by Christopher Petrella and Josh Begley

While data generated by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and state departments of corrections (DOCs) have long demonstrated persistent racial disparities in rates of incarceration, no comparative study until now has considered the racial composition of select state-contracted, privately-operated prisons around the nation. We selected California, Texas and Arizona for our examination because they warehouse some of the largest numbers of prisoners in private, for-profit prisons. Taken together, these three states account for over 30 percent of all prisoners held in privatized correctional facilities in the United States.

Our research indicates that although people of color are already overrepresented in public prisons relative to their share of state and national populations, they are further overrepresented by approximately 12 percent in state-contracted correctional facilities operated by for-profit private prison firms. Not only is the overrepresentation of people of color in private prisons a matter of public concern, it also begs some previously unconsidered questions.

Our conclusions are based on the latest U.S. Census demographic figures available through the Prison Policy Initiative’s “Correctional Facility Locator 2010,” cross-referenced with prisoner population directories available on state DOC websites and statistical information procured through public records requests filed ...

Several weeks after firing Maine State Prison warden Patricia Barnhart on January 10, 2013, and two years after taking over the Department of Corrections (DOC), Commissioner Joseph Ponte appears determined to continue – and ramp up – his forceful program of reform.

In an interview at the DOC’s Augusta headquarters, the calm, 66-year-old corrections veteran spoke about his accomplishments, intentions and frustrations. In spite of the latter, running the department “is the most fun I’ve had,” he said. Maine has a “small enough” corrections system so “you can see the result” of your work.

Accomplishments

New Philosophy and Leadership

Within the limits of a tight budget and some recalcitrant correctional officers, Ponte is trying to replace warehousing and punishing prisoners with what they need to turn their lives around. When he took over the DOC he saw how well that approach worked at Maine’s two youth centers, where the recidivism rate had declined significantly. He decided to apply the approach to adult offenders.

Ponte’s philosophy is seen in his choices for his recently reconstituted team. Rodney Bouffard, longtime head of the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, has been named acting warden of the state prison in Warren. ...

In December 2012, the Colorado Medical Board concluded its inquiry into a complaint filed against Dr. David Mark Sakai Oba, who provided medical services at the CCA-operated Bent County Correctional Facility (BCCF), and issued an admonishment.

Terrell D. Griswold, 26, was incarcerated at BCCF in September 2009 when he filed a sick call request due to persistent pain in his side and blood in his urine. He stated he had a weak urine stream and wanted to have his prostate checked, and filed another sick call request two months later.

He was seen on December 3, 2009 by Dr. Oba, who, according to a subsequent lawsuit filed by Griswold’s mother, was “an employee and/or agent of CCA.” Dr. Oba diagnosed a urinary obstruction and ordered antibiotics, though Griswold never received them as the prison clinic said they were not available.

He received no other medical treatment for his urinary obstruction, and while the prescription for antibiotics was renewed by Dr. Oba in May 2010, they reportedly were never given to Griswold.

According to the suit, Oba “was aware his orders for medications were routinely not carried out, but he did nothing to correct the situation. It was Dr. Oba’s duty, ...

In a September 6, 2012 unpublished ruling, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a jury verdict that found Corizon Health, Inc., formerly Prison Health Services (PHS), had a policy or custom of refusing to send prisoners to hospitals. The appellate court also held it was reasonable for the jury ...

by Matt Clarke

Unique circumstances have combined to make northern Louisiana a prime location for private prisons, as Louisiana sheriffs can profit by letting a private company build and operate facilities that house both local prisoners and prisoners from other jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, other parish prisons – especially those in the densely-populated southern part of the state – and Louisiana’s state prisons are severely overcrowded and provide a steady stream of prisoners to fill the for-profit facilities in the north.

Currently, over half of the state’s approximately 40,000 prisoners are incarcerated in local parish prisons, which are operated by sheriffs or a private company.

It costs the state an average $55 per day to house a prisoner in a state facility. Yet the state pays sheriffs a mere $24.39 per diem to house state prisoners in parish prisons. When factoring in private prison companies’ need to generate profit from the meager per diem rate, plus a cut for the sheriffs, it is easy to see that despite the state spending $182 million annually to house prisoners in local facilities, very little of that amount is spent on rehabilitative programs and services for those prisoners.

Yet sheriffs, and the private prison companies ...

Christopher Petrella and Alex Friedmann are leading a coalition of organizations urging U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) to reintroduce the Private Prison Information Act during the 113th Congress. I reached them both on the phone on a busy afternoon on January 9, 2013. Alex spoke from his office in Nashville, Tennessee while Christopher was on the road in Boston.

Christopher Petrella is a doctoral student in U.C. Berkeley’s Department of African American Studies; his dissertation focuses on the intersection of race, class and prison privatization. He also teaches classes at San Quentin State Prison.

Alex Friedmann is the managing editor of Prison Legal News, associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center and president of the Private Corrections Institute, which opposes prison privatization. He spent ten years behind bars, including six years at a facility in Tennessee operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

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MEL MOTEL: So let’s talk about this bill, the Private Prison Information Act (PPIA). Why is this bill important? Who should care about this issue?

ALEX FRIEDMANN: The PPIA would apply to private prison contractors on the federal level – it would subject them to the same obligations under the Freedom of ...

The Idaho Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a prison doctor’s challenge to his job termination, stemming from his abusive treatment of a prisoner.

Dr. John F. Noak was the medical director for Prison Health Services (PHS), which provided medical care for the Idaho Department of Correction ...

by Matt Clarke

In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that federal prisoners housed in privately-managed prisons may not file Bivens-style federal lawsuits against private prison employees alleging lack of medical care in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Richard Lee Pollard was a federal prisoner incarcerated in a California facility operated by Wackenhut Corrections (now GEO Group) when he slipped on a cart left in the doorway to the butcher shop in the prison’s food service department, fell and was injured. He was X-rayed at the prison. Because prison medical staff believed he had fractured both elbows, he was taken to an outside clinic for orthopedic evaluation. He later had surgery.

Pollard filed an action in federal court under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), alleging that guards had caused him severe pain by requiring him to put on a jumpsuit for transportation outside the prison when he could not extend his arm, and by placing him in arm restraints that caused him great pain. He also alleged that prison medical personnel failed to provide a splint, physical therapy and medical studies recommended by the outside clinic and provided insufficient pain medication, leaving ...

Idaho officials first tried to suppress what they called an “inflammatory” and “libelous” report filed by a court-appointed expert in a longstanding suit involving the state’s prison system. They then finally agreed to settle the 30-year-old litigation based upon the report’s findings.

In 1981, a flood of federal lawsuits was ...

A November 2011 standoff between police and two sex offenders threatening suicide at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation (VCBR), the state’s civil commitment facility near Richmond, raised concerns about the safety and treatment of residents held at the center.

Two residents – identified only as a 29-year-old from Richmond and a 32-year-old from Delaware – climbed about 15 feet to the roof of the VCBR on November 21, 2011 and tied sheets around their necks. They demanded to speak with an official about treatment at the facility.

“We got two people up on the roof with nooses around their necks because they’re violating people’s rights here,” said a man who claimed to be a VCBR resident when he called the Richmond Times-Dispatch during the standoff. “We’re trying to talk to [administrators] and they aren’t doing anything for us.”

The two residents voluntarily descended from the roof after three hours and were examined by medical staff. They were then interviewed by Virginia State Police and returned to the center, which holds around 290 residents – mainly convicted sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences but have been civilly committed because they are deemed too dangerous to release.

“The facility’s ...