by David M. Reutter

The Southern Center for Human Rights filed a class action lawsuit against Sentinel Offender Services, a private probation company, on behalf of persons in Atlanta who were forced by Sentinel to pay illegal fees while on "pay-only" probation for traffic violation.

Georgia law allows for courts to place defendants on "pay-only" probation when they are "unable to pay the court imposed fines and statutory surcharges when such defendant's sentence is imposed." The courts typically impose a jail sentence that is suspended in lieu of the probation.

If a violation is alleged, the defendant can be jailed, with limited procedural safeguards, for failure to pay.

Because Georgia criminalizes traffic offenses and many other low-level offenses, it has a higher rate of people on probation than any other state, and the highest number of people on probation, in absolute terms," the complaint states.

That created a huge market for Sentinel to operate within, and it had contracts to supervise people on probation in over 70 courts throughout Georgia. Corporate greed is at the root of the recent class action. Similar motivation resulted, as PLN reported, in other lawsuits against Sentinel. See PLN ___.

The class action suit has ...

by David M. Reutter

Less than two years after opening the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center (TTCC) in January 2016, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) imposed a $43,750 fine against the prison’s private operator, Nashville-based CoreCivic.

Formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, and the nation’s largest for-profit prison company, CoreCivic had already swapped Warden Todd Thomas at Trousdale for Blair Leibach from the company’s Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility. The TDOC levied the fine for not properly conducting prisoner counts – one of the four most serious of 66 non-compliance issues cited in a March 2017 annual audit, along with the improper use of solitary confinement, inadequate staffing and allegations of excessive force.

“Count is one of the most important functions that prison officials perform – it verifies the number of inmates and detects escapes,” said PLN managing editor Alex Friedmann, who served time in a CCA-operated prison in the 1990s. “The failure to adequately perform one of the most basic security functions of a correctional facility speaks volumes about [CoreCivic’s] ability to operate TTCC.”

“We’ve got work to do; clearly, we’ve got work to do,” CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger admitted.

In November 2017, a performance audit by the Tennessee ...

by Christopher Zoukis

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) over­paid food service giant Aramark $57,193 for food provided to nonexistent prisoners, investigators found.

The overpayment was uncovered by the state Office of the Inspector General (OIG). According to a June 15, 2017 report, the OIG began investigating Aramark after learning of a dispute between the company and the Michigan Department of Corrections over billing discrepancies in excess of $3 million. [See: PLN, Jan. 2018, p.46].

Aramark has held the contract to provide meals to Ohio state prisoners for over four years. The state pays the company around $60 million annually to feed more than 50,000 prisoners in 31 ODRC facilities. Meals provided by Aramark cost the state around $1.31 each.

In January 2017, the union representing ODRC employees submitted its third bid to take over prison food services upon completion of Aramark’s contract the following June. The price per meal quoted by the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA) was $1.226 – low enough to save the state $4.4 million per year.

After rejecting OCSEA’s initial bid in 2013, state prison officials fined Aramark $235,000 for several contract violations – including problems with cleanliness in its kitchens. ...

A New York federal jury awarded $7.9 million to the estate of Bartholomew Ryan, 32, who committed suicide at the Nassau County Jail. The jury found the county and its medical contractor, Armor Correctional Health Services, were negligent and had violated Ryan’s constitutional rights.

Ryan was a Marine Corps veteran ...

by Derek Gilna

The Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the parent organization of Prison Legal News, filed a complaint on January 12, 2018 seeking class-action status in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit alleges unlawful and exploitative practices by JPay, Inc., Sunrise Banks National Association and the bank’s credit card processor, Praxell Processing, in forcing fee-laden debit cards on prisoners being released from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

The CDCR is required by statute to provide released offenders with the funds in their prison trust accounts, plus $200 in “gate money” if they have been in custody for more than six months. In the past those funds were returned in the form of a check, but the CDCR now requires all prisoners to receive the money on a prepaid debit card, and JPay has a monopoly contract to provide the cards.

Unfortunately, the fee-laden debit cards have placed yet another burden on offenders struggling to reintegrate into society upon their release. The fees associated with the JPay cards include $1.00 for declined point-of-sale or ATM transactions, $5.00 to replace lost or stolen cards, a $3.00 monthly “maintenance fee” with the ...

by Derek Gilna

An April 2017 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) strongly criticized private prison company CoreCivic (formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America), which operates the Leavenworth Detention Center (LDC) in Kansas. The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), which contracts with CoreCivic to manage the facility, was also a target of the OIG’s criticism.

As previously reported in PLN,Core­Civic had already come under fire for secretly recording privileged conversations between LDC prisoners and their attorneys, then sharing the recordings with federal prosecutors. [See: PLN, May 2017, p.36; Oct. 2016, p.44].

