More on Closure of Otter Creek

Just a quick link to follow up on the closure of the Otter Creek CF, a CCA prison in Kentucky that was at the center of numerous claims of sexual abuse and assault.  Kentucky cut funding to the institution a few weeks back, in part to save money, especially because the state is looking at ways to reduce its prison population, especially among low-level and nonviolent offenders.  CCA is going to look for a new government to dupe into a contract to re-fill the prison.

Mississippi Tosses GEO Group!

Mississippi, of all places, has had enough.  Not exactly known for its hospitable prison system, the state announced last Friday that it intends to terminate its contract with the GEO Group to operate 3 facilities, effective in July.  One of those facilities is Walnut Grove, which was recently the target of a lawsuit that brought sweeping change to the way Mississippi incarcerates its youth.  Plagued with violence, medical neglect, and persistent sexual abuse, the facility's conditions were so abysmal that the Department of Justice called it "some of the worst abuse" they had seen in any investigation of a prison or jail.  Children housed there used terms like "barbaric," "a war zone," and "the deepest depths of hell" to describe it.  The settlement in the lawsuit removed all juveniles from Walnut Grove and mandated that they never be held in solitary confinement.  Lest you feel bad for GEO getting slapped around so hard in the lawsuit, remember that they earned millions of dollars in profit by treating children like shit.

Now, the state will pursue a new company to take over operations of the prisons.  Apparently, it hasn't crossed the Governor's mind to just have the government run them.  Anyway, CCA probably has the inside track to take over the prisons, since they already contract with the state to operate two others and can probably offer the lowest bid, because they're the largest and operate the biggest economy of scale in the industry.  I imagine maybe the things like the murder and the multiple suicides in one of the prisons, along with GEO's request for $5 million more per year to operate the prison, caused the state to want to move in a new direction.  GEO, playing the perfect jilted lover, claims it's the one who initiated the split, because the facility had been "financially under-performing," which if true just proves how fickle and greedy their corporate mentality is.

Change is long overdue.  The federal judge who ruled in the lawsuit against Walnut Grove called it a "cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate, the sum of which places the [children] at substantial ongoing risk."  I have no faith in any private prison company to come in and operate these prisons much better - this is far from the first time the industry has dramatically failed to live up to its promises and the terms of its contracts.  Mississippi should think long and hard before inviting yet another for-profit company to operate these prisons. Keeping the door open for the private industry simply invites more abuse.  The state would be much better served by assuming responsibility for its prisoners.  In addition to the considerable improvement many prisoners would see in their living conditions, the state should not continue to funnel taxpayer dollars to an industry that profits by performing an inherently governmental function.  Especially when the state's own experience shows just how poorly that money is being spent.

California County Concerned With Private MH Care

Quick link here to a story about a press conference that was held by a group of mental health advocates in Sata Barbara, CA to discuss a report about ways to reduce the amount of mentally ill people who go to jail and to ensure they receive adequate treatment while incarcerated.  Some of the people who spoke cited concerns with the treatment provided by Corizon, a for-profit medical and mental healthcare provider that serves the jail, and the lack of oversight to monitor the company.

Congresswoman Under Fire

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), chairwoman of the DNC, has heartily imbibed the "economic stimulus" Kool-Aid, and has publicly supported CCA and ICE's plans to build an immigration detention center in Southwest Ranches, Florida.  Her constituents have been pretty strongly opposed to the project from the get-go, and the debate has devolved into a legal battle between the next town over, Pembroke Pines, and CCA.

But Debbie, along with another Representative from Florida, just keeps ignoring the folks she's supposed to represent.  Recently, she was petitioned by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and a smattering of other advocacy groups with a video demonstrating the local opposition.  A spokesperson for her office basically told them she wasn't re-considering her endorsement.

Ask CCA To Report on Sexual Assault

I just want to drop a quick link here and encourage everyone to go sign a petition on Change.org asking CCA to report on its efforts to reduce sexual abuse within its facilities.  Sexual abuse in prisons is a serious problem in both government and private facilities, so a CCA shareholder introduced a resolution asking the company to provide regular reports on the efforts it is taking to combat sexual assault and protect the prisoners it houses.  CCA initially objected to the resolution, but that objection was rejected by the SEC, so it now will move to a vote by all shareholders of the company.   Please go sign this petition.

Louisiana on the Brink of a Terrible Decision?

