In October 2015, Phillip Henry Freeman disappeared from the Liberty County Jail near Houston, Texas. He was recaptured living in a wooded area in Arkansas in late January 2016. His escape was the latest in a slew of problems at the 281-bed facility, which is operated by New Jersey-based Community Education Centers (CEC). In recent years the Liberty County Jail has experienced three prisoner deaths, including two suicides; two top jail administrators were fired amid allegations of sexual misconduct; one administrator was found to lack a state jailer’s license and the facility has failed a number of state inspections. [See: PLN, July 2014, p.47].

Freeman, 38, was last seen working in the jail’s kitchen prior to his disappearance. Jailers searched for four hours before declaring him an escapee; they remain uncertain how he absconded.

The escape “seems to encapsulate all of the problems of turning a jail over to a for-profit prison corporation,” stated Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, a civil rights group that is outspoken in its opposition to prison privatization. “Including incentivizing high rates of incarceration, staffing at a very low level to maximize profits, which lead to operational outcomes like you’ve seen – failed inspections ...

by Sydney Smith, iMediaEthics

The U.S. news magazine Mother Jones sent reporter Shane Bauer undercover  as a prison guard at a facility run by the private company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).  During that time, Bauer worked at the then-CCA facility Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana.

Since undercover reporting isn’t a common method in U.S. journalism, iMediaEthics contacted both the magazine to learn more about its decision and the prison company to learn how CCA has responded.

“Is there any other way to see what really happens inside a private prison?” reporter Bauer, who was held hostage in Iran from 2009 to 2011, asked in his piece. Obviously, Bauer answered that question with a resounding ‘no’, and Mother Jones‘ editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery agreed that it made his up-close look at private prisons possible.

However, Jonathan Burns, the CCA’s Director of Public Affairs, disagrees, complaining in a statement sent to iMediaEthics that Mother Jones‘ defense was disingenuous.

Why Mother Jones Went Undercover

Burns complained that it was “an outright falsehood” for Mother Jones to say it had to go undercover to get the real story since no one at the magazine had contacted CCA for an interview or to visit the facilities. According to CCA’s records, only once ...

By Beryl Lipton, MuckRock

Part 1 - Taking a look inside the black hole of prisoner grievances, and the lessons learned too late

During the years it was operated by the private Management and Training Corporation, the “property” grievance was the most common type filed at Arizona State Prison - Kingman.

Over a third of the 3500-person facility’s 1600 grievances fell into this category, followed by healthcare (~450) and staff (~80) complaints; many more “Category 16” complaints would arrive after a “disturbance” last July. Case #M59-110-0**, initially filed three years ago this week, was among the seemingly more benign complaints filed in the time before riots shook the prison and management was changed. The issue was a missing pair of shoes.

The V4orce Nitrus men’s running shoe was one of four sneaker choices inmates had inside. According to Inmate 2*3*9*, they were the cheapest and the best looking option; he’d already had one pair and in late May 2013, while he grabbed some strawberry cheese danish ($0.98) and another antishank toothbrush ($0.04), he ordered a new set ($17.98), which he’d be able to pick up from the property office in a week.

Public and private prisons across America receive ...

According to state officials, the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC), which holds up to 720 residents billed as the worst sexual predators in the state, is necessary to ensure public safety. For Correct Care Recovery Solutions, a spin-off company of the GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest private prison contractors, it’s the source of $272 million in revenue.

Twenty states have laws that allow for the involuntary and indefinite civil commitment of sexually violent predators (SVPs), but only Florida has turned the operation of its commitment center over to a for-profit contractor.

“Florida is the only state whose entire SVP program is being run by a private company,” said Shan Jumper, president of the Sex Offender Civil Commitment Programs Network. “A few other states contract out pieces of their operations (psychological treatment or testing, community release supervision) to private companies.”

Moreover, Florida involuntarily commits more people than any other state (California ranks second). A new law that increases the pool of offenders Florida can consider for civil commitment will likely increase the number of FCCC residents. To accommodate the anticipated influx, state officials are considering adding a new wing at FCCC or converting a prison to handle the overflow. ...

In July 2015, the privately-run Arizona State Prison Complex at Kingman (ASP Kingman) was rocked by a protracted riot in which 16 people – both guards and prisoners – suffered injuries. Following the disturbance, the state scrapped its contract with Management & Training Corporation (MTC) and handed operation of the prison to a different contractor.

The riot caused over $2 million in damage and forced the relocation of more than 1,000 prisoners to other facilities. Further, Governor Doug Ducey ordered the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) to review security procedures at five other private prisons in the state. [See: PLN, Dec. 2015, p.63].

The resulting report by state prison officials found that a “culture of disorganization, disengagement, and disregard of ADC ... policies and fundamental inmate management and security issues” had existed at ASP Kingman prior to the disturbance, and played a substantial role in the incident. The match that apparently ignited the riot came in the form of a fight between two prisoners that MTC staff failed to control.

The 183-page ADC report found that private prisons in Arizona, managed by the GEO Group, CCA (recently rebranded as CoreCivic) and MTC, were in substantial compliance with state regulations ...

