Private Prison Contractor Not Subject to New Jersey’s Open Records Act

On October 12, 2012, a New Jersey state superior court held that Community Education Centers (CEC), a private prison contractor, was not required to disclose its records under the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. § 47:1A-1 to -13. The decision was affirmed on appeal.

CEC operates Delaney Hall, a prison-like facility, for Essex County. The company contracts with Education and Health Centers of America (EHCA), a private non-profit entity, and EHCA contracts separately with the county to manage the facility.

John Paff filed an application in state court to require CEC to comply with his OPRA request for disclosure of records, including attorney billing records and personnel files for three CEC employees. The company opposed his request, arguing it was not subject to OPRA because it was not a “public entity.”

The court held that records subject to OPRA are limited to those kept or filed by any officer, commission, agency or authority of the state or political subdivision thereof in the course of the government’s official business. “OPRA defines ‘public agency’ to include ‘any of the principal departments in the Executive Branch of the State Government ...

Ninth Circuit: Prisoner’s Service of Process for Other Prisoner Not Protected Conduct

by Mark Wilson

On September 10, 2013, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a prisoner’s retaliation claim, holding that serving a summons for another prisoner is not constitutionally protected conduct.

Hawaiian prisoner Richard H. Blaisdell was incarcerated at the Saguaro Correctional Center, a prison in Arizona operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Since 2007 he has filed at least three lawsuits against prison officials.

On April 23, 2008, Blaisdell asked CCA classification supervisor Christina Frappiea to notarize a document for a lawsuit he planned to file against the facility. When she finished, Blaisdell announced that she had been “served” and handed her an unrelated summons and federal civil complaint prepared by another prisoner, Anthony Gouveia.

The complaint concerned Frappiea’s refusal to notarize a document related to a lawsuit Gouveia had filed in Mississippi. Blaisdell was not a party to that suit and had agreed to serve process for Gouveia.

Blaisdell and Frappiea argued about whether he had the right to serve her. She then issued disciplinary reports against Blaisdell, charging him with “Conspiracy” for agreeing to possess Gouveia’s summons and complaint, “Failure to ...

How to Starve the For-profit Prison Beast

by Justin Jones

I know some private prison lobbyists who would love it if you were found with a cell phone. Assuming, of course, that you’re already locked in one of the prisons their clients operate in Oklahoma.

Introducing a cell phone into a correctional facility used to be a misdemeanor in Oklahoma. Now, it’s a felony. This change did not happen for any reason other than a private prison lobbyist provided his client with a good way to make even more revenue off of people already imprisoned. Bumping this crime up from a misdemeanor to a felony means that when a person is caught with a cell phone in prison, he or she will end up staying in prison even longer; in most cases the new sentence will be added to the end of the existing one, instead of allowing people to serve time for both the crime that landed them behind bars and the cell phone infraction simultaneously. More prison time, more profits.

Does it matter that this policy has zero public safety value, as cell phones were already considered contraband behind bars? Not to a private prison company. When a ...

Seventh Circuit: No Qualified Immunity for Diabetic Detainee’s Death

by Mark Wilson

On August 20, 2013, the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of qualified immunity in a case concerning an Illinois pretrial detainee’s death due to medical neglect.

Phillip Okoro, 23, was arrested for a misdemeanor property offense ...

SEC Rejects CCA, GEO Group Shareholder Resolutions to Reduce Prison Phone Rates

On February 18, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted a request filed by for-profit prison company GEO Group to exclude a shareholder resolution that sought to reduce the high cost of phone calls made by prisoners at GEO-operated facilities. Ten days later, the SEC granted a request by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to exclude a similar shareholder resolution.

The resolutions, filed by Alex Friedmann, managing editor of PLN and associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), would have required the companies to forgo “commission” kickbacks from prison phone service providers. [See: PLN, Jan. 2014, p.44]. Such kickbacks are typically based on a percentage of revenue generated from inmate telephone services (ITS) – revenue that is mostly paid by prisoners’ families.

Specifically, the shareholder resolutions stated that GEO and CCA “shall not accept ITS commissions” at their facilities, and that when the companies contract with prison phone service providers they “shall give the greatest consideration to the overall lowest ITS phone charges among the factors [they consider] when evaluating and entering into ITS contracts.” CCA and GEO both filed no-action requests with the SEC ...

Administrators Fired at Privately-Run Texas Jail

The warden and head of security at the Liberty County Jail (LCJ) in Liberty, Texas have been fired in the wake of allegations that the chief of security sexually assaulted a female prisoner at the facility. The 285-bed jail is operated by the New Jersey-based Community Education Centers (CEC), a for-profit company.

