In Nov. 1998 Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) opened the Diamondback Corr. Facility in Watonga, OK and filled it with prisoners from Indiana and Hawaii. According to a prisoner housed at the facility there was a great deal of tension between the two groups, which resulted in numerous fights.

CCA reportedly did not separate the Hawaiian and Indiana prisoners until early June 1999, and then still allowed them to co-mingle at meal times when they were fed in the same dining area. On June 22 a brawl between Indiana and Hawaiian prisoners broke out as lunch as being served; the disturbance escalated until it involved about 80 prisoners and lasted an hour. At least two prisoners were injured and guards had to use-tear gas to regain control. Afterwards, the prison was placed on lockdown for several weeks.

Less than two months later, on August 15, 1999, another riot erupted at the Diamondback facility, which had since started housing Oklahoma and federal prisoners in addition to those from Indiana and Hawaii. A prisoner who was present during the riot said a group of Hawaiian convicts staged a fight in a recreation yard, then attacked and severely beat guards who arrived to ...

In the July, 1999, issue of PLN we reported McNally v. Prison Health Services, 28 F. Supp.2d 671 (D ME 1999) in which the court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss. The case involves David McNally, an HIV positive arrestee who, while detained for three days in the Cumberland County Jail in Maine, was denied his prescribed HIV medication. The jail had contracted its medical services out to Prison Health Services, a private, for profit company.

Upon being booked into the jail McNally told PHS staff he was HIV positive and on a treatment regimen. McNally's personal doctor called the jail, spoke to PHS staff and confirmed McNally's diagnosis, prescriptions and dosages. PHS refused to provide any of the medications to McNally who then suffered chills, sweats, vomiting and ran the risk of developing a drug resistant HIV strain as a result.

McNally filed suit claiming the jail and PHS violated his right to due process and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101. As noted above, the court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss. In this ruling, the court denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment, finding disputed issues of material fact required a trial to ...

A self-proclaimed "whore" for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) in July 1999 helped kill Attorney General Bill Lockyer's proposed legislation for forming a state-level prosecutorial unit to investigate alleged crimes by state prison guards.

As it stands now, only local district attorneys (or U.S. Attorneys for federal crimes) conduct investigations when prison guards are charged with brutality or other crimes. According to the LA Times, in the last ten years not one local D.A. has successfully prosecuted a California prison guard; this in a period when 39 prisoners were shot dead and another 200 or so wounded by prison guards.

Lockyer introduced the legislation because local DA's are afraid to incur the wrath of the CCPOA. Former Kings County District Attorney Donald Strickland knows about the sting of CCPOA retribution. Strickland, who once prosecuted a prison guard for misconduct, found himself voted out of a job after the CCPOA spent $27,000 distributing campaign flyers denouncing him as a "friend of prison gangs." [See: "Corcoran Prison Sex, Lies and Videotape" PLN, Oct. 1998]

"The CCPOA torpedoed this [legislation]," Lockyer told the Times. "One of the assemblymen who voted against it, Jim Battin, pulled me aside and said, 'Bill, sorry, ...

Last May the price of shares in Prison Realty Trust Inc., the parent company of Corrections Corporation of America, fell almost 35% within a week after Prison Realty announced it would pay increased costs for building and marketing private prisons. Several investment firms downgraded Prison Realty's stock, which dropped to a 52 week low from a high of about $22 per share.

On May 14, 1999, company officials said Prison Realty will pay $4,000 per bed in incentive fees to CCA, its main tenant for new facilities -- up from a previous fee of $840 per bed. The increase, which was made retroactive to January 1, will cost Prison Realty shareholders an estimated $80 million in 1999 alone.

According to Prison Realty chairman and CEO Doctor R. Crants, the company also will pay 4.5% of the cost of each facility to CCA in business development expenses. Further, a 5% fee paid to CCA for capital expenditures has been doubled. Prison Realty officials did not mention the elevated costs in a May 5 first quarter earnings statement even though the company's board had approved the increases the day before.

Prison Realty, a real estate investment trust (REIT), distributes almost all of ...

A Corrections Corporation of America operated immigrant detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey is under investigation due to alleged misconduct by company employees. Federal officials confirmed on April 13, 1999 that the U.S. Dept. of Justice had requested the probe, which is being conducted by the FBI. The Elizabeth Detention Center has been operated by CCA since 1997 and holds asylum-seekers and other non-criminal immigrant detainees.

On January 28, 1999, Salah Dafak a detainee at the facility, was beaten so badly that he required hospital treatment.

