Study Finds Private Prisons Keep Prisoners Longer, Without Reducing Future Crime

by Peter Kerwin

A new study finds that prisoners in private prisons are likely to serve as many as two to three more months behind bars than those assigned to public prisons and are equally likely to commit more crimes after release, despite industry claims to lower recidivism rates through high-quality and innovative rehabilitation programs.

The study is believed to be the first effort to compare time served in public and private prisons. Anita Mukherjee, an assistant professor of actuarial science, risk management and insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business, sought to compare public and private prisons in terms of two key outcomes: time served and recidivism. With private prisons being paid on the basis of each occupied bed, there may be a financial incentive for the operators of those facilities to maximize the number of days served for each prisoner, which may not be in the best interests of the state.

“There is a basic fairness issue here – should prisoners be serving more time simply because they were randomly assigned to a private prison instead of a public one?” says Mukherjee. “The number of days ...

Seventh Circuit Rejects Prisoner’s 1983 Claim but Criticizes Controlling Precedent

by Derek Gilna

It’s not often that a federal appellate court criticizes the precedent that it feels obligated to follow, but that is what happened in a civil rights lawsuit filed by Illinois state prisoner Earnest Shields.

Shields sued prison medical staff and the Illinois DOC’s private medical contractor, Wexford Health Sources, which he alleged had bungled his treatment for a torn tendon he suffered while lifting weights, causing him permanent injuries. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s dismissal of Shields’ constitutional claims, finding that while there was negligence by Wexford, Shields had failed to prove the necessary elements of “deliberate indifference” by individual defendants.

The controlling precedent criticized by the appellate court was Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), which held that “respondeat superior is not a basis for rendering municipalities liable under § 1983 for the constitutional torts of their employees.” Instead, the Monell court said, § 1983 liability can be found only if “the government’s own policy or custom had caused the violation.” The Monell standard has been extended to private companies acting under color of state law, although ...

Michigan: Private Prison More Costly than State-Run Prison, Attracts Out-of-State Contracts

by David Reutter

The GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest for-profit prison companies, has signed contracts with Vermont and Washington State to house prisoners at a GEO prison in Michigan, after a review by Michigan officials determined it would be more costly for GEO to run the facility than to house prisoners in a facility operated by the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). That conclusion prompted the MDOC to shelve a proposal to move prisoners from three other prisons to the GEO-owned North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin.

Michigan lawmakers cleared the way for the contracts with Vermont and Washington by passing legislation to allow maximum-security prisoners to be held at the 1,740-bed North Lake facility. The GEO Group prison served as the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility until 2005 and later briefly held prisoners from California until it closed in 2011.

Vermont signed a two-year contract with GEO in May 2015 to provide “comprehensive correctional management services,” including offender rehabilitation programs. By June 30, 2015, the North Lake facility held 280 Vermont prisoners who previously had been incarcerated at the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)-owned Lee Adjustment Center ...

Aramark’s Correctional Food Services: Meals, Maggots and Misconduct

by Christopher Zoukis and Rod L. Bower

Prison food service vendor Aramark was included among 132 businesses in 21 countries that were named the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2015 by Ethisphere Institute, a self-described “global leader” in defining standards for ethical corporate practices. According to the Institute’s website, the designation bestowed upon Aramark “recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business ‘ethically’ and translate those words into action.”

“Honorees not only promote ethical business standards and practices internally, they exceed legal compliance minimums and shape future industry standards by introducing best practices today,” the Institute said. The 2015 designation marked the sixth straight year that Aramark has been included on the World’s Most Ethical Companies list.

Aramark Correctional Services, the arm of the Philadelphia-based company that caters to prisons and jails, boasts that it “provides a wide range of food, facility and other customized support solutions to over 600 correctional facilities across North America,” preparing “well over 1,000,000 meals a day for state and municipal facilities, partnering with our clients to meet the unique challenges of the corrections environment.”

Moreover, Aramark’s website says that it “endeavors to go ...

Privatized Prisoner Transportation Service Poses Problems

by David M. Reutter

Several lawsuits against the self-proclaimed “nation’s largest prisoner extradition company and one of the largest international transporters of detainees” have cast a harsh light on a contractor hired to fulfill the traditional government role of transporting prisoners from place to place. Critics say it’s an example of what can happen when public agencies turn to private-sector, profit-driven companies in an effort to trim budgets.

