A series of hunger strikes over the past two years by detainees at federal immigration detention facilities from Washington state to Pennsylvania have called for an end to the incarceration and deportation of undocumented immigrants, and exposed abuses and deficiencies in privately-operated, for-profit detention centers.

“The fortifications, the walls that attempted to contain our participation have cracked and with ever growing unity we will finish knocking them down,” said a group of detainees at the GEO Group-run Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington, in a written statement announcing the end of a 56-day protest in May 2014.

The hunger strikes, which at one time included around 1,200 immigrant detainees nationwide, began on March 7, 2014, two weeks after protesters outside NWDC blocked deportation buses and vans from entering or exiting the facility. Ten days later, after hearing that prisoners at NWDC were refusing to eat or perform work, detainees at the Joe Corley Detention Center (JCDC) in Conroe, Texas – also run by the GEO Group – joined the hunger strike.

Former detainees reportedly rallied outside the facilities to demonstrate their support of the hunger strikers, according to CBS. “A hunger strike is the only tool they feel like ...

In September 2015, a Mississippi federal district court certified as a class-action a lawsuit challenging the treatment and conditions afforded mentally ill prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF). The court further held that the plaintiffs’ mental health experts could testify as to the methodologies used to formulate their opinions.

The seven claims raised in the civil rights action seek to “eliminate the substantial risks of serious harm” that result from alleged inadequate medical and mental health care, unsanitary environmental conditions, use of excessive force by EMCF staff and use of solitary confinement. [See: PLN, Jan. 2014, p.24]. The facility is operated by private prison firm Management & Training Corp.; it was previously operated by GEO Group before the company discontinued its contracts in Mississippi in 2012. [See: PLN, Nov. 2013, p.30].

The defendants moved under Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharms., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) to exclude the expert reports and testimony of the plaintiffs’ medical and mental health experts, Dr. Terry A. Kupers, Dr. Marc Stern, Dr. Bart Abplanalp and Nurse Practitioner Madeline LaMarre. Under Daubert, an expert’s opinion must be assessed to determine “whether the reasoning or methodology underlying the testimony is scientifically valid.” ...

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) successfully moved in federal court to dismiss a suit brought by the survivors of a guard who was killed by prisoners during a riot in 2012.

On May 20, 2012, prisoners rioted at the Adams County Corrections Center (ACCC) in Mississippi. According to court records, prisoners at ACCC were treated inhumanely and were deprived of basic needs. This created a "dangerous atmosphere" at the short-handed private prison, according to the lawsuit filed by the family of Catlin Carithers, the guard who was killed during the riot.

Carithers was apparently on a "hit list" of guards to be harmed during the riot. Two days before the riot, an informant warned prison staff that Carithers was on the "hit list," according to the complaint.

But on the day of the riot, Carithers was not at work. He was called in to work by a security officer who knew Carithers was on the "hit list," according to the lawsuit.

Shortly after he arrived at work on May 20, 2012, Carithers was killed in the riot.

His survivors sued CCA, claiming CCA was liable for Carithers' death by creating the dangerous environment at ACCC, not hiring enough staff, mistreating ...

A Tennessee federal court dismissed deliberate indifference claims against a jail doctor for a prisoner's seizure death, absent allegations of his personal involvement or awareness. The court refused to dismiss claims brought against the private medical care company or the nurses who were present.

Sevier County, Tennessee, contracted with First Med, Inc., a private health care company, to provide jail medical care. Jail physician, Dr. Robert M. Maughon, MD, is the sole owner of First Med Inc. Jail Nurse Supervisor Tammy Finchum and Nurse Jessie Timbrook are First Med employees who work at the jail.

On February 20, 2011, Billy Duane Foster began serving a sentence in the Sevier County Jail. At about 7:22 a.m., on February 27, 2011, Foster suffered a seizure. Soon thereafter, Nurse Timbrook witnessed him having another seizure. At 8:12 a.m., Foster was moving with a staggering gait and was oriented only as to place. He was apparently not treated and there is a dispute as to whether Timbrook even took his vitals.

Timbrook was called again at 4:00 p.m., when Foster had another seizure. She was present when he suffered another seizure at 4:36 p.m.

At that time, Timbrook finally concluded that Foster needed to ...

The San Luis Regional Detention and Support Center opened with a capacity of 548 beds in 2007. Initially, it housed male and female immigration detainees. In 2009, Emerald Correctional Management took over operation of the center, located in San Luis, Arizona. Emerald initiated a 368-bed expansion of the center which was completed in November 2011 and resulted in a total capacity of 916 beds. But the Yuma region never needed that many immigration detainee beds and the facility is now only about half full and losing money.

"Prosecutions (in Yuma) have never supported large scale numbers," said Fidencio Rivera, Chief Deputy Marshall for the District of Arizona. "Emerald has come in and expanded hoping they could" increase their revenue by attracting additional prisoners. They had a "build it and they will come" philosophy "and [the prisoners] didn't materialize. It didn't work out for them. So now they are in a position where they are trying to stay above water--trying to make money. We are in tune and we are doing the best we can."

