"Please Rip Us Off" Florida Officials Tell Private Prison Companies

by David M. Reutter

Despite having ordered a criminal investigation into its private prison contractors, the Florida Legislature and Governor Charlie Crist have enacted legislation that specifies those same companies are the only ones that can bid on expanding current prisons or building new correctional facilities.

The criminal investigation, conducted by the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement (FDLE), resulted after two state audits found that Florida had overpaid the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) more than $4.5 million for vacant job positions and maintenance that was never performed. GEO settled with the state for $402,541, literally pennies on the dollar, while as of September, 2007 the state was still negotiating with CCA over $3.6 million in payments. [See: PLN, June 2007, p.32]. The FDLE investigation found no criminal wrongdoing.

To address its continually burgeoning prison population, Florida is planning to build more beds. The state's 2007 budget calls for 384 new beds at a medium-security prison, which is estimated to cost between $15 and $20 million. The budget limits the prison expansion to companies that currently contract with the state, which are GEO and CCA.

The state ...

Little State, Big Problems: Maine?s Prison Crisis Continues Unabated

by Lance Tapley

Only big prison systems mistreat prisoners, right?

Only prison systems where racism, right-wing tough-on-crime attitudes, or prison-industrial-complex power have full reign, like in California or Texas, are failures, right?

Only prisons where gang-oriented, city-bred prisoners are divided by race are ugly, right?

Only big prison systems arrogantly try to hide what they're doing from the public, right?

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Maine is the little (1.3-million people), lily-white (the least diverse state in the nation), liberal (it went overwhelmingly for Kerry in 2004) "Vacationland" squeezed up into Canada at the top of the Northeast. It has one of the lowest crime rates and the rock-bottom-lowest incarceration rate in the country.

But Maine's Department of Corrections has presided over extensive prisoner abuse and neglect that it has worked hard to hide.

I began reporting about Maine's prisons in November 2005, when Torture in Maine's Prison, an exposé of the brutality in the Maine State Prison's Special Management ("Supermax") Unit, appeared in the Portland Phoenix, an alternative newsweekly. In two subsequent articles, I detailed the fallout from the torture article, the state's promises of reform, and the inadequacy of reform ...

by Matthew T. Clarke

The methods used for psychological evaluation and housing of prisoners at the Washington, D.C. Jail are being questioned after two prisoners committed suicide within a three-month period.

Alicia Edwards, 32, had a history of mental illness when she hung herself in her D.C. Jail cell on March 31, 2007. Jail officials initially released a false statement claiming she was housed in the facility?s mental health unit and was under observation every 15 minutes. This led The Washington Post and The Examiner to publish articles repeating the false information.

However, D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) spokesperson Beverly Young later admitted that Edwards was neither in the mental health unit nor under increased observation, but rather was locked in a single-bunk intake unit cell isolated from other prisoners and was suffering from bipolar disorder when she killed herself.

The initial incorrect information was an apparent attempt to conceal the fact that, despite having a long history of mental illness and having been flagged for mental health problems during her intake screening, Edwards? required mental health evaluation had not been completed following her arrest two days prior to her death.

According to Vincent Keane, president of Unity Health Care, ...

by Michael Rigby

The daughters of a mentally ill man who was raped and beaten to death by another prisoner in New Jersey's Camden County Correctional Facility (CCCF) will receive a combined $4 million from the state and the jail's mental health care provider, Steininger Behavioral Care Services.

Joel Seidel, ...

Wyoming and CMS Settle Suit Over Diabetic Prisoner's Loss of Foot

by Matthew T. Clarke

In June 2006, CMS, the State of Wyoming and a prison doctor settled a lawsuit involving a prisoner who had to have his lower right leg amputated following dismally inadequate medical care.

Salvatore Lucido is ...

by David M. Reutter

Inadequate medical care by Prison Health Services (PHS) has resulted in yet another death and $1.6 million in settlements for the mother of a baby boy who was born over a cell toilet at Florida's Hillsborough County Jail (HCJ).

