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 ...

A federal district court in New Jersey held that material issues of fact precluded summary judgment on a former prisoner's claim that he was denied adequate medical care. The court also rejected defendants' claim of qualified immunity.

Dana Andrews, a former prisoner of the Camden County Corrections Facility, (CCCF), sued Correctional Medical Services, (CMS), a private contractor providing medical services to CCCF prisoners, and numerous other defendants, alleging deliberate indifference to his need for treatment of a life threatening infection which nearly caused his death.

Andrews was held in CCCF on misdemeanor drunken driving charges from June 13, 1996 to June 21, 1996. No medical problems were observed during his initial medical screening. But five days after his admission, staff noted that Andrews was suffering from "flu symptoms." A memo was forwarded to the CMS physician, but he claimed not to have received it.

Andrews developed a severely infected toothache, which rapidly reduced him to a sweating, weakened state. He requested medical attention but did not receive medical care of any sort.

Following Andrews' release from custody on June 21, 1996, his mother took him to a hospital emergency room, where he was promptly admitted and diagnosed with sepsis - ...

$9.5 Million Awarded In Prisoner Van Fire Death

In late February 2001, Kathryn Catalano received a $9.5 million jury award in a Tennessee U.S. District Court. She sued after her father died in an extradition van fire. Federal Extradition Agency (FEA) is a private company based in Memphis, Tennessee. For ...

$1.4 Million Awarded To Raped Alaska Women Prisoners

On January 22, 2001 an Anchorage, Alaska superior court jury awarded nearly $1.4 million to five women in a civil action arising from their being sexually assaulted by a guard at an Anchorage halfway house called the Cordova Center.

J.C. Lewis Jr. ...

by Joel Dyer, Westview Press, 2000 (318 pages)

Reviewed by Rick Card

An estimated 69 million people, or 44 percent of all households now own stock or invest in one of thousands of mutual funds. According to Joel Dyer, they are all "deriving at least a small portion of their profits from crime."

In his latest book, The Perpetual Prisoner Machine, Dyer demonstrates how prison profiteering threatens the fabric of our democratic ideals, setting us up for a prison expansion of unimaginable proportion.

Analyzing our current criminal justice policy, Dyer points out how prisoncrats have twisted the issues into an argument they cannot lose. By using fallacious reports of rising crime to call for more prisons is one thing, but to say that prisons are working when the numbers fallin effect calling for more prisons to further reduce crimeis an example of having your cake and eating it too.

Dyer calls it flipping a coin with a prison on both sides. The losers are two million souls caged like animals and taxpayers who foot the expanding bill; the winners are prison contractors, suppliers, investors, service providers, and law enforcement agencies who reap larger budgets and higher profits.

The Perpetual Prisoner ...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment to a private physician under contract with the county, holding that contract services provided to the county constituted state action. The court also held that qualified immunity was categorically unavailable to the physician.

Jerry Jensen filed an action for damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 for unlawful arrest any restraint against Lane County, certain officials, a hospital, and a private medical practitioner, Jeffrey Robbins, M.D. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Dr. Robbins, concluding that his conduct in signing a commitment order did not constitute state action, and alternatively, if it was state action that Dr. Robbins was entitled to qualified immunity. The remaining defendants went to trial and a jury found in their favor. The only issue on appeal was whether Dr. Robbins was entitled to summary judgment.

The Ninth Circuit noted that the relevant test for determining whether Dr. Robbins' actions were state action was the "close nexus/joint action" test. In applying that test, the court concluded that "the state has so deeply insinuated itself into [the commitment] process that there is `a sufficiently close nexus between the State and ...

A State court of appeals in West Virginia has held that a private contractor of youth incarceration services is not entitled to immunity under the Governmental Tort Claims and Insurance Reform Act (the Act), W.Va. Code §§ 2912A1 to 18.

Tracy Galloway initiated delinquency proceedings against her fourteen-yearold son. The son was arrested, detained at a facility run by Youth Services Systems, Inc., a nonprofit independent contractor, and a court directed that he receive inpatient drug and alcohol treatment. However, the son was released without treatment. He then committed suicide after ingesting a controlled substance.
Galloway filed a wrongful death suit against Youth Services Systems (YSS) in state court. YSS moved for summary judgment, claiming immunity under W. Va. Code 2912AS(a)(3), (14). The circuit court denied summary judgment and YSS filed an application for a writ of prohibition with the Supreme Court of Appeals seeking to prevent the suit on the basis of the aforementioned immunity.

The court of appeals held that, before an entity can claim the disputed immunity, it must show that it is a political subdivision of the state pursuant to W. Va. Code § 2912A5(a)(3), (14). YSS argued that it was a political subdivision because it ...

Warden Fired Over Riot at New Mexico CCA Prison

Corrections Corporation of America officials fired the warden and chief of security at the Torrence County (New Mexico) Detention Facility just three weeks after a November 11, 2000 prisoner uprising involving 32 District of Columbia prisoners who reportedly used a sixinch shank, mop handles, toilet bowl scrubbers and table legs to injure eight CCA guards.

The uprising began at around 12:30 a.m. after prisoners refused to go to their cells for the night. State police Lt. Pete Kassetas said there was some kind of disagreement between prisoners and guards, but wouldn't be more specific about what sparked the disturbance.

"There were 32 different inmates in the pod," Kassetas told the Albuquerque Journal, "there are probably 32 different reasons why they rioted."

Prison officials pumped tear gas into the pod through pipes in the ceiling. The melee was not quelled until 2:40 a.m., said Ellen Hawks, assistant warden.

Seven guards were transported to University of New Mexico and Presbyterian hospitals. Five suffered stab wounds. Two were initially listed as critical but after surgery were listed in satisfactory condition. Another guard was treated at the scene by prison medical personnel. No prisoners were ...

Staff shortages, unwatched video surveillance monitors, unlocked doors, untrained staff and a security alarm that was ignored by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) employees contributed to the August 27, 2000 escape from the Bartlett State Jail near Austin, Texas.

Sixteen problems, the biggest of which was human error, allowed the escape to occur concluded a report from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).

Ten TDCJ officials formed a faultfinding team to investigate and affix blame for the escape of Kendall James, 21, and David Sanders, 40. The two prisoners were working in the jail's kitchen when, around 4:00 a.m., they walked through an unlocked door, climbed a fence, entered the maintenance department through another unlocked door, "borrowed" some hand tools, cut through two more fences, and departed the facility at 4:51 a.m.

The Bartless Police department, located just ten minutes away, was unpromptly notified of the escape at 9:40 a.m.

The TDCJ pays CCA about $950,000 per month to operate the 1,000man state jail. The state will withhold $84,027 from CCA to recover the, costs to capture James and Sanders, who were captured the day after their escape.


Source: Southland Prison News [a publication of the Prison Media Fund, ...

On Dec 14, 2000, a federal jury in South Carolina awarded a 14-year-old boy more than $3 million in damages after finding Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) guilty of physically abusing the Charleston, SC teen-ager.

In 1996, William Pacetti, then 14, was sent to CCA on charges that he ...