reviewed by John E. Dannenberg

In a classic case of "follow the money," The Institute On Money In State Politics (IMSP) reviewed influence-peddling by private prison corporations (and their leaders, lobbyists, and subcontractors) who made political contributions to curry favor for their firms -- leading inexorably to vast increases in the prison privatization business.
Although such private interests in 44 states gave politicians over $3.3 million between 2000 and 2004 (the study period), Policy Lock-Down focused on the top ten states.

Florida led the pack with $647,600 (almost 20% of the total) followed by Texas ($519,000) and New Jersey ($323,000). Six states logged no private prison contributions: Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota. To insulate the real donors, most of the money given out passed through the hands of lobbyists. Popular targets for givers were states with tough-on-sentencing laws: $2.1 million went to 22 states with "three-strikes" laws, while only $1.2 million went to 22 states without such laws. Two-thirds of all monies went directly to political candidates, while one-third went to state political parties.
Two-thirds of the money for candidates supported incumbents, thus reducing the odds of a challenger to existing privatization contracts from gaining ...

On May 11, 2006, Ohio state prisoner Marrion P. Smith was shot in the head by prison guard Gary Myers during a foiled escape attempt. Smith had been transported from the Mansfield Correctional Institution to the Ohio State University Medical Center, where he was to undergo an MRI. Smith managed to conceal a makeshift knife; he stabbed Myers in the shoulder and then ran outside to the parking lot.

Myers recovered, chased after Smith, and shot him once in the head. Myers? stab wound was not serious and Smith survived the gunshot. Smith was serving a 7-to-25 year sentence for kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and theft. He was convicted of felony assault, aggravated robbery, assault and escape charges stemming from the hospital incident.

On April 2, 2007, federal prisoner Billy Jack Fitzmorris escaped after he was taken to a hospital in Youngstown, Ohio. Fitzmorris overpowered two prison guards and held them long enough to take one of the guards' uniform and gun. Once outside he carjacked a vehicle and managed to flee 150 miles in a chase that led U.S. Marshals halfway across the state.

During his flight Fitzmorris robbed two banks. Cornered and surrounded by law enforcement, he ...

County, Contractor Settle Diabetic New Jersey Prisoner's Death for $700,000

On April 3, 2007, Essex County, New Jersey, and Correctional Health Services (CHS) paid $700,000 to settle with the family of a man who died from insulin deficiency after being misdiagnosed at a county jail.

Henry Sipp was arrested on ...

The former Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2007 on charges of taking $50,000 in kickbacks from health care vendors that received state prison contracts. Two lobbyists, one the former Undersheriff of Cook County, were also indicted, as well as a former director of the John Howard Society, an organization that advocates for prison reform.

The criminal charges resulted from a probe into the activities of former Governor George Ryan, 73, who in 2007 began serving a 6½ year federal prison sentence for racketeering and fraud.

Donald N. Snyder, Jr., 52, was the Director of the Illinois DOC from 1999 to 2003. John J. Robinson, 59, had been Cook County's Undersheriff from 1991 to 2001, and worked between 1996 and 2003 as a paid consultant and lobbyist for various DOC vendors. Larry E. Sims, 58, was employed as a lobbyist for several state vendors, including Addus HealthCare, which received over $250 million in DOC medical services contracts since 2003.

Snyder and Robinson were each charged with five counts of mail fraud, while Sims was charged with perjury for having lied to the federal grand jury. Sims admitted he had ...

by Matt Clarke

On April 24, 2007, about 500 Arizona and Illinois prisoners at a privately-run facility owned by the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) participated in an uprising. The prison is operated by the Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections), a NYSE-listed company that manages 68 prisons in the United States, Australia, South Africa and the U.K.

The New Castle Correctional Facility (NCCF) was built by the IDOC in 2002, when the state's prison system was experiencing an overcrowding crisis and prisoners were being housed in county jails and exported to Kentucky.

Ironically the Indiana legislature, faced with an $800 million budget deficit, refused to appropriate operational funds for NCCF, making it impossible for the IDOC to staff the prison. The 2,416-bed medium-security facility remained empty until it became an issue in the 2004 governor's race. In September 2005 the IDOC entered into a $53 million contract with GEO Group to operate NCCF for four years, and Indiana's prisoners were brought home from Kentucky.

GEO also negotiated with California's overcrowded prison system to house prisoners at NCCF. A deal to transfer 1,260 California prisoners to the privately-run prison was announced in October 2006, but cancelled on December ...

