by John E. Dannenberg

Holding that a private corporation acting under color of federal authority may be sued under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 US 388, 397, (1971), the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the District Court's dismissal of John E. Malesko's Bivens complaint against private prison contractor Correctional Services Corporation (CSC).

Malesko was convicted of federal securities fraud in 1992 and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment under supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). While in their custody and care, he was diagnosed with and treated for a heart condition. In 1994, he was transferred to Le Marquis Community Correctional Center, a halfway house operated on behalf of the BOP by CSC.

He had use of an elevator to reach his fifth floor room there until CSC changed their elevator policy to only permit use for residents on the sixth and higher floors. Although Malesko was accorded an exception, one day a CSC employee forced him to take the stairs, even after being reminded of the heart condition. While climbing the stairs, Malesko suffered a heart attack, fell and injured himself. Malesko sued both the private corporation and ...

Wyoming Prison Officials Settle Poisoning And Medical Suits for over $200,000

In August 2000, Wyoming officials agreed to settle two consolidated cases for $200,000 in damages, costs, and attorney fees. The cases were filed in a Wyoming federal District Court by the survivors of two prisoners who died after being ...

Virginia DOC Cuts Ties With CMS

by Robert Durkee

After numerous allegations of inadequate medical care, pending prisoner lawsuits and nearly $1 million in state imposed fines, Virginia Department of Corrections decided to sever at least two of its contractual ties with Correctional Medical Services. "Starting Feb. lst [2001] the state will take over inmate medical treatment from Correctional Medical Services at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge prisons", corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.

In combination with dozens of prisoner lawsuits, CMS has been fined $900,000 for noncompliance with state contract by prison officials. According to a report by the state auditor of public accounts, CMS did not have a dentist at Wallens Ridge for more than three months or a psychiatrist at the Red Onion for more than two months.

According to The Associated Press, the auditor concluded it might be cheaper for CMS to absorb penalties than comply with the contract. Asked what role that report played in the decision to end the relationship with CMS, Traylor said only that the department decided to make a change because the current contract expired January 31, 2001.

CMS, a St. Louisbased company, is the nation's largest provider of prisoner health care ...

A Tennessee federal district judge as found an incentives contract between the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and a private doctor unconstitutional and must be stopped. The contract provided for financial incentives for the physician to reduce costs, which motivated him to reduce medical services.

During a 21-month period ending in 1997, Anthony Bowman, a prisoner at CCA's South Central Correctional Facility (SCCF) saw medical providers 126 times. Although he begged for treatment for his sickle cell anemia for days before his death, he received none but was eventually transferred to a Nashville hospital where he died only hours later. By not placing Bowman in the hospital, the doctor substantially increased his compensation.

Patricia Bowman, Anthony's mother, sued CCA, SCCF warden Devin Myers, the contract doctor, Robert B. Coble, Nashville Memorial Hospital and one of its doctors, Donald Boatwright. The claims against the last two defendants were dismissed. After more than three years of litigation, the case went to a two-week jury trial. Patricia Bowman testified that her son told her he thought he was going to die, he'd never been this sick before. He said, "Mama, they think I'm kidding. They don't think I'm sick." The jury, however, found ...

On March 23, 2001, a federal jury in Memphis, Tennessee, awarded Tennessee state prisoner Charles Degan $235,000 in damages in a medical neglect suit against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the world's largest private, for profit, prison company.

In 1998 Degan's nose and jaw were broken in a fight with ...

The Washington Supreme Court held that the Department of Corrections (DOC) possessed statutory authority to transfer nearly 400 prisoners to an outofstate, private prison. In March of 1999, DOC transferred 254 prisoners to the Correctional Services Corporation run Crowley County Correctional Facility in Olney Springs Colorado [PLN, June 1999].

In the months to follow, DOC sent some 150 more prisoners to the facility. DOC decided the transfers were necessary in order to alleviate overcrowding until such time as its new facility, the Stafford Creek Corrections Center, was operational. Overcrowding became critical when DOC surrendered 260 beds to the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island Corrections Center that same year.

Many prisoners confined at the private facility filed Personal Restraint Petitions (PRPs) directly in the supreme court, arguing that DOC lacked statutory authority to transfer them. Three of these PRPs were consolidated and counsel was appointed to represent the prisoners. DOC responded that it had statutory authority to place the prisoners in the private facility under a statute which grants the Secretary of DOC broad powers to effect transfers. See: RCW 72.68.010.

Additionally, DOC argued that an amendment to RCW 72.68.010 clarified any ambiguity concerning the DOC Secretary's authority to transfer ...

A federal district court in New Jersey held that material issues of fact precluded summary judgment on a former prisoner's claim that he was denied adequate medical care. The court also rejected defendants' claim of qualified immunity.

Dana Andrews, a former prisoner of the Camden County Corrections Facility, (CCCF), sued Correctional Medical Services, (CMS), a private contractor providing medical services to CCCF prisoners, and numerous other defendants, alleging deliberate indifference to his need for treatment of a life threatening infection which nearly caused his death.

Andrews was held in CCCF on misdemeanor drunken driving charges from June 13, 1996 to June 21, 1996. No medical problems were observed during his initial medical screening. But five days after his admission, staff noted that Andrews was suffering from "flu symptoms." A memo was forwarded to the CMS physician, but he claimed not to have received it.

Andrews developed a severely infected toothache, which rapidly reduced him to a sweating, weakened state. He requested medical attention but did not receive medical care of any sort.

Following Andrews' release from custody on June 21, 1996, his mother took him to a hospital emergency room, where he was promptly admitted and diagnosed with sepsis - ...

$9.5 Million Awarded In Prisoner Van Fire Death

In late February 2001, Kathryn Catalano received a $9.5 million jury award in a Tennessee U.S. District Court. She sued after her father died in an extradition van fire. Federal Extradition Agency (FEA) is a private company based in Memphis, Tennessee. For ...

$1.4 Million Awarded To Raped Alaska Women Prisoners

On January 22, 2001 an Anchorage, Alaska superior court jury awarded nearly $1.4 million to five women in a civil action arising from their being sexually assaulted by a guard at an Anchorage halfway house called the Cordova Center.

J.C. Lewis Jr. ...

by Joel Dyer, Westview Press, 2000 (318 pages)

Reviewed by Rick Card

An estimated 69 million people, or 44 percent of all households now own stock or invest in one of thousands of mutual funds. According to Joel Dyer, they are all "deriving at least a small portion of their profits from crime."

In his latest book, The Perpetual Prisoner Machine, Dyer demonstrates how prison profiteering threatens the fabric of our democratic ideals, setting us up for a prison expansion of unimaginable proportion.

Analyzing our current criminal justice policy, Dyer points out how prisoncrats have twisted the issues into an argument they cannot lose. By using fallacious reports of rising crime to call for more prisons is one thing, but to say that prisons are working when the numbers fallin effect calling for more prisons to further reduce crimeis an example of having your cake and eating it too.

Dyer calls it flipping a coin with a prison on both sides. The losers are two million souls caged like animals and taxpayers who foot the expanding bill; the winners are prison contractors, suppliers, investors, service providers, and law enforcement agencies who reap larger budgets and higher profits.

The Perpetual Prisoner ...