FL's Healthcare Privatization Stalled

Just a quick link to give everyone an update on the healthcare privatization fight in Florida, which is currently stalled in court.  Lawmakers there are really just infatuated with privatization.

Is Michigan Going Back on Its Word?

The state of Michigan for some reason thinks it should contract out high-security beds to a private company, expecting to save about $1.3 million per year in operations.  Aside from the reality that those savings will probably never materialize, the state should be wary of proceeding with such a plan considering the industry's consistent failures to maintain adequate levels of well-trained staff, which could prove extremely risky with high-security prisoners.  A few years back, corrections officials had promised residents that security of the facility would be the top priority, as residents were worried about the potential risks to public safety inherent in bringing in a private, for-profit company to operate it.

Over the next few years, the state gradually reduced security at the facility, moving away from constant patrols to more mechanical security instruments.  Now, it wants to not only privatize security staff at the facility, but medical and mental health treatment as well.  Local leaders are upset at these recent developments, particularly because they have seen how privatization has failed to save money in many other states.  Many of the COs currently employed at the facility would likely either lose their jobs or face significant reductions in pay and benefits, the area in which private prison companies are able to reduce expenses most easily (by just cutting them).

So add me to the list of people who hope the state decides to keep to its word and ensure the facility remains secure (i.e. not privatized).

2 New Wrongful Death Cases in Texas

Both CCA and the GEO Group are facing backlash over the alleged wrongful deaths of prisoners in their care in Texas.  The family of a prisoner at the Central Texas DF has sued the GEO Group for negligence in allowing their son to commit suicide, two days after he was removed from suicide watch.  Then, at the Dawson State Jail in Dallas, a 30-year-old female prisoner less than two months before her anticipated release date.  She apparently died of pneumonia after the medical staff at the facility failed to treat it.  CCA doesn't provide medical care to prisoners at the facility, but leaked internal documents suggests CCA supervisors at the facility failed to follow protocol when they didn't call for medical attention sooner.  The chief of security recommended firing a shift supervisor, but the warden at the facility declined to do so and couldn't identify any need for further training of his COs.

Wrongful Death Suit Against Corizon

Corizon, the for-profit prison healthcare provider, recently came under fire for the "services" it has been providing to Idaho's prisoners.  They also are facing scrutiny as the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit coming out of the St. Louis Jail.  A 31-year-old man died there in 2009 from complications from a heart condition after requesting medical treatment numerous times.  His death should have never happened, though - a report nearly a decade and a half ago showed nearly 20 preventable deaths had occurred under the company's watch to that point, and a few other preventable deaths have occurred at this facility since.

But I guess that's the logical outcome when a profit-driven company is given responsibility to care for ill prisoners.

Prison Health Care in Idaho Questioned

Corizon, a private, for-profit medical care provider, has come under fire for the services it has been providing to Idaho in managing health care at the Idaho State Prison.  A lack of medical care and persistent negligence were components of a huge lawsuit against the facility that was settled last year.  Following that lawsuit, a federal court appointed an expert to oversee medical care at the facility, and his initial findings detailed some rather grave findings, including chronic patients going unfed and being left in soiled linens, delays in reporting serious health issues, and possibly even some preventable deaths due to a lack of treatment.  Corizon then commissioned its own report, which found that the company was just peachy.  Shocking.  Somehow, the report they commissioned from the NCCHC found that nearly half of the records it reviewed had problems ranging from "minor to significant," but yet the facility was in substantial compliance with national health standards.

Florida's Love Affair With Private Prisons

Many lawmakers in Florida, home of the GEO Group, are enamored with the idea of prison privatization.  Legislators, mostly Republican, have thrice attempted (and failed) to privatize half the state's prison system within the past two years.  The former speaker of the house, serving time in prison, is still being investigated by the FBI in part for his role in bringing a private prison to the state and attempting to force the closure of multiple state facilities to populate it.  He's also the target of a federal grand jury investigation for his dealings with the GEO Group.

In the towns of Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines, residents have been waging war against CCA and ICE, who want to build a huge immigration detention center there.  Upset over the risks of bringing a private prison to town, residents have already faced legal harassment after they have failed to capture the attention or sympathy of their representative, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.  The parties are engaged in a struggle over resources, as CCA is attempting to strong-arm the small towns into providing water and sewer services to the prison.  Pembroke Pines has already had to shell out more than $120,000 in legal fees to battle a detention center that the federal government seems to be forcing on them.