Louisiana, the state with the highest rate of incarceration in the country, is considering selling its Avoyelles Correctional Center to a private company in a vain effort to save money.  This was immediately panned as a terrible idea by many in central Louisiana (where the prison is located), including the union that represents COs (AFSCME) and a local mayor who is concerned about public safety issues if the privatization moves forward.  State legislators also voiced concerns about the privatization effort, after witnessing problems at current private prisons within the state; one went so far as to beg the legislature, "Don't do this to the victims of crime all over Louisiana."  A former legislator also lamented the prospect of forcing state employees to take jobs with less pay and benefits, but the bill passed the appropriations committee by a narrow vote.

The first incarnation of the bill to privatize the prison would have set the contract length at 30 years; thankfully, the bill's sponsor had an epiphany of (some) common sense, and introduced an amendment that would prevent the prison from being sold (but not turning over its operation) and limit the contract to ten years.  A second amendment would also prevent a private company from charging a minimum occupancy rate, which could seriously undermine any company's desire to undertake responsibility for the facility.  Which would be a wonderful development.

Even with these new restrictions, privatizing Avoyelles would be a very risky decision; the mayor of Alexandria, Louisiana claims that privatization would present "significant issues" and put Alexandria "on the long-term road to being in a worse place than where [it] started."  The mayor went on to discuss how privatization has failed to save Louisiana and other states money in the past, and was joined by a former corrections official in warning about the potential impact on public safety.  The Southern Poverty Law Center concurred, saying that the long-term costs will far outweigh any short-term benefits achieved through privatization.  A managing attorney at the firm describes how private prison companies often lowball per diem rates at the beginning of a contract, then demand higher rates for prisoners once a government has committed to sending prisoners there.  Basically, the companies get governments by the cojones - once the prisoners are in a private facility, the logistical headache of relocating hundreds of convicts allows the companies to charge more.

It appears as though all this opposition might finally be getting through to legislators; even after the sale of the prison was removed from the bill, the legislation appears to be in danger of failing.  Apparently, politicians in Louisiana are beginning to realize that endangering public safety for corporate profits might not be the most politically palatable course of action.

Pressure Mounting Against Crete Detention Center

Another quick link here to a great story from the Huffington Post that captures much of the debate surrounding the proposed ICE/CCA facility in Crete, IL.  The proposal has met with strong opposition from many locals, despite ICE's and CCA's best efforts to sell it as economic stimulus.

Gambling the Future on Immigration Detention

Another quickie here - I just wanted to drop a link to this excellent article from The Nation, which discusses the Irwin County Detention Center, an immigration detention center in Georgia.  The story is an excellent discussion of the broken immigration detention system in this country and how over-reliance on incarceration as economic stimulus is a foolhardy venture.

From Bad to Worse

Quick link here to a story about how Florida is moving ahead with plans to privatize healthcare for all its prisoners. After republicans tried unsuccessfully, three times, to privatize half the state's prison system, they were determined to at least give a bit of a taxpayer-funded handout to private companies.  The state has received proposals from two companies, which would amount to a total of $359 million in fees for healthcare services.  The state currently pays about $400 million for healthcare for its prisoners, which isn't exactly what you'd get at Beth Israel, and it's looking to make it even harder for its prisoners to receive adequate medical treatment.  Somehow, this passed as proviso language in the budget, basically the same maneuver that sent the wholesale prison privatization offtrack.

Judge: Throw Out GEO Group's Contract

The GEO Group owns BI, Inc., an electronic monitoring company, because apparently incarcerating immigrants wasn't bringing in quite enough revenue.  The GEO Group is based in Florida, where an administrative law judge reviewing the contract the state just signed with BI, Inc. has recommended that the state cancel the contract it recently awarded and turn over monitoring services to BI's competitor, ProTech.  Basically, the judge found that there was an unfair bidding process, in which BI did not provide all the information initially sought in the request for proposals (but they got the contract anyway).  I imagine the $800,000 GEO contributed to Florida politicians in the last election cycle might have helped them win.

Wells Fargo Profiting from For-Profit Prisons

G4s Sucks

Don't take it from me.  A spate of recent articles basically sums up how G4S, the world's largest private security firm, might be the worst of the private prison companies in the world.  They don't operate any facilities in the US that I'm aware of, which is a good thing.  Take a look for yourself:

John Grayson, Mobilising Outrage: Campaigning With Asylum Seekers Against Security Industry Giant G4S, OpenDemocracy.net

Clare Sambrook, Who Should Investigate Murder - The Police, or a Private Security Company?, OpenDemocracy.net

Clare Sambrook, Corporate Power Stamps its Brand on British Policing, OpenDemocracy.net