In a lawsuit filed on May 29, 2015 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, former prisoner Darren Richardson claims he was the victim of “outrageous conduct” at the hands of Nashville, Tennessee-based Prisoner Transportation Services of America, LLC (PTS). The suit alleges violations of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as negligence, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Richardson says he suffered possibly permanent damage as a result of the transport company’s failure to provide humane treatment and medical care.

According to his complaint, Richardson was arrested in his home state of Florida in May 2013 for failing to pay $250 to the Court of Common Pleas in Pike County, Pennsylvania after completing probation in that ...

Idaho: FBI Declines to Press Criminal Charges against CCA for Falsified Staffing Records

by Joe Watson and Mark Wilson

The FBI will not pursue criminal charges following a 15-month investigation into allegations that the nation’s largest for-profit prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center and falsified records to hide thousands of hours of vacant shifts, which resulted in increased levels of violence at the facility.

“The FBI’s detailed and thorough investigation did not produce evidence of a federal criminal violation,” U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced on May 22, 2015. “Rather, the evidence showed that the false entries and understaffing could be attributed only to relatively low-level CCA employees.”

“No evidence obtained during the investigation showed that any CCA employee at the assistant warden level or above participated in creating the falsified rosters, or affirmatively knew that rosters were falsified at the time they were falsified,” she continued. “Likewise, no evidence showed that the false entries were made by the low-level employees with the intent to defraud the state of Idaho of money or property, as is required under the federal criminal fraud statutes.”

Olson said the FBI probe also determined that no officials with ...

by James Kilgore and Brian Dolinar, Truthout

When authorities booked Richard Murphy into the jail in Monterey, California on January 18, 2013, the war veteran likely never envisioned ending up being back in court months later, not to face criminal charges, but to expose the abuse he would suffer at the hands of the jail’s private health-care provider.

His saga began when he complained to guards about his injured back. Before his arrest he managed the pain with prescribed medication and regular cortisone shots, neither of which he could get in jail. Despite his repeated pleas, it took several months to get even a cane. During this time, he could not get out of bed without serious pain, and his condition worsened.

In addition, Murphy had a severe mental illness. He received no attention from jail authorities even after claiming he heard demonic voices and felt suicidal. In a sick call note, he complained, “I’m a disabled vet who served my country with honorable discharge and should not be treated like trash over an officer’s attitude.”

On at least five occasions, the guards responded by putting him in a “rubber room,” where he was stripped naked and dressed in a ...

New Health Care Provider Picked for Oregon Jail after Audit Criticizes Corizon

by Mark Wilson

A Birmingham, Alabama health care company has taken over medical care at the Washington County jail in Hillsboro, Oregon in the wake of a scathing audit that led county officials to terminate a contract with Corizon Health two years early. The audit found that a lack of county oversight of the Corizon contract resulted in inadequate prisoner medical care and cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Birmingham-based NaphCare, Inc. assumed control over health care at the jail on June 1, 2015 under a contract to provide services to the approximately 570 prisoners at the facility.

“We are eager to embark on this partnership with NaphCare. They are an organization that shares our commitment to value-driven service while providing progressive medical care within our jail,” Sheriff Pat Garrett said in a statement.

In addition to selecting a new provider for jail health services, county officials stripped the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services of its responsibility for overseeing the contract, instead appointing the county Finance Department to do so.

A 34-page report issued by County Auditor John Hutzler in November 2014 deliberately ...

State Prison Systems Privatizing Prisoner Accounts for Commissions

by David M. Reutter

Three state prison systems have relinquished control of their prisoner trust accounts to a private company. The contracts provide for fees on deposits and “commissions” on each transaction for the prison systems.

JPay, a private company based in Miami, provides money transfers, video visits, music and games on electronic devices, and processes court ordered payments. According to is website, it operates in prisons and jails in over 30 states. New contracts add new services or expand JPay’s reach into prisons in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Florida has had a contract with JPay since 2005, which was limited to its receipt of prisoner fund deposits electronically. It shared space in this arena with Western Union. The contract that took effect on July 1, 2013, eliminated competition from Western Union and gave JPay full control over prison fund receipts.

Like the contracts in North Carolina and Tennessee, the Florida contract allows JPAY to receive all funds for prisoner accounts, funds can be transmitted, for a fee, in person (walk-up), over the phone, or on the internet. The fees vary by the amount transmitted and the method used.

In Florida, ...