The most recent battle in Florida has arisen over the state's plans to privatize health care for all its prisoners, which I guess was the fall-back option if wholesale privatization failed.  The plan is being challenged by the Nurses' Association, which filed a lawsuit similar to the one that successfully defeated the wholesale privatization; basically saying the state Legislature didn't have the authority to order such a sweeping change to such a huge portion of the state budget without passing a stand-alone bill.  It's estimated that as many as 2,800 jobs and $300 million of the budget could be impacted by the switch, which is also opposed by the union that represents COs.

It seems simple to explain part of this love affair, the GEO Group and CCA have contributed huge sums of money to Florida legislators, with most of that going to Republicans.  During the last election cycle, the industry donated nearly $1 million to campaigns, with more than 80% of that coming from the GEO Group.  GEO has already given more than $100,000 to Governor Scott for the upcoming election.

But just looking at the campaign contributions fails to reveal the whole story.  Governor Scott's closest advisor and de facto gatekeeper, Steve McNamara, is a man with so much political influence he's been called the state's "Shadow Governor."  He also happens to be close personal friends with Jim Eaton, head lobbyist for the GEO Group, which might help explain why Scott decided to can the head of the Department of Corrections for challenging the privatization scheme.  After news came out that McNamara had been using his influence to advance himself and his friends politically and financially, he was forced to resign.  Jim Eaton, by the way, also happens to be the head lobbyist for Wexford, one of the companies in the running for the state healthcare contract.  So McNamara's influence is likely to last well beyond his tenure as "Shadow Governor."

TYT's Coverage of the Riot in Mississippi

Riots Causing Concern

The recent riots (or "disturbances," in industry parlance) at CCA prisons in Georgia and Mississippi have raised the concern of advocates in other states looking to privatize prisons.  The teamsters union down in Florida is urging state lawmakers to consider CCA's poor management of the facilities when it inevitably takes up the now annually-recurring massive privatization effort.  Information about the cause of the riot has been slow to trickle out of the facility in Mississippi, but it looks at least preliminarily like my intuition was correct.  Prisoners claim they routinely suffer abuse at the hands of guards, and that the medical care, food, and programming at the facility, which houses immigrants in the US illegally, were woefully insufficient. Even the Nashville Business Journal picked up on the story, albeit it to discuss how CCA can save face.

2 New Reports on the Private Prison Industry

I just want to quickly draw some attention to two great reports that have come out recently detailing some of the workings of the private prison industry.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency released a study of how private interests are reshaping US criminal justice policy, titled "Prison Bed Profiteers."

The ACLU of Georgia just released a report documenting problems immigrants face in detention in that state.  The report is based on interviews with detainees at the 4 immigration detention centers in the state, 3 of which are privately-operated (2 by CCA).  Among the issues detailed were problems with due process violations, delivery of medical care, and low staffing levels

Is The Industry Losing a Lifeline?

California, the state with the highest prison population, has also historically been one of the most privatization-friendly states, despite the influence of the powerful corrections officers lobby.  The state has given hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the industry to house some of its prisoners in a vain attempt to reduce the burden of its overcrowded prison system, rewarding the industry's investment in campaign contributions and lobbying.  But the industry's hold on the nation's most desperate prison system seems to be slipping in the wake of the Brown v. Plata decision from the Supreme Court.

That decision basically held that the state needed to remove about 40-45,000 prisoners from its state system just to ease overcrowding to the point where it could provide medical care that would not be so insufficient as to violate the prisoners' right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.  At the height of the overcrowding, it was estimated that one prisoner died every week from a preventable cause, because the state simply didn't have the resources or manpower to treat all the people it decided to lock up (coincidentally enough, its prison population exploded due largely to sentencing initiatives like 3-Strikes and Truth in Sentencing laws, which were passed by the industry through its work in ALEC during the 90's.  But that's a topic for a whole different post).  The governor's plan to fix the overcrowding is to send thousands of state prisoners to county jails; basically, he's shifting responsibility for the state's overzealous criminalization of nonviolent activities onto counties, many of which are poorly equipped to handle an influx of new prisoners.

In addition to shifting prisoners to county facilities, the Secretary of Corrections announced a few months ago that the state was looking at ways to reduce its reliance on private prisons and stop shipping prisoners to private facilities in other states. It looks like the state has actually started to work towards this goal; a few weeks ago, it announced a plan to halt $4 billion in new prison construction and return nearly 10,000 state prisoners from private facilities in other states.  This plan would save the state almost $400 million per year that it spends on private prisons, and reduce the prison system's impact on the state budget by nearly 4%; in a state with a budget near $137 billion, that's an awful lot of money.

Outsourcing Medical Care is a "Bad Move"

Quick link here to an article discussing the pros and cons of hiring a private, for-profit medical care provider to provide medical services to prisoners in North Carolina.  I think the first sentence sums it up nicely: "Hiring private contractors to take over the state's prison health care system is a bad move for North Carolina and for all of us in the state who pay taxes."

