Corrections Corporation Of America
November 26, 2011
Nashville prisoner sues CCA for millions after having miscarriage
Metro’s treatment of pregnant prisoners is being called into question again by a Nashville woman who claims that prison staff denied her requests to take a pregnancy test, assigned her a strenuous work schedule and then destroyed her fetus after she suffered a miscarriage.
Lisa Marie Allison has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in Davidson County Circuit Court alleging constitutional violations, negligence, medical malpractice, wrongful death and other claims.
Allison was sent to Metro’s Correctional Development Center on Harding Place in November 2010 for a probation violation and was given a pregnancy test at intake. Although Allison suspected she was pregnant, the test came back negative...
LINK - Tennessean.com
November 18, 2011
CCA charging inmates $5.00 per minute for phone calls!
For inmates at one Georgia prison, a one minute phone call could cost them five times more than they earn for a day of work.
The Correction Corporation Of America's Stewart facility, a private prison in Lumpkin, Georgia, is forcing prisoners to pay five dollars per minute to use the phone, Alternet reports. The exorbitant rate would break most people's budget, but it's especially costly for inmates that the prison who make just one dollar per day to work at the facility...
LINK - HuffingtonPost.com
November 14, 2011
More on private prison costing more than public in Mississippi
Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps will save the state about $10.2 million a year with the closing of the privately run prison in Leflore County.
"I think I made the right decision," Epps said last week.
The Delta Correctional Facility originally closed Oct. 9, 2002. Then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said the state would shut down the prison, citing a lack of funding due to his veto of the Mississippi Department of Corrections budget for private prisons. A state judge later ruled the veto unconstitutional. At the time, the prison housed more than 800 inmates and employed 200 workers...
LINK - CommercialAppeal.com
October 9, 2011
CCA-run prison remains Idaho’s most violent lockup
In the last four years, Idaho's largest privately run prison has faced federal lawsuits, widespread public scrutiny, increased state oversight, changes in upper management and even an ongoing FBI investigation.
Yet the Corrections Corp. of America ( CXW - news - people )-run Idaho Correctional Center remains the most violent lockup in Idaho.
Records obtained by The Associated Press show that while the assault rate improved somewhat in the four-year period examined, ICC inmates are still more than twice as likely to be assaulted as those at other Idaho prisons...
LINK - Forbes.com
October 5, 2011
Idaho: AP asks judge to open CCA secret settlement
The Associated Press is asking a federal judge to unseal the settlement agreement between an Idaho inmate and private prison company Corrections Corp. of America.
The confidential settlement between Marlin Riggs and CCA was reached last month in a widely publicized lawsuit that alleged rampant violence at a CCA-run prison near Boise. Riggs originally asked for $55 million in damages, saying the prison was nicknamed "Gladiator School" and that guards knew he was about to be attacked but failed to protect him. Riggs said he suffered serious injuries in the attack, and required facial surgery to allow him to breathe normally...
LINK - TheRepublic.com
September 30, 2011
Tennessee: CCA guard charged for drugs
A corrections officer is now behind bars inside the very prison where she works. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Department has charged 20-year-old officer Jesse Wedell with smuggling marijuana into Silverdale.
Wedell sat in a jail cell, likely second guessing her risky move early Thursday morning.The Hamilton County Sheriff's department says Wedell hid about three quarters of an ounce of marijuana in her private area...
LINK - NewsChannel9.com
September 26, 2011
Private prison giant CCA seeking CA inmates for empty prisons in Minnesota, Colorado
It’s been almost two years since the privately-run prison in Appleton has held prisoners. But in early 2012, the prison’s owner, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), expects to fill Appleton’s Prairie Correctional Facility and another facility in Colorado with 3,256 inmates from California.
In the last ten years, the revenue of CCA, the country’s biggest private prison company, has almost doubled, according to their annual reports. Critics say that CCA’s success, and even the likely reopening of the prison in Appleton, stems from their use of lobbying and campaign donations to push through tougher crime laws and increase detainment of illegal immigrants...
LINK - MinnesotaIndependent.com
September 20, 2011
CCA agrees to follow state regs in suit over violent prison conditions?
A potential class-action lawsuit against the nation’s largest private prison company over allegations of violence at the Idaho Correctional Center has been settled in federal court.
The agreement between the inmates and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boise.
In it, CCA doesn’t acknowledge the allegations but agrees to increase staffing, investigate all assaults and make other sweeping changes at the lockup south of Boise. If the company fails to make the changes, the inmates can ask the courts to force CCA to comply...
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
September 14, 2011
Lawmakers looking into private prison abuses
Allegations of poor treatment of prisoners in the private prison in Shelby Montana are to be investigated by Montana lawmakers. It has been alleged that prisoners were being held after being eligible for parole and that each prisoner is issued with two rolls of toilet paper per week, no more. Rudy Stock, a businessman from Helena added to the list of shortcomings. He has been visiting his son in the Crossroads Correctional Center run by Corrections Corporation of America(CCA) since February. If an audit of the facilities supports the allegations, the prison would not meet American Correctional Association standards.
Spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, Bob Anez, has said he is working on responses for the December meeting. The state pays CCa a per diem fee of $53.84 per person incarcerated.Ref. Montana Watchdog...
LINK - AllVoices.com
September 14, 2011
CCA settles (another) multi-million $$ lawsuit by police officer shot 5 times by CCA escapees
Former Metro Police Sgt. Mark Chesnut has settled a lawsuit against a private prison company that housed an inmate who escaped and then shot him five times.
Chesnut sued Corrections Corporation of America, accusing the company of being negligent in its supervision of Joseph Jackson Jr., a Mississippi prisoner who escaped during a medical visit. Chesnut’s lawsuit asked for $16.5 million in damages resulting from physical and emotional pain for him and his wife.
Chesnut’s attorney, David Raybin, said the former sergeant would not comment and he declined to discuss the amount of the settlement...
LINK - Tennessean.com
September 14, 2011
CCA pays off brutalized inmate in multi-million-dollar lawsuit
An inmate who sued a privately run Idaho prison over allegations of extreme violence and medical neglect has reached a settlement with the private prison company Corrections Corp. of America.
Meanwhile, dozens of other inmates who also sued the Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA in federal court are in settlement talks with the company that could end the potentially class-action case by the close of the week...
LINK - TheRepublic.com
September 13, 2011
Montana lawmakers seek audit of CCA private prison
Three state lawmakers said they will request a legislative audit of a contract between the Department of Corrections [1] [1](DOC) and the company that operates the private prison in Shelby following allegations which included inmates being held beyond their parole and a claim prisoners are given two rolls of toilet paper a week and told by guards to use their hands if they run out.
The three, members of the Legislature’s Law and Justice Interim Committee [2], said they would request the audit after hearing the claims made Friday regarding the DOC and the Corrections Corporation of America [3](CCA) by Helena businessman Rudy Stock, who said he has visited his son at the Crossroads Correctional Center [4]nearly 80 times since Feb. 1...
LINK - Montana.Watchdog.org
September 8, 2011
Private prison (CCA) supervisor pleads guilty to molesting female detainees
A former residential supervisor at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor pleaded guilty this week to molesting women he was transporting them from the center to the airport or bus terminal.
Donald Dunn pleaded guilty to two federal deprivation of rights charges, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Dunn admitted to touching illegal female immigrants “in a sexual manner” between December 2009 and May 2010, the release said. He said that he would stop the vehicle along the way, order them to get out and convince them he was conducting a legitimate search, it said...
