More Jurisdictions Don’t Renew Corizon Contracts – Including Big Loss in New York City
by Greg Dober
Recent news for for-profit prison and jail healthcare provider Corizon with respect to contract renewals has not been good. In June 2015, it was announced that two of the company’s clients, the New York City jail system – including Rikers Island – and the Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania, would not be renewing their contracts with Corizon to provide medical services to prisoners. In both cases, the contracts were not renewed due to issues related to the company’s performance.
The jails are at opposite ends of the size spectrum, with Rikers holding approximately 11,000 prisoners and the Allegheny County Jail housing approximately 2,000. Yet Corizon was unable to effectively manage either facility, resulting in the loss of the contracts. Both New York City and Allegheny County chose not to have the contract rebid to any of the other large private medical care providers, such as Centurion, Naphcare or Wexford Health Sources.
Additionally, according to an April 2015 news report, “since 2012, Corizon has lost statewide contracts covering 84,000 inmates in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.” [See: PLN, March 2014, p.1]. Corizon also ...
$1 Million Paid by Wexford in Florida Prisoner’s death
Wexford Health Services paid $1 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from the 2004 death of Florida prisoner, Sergio Morejon, age 36. Just nine months shy of his release, Morejon got into a brawl with prisoners Monte Jordan and Willie Robinson. ...
Florida Appeals Court Invalidates Private Company Traffic Tickets
On October 14, 2014, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals found for Appellee Eric Arem, contesting a traffic citation issued by a private company that installed, implemented, and enforced a red-light camera ticketing operation under contract with the city of Hollywood, Florida (the City). Broward County Circuit Court accepted Arem’s motion to dismiss, arguing that the city’s practice of delegating authority to a private company was contrary to the plain wording of state law. At issue was the Mark Wendall Traffic Safety Program (the Act), F.S. 316.0083, authorizing local governments to use digital means to detect red-light violations. The City’s interpretation of the Act gave them the authority to delegate virtually all of the process, from recording the violation to the violator’s appearance in court.
Arem cited F.S. 316,0083(1)(a) which in pertinent part states, “. . . this paragraph does not prohibit a review of information from a traffic infraction detector by an authorized employee or agent of the department, a county, or a municipality before issuance by the Traffic Infraction Enforcement Officer. (TIEO) (emphasis added). In this case, a notice of violation was sent by American Traffic Systems (ATS), a private ...
California District Court Orders Financial Disclosure in Corizon Health, Inc. Suit
On March 29, 2014, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered for the plaintiffs in response to a joint letter between the parties, disputing the timeliness and extent of financial disclosures in a deliberate indifference suit. Plaintiffs, pursuant to a civil rights judgment against defendants petitioned the court for financial records of defendants’ healthcare provider, Corizon Health, Inc. In a letter to the court, Corizon stipulated that it would provide responsive financial records from a single year, but only if the case survived summary judgment.
The court identified the issue as the consonance between plaintiffs’ clear right to disclosure of defendants’ financial information in furtherance to obtaining a just resolution of legal claims, and defendants’ right to privacy. Based on precedent from the Northern District and other California courts, the court ordered Corizon to produce two years of financial records and more recent such documents as they become available. See: M. H. v. County of Alameda, U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal. 2014), Case No. 3:11-cv-02868.
By Santiago Navarro F. and Renata Bessi and Translated by Clayton Conn, Truthout
Between 1992 and 2013, the prison population in Brazil increased by more than 400 percent, compared with a 36 percent population growth over the same period, according to the country's Ministry of Justice There are currently 711,463 prisoners incarcerated in the so-called penitentiary industry that prison rights groups argue is a commodification of human bodies.
"I was visiting a privatized female unit in the state of Espírito Santo, and entered the prison's pharmacy, and the director proudly told me that all the inmates were 100 percent medicated with psychotropic drugs for three months," said Jesus Filho, former member of the National Prison Clergy of Brazil. "That is population control. This was one of the most extreme cases of objectification of prisoners that I have thus far witnessed there."
A majority of the convictions are related to economic and drug trafficking crimes. "The [prison] population is mostly black, poor people who had no chance in life; or education, health, and decent housing - people who end up in criminal activity as a last resort," Fernanda Vieira, a lawyer from the Margarida Alves Collective, which offers accessible legal ...
Halfway to Nowhere - Out of prison, not yet home.
By Eric Borsuk
I walk out the front doors of the prison at ten o’clock in the morning. For the first time, I am standing in the “sliver.” My mother and sister rush to me, beaming with tears in their eyes. We hug and kiss while my father snaps pictures on a digital camera. No more clanging steel gates, no more guards shouting orders over loud speakers. An oversize American flag sways above us; rust-colored leaves float down through the crisp fall air. Autumn, from the Etruscan root autu- and the Latin auctumnus, signifying the passing of the season. Six years in a box with only a dictionary for a friend: My mind works differently now.
It’s hard to remember myself before all this, as a 19-year-old college kid who thought it was a good idea to join some buddies in stealing a first edition of Charles Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species" and other rare books and manuscripts from a university library. In prison, you start to forget after a while even why you’re there. Who you were, what you wanted—the steady, quotidian punishment grinds it away. For years ...
CCA Pays $25,000 in Wrongful Death of Overweight Tennessee Prisoner
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) paid $25,000 to settle a lawsuit involving the death of a prisoner at the Silverdale Detention Center in Tennessee.
When received by CCA, prisoner Freddie Lindsey Lightner, Jr. weighed approximately 650 pounds and was able ...
$650,000 Settlement in Prisoner’s Preventable Death at CCA Prison
by David Reutter
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) paid $650,000 to settle a matter involving the death of a prisoner at the Metro-Davidson County Detention Center (MDCDC).
In a September 20, 2006 demand letter sent to CCA by the Sloss family ...
$120,000 Settlement in Suicide of CCA Prisoner
by David M. Reutter
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) paid $120,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging it failed to provide proper psychiatric care for a prisoner at the Whiteville Correctional Facility, resulting in his suicide.
Prisoner Ricky Ware was known to have suffered ...
$75,000 Settlement in CCA Prisoner’s Suicide
by David M. Reutter
Corrections Corporation of America paid $75,000 to settle a lawsuit seeking redress for its failure to provide care to prevent a prisoner’s suicide.
Whiteville Correctional Facility prisoner, Lawrence Ware, Jr., was known to suffer from mental problems. On March 5, ...
