Source: by Cecilia Chan, The Arizona Republic, May. 7, 2008 10:50 AM
With the cost to put people in county jails on the increase each year, Peoria is taking a look at the private sector to do the job. Maricopa County is predicting an 8 percent increase in the jail incarceration fee in fiscal year 2009 for Peoria, a $108,000 jump to $383,000. Also, new DUI laws have increased the number of booking days for first- and second-offenders.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, Fri, May. 2, 2008
Too many inmates are dying at Delaware County's jail.
Since 2005, at least eight inmates have died at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton, the only privately run jail in Pennsylvania. The latest fatality is Kenneth Kallenbach, 39, who died April 24 after contracting pneumonia at the lockup. He had been held there awaiting trial since mid-March.
.........GEO Group, which operates the facility, has faced lawsuits over these deaths. It has problems elsewhere. In Texas, where GEO runs more than a dozen prisons, it has come under criticism for alleged mismanagement and foul conditions. One inspector called an adult facility in Texas operated by GEO the worst he'd ever seen.
........Delaware County has been paying GEO more than $30 million annually to run its jail. County officials have boasted that they were saving $1 million per year by outsourcing the prison operation. They should be asking whether another outfit could do a better job, or whether this for-profit model is even working.
Source: Associated Press (TX), Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Law enforcement officials are trying to understand how a convicted felon managed to escape from jail without anyone noticing his absence for a full day.
.......... Pena was being held at the privately operated Central Texas Detention Facility for violating terms of his supervised release.
.......... The facility is operated by The GEO Group. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a phone message left By The Associated Press early Tuesday morning.
Source: By KATE HOWARD, Tennessean (TN), March 24, 2008
While other inmates at the Metro Detention Facility took an hour out of their cells most days, a mentally ill inmate named Frank Horton never left his cell for any recreation or a shower -- for nine straight months. It's unclear if he even saw a doctor.
Living conditions for the inmate, a nonviolent offender before entering prison, changed only after an employee complained to the Metro Public Health Department on Jan. 31 and he was forced out for a shower and a mental health evaluation.
The situation raises questions about the treatment of inmates at the 1,200-bed prison where many of Nashville's convicted felons serve their time.
...... Under Metro's contract with CCA, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office oversees the policies of the prison. The health department monitors the health records of its prisoners, as it does at the county jails.
According to Hall, the state of Tennessee pays the sheriff's office about $17 million a year that is used to pay CCA for operating the prison.
Source: Associated Press (PA), 03.21.08, 12:52 PM ET
The state has decided not to privatize and merge its mental-health services for inmates after negotiating an alternative plan with unions that opposed the idea.
...... The Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, which represents about 220 security employees in the forensic units, was among the unions that resisted the plan. Union officials feared the move would lead to the privatization of state prisons and said it would compromise public safety.
Source: Tucson Citizen (AZ), 03.24.2008
For awhile, Senate Bill 1142 appeared to have a chance. The bill, which would have brought government oversight of private prisons in Arizona up to the standards set by other states, doesn't hamstring the industry
...... Blendu said that one benefit of the legislation would be to ban the housing of out-of-state sex offenders in Arizona, not an outrageous restriction.
..... That's unfortunate. The state should have the power to regulate private prisons within its borders.
..... Perhaps the demise of the bills is an indication of how the private-prison industry is strengthening its grip in Arizona.
Source: By Al Sullivan, Hudson Reporter (NJ), 03/20/2008
Prompted by members from two unions, Hudson County Freeholders agreed at a recent meeting to look into possibly re-bidding a contract to supply food services to the Hudson County Correctional Facility.
Aramark, the nation's largest food service contractor, currently supplies the service.
Members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and UNITE-HERE Union told freeholders at the Feb. 24 meeting that the county was paying significantly more than nearby New Jersey counties for the same services.
"Why is Aramark charging Hudson County taxpayers more for its jail food service than it's charging taxpayers in Essex and Union counties?" asked Kevin Brown, Local 32BJ New Jersey director. "The food is the same, the work is the same, so why the price difference?"
Source: BY KEVIN DUGGAN, Coloradoan, March 15, 2008
Improperly handled chili was behind a food-poisoning outbreak at the Alternative Sentencing Unit of the Larimer County jail last month that left 31 inmates ill, according to the county health department.
...... The on-site manager of Aramark, the contractor for food service at the jail, has been replaced, Maj. James Wacker said. A deputy also has been assigned to spot-check the kitchen to make sure proper procedures are being followed.