LINK - Statesman.com
June 1, 2011
CCA hires BOP Director Harley Lappin - after he awards numerous federal contracts to company?
CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), America's leader in partnership corrections, announced that effective June 1, 2011, Harley G. Lappin, 55, shall serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Corrections Officer (CCO). In this role, Mr. Lappin will be responsible for the oversight of facility operations, health services, inmate rehabilitation programs, purchasing and TransCor, the Company's wholly-owned transportation subsidiary. He succeeds Richard P. Seiter, who announced his decision to step down as CCO earlier this year, effective May 31, 2011.
Mr. Lappin, as a career correctional administrator, previously served as the Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) -- the nation's largest correctional system, a position he held since 2003, prior to retirement in May 2011. He served in a variety of roles with the Bureau of Prisons for more than 25 years, beginning in 1985, including Regional Director, Warden of the United States Penitentiary in Indiana, and Warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina, among other positions. As Director of the BOP, Lappin had oversight and management responsibility for 116 federal prisons, 14 large, private contract facilities and more than 250 contracts for community correction facilities, in total comprising more than 215,000 inmates managed by 38,000 employees, with a $6.4 billion budget...
LINK - MarketWire.com
March 2, 2011
Private Prison Expose: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) problems nationwide
Back in July, 2000, the Idaho Correctional Center opened as the state's first privately run prison.
Recently, I.C.C, run by Corrections Corporation of America, has come under fire after a lawsuit filed by the America Civil Liberties Union, alleging misconduct, mismanagement and more.
For the past two months, KBOI 2News has combed through more than 1,000 pages of documents, including the state's contract with C.C.A. We have also spoken with more than a dozen people trying to learn exactly what's happening inside Idaho's private prison which many believe has become a public problem...
LINK - KBOI2.com
February 17, 2011
Private Prisons - CCA treatment of detainees exposed
Aisha comes from a rural area near Mogadishu in Somalia. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said of the fighting and war-torn conditions that led her to flee her homeland.
She is too traumatized to share details of her treatment in Somalia, a place where women are often raped and brutalized by soldiers, and where young boys are forced at gunpoint into military service. “I had a smuggler take me out of Somalia,” she said, then described her long and difficult journey to freedom.
Instead of freedom, however, she was taken into custody and confined inside a detention facility in Otay Mesa run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private prison company that operates the maximum security facility for U.S. Homeland Security...
LINK - EastCountyMagazine.org
December 17, 2010
Feds settle suit over medical care at immigration jail
A federal lawsuit filed against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency over medical care at an immigration jail in Otay Mesa was settled Thursday with an agreement that the government will provide a broader range of treatment and increase mental health care.
The settlement covers the immigration jail run by the Corrections Corporation of America under a contract with ICE. The lawsuit, filed in 2007 by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties, alleged that detainees had to endure lengthy waits for medical treatment, did not get the medications needed for chronic illnesses and had poor mental health care.
The settlement applies only to the ICE detention facility at the jail, and as part of the deal the agency did not admit that any of the allegations were true...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
December 8, 2010
E. Coli reported at privately-run Idaho prison
Health officials found evidence of E. coli bacteria at a privately run Idaho prison south of Boise.
Five inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center became sick around Dec. 1.
Tests from at least two identified a toxin associated with bacteria that can cause serious food poisoning.
Sarah Correll, staff epidemiologist at the Central District Health Department, said no new cases have been discovered and the inmates who were sickened are recovering...
LINK - KSRO.com
November 30, 2010
FBI investigating private prison company for civil rights violations
The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed is knocked unconscious.
No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.
Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
October 11, 2010
Federal Contractor Misconduct Database: CCA
Ranking: 118
Corrections Corporation of America
Corrections Corporation of America manages prisons, jails and detention facilities and provides inmate transportation services. CCA houses approximately 80,000 detainees in more than 60 facilities, 43 of which are company-owned. CCA currently partners with all three federal corrections agencies (the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement), nearly half of all states and more than a dozen municipalities...
LINK - ContractorMisconduct.org
October 4, 2010
Bus carrying 24 maximum-security inmates crashes
A prison bus carrying 24 maximum-security inmates from Arizona to Mississippi has been involved in an accident, but authorities say there are no major injuries.
Arizona Department of Public Safety officials say the Corrections Corporation of America bus rear-ended a work truck on Interstate 10 in Tucson around 5 a.m. Wednesday.
The Arizona Daily Star says the bus was transporting the inmates from a privately run prison in Eloy to a prison in Mississippi...
LINK - KTAR.com
September 15, 2010
Corrections gave up $18 million in uncollected penalties
Over the past four years New Mexico has potentially given up more than $18 million in never-assessed penalties despite repeated contractual violations by two private prison operators, a new legislative report says.
By contract New Mexico can levy penalties against GEO Group and Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) when staffing vacancies at the facilities they manage in Hobbs, Grants, Clayton and Santa Rosa stay at 10 percent or more for 30-consecutive days.
That penalty has been triggered regularly, state records show and the new report by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) confirms...
LINK - NewMexicoIndependent.com
August 31, 2010
Money Yields Clout at the Capitol
An out-of-state company that contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Capitol politicians – has secured an exclusive contract with the State – worth nearly $700 million.
Critics say this deal is a prime example of pay-to-play politics at the Capitol – and it involves prisoners – who have become a very valuable commodity for Corrections Corporation of America – a private prison operator based in Tennessee.
California's prisons are costing taxpayers roughly $8 billion a year...
LINK - CBS13.com
June 19, 2010
Vermont inmates at Tennessee private prison (CCA) act out
Vermont prisoners being held at a private prison in Tennessee had ongoing complaints about the facility before a lockdown in May when the inmates had to be subdued with chemical grenades, officials said.
About 35 Vermont inmates were put on lockdown on May 12 after they refused to return to their cells and started destroying sinks and toilets in their housing unit at the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, about 35 miles northeast of Memphis. Prison officials said no one was injured.
Vermont contracts with Nashville-based prison operator Corrections Corporation of America to house inmates in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arizona to alleviate overcrowding...
LINK - RutlandHerald.com
June 10, 2010
Another Hawaii inmate dead at CCA private prison in Arizona
A second Hawaii inmate has died at a private prison in Arizona this year.
Hawaii Public Safety Department's deputy director for corrections, Tommy Johnson, says investigators will travel to Saquaro Correctional Center in investigate the death of 23-year-old Clifford Medina.
He was pronounced Tuesday, half an hour after his cellmate reported him unresponsive. Medina was serving time for burglary, theft, jumping bail and assaulting a law enforcement officer...
LINK - KOLD.com
June 3, 2010
APNewsBreak: ACLU, Idaho settle prison lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union has reached a settlement with the Idaho Department of Correction in a lawsuit over violence at a privately run prison near Boise.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit against Corrections Corporation of America and the state earlier this year, saying the Idaho Correctional Center is so violent that inmates refer to it as "gladiator school" and that guards deliberately expose prisoners to brutal beatings from other inmates.
The ACLU's lawsuit against CCA still stands...
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
June 2, 2010
CCA docked $2,600 a day for using unqualified counselors
Corrections Corporation of America has been fined more than $47,200 and counting for not having qualified drug and alcohol counselors at a prison that it manages in Idaho.
