Former Minnesota Prisoner’s Inadequate Health Care Suit Settled for $275,000

by Matt Clarke

In July 2011, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) settled a lawsuit brought by a former state prisoner over allegedly inadequate medical attention after he suffered a severe reaction to a medication given to …

CMC Nurse Arrested for Having Sex with Syracuse Jail Prisoner

Beth A. Ours, 37, a Correctional Medical Care (CMC) nurse who worked at the Justice Center jail in Syracuse, New York, was arrested on December 4, 2012, and charged with third-degree felony sexual act for allegedly performing oral sex on a 39-year-old male prisoner in April 2012.

Ours met the man when he reported to the jail's medical unit due to health issues.

"When we first met we would smile at each other and she was very friendly," said the man's written statement. During subsequent encounters, Ours allegedly began rubbing her body close to him and even asked him to kiss her on one occasion. The relationship allegedly advanced to the point that Ours was regularly performing oral sex on him prior to his release on May 21, 2012.

Ours allegedly gave him her phone number, asking him to call her and visit her North Syracuse home. He told investigators that she lived with two other jail employees and he had visited her there and smoked crack with her "a few times." He also said that she asked him to sell one of her TVs …

GEO Group Agrees to End Sexual Harassment; Pays $140,000 Settlement and Implements New Policies

The nation’s second-largest for profit prison company, the GEO Group, agreed to pay $140,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought on behalf of two women who worked at an Arizona prison. The three-year …

Tennessee Dumps Corizon for Higher Bidder on Prison Health Care Contract

The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) has awarded its prisoner health care contract to Centurion, a company formed when MHM Services and Centene Corp. merged. TDOC’s current prisoner health care provider has filed a protest, arguing it not only submitted a cheaper bid, but that Centurion lacks the requisite experience to bid.

Corizon, a company created by the merger of Prison Health Services and Correctional Medical Services (CMS), has held TDOC’s $29 million prisoner health care contract since 2012. It also has the mental health care contract for TDOC prisoners.

When TDOC put out a request for proposal for its prisoner health care contract, only Corizon and Centurion submitted bids. Corizon’s bid was around $226 million while Centurion’s was about $241 million. Despite the higher bid, Centurion won the contract that runs to 2015.

Corizon promptly filed a protest. TDOC required five years’ experience in its request for proposals. “If you look back at all of the information that was provided…there are no bases in the record to support a finding that Centurion meets the minimum experience requirement,” argued Corizon attorney Jim Miller.

…

North Carolina DOC Medical Overpayments Exceed 10% of Total Bills

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Division of Corrections (DOC), is in need of the services of a professional recovery audit firm, an audit by the state’s Auditor concluded. The audit uncovered more than $105,000 in overpayments on just 10 bills submitted by eight hospitals for prisoner health care.

The audit covered the period from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012. During that period, DOC paid 893 hospital claims worth more than $14 million. The audit focused on the 10 largest claims worth about $1 million. It was found that DOC had overpaid approximately $105,700 on those claims, representing an overpayment of 10.6 percent.

The overpayments occurred because of separate billings that are normally part of a larger service, charges for services provided with no clear patient benefit, and duplicate charges. The DOC did not realize or suspect the claims included excessive billing, so it paid the bills.

“The [DOC] did not previously identify these or other over-billings because it does not perform externally focused recovery audits of hospital charges,” states the report. This contrasts with state law, which requires DOC to explore …

GEO Group Reaps Higher Profit from New Mexico Prisons than Other States

New Mexico pays significantly more to house prisoners in private prisons than other states, concluded a 2007 state legislative report. “Business decisions across two administrations may result in New Mexico paying an estimated $34 million more than it should pay for private prison costs,” concluded the 100-page report from a Legislative Finance Committee audit team.

As of March 2007, New Mexico housed 6,574 prisoners. Of those, 2,790 prisoners, or 42 percent of the population, were housed in private prisons, which was the highest rate of private prison use in the nation.

Between Fiscal Year ’01 and Fiscal Year ’06, annual spending on private prisons increased 57%, from $34 million to $54 million. Yet, the number of prisoners over that period increased only 21% from 2,348 to 2,840. Increases paid to the private prison operator, GEO Group, were blamed.

