The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Re-entry (DCRR) has faced bitter criticism for the healthcare provided to state prisoners, which a federal judge in 2022 called “plainly, grossly inadequate,” as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Dec. 2022, p.1.] So it wasn’t surprising when its early response to the COVID-19 pandemic drew a 2020 warning from prisoner advocates in 11 faith groups that DCRR officials were sleepwalking through the pandemic and “not recognizing this reality nor addressing the asymptomatic nature of this virus.”

Yet the magnitude of the prison system’s failure—which, unlike the virus, was entirely within its own control—is only now coming to light. In a series of reports published on October 1, 2024, the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said that prisoners reported being given “fake” health checks—where no vital signs were taken—along with “do not resuscitate” orders that they never requested and were powerless to rescind.

Predictably, the DCRR’s response to criticism during the pandemic was to point the finger at private healthcare contractor Centurion Health, to which it paid $4,028,900 for COVID-19 tests in December 2020. But it was prison officials who then failed to strictly follow quarantine policies—signing off …

In a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on February 3, 2025, Salvadoran Pres. Nayib Bukele offered to house American prisoners in his country’s lockups “for a very small fee.” A week later, with much less fanfare, El Salvador admitted there was more to the bargain: Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco announced a cooperation agreement that would bring U.S. nuclear power technology to the Central American nation.

As PLN reported, Bukele championed construction of the world’s largest prison, which now holds 40,000 people arrested in a crackdown on gangs, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. [See: PLN, July 2023, p.62.] As a result, El Salvador has one of the highest incarceration rates on the planet, with one of every 100 residents behind bars. The $115 million cost of the lockup represented almost 1.2% of the country’s annual budget, though this is the first time El Salvador has broached the subject of renting out any of the prison’s massive 65-man cells.

The U.S. constitution prohibits imprisoning citizens outside the country, a point not completely lost on Rubio; he admitted there were “legalities involved” in sending anyone other than immigration detainees. He further limited that group to …

by Matt Clarke

On August 16, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the verdict and jury award of $6.4 million in compensatory damages against three nurses who worked for Corizon Health when it held the contract to provide healthcare at Michigan’s Kent County Correctional Facility (KCCF) in Grand Rapids

In April 2018, Wade Jones, 40, was caught trying to rob a store of $94.50 worth of merchandise that included golf balls, a whole chicken, bread, macaroni and cheese, plus four 1.75-liter bottles of alcohol. He was charged with third-degree misdemeanor retail theft.

Jones pleaded guilty at his arraignment. That’s also when the 59th Judicial District Court became aware of his drinking problem because Jones tested at .159 and .145 when given two breath tests by a probation officer during the proceedings. This concerned Judge Peter V. Versluis because Jones did not seem drunk, showing a high tolerance for alcohol. The judge then sentenced him to five days in the jail.

When booked into KCCF, Jones denied being drunk but admitted to drinking vodka “occasionally.” About five hours later, he reported experiencing symptoms consistent with Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS), a …

Privately owned prison and jail healthcare provider PrimeCare Medical has managed to keep details secret of payouts to settle lawsuits filed over injuries or deaths of prisoners, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, May 2022, p.1.] One of those agreements in Pennsylvania was revealed in July 2023, when a federal court ordered the case unsealed, and now two more settlements in other Pennsylvania suits involving PrimeCare have been unsealed, revealing an additional $1.2 million in payouts for prisoners’ wrongful deaths.

When Veronique A. Henry, 42, was booked into York County Prison in September 2016, intake staff recommended that she be placed on suicide watch. PrimeCare employees, however, felt that was unnecessary, so she was instead put in a regular cell. Henry wasn’t seen by a psychologist or psychiatrist before she hanged herself the next day using a bedsheet. Rich Reilly, the administrator of Henry’s Estate, filed suit in federal court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in September 2018 against the County and its jail medical contractor. York County settled its share of the claims for $5,000, while PrimeCare’s settlement agreement was placed under seal in April 2021.

Five months later, the County let its $7.4 million annual …

On December 6, 2025, federal prosecutors dismissed their case against Jeffrey Scott Wells, 54, a former Vice President of private prison medical contractor Centurion Health caught colluding with a former Tennessee Department of Correction (DOC) official to rig bidding for the prison system’s healthcare contract in the firm’s favor.