The $2,600-a-day tab will continue to run until the Nashville-based prison operator addresses the problem by getting staff members accredited or by hiring more qualified people, said Jeffrey Ray, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Correction.
The department for whom CCA operates the 2,080-bed Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise imposed the damages after CCA had failed by May 13 to meet certain requirements for counselors under its contract...
LINK - Tennessean.com
June 1, 2010
ICE investigating sexual assaults at CCA-operated private prison
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating allegations that a guard at a central Texas detention facility sexually assaulted female detainees on their way to being deported.
Agency spokesman Brian Hale said Friday the guard has been fired and Corrections Corporation of America, which manages the prison, is on probation pending the investigation's outcome.
Several women who were held at T. Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor, Texas, were groped while being patted down and at least one was propositioned for sex, ICE said...
LINK - KansasCity.com
April 27, 2010
Prison privateer CCA gets sued again over inmate beating
A former Idaho inmate is suing a private prison company, saying guards watched as he was beaten by a fellow inmate in an attack that went on for so long that his assailant had time to stop and drink some water before continuing.
Attorneys for Hanni Elabed filed the lawsuit against the Correction Corporation of America in U.S. District Court last week, saying their client was left brain-damaged and may never fully recover from the assault at the Idaho Correctional Center near Boise.
Steven Owens, the public affairs director for CCA, says the Tennessee-based company doesn't comment on lawsuits other than through court filings...
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
April 22, 2010
Private prisons give big $$$ to CA lawmakers
A company that operates private prisons – and which is hoping to pluck inmates out of California’s overcrowded lockups and into its for-profit prisons – has donated $1,000 each to 10 state lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, in recent days.
Private prisons could be a hot-button issue during this summer’s budget talks. In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a constitutional amendment to require the state to spend more on universities than keeping inmates behind bars. Privatizing prisons is one way to do that, the governor has said.
Schwarzenegger, whose ballot measure efforts last year received $100,000 from the Corrections Corp. of America, has been supportive of sending inmates to private prisons. More than 8,000 state inmates are already housed in the company’s out-of-state lockups, with the governor’s proposed budget funding more than 10,000 private prison beds, according to the Department of Finance...
LINK - LATimes.com
April 14, 2010
Private (CCA) Prison Guards Let Man Die, Family Says
Private prison guards let a suicidal prisoner suffer seizures, lapse into a coma and die of a drug overdose, and merely "put the decedent in an observation cell and ... check(ed) his vital signs every six hours," his family claims in Federal Court. The family sued the Corrections Corporation of America and several of its employees, including two doctors.
Corrections Corporation of America runs the West Tennessee Detention Facility, where Alan Young died on April 11, 2009, according to the complaint. Young's family claims the prison staff knew he was suicidal and that he was saving up the psychotropic medications he was given daily so that he could take them all at once to commit suicide.
The staff "did not take any measures to ensure that he was actually taking the medication that they were giving him," according to the complaint...
LINK - CourthouseNews.com
March 23, 2010
Arizona inmates out of Walsenburg CCA prison
All Arizona inmates formerly held at the Huerfano County Correctional Center have been transferred out of the facility, clearing the way for the closure of the prison early next month, corrections officials said Monday.
Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and operates the facility, announced in January that it will close the prison in April.
Officials at the private prison company said Monday the prison officially will close April 2.
Steve Owen, director of communications for Nashville-headquartered CCA, said by 2 p.m. the inmates were in custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections...
LINK - Chieftain.com
March 23, 2010
CCA jail officer accused of doctor shopping for drugs
A Hernando County Jail corrections officer faces charges of "doctor shopping" to obtain prescriptions for 2,100 tablets of the pain medication oxycodone.
Hernando sheriff's deputies arrested Chris Abare, 46, of Hudson on Tuesday for withholding information from physicians in Hernando and Pasco counties from whom he was receiving the prescriptions.
A report said that between July and January, Abare got prescriptions for more than 2,100 oxycodone tablets from nine doctors. Authorities said the doctors signed sworn statements saying that Abare failed to tell them he was receiving prescriptions from other physicians...
LINK - TampaBay.com
March 23, 2010
County seeks CCA records
County officials know all about public records requests. They get them all the time from citizens and the media.
This time, however, it is Hernando County making a rare public records request of its own.
Hernando officials want Corrections Corporation of America to release inventory and budgetary information to help the county analyze whether CCA or Sheriff Richard Nugent could offer the best deal of running the Hernando County Jail...
LINK - TampaBay.com
March 17, 2010
Another suit from Hawaiian inmate alleging rape by CCA guard in Kentucky
A Hawai'i prison inmate who alleges she was sexually assaulted by two guards at a Mainland prison has sued the state and the private operator of the prison.
The suit, filed Monday, alleges that the plaintiff was attacked June 16, 2008, by male corrections officers at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky.
The woman is serving a life prison sentence for murder and kidnapping convictions...
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
March 9, 2010
Privatization Update - March 1-7, 2010
March 1 – The Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a public records case involving CCA, the nation’s largest for-profit private prison firm. The case was originally filed in May 2008 by Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, a non-profit monthly publication that reports on criminal justice issues. CCA had denied Freidmann’s request for documents related to lawsuits filed against the company and for reports or audits that found contract violations by CCA, among other records. The Chancery Court of Davidson County ruled in Friedmann’s favor on July 29, 2008 and CCA was ordered to produce the requested documents...
March 2, 2010
CCA too expensive, may lose another contract
After researching the matter, Sheriff Richard Nugent believes he can take over operations of the Hernando County Jail and save the county money.
Due to the current economic condition of the county and the continually rising cost of the county's contract with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to operate the jail, Nugent said Tuesday he has conducted research into the possibility of his office assuming the task.
The sheriff will make a presentation to county commissioners at their meeting next Tuesday...
LINK - HernandoToday.com
February 28, 2010
Protesters gather in front of CCA immigration prisons
Around 50 people, mostly from area Catholic Churches, assembled in front of the North Georgia Detention Center On Main Street at noon Thursday to call for fair treatment and human rights for inmates they say don’t belong inside the walls.
The chill of February did not discourage them from gathering with signs advocating dignity and fairness according to P.J. Edwards, with Georgia Detention Watch, who wishes the immigration detention facilities would go away.
“The vast majority of these detainees aren’t criminals, they aren’t a threat to society, and this level of detention isn't really unnecessary,” Edwards said. “There are alternatives like parole and community based ‘checking in’ that are shown to be effective and much less expensive...”
LINK - AccessNorthGA.com
February 24, 2010
Women Call Private Prison Guards Predators
Two former inmates of a Corrections Corporation of America prison say CCA employees preyed on them sexually and banished them to solitary lockdown when they complained. One woman claims a CCA guard paid her "sugar daddy" on the outside, then demanded, and received, sex in prison.
Jessica Rubio and Serbennia Chase filed separate, $20 million federal lawsuits against the private prison contractor, alleging civil rights violations at the company's Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF) at the District of Columbia Jail.
Rubio, who was arrested and sentenced in 2008 for sexual solicitation, says CTF employee "Sgt. Powell" paid her for sex four times when he should have been helping her "turn her life around..."
LINK - CourtHouseNews.com
January 28, 2010
Private prison company CCA finds gold in CA (thanks, Gov)
In the intensifying debate over budget-driven releases of state prison inmates, the state's cash problems are well known. But at least one private correctional company is reaping major rewards.