Source: Associated Press (ID), 02.25.08, 4:56 PM ET
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has abandoned legislation to completely privatize Idaho's new prisons, relenting to lawmakers who weren't ready to let somebody else take control the state's correctional facilities.
Source: By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press (TN), February 21, 2008
A private prison company executive nominated to become a federal judge has run into a determined opponent -- a former inmate. President Bush in June nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America, to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville.
...... He formed the group Tennesseans Against Puryear and enlisted the help of the liberal Washington-based Alliance for Justice and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, both of which sent letters opposing the appointment.
Source: BY DOMINICK TAO, Miami Herald (FL), Sat, Feb. 16, 2008
Sweat dripping from his brow, union representative Bruce Raynor promised a crowd nearing 100, including two state lawmakers, that he wouldn't rest until food service provider Aramark is stripped of its contract with the Florida Department of Corrections.
At the sidewalk rally outside downtown Miami government buildings Friday, Raynor, the president of the Unite Here union that represents more than 20,000 Aramark employees nationwide, accused the company of collecting millions of dollars of taxpayer money by charging for meals that were never served and using substandard ingredients in food preparation.
Source: AFSCME Council 5
A website with information and resources for fighting privatization. Special sections for transportation, corrections and care givers including anti-privatization advertisements.
Minnesota's public services should not be for sale to the lowest bidder. Essential services are government's responsibility.It's risky business to let cut-rate workers plow our roads, keep our dangerous criminals behind bars, and care for our sick and vulnerable.
Source: Amanda J. Crawford, The Arizona Republic, Feb. 1, 2008
Brandishing a fake gun and using ladders stolen from a maintenance building, two convicted killers climbed onto the roof and over the walls of a private prison in Florence in September. They navigated through several lines of razor wire and outmaneuvered security patrols, escaping to freedom, an investigative report on the incident says.
One was caught within hours. It was nearly a month before the other was caught, hundreds of miles away in his home state of Washington.
Now, in response, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to tighten up rules for the state's growing private-prison industry, which is virtually unregulated by the state. A legislative proposal drafted by the Governor's Office and introduced by Republican Sen. Robert Blendu of Litchfield Park would bar private prisons from importing murderers, rapists and some other dangerous or seriously ill felons to Arizona. It would also require the companies to share security and inmate information with state officials.
...... The private-prison industry has grown rapidly in Arizona since the first such prison opened here in 1994, bringing jobs and thousands of out-of-state inmates to Pinal County.
Now, more than 9,000 felons from Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and other states and the federal government are housed in six of 11 privately run prisons in Arizona.
...... But unlike other states, Arizona has no restrictions on the kind of out-of-state inmates that can be brought here. And private-prison companies in Arizona are not required to share detailed information on inmates, staffing and security measures or have their facility designs approved by state officials.
Source: Associated Press (PA), 2/1/2008 3:33 AM
Court rulings prohibit routine strip searches of minor offenders, but a privately run prison conducts them on all new inmates, a lawsuit charged.
The potential class-action suit, filed in federal court this week against The Geo Group, involves a drunken-driving suspect who was strip-searched at a county prison the firm manages near Philadelphia.
...... The Geo Group, previously known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., does not comment on pending litigation, spokesman Pablo Paez said Thursday.
Source: By Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times (WA), January 30, 2008
The state Department of Corrections plans to stop sending inmates to private, out-of-state prisons and to begin shipping home the 1,200 inmates at those facilities this summer, according to Secretary Eldon Vail.
...... The out-of-state transfers also put more pressure on prisons because CCA -- the largest private jailer in the country -- will take only healthy, well-behaved inmates.
Source: By MATT HANLEY, Courier News (IL), January 5, 2008
Three Kane County jail inmates, including a Carpentersville man, have filed suit claiming they are not getting proper nutritional value from their meals.
Michael Nance, Devalius McDonald and Deandre Clemons filed the civil suit in Kane County court this week against County Sheriff Pat Perez and the jail's food service provider. The suit claims the food provided by Aramark Food Service is "not sufficient."
Source: The Associated Press / The Ann Arbor News (MI), October 31, 2007 07:02AM
....... A compromise was reached on the last sticking point: Turning over more of the state's adoption, foster care and juvenile justice services to private hands. Under the compromise, a medium-security section of the Maxey facility on M-36 would close and 60 youthful offenders would be moved to private facilities.