Overcrowded Washington DOC's Solution: Ship ?Em Out of State

by David M. Reutter

Overcrowding is pinching the Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC). To alleviate that problem, the department ordered less than 100 community supervision violators released without a hearing -- but the resulting public outcry has the WDOC looking for additional beds, which will result in more prisoners being sent to out-of-state, for profit facilities.

To ease its burgeoning overcrowding problem, the WDOC has transferred over 1,000 prisoners out-of-state since 2003. The state is in the process of adding 2,900 prison beds by 2009; it is projected that an additional 4,455 beds will be needed.

The state's community supervision program, known as parole in other states, is causing the WDOC the greatest amount of criticism and directly impacts the need for more prison bed space. In 2006, more than 28,000 people were under active supervision by the WDOC. On average, 1,200 of those prisoners were returned to jail or prison for breaking their release rules. That number is expected to rise to 1,600 over the next two years. Some offenders are violated for committing new crimes; most, however, have technical violations such as failing to attend required meetings or flunking ...

Prison Health Services (PHS), nearing the end of its three-year $359.6 million contract to provide medical, dental, mental health and pharmaceutical services to ten of the eleven New York City jails, was audited by the State Comptroller's Office in June 2007. The 26 page audit report revealed that over 27% of the contract's performance benchmarks were not being met, leaving the 14,000 prisoners underserved. Oversight of the contract is performed daily by the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). In 2005, DOHMH fined PHS $250,000 under the contract's liquidated damages provision, which amounted to about 5% of PHS's $4.75 million administrative fee on $102 million in services for that year.

While DOHMH reviews prisoner medical files daily, it reports on PHS's performance only quarterly. These reports are in reference to contract benchmarks for delivery care. The auditors found that over 27% of such benchmarks were not met in two consecutive evaluation periods, suggesting a failure to "get it" when dinged with the initial bad report. Overall, fifteen benchmarks were "not substantially met" in either the first quarter, second quarter or both, in 2005. These included intake examinations, mental health documentation, HIV treatment, medical records, specialized housing, diabetic care, ...

Inadequate Medical Care Alleged at Alameda County, CA Jail - Four Prisoners Dead

Family members of prisoners who became sick or died at the Santa Rita jail in Alameda County, California have alleged inadequate health care following two deaths within a one-week period in 2006. There have been two other medically-related deaths at the facility this year, most recently in August 2007. Santa Rita has logged at least 21 prisoner deaths since 2003, not including nine suicides.

Jail officials note that the Santa Rita facility, which is the sixth largest county jail in the nation, is certified by the American Correctional Association. Despite this assurance, prisoners continue to die. The jail's private medical provider, Prison Health Services, has been the subject of numerous previous reports in PLN. [See, e.g.: PLN, Nov. 2006, p.1].

On September 4, 2006, three days after reporting to jail to serve a 26-day misdemeanor battery sentence, 18-year-old Tony Rounds died of a heart attack while doing pushups in the yard. His family alleged that jail staff did not use a defibrillator that was present for just that purpose, but only gave CPR. Strangely, one day after Rounds was taken to the hospital and put on life ...

More details have surfaced in a conflict-of-interest scandal involving two California gubernatorial appointees involved in a $26 million no-bid contract awarded by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for medical scheduling services. PLN previously reported that the chief of CDCR's Division of Health Care Services, Dr. Peter Farber-Szekrenyi, was forced to resign after the federally-appointed healthcare receiver, Robert Sillen, learned of the questionable contract. [See: PLN, July 2007, p.33].

The contract involved a three-year pilot program at two Southern California prisons to schedule health care specialists for priority medical visits. The contract was awarded to Medical Development International (MDI), a Florida-based firm that provides similar services to 27 federal Bureau of Prisons facilities.

MDI's scheduling efforts reportedly reduced CDCR's medical specialist backlog at the two prisons from 500 to zero. But it did so, in part, by not scheduling any such visits when the estimated cost of treatment would exceed $5,000. This amounted to making "medical decisions," which required a medical license, something MDI lacked. Accordingly, federal court Special Master John Hagar stopped all work by and payments to MDI, and Robert Sillen vowed to ban MDI from operating in California prisons. [See: PLN, Sept. 2007, p. 26]. ...

Val Verde County, Texas and its contract Del Rio jail operator, GEO Group, Inc., agreed in March 2007 to pay $200,000 to the surviving family of a 23-year-old woman prisoner who, upon becoming depressed after being raped in the jail, hung herself with her bed sheet in July 2004.

LeTisha ...