In three years, a private-prison construction and management company, the Corrections Corporation of America, has seen the value of its contracts with the state soar from nearly $23 million in 2006 to about $700 million three months ago – all without competitive bidding. Even in a state accustomed to high-dollar contracts, the 31-fold increase over three years is dramatic.
During the same period, the company's campaign donations rose exponentially, from $36,750 in 2006, of which $25,000 went to the state Republican Party, to $233,500 in 2007-08 and nearly $139,000 in 2009. The donations have gone to Democrats, Republicans and ballot measures. The company's largest single contribution, $100,000, went to an unsuccessful budget-reform package pushed last year by Gov. Schwarzenegger…
LINK - CapitolWeekly.net
January 26, 2010
Costs for CCA’s out-of-state private prisoner contract soars
The price tag for California's out-of-state prisoners has jumped in three years from $20 million in late 2006, to $630 million in 2009-10.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as well as the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) addressed rising out-of-state prisoner costs in a recent hearing by the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review.
California was ordered in 2006 by the federal government to relieve the overcrowding in California prisons, which at the time, was nearly 200 percent of planned prison capacity, according to Scott Kernan with the CDCR. The recent final federal order was issued Jan. 13, 2010 by a three-judge District Court panel requiring a cut in prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity within two years — a reduction of approximately 40,000 inmates…
LINK - CalWatchDog.com
January 20, 2010
California Out-of-State Correctional Facility Program
Overview of Out-of-State Bed Program
Mission. The California Out-of-State Correctional Facility (COCF) program is administered by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Its mission is to transfer inmates out of state for the purpose of temporarily alleviating overcrowding within existing state prisons.
Number of Inmates. The department currently has 8,021 male inmates housed in fi ve out-of-state facilities. Inmates housed in these facilities are generally highersecurity level inmates. Most inmates have been transferred involuntarily. Inmates with serious medical and mental health issues are generally excluded from the program...
January 13, 2010
CCA confirms plans to house CA state inmates at California City private prison
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has not renewed its contract with Corrections Corp. of America to manage more than 2,000 inmates now housed in California under the Criminal Alien Requirement program.
The contract, which has been awarded to Cornell Cos., will take about $22 million annually – about 12 cents per diluted share – off CCA's bottom line, estimated Avondale Partners analyst Kevin Campbell. Nashville-based CCA – which did get a renewed BOP deal to manage 1,200 inmates in New Mexico – had been expected to earn $1.40 per share in 2010.
In a statement, CCA President and CEO Damon Hininger said the company believes the BOP's move is based primarily on "escalating federal wage determination costs in California, and does not reflect the quality of operations our company and staff have provided to the BOP…"
LINK - NashvillePost.com
January 8, 2010
Kentucky Gov Orders Female Inmates Removed from CCA Private Prison
Kentucky's governor has ordered some 400 female inmates removed from a corporate-run prison after allegations of sexual misconduct by male guards.
Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the women moved from Otter Creek Correctional Complex to a state-run prison starting by July 1.
The move comes four months after the Kentucky Department of Corrections called for security improvements at the prison in a report on 18 alleged cases of sexual misconduct by guards there.
The prison is operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America…
LINK - ABCNews.GO.com
December 23, 2009
Inmate On The Run After Escaping CCA Custody
Authorities are looking for an inmate who escaped from custody and jumped into the Withlacoochee River.
According to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, Terry N. Davis, 47, escaped custody just after 1 p.m. near Allen's Bait & Seafood on Elkins Road in Inglis.
Davis is described as a white male with brownish-gray hair and blue eyes. He is believed to have taken off his jail-issued orange jumpsuit. He is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 155 pounds…
LINK - CFNews13.com (Citrus County, Florida)
December 14, 2009
Another CCA private prison employee charged with raping inmate
A former education director at the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility has been indicted on a second degree felony count of criminal sexual penetration of an inmate.
Charles Buccigrossi, 65, former education director at the Correctional Corporations of America facility, made sexual contact with an inmate, according to a Grants Police Department report. Officers were dispatched to the prison on Aug. 10 in response to investigate the allegation…
LINK - CibolaBeacon.com
December 9, 2009
CCA lets inmate escape, inmate shoots cop, CCA blames cop for getting shot?
Private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America is denying responsibility in the shooting of a Nashville police officer, allegedly by an escaped inmate.
Sgt. Mark Chesnut claims in a lawsuit filed in October that the Nashville-based company was negligent in Joseph Jackson Jr.'s escape from an offsite doctor's office while he was an inmate of CCA's Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, Miss.
Chesnut stopped a rental car carrying Jackson and his cousin - Courtney Logan of Louisville, Ky. - on June 25, just hours after the escape…
LINK - WSMV.com
December 4, 2009
Corrections Corp of America to close Minnesota private prison due to lack of inmates
Corrections Corp. of America said Friday that it plans to close a Minnesota correctional facility around Feb. 1, 2010 because it has too few inmates.
The Prairie Correctional Facility, based in Appleton, Minn., has 1,600 beds and has housed offenders from Minnesota and Washington. But Corrections Corp. said the facility has seen the number of inmates it houses reduced due to overcapacity in the states' systems.
"Without an inmate population large enough to significantly utilize the facility, maintaining operations at the Prairie facility isn't economically viable," Corrections Corp. President and CEO Damon Hininger said in a statement…
LINK - CNBC.com
November 26, 2009
Warrant issued for CCA female guard for rape of private prison inmate
A former female correctional officer has been charged with three felony counts of second-degree rape after being accused of having sex with an inmate at a private prison in Holdenville.
A warrant for the arrest of ex-correctional officer Michelle Kalinich was issued Nov. 6, but she had not been taken into custody Wednesday, a Hughes County sheriff's employee said.
It is against state law and considered rape for a correctional officer or jailer to have sex with an inmate, even if both are willing participants…
LINK - NewsOK.com
November 4, 2009
Schwarzenegger creating hundreds of jobs in Oklahoma?
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America is creating 217 new jobs in Oklahoma, after finalizing a contract with California to house an additional 1,400 inmates at a facility in Sayre, Okla.
Under the same contract, CCA also will house additional California inmates at a facility in Arizona. The contract increases CCA's system-wide number of California inmates to 10,468, up from 7,900.
When hiring is complete, Sayre's North Fork Correctional Facility will employ 529 people…
LINK - BizJournals.com
October 14, 2009
Private prison managers forced employees to have sex - retaliation if refused
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the settlement of a pattern or practice discrimination lawsuit against Dominion Correctional Services, LLC and Corrections Corporation of America, both doing business as Crowley County Correctional Facility, for $1.3 million and significant remedial relief on behalf of 21 female former workers who were allegedly subjected to a sex-based hostile work environment and retaliation at an all-male, privately run medium security prison in Olney Springs, Colo.
In its lawsuit (EEOC v. Dominion Correctional Services, LLC and Corrections Corporation Of America, Civ. No. 1:06-cv-01956-KVH), filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the EEOC charged that female employees at the prison were subjected to unwelcome sexual harassment that included male managers forcing them to perform sex acts in order to keep their jobs. Two chiefs of security, who reported directly to the warden and to whom all security personnel at the prison reported, were allowed to resign after numerous complaints of sexual harassment and rape, according to the EEOC. In the settlement, the defendants did not admit liability…
LINK - EEOC.gov (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Official Website)
October 6, 2009
Local inmate sues over jail sexual abuse
A Hawaii woman imprisoned in Kentucky says she was sexually abused by a prison guard and claims the jail tried to cover it up. Monday afternoon, Totie Tauala's attorney formally filed seven counts against the corporation that runs the facility.
