Recently in Corrections Category

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.