Warden Timothy New and Chief of Security Kenneth Reid Nunn were fired in September 2012, just days after the county received a notice of claim from attorney Paul Houston LaValle on behalf of former LCJ prisoner Brandy Nichole O’Brien. O’Brien had been incarcerated at LCJ for failing to make timely child support payments.

According to the notice of claim, O’Brien “was repeatedly subjected to assault and battery, sexual assault, deviant sexual assault, humiliation, degradation and intentional infliction of emotional distress at the hands of Chief of Security Kenneth Reid Nunn and others” while incarcerated at the privately-run lock-up.

“Further, when Chief Nunn was repeatedly caught violating my client’s rights by other members of the jail staff or sheriff’s office, my client was threatened, coerced and coached on the statements she gave to investigators by Warden Tim New and others,” LaValle wrote.

In ...

Shrinking state budgets across the country are leading to prison closures that in turn have a negative impact on communities that depend on the facilities as a source of jobs and revenue. [See: PLN, June 2013, p.1; April 2009, p.1]. Small towns in Kentucky, Georgia and New York are among those facing recent adjustments to this new economic reality, but some local residents and lawmakers have fought back with campaigns to keep the prisons open.

The city of Wheelwright, Kentucky was hit hard by the closure of the 600-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center, a prison owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Officials said over 170 jobs were lost, although CCA pledged to relocate as many employees as possible to other facilities. The company said the June 2012 closing of Otter Creek was necessary after Kentucky did not renew its contract to house state prisoners at the facility.

“A lot of them [the employees] live within the city and a lot of them live in the community, you know,” said Andy Akers, Wheelwright’s mayor. “We’re a tight knit community around here.” Just before the closure of the prison, Akers had predicted a devastating impact on local businesses, fearing ...

Two Murders in Seven Months at CCA-run Prison in Tennessee

On May 23, 2014, the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville completed an autopsy report on Tennessee state prisoner Jeffery Sills, 43, who was murdered at the South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Wayne County on March 28. The facility is operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison company.

Sills’ death was classified as a homicide caused by “blunt and sharp force injuries.” He was allegedly beaten and stabbed to death by his cellmate, Travis Bess, who was later transferred to the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

Jeffery Sills was at least the second prisoner murdered at the CCA-run prison since September 1, 2013, when Gerald Ewing, 28, was killed during a series of fights at the facility. Comparably, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction there were no homicides at state-run prisons in calendar year 2013 and to date this year.

Jeffery Sills’ death was particularly brutal, according to the autopsy report. He suffered lacerations, abrasions and contusions to his head and neck, fractured cheek and nasal bones, cutting and stab/puncture wounds, and hemorrhages in the “posterior cervical spinal muscles” and “skeletal muscle of back and ...

Seventh Circuit: Jail Social Worker Ignored Detainee’s Suicide Risk

On August 12, 2013, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a jail social worker could be held liable for ignoring a detainee’s obvious risk of committing suicide.

Algerian citizen Hassiba Belbachir, 27, entered the United States as a visitor in November 2004. She overstayed her visa then flew from Chicago to England in February 2005, where she was detained by immigration authorities.

Belbachir was returned to Chicago a week later. On March 9, 2005, she was incarcerated at the McHenry County Jail in Illinois pending a deportation hearing.

A March 9, 2005 intake report did not reveal indications that Belbachir presented a significant suicide risk – in part because a “guard who filled out the intake report changed Belbachir’s answer ‘yes’ to the question ‘Are you currently extremely depressed or feeling suicidal?’ to ‘no,’” subsequently claiming he had made a mistake.

Five days later, Belbachir’s mental state had deteriorated significantly.

“Belbachir was suicidal and suffering from a ‘major depressive disorder’ – a warning sign for suicide,” according to the mental health progress notes of Vicki Frederick, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker employed by Centegra Health Systems, the jail’s medical ...

CCA Guard Killed During Riot was on Prisoners’ “Hit List”

by Matt Clarke

A federal lawsuit filed by the family of a guard murdered during a riot at a Mississippi facility claims that prison officials knew the guard was on a “hit list” compiled by prisoners when he was called in to help quell the disturbance.

Catlin Hugh Carithers, 24, was beaten to death during a May 20, 2012 riot at the Adams County Correctional Center near Natchez. The facility is operated by the Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison company. The 2,567-bed Adams County facility houses low-security adult male immigrants for the federal Bureau of Prisons, most of whom face deportation after finishing their prison sentences.

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield initially told reporters that the disturbance involved a power struggle between two different factions of prisoners, but an affidavit filed in federal court by an FBI agent in August 2012 stated the riot was a protest by prisoners against poor food, inadequate medical care and alleged mistreatment by staff at the facility.

In addition to Carithers’ death, half a dozen guards were held hostage and others were trapped for hours inside the ...