In November 2005, Dekalb County, Georgia, a private medical provider, and a local hospital agreed to pay a combined total of $790,000 to settle with the widow of a prisoner who died from a perforated ulcer.

While imprisoned in the Dekalb County Jail, the decedent, 64, was taken to Grady ...

On May 11, 2005, a jury in Portsmouth City, Virginia, awarded $769,000 to the family of an asthmatic prisoner who died in the city jail due to inadequate medical care.

While serving a five day sentence in the Portsmouth jail for driving with a suspended license, Mark Anthony Benthall, 23, ...

by David M. Reutter

After being in business for twenty-three years, one would think that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) would have refined the art of running prisons and jails. Yet an examination of CCA's three jails in Florida reveals a pattern of gross mismanagement and substandard or indifferent care of prisoners on every level, which has resulted in injuries and deaths. Risks to the community abound in frequent escapes. Repeated suicides, beatings, rapes and misconduct by CCA employees have occurred.

CCA is the United States' largest operator or privatized prisons and jails. The Nashville-based company was founded in 1983 by Doctor Crants and Thomas Beasley, former chair of the Tennessee Republican party. CCA runs three state prisons and three county jails in Florida. The jails, which are the focus of this article, are located in Bay, Citrus and Hernando Counties. These counties sought privatization of their jails after buying into CCA's sales pitch that it could save taxpayers money.

Critics, however, claim that the savings come from hiring unqualified, untrained personnel at low wages, and by scrimping on services and security measures that the contracts require and prisoners have a constitutional right to receive. As the old adage says, ...

The former owners of U.S. Correctional Corporation (USCC) have agreed to settle a lawsuit over misuse of the employee stock-ownership plan for $13.2 million.

Prior to 1998, when it was purchased by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) for $225 million, USCC ran four private prisons in Kentucky: Marion County Adjustment ...

The California State Auditor reported in September 2005 that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), when contracting with private prison contractors for two minimum security Community Correctional Facilities (CCF), issued no-bid awards to companies who had hired recently retired senior CDCR and Finance employees with economic interests in the awards.

Specifically, the Auditor found that (1) actions taken by two of CDCRs former employees may have violated conflict-of-interest laws, (2) CDCR does not ensure that retired annuitants [former employees on retirement pay who are rehired on a second salary] file statements of economic interest, (3) state funds were committed and spent before approval was obtained for a no-bid contract and (4) justification for the no-bid contracts was based on a misleading claim of cost comparisons that did not include all comparable costs. The Auditor further criticized CDCRs future prison population projections [and hence the need for such private facilities] because no documentation of the projection process existed, denying the Auditor ability to establish the validity of the projections.

In addition to 34 state prisons, CDCR operates 12 minimum security CCFs, six of which are operated by private contractors and the other six by local governments. All CCF contracts ...

South Carolina Jury Awards $28.5 Million For Diabetic Jail Prisoners Death

A South Carolina jury has awarded $28.5 million to the family of a mentally ill diabetic man who died from insulin deficiency while imprisoned at the Sumter County Detention Center. The verdict against Eastern Health Care Group, the jails ...

OBriens Pharmacy in Ballston Springs has a pretty good deal in supplying the Saratoga County Jail in New York with prescription drugs for prisoners. The county, which paid OBriens $247,000 in FY 2004, has been paying the average wholesale price plus a $2.60-per-prescription filing fee in accordance with a 1992 policy. By contrast, the countys nursing home and nearby Warren County Jail put their prescription drug purchasing out on bids. Warren County pays 8% below average wholesale and has no filing fee.

How did OBriens get such a sweetheart deal? It could be because OBriens contributes to Saratoga County Sheriff James D. Bowens re-election campaign. In 2005, the amount contribute by OBriens was $1,100.

Jack Murray, Saratoga County auditor, said his staff checks the bills submitted by OBrien, stating that they rarely find an overcharge and sometimes find undercharges. However, they are checking against a policy that may allow overcharging in general.

Bowen said OBriens is used because it is close to the jail and able to make quick deliveries. However, he said he would look into the possibility of putting the prescription drug purchases out on bid.

If there is a way to save money, Ill have to talk ...

Attempts to get jail medical services on the cheap may have backfired for Marylands Queen Anne County. CONMED, a private jail medical services company, has a contract to provide medical services at the countys 80-bed jail and 11 other Maryland jails. CONMED does this by hiring off-duty Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs).

According to CONMED official Ron Grubman, Youre dealing primarily with 18- to 30-year olds, most of whom arent staying any longer than 30 days.

Apparently, they also arent receiving adequate medical services during their brief stays. According to state Board of Nursing Executive Director Donna Dorsey, there have been complaints about the quality of the jails medical services and the jail should have been using licensed nurses to provide the health care. Dorsey disagrees with Grubmans claim that EMTs can handle most of the medical treatment needed at jails.

Its nothing against them, said Dorsey. But an EMT is licensed to do ambulance care, pick people up and treat them before they get to a hospital. Theyre not licensed to work in an institution.

However, jail Warden LaMonte Cook counters that such a move would more than double the jails medical costs from $200,000 a year to an estimated ...

Pennsylvania's Dauphin County Prison (DCP) will receive $65,000 from its food service vendor due to overbilling. The settlement comes on the heels of a several-month grand jury investigation started in 2004 to examine allegations of watered-down food and overcharging.

The agreement, which was reached in September 2005, concludes there was no criminal intent on the part of the vendor, Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp., to overbill the county, said the countys District Attorney, Edward M. Marsico, Jr.

Aramark has served food to DCP prisoners for the last 11 years. Its contract paid for each meal served. Instead, Aramark had been charging a flat amount for meals instead of tracking the ups and downs of the jail's population. "I'm very pleased with the amount of money we received," Marsico said. "I believed it more than covers any loss the county may have had."

In 2004, Aramark was awarded a five-year contract, which could be worth as much as $4.2 million. The investigation was spurred by prisoner complaints.

The probe concluded Aramark was providing the required meal content. Complaints by prisoners were dismissed as individual tastes adverse to institutional food.

PLN has previously reported on Aramark's history of cooking unsanitary food and shorting entrée ...

Wexford Health Sources and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have agreed to pay $2.15 million to the family of an asthmatic prisoner who died after her medication was denied at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Muncy.
Erin Finley, 26, was transferred to SCI-Muncy on July 2, 2002, to serve out ...