Georgia’s Privatized Probation Statute Facially Constitutional, but Problems with Administration

by David M. Reutter

While declining to rule on the constitutionality of a state law authorizing privatized probation services, on November 24, 2014 the Georgia Supreme Court issued a 41-page decision that alters the administration of that statute.

The Court ruled in an appeal in consolidated cases filed by 13 misdemeanor probationers in Columbia and Richmond counties. The first issue the Court addressed was the statute’s constitutionality. As the trial court had not distinctly ruled on that claim, the Court said it could not consider arguments related to the issue; it did find the statute was not unconstitutional on its face, though.

The probationers also argued that their due process rights had been violated because the financial interests of private probation officers denied them fair and impartial tribunals, as the officers encouraged courts to impose excessive and improper terms of probation. The Supreme Court held the state was required to continue to provide due process to individuals under its supervision; however, due process does not prohibit it from contracting with private companies. The probationers conceded their claims arose from employees of the contractor, Sentinel Offender Services, failing “to abide by ...

$400,000 Settlement in Suit Over Minnesota Prisoner’s Death Due to Medical Neglect

by Matt Clarke

On May 1, 2013, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to pay a $400,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit after a prisoner suffered multiple seizures and died, having received virtually no medical care.

Xavius ...

32 Deaths at CCA-operated Immigration Detention Facilities Include at Least 7 Suicides

by Alex Friedmann

On June 17, 2015, U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, requesting an investigation into recent deaths at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. The facility, which houses detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is operated by Corrections Corporation of America – the nation’s largest for-profit prison company.

One of the deaths, that of José de Jesús Deniz-Sahagún, 31, a Mexican national, was ruled a suicide by the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office. Deniz-Sahagún died on May 20, 2015 due to asphyxiation; a sock was found lodged in his throat. The day before his death he was reportedly examined by mental health staff at the CCA facility for “delusional thoughts and behaviors,” according to the autopsy report.

“Eloy Detention Center is in the business of detaining people for profit, but that does not exempt them from upholding the law,” Rep. Grijalva said in a statement. “Where transgressions occur, accountability must follow.”

Approximately 200 detainees at the Eloy facility staged a hunger strike over the weekend of June 13-14, 2015. According to Puente Movement, an immigrant advocacy organization, the ...

GEO Group’s Gulags Grasping for Green Approval

by Panagioti Tsolkas

All the environmentally-conscious “green” certifications in the world can’t cover up the steady flow of atrocities associated with for-profit prisons, but that’s not going to stop them from trying.

In March 2015, the GEO Group – the nation’s second-largest private prison company – was called out by the “Greenwashing the Gulags” social media campaign for announcing that they had taken advantage of a publicly-funded program to promote water conservation by installing a native landscape plan at the Desert View Modified Community Correctional Facility.

GEO operates the prison in drought-stricken Adelanto, California, and the company received $4,207 to remove over 8,400 square feet of grass at the entrance of the facility. The labor for the project was provided by prisoners, of course, and the grass was replaced with gravel, a few native plants and well-arranged rocks. Some of the rocks were painted blue to spell out “GEO.”

Despite the new landscaping, GEO Group still draws massive quantities of water each day to operate the 700-bed facility. While GEO did not return calls from Prison Legal News inquiring about the facility’s water use, estimates indicate it uses over 140,000 gallons a day. ...

Corizon Abandons Kentucky Jail Contract in Wake of Death and Lawsuits

By David Reutter

In the wake of seven prisoner deaths and subsequent lawsuits, prison healthcare provider Corizon has decided to not seek renewal of its contract at Kentucky’s Metro Corrections in Louisville.

For much of the last two decades, Corizon has been Metro Corrections’ provider of prisoner healthcare. Its decision to walk away from its $5.5 million annual contract comes on the heels of the deaths of seven sick prisoners in the last year.

Three lawsuits have been filed in recent months, contending Corizon staff ignored or dismissed prisoners’ complaints and doctors were slow to review the prisoners’ conditions or to send them to a hospital.

A lawsuit filed in August on behalf of the family of Samantha George alleges that when she was taken to Metro Corrections on a charge of buying a stolen computer, she informed a nurse that she was a severe diabetic, needed insulin, and was feverish and in pain from a MRSA infection. She was so ill she was unable to keep water down.

