Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Tennessee Private Prisons Have Higher Incident Rates


(Republished with permission of Private Corrections Institute)

PRESS RELEASE
Incident Rates at CCA-run Prisons Higher than at Public Prisons in Tennessee
Private Corrections Institute
October 18, 2011
For Immediate Release

Nashville, TN – According to an analysis of incidents involving assaults and disturbances at publicly-operated and privately-managed prisons in Tennessee from January 2009 to June 2011, incident rates were consistently higher at the state’s three private prisons.

Data obtained from the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) recorded incidents in 11 categories related to assaults on inmates, assaults on employees and institutional disturbances. Data was reported for the state’s 11 prisons operated by the TDOC, as well as three facilities that house state prisoners run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

The three CCA prisons (South Central Correctional Facility, Hardeman County Correctional Facility and Whiteville Correctional Facility) held between 25 and 27 percent of the state’s prison population between January 2009 and June 2011 – slightly over 5,000 inmates.

While the average number of incidents per month per facility was 17.29 at the state-run prisons in 2009, the average number per month was 31.56 at each CCA facility. In 2010, the average number of incidents per month at each state prison was 19.58, and the average number was 31.69 at each CCA prison. During the first six months of 2011, the average number of incidents per month at state facilities was 20.38, while the average number per month at the CCA prisons was 29.56.

In terms of rates per 1,000 prisoner population, the privately-operated prisons had notably higher incident rates. For 2009, the average rate of incidents at the 11 state-run prisons was 13.92 per 1,000 population, while the average rate at the three CCA facilities was 18.68 – 34% higher than at TDOC prisons. The 2010 average rate of incidents at TDOC facilities was 14.51 per 1,000 population and the average rate at the CCA prisons was 18.68 – 28.7% higher than at the state-operated facilities. During the first six months of 2011, the average rate of incidents at TDOC prisons was 15.0 per 1,000 population while the average rate at the CCA facilities was 17.44 – 16.2% higher than at the TDOC prisons.

According to the TDOC’s website, the 11 state-operated prison complexes all are rated either close or maximum security (not including minimum-security annexes), while two of the three CCA prisons are rated medium (a lower security designation) and one is rated close. Thus, even though more higher-security prisoners – close and maximum – were housed in state prisons, the CCA facilities still had higher average numbers of incidents per facility per month and higher average incident rates over the time period examined. In fact, during the 30-month period from January 2009 through June 2011, the average rate of incidents at TDOC prisons exceeded the rate at the privately-operated facilities only twice – in December 2009 and March 2011.


“This research confirms what other studies over the years have found – that privately-operated prisons have higher rates of assaults and other violent incidents than their public counterparts,” said Alex Friedmann, president of the Private Corrections Institute (PCI), who conducted the Tennessee research. “For example, according to an Associated Press report earlier this month, a CCA facility in Idaho had more assaults than all other Idaho state prisons combined, based on 2010 data,” Friedmann stated. CCA settled a class-action lawsuit involving the Idaho Correctional Center in September 2011, agreeing to make changes to reduce the high levels of violence at that facility.


“CCA will likely complain about the messenger, as the Private Corrections Institute is opposed to prison privatization,” said Friedmann, a former prisoner who served time at a CCA-operated prison in the 1990s. “But the message, which is based on data reported by the state’s Department of Correction for both public and private facilities, is very clear: privately-operated prisons in Tennessee have higher average numbers and rates of assaults and disturbances than public prisons, even though TDOC facilities house more prisoners with higher security levels. This indicates a serious problem with private prison management and also signifies a problem with the state’s oversight of the CCA-operated facilities.”


A copy of the statistical analysis is attached and the source data obtained from the TDOC is available upon request. While the higher rate of incidents at private prisons has been decreasing (from 34.2% higher in 2009 to 16.2% higher in June 2011), this seems to have more to do with a rise in incidents at state prisons rather than significantly fewer incidents at CCA facilities.


