On April 21, 2006, the Arkansas Board of Corrections approved a new policy designed to keep mentally ill prisoners out of sensory-deprived environments like the Varner Supermax Unit in Lincoln County. The Board also renewed the prison systems contract with Correctional Medical Services (CMS).
The new supermax policy was implemented about two months after an investigation by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed that mentally ill prisoners were housed at Varner in 7-foot by 11-foot cells nearly around the clock because the prison system lacked suitable beds elsewhere. In March about eight prisoners were removed from the supermax on the advice of a prison psychiatrist.
The new policy is certainly a step in the right direction, though the idea that these environments can cause a mentally ill prisoners condition to deteriorate is not exactly groundbreaking. Mental health experts around the country have been saying this for years. Whats more, federal courts have ruled consistently that housing mentally ill prisoners in supermaxes may constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Under the new policy, housing assignments and other actions that could worsen a mentally ill prisoners condition are prohibited, said Wendy Kelley, the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADOC) top mental health official. Before it had ...
by John E. Dannenberg
After three jail deaths between May 2003 and October 2004, the Leon County Board of Commissioners met to consider the Sheriff's reports on the three deaths and any implications regarding the jail's healthcare provider, PHS. Two of the deaths were in litigation. In spite of highly suspicious circumstances in the overmedication death of one prisoner, the Board approved the report clearing PHS.
PHS was hired in 2002 for approximately $3.5 million/yr. to provide medical, mental health, and dental services for the 1,250 prisoners in the Leon County Jail. Approximately 90-100 prisoners visit the jails clinic daily, including those receiving medication. Medications are shipped daily from Secure Pharmacy Plus, PHSs subsidiary.
Leon County maintains oversight of PHS through Alliance Medical Management Corp. Leon County Jail is one of 21 county lockups in Florida accredited by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. Accreditation must be renewed annually, although site evaluation only occurs every three years. In addition, a medical review committee is convened whenever three prisoner complaints surface on the same subject. In 2002, the Board approved mental health peer review oversight of the jail's mentally ill, hiring both a Mental Health Coordinator and Florida Partners in ...
Broward County, Florida, and EMSA Correctional Care, Inc., must pay $500,000 to a county prisoner who suffered permanent injury and weeks of unnecessary pain because jail medical personnel failed to diagnose or treat her ectopic pregnancy, a federal jury decided on January 8, 2004.
Charleen Foree, 38, was imprisoned in ...
According to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, as of June 2005 approximately 2.2 million people were incarcerated in prisons and jails nationwide not including immigration detention centers and juvenile facilities. This enormous imprisoned population is not static; prisoners are moved both intrastate and interstate on a regular basis for a variety of reasons, including court appearances, medical visits, detainer extraditions, Interstate Compact transfers and bail bond remands. A mobile, constantly-shifting prison on wheels is an apt analogy.
While there are no firm statistics for the total number of prisoners transferred and extradited annually, the U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for the transportation of prisoners and immigration detainees in federal custody, receives around 1,000 transport requests per day and moves nearly 300,000 prisoners each year through its Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS).
On the state and local level, individual jurisdictions are responsible for their own prisoner transportation needs. Although almost all sheriff''s offices and state Departments of Correction maintain their own prisoner transport services, they also rely heavily on privately-operated companies, especially for interstate trips. The reasons for using such for-profit transport services boil down to cost and convenience, both ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2006
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2006, page 16
The Tennessee State Court of Appeals upheld a $500,000 compensatory damage award against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), to a woman who was taken hostage by an escaped CCA prisoner.
Mike Settle was a prisoner at Hardeman County Correctional Facility (HCCF), a CCA prison in Whiteville, Tennessee. On August 14, ...
A for-profit prison company stirs hope - and church-state issues - pursuing partnerships with Evangelical Christian ministries.
NASHVILLE, TENN. - America has the highest incarceration level in the world, and its prisons serve too consistently as revolving doors. Are faith-based programs in prisons the answer to these disturbing trends?