Tauala is the first to formally come forward of about 19 Hawaii and Kentucky women who make similar sexual abuse allegations. They were all serving sentences at the Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Kentucky.
A warning: some of the details in this case are disturbing…
LINK - KHNL.com
October 1, 2009
Prison privateer CCA abuse/neglect case from San Diego heads to U.S. Supreme Court
A lawsuit filed by a now-deceased man over inappropriate medical care while he was in the custody of U.S. immigration officials in San Diego is set to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Francisco Castañeda, an immigrant from El Salvador, died in February 2008 after a battle with penile cancer. Castañeda had sought medical care for symptoms while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a contract detention facility in San Diego, and later at an agency facility in the Los Angeles area.
Castañeda, who had been in the United States since age 10, had landed in detention after a short drug-related sentence in state prison triggered deportation proceedings…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
September 28, 2009
CCA sergeant accused of paying pimp for sex with inmate
A D.C. Jail sergeant has been suspended while corrections officials probe allegations that he had sex with an inmate after paying for it through her pimp, according to officials and court documents.
The investigation has also led to the forced leave of two other corrections officers, one of whom was later fired over an unrelated issue, officials said. The three were removed from the D.C. Jail property, "after allegations of inappropriate behavior arose with an inmate," according to Walter Fulton, facility program manager at the Correctional Treatment Center.
Authorities said they would not further discuss the allegations because of an ongoing law enforcement investigation, but some details were outlined in a lawsuit filed in D.C. federal court this month…
LINK - WashingtonExaminer.com
September 27, 2009
State prison contract changes hands
After 15 years of managing Alaska prisoners housed out-of-state, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has lost its contract to Cornell Corrections.
Cornell's will charge the state about $19,446,000 a year to house 900 prisoners, while CCA's plan would have cost $18,724,000 — $722,000 less a year.
Either way the state will realize savings over the $20,669,000 it now pays through a contract with CCA…
LINK - AlaskaDispatch.com
September 7, 2009
CCA not reporting all sexual assaults on inmates to state?
A privately run prison in Eastern Kentucky plagued with allegations of sexual improprieties involving guards and inmates did not report all sexual abuse incidents to the state.
A Herald-Leader review of sexual-incident reports dating to 2006 showed that at least one alleged assault involving Otter Creek Correctional Center staff and a Kentucky inmate was not reported to the state by Corrections Corporation of America. Also, state correction officials said, Otter Creek hasn't followed the same reporting standards for sexual assaults as the state's 13 state-run prisons.
State prison officials confirmed that they never received a report from CCA about Randy Hagans, the prison's former chaplain. Hagans was charged with third-degree sexual abuse for alleged contact with an Kentucky inmate. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 21, court records show…
LINK - Kentucky.com
September 3, 2009
Hawaiian female inmates finally back home from private Kentucky prison
All but one of the remaining Hawai'i inmates housed at the embattled Otter Creek Women's Prison in Kentucky are back in Hawai'i and are likely to remain close to home.
The state decided to remove the prisoners from the facility following allegations that 23 Otter Creek inmates, including seven from Hawai'i, were sexually assaulted by prison personnel.
State Department of Public Safety director Clayton Frank said 128 prisoners arrived back in Hawai'i on Monday. Fifty-nine are being housed at the Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International Airport; 69 are at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua…
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
September 1, 2009
Private prison firm to give back pay to guards
The largest U.S. private prison firm, in settling a national class-action lawsuit, has agreed to payments worth up to $7 million in back pay and attorney fees for more than 30,000 guards and other employees.
The agreement by the company, Corrections Corporation of America, was approved in February and promptly sealed. But it was unsealed last week in Kansas by U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum.
The guards and other workers had claimed they were regularly required to work off the clock, in violation of federal labor laws…
LINK - KansasCity.com
August 22, 2009
Hawaii: Mainland prisons cheap but problematic
State corrections officials have long claimed that housing Hawaii convicts at privately operated prisons on the mainland is much cheaper than incarcerating them on the islands. Problems at a private prison housing Hawaii women in Kentucky indicate that it is operating on the cheap, in comparison not only with Hawaii prisons but with public facilities in Kentucky.
More than half of the 128 female inmates from Hawaii will return to the islands for incarceration here following allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers. Hawaii officials should have known from monthly monitoring reports over the past 19 months that the Otter Creek Correctional Center in eastern Kentucky was plagued by understaffing, poor employee morale and security concerns…
LINK - StarBulletin.com
August 19, 2009
Hawaii pulling its women inmates out of troubled Kentucky prison
Women inmates from Hawai'i will be removed from a Kentucky prison for safety reasons after allegations that some were sexually abused by prison guards, the state Department of Public Safety announced yesterday.
Clayton Frank, the department's director, said 40 women inmates were transferred back to the Islands on Monday and most of the 128 women remaining at Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright will return within a month. Several women serving lengthy sentences will be moved to other Mainland prisons, according to the department.
Frank said many inmates wanted to stay at Otter Creek because they believe they are benefiting from its prison services…
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
August 16, 2009
Private prison plagued by problems, reports show
A private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been plagued by allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers is chronically understaffed, leading to poor employee morale and security concerns, according to a state monitor's reports.
AdvertisementThe monthly reports provide a glimpse into life inside the Otter Creek Correctional Center, where at least five workers have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years. Kentucky State Police are expected to present another case to a Floyd County grand jury this month…
LINK - Courier-Journal.com
August 7, 2009
CCA tries to keep court settlement payments secret
On July 27, 2009, The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri arbitrated on behalf of Prison Legal News, a monthly publication that reports on criminal justice-related issues, in a class-action lawsuit against Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), a private prison company based in Nashville.
ACLU moved to intervene in the suit for the sole purpose of unsealing the settlement agreement. As a matter of public policy, documents filed in federal court should be open to inspection by the public. "It is important to ensure the availability of court records for public accountability. It serves the interests of the 1st Amendment", said Doug Bonney, Chief Counsel for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri.
The class action suit was settled on February 12, 2009; however, the settlement was sealed by the court upon motion by the parties. Thus, the exact terms of the settlement are unknown, including the maximum monetary amount that CCA will have to pay…
LINK - KCTribune.com
August 2, 2009
CCA gets contract extension despite sex abuse allegations?
At least five workers at the private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years, and investigations into more alleged assaults are under way. Despite that, the state has agreed to extend for 60 days its contract with Corrections Corp. of America to house up to 476 inmates at Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright.
The state is continuing to negotiate a two-year extension of the contract it has had with CCA since 2005, according to Finance Cabinet officials. The 60-day extension does not increase the $53.77 CCA is paid per day to house each inmate. Last year the state paid CCA more than $8 million for its Otter Creek operation…
LINK - Courier-Journal.com
July 25, 2009
Private prison guard pleads guilty to smuggling drugs into prison
A former Hernando County corrections officer who promised to deliver drugs to inmates at the county lockup pleaded guilty Friday to three drug-related charges.
Circuit Judge Jack Springstead sentenced Charles M. Dunn, 27, to 13 months in state prison.
