Less than two years after it opened, the second privately operated prison in the state of Ohio is already in trouble. CiviGenics, a private prison company out of Massachusetts, has succumbed to pressure applied by the state employees union. On January 10, the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC), Reginald A. Wilkinson, informed CiviGenics that when its contract expired on June 30, 2001, it would not be renewed. CiviGenics lost the contract because of failure to maintain adequate qualified staff and security requirements.

By law, the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility is obligated to contract with a private operator. Officials for the state employees union feel that the law should be changed. They feel that by combining the 550 bed North Coast facility with the 1,400 bed Grafton Correctional Institution, the state would save between $4 million and $6 million in operating costs. Union staff member Pat Hammel points to the fact that only 500 prisoners are currently housed at the North Coast facility. Under the union proposal, 200 prisoners from the Grafton facility could move in immediately.

North Coast was originally designed as a treatment center for non-violent felons convicted of drunken driving. It was ...

CCA Gets Tangled In Financial Quagmire

Corrections Corporation of America said it is contesting an $8.1 million request for payment from Merrill Lynch & Company related to its hiring of the investment firm in late 1999 for advice on a company restructuring.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, CCA also said its insurers have refused to cover damages from lawsuits by employees and prisoners that seek more than $50 million. The lawsuits include one brought by CCA employees in 1998 seeking more than $30 million related to a stock ownership plan and another by a woman demanding $20 million for an alleged assault by two former employees of CCA's TransCor unit. A third suit deals with a jury verdict of more than $3 million stemming from charges of mistreatment against juveniles at a South Carolina prison. All three cases were previously reported in PLN .

In the Merrill Lynch dispute, CCA, then called Prison Reality Trust, and a former sister entity, had both retained the investment firm as they faced problems raising money for growth and a looming deadline to pay a special dividend. CCA said Merrill Lynch claims last year's merger of the company and the ...

Environmental Concerns Halt Construction Of Pennsylvania Prison

The wretched and overcrowded conditions at Washington, D.C.'s Lorton Correctional Complex have resulted in Congress giving the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) responsibility for housing all D.C. prisoners. Lorton, located in Fairfax, VA, must close by the end of 2001, and all prisoners there transferred to federal or privately operated prisons.

One of the resulting private prisons has been contracted by the BOP for construction by Houston based Cornell Corrections, Inc. on 197 acres of land located in Decatur and Morris Townships, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. The area is located 250 miles northwest of D.C. It is a region of high unemployment (9.7 percent in 1999) located in the rural Moshannon Valley, where better economic times left with the strip mines which tore up the landscape, re-sculpted it, and gradually disappeared. "It's like they looked at a 300 mile radius, hunted the area with the greatest unemployment and said, `Let's put it there. That's the spot,'" said Pennsylvania state Senator John Wozniak, a Democrat whose district covers eastern Clearfield County.

While it appears that many of the locals are in favor of the new prison (more than 6,100 people showed up when Cornell staged ...

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) do not apply to properly characterized habeas corpus petitions under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2241, 2254, or 2255, finding that those actions are not "civil actions" within the meaning of the PLRA. The court also held that the certificate of appealability requirement that applies to habeas actions does not apply to a state prisoner's action under § 2254 that challenges the results of a prison disciplinary hearing resulting in the denial of good-time credits.

The Court consolidated two cases for purposes of oral arguments and opinion. First was the case of federal prisoner Jimmy Walker, who was disciplined for damaging a cell door and sanctioned to the forfeiture of 14 days of good time credits. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under § 2241 but the District Court issued a sua sponte dismissal of the action prior to service and Walker appealed.

The second case was that of Indiana state prisoner Joseph Finfrock. Finfrock filed a habeas corpus petition under § 2254, attacking five separate disciplinary decisions, three of which resulted in the retraction of good-time credits. Frinfrock's ...

by John E. Dannenberg

Holding that a private corporation acting under color of federal authority may be sued under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 US 388, 397, (1971), the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the District Court's dismissal of John E. Malesko's Bivens complaint against private prison contractor Correctional Services Corporation (CSC).

Malesko was convicted of federal securities fraud in 1992 and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment under supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). While in their custody and care, he was diagnosed with and treated for a heart condition. In 1994, he was transferred to Le Marquis Community Correctional Center, a halfway house operated on behalf of the BOP by CSC.