The more than 130 affected workers would be allowed to transfer elsewhere in the Department of Human Services instead of losing their jobs.
"We are protecting those people who have been public employees for a long time," said House Appropriations Chairman George Cushingberry Jr., D-Detroit. He said private agencies can help lighten the backlog of cases handled by an overburdened and understaffed DHS.
Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), Oct 15, 2007
There were little pre-teen beauty queens and balloons and lots of smiling faces among the local officeholders on hand when they cut the ribbon last month to open Florida's biggest privately operated state prison, a modern, 1,500-bed institution over in Graceville.
......... But just three days after the grand opening - but shouldn't they call it a "grand closing" when it's a prison? - the Department of Management Services sent out a couple of little letters that show the down side of privatization in general, and prison privatization in particular. The department fined both GEO and Corrections Corp. of America nearly $300,000 for excessive use of overtime in two other institutions.
......... GEO and Corrections Corp. of America didn't return calls asking for comment late last week. But in privatization generally - and prisons in particular - one sure way to do a job cheaper than the government can do it is to hire fewer people. If that means working them longer hours, it's probably cheaper to pay overtime than to hire more people and incur the expenses of Social Security, insurance coverage, vacation time, holidays, pensions and whatever other benefits employees of the private companies may receive.
Source: GAO Report, GAO-08-6 October 5, 2007
Over the last 10 years, the cost to confine federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) inmates in non-BOP facilities has nearly tripled from about $250 million in fiscal year 1996 to about $700 million in fiscal year 2006. Proponents of using contractors to operate prisons claim it can save money; others question whether contracting is a cost-effective alternative. In response to Conference Report 109-272, accompanying Pub. L. No. 109-108 (2005), this report discusses the feasibility and implications of comparing the costs for confining federal inmates in low and minimum security BOP facilities with those managed by private firms for BOP. GAO reviewed available data on a selection of 34 low and minimum security facilities; related laws, regulations, and documents; and interviewed BOP and contract officials.
Source: By FINN BULLERS, The Kansas City Star (MO), Mon, Oct. 08, 2007 10:15 PM
Forget housing inmates in private jails, Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning says. He thinks he can house an inmate for $30 less a day.
In May, county commissioners met with a spokesman from one of the nation's largest private penal firms to consider the county's growing jail needs and how to avoid building more cells.
Denning has called private jails a "train wreck" that would compromise public safety and drive up costs.
Source: Associated Press, October 05, 2007: 01:55 PM EST
Shares of Geo Group Inc. dropped Friday on concerns that it may lose more contracts in Texas, while shares of other private prison operators rose.
The Texas Youth Commission canceled a contract with Geo Group Tuesday, following an audit that said conditions at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center were unsafe and unsanitary. The center was the largest private juvenile prison in Texas, and brought Geo Group about $2 million in revenue per quarter.
On Friday, AvondalePartners analyst Kevin Campbell said Texas state legislators are considering a review of Geo's other contracts in the state.
Source: Associated Press (PA), Friday, September 28, 2007
PHILADELPHIA - Prison officials violated workplace discrimination laws when they fired a Muslim nurse who insisted on wearing a head scarf on the job, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged Thursday.
The agency charged in a lawsuit that The Geo Group Inc., a private company that operates the Delaware County Prison in Thornton, refused to make religious accommodations for Carmen Sharpe-Allen and other female Muslim employees.
Source: By Geoffrey Fattah, Deseret Morning News (UT), Sept. 20, 2007
Privatizing Utah's prison system would have no clear cost advantages, according to an independent study that was presented to lawmakers on Wednesday.
The study by the University of Utah's School of Social Work and Criminal Justice Center compared existing studies conducted in other states that have both private and public prisons and found "no clear empirical advantage or disadvantage to privatize."
Study co-author Brad Lundahl told members of the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee that the majority of private prison facilities are medium- to minimum-security facilities.
Source: By The Associated Press (NM), 09/19/2007
The state Court of Appeals has ruled (.pdf) that a private prison company is not entitled to a refund of taxes for operating prisons that house inmates for the state and federal governments.
Corrections Corporation of America had sought a refund of state gross receipts taxes, claiming it was allowed a deduction for the leasing of its prisons under agreements with the Department of Corrections and the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The Court of Appeals concluded Tuesday there was no lease of real property.
Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), September 17, 2007
The big business of incarceration comes to the Panhandle town of Graceville this week, as Florida opens what will be its biggest for-profit prison in a competitive system marked by controversy.
