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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The Oklahoma Legislature has enacted a law that prohibits former prisoners from bringing a civil
action unless the prisoner has exhausted all administrative remedies. To PLNs knowledge, this is
the first law of its kind.

The legislation, which was signed by the Governor on April 11, 2006, becomes effective
November 1, 2006. It applies to all persons presently or formerly in the custody or supervision
of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC), the Federal Bureau of Prisons, or a county
jail.

The law requires a person bringing a suit against any government entity, the ODOC, or a private
company providing services to the ODOC to exhaust all administrative remedies as a
prerequisite to filing the action.

Members of The Citizens for Fair and Clean Government protested the measure in Oklahoma City
after it was signed into law. Were going to let them know this is not right, said David
O'Conner, founder of the non-profit group. There are innocent prisoners that are in there.

Many prisoners fail to file lawsuits or complaints while in prison because they fear retaliation
from guards or administrators. If they say anything inside, they get treated worse and when they
get outside they have no way ...

On December 22, 2005, the state of Michigan agreed to pay $365,000 to a boot camp prisoner who was strapped in a restraint chair for six hours and later suffered kidney and liver failure.

Craig Allen Cook II was arrested on June 14, 1999, and imprisoned in the Manistee County ...

by David M. Reutter

A recently-formed Florida prison healthcare corporation is blossoming with new contracts from county sheriffs who decided to change bidding requirements and in one case eliminate cost as a consideration.

The company, Coconut Creek-based Armor Correctional Health Services, is owned by Miami physician Dr. Jose Armas. In 2004 Armor had no track record, no active contracts and no sales. It now has over $210 million worth of contracts over a five-year period, including medical care for prisoners in Broward, Brevard and Hillsborough counties. Other contracts to treat prisoners in Martin and Lancaster counties are pending.

To obtain the contracts, some behind-the-scenes action occurred. In October 2004, Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne awarded Armor its first contract, worth $127 million, to provide services for the county's 5,000 prisoners. During the bidding process Jenne dropped a requirement that companies must have experience providing healthcare to prisoners. While no explanation was provided for that action, it was known that Armas, through his companies and associates, had been a major contributor to Jennes reelection campaign.

Upon obtaining the Broward contract after only three months in business, in May 2005 Armor sought and was awarded a five-year, $19.9 million contract to provide ...

Five California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) employees, testifying under subpoena at a February 27, 2006 State Senate Government Oversight Committee hearing, revealed the use-it-or-lose-it practice of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars allotted to prisoner drug treatment programs on such items as guitars, pianos, a portable stage, plasma TVs, lavish furniture and even cars. This suspect result, which the employees were ordered to suppress, resulted from the intersection of two policies: drug treatment contractors under spending their budgets to increase profits, and zero-based budgeting, a state policy that automatically reduces a departments subsequent fiscal year funding allotment by the amount left over from the previous fiscal year.

The Senate hearings focused on why CDCR overspent its $6 billion budget by over $500 million in each of the past two years. CDCR has 34 contracts for helping prisoners beat addictions; fully 65% of California prisoners have a substance-abuse problem. State Senator Jackie Speier was incensed to learn that drug-rehab money, an investment by the Legislature to reduce recidivism and hence prison costs, was instead having the opposite effect, engendering preposterous expenses of money.

A San Francisco Chronicle investigation revealed much abuse. One program at Pleasant Valley State Prison (PVSP) ...