After a series of escapes, prisoner suicides and thefts by employees over the past year, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) promised it would take action to prevent similar incidents at Florida?s Hernando County Jail (HCJ). The pledge was made in a successful attempt by CCA to hold onto its $10 million annual contract to operate the facility. [See: PLN, July 2006, p.1].

Despite that promise another prisoner escaped from HCJ on February 26, 2007. Kenneth Ferris, who absconded from the jail, was later apprehended by sheriff?s deputies; CCA Lt. Mary Mills, who had left Ferris? cell door unlocked, was fired. The escape resulted from the same cause as many of the previous problems at HCJ ? inadequate staff to provide security. This was one of the issues that CCA had promised the Hernando County Commission it would address and solve.

The Commission?s response to Ferris? escape was to levy a $23,000 fine against CCA. Yet there was no talk about canceling the company?s lucrative contract. Instead the Commission members proposed a band-aid solution to the jail?s staffing problem: They suggested installing a perimeter fence that will cost around $300,000. The Commission planned to cover the expense by fining CCA for ...

In an evenly divided en banc rehearing, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit was unable to decide whether a Bivens action is available against employees of a privately?operated prison.

In 2001, Cornelius E. Peoples, a federal pretrial detainee, was held at a Leavenworth, Kansas facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America. After being released into the general population, Peoples filed formal and informal grievances asking to be moved to a different pod due to fears that the Mexican Mafia would assault him. He was not moved and was subsequently mauled ?with padlocks, chains, and full soda cans.? Peoples was assigned to administrative segregation for a total of 13 months during his stay at Leavenworth. He did not receive written notice of the reasons for his segregation, nor did he receive a segregation hearing for five months. While segregated Peoples had no law library access but could receive case law if he had the exact citations. Peoples believed his legal phone calls were unconstitutionally monitored.

Seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the assault, Peoples brought a pro se lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. The Court construed the suit as a ...

by John E. Dannenberg

America’s lockups are turning from prisoner dumping grounds into infectious disease breeding grounds. Isolation is intended to be the punishment inflicted by society upon prisoners. But concentrating prisoners in the process of isolating them, and then denying them adequate medical care, is having the perverse effect of punishing society by propagating serious contagious diseases that released prisoners “give back” to the non-incarcerated public.

Thus, the populist hatred that inheres against criminals, which permits inhumane healthcare to persist in jails and prisons, is itself a contributing cause to such growing public health menaces as tuberculosis (TB), Hepatitis C (HCV), AIDS (HIV) and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). Myriad other diseases flourish inside overcrowded, unsanitary prisons as well – and extend beyond to local communities – as discussed in this introspection into infections in detention facility settings. This is nothing new. Prisons and jails have been the incubators of disease for centuries. But with notions of public health, better awareness of disease contagion, etc., it is all the more remarkable that not only does prison health remain a threat to the public health of all citizens, but that it has grown as the number of prisoners has grown. ...

We'll Lock Up Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free

by Amy Goodman

"I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school," pleaded a 9-year-old boy, on the phone from prison. This prison wasn't in some far-off country, some dictatorship where one would expect children to be locked up. He is imprisoned in the United States.

The boy, Kevin, is imprisoned in Taylor, Texas, at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility. His parents are also locked up there. The tale of how this family became imprisoned is just one example of how broken our immigration policies are in this country. It is a tale of children left behind, of family values locked up, of your tax dollars at work.

The parents are Iranian and spent 10 years in Canada seeking asylum.

Kevin, their son, was born in Canada during that time. Their request for asylum was eventually denied and they were deported back to Iran. Majid, the father, said he and his wife were jailed and tortured there. They soon fled to Turkey and bought Greek passports. They hoped to reapply for asylum in Canada, armed with proof ...

by David M. Reutter

If you know a company is not saving you money or performing its contractual obligations, why would you continue to use that company? The normal consumer would end the relationship quickly. When it comes to contracts for privatized prison services, the answer may lie in the laundering of taxpayer money through for-profit corporations into campaign contributions.

Politicians, however, ardently deny that political graft factors into their decisions to award lucrative privatization contracts for services normally reserved to the public sector. "It's outrageous even to imply or infer a connection and absolutely not true. State contracts are fully transparent and must follow strict procurement procedures," said Pahl Shipley, spokesman for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D).

While politicians are quick to justify their ethically-questionable actions, a little research and investigation usually reveals that someone is getting a raw deal. In the case of prison contracts, those who are supposed to benefit often suffer while the politically-connected companies hired to perform public services are the ones that benefit.

