In October 2011, 30-year-old Aaron David Persin was accosted by police officers for having an open container of alcohol. When they determined that he had warrants for missing traffic court they arrested Persin, who was homeless. Unable to post bail, he was held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center …

While lawmakers in Hawaii have advanced bills to fast-track the relocation of a state prison, they were forced to concede that an environmental impact review could not be avoided.

In February 2016, the state legislature held a pair of hearings to consider House Bill 2388 and Senate Bill 2917, which both called for the relocation of the Oahu Community Correctional Center, currently sited in the Kalihi neighborhood on Honolulu. The facility would be relocated to the site of the old Halawa prison.

Under Governor David Ige’s proposal, the administration could access over $489 million through general obligation bonds for the prison’s relocation. The initial plan included a provision that would exempt the project from an environmental impact review, since the facility would be built on a prior prison site. By avoiding the review, construction could be expedited.

The Sierra Club of Hawaii was none too pleased. Marti Townsend, director of the Club’s Hawaii chapter, put the group’s objection into the record, stating, “Our position is simple: conduct an environmental assessment on the prison proposal as state law requires.”

Townsend continued, “How else can the project proponent know that the proposed site is the right location, …

On May 25, 2016, Joanna Saul, 33, the executive director of Ohio’s Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC), was forced to resign due to infighting between the bipartisan prison watchdog agency, Republican legislators and Governor John Kasich.

Saul first touched a nerve when the CIIC aggressively pursued transparency in prison inspections and issued reports on drugs, violence, gang activity and prison staffing. She again stepped on political toes when she exposed problems at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution, owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. [See: PLN, Nov. 2014, p.44]. Further, CIIC inspections led the state to fine private food vendor Aramark $272,000 for maggot outbreaks in prison kitchens and multiple incidents of employee misconduct. [See: PLN, Dec. 2015, p.1].

Republican lawmakers wanted to disband the CIIC, claiming that Saul had displayed “insubordination and rogue behavior,” although the agency was considered “Ohio’s best protection against a federal lawsuit regarding prison conditions” according to Public Defender Tim Young. Young further noted that the state’s “prison population continues to grow, with an estimated all-time high coming this summer. It is vital to the safety of prison employees and inmates that the institutions are inspected regularly, and potential …

Government accountability advocates have called for private prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group to be subject to open records laws – including the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – to ensure they are accountable to the public. This is especially important considering that private prison contracts are paid with public taxpayer funds.

A report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accuses private prison companies of manipulating their current immunity from most open records laws to cover up violations of prisoners’ rights and conceal their real costs.

“It makes no sense to exempt private prisons from the same transparency requirements already applied to government-run state and federal prisons,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director. “Highly profitable private prison companies like [CCA] and the GEO Group have quite a deal: They take in taxpayer dollars without suffering taxpayer scrutiny.”

For-profit prison operators can skirt public records laws, including FOIA, due to their status as private entities. But clearly, companies like CCA and GEO are simply acting as surrogates for government agencies, and CREW and other critics of the private prison industry argue that open records laws should therefore …

An Arizona federal district court concluded that employees of Corizon Health, a private company providing care to prisoners at the Mohave County Adult Detention Facility, “are not within the class of persons to whom qualified immunity is afforded.”

The plaintiff brought two claims under 42 U.S.C. §1983 and a state law wrongful death claim, Defendant John Anastasoff, a nurse employed by Corizon, moved for qualified immunity, that was joined by co-workers nurse Margaret Saltsgiver and Dr. Donovan Schmidt.

They contended they were not public employees whose “eligibility for qualified immunity should not be denied merely because they provide the public function of medical care and treatment to the jail inmates through the county’s private medical contractor.”

The court concluded that none of the factors in Richardson v. Mcknight, 521 U.S. 399 (1997) [See PLN December 2000, p. 32), to allow a qualified immunity defense are involved here. In sum, the court found that “market forces and privatization flexibility” overcame the Richardson “timidity and deterrence factors” which are the basis for granting public officials qualified immunity.

The trend in federal law is to refuse granting qualified immunity “to privately-employed health care providers working in detention …

The Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee (CBC PAC) says that it works to increase the number of African-Americans in the U.S. Congress, support non-black candidates who champion black interests, and promote African American participation in the political process.

However, Color of Change (CoC), the nation’s largest online civil rights organization, has accused the Caucus of not working in the best interests of the black community. CoC launched a national campaign in April 2016 to urge the CBC PAC to stop accepting funding from lobbyists that advocate for private prisons, arguing that private prison companies target African-Americans to reap corporate profits.

