Challenging Florida's Privatization Plan

The Police Benevolent Association, a union that represents police and COs in Florida, just filed a lawsuit challenging Governor Ric Scott's and JD Alexander's proposal to privatize the corrections services of 18 counties in the state.  Scott and Alexander claim, incorrectly, that the privatization plan would offer significant cost-savings for the state.  Numerous studies have shown that this is not likely to be the case.

Thankfully, the PBA has stood up to Scott, a conservative wet dream who's also trying to defund and cripple unions as part of a large push to privatize all that is public.  The proposal was thrown into the budget amendment at the last minute, which should come as no surprise since this seems to be routine for Floridian politics.  As the PBA says, the "legislature's insertion of a massive privatization plan into the budget during the waning hours of the legislative session, on behalf of the most unpopular governor, was improper and illegal."

At Least We're Not the Only Ones

Who blindly and stupidly continue to look to privatize the correctional system with an industry that's a proven failure.  The UK is in the process of privatizing 9 more of their prisons, despite the fact that the industry suffers from all the same problems abroad as it does here in the US.  If the sale goes through as proposed, private prisons will comprise 15% of the "market" in England, a greater percentage than here in the US (probably about 10-12%)

Bad Investment

Quick link here to a great editorial that's run on the Private Corrections Institute and Tucson Citizen.  It's called "Arizona Doesn't Need, Can't Afford More Private Prison," and the title pretty much speaks for itself.  It's a shame that the state continues to seek private companies to operate an additional 5,000 prison beds despite the industry's long track record of failure.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth

Ohio is currently in the process of trying to sell 5 state prisons to private operators to raise money during the recession.  As I reported on before, the deal isn't nearly as beneficial for the state and its taxpayers as it was initially said to be.  So any hopes Ohio's taxpayers have of saving money on corrections through privatization should be tempered, especially because private prisons have often been found to not even save any significant amount of money in operations, compared to government-run prisons.

So private prisons don't save money.  Private prisons also consistently have higher rates of escapes, assaults, and violence at their facilities, and they cut corners in every area of operations.  So really the state of Ohio should listen to CCA spokesman Steve Owen, who says "If we don't operate safe, secure facilities, and we don't provide the cost savings that are expected, there's no reason for government to continue to partner with our industry."  I couldn't have said it better myself.

I think Ohio should heed his words, especially in light of the state's turbulent history with private prisons.  In addition to one of the biggest lawsuits to slam the industry during the 90's, the result of a riot at a Youngstown prison operated by CCA, the state has had numerous escapes and murders at other private prisons.  And in a rather blatant handout to the industry, the state of Ohio is even going to pay to help train the guards at the private prisons.  On the one hand, this is good because guards at private prisons rarely if ever receive as much training as they need, but this is something that should really be paid for by the companies who buy the prisons and want to assume responsibility for operating them.

Overworking Staff

Just a quick one here.  I saw this comment on a thread on Corrections.com, in reply to a question about whether or not it's normal to have no breaks on a full shift while working in a prison:

"At Idaho Correctional Center, run by CCA, we work 12-16 hour shifts and are not allotted breaks of any sort." (emphasis added). 

And yes, that would be the same Idaho Correctional Center which is currently the target of a multiple-hundred-million dollar lawsuit because the violence there is so pervasive it's called "Gladiator School" by those unlucky enough to find themselves housed there.

Burying the Money

This is almost too easy.  The GEO Group, a huge, multi-billion dollar corporation, also has a political action committee so that they can essentially donate twice in every political campaign they want to be a part of (it's called GEOPAC).  But apparently, all those billions of dollars couldn't buy them lawyers that could understand the difference between state and federal laws.

GEO also set up an in-state PAC in Florida for this last election cycle (you know, the one in which they donated $800,000+ to Florida politicians, who then decided to privatize the prisons in 18 effing counties).  The in-state PAC is not allowed to donate as much money as a federal PAC, but that didn't stop the GEO Group from using it to funnel campaign contributions only permissible for federal PACs to make.  The company claims it didn't know there was a difference.  Bullshit.

But what bothers me most of all is that the Florida GEOPAC, ostensibly used to spread influence to Floridian politicians, donated to candidates all across the country.  They donated to people in places like Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas.  All places which, coincidentally enough, have a lot of private prisons.

