A merger between Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) and Prison Realty Trust was approved by shareholders of both companies on Dec. 1, and Dec. 3, 1998, respectively. CCA had spun-off Prison Realty Trust in July 1997, then announced merger plans last April [See: CCA Sells Self; Wackenhut Creates REIT," PLN , Vol. 9 No. 8].

The CCA-Prison Realty merger was opposed by an organized labor group that safeguards pension funds of member unions. The AFL-CIO's Office of Investment sent seven-page mailings to CCA shareholders urging them to vote against the proposed merger because it unfairly favored CCA management and two major institutional investors, and transfered some of CCA's most valuable assets to companies that would not benefit shareholders.

"We are reaching out to CCA's shareholders to put forth our critique of the deal and get some dialogue going," said AFL-CIO representative Beth Young.

CCA spokesperson Peggy Lawrence said the union's complaints were out of context and outdated. The AFL-CIO and affiliated labor unions held an estimated .5% of CCA's stock prior to the merger.

Three of the nation's largest pension funds also opposed the merger. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the New York City Pension Fund System, and the ...

The 1200-bed Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF), a New Mexico state prison operated by Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections Corp., has been plagued by nine prisoner stabbings during its first six months of operation, including two that resulted in the deaths of two prisoners.

Jose Montoya, a 44-year-old LCCF prisoner, died December 10, 1998 after being stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen with a homemade shank. Montoya had been waiting in the prison barber shop for a haircut when the stabbing occurred. He died later at Columbia Lea Medical Center in Hobbs. No motive was given for the stabbing. However, one prisoner has been charged with capital murder with special circumstances, and a second one has been charged with tampering with evidence for allegedly throwing a shank in the trash to hide it from authorities.

Another LCCF prisoner, 30-year-old Steven Edwards, was stabbed at least 92 times on Christmas Day December 25, 1998 with a shank made from a piece of chain link fence, officials said. Despite the numerous wounds, police said, Edwards was up and walking around several days later.

Robert Ortega, a 38-year-old LCCF prisoner, was found by a passing prison guard lying dead in his cell on January 13, 1999 ...

In 1998 Correctional Medical services (CMS) and the estate of Mark Murphy settled a wrongful death suit for $75,000. CMS is the largest provider of privatized medical care to prisoners and jail detainees.

Mark Murphy was imprisoned at the Delaware Correctional Center (DCC) in Smyrna, Delaware. In June, 1992, Murphy ...

According to a consultant hired by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the Pahokee Youth Development Center (Juvenile prison) operated by the Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) kept ten juvenile detainees beyond their release dates for no other reason than to beef up corporate profits.

Consultant David Bachman wrote in a November 1998 report to the state that the youths were detained beyond their release dates so they would be included in a quarterly head count used to determine the amount of funding that CSC receives. Bachman said he found a memo indicating the juveniles were to be held longer than necessary.

The Sarasota, Florida-based CSC has a three-year, $30 million contract to manage juvenile detention centers in Pahokee and Polk County. The company operates 15 other juvenile facilities nationwide and in Puerto Rico.

The state of Florida pays CSC an average of $68.40 per detainee/day at the 350 bed Pahokee lockup; the local school district pays the company an additional $2.5 million annually to provide educational services there.

The juveniles who were kept beyond their release dates were scheduled to go home a week before the quarterly school board head count. Delaying the release of the ten youths to include ...

Reviewed by Alex Friedmann

In 1997 Congress instructed the Attorney General's office to undertake a study of prison privatization, to include a review of legal issues and existing research regarding cost effectiveness. The study was conducted by Abt Associates, Inc. through a cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Corrections, and the resulting report was released in October, 1998.

The report presents a comprehensive overview of prison privatization based on a survey of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and 48 states. Only Alaska and Maine did not respond; the report does not encompass local governments.

Previous studies of prison privatization conducted in Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida, Texas and Arizona are evaluated and critiqued. The report notes that methodological problems in the studies make it difficult to assess privately-operated facilities vis-a-vis public prisons. Other factors also preclude accurate comparisons - e.g., differences in the security classification of prisoner in public and private prisons. "Some of the more extravagant claims made on behalf of prison privatization can be traced to inappropriate handling of these issues," the authors of the report state.

The report concludes that there is insufficient data to assess the cost effectiveness and performance quality ...

In October, 1996, Wisconsin's legislature granted the Department of Corrections (WDOC) authorization to house 700 prisoners in Texas County Jails. WDOC Secretary Michael Sullivan overcame the opposition to that first prisoner-export proposal by assuring the public that the crossborder option was merely a stop-gap measure to address a temporary shortfall in prison capacity.

In December, 1998, the legislature voted to grant the WDOC funding to raise the number of prisoners Wisconsin houses in other states from 3000 to 3500. Wisconsin now leads the nation in the number of prisoners it houses in other jurisdictions.