Research has found that privately-operated prisons house a disproportionate number of minorities that is even greater than the disparity in public prisons. [See: PLN, March 2014, p.20; March 2013, p.16].

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group – the two largest for-profit prison firms in the U.S. – have donated millions of dollars to political candidates and spent millions more lobbying government agencies.

“Ironically, both Democratic presidential candidates have shunned contributions from private prison lobbyists but the CBC PAC has taken thousands of dollars from Akin Gump, the lobbying firm that makes …

A 55-year-old mother of seven died in a Pennsylvania jail cell on June 7, 2014 while serving a 48-hour sentence for failure to pay truancy fines and court costs that totaled about $2,000.

Eileen DiNino was jailed by Berks County District Judge Dean Patton for debts that had been accruing since 1999. The truancy violations caused by her children missing school were numerous, each resulting in up to a $75 fine, but DiNino’s debt increased as a laundry list of court costs began to add up. In one case, for example, she was billed $8.00 for a “judicial computer project,” $60.00 for county constables and $10.00 for postage.

“The woman didn’t have any money,” said Diana Sealy, whose son married DiNino’s daughter. “Years ago, I tried to help her out. She had all these kids.”

Judge Patton referred to DiNino as a “lost soul,” and said it was only reluctantly that he sent her to jail. He noted that a short stint behind bars can sometimes “break the habit” of parents who’d rather party into the night and not get their kids to school the next day. The judge added that he had lost sleep over …

Information collected by the federal government has revealed the conspicuous inequality between private prison executives and the guards that their corporations employ. According to data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median salary for private prison and jail guards in 2015 was $32,290. One in four private prison guards makes less than $26,091 annually – near the poverty line for a family of four.

By sharp contrast, based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) Chief Executive Officer Damon Hininger received a base salary of $882,807 in 2015, which was augmented by $2.52 million in other compensation, such as bonuses and stock awards. That same year, George Zoley, CEO of the GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison firm, received a $1,000,000 base salary with additional compensation of $5.6 million.

Examining the income of those two CEOs in comparison to wages paid to private prison guards between 2011 and 2015, In the Public Interest, a public policy research organization that opposes privatization, found the median hourly rate for guards ranged between $15.53 and $16.47 per hour. In stark disparity, Zoley and Hininger’s equivalent hourly pay ranged from …

Pfizer, Inc., the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, recently announced new restrictions on the distribution of drugs used to execute prisoners.

The May 13, 2016 announcement detailed “distribution restrictions” that the company is placing on certain drugs used in lethal injection protocols, including pancuronium bromide, potassium chloride, propofol, midazolam, hydromorphone, rocuronium bromide and vecuronium bromide. According to Pfizer’s statement, the new restrictions will limit the sale of those drugs to “a select group of wholesalers, distributors, and direct purchasers under the condition that they will not resell these products to correctional institutions for use in lethal injections.”

Opponents of the death penalty applauded Pfizer for restricting access to the execution drugs, noting that the company’s move, in conjunction with other efforts to limit access to lethal injection drugs, may force states to reconsider their use of capital punishment.

“I think it will have the effect of encouraging states to rethink their policies,” said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “The lethal injection debate is causing legislators to rethink the death penalty as a whole. Some states may move to other methods, but they face significant problems because the majority of Americans believe each of …

A local news station reported on March 29, 2016 that Joseph Safonte, 72, was placed on desk duty after becoming the target of an internal investigation into the theft of items from the lost and found at the courthouse in Broward County, Florida.

The veteran bailiff and president of the Broward Sheriff’s Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police was one of three people sanctioned during the investigation. Lisa Bouley, a civilian sheriff’s community service aide, also was assigned to desk duty. According to sources, a third person – an unnamed guard employed by private security contractor G4S – was terminated. The State’s Attorney’s office is reportedly reviewing the cases for possible criminal charges.

In the past year, two other former Broward County bailiffs received prison time. Garrett Cunningham was sentenced to 20 years following an incident in which he terrorized his wife, while Brian Preston received eight years for child pornography. In a separate incident in March 2016, bailiff Kendrick Busby was suspended without pay and jailed after being charged with the rape and attempted murder of a prostitute. Yet another Broward County bailiff, Steve Palacios, awaits trial for a felony charge of dealing in stolen …