Incarcerated for prostitution, Kimberly Grey was also ...

by John E. Dannenberg

The Supreme Court of New Jersey, incensed with the inhumane treatment of a state prisoner who was systematically denied Hepatitis-C treatment for four years, ordered the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) to enact regulations codifying its responsibility for prisoners? healthcare.
The ruling also mandated that NJDOC promptly notify prisoners if they have a serious medical problem requiring treatment, provide them with access to their medical records, and formulate procedures to correct errors in prisoners? medical files.

A Trenton, New Jersey state prisoner identified in court pleadings as J.D.A. was told he had Hepatitis-C when he was in a Pennsylvania prison.
Upon his transfer to NJDOC, the state would neither believe him when he said he had tested positive nor administer new tests. When he finally obtained another Hepatitis-C test in 2001, the results (positive) were errantly entered into his medical records by NJDOC?s medical contractor, St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services (CMS), as ?negative.? When he tried to see his lab results, J.D.A. was denied by NJDOC; he then turned to the courts. It took four years before he was even seen, let alone treated, for his life-threatening medical condition.

In 2004, after J.D.A. had learned ...

For-profit private prison operator Management & Training Corporation (MTC) has recently lost lucrative contracts to run prisons in the United States and Canada. While the private prison industry is dominated by industry giants Corrections Corporation of America, Geo Corporation and Cornell Corrections, a number of smaller private prison companies hold the remaining 20% of the private prison ?market?. Not as well known as their bigger colleagues, nonetheless, these companies suffer the same problems and shortcomings of their industry as a whole. The ongoing consolidation of the private prison industry by CCA and Geo Corp. also makes the ongoing existence of the smaller companies questionable. The smaller companies tend to lack the deep pockets, lobbying resources and economies of scale that make CCA and Geo Corp., the dominant players in the private prison industry. But none of that really maters to the prisoners housed in the smaller for profit prisons nor to the people employed by them.

Before terminating its contract at New Mexico?s Santa Fe county jail in 2005, the company had been sued for a wrongful death, rape, suicide and illegal strip searches at the facility. The Canadian government also declined to renew MTC?s management contract for the Central ...

The Colorado State Auditor completed a review of the state's private prison contracts in November 2006. The audit found that former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow's "private business activities arguably present a conflict of interest and result in a breach of his fiduciary duty and the public trust."

The State Auditor recommended that the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) investigate Renfrow and possibly turn the matter over to the district attorney for prosecution. The audit also suggested that the CDOC strengthen its safeguards for ensuring compliance with codes of ethics and conduct, and develop a strategic plan to address Colorado's prison overcrowding crisis.

While the State Auditor failed to identify Renfrow by name, referring instead to a "former senior-level employee," State Representative Liane "Buffie" McFadyen identified Renfrow as the employee in question. McFadyen, a long-time foe of prison privatization, had requested the audit. She characterized Renfrow's conduct as a "clear conflict of interest."

In August 2005, Renfrow incorporated a prison consulting business with the Colorado Secretary of State. He began operating the business as early as November 2005 while on a combination of annual, sick and holiday leave from his position at the CDOC. Renfrow retired on January 31, 2006 ...

Florida's Civil Commitment Center Exhibits Little Change Despite New Contractor

by David M. Reutter

Despite recent scandals and a new private contractor, the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC) is still a facility with little direction other than as a confinement center to warehouse sex offenders who have completed their sentences.

PLN has previously reported on the out-of-control, "free-for-all" atmosphere that reigned at FCCC. That article, published last year, detailed incidents of FCCC employees selling drugs, delivering contraband to facility residents, having sex with residents, and allowing residents to do as they pleased so long as they were "happy." [See: PLN, Nov. 2006, p.13].

Meanwhile, little treatment was being providing to the then 484 resident sex offenders. In fact, as of May 2005, only 35 percent of the residents were even enrolled in sex offender therapy programs. During Liberty's eight-year term of managing FCCC, only one resident obtained a recommendation from company staff that he should be released.

FCCC was ostensibly created to treat sex offenders after they were released from prison. From its establishment in 1998 under the Jimmy Ryce Act (FS 394.910), the facility was operated by Liberty Behavioral Health Corporation under an annual contract of $18.7 million, or ...