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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

EMSA Negligent In Florida Jail Prisoners Death, County Pays $65,000

by Michael Rigby

On April 1, 2005, a jury in the 19th Circuit Court of St. Lucie County, Florida, found EMSA Correctional Care negligent but not liable for damages in a prisoners allegedly drug-related death. EMSAs co-defendant, St. Lucie County, …

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 …