by Matt Clarke

As the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) prepared for a June 20, 2009 protest in Williamson County, Texas outside the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, a secure immigration detention center run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), it was revealed that LULAC had accepted substantial donations from the private prison company.

According to LULAC’s national convention programs for 2005, 2006 and 2007, CCA was a Patron-level donor for each of those years. Patron-level means a donation of $10,000 or more; the company was also an exhibitor at the 2005 and 2007 conventions. Some critics said CCA’s sponsorship of LULAC events dated back to 2002.

Jaime Martinez, a San Antonio labor activist and LULAC’s National Treasurer, explained that he and LULAC President Rosa Rosales initiated the return of CCA’s 2007 sponsorship funds as soon as they learned about disturbing conditions at Hutto – conditions that resulted in a lawsuit against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), which led to much-needed reforms at the facility. [See: PLN, Jan. 2008, p.20; Aug. 2007, p.10]. Referring to the money as “tainted,” Martinez said LULAC didn’t want CCA’s sponsorship.

Before the controversy erupted over the maltreatment of immigration ...

From August 7 to 12, 2009, the American Correctional Association (ACA) held its 139th Congress of Correction at the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The theme of the conference was “Effective Re-entry is Good Public Safety.”

Founded in 1870 as the National Prison Association, the ACA is a non-government membership organization for corrections officials that advocates for criminal justice-related issues and policies. The ACA also provides accreditation for correctional facilities or agencies that meet its self-proclaimed standards. One of the ACA’s stated goals is to “Lead and serve as the voice for corrections.”

PLN associate editor Alex Friedmann attended the ACA’s last convention in Nashville, in 2006, to report on the event as a member of the media. When he contacted the ACA to likewise attend the August 2009 conference, however, he was rebuffed. Friedmann was informed by ACA Director of Government & Public Affairs Eric L. Schultz, Jr. that “To cover the conference and any events associated with the conference you’ll need to be registered as an attendee.” In other words, to report on the ACA conference as a member of the press, Friedmann would have to register like any other conference-goer – at a minimum ...

by David M. Reutter

Anyone looking for evidence that privatized prison health care is a complete failure need look no further than Mississippi. In 2001, the per capita death rate for Mississippi prisoners was around the national average. By 2006, however, the state’s prison death rate was the second highest in the nation, and prisoner deaths increased again in 2007. Only Tennessee had a higher death rate among prisoners.

Despite those statistics, Mississippi Dept. of Corrections (MDOC) Commissioner Chris Epps said he had full confi-dence in the prison system’s private medical contractor, Pittsburgh, PA-based Wexford Health Sources, Inc., which has a $95 million three-year contract to supply medical services to MDOC prisoners. PLN has previously reported on the inept care provided by Wexford, similar to other for-profit prison medical companies such as PHS and CMS.

In December 2007, the Mississippi Legislature’s Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) issued a report critical of Wexford. The PEER report indicated the company had failed to meet medical care standards required by its contract with the state. [See: PLN, Nov. 2008, p.20].

A recurring failure cited in the report was not providing timely access to medical treatment for Mississippi prisoners. The ...

At least 92 detainees died in immigration detention facilities between October 2003 and February 2009, according to an updated list compiled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The list, which was obtained by the New York Times in March 2009 following a Freedom of Information Act request, revises a previous ICE report of 66 detainee deaths between January 1, 2004 and November 2007. [See: PLN, Sept. 2008, p.30]. There are glaring inconsistencies between the two reports.

The more recent ICE list “adds the September 9, 2005 death of Tanveer Ahmad, also known as Ahmad Tanveer, 43, of Pakistan,” the Times reported. “Officials had maintained for months that no records of his death could be found, despite complaints that he had died after his severe and obvious symptoms of a heart attack went untreated for hours at the Monmouth County Correctional Institute in Freehold, New Jersey.”

Interestingly, the updated ICE list omits at least one previously-reported death. On August 21, 2008, Ana Romero Rivera was found hanging in a cell at the Franklin County Jail in Frankfort, Kentucky. Newspaper reports indicated that Rivera was being held for deportation, but “federal officials now disagree whether she was legally in immigration custody when ...

A $36 million program designed to provide medical care to jail prisoners in Orange County, California is severely mismanaged, according to an internal performance audit. The audit found that the county Health Care Agency (HCA), which administers the jail’s medical program, produces unreliable data and statistics; that contracts with medical care providers are poorly monitored; that doctors receive excessive payments; that transportation delays result in detainees routinely missing their medical appointments; that controlled substances are not adequately accounted for; and that conflicts of interest among staff have persisted for years – all to the detriment of the medical care that HCA is supposed to deliver.

