There are moments when our longings for social justice cloud our vision, times when the way we want the world to be blocks our understanding of the way things really are. A good example of this is the notion of the United States’ prison system as totally driven by profit-hungry corporations that ruthlessly advance their bottom lines on the backs of the exploited.

This myth contains a modicum of truth: of course, the 1 percent and beyond do make money off of locking people up. Corporations like Kitchell Construction have done very well building more than 110,000 prison “beds.” At roughly $100,000 each, that comes to about $11 billion, which is pretty serious money. Despite the fields of money that have been reaped from the prison and jail boom, this economic aspect of prisons has spawned some myths that often get in the way of effectively opposing mass incarceration.

The first of these is the idea that private prison corporations are the main culprits. A wide spectrum of campaigns has focused on these corporate targets. Activists have opposed private prisons’ attempts to colonize new territory, blocking immigration detention center proposals in Illinois, halting a bill to privatize the entire prison ...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to a psychiatrist in a lawsuit brought by a prisoner’s estate. The appellate court found the evidence could establish that the psychiatrist had “consciously exposed” the prisoner “to a substantial risk of death through his medical treatment without so much as a warning.” The case settled for $450,000 following remand.

When Scott Quigley, Jr., 23, was transferred from a Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) facility to the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in February 2008, he came under the medical supervision and care of Correctional Medical Services, the MDOC’s private contractor.

The day after Quigley arrived at the guidance center, physician’s assistant Steven Garver conducted a physical exam and prescribed 50mg of Amitriptyline (brand name Elavil) once a day, which was double Quigley’s previous prescription. A few weeks later, on March 7, 2008, Dr. Tuong V. Thai, a psychiatrist, completed a comprehensive psychiatric assessment; Quigley’s current prescription was discussed, as was adding the medication Trazodone (brand name Desyrel).

Dr. Thai prescribed 100mg of Trazodone once a day for four weeks. Three days later, Quigley was found dead in his cell. Prison charts confirmed that he had ...

On January 7, 2014, the Private Corrections Institute (PCI), a Florida-based non-profit citizen watchdog organization, issued its first annual awards for individual activism, organizational advocacy and excellence in news reporting related to the private prison industry. PCI opposes the privatization of correctional services, including the operation of prisons and jails by for-profit companies.

PCI’s first annual award for excellence in reporting on the private prison industry was awarded to journalist Beau Hodai, who publishes DBA Press (www.dbapress.com), for his investigative articles on issues related to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group – the nation’s two largest private prison firms.

Beau broke the news story about CCA’s involvement in highly controversial anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona known as SB 1070 – a story that was subsequently picked up by other media, including National Public Radio. He also reported on political connections between GEO Group and Florida lawmakers in connection with an FBI probe involving the GEO-operated Blackwater River Correctional Facility in Florida. Several of his articles have been reprinted in Prison Legal News.

“The individuals who comprise the Private Corrections Institute are amazingly knowledgeable, dedicated, skilled and resourceful. To know that this group has found my work worthy of ...

In recent months a battle has erupted at Mangaung prison in South Africa. Mangaung, located near the city of Bloemfontein, is one of the country’s two privately-operated correctional facilities. Managed by British-based G4S, which bills itself as the “world’s largest security” company, Mangaung reflects a troubled criminal justice system littered with overcrowded, poorly resourced prisons. A September 2013 strike by guards from the Police and Prison Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) sparked the latest round of drama; the guards were protesting the dismissal of several shop stewards as well as poor working conditions. G4S responded by firing 300 prison staff.

In early October 2013, with the facility still reeling from the mass terminations, a female guard was held hostage for twelve hours. The next day another guard was stabbed. Speaking for G4S, company spokesman Andy Baker alleged that prisoners were being paid to destabilize Mangaung. “We assume it is linked to ongoing staffing strife,” he told the media, implying the union was behind the attacks.

At that point, Minister of Correctional Services Sbu Ndebele stepped in and placed Mangaung under the direct supervision of the state, essentially terminating G4S’s 25-year contract with the South African government signed in 2000. Ndebele claimed ...

by David M. Reutter and Alex Friedmann

Defendants who are placed on probation and ordered to pay a growing array of fines and fees levied by local governments facing budget deficits, combined with additional fees charged by private companies hired to provide probation services, are increasingly being squeezed into burdensome debt and, all too frequently, jail.

“With so many towns economically strapped, there is growing pressure on the courts to bring in money rather than mete out justice,” said Lisa W. Borden, a partner with the Birmingham, Alabama law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. “The companies they hire are aggressive. Those arrested are not told about the right to counsel or asked whether they are indigent or offered an alternative to fines and jail. There are real constitutional issues at stake.”

Controversy: Probation for Profit

The experiences of two Alabama residents exemplify the real costs faced by those subjected to criminal justice policies designed to balance budgets and generate profit. Gina Kay Ray, 31, received a $179 speeding ticket in 2009; her license was revoked for failure to appear in court, which she said occurred because the ticket had the wrong date.

