Recently in Corrections Category

Source: Morgan Loew, CBS 5 Investigative Reporter,  11:58 am MST September 2, 2010

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign chairman and policy adviser is also a lobbyist for the largest private prison company in the country. Chuck Coughlin is one of two people in the Brewer administration with ties to Corrections Corporation of America. The other administration member is communications director Paul Senseman, a former CCA lobbyist. His wife still lobbies for the company.

Source: The Arizona Republic, Aug. 10, 2010 12:00 AM

 

..... The Golden Valley prison, run by Utah-based Management and Training Corp., is classified as medium security and has 117 inmates serving life sentences, nearly half for first-degree murder.

..... Running a prison is a complex mix of order and foresight. Many of the inmates have a potent combination of criminal skills, time on their hands and motivation to get around prison rules, with escape as the ultimate goal.  The escapes add to the debate over the role and oversight of private prisons in Arizona.

.... After two convicted killers escaped from a private prison in Florence in 2007, then-Sen. Robert Blendu, a Litchfield Park Republican, introduced a bill that would have required private prisons to share information with state officials and barred them from bringing dangerous felons to Arizona.  The positions on the bill, which didn't pass, show the complexity of the overall issue

Source: By Beau Hodai, In These Times, June 21, 2010

...... An In These Times investigation shows that the bill's promoters are as equally dedicated to border politics as they are to promoting the fortunes of private prison companies, like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group, which stand to reap substantial profits as more undocumented residents end up in jail.

.... A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, ALEC bills itself as "the nation's largest bipartisan, individual membership association of state legislators" and as a public-private legislative partnership. As such, ALEC claims as members more than 2,000 state lawmakers (one-third of the nation's total legislators) and more than 200 corporations and special-interest groups.

.... Looking at the numbers, it is easy to see why the private-prison industry is eager to expand into immigrant detentions. According to ICE Public Affairs Officer Gillian Brigham, in fiscal year 2009, ICE detained 383,524 individuals, with an average daily prisoner population of 32,098 spread across the nation's 270 immigrant detention centers.

Source: BY CHRISTINA HALL, FREE PRESS (MI), June 22, 2010

... Like Livonia's lockup, jails around Michigan are trying to save money on the cost of prisoner food, with many replacing restaurant fare with simpler meals to save money and manpower. In May, Wayne County privatized its jail food program in an effort to save $2.5 million a year. The Michigan Department of Corrections is conducting pilot programs in some prisons to cut costs, with some sites showing 30% savings. The programs may go statewide Oct. 1.

..... The Kitchen Inc. in Madison Heights makes weekly deliveries to the Ferndale lockup of freshly prepared meals that can be frozen and heated in the microwave.

Source: By Nathan Waggenspack, Dayton Daily News (OH) Thursday, June 17, 2010

Corrections employees from Dayton called legislators Wednesday, June 16, to protest a bill that could lead to more state prisons being run by private companies.

The bill at hand is Senate Bill 269, which would create a Prison Privatization Commission to privatize at least half the state's correctional facilities by the end of 2011.

 .... Employees who are members of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association gathered across the street from the Montgomery Education Pre-release Center, 1901 S. Gettysburg Ave., and made the calls to their representatives Wednesday, June 16.

Source: By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press,  Jun 1, 2010

BOISE, Idaho -- The state is ordering private prison company Correction Corporation of America to pay thousands of dollars and fix problems with drug and alcohol treatment and medical care at the Idaho Correctional Center.

Ten of 13 drug and alcohol counselors at the prison near Boise aren't qualified to provide treatment under CCA's contract with the state, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

... Among other problems found in the audits, inmates in the prison's infirmary were sometimes left alone, without any working pager or call-light system to call a nurse or doctor in an emergency. They also were going too long between medical checks by nursing staff, according to the records.

Source: AFSCME Council 31 On The Move, April 2010 (see p. 11)

 

When a new and unwelcome boss came in, 22 therapists, psychologists and counselors who work with sex offenders at the Kewanee Youth Center fought and won. By choosing AFSCME representation, the workers eventually upended the vendor that once employed them and be new state employees.

 ..... "We did the research and we were able to show the state that it wouldn't cost them any money to hire the frontline employees and get rid of ABTC." In addition, the turnover would go down, and with a more stable workforce, services would be improved. The state agreed. By July 1 the workers will be state employees, covered by the AFSCME master contract, and ABTC will be gone from Kewanee

Source: By Daniel Taub, Bloomberg May 11, 2010, 4:35 PM EDT
 

 ...... La Palma, which houses about 2,900 convicts from California, is one of 65 facilities operated by Corrections Corp. of America. As is the case at the company's other facilities, all the workers at La Palma, from the guards and office staff to the warden, are employed not by a government agency but by Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corp.

The company has grown to become the largest private-prison operator in the U.S. as states from California to Florida, along with the federal government, turn to corporate America to punish felons and hold detainees. Tightened budgets likely will lead to more contracts, company executives said.

Source: By Iain Thomson, IT News, May 13, 2010 12:56 PM

An Indian outsourcing firm is to run one of its data handling centres in a local prison as part of a new public/private partnership.

Radiant Info Systems has come to a deal with the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to hire 200 inmates of a state jail to work on data entry, and the processing and transmitting of information.

 Source: wtvq.com (KY)  01/21/2010

One Kentucky State Representative has introduced a bill to improve the quality and quantity of the food at all of the state's prison, but critics say it's costly and unnecessary. This was the scene last August when inmates rioted at Northpoint Prison near Danville. State Rep. Brent Yonts believes one of the main causes for this uprising was food.

Right now, a private company, Aramark, provides the inmates meals, so he is proposing a bill that would put the state back in control.