PCI’s Tennessee research mirrors other studies that have shown private prisons have higher rates of violence than their publicly-operated counterparts. According to a 2001 Bureau of Justice Assistance report, for example, private prisons had 65.8% more inmate assaults and 48.7% more assaults on staff than public prisons per 1,000 prisoner population. Further, a Tennessee study conducted by the Select Oversight Committee on Corrections in 1995 found that the CCA-operated South Central Correctional Facility “reported significantly more injuries to prisoners and staff,” with 214 injuries reported over a 15-month period compared with 21 and 51 injuries reported at two comparable state prisons.
__________________________
The Private Corrections Institute (PCI) is a non-profit citizen watchdog organization that works to educate the public about the significant dangers and pitfalls associated with the privatization of correctional services. PCI maintains an online collection of news reports and other resources related to the private prison industry, and holds the position that for-profit prisons have no place in a free and democratic society. www.privateci.org.


For further information, please contact:
Alex Friedmann, President                 Ken Kopczynski, Ex. Director
Private Corrections Institute              Private Corrections Institute
(615) 495-6568                                           (850) 980-0887
afriedmann@prisonlegalnews.org  kenk@privateci.org





40 comments:

  1. Anonymous28 May, 2012

    I made an attempt and failed, to create a career in Corrections via CCA-SCCF. After several years of honest effort to be an honorable, honest, and above all unbiased and fair. I even refused to look up the inmates charges as the deciding factor of how I will treat them. On several occasions I had to step into the Disciplinary Board and defend inmates (regardless of the I/M's character) against accusations in which I witnessed the falsification of firsthand. If you are not against every aspect of Inmates, especially their "civil liberties" and human rights in general, than you are considered to be against the staff or at least the uniformed officers. Offense is even taken when you do not share in the joy of another group of C/O's who are attempting to humiliate inmates into physically reacting so the "Officer Gang Mentality" can be justified while bonding,in the public punishment and dehumanization of as many inmates as possible. They will go as far as reprimanding anyone who reports any such incidents.
    It appears to me that the main flaw in privatization of Corrections, is not only severely sub-standard, and the unlivable wages. Its the combination which creates a resentment of the populations (however subconscious it may be) resulting in the only real compensation being, the sense of authority which usually blossoms into full blown God Complexes and tremendous satisfaction of the near unlimited oppression which the Officers become addicted to. I lost a lot of faith in humanity in general and what its spirit is capable of.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Anon, thanks for reading and commenting! But more importantly, thank you for sacrificing so much to try to work as a CO - that's one of the toughest and most undervalued professions anywhere in the world. I'm sorry you had to suffer through trying to work at CCA, but I applaud your courage to stand up for what is right; the ethical and humane treatment of those under your care and watch.

      You bring up an excellent point about the mentality of the sense of authority that can develop between the incarcerated and those charged with protecting them. This is an issue that develops in pretty much any/every prison system, but it's interesting to think how it can be exacerbated by the conditions specific to for-profit incarceration. One of the battles I constantly fight is with people who don't understand the inherent differences between a for-profit prison and a not-for-profit one, and it's interesting to see you make this connection.

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    2. Anonymous06 July, 2012