........ In addition to the $61 million, three-year contract with GEO Group Inc. for the new prison, this year's Legislature approved an expansion.
Private prisons are required to operate at least 7-percent cheaper than state institutions. Graceville's baseline $42.74 per diem rate is $9.33 per prisoner below the daily average cost provided by the Department of Corrections.
But critics maintain that private prisons do it by scrimping on pay and benefits, or cutting corners on staffing levels, health care and inmate education programs.
Source: Hawaii Channel, September 17, 2007
Another lawsuit has been filed against the mainland prison corporation that houses thousands of Hawaii inmates.
This lawsuit claimed the company knowingly hired sexual predators as guards to torment inmates.
.......... He said Corrections Corp. of America did not respond to his complaints. CCA had a history of hiring predatory homosexuals in order to control inmates, according to the lawsuit.
Source: By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times (CA), August 24, 2007
...... Childress is a part of a first wave of about 700 male convicts that California has shipped to privately owned and operated prisons in Arizona, Tennessee and Mississippi. "I feel good, like I could do another 10 years," he said, half-jokingly. The nation's big private prison companies like it too. Having long lusted after a share of California's 173,000-inmate population, they now foresee a steady stream of business. Depending on the outcome of legal challenges, California could be "one of the longtime drivers of growth for the private prison industry," industry analyst Kevin Campbell said.
...... For decades, these companies attempted to win contracts to house convicts in privately owned or leased in-state prisons, only to see their efforts thwarted by the wealthy, politically influential California prison guards union.
Source: The Associated Press
Two managers at a private Arizona prison that houses inmates from Hawaii quit the facility with complaints of poor management, inadequate facilities and lack of staffing.
Two days after the managers abruptly left their jobs, staff members at the Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy inadvertently opened security doors Aug. 3, releasing seven inmates from their cells.
...... They didn't tell Tennessee-based Corrections Corp. of America, which runs the Saguaro facility, why they were leaving.
........In the e-mails, Stokes said upper management at the facility spies on staff, controls all communication with the outside and degrades inmates.
Source: Galen Scott, Weatherford Democrat (TX), August 13, 2007 06:13 pm
In a 4-1 vote Monday, the Parker County Commissioners Court approved a five-year contract with private jail management company CiviGenics.
...... Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Webster cast the lone vote of opposition.
........ “My feeling on this is that privatization is not the answer for government problems, and I think we need to find that answer within ourselves,” he said. “I disagree with the conclusions that have been drawn up, but I feel like I will be outvoted, and that’s fine. Because that is what we are able to have in a democracy where one person can speak his piece.”
Source: MyFox Dallas (TX), Last Edited: Tuesday, 14 Aug 2007, 6:22 AM CDT
A private prison facility was on lockdown early Tuesday as authorities investigated a disturbance that erupted when hundreds of inmates refused to leave the recreation yard.
Two employees of Corrections Corp. of America's Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility were treated on site for minor injuries during the Monday night disturbance, spokesperson Louise Grant said.
Source: By Jeff Golimowski and Whitney Stewart, CNSNews.com. August 07, 2007
If you were given 30 days to find a new place to live, could you do it easily? What if every available apartment and house in town was already taken? Multiply this conundrum by 1,200. Now you know how the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC) felt last year.
"We had contracts last year in Texas and we got 30-days notice we had to take back 1,200 inmates," said ADOC spokesperson Katie Decker.
........ Some states are satisfied with their private-prison operations. But, increasingly, many states are looking for ways to avoid sending their prisoners out of state or into private prisons in order to keep them in state-run facilities.
"We can do it faster, better, and cheaper," said Decker. "We're in the people business. They're in the profit business."
.......... Free market advocates hailed the move as a way to spur competition and efficiencies in what, until then, had been an exclusively governmental function.
.........But public employee unions and many corrections officials viewed the move to private prisons skeptically. They argued that private prisons would cut corners to raise profits and hurt rehabilitation efforts.
Source: By SOLOMON MOORE, New York Times, July 31, 2007
...... The number of inmates shipped out of Arizona would be even larger, but plans for additional transfers to Indiana had to be called off in April after 500 inmates from Arizona rioted at a privately run prison in New Castle, Ind., in part because of complaints about the long distance. Two correctional officers and five inmates were injured in the two-hour incident. Officials there assigned blame to poorly trained guards, many of whom were hired just days before the transfers.