The largest private company running prisons and jails in the United States, Corrections Corporation of America, thinks so. CCA has embarked on a major initiative to expand such programs in all 63 facilities it operates under contract with local, state, and federal governments. "These programs give inmates hope and prepare them to be different people", says John Lanz, CCA's director of industry and special programs. While the ambitious approach wins kudos from some prisoners, other people question its constitutionality. Though not directly supported by President Bush's faith-based initiative, CCA's program poses the same questions about how to encourage positive change in people's lives without privileging one form of religion with taxpayer dollars. Some also see potential political ramifications.
CCA provides for a variety of religious services in each facility, as required by law. But in addition, it has formed partnerships with eight national Evangelical Christian ministries under which CCA provides annual ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2006
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2006, page 26
On August 10, 2005, a federal court in New Jersey approved a settlement in Brown v. Esmor
Correctional Services Inc., USDC No. 98-1282 (DNJ). Esmor Correctional Services Inc. (Esmor) later known as Correctional Services Corporation (CSC), agreed to pay the plaintiff-alien class $2.5 million for abuses suffered while detained in ...
No Room in Prison? Ship Em Off Prisoners have become unwitting pawns in a lowest-bidder-
gets-the-convict shuffle game
by Silja J.A. Talvi
It has been an arduous, surreal journey for eight Hawaiian female prisoners sent to do their time
on the mainland.
The plight of this group of women housed, most recently, in a prison in the small eastern
Kentucky town of Wheelwright, would have escaped unnoticed, had it not been for the death of
43-year-old Sarah Ah Mau, on New Years Eve 2005. Mau, serving a life sentence for second-
degree murder, had been incarcerated since 1993 and had a shot at parole eligibility in August
2008.
She never got that chance. Instead she died of as-yet-unexplained natural causes after two
days in critical conditionand a month after first complaining of severe gastrointestinal distress.
Family members and fellow prisoners say that Ah Maus pleas for medical care were ridiculed,
downplayed or ignored by prison employees. As her stomach distendedand other body parts
began to swell visibly, prisoners say that Ah Mau was fed castor oil and told to stop complaining
unless she wanted to face disciplinary action.
What was Hawaiian resident Ah Mau doing in Kentucky in the first ...
Corrections Corporation of America has signed new contracts with Colorado and Hawaii which,
for the first time, include the possibility of the states imposing liquidated damages if CCA fails
to provide the contracted services. The provisions resulted from a lengthy interruption of
services to female prisoners at a private womens prison in Brush, Colorado. The prison, which
was not run by CCA, held Hawaiian and Colorado prisoners. The interruption followed allegations
of sexual misconduct by staff with prisoners. As reported in the Oct. 2005 PLN, the ensuing
scandal resulted in guards resigning or being fired and a Colorado Department of Corrections'
investigation.
Conditions of confinement of prisoners in private prisons is of special interest to Hawaiian
officials. Half of Hawaiis state prisoners--a total of about 1,850--are incarcerated in private
prisons in Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi and Oklahoma. The new CCA contract with Hawaii,
which was signed in October, 2005, has CCA keeping 120 Hawaiian women prisoners at the
Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Kentucky. According to Frank Lopez, acting
assistant Director of the Hawaiian Department of Public Safety, the Otter Creek contract is to
serve as a model for all future Hawaiian contracts with private prisons. It calls for Hawaii ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2006
published in Prison Legal News
September, 2006, page 38
Florida's Brevard County has been sued by three local hospitals seeking payment for medical
care rendered to prisoners who incurred injuries during their arrests. The County refused to pay,
arguing the detainees technically were not in custody at the time of treatment.
The hospitals - Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Cape Canaveral Hospital and Holmes
Regional Medical Center in Melbourne - filed suit in 2001. The hospitals contend that Florida
law requires the county to pay the bills for care given to arrestees. Under Florida law the County
must pay, regardless of which agency makes the arrest, anytime someone is injured during an
arrest and taken to a hospital for treatment if they have no means to pay.
At issue in the lawsuits is payment for care rendered to 11 Brevard County prisoners. Most were
treated for injuries incurred during their arrest. Two of them died.
During his arrest for shoplifting, William Washington was shot by an officer from the Melbourne
Police Department (MPD). The attempt to save his life, which failed, resulted in a bill for Brevard
County of $45,554. The County was also billed for $5,829 in costs to treat Percival Wilson, who
was shot by MPD while ...