Recently in Corrections Category

Source: By Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Thursday, September 28, 2006

Barring further legal action, private enterprise will manage the Beaver County Jail beginning Oct. 30. The county issued a letter Tuesday informing jail workers -- who are all Beaver County employees -- that Civigenics Inc. would be taking over jail operations. The Marlborough, Mass., company operates prisons nationwide, including the jail in Columbiana County, Ohio, which borders Beaver.

Source: By Silja J.A. Talvi, In These Times, September 4, 2006

While New Mexico’s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment, its rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting. What’s worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation’s list for privatizing prisons; nearly one-half of the state’s prisons and jails are run by corporations.

Source: JON GAMBRELL, THE BELLINGHAM HERALD (WA), September 7, 2006

A Bellingham company under fire for misconduct by guards at its private minimum-security jail has hired a former Whatcom County undersheriff and county deputy administrator to audit its operation. Dave Wareing will review records and interview employees at Security Specialists Plus' Baker Creek Place facility. The company, also known as SSP, houses about 50 county offenders in work-release programs or on county inmate work crews at a time. The county pays about $500,000 annually for the service.

Source: By Dan Morain, KTLA. September 11, 2006

Groups with an interest in pending legislation help California's governor raise $26.4 million.

...... However, several donors who gave at the fundraiser do have business here. Geo Group, a Florida firm that operates private prisons, has long sought more business in California. Geo's Sacramento lobbyists worked to shape the governor's prison overhaul package, which failed in the Legislature on the final day of its session. The package might have increased the number of California inmates housed by private firms.

Source: KAREN VOYLES, Gainesville Sun, September 20, 2006

....... Sixty percent opposed private companies running state prisons - a few state prisons are currently run by private companies - and 73 percent favored allowing inmates to vote after completing their sentences, a process that is not automatic in Florida and can be convoluted for former felons.

Survey: 2006 Public Opinion Survey of Florida Citizens Concerning the Florida Department of Corrections (.pdf)

Source: John MacCormack, Express-News (TX), Web Posted: 09/21/2006 12:36 AM CDT

Gregorio De La Rosa was only four days from completing his sentence at a private prison in Raymondville when he was beaten to death in the prison yard on April 26, 2001. Late Friday, a Willacy County jury returned a $47.5 million verdict, the largest verdict in county history, in a negligence suit filed by his family against the Wackenhut Corrections Corp., which ran the prison, and the prison warden.

...... Calls to defense lawyer Bruce Garcia in Austin were referred by his office to the Geo Group, a Florida company that spun off from Wackenhut after the incident and operates the facility.

Source: By LISA SANDBERG, Houston Chronicle, September 14, 2006

....... It's one of a handful of operations in which an estimated 500 state inmates in three prisons make products such as windows and air-conditioning parts for the private sector. The program, in both public and private detention facilities, is part of the federal Prison Industry Enhancement (PIE) initiative. It has long rankled labor leaders, who've complained quietly that it could slowly but surely displace better-paid workers outside prison. That opposition is getting noisier as the state appears ready to add two new PIE operations to the four it now has.

...... The issue pits those anguished by the erosion of middle-class jobs, many of which have gone overseas, against those trying to rehabilitate inmates and enhance prison security. "This is not meant to displace workers in the free world, it is meant to reduce recidivism," said Randa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Geo Group, which operates the minimum-security Lockhart Unit, site of the largest PIE operations in the state.

Source: Associated Press (TX), Fri, Aug. 25, 2006

DALLAS - Search teams scanned the Mineral Wells area Friday after an inmate escaped from a privately run pre-parole transfer center near Lake Mineral Wells State Park. ...... The prison is operated for the TDCJ by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America. Mineral Wells is about 45 miles west of Fort Worth.

Source: JON GAMBRELL, THE BELLINGHAM HERALD (WA), August 26, 2006

At a private alternative jail for Whatcom County criminals, one guard has been convicted for possession of marijuana and another for theft - while on the job. A Security Specialists Plus guard carried marijuana into its Baker Creek Place facility; another stole money from an inmate. One had multiple felony convictions, while another sexually harassed inmates, Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said.

Source: By FERNANDO DEL VALLE, Valley Morning Star (TX), Sept. 1, 2006

RAYMONDVILLE - Testimony continued Thursday in the civil trial of a private prison company accused of negligence in the beating death of a Laredo prisoner. The family of Gregorio De La Rosa alleges Wackenhut Corrections Corp. failed to supervise two prisoners who used socks filled with padlocks to beat him on April 26, 2001.