The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated and remanded a New Jersey U.S. District Court's award of summary judgment against, and denial of appointment of counsel to, a pro se prisoner plaintiff.


Jeffrey Montgomery, a New Jersey State prisoner now incarcerated at Riverfront State Prison, filed suit against Correctional Medical Services (CMS) and several administrators of the East Jersey State Prison under 42 U.S.C. §1983, alleging violations of his Eighth Amendment rights by deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. Montgomery is HIV positive and has serious heart problems. All of his complaints arose while he-was incarcerated at East Jersey State Prison.


In March 1996, Montgomery was scheduled for cardiac catheterization to be performed in May. This order was given by a cardiologist who examined Montgomery after he complained of chest pains. At that time, Montgomery was also on antiviral medication for HIV. In April 1996, CMS took over management of all New Jersey prison medical care. CMS admittedly lost all of Montgomery's medical records during the takeover. Because of the lost records, Montgomery's cardiac catheterization was not performed, and CMS discontinued his anti-HIV medication for ten months.


Montgomery tried repeatedly to get his medical records replaced, HIV ...

Youth Services International (YSI), a company already under fire for a multitude of problems, including contract violations, financial mismanagement, prisoner mistreatment and prisoner deaths, was again in the news this past September. YSI, a subsidiary of Corrections Services Corporation, operates juvenile prisons, including boot-camp-style facilities, in a number of states. ...

In accordance with a July 29, 2002 ruling by U.S. District Judge Jennifer B. Coffman, as many as 700 former guards who worked at private prisons in Kentucky operated by U.S. Corrections Corp. could share in settlement of $14 million or more. In her 49 page opinion, Coffman held that ...

The Supreme Court of Alaska sustained a lower court's ruling which provisionally allowed Alaska prisoners to be transferred to an Arizona prison, required the Arizona facility to comply with Alaska's prison overcrowding settlement agreement, and found the Alaska prisoners' challenge to the process of selecting individuals for transfer to Arizona to be moot.


In 1981, Alaska prisoners filed a class-action lawsuit complaining of overcrowding and prison conditions in general. In 1990, the parties executed a settlement agreement and designated a superior court judge to have continuing jurisdiction over alleged violations.


Thereafter, Alaska's prison population grew beyond allowable limits and the state contracted with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to house Alaska's overflow prisoners in a CCA-owned facility in Arizona. CCA's facility purportedly met American Correctional Association's standards but fell short of incorporating the rights and benefits secured by the 1990 settlement agreement.


Michael Cleary, acting for all Alaska prisoners, challenged the constitutionality of the selection-transfer process and asked the trial court to enjoin the transfer of prisoners to Arizona. The court found that the selection process met constitutional muster and denied Cleary's motions for injunctions, but it ordered that the transfers would be subject to the Arizona prison's compliance with ...

Federal Legal Standards For Prison Medical Care

by Dan Manville


The State is required to provide adequate medical care to those it confines.1 In this time of shrinking budgets, many prison systems have turned to contracting with private health care providers to meet their legal obligations. Some states have turned most of their health care services over to private companies such as Correctional Medical Services, Inc. (CMS), even though CMS's record for providing health care is dismal.2 In Michigan, since CMS has taken control of providing medical care to Michigan's prisoners, the complaints that the author and others have received pertaining to medical care have increased significantly. This article discusses the federal legal standard for providing medical care, what level of care will and will not violate this Federal standard, how private companies or their staff may be liable, and the impact the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) has on that Federal standard.


A. Eighth Amendment - Deliberate Indifference Standard


Under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution3, prison officials are required to provide prisoners with "reasonably adequate" medical care.4 Courts have defined adequate medical care as "services at a level reasonably commensurate with modern medical science and of ...

On October 28, 2002, Corrections Corp. of America, (CCA) settled its 1997 federal taxes after an audit by the Internal Revenue Service for the sum of $54 million. The IRS challenged the validity of the tax deductions that the former Prison Realty, a real estate investment trust (REIT) had claimed in 1997 tax return. This subsidiary of CCA's was formed in 1997 for the sole purpose of creating corporate tax advantages [See: "CCA Sells Self; Wackenhut Creates REIT," PLN Aug. `98.]


This merger between Prison Realty and CCA was disassembled in 2000 after continually plummeting stock prices because of concerns of a potential conflict of interest by the cooperative association of Prison Realty and CCA. Both companies were located in the same Nashville office and shared the same corporate personal on the board of both companies. This allowed CCA to lease their prison back to themselves with a much more profitable tax break [See: "Prison Realty/CCA Verges on Bankruptcy," PLN July `00.]