Dunn offered to deliver oxycodone pills to inmates for a $500 fee, according to arrest reports. He later denied ever giving inmates drugs but claimed it is easy to get illegal narcotics into the jail because staffers don't make thorough checks…
LINK - TampaBay.com
July 22, 2009
Private prison guard killed while COMMITTING home invasion robbery
A home invasion suspect who was fatally shot was a prison guard in Arizona, a spokeswoman for a nationwide private prison corporation said Wednesday.
Corrections Corporation of America official Louise Grant said Danny Torres, 27, had worked at Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy since April 2008. The company, which has 17,000 employees, runs the private, medium-security facility.
The Pima County Sheriff's office described the Friday night invasion…
LINK - AZCentral.com
July 19, 2009
Private prison in KY now under investigation for 19 sex assaults
An investigation into sex assaults involving Hawai'i and other female inmates at a private Kentucky prison has widened and now includes 19 alleged attacks over the past three years.
Honolulu attorney Myles Breiner is representing three Hawai'i women who allege they were sexually assaulted at Otter Creek Correctional Center within the past 12 to 18 months. The most recent sex assault was reported June 23 and allegedly involved a male corrections officer.
Meanwhile, Kentucky officials say they have launched an investigation into 16 alleged sex assaults at Otter Creek involving Kentucky women. Some of the allegations date back to 2006…
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
July 17, 2009
CCA private prison under investigation for staff rape of inmates
The state Department of Corrections is investigating allegations of sexual abuse against as many as 16 Kentucky women housed at the privately run Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright.
Kentucky State Police also are investigating allegations, reported June 23, that a Hawaiian inmate was sexually assaulted by a corrections officer at the women's-only, Floyd County facility.
State police expect to present that case to a Floyd County grand jury in the next several weeks, spokesman Mike Goble said, adding that detectives also are looking into allegations made by inmates since the June 23 report…
LINK - Courier-Journal.com
July 16, 2009
Four Confirmed Swine Flu Cases at Idaho Prison
Test results received from cultures sent to the Idaho State laboratory on Tuesday have confirmed that four inmates housed at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise have contracted the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. As a continued measure to control the spread of infection, prison officials say, access will be restricted to staff only — until such time as it is determined that the possibility of contracting the virus has passed.
According to spokeswoman Linda Sevison, "Per standard protocol, facility management and health services staff are working closely with the Idaho Department of Health and Human Services and officials with the Idaho Department of Corrections. Education on proper hygiene practices will continue for staff and inmates. The medical needs of the affected inmates are being provided for by facility medical staff."
The Idaho Correctional Center is a 1,805-bed facility located south of Boise and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. The facility opened in 2000 and is operated under contract with and oversight by the Idaho Department of Correction…
LINK - KIVITV.com
June 29, 2009
CCA says “some sort of breakdown” allowed escape, cop shooting
The company that operates the Mississippi prison where a man escaped and later was arrested in the shooting of a Metro officer admits there was some sort of breakdown that allowed Joseph Jackson to escape custody.
Related: Watch This Story
Police and prison officials are trying to determine how Jackson, and his suspected accomplice, Courtney Logan hatched a daring plan that led to Jackson's escape from custody and ultimately the shooting of Metro officer Sgt. Mark Chestnut on Thursday.
"Without a doubt, there is a breakdown somewhere. We definitely want to determine where that is," said Steven Owen of Corrections Corporation of America, the company that operates the Mississippi prison that housed Jackson…
LINK - WSMV.com
June 28, 2009
CCA refuses court order to open records
The state's appeals court will determine whether Nashville's Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that runs state prisons, is equivalent to a governmental entity when it comes to turning over records.
A former prisoner-turned-activist, who won the case at the Chancery Court level, is suing for the release of several documents, including audits and contracts.
Appellate judges heard arguments Thursday from the corporation's attorney, Joe Welborn, and Memphis civil rights attorney, Andy Clarke, who is representing prison-rights activist Alex Friedmann. It takes weeks, if not months, for the appeals court to make a decision…
LINK - Tennessean.com
June 26, 2009
CCA private prison escapee shoots police officer
A Nashville police officer was shot multiple times Thursday afternoon by a motorist he stopped along Interstate 40.
Two suspects were taken in custody shortly after the shooting. One of them is a Mississippi prison inmate who escaped from custody Thursday morning.
Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron identified the wounded officer as Sgt. Mark Chesnut, who was reported alert and talking to doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center shortly after the 1:20 p.m. shooting…
LINK - CommercialAppeal.com
June 14, 2009
Another private prison detainee dies in custody
An autopsy shows a detainee at a federal immigration detention center in south Georgia died of natural causes.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said Thursday 39-year-old Roberto Martinez Medina died of myocarditis, an inflammatory heart disease.
Martinez, a Mexican national, was being held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin - which is operated by the same company that plans to open a similar facility in Gainesville, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Martinez died March 11 at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus…
LINK - AccessNorthGA.com
May 21, 2009
Corrections report: Indians faced strip searches
A new report finds that Native American inmates were subjected to group strip searches before and after sweat-lodge ceremonies at the private Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby.
The finding is 1 of many in a Department of Corrections report on allegations of mistreatment and discrimination against Native American inmates. The private prison operates under a contract with the state.
Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn., says it is still reviewing the report…
LINK - KPax.com
May 18, 2009
Mentally ill detainees’ treatment at hospitals worries advocates
… Menasche said she was told in a meeting with Ziemer and ICE officials that ICE detainees are being automatically denied these rights, without any individual assessment of whether such a step is needed. The policy comes from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Menasche said.
She also said that before shackling a patient, the law requires that specific findings have to be made in the individual's case.
The detainees are taken to API from a private immigration jail in Otay Mesa run by Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in the nation. It has contracts to provide thousands of jail beds to the federal immigration agency…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
May 10, 2009
Oklahoma seeks exit clause in private prison deal
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is seeking an exit clause in a proposed contract to house inmates at private prisons.
The state is ending a five-year contract with the private Corrections Corporation of America and hopes to have a new deal in place by July 1.
Under the new proposal, the Corrections Department is requesting clauses allowing it to end the contract for any reason or to buy a private prison…
LINK - KJRH.com
April 24, 2009
Private prison guard (CCA) indicted for sex with inmate
A correctional officer at the Hamilton County Workhouse has been indicted by the Hamilton County Grand Jury for having sex with a female prisoner.
Kenon Dontae Arnold, an employee of the Corrections Corporation of America, is charged with having sexual contact with an inmate…
LINK - Cattanoogan.com
April 3, 2009
Revealed: 90 immigrants have died in US custody in last 5 1/2 years
At least 90 immigrants have died while in US custody since October 2003, a document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed Friday. At least 32 deaths occurred at facilities run by private contractors. The document — which has received little to no attention — also displays an apparent carelessness on the part of prison officials, whose records of the deaths change and omit inmate deaths over time.
Moreover, it shows that prison officials are now recording even fewer details about immigrants' deaths, possibly in response to periodic scrutiny of the list. A previous list that covered the period up until 2007 included the locations of deaths; the current list records either the location or the facility where the inmate was held, without any evident pattern.
The list also reveals that one private company, the Corrections Corporation of America, had at least 18 deaths under its watch, and that 32 of the 90 deaths occurred while immigrants were held in private prisons. 37 of the deaths occurred at regional facilities and 20 at federal centers…
LINK - RawStory.com
March 24, 2009
More than 700 Arizona inmates headed to Walsenburg prison
Huerfano County Correctional Center will soon transfer all of its Colorado inmates to other state facilities to make room for nearly 752 Arizona inmates, corrections officials said Monday.
