trays were well-prepared with sufficient servings. Shortly thereafter, however, Aramark moved to cash in on the contract’s lucrative provisions.

Not only did the FDOC contract provide Aramark with prisoner slave labor to perform all kitchen-related duties except supervision, it contained an incentive to cut every possible corner to increase the company’s profit margin. Aramark had no qualms about doing just that, and provided its managers with incentive bonuses for coming in under budget.

The contract’s golden egg was a provision that paid Aramark according to the FDOC’s prison ...

Hawaii prison officials said Tuesday that all of the state’s 168 female inmates at a privately run Kentucky prison will be removed by the end of September because of charges of sexual abuse by guards. Forty inmates were returned to Hawaii on Aug. 17.

This month, officials from the Hawaii Department of Public Safety traveled to Kentucky to investigate accusations that inmates at the prison, the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, including seven from Hawaii, had been sexually assaulted by the prison staff.

Otter Creek is run by the Corrections Corporation of America and is one of a spate of private, for-profit prisons, mainly in the South, that have been the focus of investigations over issues like abusive conditions and wrongful deaths. Because Eastern Kentucky is one of the poorest rural regions in the country, the prison was welcomed by local residents desperate for jobs.

Hawaii sent inmates to Kentucky to save money. Housing an inmate at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua, Hawaii, costs $86 a day, compared with $58.46 a day at the Kentucky prison, not including air travel.

Hawaii investigators found that at least five corrections officials at the prison, including a chaplain, had been ...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a Michigan federal district court’s decision that denied a group of jail guards qualified immunity in a case in which a prisoner died after complaining of chest pain and breathing problems. Also, the Court dismissed the appeal of the nurses involved, holding they are not entitled to assert a qualified immunity defense as employees of a for-profit health care provider.

Charles Kevin Jones was prisoner in the Macomb County Jail, serving a 35-day sentence for failure to pay child support. On his 27th day, Jones began experiencing tightness in his chest and shortness of breath. Jones notified a guard and was taken to medical. That evening Jones was treated for asthma and returned to his cell 3 times before medical personnel decided to keep him in the infirmary. About 3 hours later, the doctor ordered that Jones be taken to a hospital and in less than 2 hours he was pronounced dead.

Deborah Harrison, personal representative of Jones’s estate, filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming deliberate indifference by the 9 guards and nurses involved. All of the guards and nurses filed for summary judgment based on a qualified immunity defense, but the ...

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Illinois held that New Mexico Department of Corrections (NMDOC) officials cannot be sued in Illinois due to lack of personal jurisdiction.

Jimmy Kinslow, an NMDOC prisoner, was transferred in 1995 to the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) in accordance with the Interstate Corrections Compact (ICC). In 2000, Kinslow was diagnosed with advanced liver disease caused by Hepatitis C. Halfway through the 12-month chemotherapy treatment, the NMDOC medical director decided it would be more ecumenical to treat Kinslow in New Mexico. NMDOC and IDOC then worked hand in hand to arrange Kinslow’s transfer back to New Mexico. In October 2004, TransCor America, LLS (TransCor) transferred Kinslow, taking 6 days on a trip that could be made in 24 hours. During the trip, Kinslow’s medications were to be kept cold, measured, mixed and administered according to specific medical instructions. None of the instructions were followed and Kinslow was even made to inject himself with the medications as TransCor did not have any medical personnel on hand. TransCor refused to seek medical attention after Kinslow showed signs of severe adverse reactions to the medication. Because Kinslow’s medications were improperly administered, his chemotherapy treatments failed and NMDOC ...

Investigative Research re American Private Police Force Organization (APF)
by
Alex Friedmann
Associate Editor, Prison Legal News
Vice President, Private Corrections Institute

Prison Legal News and the Private Corrections Institute have been closely following the situation in Hardin, Montana related to the Two Rivers Prison and a recent proposal by the “American Private Police Force Organization” to operate the facility and build a law enforcement training center in Hardin. Our research on this issue is summarized below and was shared with the Associated Press, which broke the story on Sept. 30, 2009, concurrent with an investigation by the Billings Gazette.

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APF’s Michael Hilton Involved in Fraud Case; Has Criminal Record

According to court records, APF front man Michael Hilton was named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles, CA in 2000 that included ten counts of fraud and conspiracy. The case resulted in a $1.4 million judgment against the defendants, including $339,950 against Hilton. In an unpublished ruling, the California Court of Appeals noted that “Hilton is a convicted felon.” One of Hilton’s co-defendants, Ivano Stamegna, also was identified in the court ruling as a convicted felon. Stamegna accused Hilton of using another defendant in the ...