Ms. Schriro said the riot showed how desperate the situation had become. The state’s overcrowding worsened, she said, after two private prisons in Texas now run by the GEO Group, canceled Arizona’s contract and instead signed more lucrative deals with federal corrections agencies.
....... State corrections officials and prison industry executives say that prison companies are an attractive alternative when cash-strapped state governments need additional prison space faster than they can build it. Private prisons can also provide political cover to elected officials seeking to avoid charges of coddling criminals and spending large sums on prison construction.
Source: By JENNIFER LaFLEUR, The Dallas Morning News (TX), Sunday, July 29, 2007
Associated Marine Institutes has been cited as a model youth rehabilitation program, but the nonprofit has been hit with more than a dozen lawsuits nationwide and has lost contracts in two states. In Texas, AMI runs two very different programs for TYC.
Its Rio Grande Marine Institute in Los Fresnos in South Texas was designed for troubled youths to receive marine and wilderness training, and perform community service. In 1999, the Texas House of Representatives called AMI's work at the institute "of the utmost importance for the future of the youth of this state."
But the facility, which AMI opened in 1986, had the second highest rate of abuse allegations among private contractors in Texas in 2006. And reviews by TYC monitors from 2000 to early 2007 revealed multiple cases where the institute failed to live up to its promise of "structured and supervised activities" for at least 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
Source: By HOLLY BECKA, The Dallas Morning News
The Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, run by the GEO Group Inc., is Texas' largest private juvenile prison and has had the highest rate of alleged abuse among TYC's contractors over the last seven years. The Florida-based GEO has renewed, extended or renegotiated its contract with the Texas Youth Commission at least seven times since it first won the contract to run the Coke facility in June 1994. During that time, at least two other states have closed their GEO-run juvenile facilities because of inadequate care of inmates and abuse allegations.
Related article from the Dallas Morning News: Texas' youth jail operators have troubled histories / TYC contractors housing inmates have lost contracts, closed doors elsewhere
Source: By Rachael Joyner, South Florida Sun-Sentinel (FL), July 20, 2007
Palm Beach Gardens A former security guard claims he was harassed by a co-worker because of his religion, and then fired for complaining about it.
...... "This is a case of religious discrimination because [the co-worker] used words like 'terrorist' and 'Guantanamo,'" said Altaf Ali, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national group that defends the civil rights of Muslims in America.
........ The council held a news conference Thursday to present Amar's case against his former employer, Wackenhut Corp., a private security and investigation business. Amar asked the company for a formal apology and a full investigation of his harassment complaints but got neither, he said.
Source: Pat Schneider, Capital Times (WI), 7/19/2007
Tomas Contreras, a Madison businessman held for 81 days earlier this year when he tried to re-enter the United States, is working to expose the cruelties, including a two-week stay in an isolation chamber, that he said he was subjected to at privately run detention centers in Texas.
...... At the Laredo Processing Center in Laredo, run by Tennessee-based Corrections Corp. of America, a national prison services giant, Contreras said he was placed in a large dormitory with 80 or more men from around the world.
Source: By Kevin Daytonm, Honolulu Advertiser (HI), Wednesday, July 18, 2007
For the second time in two years, improper actions by a corrections worker caused cell doors to unexpectedly open in a Mainland prison where Hawai'i inmates were supposed to be kept separated, triggering violence that injured a Hawai'i convict, prison officials said.
In the first incident at a Mississippi prison in 2005, Hawai'i convict Ronnie Lonoaea, 34, was beaten so severely that he suffered brain damage and is now confined to a wheelchair. Lonoaea's family sued the Hawai'i prison system and Corrections Corp. of America last week in connection with the case.
Source: Sharon Dolovich, Outsourcing the U.S., Harvard University Press (via SSRN), 2007
Debates over contracting out government functions to private, for-profit entities often play out within a deliberative framework that can be thought of as “comparative efficiency.” From this perspective, the decision whether to privatize any given government function turns on which sector, public or private, would perform the relevant function more efficiently. Comparative efficiency thus has two defining features: it views the motivating question as a choice between public and private, and it treats efficiency as the sole value guiding the analysis. That comparative efficiency is the appropriate way to approach the issue of privatization tends to be taken for granted. Its value neutrality is also assumed. In this essay, I challenge these assumptions.