      I can totally relate to both of these comments as well as experiences. I also tried to have a career in corrections, not as a CO but as an Academic Instructor. While I strongly believe in the education process and had high hopes of trying to honestly teach adults to read & write, working for CCA proved to be the much bigger challenge. The training provided, while informative as to company policies and procedures was in no way what really goes in that place. The so-called "guiding principles" painted on the walls throughout facilities are simply pretty decorations. Integrity, honesty, loyalty, respect? Really? Not one single faculty member, not a single person in authority exemplifies these characteristics. They are not in anyway taught or enforced. While some inmates had the desire to better themselves academically, paying them to sit in a classroom and cause disturbances, fight, verbally abuse the staff seems ridiculous. Many times I too had to face the disciplinary board and "defend" an inmates behavior as instructed by others, no support from any authority persons at all. Many of the inmates themselves were battling with CCA over health concerns they had while being incarcerated. TB, loss of hearing & sight, physical injuries sustained from poor lilving conditions as well as lack of supervision in the pods. One in particular had been diligently trying to change cells as his "celly" had exposed him to TB, coughing blood on him after being tested positive for the disease. Not only was he denied a cell change, he was not provided with a different mattress, pillow, or bed covers even after being exposed to the extremely contagious TB disease. i understand corrections are needed and that punishment for crimes committed should be enforced yet these are still human beings with feelings. The inhumane treatment, the lack of support for any of the staff, all for the sake of a dollar? It's unfair, unjust, and a huge waste of tax-payers' money. IF they truly had a desire to re-habilitate these people, they would provide for their basic needs and also use some of their resources to furnish supplies, even simple things such as updated text books to teach them. Trying to teach an adult basic history, math, reading with material from the 1960's where is the sense in that? THese for-profit prisons are making a killing while taking advantage of those who "try" to work for them. I could go on with so many more examples of poor money management and inhumane treatment of the staff,but hopefully my point has been made. Shut these places down!

      Delete
    3. I have had a family member incarcerated in a CCA prison and it is true the staff a COs do treat the inmates like they are not good Enoch to breath air. Medical problems go unseen, the procedures are not followed according to mandates, and the whole CCA group is a joke. They demand respect from those who they are intrusted to rehabilitate, in reality no one on the other side would give them the time of day. I thank you for your service as an honest CO and truley wish private prisons did what they claim. But to be honest CCA prisons are the reason there are some many reoffenders re entering prisons. Ha, they think they are in the business where repeat customers is a good thing.

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  37. These examples are much smaller than the massive mountin evidence why private prisons are an affront to humanity. Follow this link for more. The cons far out weigh the pros.Private prisons were driven out of Tennessee but are now reinfesting the state.

    https://sites.google.com/site/privateprisons2/cons


    When a private prison takes over responsibility for the administration of punishment and rehabilitation, it overtakes the inherent responsibility of the public discretionary function at the expense of inmates’ liberty interests (Anderson, 2009).

    o Private-seeking entities that are in charge of inmate care create clear legal and moral questions.

    § According to the Supreme Court, Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments cannot delegate discretionary governmental functions to private entities that have financial stakes in which this power of discretion would be applied (Anderson, 2009).

    · The day-to-day decisions of punishment by prison employees are inherently discretionary and cannot be effected by the goals of the operator without violating prisoners’ due process rights (Anderson, 2009).

    · Private prison employees often have stock in their company or receive some type of profit-incentive, and as a result, this profit motive can directly influence their professional decisions (i.e. longer sentences and no goodtime) (Anderson, 2009).

    - Benefits are hardly noticed


    o Private prisons have been used by the penal system as a strategy to manage overcrowding prisons at a lower cost. However, these benefits are hardly noticeable while also failing to meet humanitarian and social problems that are presented by private prisons (Anderson, 2009). Some experts say that private prisons perpetuate the problem of overcrowding.

    o The government use current expenditures in the budget or use capital bonds to construct private prisons (Schwartz & Nurge, 2004). This arises the ethical issue of funding when constructing private prisons.

    o When calculating the cost of private prisons, lawmakers fail to consider the long-term indirect costs and unexpected costs of private prisons. Indirect costs include recidivism, compliance of monitoring and enforcement procedures, and legal challenges (Schwartz & Nurge, 2004).

    o In Florida, recidivism rates for adult males, adult females, and juveniles have no significant difference between public and private inmates (Bales et al., 2005).

    § Even though private prisons have the ability to experiment and try new programs to increase their chances of post-release success, this expectation of enriching programs to reduce recidivism has not occurred by private prisons (Bales et al., 2005).

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