Kevin Simpson, who worked as a transportation officer for TransCor America, Inc. a CCA subsidiary said when he arrived at the detention center to take Dafah to the hospital he noticed that Dafali's clothes were bloody, his chin was split open and a shoe imprint was visible on his face. Simpson said CCA guards told him Dafali had injured himself by hitting his head and face against the wall of his cell. "I didn't believe it. I still don't. I don't see how you can get a shoe print on your face from a wall," he said. Simpson was fired after he allegedly refused to cooperate with an internal investigation.

Oluwole Aboyade, a Nigerian ...

Private Transportation Company Liable Under 42 USC § 1983

A federal district court in Colorado held that alleged sexual assaults committed by an employee of a private transportation company, under contract with the state Department of Corrections, were committed under color of state law and stated a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Under a contract for extradition transportation between TransCor America, Inc., a subsidiary of the Corrections Corporation of America, and the Colorado Department of Corrections, former TransCor employees Jack ter Linden and Randy Goodman transported Joann Gwynn from Oregon to Colorado in November of 1993.

Gwynn filed suit against TransCor, ter Linden and Goodman, alleging violations of her constitutional rights during the trip. She alleged that ter Linden repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and fondled her during the 145 hour trip and that Goodman failed to prevent or report these assaults.

Defendants moved to dismiss Gwynn's § 1983 claim for failure to state a claim, arguing that ter Linden's sexual assaults were not committed under color of state law and did not constitute state action, but rather were purely private conduct undertaken for purely private purposes.

The court treated the state's motion as a motion for summary judgment and ...

By Dan Savage

Alpharetta, Georgia- I'm naked, and I'm not happy. In just under an hour, I've been subjected to two of three punishments I'd specifically asked to be spared from. On forms I filled out weeks ago, I ticked the "quiet menace" box over the "shouted orders" box, and in the "special requests" space, I explained that I didn't want to be naked. Yet here I am, standing in front of my three fellow prisoners all fully clothed bare assed. I'm being bellowed at by a very large, very intimidating man in a black police uniform. The four of us were "arrested" about an hour ago, and I'm being "processed" first: questioned, fingerprinted, photographed and strip searched.

I want my money back.

The Academy Training Center, located just outside Atlanta, "caters to men who are curious about prison life." The four of us have come to "experience authentic incarceration" In a facility staffed by "genuine law enforcement officers." As The New York Times recently reported, thousands of tourists are visiting the country's prisons; a billboard in Kansas beckons, "How About Doin' Some TIME in Leavenworth?" [See also PLN, Aug. 1998, "Prisons Promote Tourism".]

While visitors to the federal penitentiary ...

On June 25, 1999, the state of Missouri filed a proposed $2.2 million settlement in U.S. District Court that would dispose of 32 lawsuits filed in state and federal courts by 700 - 2,100 Missouri prisoners abused in Texas jails. The lawsuits stem partly from abuses that occurred during a ...

On April 6, 1999, up to 400 prisoners at the Wackenhut-oper- ated Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, New Mexico, rioted and ransacked the prison's kitchen and dining areas. Thirteen guards, including two state employees, and one prisoner were injured in the melee, which was the latest in a series of violent incidents that have occurred at the private prison over the past year [see PLN, June, 1999]. Hundreds of state and local law enforcement officers responded to the riot.

New Mexico Corrections Dept. spokesman Mike Toms said the disturbance started as an argument between prisoners and guards over items used in Native American religious services. Several months before the riot, a group of Native American prisoners had complained they were being prevented from conducting religious ceremonies. The group the Red Nation Indian Society submitted the complaint to the corrections department in a letter signed by around 40 prisoners.

The Lea County Correctional Facility holds the largest number of Native American prisoners among New Mexico's state prisons, with about 60 taking part in religious services. The prisoners stated in their complaint that they were unable to use a ceremonial sweat lodge they had built because Wackenhut would not provide a ...

Prof. Charles W. Thomas, director of the Private Corrections Project at the University of Florida and a board member of Prison Realty Corp., has long been criticized for his close connections with the private prison companies he researches [see: "University professor shills for private prison industry," PLN, Feb. 1999].

On April 19, 1999, Thomas agreed to settle two ethics complaints filed against him by the Florida Police Benevolent Association, a union that represents state corrections employees. In light of a $3 million fee he received for advising CCA on its merger with Prison Realty Trust, Thomas acknowledged that his business dealings with private prison operators could create the impression of a conflict of interest.

According to Eric Scott of the state Attorney General's office, Thomas's "contractual relationships with [Prison Realty Corp.] created a situation which could tempt dishonor. Because the results of [his] research can have such a profound effect on the private prison industry, [he] is in a position where his private economic interests and his public duty overlap in a manner which could lead to a disregard of his public duty. In other words, [he] could be tempted to alter the results of his research in an effort ...