by Matt Clarke

In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that federal prisoners housed in privately-managed prisons may not file Bivens-style federal lawsuits against private prison employees alleging lack of medical care in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Richard Lee Pollard was a federal prisoner incarcerated in a California facility operated by Wackenhut Corrections (now GEO Group) when he slipped on a cart left in the doorway to the butcher shop in the prison’s food service department, fell and was injured. He was X-rayed at the prison. Because prison medical staff believed he had fractured both elbows, he was taken to an outside clinic for orthopedic evaluation. He later had surgery.

Pollard filed an action in federal court under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), alleging that guards had caused him severe pain by requiring him to put on a jumpsuit for transportation outside the prison when he could not extend his arm, and by placing him in arm restraints that caused him great pain. He also alleged that prison medical personnel failed to provide a splint, physical therapy and medical studies recommended by the outside clinic and provided insufficient pain medication, leaving ...

Idaho officials first tried to suppress what they called an “inflammatory” and “libelous” report filed by a court-appointed expert in a longstanding suit involving the state’s prison system. They then finally agreed to settle the 30-year-old litigation based upon the report’s findings.

In 1981, a flood of federal lawsuits was ...

A November 2011 standoff between police and two sex offenders threatening suicide at the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation (VCBR), the state’s civil commitment facility near Richmond, raised concerns about the safety and treatment of residents held at the center.

Two residents – identified only as a 29-year-old from Richmond and a 32-year-old from Delaware – climbed about 15 feet to the roof of the VCBR on November 21, 2011 and tied sheets around their necks. They demanded to speak with an official about treatment at the facility.

“We got two people up on the roof with nooses around their necks because they’re violating people’s rights here,” said a man who claimed to be a VCBR resident when he called the Richmond Times-Dispatch during the standoff. “We’re trying to talk to [administrators] and they aren’t doing anything for us.”

The two residents voluntarily descended from the roof after three hours and were examined by medical staff. They were then interviewed by Virginia State Police and returned to the center, which holds around 290 residents – mainly convicted sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences but have been civilly committed because they are deemed too dangerous to release.

“The facility’s ...

The departure of Bill Richardson as New Mexico’s governor has changed the previously lax business environment for the state’s private prison contractors. The new administration of Governor Susana Martinez is taking a more aggressive tone in demanding contractual compliance at privately-operated facilities that house state prisoners.

In March 2012, the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMDOC) imposed nearly $300,000 in fines against GEO Group, which operates three private prisons in the state. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was also hit with $11,779 in fines for failing to properly staff the women’s prison in Grants.

Those fines were on top of another $1.1 million in penalties assessed in November 2011 due to GEO’s failure to adequately staff the Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF). According to Shannon McReynolds, inspector general at the NMDOC, GEO Group agreed to pay the $1.1 million fine but was “not completely happy” about it. Additionally, the company agreed to spend $200,000 over the next year to recruit more employees at LCCF.

The penalties imposed against the company in March 2012, also for inadequate staffing, resulted from GEO’s failure to have enough guards in staffed positions at LCCF. There were also noncustodial positions, such as counselors for substance abuse ...

In early January 2013, both Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group – the nation’s two largest private prison companies that control a combined 75 percent of the for-profit prison market in the United States – announced that they had each completed preliminary plans to convert their corporate structure to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

REITs are designed for companies that primarily invest in and generate revenue from real estate holdings, such as hotel chains; like other publicly-held corporations they trade on the stock market. There are special tax advantages for REITs, which generally pay no income tax. They also must distribute at least 90 percent of their income to shareholders in the form of dividends.

Although CCA and GEO operate prisons as their primary form of business, the prisons themselves constitute real estate. By creating an entity called a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS), the companies can separate the operational side of their private prison management from the real estate side of owning and generating income from correctional facilities.

There are various rules and regulations governing REITs; for example, at least 95 percent of a REIT’s income “must be derived from ‘passive’ financial investments ... as opposed ...