According to Allan Cramer, public information officer at the Corrections Corporation of America-run facility, Colorado inmates will be moved from Huerfano to three of the organization's other facilities in Colorado.
"We are going to take the little more than 600 inmates that we have here and put them in facilities in Crowley, Bent and Kit Carson counties. We will then backfill the Colorado inmates with Arizona inmates," Cramer said…
LINK - Chieftain.com
February 10, 2009
Private prison company CCA profits jump thanks to Calif, Feds
Private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America said Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit jumped 16 percent on increases in its per diem rates and prison population. Corrections Corp. earned $40.5 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with $34.9 million, or 28 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.
Revenue rose 8.8 percent to $414.4 million from $380.8 million in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 30 cents per share on $420 million in revenue. The increase in revenue was mainly a result of a 5.2 percent increase in per diem rates, along with 4.1 percent growth in inmate populations.
Management revenue from federal customers rose 7.5 percent to $162 million, while management revenue from state customers increased 13 percent to $218.3 million. Corrections Corp. attributed the larger inmate populations to increased populations from the states of California and Idaho, as well as from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
LINK - Forbes.com
February 3, 2009
The Big Business of Family Detention
When President Barack Obama made it his first act in office to shut down Guantánamo Bay prison, he effectively ended one shameful chapter in our country's embarrassingly large book of human-rights abuses. It was not so much redemption as a reminder that this country has a long, long way to go when it comes to detention, due process, and the Geneva Convention. It's not just alleged terrorists that are suffering from our inhumane treatment. It's also children.
The United States is currently holding 30,000 immigrants in detention while they await hearings. The country operates three family immigrant detention centers, the most notorious of which is the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, a former prison currently under the private management of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The 600-bed center detains families who are awaiting asylum or immigration hearings, a major departure from past federal policy. Pre-September 11, families charged with immigration violations (which are not criminal violations) or who came to the country asking for asylum were generally allowed to live independently as long as they agreed to attend a hearing…
LINK - Prospect.org (The American Prospect)
February 3, 2009
Immigration detention center considered for L.A. area
The federal government is looking for contractors to build a possible detention center in the Los Angeles area that would hold up to 2,200 illegal immigrants and others suspected of violating immigration laws.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said last week that the agency was "exploring the feasibility of such a project," though she said no definitive decisions had been made.
"ICE is continuing to review its options to determine how to best meet the agency's future local and national detention needs," she said…
LINK - LATimes.com
January 30, 2009
Mental health worker at prison faces contraband charges
A prison employee believed to be romantically involved with an inmate was arrested Thursday on charges of introducing contraband into a correctional facility, officials said.
Tina L. Ortiz, 35, of Chipley is accussed of bringing a cellular phone into Bay Correctional Facility with the intention of giving it to an inmate, according to a Bay County Sheriff's Office release.
Ortiz was working at Bay Correctional Facility, a prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America, as a mental health specialist assistant, Bay County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ruth Corley said…
LINK - Panama City NewsHerald.com
December 16, 2008
Oklahoma: In get-tough stance, DOC withholds prison payments
Taking a tougher approach, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has withheld more than $589,000 in payments to private prison operators in the past year because of staffing shortages.
Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing has had five payments of $40,000 or more withheld since December for failing to fill vacancies within 45 days, including several positions in the medical field. In April, the state withheld $59,191 in payments because 19 positions remained unfilled within 45 days. Among them was a clinical supervisor slot that DOC officials said had been open for 457 days.
The Davis Correctional Facility in Holdenville also has had about $76,000 in payments withheld since August because of staffing incidents. Both facilities are owned by Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville…
LINK - TulsaWorld.com
December 16, 2008
Authorities: Female jailer caught exposed
Shannon Nicole Copeland, of 1613 Fairy Ave., was met at the jail by Sheriff Frank McKeithen and jail administrator Rick Anglin as she began her shift Sunday. A search of her person revealed a CD of nude photographs of herself and several printed nude images, according to a Bay County Sheriff's Office release.
A search of an inmate's cell uncovered additional nude photos of Copeland, 23, who told investigators she engaged in sexual misconduct with the inmate and had brought him marijuana, the release said.
Copeland, a control room operator who had been entrusted with the movements of inmates, was a former employee of Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, and had been retained by the jail as an uncertified detention specialist after the transition…
LINK - NewsHerald.com
December 8, 2008
Vigil seeks end to Hutton center contract
More than 100 people held a vigil Sunday night outside the Williamson County Courthouse to ask county commissioners to halt a contract with the T. Don Hutto Residential Center where dozens of immigrant children and families are detained.
"The practice of incarcerating families and children, with little regards to their civil rights, is destructive … to our community as a whole," retired pastor Milton Jordan said.
Protesters held signs that said "Prison is no place for children" and "Shut down T. Don Hutto" while singing the civil rights standard "We Shall Overcome," the Austin American-Statesman reported in its online edition…
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle)
September 4, 2008
CCA: Depositions begin in inmate lawsuit
Attorneys for a mentally ill inmate who went months without showering have begun taking depositions in their suit against Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, which alleged the company denied him adequate mental health care and access to mail.
Mary Braswell, who filed the suit on behalf of her grandson, Frank Horton, is seeking punitive damages on the grounds that Horton's civil rights were violated during his incarceration at the Metro-Davidson County detention facility.
AdvertisementJohn Clemmons, one of Braswell's lawyers, said he couldn't speak about the case because it's ongoing…
LINK - Tennessean.com
September 4, 2008
Officials in prison towns adjust to bad neighbors, tout benefits
Vicki Kilvinger, mayor of Florence, Ariz., admits when people hear the name of her town, they often think of prisons. Florence, Ariz., not only has nine prisons, but there's also Florence, Colo., home of the Supermax prison.
But Kilvinger and a number of officials who live in prison communities see a lot of advantages to housing a community of offenders inside fences.
They debunked concerns raised by some Pahrump residents leery that a planned federal detention center being built by Corrections Corporation of America will reduce property values, bring unsavory relatives and friends to town to visit the inmates, lead to escapes and not result in the good-paying jobs that have been promised…
LINK - PahrumpValleyTimes.com
August 21, 2008
CCA Shows a Flair for Creative PR Fiction
So this is hilarious. Corrections Corporation of America, the widely condemned prison company in Green Hills, has launched a Pravda-styled website aimed at providing "factual information" about its operations.
The site makes out CCA to be as sweet and innocent a business as your daughter's lemonade stand. Sadly, as the company's PR push notes, a "local daily paper" has willfully mis-characterized the outfit's open and efficient approach to doing business.
That's right: Only The Tennessean has raised pertinent questions about CCA. No one else has said a word, correct?…
LINK - NashvilleScene.com
August 14, 2008
CCA to close Memphis facility, lay off 92
Corrections Corp. of America will lay off 92 Memphis employees starting Monday, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America (NYSE: CXW) will close the 200-bed Shelby Training Center in Memphis, which houses male offenders for the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, said Steve Owen, a company spokesman.
The company will cease operations at the facility at the end of August. The facility anticipates a permanent reduction in population as the county will begin sending its juveniles to the care of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services…
LINK - BizJournals.com
August 14, 2008
Ex-inmate helps make Bush nominee ‘controversial’
Had this been like most nominations for federal judgeships, the chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America might have been packing up his office and heading for the courthouse by now.
