Private Transportation Company Liable Under 42 USC § 1983

A federal district court in Colorado held that alleged sexual assaults committed by an employee of a private transportation company, under contract with the state Department of Corrections, were committed under color of state law and stated a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Under a contract for extradition transportation between TransCor America, Inc., a subsidiary of the Corrections Corporation of America, and the Colorado Department of Corrections, former TransCor employees Jack ter Linden and Randy Goodman transported Joann Gwynn from Oregon to Colorado in November of 1993.

Gwynn filed suit against TransCor, ter Linden and Goodman, alleging violations of her constitutional rights during the trip. She alleged that ter Linden repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and fondled her during the 145 hour trip and that Goodman failed to prevent or report these assaults.

Defendants moved to dismiss Gwynn's § 1983 claim for failure to state a claim, arguing that ter Linden's sexual assaults were not committed under color of state law and did not constitute state action, but rather were purely private conduct undertaken for purely private purposes.

The court treated the state's motion as a motion for summary judgment and ...

By Dan Savage

Alpharetta, Georgia- I'm naked, and I'm not happy. In just under an hour, I've been subjected to two of three punishments I'd specifically asked to be spared from. On forms I filled out weeks ago, I ticked the "quiet menace" box over the "shouted orders" box, and in the "special requests" space, I explained that I didn't want to be naked. Yet here I am, standing in front of my three fellow prisoners all fully clothed bare assed. I'm being bellowed at by a very large, very intimidating man in a black police uniform. The four of us were "arrested" about an hour ago, and I'm being "processed" first: questioned, fingerprinted, photographed and strip searched.

I want my money back.

The Academy Training Center, located just outside Atlanta, "caters to men who are curious about prison life." The four of us have come to "experience authentic incarceration" In a facility staffed by "genuine law enforcement officers." As The New York Times recently reported, thousands of tourists are visiting the country's prisons; a billboard in Kansas beckons, "How About Doin' Some TIME in Leavenworth?" [See also PLN, Aug. 1998, "Prisons Promote Tourism".]

While visitors to the federal penitentiary ...

On June 25, 1999, the state of Missouri filed a proposed $2.2 million settlement in U.S. District Court that would dispose of 32 lawsuits filed in state and federal courts by 700 - 2,100 Missouri prisoners abused in Texas jails. The lawsuits stem partly from abuses that occurred during a ...

On April 6, 1999, up to 400 prisoners at the Wackenhut-oper- ated Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, New Mexico, rioted and ransacked the prison's kitchen and dining areas. Thirteen guards, including two state employees, and one prisoner were injured in the melee, which was the latest in a series of violent incidents that have occurred at the private prison over the past year [see PLN, June, 1999]. Hundreds of state and local law enforcement officers responded to the riot.

New Mexico Corrections Dept. spokesman Mike Toms said the disturbance started as an argument between prisoners and guards over items used in Native American religious services. Several months before the riot, a group of Native American prisoners had complained they were being prevented from conducting religious ceremonies. The group the Red Nation Indian Society submitted the complaint to the corrections department in a letter signed by around 40 prisoners.

The Lea County Correctional Facility holds the largest number of Native American prisoners among New Mexico's state prisons, with about 60 taking part in religious services. The prisoners stated in their complaint that they were unable to use a ceremonial sweat lodge they had built because Wackenhut would not provide a ...

Prof. Charles W. Thomas, director of the Private Corrections Project at the University of Florida and a board member of Prison Realty Corp., has long been criticized for his close connections with the private prison companies he researches [see: "University professor shills for private prison industry," PLN, Feb. 1999].

On April 19, 1999, Thomas agreed to settle two ethics complaints filed against him by the Florida Police Benevolent Association, a union that represents state corrections employees. In light of a $3 million fee he received for advising CCA on its merger with Prison Realty Trust, Thomas acknowledged that his business dealings with private prison operators could create the impression of a conflict of interest.

According to Eric Scott of the state Attorney General's office, Thomas's "contractual relationships with [Prison Realty Corp.] created a situation which could tempt dishonor. Because the results of [his] research can have such a profound effect on the private prison industry, [he] is in a position where his private economic interests and his public duty overlap in a manner which could lead to a disregard of his public duty. In other words, [he] could be tempted to alter the results of his research in an effort ...

When the Tennessee legislature passed the Private Prison Contracting Act of 1986, codified at TCA § 41-24- 101 to 115, the following provision was included: "No contract for correctional services shall authorize, allow or imply a delegation of the authority or responsibility of the [Dept. of Correction] to a prison contractor for ... taking any disciplinary actions."