Using the example of private prisons, I argue that comparative efficiency operates instead as a rhetorical device that keeps the debate within particular bounds, excluding some concerns altogether and reframing others in ways consistent with its own priorities. I then consider the interests and values served by the ways comparative efficiency structures the private prisons debate, and argue that it is the project of privatization itself that is the beneficiary.
Source: By JOHN MILLER, Associated Press (TX), July 10, 2007
After months alone in his cell, Scot Noble Payne finished 20 pages of letters, describing to loved ones the decrepit conditions of the prison where he was serving time for molesting a child. Then Payne used a razor blade to slice two 3-inch gashes in his throat.
......... "Try to comfort my mum too and try to get her to see that I am truly happy again," he wrote his uncle. "I tell you, it sure beats having water on the floor 24/7, a smelly pillow case, sheets with blood stains on them and a stinky towel that hasn't been changed since they caught me."
Payne's suicide on March 4 came seven months after he was sent to the squalid privately run Texas prison by Idaho authorities trying to ease inmate overcrowding in their own state.
....... It also raised questions about a company hired to operate prisons in 15 states, despite reports of abusive guards and terrible sanitation. Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request show Idaho did little monitoring of out-of-state inmates, despite repeated complaints from prisoners, their families and a prison inspector.
........... He was among Idaho inmates sent to the prison in Spur, Texas, run by a Florida-based company called the GEO Group. The business operates more than 50 prisons across the United States as well as in Australia and South Africa.
Source: By JENNIFER LIBERTO, St Petersburg Times (FL), June 26, 2007
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement closed an investigation and cleared two private prison companies of criminal charges Monday. Lawmakers had asked FDLE to investigate for criminal activity, after state auditors reported that the companies improperly collected more than $12.7-million in overpayments. Gov. Charlie Crist has approved FDLE's final report, which clears the GEO Group, Inc., and the Corrections Corporation of America of criminal wrongdoing. The 22-page report, released Monday, points out weaknesses in the originally negotiated contract that allowed for some over payment and also quotes heavily from interviews with those who denied "inappropriate relationships."
Source: Simmons, Ric, "Private Criminal Justice" . Wake Forest Law Review, Vol. 42, 2007 Available at SSRN
This article charts the rise of a private criminal justice system in this country, provides a rough blueprint of what a fully functioning private criminal justice system will look like, and offers suggestions as to how to guide its development.
The article begins by describing the failures of the public criminal justice system, and then examines the ways in which these failures have given rise to two alternatives to the traditional system of criminal justice: privatization of law enforcement and restorative justice. The article then analyzes each of these alternatives, and then combines the two in order to demonstrate what a private criminal justice system would look like in the near future. Finally, the article considers potential criticisms of a private criminal justice system and offers suggestions as to how to guide the development of this new system in light of these criticisms.
Source: Associated Press (TX), May 31, 2007
HOUSTON -- A 25-year-old prison escapee was captured Wednesday on a jogging trail behind the Harris County Jail _ headquarters for one of the largest contingents of law enforcement officers in the state of Texas.
...... The private prison, which can hold up to 450 inmates, is operated under contract by The GEO Group, Inc., a private corrections firm based in Boca Raton, Fla. Opened in 1993, it houses low-risk offenders who have violated their parole or mandatory supervision.
Source: By Caroline Isaacs, Arizona Daily Star (AZ), 06.04.2007
None of the findings in Indiana's report on the riot that occurred in its New Castle facility, where some Arizona inmates are housed, are surprising to anybody who has been paying attention to prison privatization over the past 30 years. Ever since we began this experiment in for-profit incarceration, serious problems have cropped up over and over again in private prisons nationwide.
Many private prisons are woefully understaffed, and high turnover rates mean that staff are inexperienced and unsure of what to do in a crisis. The analysis released by the Indiana Department of Corrections bears this out, citing "unseasoned staff" as a cause of the riot.
Source: Sunday, Associated Press (IL), June 03, 2007
ULLIN, Ill. — Police used tear gas to force 46 inmates out of a prison area where they had barricaded themselves and set fire to mattresses and books, authorities said.
....... Local law enforcement "were able to bring the disturbance under control within 30 minutes," said Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, which owns the facility. He said authorities had inmates back in housing units within an hour.
Source: By FINN BULLERS, The Kansas City Star (MO), Wed, May. 30, 2007
Searching for a way to ease jail crowding and save money, Johnson County commissioners are considering striking a deal with a private, for-profit corrections facility in Leavenworth.
