By Matthew T. Clarke

A federal district court in Illinois has dismissed the breach of medical care duty suit of a suicide prisoner's estate against Correctional Medical Services of Illinois (CMS), but encouraged the refilling of the suit in state court.

Ethel Hare was an Illinois prisoner at the Kane County Adult Correctional Center (the jail). When admitted to the jail, Hare was HIV positive and suffering from chronic liver disease, liver cirrhosis, and Hepatitis B and C. The sheriff had contracted with CMS to provide prisoner medical services at the jail.

Five months after being arrested, Hare complained of stomach ailments. She was seen by a jail doctor, who ordered her transferred to a hospital. She remained at the hospital for two days, suffering from abnormal coagulation, and was diagnosed with portal hypertension with ascites, jaundice, coagulopathy, HIV, and Hepatitis B and C. Upon release, the hospital physician noted that Hare should be closely monitored, continue her medications, receive a post-release follow up and have her chemistries monitored.

Hare's condition was initially stable. She saw a jail doctor who noted she was still slightly jaundiced and had been scratching her abdomen. Two days later, she began vomiting. She was ...

The U.S. court of appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that a privately employed prison physician was ineligible to claim qualified immunity. Disputed material facts surrounding his response to a prisoner's serious medical condition also precluded summary judgment on the merits.

In June 1995, Fitzgerald Hinson was a prisoner in the DeKalb County (GA) jail when he blew out an Achilles tendon playing basketball. On January 11,1996, he had surgery to repair the injury, but seven months later he was still in a wheelchair and wearing a hospital gown. By then, atrophy had set in.

At time, Roderick Edmond was the jail medical director. He was employed by Wexford Health Service, a for-profit entity that had contracted with the county to provide medical services to jail prisoners. Edmond was in charge of overseeing and implementing health care at the jail, and Wexford had sole responsibility in all matters of medical judgment.

After surgery, Hinson received little or no follow-up care, leading to the atrophy. Even after he was examined by Edmond on August 26, 1996, the first documented consult for therapy was not written until November 7th. Although Hinson began a program of rehabilitation at a local hospital the following ...

In 1998 senior officials of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DORC) were convinced that outsourcing prison food service would be the next great leap forward for Ohio penology. So they bid out a contract for private firms to provide food service at the Noble Correctional Institution. Of the two bids submitted, from ARAMARK Correctional Services of Oakbrook, Ill., and Canteen Corp. of Chicago, ARAMARK's was the lowest.

Commencing October 1, 1998, ARAMARC purchased, cooked, and dished out the food served to Noble's 2,500 captive consumers. The contract specified that ARAMARC was to be paid from $1.24 to $1.27 for each meal it served. That number was to be calculated from an exact count of convicts who ate at each breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Almost immediately problems with the contract began. The profit-conscious ARAMARC served precisely measured food portions that were "substantially smaller' than those received by convicts of other state prisons, admitted Gary C. Mohr, DORC's deputy director for administration.

Within weeks Noble's then-warden Thomas Haskins and other Noble employees began complaining to officials at DORC headquarters that ARAMARK's small portions presented a big problem. Grumbling by prisoners could escalate into a riot, they warned.

Senior DORC officials ...

On February 22, 2000, Tarrant County, Texas agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to the estate of James Livingston, 30, to settle a wrongful death suit. On July 6, 1999, Livingston was arrested on a trespassing warrant. He was allegedly abusive while being booked into the Tarrant county jail. As ...

By W. Wisely

Racial brawling broke out between black and Latino prisoners at Victor Valley Community Correctional Facility March 1, 2000. Six prisoners were sent to hospitals near the Adelanto, California, medium security private prison operated by Marantha Private Corrections LLC.

Fighting began at 7:00 P.M. and allegedly ended a few minutes later, Angela Valles, Assistant Facility Director, told the Associated Press. However, the Adelanto Police Department reported rioting continued at 9:30 P.M. An hour and a half later, heavily armed guards from another prison nearby arrived as reinforcements.

The 500 man for-profit prison houses mostly non-violent parole violators. Emphasis there is on rehabilitation, and spokespersons deny any serious problems. Yet, in October, 1998, racial violence broke out between some 50 prisoners, injuring three.

Five of the 10 to 15 men involved in the latest incident were expected to be transferred to Lancaster prison, according to Valles. The facility was locked-down pending an investigation. "So they can't talk to each other. That way we can investigate the incident," said Larry Kositsin, director of counseling.

Trying to downplay the situation, Valles said she wasn't sure what started the fighting, adding it may have been racial tension. "There was no riot," she ...

Gordon Flud's April 12, 2000, escape from a Hinton, Oklahoma rent-a-jail didn't end well for him--or for his prison. Flud, 44, jumped fences, avoided razor wire and climbed down the Great Plains Correctional Facility administration building's rainspout in his bid for freedom. But that freedom lasted only seconds, as guards nabbed him in the parking lot.