Arizona's Political Leaders Are Crazy for Private Prisons

I've been remiss in updating everyone on the situation in Arizona, the state that loves private prisons, even though it's likely paying more for them than what the government could operate facilities for.  After a few reports came out detailing how the state was paying through the nose for private prisons, its legislature continued to bullishly forge ahead with a request for proposals to construct an additional 2,000 private prison beds.  This came despite evidence that private prisons in the state cost more and are more dangerous; the American Friends Service Committee filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent the state from entering into a new contract for these beds.  But it was thrown out on a technicality; the judge basically said that citizens of Arizona have no standing to ask the Department of Corrections to follow the law.

So the AFSC and the NAACP joined together in filing a formal protest asking the court put a stop to the request for proposals, which came alongside a piece of legislation designed to prevent the state from conducting cost comparisons in the future.  The Department of Corrections swiftly dismissed the request, again on a technicality basically amounting to "we don't want to listen to socially conscious organizations working in the best interest of Arizona citizens."  The state seems to be quite insistent on these new private prison beds, possibly because its politicians have long had cozy relationships with the industry.  From SB1070, which came out of ALEC, to the governor's staff consisting of CCA lobbyists, Arizona politicians and the private prison industry are well acquainted.  In fact, Dennis Deconcini, a former senator from the state, sits on CCA's board.  And it appears as though the state's Chamber of Commerce is rife with conflicts of interest related to the industry; CCA, the GEO Group, and PHS are all represented on the board of the Chamber, either directly or through lobbying firms.

So it seems like Arizona's political leaders are really just oblivious to common sense and the advice of groups who have thoroughly studied the problems inherent to the private prison industry.  I want to believe that, rather than the alternative, which would be that they just don't care about how terrible and inefficient the industry is, because they want to give handouts to their political allies. As Sasha Abramsky at The Nation writes, "One might think that, faced with evidence that the state isn't getting enough bang for its buck, Arizona legislators would rethink their commitment to putting ever mroe prisoners into private facilities.  Instead, in a move Orwellian even by the gutter standards of Arizona politics, they've simply tried to bar the state from collecting the evidence."


With all the news about the state attempting to further privatize its prison system, it might have been easy to overlook the state's decision to bring in a private, for-profit medical care provider, Wexford, to manage healthcare for the entire system.  Which is just another clusterfuck waiting to happen.  The company will charge more than the state paid last year to provide healthcare this year, and estimates it will reap of profit of more than $5 million in the process.  I'm sure none of that will come from denying treatment or neglecting prisoners.

Some of the Worst Abuse Ever Seen

Following on the announcement of the removal of all juvenile prisoners in Mississippi from private prisons, the Department of Justice has just released a report of its findings in investigating the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, which is run by the GEO Group.  Walnut Grove was the target of the lawsuit that resulted in the prohibition on sending juveniles to private prisons, and it turns out the state was more than justified in ordering such a removal.  Juveniles incarcerated at the facility were subjected to ongoing sexual misconduct and other forms of abuse; the abuse was "among the worst that [the DOJ has] seen in any facility anywhere in the nation."

This is truly one of the most gut-wrenching tales of the horrors of privatization that I've ever seen.  The report indicates that the profit motive inherent in the private prison industry led the GEO Group to ignore the suffering of children under its care; the company earned more than $100 million from the facility's operation.  Staff were frequently involved in gang activity, and children suffered from excessive use of force regularly.  The children were sexually assaulted, guards smuggled drugs into the facility, numerous extremely violent riots occurred, and the kids were routinely subjected to long periods of isolated confinement, denied medical care and access to educational programming.  It was so bad that the judge who just ruled on the settlement remarked that "The sum of these actions and inactions ... paints a picture of horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world."  The inaction the judge refers to is not only the fault of the GEO Group; the state of Mississippi was remiss in repeatedly failing to enforce and monitor the contract it has with the company to ensure its own citizens, children of all people, would not suffer through such horrendous experiences.

It looks like long-needed change has finally come to the children housed at Walnut Grove and their families, all of whom were victimized by the prison-industrial complex, and more specifically, by the profit motive inherent to the private prison industry.  Judge Reeves, who approved the settlement, claims he will avidly enforce the agreement to ensure that no other children fall prey to the GEO Group.

New Report on CCA

Another quick link here, this one to a great new report from Corazon Tuscon, titled "The Corrections Corporation of America: How CCA Abuses Prisoners, Manipulates the Public and Destroys Communities."  Which is a perfectly appropriate description.