Buying Political Influence and Prison Contracts

The GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut Corrections, understands the connection between money in politics and procuring government contracts. The company hedges its bets both ways, ...

by David M. Reutter

After a nine-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a report finding prisoners in four Delaware prisons ?suffer harm or are placed at the risk of harm from constitutional deficiencies in certain aspects of the medical and mental health care services, including suicide prevention.? It was also announced the DOJ and state of Delaware entered into an 87 point agreement to cure those deficiencies.

PLN reported in its December 2005 cover article that the privatized health care within Delaware prisons was killing and maiming prisoners. The story and events that followed came as the result of investigative reports by Delaware?s News Journal.

That investigative reporting sparked a public outcry that included marches on the Governor?s mansion and the DOJ?s investigation of civil rights violations, begun in March 2006. All through the ordeal, the Delaware Department of Correction (DDOC) remained in denial, but did hire its own experts.

The DOJ found constitutional violations at the Delaware Correctional Center (DDC), the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution (HRYCI), the Sussex Correctional Institution (SCI), and the Delores J. Baylor Women?s Correctional Institution (BWCI). The John L. Webb Correctional Institution was given a clean bill of health with no ...

After media reports detailed incidents showing prisoners within the Delaware Department of Corrections (DDOC) were being maimed or dying because of deplorable medical care, Stan Taylor, DDOC's Commissioner, charged the reports were "sloppy reporting." Taylor's testimony in prisoner civil rights actions demonstrates that Taylor is guilty of sloppy administration.

We previously reported upon the atrocious, and at times non-existent, medical and mental health care being provided to DDOC prisoners. See PLN, December 2005, pg. 1. The reports by The News Journal culminated in an agreement between the DDOC and U.S. Department of Justice to enact constitutional health care, which meets "general accepted professional standards." See accompanying story in this issue.

That agreement and accompanying findings have been stated to be a road map for the nearly dozen lawsuits against DDOC for prisoner deaths and injuries caused by the inept care provided by Correctional Medical Services (CMS) and its previous medical contractor, First Correctional Medical. Taylor's testimony comes in one of many wrongful lawsuits.

His statements show he had no grasp at all on the state of medical care provided, not a clue of how many prisoners died under his watch, failed to investigate complaints sent to him, and he felt ...

Prison guards are among the 393 employees of Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a company that shorted $169,105 in wages for work performed.

MTC employs more than 2,000 workers at 24 Job Corps Centers and six prisons around the nation. The company was the target of an investigation by the ...

After serving 12 years in the Texas Legislature state Representative Ray Allen resigned citing financial difficulties. ?I simply cannot afford to serve on a $600-a-month salary with no other source of income,? said Allen.

Allen has since overcome his financial woes working as a lobbyist for some of the same companies that solicited his support as a politician. These companies have boosted Allen?s income to somewhere between $230,000 and $484,000 a year.

Equally surprising are the alliances Allen has made in his transition form lawmaker to lobbyist. Jeff Heckler once served as treasurer for the Austin conservation group Save Our Springs (SOS). In 2003 Allen supported House Bill 2130 which would have undermined water quality controls for both the city of Austin and the nearby Sunset Valley community. SOS was instrumental in defeating the bill. The group pressed state lawmakers to oppose the move, by Chevron Corp., to transport gas, through an old pipeline, over the city?s watersheds. As a lawmaker Allen joined a losing effort to oppose SOS. Now Allen and Heckler have teamed up in a variety of causes and Sunset Valley employs both Heckler and Allen as lobbyists in their behalf.

Asked in an interview how he ...

Tennessee DOC's Double Standard

by Greg Bowers

The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) applies a double standard to ethical violations committed by its employees and those committed by prisoners. TDOC staff who commit ethical violations are typically reassigned. Even when fired, they have been rehired days later.

Prisoners, on the other hand, are fired from their institutional jobs and classified to higher security levels for minor lapses.

Daniel D. Erickson, 45, is an attorney serving an eight-year prison sentence for attempting to hire a hit man to kill his wife. On March 1, 2005, while in a work-release program, Erickson landed a job with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) as an administrative services assistant. His job was to determine whether policies were followed and he was one of several people to sign off on purchase orders. Erickson had an annual salary of $26,000 -- exceptional for that job classification.

TEMA is part of the Tennessee Military Department, headed by state National Guard Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett, Jr. On February 23, 2005, Gen. Hargett won an exemption to pay guidelines for Erickson by contacting Personnel Commissioner Randy Camp and extolling Erickson's Juris Doctorate degree, real estate law practice, job responsibilities ...