Economic Crisis Prompts Prison Closures Nationwide, but Savings (and Reforms) are Elusive

by David M. Reutter

With the current economic crisis adversely affecting state tax revenues, lawmakers across the nation are seeking ways to cut costs and slash spending. Many states have proposed reducing their prison budgets by closing correctional facilities; however, by shuffling prisoners to other locations rather than releasing them, this amounts to little more than a shell game.

Further, politicians, guards’ unions and local businesses often protest the potential loss of jobs from prison closures, which they say will hurt the local economy. The result is that when prisons close, most of the affected employees are moved to other facilities and few are actually laid off.

The main benefit of proposed prison closures appears to be the stoking of public fear over the mere suggestion of releasing prisoners and losing prison jobs – which translates to a greater willingness to cut costs in other areas. Apparently our society is so vested in prisons as sources of employment and revenue that closing them is extremely unpopular and releasing prisoners early practically impossible.

When the Unites States was facing an economic crunch in the 1980s, rural economies that relied ...

A “secret” Missouri surgeon who has supervised 54 prisoner executions had his cover pulled and suffered immediate peer criticism, court restriction, and a media barrage. In tension were the Hippocratic Oath of doctors to sustain the life of their patients, doctor oversight of the dirty work of Missouri Department of Corrections’ (MDOC) executions, and prisoners’ rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The doctor unavailingly attempted to distance himself by merely setting up the lethal injection execution mechanism, while employing a non-doctor assistant to start the flow of drugs. He defensively answered reporters’ questions, “Read my lips. I don’t do them.” But the details came to a head in U.S. District Court during a challenge to allegedly unconscionable pain during botched executions, wherein the court found the shaky process so troubling that it ordered them halted.

Dr. Alan R. Doerhoff, 62, has been a contract general surgeon with MDOC since 1969. But on the outside, his checkered career netted him at least 20 malpractice suits, and his failure to properly disclose these suits led to his loss of medical practice privileges at two Missouri hospitals. In 1989, when MDOC switched to lethal injection for its executions, Dr. Doerhoff ...

On April 16, 2001, the City of Delta Junction, Alaska agreed to settle a suit brought by prison officials over a failed attempt to construct a private prison at Fort Greely, Alaska.

After Fort Greely was slated for closing by a military base closing commission, Delta Corrections Group (DCG) made ...

A New Jersey appeals court has reversed a lower courts dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a former prison health care worker.

Angela Hoag was a licensed social worker employed by Correctional Medical Services, Inc. and worked at Southern State Correctional Facility (SSCF). Hoag sued under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and New Jersey Tort Claims Act (TCA).

The lawsuit stems from mental, verbal, and physical abuse she was subjected to by Richard Sheppard, a guard at SSCF. Sheppard already had an extensive disciplinary record, including numerous suspensions. According to the SSCF Assistant Supervisor, Sheppard has been getting away with similar behavior for over twenty years.

As a result of Sheppard’s actions, Hoag sought treatment and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and major depression for which she was prescribed medication.

The lower court dismissed the LAD claim because Hoag was not a state employee. The TCA claim for negligent retention and supervision of Sheppard was dismissed for two reasons: because the state was not vicariously liable for Sheppard’s conduct, and because Hoag failed to meet the TCA pain and suffering verbal threshold.

The appellate court has reversed the lower court’s ruling on the LAD claim because ...

Releasing The Disease: Is Overcrowded Cook County Jail Responsible For The Rise Of MRSA On The Outside?

by Kelly Virella

The sudden death of a 17-month-old boy in Hyde Park brought Dr. Robert Daum to the Cook County Jail. Out of town the April morning in 2004 when Simon Sparrow woke up screaming in his crib, Daum, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, followed the case by telephone. Simon’s blood pressure dropped, his major organs began to fail, his skin turned purple and scabby, and his body bloated as if he were drowning. A day and a half later he was dead.

The attending doctors didn’t know why. But Daum had a hunch. Just a year earlier, a nine-month-old girl had died with similar symptoms. Her autopsy showed that she had a virulent and once rare form of staph infection known as community-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA (pronounced “mersa”). Since 2000, dozens of children had been admitted to the hospital with the infection, often manifested by lesions, abscesses, and pus-filled boils, but most had been cured with antibiotics.

Daum had seen a spike in CA-MRSA cases before. The prevalence of the disease ...

by David M. Reutter

Before the Michigan Department of Corrections closed the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility (SMCF) in late 2007 to avoid further litigation in the long-running class action known as Hadix, the federal judge overseeing the case and lawyers representing prisoners argued that closing SMCF would not only transfer the problem to another prison, it would worsen the situation of inadequate medical care for chronically ill prisoners.