Thus, the next time she ...

A national campaign to shut down a quasi-governmental task force backed by powerful corporate interests, which has promoted harsher sentences, prison privatization and controversial “stand your ground” gun rights legislation, was successful thanks to public pressure and a boycott started by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), purportedly a “non-partisan” non-profit organization, brings together mostly Republican state lawmakers and corporations to develop business- and conservative-friendly model bills that are then distributed among state legislatures nationwide. Lawmakers and corporate officials mingle at “public-private partnership” conferences that are closed to the public, and the model legislation is produced by nine ALEC task forces. About 20% of the model bills are eventually passed into law; the organization has been described as a “bill mill.”

ALEC begrudgingly announced in April 2012 that it was caving in to efforts by the Center for Media and Democracy and the Occupy movement, and would disband its Public Safety & Elections Task Force – which had promoted harsher sentencing laws, anti-immigrant legislation and the self-serving interests of the private prison industry since the late 1980s. [See, e.g.: PLN, Jan. 2002, p.1].

The task force, previously known as the Criminal Justice Task Force, also ...

On May 30, 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center and law office of civil rights attorney Elizabeth Alexander filed an 83-page complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, seeking class-action relief for mentally ill prisoners confined in “barbaric and horrifying conditions” and “a perpetual state of crisis” at the privately-operated East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF).

According to the complaint, prisoners at EMCF live in dangerous conditions and are constantly at “grave risk of death and loss of limbs” due to a lack of adequate food, sanitation and basic medical care and medication.

The suit alleges that many prisoners are housed in cells with no lighting and broken toilets, forcing them to defecate on food trays or in plastic bags that they toss through slots in the cell doors. So filthy is EMCF that rats often climb over prisoners’ beds, and some prisoners catch them and put them on leashes as pets.

According to the lawsuit, one prisoner went blind from glaucoma and another had a finger amputated after receiving no treatment for gangrene. Another prisoner had a testicle removed after it swelled to the size of a softball from cancer that ...

by Clifton Adcock, Oklahoma Watch*

Behind-the-scenes moves by Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin’s senior staff members helped lead to a severe weakening of a program designed to cut the state’s high incarceration rates and save taxpayers more than $200 million over a decade, according to interviews and records obtained by Oklahoma Watch.

The efforts by the governor’s staff, assisted by legislative leaders, to take control of the state’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) took place during periods when staff members met with representatives of private prison companies, which stood to gain or lose depending on how the initiative was implemented, according to emails and logs of visitors to Fallin’s office.

During that time, private prison company representatives also made donations to Governor Fallin’s 2014 campaign as well as to legislators, Oklahoma Ethics Commission records indicate.

Steve Mullins, Fallin’s general counsel, said private prison groups and lobbyists played no role in the approach that he and other staff members took in regard to the initiative.

“I know for a fact I’ve never recommended a private prison as a JRI solution, so I know that it wouldn’t have influenced anything because it didn’t influence my recommendations,” Mullins said.

He also pointed out that the ...

On November 26, 2013, shareholder resolutions were filed with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. – the nation’s two largest for-profit prison companies; the resolutions seek to reduce the high cost of phone calls made by prisoners at CCA and GEO facilities nationwide.

Prison phone rates are typically much higher than non-prison rates, and a 15-minute call can cost up to $17.30. Such exorbitant costs make it difficult for prisoners to maintain regular contact with their families and children; an estimated 2.7 million children in the United States have an incarcerated parent.

In September 2013, the Federal Communications Commission issued an order capping the cost of interstate (long distance) prison phone calls. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn observed that “Studies have shown that having meaningful contact beyond prison walls can make a real difference in maintaining community ties, promoting rehabilitation, and reducing recidivism. Making these calls more affordable can facilitate all of these objectives and more.” However, the FCC’s order has not yet gone into effect and does not apply to in-state prison phone rates. [See: PLN, Dec. 2013, p.1].

Therefore, Alex Friedmann, associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), PLN’s parent non-profit organization, filed ...

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), which provides accreditation for medical services in prisons, jails and other correctional facilities, held its national conference in Nashville, Tennessee from October 28 to 30, 2013.

PLN managing editor Alex Friedmann attended the conference and sat in on several presentations that addressed the issue of telemedicine in the correctional setting. Telemedicine involves medical consultations over a remote connection, typically with a patient speaking with a physician or other medical practitioner on a video screen.

The first NCCHC conference session on telemedicine was conducted by Lawrence Mendel, a physician and acting medical director at the Leavenworth Detention Center, a facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America.

According to Mendel, the first prison telemedicine program began in 1978 at the South Florida Reception Center in conjunction with Jackson Memorial Hospital. The use of telemedicine expanded during the 1990s and it is now used in a variety of settings to provide long-distance medical evaluations and diagnoses.

One advantage of telemedicine in prisons and jails, according to Dr. Mendel, is the ability to provide specialty medical services at facilities located in rural areas where specialists may not be available locally. Additionally, telemedicine can result in a ...