Two New York counties agreed to pay $1.85 million to settle a lawsuit over the July 2011 death of detainee Irene Bamenga while she was under the care of private medical contractor Corizon Health.

Bamenga, a French citizen, tried to enter Canada from the U.S. on July 15, 2011 with the intention of traveling to Toronto to catch a plane to Paris. She was denied entry by Canadian Customs, apparently because she did not closely resemble her passport photo.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained her upon re-entering the U.S., determining her visa was no longer valid. She was transported to the Allegany County Jail (ACJ) to await deportation proceedings. During booking, Bamenga informed guards that she suffered from chronic congestive heart failure (CHF), a condition that requires an extensive regimen of medications to prevent serious illness or death.

At the time she was jailed, Bamenga had a three-month supply of medication with her. Despite ICE providing those medications to jail staff, Bamenga was denied her prescribed meds from July 15 to July 18. She received “some” medications that a nurse decided was the “usual” dosage, which was not consistent with Bamenga’s regimen. She began to experience symptoms of CHF, ...

Since 2013, former New Mexico prison doctor Mark E. Walden, nicknamed “Dr. Fingers,” has faced allegations that he sexually abused a number of state prisoners. As a result of the alleged sexual assaults, he has been sued at least 15 times by 77 prisoners who were housed at facilities where Walden was employed. While the latest case was filed in January 2017, seven lawsuits have settled since 2013.

Walden, who worked for private medical services provider Corizon Health, had worked at two New Mexico state prisons operated by the GEO Group: Guadalupe County Correctional Facility (GCCF) from 2010 to 2012, and Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility (NNMDF) from February 2012 to July 2012.

The lawsuits filed as a result of Dr. Walden’s alleged improprieties have listed Walden, Corizon and GEO as defendants. Per the terms of the New Mexico Corrections Department’s (NMCD) contract with Corizon, the company and not the state agency must defend against litigation involving medical-related services.

As previously reported in Prison Legal News, Dr. Walden is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing prisoners by giving them inappropriate rectal exams for a variety of unrelated conditions and fondling their genitals. Most of his victims were young adult prisoners. [See: ...

Prisoners who cause property damage in correctional facilities often receive swift punishment. It was no different for the very young prisoners held in one of the United States’ most controversial detention centers. Housed with their immigrant mothers in the GEO Group-operated Karnes County Residential Center in Texas, some creative toddlers marked on a table in the visitors’ area of the facility with crayons while their parents spoke with attorneys, prompting a ban on crayons for all children in the visitation area.

On November 17, 2016, The Guardian reported that Barbara Hines, a University of Texas adjunct professor and member of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), had written to ICE officials. Hines said of the crayon ban, “Treating a child’s color markings as ‘destruction of property’ is altogether inappropriate. And such markings are a cost that comes with the detention of children. It is extremely disturbing that ICE’s concern for GEO’s property takes precedence over the wellbeing of the children and their mothers’ rights to legal advice.”

Lawyers working on behalf of the nearly 600 mothers and children detained at Karnes said the ban on crayons was unnecessarily punitive. A petition circulated by RAICES calling ...

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has held that prison officials do not have to treat medical conditions that could result in a prisoner’s impotence or infertility.

When Shemtov Michtavi was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, he received laser surgery on his prostate. The surgery caused a hole that allowed semen to leak into his bladder; this resulted in retrograde ejaculation, a condition that can cause impotence.

The physician who performed the surgery had been privately contracted by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). She recommended Psuedofel to treat Michtavi’s condition. BOP officials refused to prescribe the medication, stating it was the agency’s policy “that treatment of a sexual dysfunction is not medically necessary, and medical providers are not to talk to inmates about ejaculation since it is a prohibited sexual act.”

Michtavi filed a pro se federal civil rights suit against the BOP alleging the policy amounted to deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Finding that “the right to procreate is a fundamental right and the Supreme Court has recognized that a prisoner has a fundamental right to post-incarceration procreation,” the magistrate judge recommended that Michtavi’s claims be allowed ...

Problems for Aramark and its prison food service operations continue to mount. Shortly after being taken to task and fined by at least two state corrections departments due to substandard food quality, understaffing and meal preparation areas contaminated by maggots, the company has been accused of overcharging the State of Michigan $3.4 million related to its contract with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC).

Aramark was the subject of a Prison Legal News cover story in December 2015 that highlighted problems in the company’s prison food service operations in Michigan, including maggot infestations in kitchen areas and an employee who served food to prisoners that had been thrown away because it was nibbled on by rats. Other Aramark employees were barred from state prisons due to misconduct that ranged from improper sexual relationships and smuggling drugs to an attempt to have a prisoner beaten by other prisoners.

Such incidents led Michigan officials to terminate Aramark’s prison food service contract effective September 2015.

According to the findings of a preliminary state audit released in December 2015, Aramark failed to properly implement the “MealTrac” system, which was designed to automatically count the number of meals served to prisoners for billing purposes. The ...