More Abuse Reported at Private Prison Operated By CCA

"Gov. Neil Abercrombie has promised to bring back all Hawaii inmates serving prison sentences on the mainland because of previous allegations of mistreatment by guards at Saguaro,"according to the Jan. 14 newspaper report.

Eighteen Hawaiian inmates sued CCA in December 2010, claiming that guards stripped, beat, kicked and threatened to kill them, banged their heads on tables while they were handcuffed, and that "the warden himself" threatened their families. Those inmates claim that CCA "deliberately destroyed and failed to preserve evidence of their wrongdoing, including videotapes," and "deliberately falsified reports."

Hawaii's governor also cited a December 2010 "riot" at another CCA prison in Arizona, Red Rock Correctional Center, which holds about 50 Hawaiian prisoners. The Saguaro prison holds about 1,800 Hawaiians...

Link to Article Here

Link to Suit filed Here

Lawsuit Alleges Barbaric Conditions and Abuse Of Teens

Once again, a fine example of what our tax dollars are buying. How many children must we pay to damage? In our eagerness to provide a 'safe world' we have gone overboard on how harshly we punish children for petty, non-violent crimes. To allow our government to turn over the care of our children over to corporations who profit from 'punishing' them is not only morally reprehensible, it is waste of our tax dollars. 

Mandatory sentencing laws have removed all common sense from our juvenile justice system and the end result is that we are allowing corporations to breed more violent offenders to release back into society. The earlier a child is thrown in to detention, the higher the odds they will reoffend. When we allow children and teens to suffer abuse, the corporations responsible for the abuse (and hence, creating angry, violent young adults) to create 'repeat customers' for life and guarantee their profits. 

We need to bring back some common sense in this country and a good place to start would be helping our children and put an end to aiding corporations from over-punishing them for profit.

The Dispatch 

Lawsuit: 'Barbaric' conditions at Miss. youth correctional facility
The Associated Press
November 16, 2010 2:01:00 PM 

Excerpt - "The suit, which seeks class action status, names the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority, the GEO Group, Inc., which is contracted to operate the facility; Health Assurance, LLC; Walter Tripp, the facility's warden; Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps and Mississippi Education Superintendent Tom Burnham.

GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., and the agency officials declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

The complaint details allegations of inmates stripped naked and held in isolation weeks at a time; sick inmates denied proper health care and prison guards who were complicit in inmate fights that resulted in stab wounds and severe beatings, including one that left an inmate with permanent brain damage.

The suit also claimed handcuffed youth were kicked and punched by guards, while others secured in their cells were sprayed with chemical restraints.

The facility, which opened in 2001, is located in Leake County and houses some 1,200 inmates aged 13-22. More than half of the inmates are incarcerated for committing nonviolent offenses, the complaint states.

The complaint states that courts often require youth sentenced to the facility to complete their education while incarcerated, but most youth are denied access to basic education.

The suit said under staffing at the prison is one of the main problems, and cited reports from the Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review and the MDOC Corrections Auditor that have also raised concerns about the issue.

Taxpayers pay the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority $14 million each year to operate the prison, according to the complaint. The suit alleges that in many parts of the prison only one guard is assigned to a zone, which could hold as many as 60 inmates.

"It has a strong financial incentive to imprison as many youth as possible on the cheap," Bedi said."

Full Article On The Dispatch

More GEO Group Complaints and Wrongdoings

Former CCA Guards Slam Prison, Culture of Violence

Another round of lawsuits for CCA. They must keep their in-house legal council working around the clock trying to clean up the messes that their cost and corner cutting operations continually make.

Hopefully the public will wake up and see what a rip-off private prisons are. Do you really, really want the people getting paid - with your tax money - cutting corners on staffing and security at a prison in your community? Prisons that operate for profit encourage these practices all the while not caring about the overall cost to communities. It pays for them to cut staff; to leave you, the public, open to higher risk because every dime they cut from their operating costs is used to line the pockets of overpaid CEOs.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Three former employees at Idaho's only private prison say staff routinely failed to protect inmates, and in some cases put inmates in situations knowing they'd be beaten by others.
The statements from the former Idaho Correctional Center guards are in affidavits filed in a federal lawsuit against the prison's operator, Corrections Corporation of America.
The lawsuit was filed against CCA last year by inmate Marlin Riggs, who was badly beaten in his cell.
The three former employees claim the prison is understaffed, and steeped in a culture of laziness and lack of concern for inmate welfare.
They say staff at the prison, referred to as "Gladiator School," frequently assigned inmates to cell blocks knowing they'd likely be beaten.
CCA has denied the allegations in the lawsuit and is asking a judge to dismiss it.

Gov. Orders Women Moved From Ky. Private Prison

January 8, 2010

Kentucky's governor has ordered some 400 female inmates removed from a corporate-run prison after allegations of sexual misconduct by male guards.

Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the women moved from Otter Creek Correctional Complex to a state-run prison starting by July 1.

The move comes four months after the Kentucky Department of Corrections called for security improvements at the prison in a report on 18 alleged cases of sexual misconduct by guards there.

The prison is operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America.

Link to full article Here