A California Federal District Court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit alleging violation of a civil detainee’s Fourth Amendment rights.

Civil detainee John T. Sundquist was at the Atascadero State Hospital under the California Sexually Violent Predator Act when on October 12, 2004, he was transported by Transcor America to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility (HCCF) for a civil recommitment proceeding. As he was transported, he was not isolated from criminal prisoners. When he arrived at HCCF, he was strip searched with a visual body cavity search and housed 72 days with a criminal prisoner in a two-man cell in the protective custody unit.

Sundquist filed a suit against Transcor America for transporting him with prisoners and Sheriff Gary Philp for housing him with a prisoner and for the illegal strip search.

The court held on March 28, 2008, that a jury could find that the use of local law enforcement facilities and HCCF blanket policy allowing strip searches with “any” detainee that comes in contact visit with any person outside HCCF is legal. The court granted the defendant’s summary judgment motion. See: Sundquist v. Philp, U.S.D.C. Cal., 2008, Case No. 06-3387, WL 859452.

Wackenhut Corrections Corporation paid $29,900 to settle a lawsuit claiming sexual harassment.

In her complaint, Marsha Senatti claims fellow Wackenhut employee Lee Jackson did unlawfully touch, in a sexual manner, her private parts and genitalia, including “rubbing his penis against her buttocks.”

Prior to subjecting Senatti to sexual harassment and ...

Wackenhut Corrections Corporation paid $32,500 to settle a negligence lawsuit filed by Florida prisoner Michael Wyzykowski.

In his complain, Wyzykowski claimed he was ordered to cut “maiden cane” with a weed whacker that was altered by Wackenhut guards, replacing the original head and string with an eight inch saw blade, ...

Wackenhut Corrections Corporation paid $300,000 to settle a wrongful death suit filed by the minor children of prisoner Lisa Ann Lowdermilk.

The complaint alleged that while at Broward County work release, Lowdermilk died due to the negligence of Wackenhut employees Kenneth Day, Joseph Cox and Claudia Barramanse, who failed to ...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated its own affirmation of the dismissal of a prisoner’s civil rights complaint after the Supreme Court found that the circuit’s imposition of the prerequisite to properly exhaust administrative remedies before filing a complaint was “unwarranted.”

Before the court was the appeal of prisoner L.C. Cohen, arguing a Michigan Federal District Court erred in dismissing his civil rights complaint for failure to exhaust his administrative remedies prior to filing his complaint.

After the Sixth Circuit affirmed that dismissal, Cohen sought and was granted certiorari with the Supreme Court. On remand, the Sixth Circuit was required to consider Cohen’s appeal under Jones v. Bock, 127 S.Ct. 910 (2007).

In Jones, the court held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act does not require a prisoner to specifically plead or exhaust his complaint. Furthermore, it held “exhaustion is not per se inadequate simply because an individual later sued was not named in the grievance.”

Accordingly, the matter was remanded to the district court for further proceedings. See: Cohen v. Corrections Corporation of America, 588 F.3d 299, (Sixth Cir. 2008).

On May 19, 2009, A U.S. Magistrate Judge filed his recommendations in a complaint brought by Miroslava Rodriguez-Grava (Rodriguez) and Iaias Vasquez Cisneros De Jesus (De Jesus) for their treatment while they were detained at the South Texas Detention Complex (STDC). Rodriguez and De Jesus each suffer from serious mental illness, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, respectively, and while detained at STDC the company charged with their upkeep failed to provide prescribed medications, access to medical services and treatment, and adequate and regular psychiatric treatment.

The plaintiffs alleged their civil rights were violated under the American Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The magistrate’s recommendations to the district court concluded that defendant GEO Group’s motion to dismiss should be granted in part and denied in part, while defendant South Texas Detention Complex Local Development Corporation’s motion for summary judgment should be granted. On June 12, 2009, a district Judge accepted the magistrate’s recommendations pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1).

See: Rodriguez v. GEO Group, et al., U.S.D.C., W.D.-Tx., San Antonio, #SA-07-CA-717-0G.

In October 1999, prisoner Cheryl Schoenfeld was sexually assaulted by two TransCor employees while being transported through Texas. TransCor, a subsidiary of private prison firm Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), transports prisoners nationwide.

TransCor guards Michael Jerome Edwards and David Jackson forced Schoenfeld to expose her breasts and perform oral ...

The Supreme Court of Alabama ruled on December 19, 2008 that res judicata was established in a prisoner’s First Amendment case that was previously adjudicated by a Louisiana court of competent jurisdiction.

On October 3, 2006, Carl Braxton Toole, an Alabama state prisoner housed in a private prison in Louisiana operated by LCS, Inc., filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action in district court in Evangeline, Louisiana. He claimed that he was denied his First Amendment right of access to the courts due to a lack of proper access to the law library. The district court entered summary judgment against Toole.

On October 11, 2007, Toole, now housed in Alabama, filed essentially the same action in the Montgomery Circuit Court. LCS filed a motion to dismiss the Alabama action based on res judicata and collateral estoppel. The motion was denied by the trial court. LCS then filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the state supreme court.

The Alabama supreme court issued the writ directing the Montgomery Circuit Court to dismiss the claims against LCS on the basis of res judicata. The supreme court found that the four elements necessary to establish res judicata were clearly present in this ...

In Maine’s last gubernatorial campaign, the controversial Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison operator, spent $25,000 on behalf of Republican candidate Paul LePage, now Maine’s newly-elected governor. The money was given to the Republican Governors Association’s Maine political action committee, which spent heavily on LePage. No other Maine gubernatorial candidate benefited from CCA money, campaign-finance reports reveal.

Although his transition office denied a link with the contribution, LePage met in Augusta with CCA representatives weeks before he became governor. The meeting breathed new life into the town of Milo’s effort to lure CCA into building a giant prison in that remote, impoverished Piscataquis County community.

Milo officials also met with LePage. The town manager, Jeff Gahagan, said CCA officials have talked about a prison housing 2,000 to 2,400 prisoners with 200 to 300 employees. If true, that would be an extraordinarily small number of staff for such a large number of prisoners. The Maine State Prison has just over 400 workers – most of them guards – to deal with just over 900 prisoners. LePage also is looking into boarding Maine prisoners in CCA prisons out of state.

That possibility and the Milo prison possibility are ...

by David M. Ruetter

The GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison company, announced on December 21, 2010 that it will pay $415 million in an all-cash deal to acquire Behavioral Interventions, Inc. (BI). The purchase allows GEO to expand beyond detention services into the area of community supervision.

BI was founded in 1978; the company oversees more than 60,000 offenders in all 50 states through contracts with around 900 federal, state and local agencies. BI uses technologies that include radio frequency and GPS monitoring, voice identification, and remote alcohol detection systems to supervise parolees, probationers and pretrial defendants. “BI also provides community-based re-entry services for approximately 1,700 parolees,” according to a GEO press release.

“This acquisition will distinguish GEO as the premier service provider with full continuum of care solutions for correctional, detention and residential treatment worldwide,” said George C. Zoley, GEO’s chairman and CEO. Currently, GEO operates 81,000 beds at 118 prisons, jails and residential treatment facilities in the U.S., Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

With BI being integrated into GEO’s subsidiary, GEO Care, GEO will be able to “address all aspects and reach all segments across the entire corrections, detention and residential treatment spectrum, providing ...