He had use of an elevator to reach his fifth floor room there until CSC changed their elevator policy to only permit use for residents on the sixth and higher floors. Although Malesko was accorded an exception, one day a CSC employee forced him to take the stairs, even after being reminded of the heart condition. While climbing the stairs, Malesko suffered a heart attack, fell and injured himself. Malesko sued both the private corporation and ...

Wyoming Prison Officials Settle Poisoning And Medical Suits for over $200,000

In August 2000, Wyoming officials agreed to settle two consolidated cases for $200,000 in damages, costs, and attorney fees. The cases were filed in a Wyoming federal District Court by the survivors of two prisoners who died after being ...

Virginia DOC Cuts Ties With CMS

by Robert Durkee

After numerous allegations of inadequate medical care, pending prisoner lawsuits and nearly $1 million in state imposed fines, Virginia Department of Corrections decided to sever at least two of its contractual ties with Correctional Medical Services. "Starting Feb. lst [2001] the state will take over inmate medical treatment from Correctional Medical Services at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge prisons", corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.

In combination with dozens of prisoner lawsuits, CMS has been fined $900,000 for noncompliance with state contract by prison officials. According to a report by the state auditor of public accounts, CMS did not have a dentist at Wallens Ridge for more than three months or a psychiatrist at the Red Onion for more than two months.

According to The Associated Press, the auditor concluded it might be cheaper for CMS to absorb penalties than comply with the contract. Asked what role that report played in the decision to end the relationship with CMS, Traylor said only that the department decided to make a change because the current contract expired January 31, 2001.

CMS, a St. Louisbased company, is the nation's largest provider of prisoner health care ...

A Tennessee federal district judge as found an incentives contract between the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and a private doctor unconstitutional and must be stopped. The contract provided for financial incentives for the physician to reduce costs, which motivated him to reduce medical services.

During a 21-month period ending in 1997, Anthony Bowman, a prisoner at CCA's South Central Correctional Facility (SCCF) saw medical providers 126 times. Although he begged for treatment for his sickle cell anemia for days before his death, he received none but was eventually transferred to a Nashville hospital where he died only hours later. By not placing Bowman in the hospital, the doctor substantially increased his compensation.

Patricia Bowman, Anthony's mother, sued CCA, SCCF warden Devin Myers, the contract doctor, Robert B. Coble, Nashville Memorial Hospital and one of its doctors, Donald Boatwright. The claims against the last two defendants were dismissed. After more than three years of litigation, the case went to a two-week jury trial. Patricia Bowman testified that her son told her he thought he was going to die, he'd never been this sick before. He said, "Mama, they think I'm kidding. They don't think I'm sick." The jury, however, found ...

On March 23, 2001, a federal jury in Memphis, Tennessee, awarded Tennessee state prisoner Charles Degan $235,000 in damages in a medical neglect suit against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the world's largest private, for profit, prison company.

In 1998 Degan's nose and jaw were broken in a fight with ...

The Washington Supreme Court held that the Department of Corrections (DOC) possessed statutory authority to transfer nearly 400 prisoners to an outofstate, private prison. In March of 1999, DOC transferred 254 prisoners to the Correctional Services Corporation run Crowley County Correctional Facility in Olney Springs Colorado [PLN, June 1999].

In the months to follow, DOC sent some 150 more prisoners to the facility. DOC decided the transfers were necessary in order to alleviate overcrowding until such time as its new facility, the Stafford Creek Corrections Center, was operational. Overcrowding became critical when DOC surrendered 260 beds to the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island Corrections Center that same year.

Many prisoners confined at the private facility filed Personal Restraint Petitions (PRPs) directly in the supreme court, arguing that DOC lacked statutory authority to transfer them. Three of these PRPs were consolidated and counsel was appointed to represent the prisoners. DOC responded that it had statutory authority to place the prisoners in the private facility under a statute which grants the Secretary of DOC broad powers to effect transfers. See: RCW 72.68.010.

Additionally, DOC argued that an amendment to RCW 72.68.010 clarified any ambiguity concerning the DOC Secretary's authority to transfer ...