Wrongful Death Suit Against ICE

Quick link here to an article about a wrongful death suit that has just been filed by the wife of Roberto Medina-Martinez, who died in a private prison under ICE custody in 2009.  The suit claims that the facility, run by CCA, was negligent in failing to provide adequate medical care for Roberto before he died of an inflammatory heart disease.

New Lawsuit from Gladiator School

Another prisoner from the Idaho Correctional Center has filed a lawsuit against CCA over the abhorrent levels of violence the facility just can't seem to control.  Jacob Clevenger, who was beaten senseless inside the prison in August 2010, claims CCA "has allowed and even fostered systemic conditions of brutality, peril, and injuriousness at the ICC."  This is the same prison that was sued by the ACLU over violence so severe and persistent that the facility was called "gladiator school" by the residents.  That lawsuit settled out of court, but the settlement did not preclude prisoners from filing individual cases against CCA.  Clevenger claims in his suit that CCA officials knowingly put him at risk by housing him with known gang members; shortly thereafter he was assaulted, resulting in a broken tooth, fractured eye socket, and partially torn ear.  I'll go so far as to say that when someone's injuries sound like the aftermath of a fight with Mike Tyson, the violence is pretty severe.

COs in PA Oppose Privatization

The union of correctional officers in Pennsylvania came out to a legislative hearing to show support for a bill that would prohibit the state DOC from contracting out health care services to a private company.  The bill has been sponsored by politicians from both sides of the aisle, but primarily those with prisons in their districts.  They understand the potential risk of privatization in the same way as an RN from a state prison does; "It will compromise the safety of staff, inmates, and the communities where inmates return."  In addition endangering public safety, the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Fleck, said he couldn't find any evidence to support the notion that privatizing such services would even save money, which is basically the entire idea behind the governor's proposal to do so.

The Private Prison Problem

A video from the ACLU, focusing mostly on the assaults at Idaho Correctional Center ("Gladiator School")

Bribery, Fraud, and Tuberculosis

I know, not exactly an everyday combination.  But all those fun things are coming out of (or circulating around) a private jail in Texas run by LCS Corrections.  The warden of the facility is currently under investigation by the FBI for bribery, fraud, and theft allegations.  The US Marshal's Service is also investigating claims of inadequate medical care; infections and lesions apparently go untreated for days at a time.  But the lack of treatment goes beyond individual cases; a doctor at the prison has been permitting prisoners exhibiting symptoms of TB, a highly contagious lung infection, to be housed in the general population.  It has also routinely failed to conduct tests for TB, which can help stem outbreaks.

AZ Finds Private Prisons Don't Save Money, Are More Dangerous

I apologize for being so late on this; there are actually a few stories I'm behind on and I'll try to catch up as much as possible.

A report was just released by the American Friends Service Committee in Arizona that found private prisons actually cost the state more to operate than their government-run counterparts.  In just three years (2008-2010), the state spent $10 million more on private prison beds than it would have cost them to just operate the prisons itself.  The state for some reason loves private prisons, having previously tried to privatize its entire correctional system.  The state was also the first place that an iteration of the "Breathing While Brown" law (that ALEC-written handout to private prison companies) was introduced  It is currently seeking 2,000 additional private prison beds, which would cost $6 million more than beds the government could operate.  And this comes at a time when the state's prison population is actually decreasing.  It is also looking to outsource medical and mental health care to private, for-profit providers, for as many as 34,000 prisoners; that segment of the private prison industry suffers from all the problems inherent to the profit-driven world of incarceration.

The report was conducted because the state has consistently failed to conduct analyses of private prisons, even though there is a state law mandating that it do so. After years of ignoring calls to produce such a report, the state finally finished one in January of this year, which, surprise surprise, found private prisons to be more expensive. 

This new report by the AFSC also found that private prisons are more dangerous, and experience higher levels of "disturbances" (prison parlance for riots/violent incidents), many of which were never reported to the public.  In fact, the state exempts private prison companies from reporting such information that is required of government-operated prisons, shielding them from accountability for all the terrible things they let happen.  The report by AFSC noted that these instances were likely under-reported, and that the public has very little access to vital information concerning the operation of prisons in Arizona.

So you would think with all this information; that private prisons cost considerably more to taxpayers, that they consistently fail to operate prisons safely and securely, that the state's political system would bring the hammer down and start to hold private prison operators more accountable for the millions in taxpayer dollars they benefit from, if not abolish the industry altogether.  But, this is Arizona.  The state legislature released a budget bill that still provides funding for private prisons, and actually eliminates the requirement for cost-comparison studies of public vs. private prisons that brought about the first report (by the state).  Talk about burying your head in the sand.