Call it the $300,000 escape. That's what the Oklahoma Department of Corrections did when it slapped the private prison's operators with a $304,375 penalty for alleged security breaches that allowed the escape to occur.

The 812-bed lockup is owned by The Hinton Economic Development Authority and operated by Cornell Corrections Inc. The penalty for Flud's escape, which DOC officials plan to withhold from Great Plains' state contract, is the largest assessed against an Oklahoma private prison.

The second largest was a $168,750 forfeiture levied against the same prison in March 2000 for not meeting medical service obligations [see related article below]. The $300,000-plus penalty amounts to roughly nine or ten days of free rent for the state, which pays Great Plains $43.95 a day for each of the approximately 715 prisoners housed in the for-profit lockup.

"It's very exorbitant and unreasonable and, for the ...

On March 5,2000, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) fined the Great Plains Correctional Facility (GPCF) in Hinton, Oklahoma, $168,750 for failing to provide adequate medical care to the 812 Oklahoma prisoners housed in the prison. GPCF is owned by the Hinton Economic Development Authority, a county government agency, but it is operated by Cornell Corrections, a private, for-profit prison company. GPCF is the first private prison to open in Oklahoma.

Dennis Cunningham, the Oklahoma DOC's private prison administrator, said at the time the fine was levied it was the

largest ever against a private prison company in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma DOC found that the prison was not providing the medical care it was contractually obligated to provide, especially to chronically ill prisoners. Despite repeated requests, the prison never documented purported waivers of medical treatment from prisoners. The prison's medical staff was also working outside the scope of

their licenses.

Cunningham said the fine amount was determined by a formula and would be withheld from payment on the GPCF contract. Both Cornell and the HEDA disputed the fine and called the DOC's action "arbitrary and capricious." They claimed the prison provides basic medical care required by the constitution. Of course, ...

On the cover of the July PLN we reported that the nation's largest private prison owner and operator, Prison Realty/CCA, verged on bankruptcy and that one of its principal shareholders, Pacific Life Insurance Co., planned to infuse a $200 million equity investment into the ailing company. When the July PLN when to press the deal had been agreed to but not yet finalized. Just days later the deal fell through.

On June 30, Prison Realty announced that the deal had been "mutually terminated." For its part, Pacific Life was dissatisfied over key conditions that Prison Realty failed to meet. Pacific Life wanted Prison Realty to obtain a four-year extension on its bank credit and settle pending lawsuits for an amount not higher than the company's insurance coverage. Instead, Prison Realty arranged with its bank lenders to extend their credit line 18 months, and failed to resolve pending lawsuits.

The deal with its bankers also allowed Prison Realty to borrow $55 million to meet immediate funding needs. That, and a $760 million 10-year contract with the Bureau of Prisons to operate two federal prisons, gave Prison Realty management the confidence to restructure the company without outside help.

Wall Street analyst Robert ...

Wackenhut Wracked By Sexual Abuse Scandals

by Ron Young

After a decade as a leading operator of corporate-owned prisons, Wackenhut Corrections has become a prisoner of its own problems.

In New Mexico, a 500-page legislative report written by five consultants calls for a near-total overhaul of state prison operations, including two run by Wackenhut. After an August 31, 1999, riot that left a prisoner and guard dead [see PLN Dec. 1999],Wackenhut was faulted for having inadequate and ill-prepared staff earning Wal-Mart wages. Four prisoners have died in Wackenhut prisons in Santa Rosa and Hobbs since their opening in 1998. Three were stabbed to death, and one fatally pummeled with a laundry bag containing two rocks. But it was the murder of guard Ralph Garcia last August 31 at the Santa Rosa prison that put Wackenhut on the hot seat.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., five guards at a Wackenhut work-release facility were fired or punished for having sex with prisoners in the summer of 1999. No charges were filed, but Sheriff Ken Jenne wants to renegotiate contract terms with Wackenhut. Wackenhut operates two medium-security prisons in Florida-one in South Bay and one in Moore Haven. In June 1999, the American Civil ...

In March, 2000, six teenage boys, brutalized by guards in a Wackenhut prison in Jena, Louisiana, were removed by the judge who sentenced them.

State Judge Mark Doherty of Orleans Parish Louisiana was so appalled by their treatment that he made a special trip to the Jena facility to check on the welfare of twelve other boys he had sentenced. He eventually released five more, describing Jena as "a place that drives and treats juveniles as if they walked on all fours."

One of those released was a 17-year-old whom a guard had pinned face down on the floor. The youth had recently undergone an operation for gunshot wounds to the stomach and was wearing a colostomy bag when the guard held him to the ground by placing a knee in his back.

Judge Doherty is not the only one taking action. On March 31, 2000, the Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against the Jena Juvenile Justice Center. It is the first time the DOJ has sued a private prison company.

In this original action, U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola has been asked to add the Jena facility to a November 1998 lawsuit filed against the state of Louisiana. ...