The WDOC's prisoner-export business has not only exploded in size over two years, it's also picked up staying power. In a Joint Finance Committee hearing on the December funding request, Sullivan called the rental of prison cells in other states a "permanent fixture" of the Wisconsin Corrections system.

While the WDOC seems to think shipping prisoners to other states is a fine idea, many Wisconsinites disagree. Labor unions object because exporting prisoners also sends jobs out of state by spending part of the WDOC's budget on the salaries of construction workers and prison guards in other states. Friends and relatives of prisoners object because they don't ...

No one can imagine. What it's like. Not unless you've gone through it. Christina Foos has. While incarcerated in a for-profit prison in Arizona, Christina says she was accosted by a guard, Ernesto Rivas, as she stepped out of the shower in March of 1997. Christina told Prison Legal News that she was startled by the sight of him, standing there with his exposed erection in hand.

Before she could think of what to do, she says, Rivas ordered her to bend over the bed in her cell and proceeded to rape her. She says he returned less than two hours later to repeat the act.

Foos was among 78 women exiled in October of 1996 by the Oregon Department of Corrections. Because of overcrowding, the women were shipped to the Corrections Corporation of America's (CCA) Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence.

Predominantly a men's facility, CCA Florence lacked a separate disciplinary segregation unit for women. A medical quarantine room adjacent to the hospital area served as the improvised solution. According to a suit filed in Tuscon by five women against CCA and at least fifteen former or current CCA Florence employees, the all-male guard staff that watched over the ...

Much of the statistical and academic information regarding prison privatization that is reported in the media (and consequently relied upon by lawmakers deciding whether to contract with private prison companies) comes from Charles W. Thomas, director of the Private Corrections Project at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

The Private Corrections Project is funded by grants from the private prison industry including CCA, Wackenhut, Cornell, U.S. Corrections Corporation and Correctional Services Corporation that amount to $50,000 to $60,000 annually. The money is channeled as unrestricted donations through the University of Florida Research Foundation. Documents supplied by the university indicate that the Project received over $250,000 between 1990 and 1996; according to Dr. Thomas the amount is more than $400,000. Although Thomas's salary is paid by the university his expenses and summer salary ($26,845 in 1997) are funded by the Research Foundation.

In an interview with The National Times Thomas admitted he had money invested in "substantially all" of the private prison companies, but refused to say how much. On April 25, 1997 the Wall Street Journal reported that Thomas was being named a board member of the CCA Prison Realty Trust; he receives an annual salary of $12,000 with options to ...

On August 5, 1998, Jerry Reeves, a guard at Tennessee's Whiteville Correctional Facility (WCF), suffered near-fatal injuries in an altercation with prisoners. WCF, which houses prisoners from Wisconsin, is owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

In the days following the assault on Reeves, CCA employees investigated to determine which prisoners had attacked the guard. The investigation included intensive interrogation of any prisoners the CCA officials suspected might have information about the attack.

Wisconsin DOC administrators soon began receiving complaints from prisoners and the families of prisoners who'd been interrogated at WCF, claiming CCA employees had physically abused prisoners during interrogation in order to coerce the prisoners into answering questions. In October, after consulting with WCF managers, WDOC Secretary Michael Sullivan denied that any Wisconsin prisoners were abused during the interrogations.

Not satisfied with Sullivan's denial, the families of several prisoners retained attorneys to look into the abuse allegations. As those lawyers began turning up evidence to support the prisoners' claims, the WDOC decided to conduct its own investigation. WDOC officials travelled to Whiteville, where they questioned 51 prisoners and prison employees.

On November 10, the WDOC held a press conference, announcing that its investigators concluded that ...

Juvenile Crime Still Pays – But at What Cost?

by Alex Friedmann

[Last February, PLN published a cover article, "Juvenile Crime Pays," concerning the proliferation of for-profit juvenile justice services. This month we revisit the topic following recent reports of abuse and mis- management at privately operated juvenile prisons.]

The National Juvenile Detention Association estimates that 5 percent of the nation's juvenile detention facilities are privately operated, and the construction of for-profit prisons, jails and boot camps for youthful offenders is a rapidly expanding industry. By slashing operating costs and providing subsistence level services, companies can reap handsome profits from the millions of dollars they receive through largely unregulated government contracts.

As a result of this profit-margin mentality, however, an increasing number of privately operated juvenile detention facilities are being cited for abusive conditionsincluding recent reports of misconduct and mismanagement at for-profit juvenile facilities in Louisiana, Arkansas and Colorado.

Fear and Loathing in Louisiana

The Justice Department filed suit November 5, 1998, against the state of Louisiana for failing to protect juvenile prisoners from brutality and providing inadequate education, medical and mental health care.

"It's incredibly unusual," said David Utter, director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, which has ...