by David M. Reutter

A California federal district court held that CoreCivic, Inc., must pay attorney fees in a defamation lawsuit. The court held the calculation of fees in abeyance until the resolution of appeals related to the dismissal and whether it could award fees.

The court’s April 6, 2021 order was in response to a motion for “attorney fees under California’s anti-SLAPP statute after the complaint for defamation was lost at the pleading stage.” CoreCivic runs private prisons and detention centers. It sued Morgan Simon and her Candide Group, LLC, a firm that promotes socially responsible investing.

“Mixing reporting, advocacy, and self-promotion, her articles focused on the role of activist groups, like the #FamiliesBelongTogether movement and her own investment firm, in pushing for banks to stop investing in the private prison industry,” the court wrote, noting that she wrote the articles as a senior contributing writer for Forbes magazine. “Simon’s articles named CoreCivic in the controversy surrounding the separation of family members at the border.”

CoreCivic sued for defamation. Simon and Candide moved to dismiss under California’s anti-SLAPP statute. That law allows a “special motion” to strike when a plaintiff brings a “cause of action against a person arising ...

by Keith Sanders

A recent investigation by KARE 11, a Minnesota-based NBC news affiliate, has brought much-needed attention to systematic failures at jails throughout Minnesota. Many local and state correctional facilities in that state, according to the months-long investigation, do not provide prisoners with adequate medical and mental health care. ...

by Matt Clarke

On February 9, 2021, the Seventh Circuit court of appeals held that a district court erred when it departed significantly from Pruitt v. Mote, 503 F.3d 647 (7th Cir. 2007) in its consideration of a mentally ill Illinois prisoner’s motion to recruit counsel. The court held that assistance of counsel likely would have changed the outcome of the summary judgment dismissal of a claim against a Wexford Health Services psychiatrist and reversed the dismissal.

Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoner Shawn Eagan suffers from serious mental illnesses. He was in a mental health crisis and repeatedly banging his head against his cell wall and window at the Pontiac Correctional Center when guards called Dr. Michael Dempsey, a psychiatrist employed by Wexford to provide psychiatric services and medication there.

This was the second time Dempsey had been called that day because of Eagan’s headbanging. He had warned Eagan that continued headbanging would result in an involuntary injection so he ordered enforced injections of 10 mg of Haldol and 50 mg of Benadryl. Over the ensuing two days, Eagan allegedly suffered from painful involuntary muscle contractions and a locked open jaw due to the injection. Dr. Dempsey allegedly ...

A three-hour uprising at a privately-run medium security prison in New Mexico on November 2, 2020, led to a few prisoner injuries, a fire and property destruction. It was an “incident [that] absolutely could have been prevented,” said said the state’s Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero.

But the clash between guards and prisoners of one cellblock at the GEO-run Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs did not generate public statements or press conferences. It was mostly kept under wraps until reporting by KRQE News 13 on February 16, 2021.

Over two months, the media outlet examined prison security video, handheld camera recordings taken by security staff and documents via public records requests.

One prisoner was located unconscious in his cell. In addition, prisoners armed with homemade weapons reportedly began a fire on the upper tier, plus disabled a security camera and wrecked sprinkler heads and some furnishings.

“Tensions rose after prisoners refused repeated directives to lockdown. Inmates attempted to negotiate with prison staff to remain out of their cells,” KRQE reported. “Some prisoners were visibly drunk from a supply of homemade alcohol (hooch). After inmates refused commands to ‘lockdown,’ they gathered in the pod day room, barricaded doors, and took ...

by David M. Reutter

The Seventh Circuit Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a grant of summary judgment to a Wexford Health Sources doctor. It affirmed the judgment granted to Wexford and another doctor.

The court’s March 16, 2021 opinion was issued in an appeal brought by Illinois prisoner Michael Thomas. While at Hill Correctional Center on March 23, 2011. Thomas broke his hand in the midst of a fight. He received medical attention at Hill with his hand being put in a cast and a low bunk permit to avoid further injury.

A May 9, 2011, X-ray showed the hand had begun to heal, but it was still fractured. Thomas was transferred on May 11, 2011, to Stateville Correctional Center. Before he left Hill, he was told the cast had to be removed and that it would be replaced at Stateville. Thomas allowed the cast to be removed. The cast, however, was not replaced at Stateville.

A doctor at Stateville reviewed Thomas’s May X-ray on June 19, 2011, concluding the fracture remained “unresolved.” On June 30, 2011, a physician’s assistant looked at the same x-ray and determined Thomas needed no further treatment. Yet, an August 2011 doctor’s note said the ...

By Ken Silverstein

“I’m running for Mayor so every family can see their future in Seattle,” says Casey Sixkiller. “It requires bold action, leadership experience when it matters most, and a mayor who wakes up every day focused on rebuilding a more equitable, inclusive, and thriving city.”