But a determined opponent — a former prisoner at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Clifton, Tenn. — has worked tirelessly to see that would not happen.
And he may have succeeded.
More than a year after President Bush nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville, the 40-year-old's appointment appears to be in serious trouble, thanks in no small part to Alex Friedmann, a convicted armed robber turned inmate advocate…
LINK - AP.Google.com (The Associated Press)
August 13, 2008
CCA: Fla. prison accused in inmate’s staph death
The family of an inmate who died from a drug-resistant staph infection claims she contracted it because she had been deprived of water for bathing and toilet use at a privately operated state prison.
A lawyer representing the estate of Emma Nobles, who died of MRSA Dec. 15, 2005, at a Tallahassee hospital, made that allegation in letters to two state agencies. The letters are a preliminary step for a possible wrongful death lawsuit.
Water was turned off for days at a time at the prison for women in nearby Gretna, apparently as a cost-cutting measure, the attorney, Patrick R. Frank, said in an interview Wednesday…
LINK - FortMillTimes.com
August 11, 2008
New chief leads CCA amid scrutiny
Damon Hininger was named president and chief operating officer of private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America late last month.
He takes a key leadership role in Nashville-based CCA at a time when its industry is under close scrutiny — and sometimes ensnarled in lawsuits — for what prison reform activists see as poor treatment or even abuse of inmates.
One celebrated case in Nashville, the death of prisoner Estelle Richardson under suspicious circumstances in a Metro detention center in 2004, continues to have repercussions today with calls to further investigate a case that local criminal authorities say is a cold one — although not a closed one. CCA settled a civil lawsuit linked to Richardson's death two years ago…
LINK - Tennessean.com
July 30, 2008
Prison operator CCA must open records, judge rules
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America must follow public records law and open its files for viewing, a Chancery Court judge ruled Tuesday, a decision that could lead to more transparency in a historically hidden industry.
Alex Friedmann, an ex-offender and vice president of advocacy group Private Corrections Institute, had filed suit after CCA denied his request for records about prison operations and lawsuits they were part of.
CCA, which operates the Metro Davidson County Detention Facility and six other detention facilities across Tennessee, maintained the company did not have to comply with public records requests because it is private…
LINK - Tennessean.com
July 29, 2008
Judge: Private prison company must produce records
A Nashville judge has ruled that private prison company Corrections Corporation of America is subject to Tennessee's open records laws.
Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman on Tuesday ordered CCA to provide information on settlements, judgments and complaints against the company to a person who had requested it.
Joe Welborn, an attorney representing CCA, said the company will appeal…
LINK - WaayTV.com Huntsville, Alabama
July 23, 2008
Bills, lawsuits attempt to thwart private prisons’ escape from FOIA
Two Democratic lawmakers are looking to hold private prisons housing federal inmates to the same Freedom of Information Act standards as federal facilities. But while their bills sit in Congress, the First Amendment Center reports, open government advocates are coming at the issue from a different angle.
Two recent lawsuits aim to increase the flow of information from private prisons using FOIA, according to the First Amendment Center. Last month, the ACLU filed a FOIA suit against the Department of Homeland Security in hopes of forcing the agency to hand over records on the deaths of immigrant detainees who were in the custody of private prisons.
And in May, the Center reports, Prison Legal News, a monthly magazine on prison issues, took the largest private prison-management service in the U.S., Corrections Corporation of America, (CCA) to court in Tennessee. CCA, whose headquarters is in Nashville, had refused the magazine's public-records request…
LINK - RCFP.org (The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press
June 21, 2008
CCA denies minimum wage charge
Representatives of Corrections Corporation of America denied accusations employees at a federal detention center in Pahrump will be paid minimum wage and the facility will overburden local emergency services…
…Stephen L. Holbo, a retired lieutenant with 30 years experience in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, charged CCA operates prisons at a much reduced cost, adding, "Mostly that reduced cost is due to paying correctional officers minimum wage, much below the cost of a more highly-trained and continually trained government correctional officer."
The federal detention center is expected to employ 200 to 250 individuals with an annual operating budget of $25 million to $40 million. Assistant Federal Detention Trustee Scott Stermer told a small crowd at the Bob Ruud Community Center during a public hearing in June 2007 the contractor chosen will be required to pay at least $17.45 per hour to the lowest paid detention officers…
LINK - PahrumpValleyTimes.com
June 16, 2008
Opinion: “Too many profiting from incarceration trend”
According to the Department of Justice Web site, approximately 2.3 million people are currently incarcerated. A recent article in the Norman (Okla.) Transcript places the cost of this incarcerate at about $49 billion dollars. This cost falls on the taxpayer. That cost is approximately $338 for each of the 144 million individual personal income tax filers this year.
It starts to become clear that the real "truth in sentencing" has nothing to do with crime and punishment, but more to do with people filling their pockets with your tax money. It's easy to see that there is money to be made in the business of incarceration; simply look at the number of private-sector enterprises that have entered into the realm. Companies like Corrections Corporation of America (www.correctionscorp.com), The GEO Group (www.thegeogroupinc.com), and the Bob Barker Company (www.bobbarker.com). They are just a few of the many companies making profits from incarcerating individuals, typically at the expense of taxpayers…
LINK - ZWire.com
June 16, 2008
Private Prisons: Guards accused of using inmate food as toilet
An Inverness attorney plans to sue the company the runs Citrus county's jail, claiming employees are treating inmates like human toilets.
Attorney Greg Jones has called a news conference today to announce his suit against "Corrections Corporation of America and their employees regarding the urination and defecation in the food of a former inmate…"
LINK - ABCActionNews.com
June 15, 2008
Colorado: Appeals court rules inmates may sue CCA in prison riot
Some inmates at the Crowley County Correctional Facility won a new trial last week.
The 234 inmates had sued the owners of the private prison, Corrections Corporation of America, following the 2004 riot at the Olney Springs lockup, charging that they were punished unfairly for that event even though they said they were not involved.
The inmates sued the prison in two cases filed in Crowley County district court in 2005 and 2006, but saw both cases dismissed by District Judge Michael Schiferl on grounds that they hadn't fully exhausted all their administrative appeals through the Colorado Department of Corrections…
LINK - Chieftain.com (The Pueblo Chieftain)
June 13, 2008
Update: Puryear’s judicial appointment in peril
A year ago today, Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV was nominated for a federal judgeship in Nashville and appeared headed to an easy confirmation.
Now Puryear's confirmation seems unlikely. In addition to questions raised about his qualifications and actions as general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America, Puryear's fate is now caught in intense election-year battles between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate over lifetime judicial appointments.
Senate Democrats are looking to approve as few of Republican President Bush's appointments as they can before his term expires, hoping Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency. Republicans did the same during the final months of the Democratic Clinton administration…
LINK - Tennessean.com
See related articles posted:
Puryear judicial nomination draws clash - 04.22.08
Corrections Corp. Defends Quality Program - 03.17.08
Ex-CCA Official: Puryear Misled Clients - 03.14.08
TIME Magazine's Expose on CCA, general counsel - 03.13.08
Senators Raise Doubt Over Testimony of Nominee - 03.07.08
Former Inmate Opposes Tennessee Judicial Nominee - 02.28.08
Judicial nominee's ties; qualifications criticized - 02.25.08