CCA expects no effect on its real estate investment trust status, and they foresee an increase in the company's accumulated earnings and profits for 2002. CCA went on to say that they do not expect this settlement to ...

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed and remanded in part a North Dakota Federal District Court's dismissal of a state prisoner's claim that he was denied treatment for hepatitis C.


Dale J. Burke is a prisoner of the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (NDDCR). Burke has hepatitis C. He sued NDDCR and its health care provider, Medcenter One, under 42 U.S.C. §1983 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §12101, alleging that NDDCR and Medcenter One completely denied him treatment for hepatitis C.


The district court, screening the complaint prior to service of process as required by 28 U.S.C. §1915A, dismissed without prejudice for failure to state a claim for relief. The district court did not consider Burke's amended complaint. Burke appealed, abandoning his ADA claims on appeal.


The appeals court held that Burke stated a claim for relief. "Mr. Burke alleged more than a disagreement over the proper course of treatment for his hepatitis C: he alleged that he was denied treatment entirely" and that the basis for the denial of treatment was his prior lawsuits against the NDDCR medical director. Burke's suit should have been allowed to proceed against NDDCR and ...

A trail of corruption, greed, and cronyism has led to the indictment of a Georgia senator, the dismissal of an assistant attorney general and the resignation of six parole board members including the director and the chairman.


Van Streat was suspended from his office as state senator after he tried to have convicted murderer Ronald Gaither moved to a less secure prison facility in exchange for campaign funds. On January 8, 2002 Streat was indicted for violating his oath of office and lying about his attempt to pressure the board to relocate the state prisoner. Gaither had already escaped from prison on two previous occasions.


Streat's suspension was the first drop from the menacing storm clouds that had gathered over the parole board. Assistant Corrections Commissioner Joe Ferrero says that board Chairman Walter Ray and board member Bobby Whitworth came to his office on August 10, 1999 to support Streat's request.


Ominous thunderheads first began to gather in July 2001 when Whitworth and Ray were accused of accepting thousands of dollars for lobbying on behalf of private prison interests. The torrent that followed submerged the board in a flood of scandal and corruption.


Money Trail


For over three years Whitworth ...

by David M. Reutter


In July 2001, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) entered into a five-year contract with Philadelphia's cost-conscious Aramark Corporation to feed prisoners at 126 of the 133 prisons in Florida. The contract is projected to reduce FDOC's cost of feeding its prisoners from $80.2 million in 2000-2001 to $72.2 million in the fiscal year that ended July 1.


Aramark provides meals at a daily cost of $2.32 per prisoner, and it will earn an estimated $58 million in its first year of the contract. This profit earning is facilitated, in part, by Aramark's use of prisoner slave labor. Prior to the contract with Aramark, FDOC had required its food service contractors to pay prisoners. The biggest profit earner, however, comes upon the altar by sacrifice of sanitary practices and shorting menu ingredients.


When Aramark first entered Florida's prisons it initially served well-proportioned tasty trays. Then the weaning began. As time went on, Aramark began to cut corners in the amount of ingredients it used, and the amount it served prisoners. Aramark regularly fails to cook enough food; often they run out with 200 to 300 prisoners waiting to be fed. This results in delays of 10 ...

At a time when the California Department of Corrections (CDC) is already under intense Legislative criticism for overspending its annual budget by $544.8 million (see: PLN, Aug. 2004, p. 41), an April, 2004 report by the California State Auditor revealed that CDC repeatedly violated its own policies regarding contracting for prisoner medical care, overspending $6 million in just four analyzed contracts alone. Flaws identified by the auditors include exceeding standard rates for particular medical procedures, overspending contract limits and ignoring guidelines intended to contain costs. In addition, 77% of such contracts were awarded without competitive bidding.

CDC's costs for contracts with private hospitals, specialty care physicians and outside laboratories have risen 15% per year for the past four years, reaching $239 million in fiscal year 2003-2004. These increases far exceed the growth rate seen in the outside community, although CDC's needs are understandably skewed by the concentrated need to treat AIDS, hepatitis, mental illness and an aging prison population as 25,000 lifers continues to be denied parole.

CDC's annual health care costs run over $900 million per year, approaching 20% of their budget. And that is with fewer than 1% of Hepatitis-C infected prisoners presently being treated while 40% of ...