The audit findings did not surprise at least one civil rights attorney who had previously sued the county, Richard Her-man, who remarked, “You’re better off in the prisons [for medical care] than you are in the Orange County Jail.” If his assessment is accurate, it is very telling; healthcare in California’s prison system is so grossly inadequate that it has been placed under federal receivership to ensure that prisoners receive constitutional medical treatment.

According to the audit, HCA’s record keeping is so poor that the agency cannot account for nearly $10 million in medical service ...

by David M. Reutter

Florida lawmakers have handed a victory to the private prison industry by passing a bill (SB 1722) that allows Florida prisoners to be exported to out-of-state facilities, which are mostly privately-operated. When Governor Charlie Crist signed the bill into law in June 2009, Florida joined 15 other states that permit their prisoners to be housed far from home en masse.

“It’s a safety valve,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican State Senator Victor Crist (no relationship to the governor). “This is not a mandate. It’s a passive safety net.” That safety valve, said Governor Crist, is available in case the state needs to avoid releasing prisoners early due to overcrowding.

Whether and when Florida begins shipping prisoners out-of-state will depend on how long the economic downturn continues. In late 2008, Florida became the third state to reach a prison population in excess of 100,000 prisoners. Currently there are 106,000 available beds in the state prison system, with over 5,000 unused. A 3,300-bed facility in Suwannee County was built but has not been opened due to budgetary constraints.

Budget problems caused the Florida legislature to end planned prison construction to meet an expected need for 124,000 beds by ...

by Matt Clarke

On April 7, 2009, Oklahoma State Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee was accused of asking the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) to conduct a study analyzing the cost of closing certain state prisons and using private, for-profit facilities to house prisoners formerly held in those DOC prisons. Senator Coffee is a known advocate of prison privatization.

The study, issued by DOC Director Justin Jones, concluded that it would cost the state over $23 million to close the Oklahoma State Reformatory (OSR) at Granite, the James Crabtree Correctional Center (JCCC) at Helena, and the Mack Alford Correctional Center (MACC) at Stringtown.

A breakdown of the costs for closing OSR included $1.5 million for private prison beds, $2.5 million for DOC employee severance pay, $1.4 million in annual “mothball” maintenance and $3 million due to the loss of the prison farm. Further, the economic loss for the Granite area would be about $12.2 million in payroll, $72,000 in prison canteen sales tax and $120,000 in payments to the Quartz Mountain Regional Water Authority.

The cost for closing JCCC was $9.5 million. Additionally, Helena would lose $10.7 million in payroll plus $59,960 in prison canteen sales tax and $146,390 ...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that a Sheriff does not have constitutional authority to hire and fire personnel providing food service at a county jail.

The Court’s ruling came in an appeal filed by unions that represent employees of the Brown County Jail, who provide the jail’s food service. The Brown County Circuit Court had granted an injunction to Sheriff Dennis Kocken that prohibited the unions – Wisconsin Council 40 AFSCME, AFL-CIO and Local 1901, AFSCME, AFL-CIO – from pursuing any type of action before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC), or seeking injunctive relief that would impede Sheriff Kocken’s ability to hire Aramark Corporation as a food service provider for the jail.

The Circuit Court held that the unions had to withdraw their WERC complaint because the Sheriff had constitutional authority to hire and fire personnel providing the jail’s food service. Thus, the legislature could not interfere with that authority, which did not make the Sheriff subject to a collective bargaining agreement.

While “the constitution nowhere defines what powers, rights, and duties shall attach or belong to the Office of Sheriff,” the framers intended that office to have “those generally recognized legal duties and functions belonging to it ...

by David M. Reutter

While the economic downturn has caused the price of goods and commodities to decrease in the free world, the cost of items in Florida’s prison canteens has skyrocketed under a new contract.

Florida law requires that items sold in prison canteens “shall be priced comparatively with like items for retail sale at fair market prices.” That provision was enacted in 1996, along with another directive that transferred canteen profits from the Inmate Welfare Fund to the state’s General Revenue Fund.

In other words, rather than utilizing canteen profits to fund recreation programs, chapel activities and other services for prisoners, those profits now go directly to funding state operations. The result is that activities previously funded by the Inmate Welfare Fund have been eliminated or must rely on donations to operate.

The state’s General Revenue Fund netted about $30 million in fiscal year 2007-2008 as a result of the canteen contract between the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) and Keefe Commissary Network. Keefe began operating the FDOC’s canteens in 2003; the company’s current contract began on March 29, 2009 and extends for the next five years.

Keefe’s most recent contract with the FDOC included price increases that ...

On August 28, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas unsealed a settlement agreement in a nationwide class-action lawsuit against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison firm. On July 27, 2009, Prison Legal News had filed a motion to intervene in the suit ...