Officials with Corrections Corp. of America, one of the nation’s largest private penal firms, will meet with commissioners today to consider how the two could work together to meet the county’s growing need for jail space.
...... Private jails are not the answer, Denning said. “There aren’t very many success stories out there,” he told commissioners. “And there should not be any profit in people.”
Source: By DAN BURROWS, Wall Street Journal (subscription required), May 27, 2007
The prison business looks ready to stage a breakout. Tougher mandatory sentences were already straining the nation's jails. Now, the Department of Homeland Security's Border Initiative and its detention of undocumented immigrants has further burdened the system. Federal prisons already have 33% more inmates than they were designed to house and state prisons are similarly overcrowded.
The upshot? A severe shortage of prison space -- and a robust outlook for the three biggest private jailers.
Source: By CHARLES WILSON, The Associated Press (IN), May 25, 2007
Inexperienced guards and too much idle time for prisoners who were transferred from Arizona too quickly contributed to a disturbance last month at a privately run state prison, according to a state report released Thursday (.pdf).
...... The medium-security New Castle prison is run by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group Inc., but the report does not find any faults by the company. The report said the New Castle prison needed a "longer, more staged transfer of inmates" to allow time to hire and train guards and other staffers.
Source: By Steve Terrell, The New Mexican, May 24, 2007
New Mexico pays significantly more than nearby states to house inmates in private prisons, according to a report presented Wednesday to state lawmakers. The 100-page audit (.pdf) by a Legislative Finance Committee review team says New Mexico's private-prison spending rose 57 percent in the past six years, while the inmate population increased only 21 percent.
….. The major private prison operator in the state is The GEO Group, which operates facilities in Hobbs and Santa Rosa and will operate a prison being built in Clayton.
Source: Associated Press (IN), May 23, 2007 04:20 PM
Investigators on Wednesday turned over to a prosecutor their report on a prison riot a month ago, saying inmates could be charged with rioting, battery and other crimes.
……. The medium-security prison is located near New Castle about 45 miles east of Indianapolis. Since January 2006, it's been managed by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group. The company also has a state contract to house up to 1,200 inmates from Arizona's overcrowded prison system.
Source: By JENNIFER LIBERTO, St Petersburg Times (FL), May 3, 2007
Three months after Gov. Charlie Crist ordered an investigation of some $4.5-million in overpayments to two companies that operate private prisons for the state, those same companies will be the only ones permitted to bid on expanding and building another facility.
....... Those companies are GEO Group of Boca Raton and Corrections Corp. of America of Nashville. Two state audits have indicated the state had paid GEO Group and CCA more than $4.5-million for vacant jobs and other questionable expenses. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating.
Source: Indianapolis Star, May 3, 2007
Our position: Riot raises questions, but answers are few pending an investigation.
Last week's New Castle prison riot occurred as the debate rages over Gov. Mitch Daniels' government reform efforts. That makes getting to the heart of the matter even more crucial. If the administration didn't exercise proper oversight over the privatization of the prison, other deals, including the handoff of the state's welfare operations to IBM struck last October, will be under even more scrutiny.
The director of Arizona's Department of Corrections, concerned that just 37 officers were supervising 630 of its prisoners, attempted to halt transfers from its prisons to New Castle just days before the incident occurred.
Another red flag was raised by reports of employees at the prison itself, who say that GEO deployed non-trained staffers to serve as guards.
Source: By Tim Evans, Karen Eschbacher and Vic Ryckaert, Indianapolis Star (IN), April 24, 2007
State officials will temporarily halt the transfer of Arizona prisoners to the New Castle Correctional Facility after a riot Tuesday that prompted calls for an end to housing another state's inmates in Indiana. Department of Correction officials said nine people -- two prison employees and seven inmates -- suffered minor injuries in separate disturbances involving Arizona and Indiana prisoners during a two-hour period Tuesday afternoon at the facility 50 miles east of Indianapolis.
....... The New Castle prison is state-owned, but Indiana contracts with GEO Group of Florida to operate it.
Source: MSEA News, Vol. 15 no. 4, April 2007
In a recent Arbitration decision, the Michigan State Employees Association (MSEA) aggressively protected bargaining unit work that was temporarily taken from our membership. The temporary loss of this work resulted in financial loss to our members who had job duties and work schedules changed as a result of this management decision.
Source: By PAUL DAVENPORT Association Press (AZ), March 16, 2007, 5:38PM
Efforts to relieve Arizona's shortage of prison space were dealt a setback when procurement officials canceled a competition between the state Department of Corrections and three private prison companies to provide up to 3,000 new beds.