The decision to drop Wells’ prosecution followed the death of his co-defendant, former DOC Deputy Commissioner and Chief Financial Officer Wesley O. Landers, 55, on September 30, 2024. Felony conspiracy and perjury charges against the two had been filed in federal court for the Middle District of Tennessee less than two weeks earlier, on September 17, 2024.

As PLN reported, the DOC rebid its contract for behavioral healthcare services in 2019, receiving offers from Corizon Health, Centurion Health and several other for-profit vendors. After Centurion won the five-year $123 million contract, Corizon—now known as YesCare—filed suit, alleging improprieties in the bidding process. [See: PLN, Oct. 2021, p.32.]

Landers left the DOC in March 2020 while that case was pending, and he was promptly hired by a Centurion affiliate in Georgia. The executive-level position was created just for him, and he reported to Wells. Meanwhile, Corizon attorneys presented …

by Sam Rutherford

As PLN reported, the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) has for many years outsourced its constitutional obligation to provide healthcare to those it confines, contracting the service from private, for-profit corporations. The terrible cost of this arrangement to prisoners’ health—not to mention $8 million in …

by Douglas Ankney

On June 18, 2024, the United States Court for the Northern District of California approved a series of settlements totaling $1 million that resolved a civil rights suit brought by the survivors of Carlos Chavez, whose suicide at the Monterey County Jail (MCJ) they blamed …

Because incoming Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) vowed during his campaign to launch “the largest deportation operation in American history,” the stocks of private prison companies, including The GEO Group and CoreCivic, spiked after his election victory on November 5, 2024. Within 24 hours, GEO Group’s stock ticked up 42% and CoreCivic’s 29%—reaching their highest price levels in five years.

Hoping to capitalize on a second Trump presidency, GEO Group donated $5,000 to his 2024 campaign, the maximum legally allowed; but one of the company’s subsidiaries gave $500,000 to pro-Trump organizations, according to nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility (CREW). Private prison firms “have not only been fueling Trump’s political aspirations, but they have been putting money directly in Trump’s pocket by using his businesses in a pretty conspicuous way,” stated CREW’s Lauren White.

The day after the election, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials issued a request for proposals to expand the agency’s surveillance infrastructure, anticipating a dramatic increase in the number of migrants monitored under its Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). Managed under a $2.2 billion contract by GEO Group subsidiary B.I. Inc., ISAP currently uses GPS trackers and biometric apps to track …

The commissary operated in San Diego County jails collected enough revenue from detainee purchases to pump up the balance in its Incarcerated Persons’ Welfare Fund (IPWF) to $11.1 million by June 30, 2024. But the office of Sheriff Kelly A. Martinez provided few details about fund spending, which state Penal Code § 4025e says “shall be used solely for the benefit and welfare of” those incarcerated.

Rather, county commissioners received a one-page report announcing that $5.7 million was spent from the fund in the previous fiscal year. An accompanying pie chart noted that 75% went to educational programs, without providing any specifics. Bus passes and other goods and services for indigent detainees consumed another 11% of that total. About $700,000 more went to cover supplies, operations, equipment and other services. In years past, this included vehicle fuel and maintenance, as well as employee cellphones and even out-of-county travel. But again, no detail was provided. The report showed that the lion’s share of IPWF spending—75%—went to “educational services,” which the law allows the Sheriff to use for salaries of employees who provide them. But again, no details were provided.

County resident Paul Henkin complained in an email, “To …

Pre-trial detainees found not criminally responsible in Maine are being quietly transferred from the state’s Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta to Columbia Regional Care Center, a South Carolina psychiatric lockup owned by Wellpath, Inc. Wellpath has filed for federal bankruptcy court protection, as reported elsewhere in this issue. [See: PLN, Jan. 2025, p.1.]

In the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2024, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spent $53.8 million to run Riverview and another $1.2 million on six treatment beds at Columbia. Just a month earlier, 29 of 92 licensed beds at Riverview were empty.

DHHS spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said that those sent south had “demonstrated a high level of violence” or assaulted other staff and patients. But transferees reported harsher conditions at Columbia than at Riverview: more isolation and less privacy from omnipresent guards, as well as increased use of restraints and limited access to treatment and activities.

Anthony Reed, the first Maine defendant sent to the South Carolina lockup in 2015, died there in December 2023; DHHS has released no information about the death, except that Reed was 48. His transfer had already raised the eyebrows of an Augusta …