The Tenn. Dept. of Correction (TDOC) later developed Uniform Disciplinary Procedures for the CCA-operated South Central Corr. Center the state's only privately- operated state prison. The procedures permit CCA employees to serve on an institutional disciplinary board; the board reviews evidence, determines guilt and makes recommendations for punishment to a TDOC liaison a state employee who either approves or modifies the board's decision.

Two prisoners at South Central, Luther Davis and Jabari Issa Mandela, were charged with rule violations and found guilty by a disciplinary board composed of CCA employees. They then filed separate lawsuits in Chancery court claiming the disciplinary procedures at South Central constituted an illegal delegation of the TDOC's authority to punish prisoners.

Their arguments were rejected by the Chancery court and Court of Appeals, and the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed to hear their consolidated cases. On Oct. 19, 1998 ...

A federal district court in Rhode Island held that a private jail is neither a "law enforcement" agency, nor a federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facility, that would shield it from liability under federal wiretapping statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2520 (the Act). The court further held that factual disputes required a trial on the issue of consent to intercept.

This case involves numerous plaintiffs, consisting of attorneys, their incarcerated clients, and the prisoners' families and friends. At all relevant times (1993-94), the prisoners were confined to the Wyatt Detention Facility, which was operated by Cornell Corrections, a private corporation. During this period, the plaintiffs claim that the defendants (the corporation, its agents and employees) intercepted telephone calls from the prisoners, including confidential and privileged legal communications.

Section 2520 of the Act creates a private right of action for any person whose oral communication is intercepted in violation of the Act. As a result, the plaintiffs sued for damages under the Act, and an analogous Rhode Island statute. Both sides subsequently moved for summary judgment.

The Act provides two relevant exceptions to liability. First, § 2510(5)(a)(ii) excludes wiretaps "by an investigative or law enforcement officer in the ordinary course of his ...

A federal district court in New York denied summuary judgment to a prison physician being sued for medical neglect. The court held that a genuine issue of material fact was in dispute in that the physician may have acted with deliberate indifference by failing to diagnose a prisoner's serious medical condition.

Samuel J. Hudak, a New York prisoner, brought an Eighth Amendment claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleged that the attending physician at Rockland County Correctional Facility, Dr. Burton D. Miller, acted with deliberate indifference in regard to his chronic headaches. These headaches were later found to be caused by a large aneurysm

From October, 1994 through June, 1995, Hudak sought medical attention numerous tunes for chronic migraine headaches, nausea, difficulty eating and insomnia. In October, 1994, Dr. Miller noted Hudak's history of migraine headaches and prescribed Tylenol for the headaches and Benadryl for the insomnia. After Hudak make approximately 6 more visits for medical attention, Dr. Miller and Dr. Antoine agreed that Hudak did not have typical migraines and decided to conduct thorough neurological exams. Miller conducted a neurological exam of Hudak but declared his belief that Hudak was suffering from "tension headaches" and that he ...

As criminals receive longer sentences and serve a greater portion of them under threestrikes, truth-in-sentencing and mandatory minimum laws, the number of elderly prisoners with health problems has increased accordingly. Some consider this trend to be the result of a misplaced emphasis on incarceration as a solution to crime. Others view it as a profit-making opportunity. Several companies have opened a niche market of building and operating for-profit prisons specially designed to house aged and medically infirm prisoners.

In September, 1998, Alabama-based Just Care, Inc. opened the Columbia Care Center in South Carolina. Advertising the facility as "an alternative resource for medically dependent inmates," the company hopes to attract state, county and federal prisoners to fill the center's 326 beds. Six months after it opened, however, this private medical prison housed just two incarcerated patients.

The Columbia Care Center, a renovated state mental hospital, offers sub-acute, skilled, intermediate and hospice care for the ill and disabled prisoner, according to Just Care's promotional literature, and claims savings of 20-50% through reduced overhead and flat-rate (e.g. "managed care") fees. Although the center provides extensive medical services, Just Care notes that "security comes first" at the facility, which is surrounded by an electronically ...

by Alex Friedmann

On March 1, 1999 the Corrections Corp. of America agreed to pay $1.65 million plus $803,000 in attorney fees and expenses to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by Washington, D.C. prisoners at the company's Northeast Ohio Corr. Center in Youngstown.

The suit, brought by Eugene Busey, James ...