Two Private Prisons Fined For Staffing Shortages
Source: Associated Press (CO), Jun 28, 2006 9:59 pm US/Mountain
An audit sparked by a riot at a Corrections Corp. of America prison in Crowley County uncovered staffing shortages at two prisons run by that company that resulted in fines of $126,000, a first in Colorado. ..... The company's Kit Carson County prison in Burlington, near the Colorado-Kansas state line, was fined $103,743 for leaving 701 required shifts empty in a 10-week period from Nov. 1 to Jan. 10, according to state records.
CCA's Crowley County prison in Olney Springs was fined nearly $23,000 for leaving 157 shifts open in the same period. An inquiry into a riot at the Crowley County prison in 2004 found the company's staff-to-inmate ration was one-seventh of the state's prison's at the time. Thirty-three officers were guarding 1,122 inmates.