On November 10, 2011, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps announced the closure of the privately-operated 1,172-bed Delta Correctional Facility in Leflore County. He said closing the prison was a mutual decision by state officials and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

CCA was being paid $31.15 per prisoner per day to manage the Delta facility when it reportedly had daily costs of $34.15 for each medium-security prisoner. State law requires private prisons to operate for 10 percent less than state facilities.

Epps said about 800 of the prisoners housed at Delta would be transferred to existing beds in state prisons, and the rest moved to regional jails. This will result in an estimated $10.2 million in annual savings, as the only additional expenses will be for the prisoners’ food, clothing and health care. With over 4,000 empty beds in the state’s prison system, it was impossible to justify the additional expense of maintaining the CCA-run facility.

“Since [CCA] came and wanted out of the contract, I said we really don’t need the prison,” said Epps. “I have to look at what is best for Mississippi.”

Commissioner Epps has also been pushing alternatives to incarceration as a cost-cutting measure. With ...

On February 21, 2012, Prison Legal News settled a public records lawsuit filed in Vermont state court against Prison Health Services (PHS, now operating as Corizon Health, Inc.). As part of the settlement PHS agreed to produce records related to its resolution of legal claims against the company in Vermont, which included a total of $1.8 million in six cases.

PLN had filed suit against PHS on August 26, 2010 after the for-profit company, which provided medical care for Vermont state prisoners until the end of 2009, refused to produce documents pursuant to a public records request.

PLN requested copies of PHS’s contracts with government agencies in Vermont, records related to settlements and judgments that PHS had paid as a result of lawsuits and civil claims, and documents concerning costs incurred by PHS to defend against claims or lawsuits.

One of those claims involved the August 16, 2009 death of Ashley Ellis, 23, a Vermont prisoner who died at the Northwest State Correctional Facility just three days into a 30-day sentence. PHS employees had failed to give her potassium despite her repeated pleas for medical care and an order from her doctor. The medical examiner cited “denial of access to ...

In Arizona an unsettling trend appears to be underway: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.

The state has graced headlines in recent years as the result of its cozy relationship with for-profit prison companies – for the role of the private prison industry in assisting in the dissemination of constitutionally-questionable immigration enforcement laws based on Arizona’s controversial SB 1070, for a private prison escape that resulted in the death of an elderly couple and a nationwide manhunt, and for a failed attempt to privatize almost the entire state prison system.

And now, recent events in the central Arizona town of Casa Grande show the hand of private prison corporations reaching into the classroom, assisting local law enforcement agencies in drug raids at public schools.

Trick or Treat

At 9 a.m. on the morning of October 31, 2012, students at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande were settling in to their daily routine when something unusual occurred.

Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school – with a student population of 1,776 – on “lock down,” kicking off the first “drug sweep” in the school’s four-year history. According to Hamilton, “lock down” is a ...

On December 15, 2011, following a three-week trial, a federal jury in San Francisco awarded Freddie M. Davis, formerly employed at Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail, $528,957 in damages stemming from retaliation she experienced after she and other nurses complained about mistreatment from a supervisor.

The jury found former Alameda ...

by German Lopez, Cincinnati CityBeat

In 1997, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) opened a private prison in Youngstown, Ohio. The Northeast Ohio Correctional Center was to hold out-of-state prisoners with the promise of profits and tax revenue for Youngstown, a largely industrial city that had struggled economically since its steel industry went downhill in the 1970s and ‘80s. CCA quickly staffed the prison with inexperienced guards and then received 1,700 prisoners – most charged with violent crimes – transferred from Washington, D.C. Within a year, 20 prisoners were stabbed and two were murdered. Six escaped.

Public outrage came fast. Citizens in Youngstown demanded the prison be shut down. Local and national media outlets picked up the story. Mother Jones, a respected, independent investigative news magazine, reported that George McKelvey, then-mayor of Youngstown, told reporters, “Knowing what I know now, I would never have allowed CCA to build a prison here.” The city sued CCA to get the prison to abide by new safety standards.

CCA eventually shut down its Youngstown prison because having to abide by the new standards made it no longer profitable. The prison remained closed for a few years and then opened under a new model – ...