The report found an increase in annual per diem rates was caused by the New Mexico Department of Corrections (Department) raising the rate yearly by an amount equal to 80% of the consumer price index (CPI) or other increase up to a five percent cap. …

When Halfway Houses Pose Full-Time Problems

by Derek Gilna

A recent interest among government officials in reducing prison populations as a way to cut costs, stemming from the 2008 Great Recession that resulted in significant budget deficits, has placed renewed emphasis on the importance of halfway houses. As more prisoners are released there is a corresponding need for more post-release housing – including reentry facilities.

Loosely defined as a “halfway” point for prisoners between incarceration and freedom, halfway houses have experienced a number of problems that indicate the industry is in need of systemic improvements. If states continue the trend of reducing their prison populations and more federal prisoners are released due to sentencing reforms [see, e.g., PLN, Aug. 2014, p.26], then halfway houses – also known as Community Corrections Centers (CCCs) and Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs) – will have to increase their capacity as well as the quantity and quality of the transitional services they provide.

An Industry Plagued with Problems

Although some halfway houses are adequately managed and staffed with competent professionals, others are operated more for profit than an interest in helping offenders successfully return to society. Too many incidents involving …

Tennessee Man Sues for Placement in Women’s Facility for Three Years

"How can you not tell a vagina from a penis?” asked Carla Brenner, aka Lamonda Fuller, a female impersonator who filed suit against the City of Nashville, Tennessee and the private company that held him in a women’s facility for three years.

“The big hair, the makeup – I am an entertainer, a drag queen,” Brenner stated. “That basically means a man who enjoys dressing as a woman. It’s not a woman. I have no intention on being a woman – never, ever have.”

Nevertheless, when Brenner was convicted of stealing a purse in Nashville, he was sent to a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) facility that houses women offenders.

Brenner said he was told not to say anything, to pretend he was a woman and to go to the women’s facility, for reasons that were unclear. He went so far as to check a box that said he was female, officials noted. That’s apparently all it took.

Brenner dismissed attempts to fault him for his predicament. “They had two doctors – someone from the board of health and a Metro administrator come …

CCA Board Member Steps Down from Open Government Organization

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison firm, is also one of the least transparent government contractors despite performing an inherently governmental function – incarceration.

For example, CCA has vigorously opposed efforts to require the company to comply with state public records laws. In Tennessee, where CCA is headquartered, the company fought a public records suit filed by Prison Legal News managing editor Alex Friedmann for five years before conceding defeat after two appellate court rulings. [See: PLN, June 2013, p.14]. CCA also refused to comply with PLN public records requests in Texas and Vermont, resulting in litigation in those states. [See: PLN, April 2014, p.35; July 2013, p.42].

Additionally, the company has lobbied against the Private Prison Information Act – federal legislation that would extend the Freedom of Information Act to privately-operated facilities that house federal prisoners. [See: PLN, Feb. 2013, p.14].

Therefore, given the company’s lack of transparency and public accountability, it was both ironic and incomprehensible when CCA board member Charles L. Overby joined the board of directors of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government (TCOG) in …

Controversy, Criticism Plague Brooklyn Halfway House

by Derek Gilna

Community First Services, Inc., established by Jack A. Brown III in 2005 to provide transitional services for prisoners returning to New York City, has come under scrutiny following news reports that cast doubt not only on the organization’s halfway house but also the oversight provided by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

Congress had the right idea when it passed the Second Chance Act, a broad legislative initiative to make it easier for prisoners to receive the reentry assistance and job training and placement they need to help reduce high recidivism rates. [See: PLN, Feb. 2009, p.8]. However, as detailed in this month’s cover story, that lofty goal has foundered on the reality that there are too few halfway houses capable of providing necessary reentry services and too few trained personnel to provide the counseling, treatment and job placement needed.

As the number of federal prisoners has steadily climbed over the past several decades, so has the number of prisoners released into the community after completion of their sentences. Unfortunately, the capacity of BOP licensed and approved halfway houses has not kept pace – many are …