According to the OIG report, “unbeknownst to the USMS, LDC officials had uninstalled beds prior to an American Correctional Association (ACA) inspection in 2011.” The beds – the third added to cells designed for two prisoners – were removed “to conceal from ACA that the LDC was triple-bunking detainees.”

The ACA is the main accrediting body for both public and private correctional facilities, tasked with carrying out inspections before it certifies a facility as compliant with its self-promulgated standards. [See: PLN, July 2016, p.1].

Triple-bunking violated both ACA standards and the $697 million, 20-year contract between the USMS and ...

Until recently, Damon Hininger, president and CEO of CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), served as chairman of the Board of Trustees for the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville (UWMN). CoreCivic is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

After UWMN CEO Eric Dewey, 54, died unexpectedly on March 31, 2017, the organization embarked on a search for a replacement leader. According to a news report, the national search for a CEO was headed by Alberto R. Gonzales, the dean at Belmont University’s College of Law, and Hininger.

Gonzalez is best known as having served as U.S. Attorney General under the George W. Bush administration, where he condoned “enhanced interrogation techniques” – widely criticized as constituting torture – for terrorism suspects.

On October 3, 2017, PLN managing editor Alex Friedmann sent an email regarding the new CEO search to several UWMN officials, including interim CEO Mary Jo Wiggins, board chairman Mike Schatzlein with Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, and vice board chair Jim Schmitz with Regions Bank.

Friedmann noted that Damon Hininger headed the nation’s largest private prison company, and that “CoreCivic is in the business of incarcerating people for the purpose of generating corporate profit.” He added, “The vast majority of ...

by Matt Clarke

On December 12, 2016, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas district court’s sanctions of $1,000 each against lawyers representing GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison operator, after finding they had engaged in discovery abuse.

Lisa Velasquez Olivarez filed a civil rights action against GEO Group and its employees alleging that, while she was incarcerated at the GEO-run Maverick County Detention Center in Texas, she was sexually assaulted by then-GEO staff member Luis Armando Valladarez. Valladarez claimed the sex was initiated by Olivarez and “consensual,” despite the fact that prisoners in Texas cannot legally consent to sexual contact with prison staff.

Early in the litigation, GEO Group attorney Shawn K. Fitzpatrick submitted the company’s initial disclosures pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1)(A). Attorney Timothy Flocos, who was representing Valladarez, did likewise. Neither disclosure included any mention of audio recordings of Olivarez’s phone conversations with her mother and her friend Juan.

Under Rule 26(a)(1)(A), a party is required to disclose all documents, electronically stored information and tangible things it may use to support its claims or defenses, unless the sole use would be for impeachment purposes.

During subsequent depositions, Fitzpatrick asked Olivarez about ...

by Matt Clarke

The family of a prisoner who was maced by guards as he bled to death at an Oklahoma prison operated by CoreCivic--then known as Corrections Corporation of America--has filed a lawsuit alleging prison officials allowed corruption and gangs to flourish at the facility, resulting in conditions that led to four murders. Several prisoners involved in the deadly melee have since been charged with participating in a riot.

At 4:39 p.m. on September 12, 2015, at the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, Oklahoma, a battle erupted in the Charlie North Unit between rival prison gangs identified as the Irish Mob and the United (sometimes reported as Universal) Aryan Brotherhood.

After a two-minute battle--using weapons that included shanks made from the prison’s light fixtures--our prisoners lay dying and three others had wounds that required hospitalization. Due to a CoreCivic policy in effect at the time, prisoners were locked out of their cells and thus could not retreat and lock themselves in for protection when the fight broke out.

In April 2017, seven prisoners – all allegedly members of the Irish Mob – were charged with participating in the riot: Gage Broom, 25; Phillip Wayne Jordan, Jr., 34; Korey L. ...

by David M. Reutter

An audit personally overseen by Florida state Rep. David Richardson concluded the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) had approved a pricing scheme that allowed Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), now known as CoreCivic, to operate the Lake City Correctional Facility (LCCF) at a significantly higher cost than if the state had run the prison itself.

Other reports by Rep. Richardson have led to staff changes at the privately-managed Gadsden Correctional Facility for women and the closure of the Lancaster Correctional Institution (LCI) for youthful offenders.

Since Governor Rick Scott began a drive to privatize prison operations – trying to make good on a promise from his successful 2010 campaign to trim $1 billion from the state’s corrections budget – Richardson has visited some 70 Florida prisons under a law that allows state legislators to enter a facility at any time for a review and inspection.

As recently reported in PLN, Richardson began visiting prisons housing youths after reading media reports of rampant abuse and violence. [See: PLN, Oct. 2017, p.22]. That investigation led to LCI’s closure.

Since then, Rep. Richardson’s work has turned into a one-man quest to bring accountability to Florida’s seven privately-operated ...