People worried last election cycle about foreign investors donating to American politicians and corrupting them.  I fear we have an even more treacherous movement afoot here in the US, where prison companies are now using such unscrupulous tactics to try to hide the money they use to influence politicians into trying to lock us all up.

A Death in Mississippi, a Lawsuit in Texas

Rolling 2 stories into one here.  First up is a story from Mississippi, where Derek Criddle, a 26-year-old young man in a CCA facility, was stabbed to death during a fight.  Six other prisoners were injured in the scuffle, and two remained hospitalized as of Thursday.

Meanwhile in Texas, the family of a prisoner who died after "the [Brooks County] prison disregarded his very, very serious medical condition" is suing LCS Correctional Services for the wrongful death of Mario Garcia.

Staffing Issues in Pennsylvania

Private prisons, when they do save money, are often able to do so primarily through reductions in staff costs (staffing being the most expensive component of a prison's operation).  This comes in the forms of reduced pay, reduced benefits, less training, and lower staffing levels (staff-inmate ratios).  Taken together, these cuts present a dangerous situation for prisoners and staff alike, as criminals are guarded by too few people, many of whom are underqualified to be in their positions.  Turnover is exceptionally high among private prison staff, so many guards are really ill-prepared to handle the responsibility of managing prisoners.

Pennsylvania's experimentation with private prisons is suffering from exactly these sorts of problems.  At a privately-run youth detention facility, underqualified staff and low staffing levels have contributed to numerous altercations between staff and prisoners.  "When I walk into certain places, I still see staff that are too young ... that act like teenagers, that get in between the gossip and the drama... I understand it's a difficult job, but I think you need to have a certain type of heart," said an employee of the facility. 

 At another private youth facility run by the GEO Group, turnover for the month of May was greater than 20%; "The chronic issue of insufficient staffing had risen to a near emergency level, making it impossible for staff to provide consistent supervision, much less, meaningful programming to clients."

When you turn to private companies to provide an inherently governmental service, you should expect outcomes like this.  Unfortunately, many children have had to suffer because of the decisions of overzealous conservative lawmakers who push to privatize every service the government provides.

Revolving Door (Turn, Turn, Turn)

Two interesting bits of news today on the perpetual revolving door that is the private prison industry. The title link goes to a piece from Tennessee, where a lobbyist and former CCA employee, Leslie Hafner, was just selected to be the Governor's new director of legislation. This is a good position for a former CCA employee to be in, what with CCA having their headquarters in Nashville and all.

Then there's this story from Montana, where CCA has siphoned off a state prison warden to come to the Crossroads Correctional Facility in Shelby. And in one of the richer bits of irony I've seen in a while, Mr. Mahoney (the new CCA employee) had this to say of a riot that occurred on his watch at the state prison in '91: "When you don’t have the proper numbers, you end up running the staff you do have extra hard,” he said. “That’s never a good idea in a correctional environment."

Well Mr. Mahoney, get ready to run your new staff "extra hard."

Already Changing Their Tune

Well that didn't take long at all. Ohio, with its anti-union, pro-corporate governor John Kasich, is planning on selling 5 state prisons to private companies who won't perform to the same standards as the state or save money. But the administration was convinced they offered some sort of cost-savings (despite a plethora of research to the contrary), and initially said the state would earn $200 million from the sale of the prisons. But it turns out they now only expect to earn about $50 million, 1/4 of what the originally thought they'd get.

And if that wasn't enough, there's this story from today discussing how special interests are ramping up their lobbying efforts in the state, hoping to woo the conservative governor. It should come as no surprise that Kasich's close personal friend for decades, and former chief of staff for 20 years, formed a lobbying company after Kasich won the election. A lobbying company that represents, among others, CCA, the company from which Kasich's new director of the DOC came, and who will be bidding to purchase the state prisons.

Welcome to privatized utopia.

Economic Facism: Private Prisons Lobbying For More Prisoners

Press on the Day of Solidarity

It looks like the Prison Industry Divestment Campaign had a very successful day of rallying and protests yesterday in 13 cities across the country. Thank you to everyone who came out to voice your opposition to the prison-industrial complex and how it profits by incarcerating and dehumanizing immigrants and US citizens.

Title link goes to some coverage from Texas; coverage from the events in Tucson, Arizona can be found here.

UPDATE Here's more coverage from the protests in Florida and Tennessee