Recently in Corrections Category

Source: Associated Press (ID), 06/03/2006

Three employees of a private Texas prison that houses some Idaho inmates have been disciplined after Idaho Corrections officials paid a visit and investigated a report that Idaho prisoners had been abused. ...... Keckler told The Associated Press on Friday that three prison employees received "corrective action." ......The facility is one of 53 that the Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group operates in the country. Officials at Geo Group did not return a phone call.

Source: By Steve Terrell, The New Mexican, May 31, 2006

A state prison contractor involved in the investigation of a relationship between Corrections Secretary Joe Williams and a lobbyist contributed $10,000 to Gov. Bill Richardson's re-election campaign. The political-action committee for Aramark -- a Philadelphia-based company that makes millions of dollars a year to feed New Mexico inmates -- contributed to Richardson's campaign in May 2005, according to Richardson's most recent campaign-finance report.

...... The Governor's Office announced this week that Williams is being put on administrative leave while the state Personnel Office investigates his relationship with Ann E. Casey, who registered as a lobbyist for Aramark and Wexford Health Services, which provides health care to New Mexico inmates.

Source: By BETH RUCKER, Associated Press (KY), May 23, 2006

The costs of private prison contracts will continue to be compared with those of state-run prisons but can no longer be the sole factor in awarding a renewal under a bill that passed the state Senate Tuesday. The measure that was approved 25-4 is a weakened version of a bill that sought to eliminate a state law requiring private prison operations to cost 5 percent less than state-run prisons.

Source: By JEFF TUCKER, THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN, May 11, 2006

In a contentious meeting, the Pueblo Planning and Zoning Commission continued a hearing on the development plans for a private prison near the Pueblo Memorial Airport. GEO Group, the company that plans to build the facility, submitted a new plan for the building that doubles the size and the number of beds at what it characterizes as a pre-parole and parole revocation facility, where most of the inmates would be serving the final few months of their sentences. GEO already owns the land, and the original contract with the city allows the company to build a 1,000-bed facility. But commission members Rod Johnson and Jean Latka objected to what they characterized as a substantial change from the original 500-bed facility the board approved last September.

Source: Carl Holcombe, The Arizona Republic, May. 5, 2006 12:00 AM

FLORENCE - Schools were locked down for hours Thursday as authorities searched south of town for an inmate who escaped from a private prison. As of Thursday evening, he had still not been found. Christopher Breiland, 36, was discovered missing from Florence West, owned by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group Inc., at about 8 a.m., according to the state Department of Corrections. Orange prison pants and blood were found on a perimeter fence.

Source: By GARY FIELDS, Wall Street Journal (subscription required), May 3, 2006

........ In recent years, Oklahoma has had a dramatic increase in mentally ill prisoners, in part because it only recently shuttered state-run, mental-health facilities. According to the state, the number of inmates on psychiatric medications more than tripled between 1998 and 2005 to 4,017. The system's budget for such medication climbed even faster, growing from $154,000 a year to more than $2 million, in part because of the growing number of medications available. By comparison, the overall prison population rose 14% to 23,205.

....... Many states, responding to budget pressures and changing ideas about how to treat mental disorders, closed their residential mental institutions. ........ The idea was that community agencies would take over treating and monitoring these patients but in almost all cases they haven't picked up the slack. The number of long-term, non-criminal psychiatric patients housed in Oklahoma's state facilities is about 200, a fraction of the 1,300 they held in the 1980s, according to the state's department of mental health. Griffin Memorial, the remaining state hospital, houses about 162 of those but generally only for two weeks at a time until patients are judged stable enough to be released into the community.

There are private and community facilities where families can pay to have a patient placed, but most are not for the indigent. These organizations are also reluctant to take in people released from prison with mental problems, Dr. Keithley said.

Source: Associated Press (FL), May 2, 2006

There's a multi-million dollar lawsuit against two private companies accused of overbilling and filling false bills at state prisons they operate. Attorney Gregg Goldfarb of Miami is seeking $5 million. He's also looking for civil penalties from the Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America and the publicly traded Boca Raton-based GEO Group on behalf of plaintiff Ken Kopczynski.

Source: by Frank Smith, Vice President for AFSCME’s Alaska Retiree Chapter, Kansas Workbeat AFL-CIO, April 2006

Thanks to distortion of our legislative procedures a bill clearly against the interests of public safety and protection of Kansas taxpayers may soon win passage. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt from Independence has inserted special interest, for-profit prison language into a veto-proof sexual offender bill, HB2576. For three years, Schmidt’s similar bills were unable to win passage on their own merits. ....... An Arizona study released last month revealed that public prisons are 8.5%-13.5% less costly than private prisons. Governor Sibelius has requested $20 million to expand existing facilities. Our Kansas Department Of Corrections Secretary, Roger Werholtz, regularly testified that such expansion would save Kansas considerable revenues.

Source: By ROBIN FITZGERALD, Sun Herald (MS), Fri, Mar. 31, 2006

GULFPORT - The issue of privatizing the Harrison County jail rears its head as county supervisors grapple with growing frustrations over a wrongful-death lawsuit involving an inmate. Aside from liability concerns in the homicide of Jessie Lee Williams Jr., county supervisors say they have related concerns: the secrecy, the public's trust, communication problems with the sheriff and the merits of hiring a private company to run the jail. ...... Supervisor Larry Benefield said the timing is "excellent" for considering a private company to run the jail. "All we know about the jail incident is what we've read in the newspaper. We represent the taxpayers, yet we're like the last to know, officially, what it's about. In my opinion, privatization could save us money and would require the private company to bear a lot of the legal responsibility in a case like this."

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), April 21, 2006

With a prosecutor calling him a bigger crook than some inmates in the privatized prisons he used to oversee, Alan Duffee got nearly three years in federal prison Thursday and was ordered to repay more than $224,000 he admitted siphoning out of state funds. Duffee, who became a lobbyist after the Correctional Privatization Commission was abolished last year, apologized and offered U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle no excuses for repeatedly dipping into a prison maintenance and repair fund. Hinkle imposed the maximum prison term provided by federal sentencing guidelines - 33 months - but agreed to recommend that Duffee be sent to a Pensacola-area prison when he reports to custody on June 20.