One can understand why Sixkiller, now Seattle’s deputy mayor, would be running to the left. His hometown is one of the most liberal cities in the country and heavily Democratic. A nonpartisan primary will be held on August 3 and the general election takes place on November 2. Given the city’s political makeup, only a perceived liberal candidate stands a chance to win.

That explains why Sixkiller, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, constantly hypes his alleged liberal credentials. He’s “an advocate for social and environmental justice, and a firm believer that government can be a powerful force for change,” says his website.

But while claiming to be progressive, Sixkiller has been working as a Washington, DC lobbyist for corporate interests since 2007. His clients included private prison companies, oil and gas firms, weapons makers, and even a CIA front company, Evergreen Air, a transportation firm. His wife, Mariah, currently runs a ...

by David M. Reutter

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of state law negligence claims based upon a prisoner being forced to self-apply a medication that was not supposed to be dispensed to patients. The court, however, affirmed the dismissal of a deliberate indifference claim.

The court’s January 26, 2021 opinion was issued in an appeal brought by Illinois prisoner Sidney L. Peterson. While at Stateville Correctional Center in January 2015, Peterson was prescribed a topical medication known as Podocon-25 to remove genital warts. In accordance with FDA regulations, the packaging stated: “Podocon-25 is to be applied only by a physician. It is not to be dispensed to the patient” (bold in original). It is to be applied sparingly and then removed thoroughly with soap and water because it is a caustic substance. Known adverse reactions are pararthesia, polyneuritis, paralytic ileus, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, coma, and death.

While Dr. Arthur Davida prescribed the medication, he did not apply it. Neither Sarah Mays, a licensed practical nurse, nor Loreatha Coleman, a registered nurse, applied it. Instead, Mays and Coleman instructed Peterson to apply the medication himself. Peterson sustained, “severe sores on his penis’’ and “permanent injuries and ...

by Kevin Bliss

Expansion of the prison industrial complex over the past decades has included the privatization of health care which has come at the detriment to those inside, according to a recent study.

Micaela Gelman, professor of New York University School of Law, penned the article, Mismanaged Care: Exploring the Costs and Benefits of Private vs. Public Healthcare in Correctional Facilities, published in the November 2020 issue of the New York University Law Review.

The article compares current private health care operations in prison systems to three public models available in other institutional settings. Gelman said that although others have problems inherent in their operations, nonetheless, they are more productive and cost efficient than privatization of health care.

Gelman begins with the history of health care privatization in corrections. In the 1970s, prison populations began to explode because of the “tough on crime” laws. This explosion had a profound effect on health care. Prisons could not keep up with the needs of prisoners or costs for caring for them on their own. The primary concern of prison administrations was security, and health care was secondary. Whatever decisions were made about the medical treatment of a prisoner first ...

by Matt Clarke

The non-partisan Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report in February 2021 entitled, Immigration Detention: Actions Needed to Improve Planning, Documentation, and Oversight of Detention Facility Contracts. Key findings in the report included a failure of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to follow its own guidelines when contracting for immigrant detention beds and lax contract oversight putting the health and safety of immigration detainees at risk. The report concluded that ICE contracts and pays for thousands of immigrant detention beds it does not use wasting hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Although ICE detains an average of 48,500 foreign nationals each day and is the lead agency responsible for providing safe, secure, and humane confinement for detained foreign nations, it does not build and operate its own immigration detention facilities. Instead, when ICE needs to acquire detention space, it primarily uses Intergovernment Service Agreements (IGSAs) with local governments to reserve bed space for ICE detainees. 59% of ICE detainees are housed in IGSA facilities.

Alternatively, ICE may enter into an agreement with U.S. Marshals Services (USMS) to have a rider on the USMS contract with a local prison, jail or private detention facility allowing ICE ...

by Matt Clarke

Opposition by community leaders forced the president of the historically Black Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville to change her decision to join the board of directors of the private prison company CoreCivic.

News media reported that TSU President Glenda Glover had decided to join the board as a director with an over $200,000 annual salary. A CoreCivic news release quoted Glover as saying she wanted to help African-Americans and be “an inside voice that can help CoreCivic realize the full potential of its purpose of helping people prepare for the next step in their lives.”

“As the daughter of a civil rights leader, it is my belief that I would be in a better position to help the population that needs it most by speaking from the boardroom where decisions are made,” said Glover.

But the reaction from community leaders was swift and fiercely critical of her for agreeing to join the board of a company that profits off of mass incarceration and the disproportionate imprisonment of Black people.

“There can be no (rational) position for such a decision,” tweeted the Rev. Davie Tucker, Jr., leader of Nashville’s Beech Creek Missionary Baptist Church, who said the ...