In our May 2007 cover story and two other articles that followed that article, PLN reported on the horrid care provided to Michigan prisoners by the private medical vendor, Correctional Medical Services (CMS). Those articles detailed the circumstances surrounding the needless deaths of several prisoners. Now, the callous attitude of prison officials has resulted in the needless death of another prisoner.

After U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Enslen entered an order preventing the closure of SMCF, Michigan prison officials appealed that and several other orders. While the matter was on appeal, Judge Enslen suddenly requested the matter to be transferred to another judge. Based upon that and other unresolved factual matters, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded for reconsideration of the orders.

The new judge allowed SMCF to close, but ...

by Matt Clarke

Since 2007, Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the largest religious network in the world, has been quietly spreading a faith-based rehabilitative TV program for prisoners.
Following a successful pilot program in South Dakota’s prison system, TBN’s Second Chance program is poised to expand nationwide. South Dakota, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) have already signed up for the free in-house television shows, and Ohio, Mississippi and South Carolina plan to start pilot programs.

TBN pays for all costs associated with the programming. Second Chance consists of up to four faith-based TV channels: TBN, the most popular faith-based channel in the nation; The Church Channel, which broadcasts teaching programs and church services from various denominations; TBN Enlace USA, a Spanish language channel airing faith-based programming from the U.S. and Latin American countries; and JCTV, a faith-based entertainment channel targeting 13- to 29-year-old prisoners.

The channels are broadcast on the Ku satellite band by Glorystar Satellite Systems, a free Christian satellite network, and TBN pays to have satellite dishes and receivers installed and maintained. Buford Satellite Systems and Correctional Cable TV, the two largest providers of cable TV services to prisons and jails, have agreed to ...

Colorado: When Suing Private Prison under Common Law Tort, Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies Not Required

The Colorado Court of Appeals held that prisoners in a private for-profit prison could sue the prison company, in a common law tort action, for nefarious acts of its employees during a 2004 riot without having first exhausted administrative remedies, because the remedies they sought were not available under the prison’s administrative regulations or required by state law.

Eighty-five injured prisoners sued Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), owner and operator of the Crowley County Correctional Facility in Olney Springs, Colorado under contract with the Colorado Dept. of Corrections. The prisoners filed suit under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-17.5-102.3(1) (2007) in 2005 and 2006 in Crowley County District Court, seeking compensatory and punitive damages. Their common law tort claims included negligence, assault and battery, outrageous conduct and civil conspiracy.

The district court dismissed the complaints for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and dismissed the punitive damages demand as premature. On appeal, the plaintiffs argued that while exhaustion would normally be required, it was unnecessary in this case because the only claims brought were common law tort claims, for which there was no administrative remedy.

State law ...

Cornell Defrauded of $13 Million in Prison Construction Scam

On August 26, 2008, indictments were filed against three men accused of defrauding private prison operator Cornell Corrections of California, Inc. out of $13 million in a prison construction scam.

A federal grand jury handed down indictments that included 20 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy against Edgar J. Beaudreault, Jr., 60, of Alpharetta, Georgia; Howard A. Sperling, 44, of San Diego, California; and Robert B. Surles, 62, of Canon City, Colorado. The indictments allege the men contracted with Cornell in June 2003 to build a private prison in Canon City. Cornell placed $13 million in an escrow account to be held until construction was complete.

In August 2003 the trio convinced Cornell to transfer the funds to an Atlanta account, which they claimed was a bank escrow account but was actually controlled by Beaudreault. They then moved the money to their own accounts and withdrew it. Some of the cash was spent at casinos, and one of the defendants bought a $60,000 Mercedes Benz.
Beaudreault and Sperling entered guilty pleas on December 17, 2008 and February 2, 2009, respectively, each to one count of conspiracy. They have ...

by Paul Wright, et al.

On June 13, 2007, former President Bush nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, 40, for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
While you’ve likely never heard of Gustavus Puryear, you may be familiar with the company he works for: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison firm. CCA is conveniently located in the Middle District of Tennessee, and Puryear serves as the company’s general counsel – its top attorney.

Puryear’s judicial nomination did not go unnoticed; it drew the attention of a former CCA prisoner turned criminal justice advocate who opposes private prisons. By conducting extensive research, securing widespread media attention, contacting members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and recruiting organizational allies, he coordinated an opposition campaign that managed to stall – and ultimately stop – Puryear’s nomination.

Further, the ex-CCA prisoner who took down CCA’s general counsel, denying him a federal judgeship in a humiliating defeat, happens to be employed by Prison Legal News.

The Man Who Would Be Judge

So who exactly is Gustavus “Gus” Puryear? Born into a wealthy family in Atlanta, Georgia, Puryear graduated with a B.A. from Emory University in ...