None of the proposals met a requirement to open 1,000 of the beds by April, 2008, the State Procurement Office said in a formal notice canceling the state's request for proposals.
Source: The Associated Press (TX), March 8, 2007, 3:15AM
The state's probe into sexual abuse allegations in the Texas youth prison system resulted in the firing of a correctional officer when investigators discovered he was a convicted sex offender.
David Andrew Lewis, 23, was fired Wednesday from the Texas Youth Commission's Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, several newspapers reported. The all-male facility, which is run by the private contractor GEO Group, is about 30 miles northeast of San Angelo in the town of Bronte.
Source: By Steven K. Paulson, Associated Press (CO), Mar 6, 2007 9:46 am US/Mountain
A state lawmaker called on the Department of Corrections to rescind a contract for a private prison in Ault, saying the company failed to deliver on a previous contract and never should have been allowed to bid on the new 1,500-bed facility.
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, said GEO Group lost its contract to build a detention facility in Pueblo because it delayed the start of construction, then tried to renegotiate its contract to get a guarantee that it would be paid for 90 percent occupancy, even if beds were not filled.
Source: Associated Press (AZ), Feb. 8, 2007 06:04 PM
Three private companies will compete with each other and - for the first time - the state Department of Corrections to provide 3,000 new prison beds to help house Arizona's bulging prison population. ….. However, it was Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano who insisted that the DOC be allowed to compete for the chance to provide the 3,000 minimum-security beds.
....... Arizona already has 4,200 state inmates in private prisons, including 1,400 housed in Oklahoma, out of a total prison population of approximately 35,000.
...... Along with the Corrections Department, three private prison operators submitted sealed proposals by Thursday's deadline for all or some of the 3,000 beds: GEO Group Inc., based a Boca Raton, Fla.; Management & Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America.
Source: By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press (FL), Thursday, February 1, 2007
Private prisons operating under lease-purchase agreements with the state will remain exempt from paying millions of dollars in local property taxes after the Florida Supreme Court reversed course Thursday and let stand an appellate decision. The justices earlier had agreed to consider an appeal by Bay County, but wrote in a unanimous, three-sentence opinion that they had changed their minds "because the circumstances of this case are fact-specific."
....... The case was being closely watched by officials in other jurisdictions with private state prisons. CCA also operates correctional facilities in Lake City and Quincy. Another company, GEO Group of Boca Raton, runs the Moore Haven and Southbay correctional facilities and has a contract for a new one at Graceville.
Source: By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press (FL), February 1, 2007
Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Wednesday to conduct a preliminary investigation into more than $4.5 million in alleged overpayments to two companies that operate private prisons for the state.
The contracts with GEO Group of Boca Raton and Nashville,Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America were signed by the now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission.
Related article from the News-Press: Corrections co. say they didn't cheat state
Source: The Associated Press (FL), January 27, 2007
More than $4.5 million in questionable payments to two companies that run five private prisons resulted from the state's contract concessions, not overcharges by the firms, a top state official said Friday. After a Florida Senate leader asked for an investigation of her agency's settlement with one of the companies, Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South blamed the concessions on the state's now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission.
Source: By Dennis Welch, East Valley Tribune (AZ), January 29, 2007
Arizona needs more prisons to keep up with its growing inmate population, which already exceeds the intended capacity by an estimated 4,500 bodies. But who will build them? Lawmakers are divided on the issue of allowing for-profit companies to construct more prison walls, the latest chapter in a long-standing debate over the merits of a privately run prison system.
Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), January 24, 2007
The state has reached a $402,000 agreement with one of the two companies that run private prisons in Florida. Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South said Tuesday night she was satisfied with the settlement with The GEO Group Inc., which operates prisons in South Bay and Moore Haven. GEO also has a contract for the Graceville prison opening in September.
Source: By STEVE TERRELL, The New Mexican (NM), January 13, 2007
New Mexico's use of jails run by companies is the highest in the country -- and rising -- but do they live up to their promises? New Mexico leads the nation on another list: We're No. 1 in using private prisons to house inmates. The latest U.S. Justice Department statistics, published in a study called Prisons in 2005, showed 43 percent of New Mexico prisoners were in private lockups. That's well ahead of the 6 percent national rate for privately held state prison inmates.
...... While New Mexico leads the pack, it's not alone in the prison pri