The nurse contacted Corizon’s on-call doctor to suggest George be sent to a hospital. To avoid that expense, the doctor ...

Allegheny County Doctor Files Complaint against Corizon over Hiring Practices

by David Reutter

Corizon, a private for-profit company, is facing a complaint filed with Pennsylvania’s Human Relations Commission that claims a bias against women, immigrants, and doctors who complain against frugal prisoner health care was the basis for the company’s failure to hire Dr. Lucille Aiken.

The complaint was filed after Dr. Aiken learned Corizon decided to not retain her services when it took over healthcare for prisoners at the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) on September 1, 2013.

Dr. Aiken has been working at ACJ since 2002. Her motivation for leaving private practice for prisoner healthcare was to bring her “compassionate approach to people who probably never had that.”

At first, the change was shocking. “I felt like I was working at a clinic in Africa,” said Dr. Aiken, whose husband is African-American. She said she was often “bashed” in staff meetings, and underwent depositions in prisoner lawsuits that resulted in her criticizing poor treatment.

Prior to Corizon, ACJ prisoners received health care from Allegheny Health, a non-profit entity created by the county Health Department. Its Chief Operations Officer, Dana Phillips, and Dr. Aiken regularly clashed.

“Sending people out [to ...

32 Deaths at CCA-operated Immigration Detention Facilities Include at Least 7 Suicides

by Alex Friedmann

On June 17, 2015, U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, requesting an investigation into recent deaths at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. The facility, which houses detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is operated by Corrections Corporation of America – the nation’s largest for-profit prison company.

            One of the deaths, that of José de Jesús Deniz-Sahagún, 31, a Mexican national, was ruled a suicide by the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office. Deniz-Sahagún died on May 20, 2015 due to asphyxiation; a sock was found lodged in his throat. The day before his death he was reportedly examined by mental health staff at the CCA facility for “delusional thoughts and behaviors,” according to the autopsy report.

            “Eloy Detention Center is in the business of detaining people for profit, but that does not exempt them from upholding the law,” Rep. Grijalva said in a statement. “Where transgressions occur, accountability must follow.”

            Approximately 200 detainees at the Eloy facility staged a hunger strike over the weekend of June 13-14. According to Puente Movement, an immigrant advocacy ...

No State Medical Privilege in § 1983 Actions; CCA Compelled to Provide Discovery

by Mark Wilson

A Tennessee federal court refused to “recognize the state peer review privilege” in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, and compelled Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to provide information relating to any audits or investigations of a CCA-operated facility.

G. Michael Luhowiak brought federal suit on behalf of the estate of Roland Lebron Clemons, the infant child of former prisoner Countess Clemons, alleging that the defendants’ deliberate indifference and several CCA policies, practices and customs caused his death. Clemons also sued for inadequate medical care she received at the CCA-operated Silverdale Detention Facility in Chattanooga. The cases were consolidated.

Plaintiffs sought discovery of information and materials relating to “any audits or investigations (that) were conducted by the Defendants or any government agencies,” “certain details of those audits or investigations,” and “all documents and things with respect to any such audits or investigations.” Plaintiffs also sought “any documentation of any deficiency notices received by the Defendants from any contract monitors and/or governmental agencies regarding the operations of CCA.”

CCA resisted discovery, claiming that the requested materials are privileged under Tennessee’s “medical peer review privilege.” Plaintiffs ...

Model Immigrant Detention Center Dehumanizing and Wasteful

Americans for Immigrant Justice (AI Justice) released a report that details the stories of persons detained at the Broward Transition Center (BTC) to exhibit how that facility needlessly detains immigrants in inhumane conditions, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars annually and treating “non-criminal and low risk” immigrants like “animals.”

BTC is operated by the GEO Group under a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). The facility has 700 beds and costs taxpayers more than $40 million annually. On average, it costs $164 daily to house a detainee.

Conditions at BTC came to the attention of lawmakers and the public last year after two illegal immigrants brought to U.S. as children turned themselves into BTC. When it was learned they were working with outside elements to expose the inhuman conditions and policy violations at BTC, they were promptly released.

The 71 page report states that BTC detains people who, by ICE’s own definition, should be eligible for prosecutorial discretion. “They include pregnant and nursing mothers, primary caregivers of minor children, U.S. Military Veterans, victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival eligible youth, individuals without criminal ...