What does Rivera mean by being "in tune" with Emerald? In the past, it meant busing prisoners from other facilities to San Luis just to keep ...

Privatizing prison and jail services has become a popular avenue for correctional bureaucrats to utilize in the never-ending battle to cut costs to accommodate shrinking budgets and larger populations

Food service is an essential, daily service that has been subject to privatization. The two biggest players, Aramark Correctional Services and Trinity Services Group, have been all too happy to provide this service. They charge jails and prisons as little as 75 cents to $2 per meal.

For some jurisdictions, that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings a year. Some report their costs being cut in half. While privatizing food services may save some money in food costs, little attention is placed on the service actually provided and whether prisoners are being properly fed.

Georgia’s Gordon County Jail contracts with Trinity to provided meals for its residents. It houses about 278 persons daily; between July to November in 2014, the jail received 85 grievances about food. One prisoner filed several grievances with a single word: “Hungry”.

Several prisoners claimed they had lost 20 or more pounds in a few months. The grievances were deemed as unfounded. Trinity has little regard for what prisoners think about the meals they ...

by Alex Friedmann*

It sounds like such a simple question: do private prisons save money? The answer, however, is dependent on a number of factors – including how “saving money” is defined.

Consider that in 2013, the nation’s largest for-profit prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), made $300.8 million in net profit on gross revenue of $1.69 billion. Thus, the company achieved $300.8 million in savings over operational expenses at its prisons, jails and other detention facilities. But how much of that $300.8 million went to taxpayers or reverted to state treasuries or county coffers?

None. Those “savings” went to CCA in the form of corporate profit.

Over the past three decades there have been dozens of studies and analyses of cost comparisons between public and privately-operated prisons – by academics, government agencies and independent organizations – all attempting to answer the elusive question of whether private prisons save money. This is not one of those attempts.

Instead, rather than trying to determine if prison privatization results in savings due to the shifting of costs from public agencies, this article takes an opposite approach by identifying costs that are shifted from privately-operated facilities to the public sector. An examination ...

Privately-operated federal prisons, also known as contract prisons, have more violence, use-of-force incidents and contraband seizures than facilities run by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), among other findings in an August 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

The 86-page report examined data from 14 private prisons that contract with the BOP; those CAR (Criminal Alien Requirement) facilities hold around 27,000 non-citizen federal prisoners who are subject to deportation after completing their prison terms. The data collected was compared to 14 BOP institutions with similar demographics.

The OIG also visited three of the private prisons – the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility and Eden Detention Center in Texas, and the Rivers Correctional Institution in North Carolina. All had been cited by the BOP for more than one safety and security problem, though “[n]one of the three prisons lost its ACA accreditation because of these security related deficiencies,” the report stated.

The facilities examined by the OIG were operated by a trio of for-profit companies: GEO Group, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Management & Training Corp. (MTC). The BOP paid the companies $639 million to run all 14 contract prisons in fiscal ...

Coccidioidomycosis is the medical term for valley fever, an airborne fungal disease that led to more than 5,600 reported infections in Arizona in 2014; the disease is also prevalent in some areas of California. PLN has previously reported on valley fever cases among Hawaii prisoners housed at the privately-operated Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona. [See: PLN, Aug. 2016, p.56]. According to a recent investigation by Honolulu’s Civil Beat newspaper, numerous cases of the disease at Saguaro have gone unreported.

A provision of the Arizona Administrative Code requires correctional administrators to report to local health authorities “all cases or suspected cases” of communicable diseases. The Civil Beat’s review of Pinal County Public Health Services District records found that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) had not reported a single case of valley fever at the Saguaro facility since 2007. However, conflicting records from the Hawaii Department of Public Safety indicate that at least four prisoners have been infected with the disease – one case each in 2014 and 2015, and two cases in 2016. The department hasn’t tracked older cases.

CCA denied that it had violated any reporting requirements. According to spokesman Jonathan Burns, the company “always strives to fulfill applicable ...

Prisoner Transportation Services, also known as PTS of America, LLC, bills itself as the “largest prisoner extradition company and one of the largest national transporters of detainees” in the United States.

The firm, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, was recently advised by the Surface Transportation Board (STB), a federal regulatory agency, that its application to merge with U.S. Corrections, one of its competitors, had been delayed after the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC) filed a detailed comment objecting to the merger. HRDC is the parent organization of Prison Legal News.

PLN has been a longtime critic of the prisoner transportation industry, citing numerous accidents resulting in deaths and injuries of both prisoners and guards as well as escapes, sexual abuse and other problems. PLN has also noted abysmal conditions during prisoner transports. [See: PLN, Dec. 2015, p.60; Sept. 2006, p.1].

According to HRDC’s August 8, 2016 comment filed with the STB, “Prisoners have reported that transport drivers sometimes refuse to stop for restroom breaks, causing them to urinate or defecate in transport vehicles; fail to provide water or adequate food; fail to respond to medical emergencies; fail to provide sanitary pads or tampons to female prisoners who are menstruating; drive ...