What is going on with food recently?

Prisoners in Michigan City, IN have begun to protest the food they're being served by Aramark, saying it's insufficient and gross. So naturally the entire prison is on lockdown. And over in Tennessee, an inmate was ordered to be moved from the prison he was at because he had lost too much weight from a lack of nutrition (http://www.wsmv.com/news/21442692/detail.html). I guess when you try to feed people for $1 at a time it doesn't quite give them the nutrition they need. Are you listening, Sheriff Joe?

They're Branching Out

Arizona wants to privatize ALL its correctional facilities, including death row. Never mind that no private company currently houses or has any experience in housing DR inmates, or that private prisons are probably either just as expensive or even more expensive that public facilities. But CCA expects to submit a proposal to take over a number of public beds, including the death row fellows. Stay tuned as this is sure to turn into a cluster**** of fun for Arizona.

Why I Hate GEO: They deny medical care to epileptics

This is a great article on immigration detention, as viewed through the lens of the Pecos riots last January, drawing a parallel between private prison construction and the factors that led to our economy collapsing. For a great in-depth expose on the Pecos riots, check out Tom Barry's piece from the Boston review at:
http://www.alternet.org/immigration/143462/a_death_in_texas_casts_cold_light_on_america

They refuse to pay prevailing wages to folks building their facilities

So the construction workers have gone on strike at the site of a CCA facility in Nevada. This facility at Pahrump has had all sorts of problems from the moment it was proposed. I imagine it will continue to provide ammo for years to come.

Why I hate Aramark today

Aramark, the food service provider for the state of Kentucky is literally starving the inmates it serves. The approval rating for their food service at one prison (Northpoint CC) was a 2.6 out of a possible 10. The prisoners rioted at this facility back in August and told multiple sources they did so because the food was inadequate and not very clean. Aramark of course denies this and just claims the prisoners have ulterior motives for trashing their company. That's right Aramark; prisoners in Kentucky are just out to get you. Or could it simply be, as one prisoner put it "(They) would not like to be hungry ALL THE TIME" (emphasis added).

Debunking the Savings Myth

Pirvate prisons are more expensive than public facilities. Well, at least in Oklahoma they are. A recent study found that housing prisoners at a private prison, reagrdless of security level, is more expensive per day than housing them at a public facility, or very comparable. Now that this cat's out of the bag, I wonder what CCA and GEO will rely upon to claim they're still relevant and needed.

Lobbying Against Oversight

This is a few months old, granted, but certainly worth your time, I promise. Matt Pulle of Texas Watchdog did a great investigative piece on how the GEO groups has been successful in lobbying against enhanced oversight and public records laws conformity in the Texas legislature. This is especially bad because Texas readily admits it doesn't collect data on private prison operations.

Last one, I promise

Just wanted to post a link to Newsweek's story on the Hardin case. It's actually really good

Former CCA employees awarded $1.3 million in suit

the terms of a settlement between CCA and some former employees has been finalized. A few women who worked at the Crowley County CF in CO were sexually assaulted by their superiors. I wrote about this before (these are the same women who were forced to take dangerous shift assignments when they spoke out against the harassment/assault). They won $1.3 million. The only bad thing is that this was a settlement, which means CCA doesn't admit liability or fault in the decision. Otherwise, it's good to see some justice served.

Interesting Development in the Hardin Case

It turns out the drama with the APPF and Hardin Jail wasn’t the first time the town had been duped in the private prison market. The facility was built by a company called Corpland Corrections, which appears to be little more than a fraud perpetrated on small communities in dire need of economic stimulus. In one instance, four of the people involved in the awarding of a contract to the company were convicted in a corruption probe. The company comes in to build prisons but rarely if ever fulfills its promises of providing long-term revenue for a town or county (because they don’t operate the prisons or secure a contract for someone else to do so). I’ve seen a few stories on this in the past few days, and I don’t think this is the last we’ll hear about the company.

More here:
http://newmexicoindependent.com/39009/private-prison-developer-behind-montana-fiasco-involved-in-construction-of-nm-private-prisons

LCS has cleaned up its act, maybe.

LCS Correctional Services has worked on improving conditions at a facility that failed inspection on 17 points about a month ago, in preparation for an upcoming inspection. Among the issues they failed in compliance checks on were training for guards and checking for contraband. Hopefully they can begin to run it as only a substandard prison, instead of an abysmal one.

The deal is dead

APPF has backed out of its agreement to run the Hardin jail, giving some BS reasoning. but the fact remains that we won't have a private army in Montana.

Also, they released the contract drawn up between APPF and the TRA, which would have made APPF Hardin's own private police force. that could have been catastrophic:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_fe7d193c-b48f-11de-8209-001cc4c002e0.html