Private Prisons: Lawsuits, Reports and Religious Statements
Florida vs. EMSA March 30, 2004: settlement agreement between the Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and EMSA for Medicaid fraud resulting in a $5,000,000 settlement. Complaint in U.S. vs. The State of Arkansas et al. about rights violations at the Alexander Youth Services Center managed by Cornell Companies, Inc. Settlement in U.S. vs. The State of Arkansas et al. about rights violations at the Alexander Youth Services Center managed by Cornell Companies, Inc.
Pennsylvania: Report blasts private health provider County officials are mum on a report released by the regional chapter of an international justice advocacy group that calls for a number of reforms to medical care at Lackawanna County Prison. Medical care at the prison is provided under contract by Correctional Care Inc., of Moosic, a company co-owned by the prison’s medical director, Dr. Edward Zaloga. The report says the relationship is a potential conflict of interest and suggests that money not spent on medical care results in higher profits for CCI. Documents Confirm Former Colorado Director’s Conflict Of Interest In Private Prison Contract The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) responded to a March 5, 2007, open records request by Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government (CCEG) that sought documents relating to a private prison contract awarded by CDOC to The GEO Group, Inc. The documents obtained by CCEG confirm that former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow began working for The GEO Group while still on state payroll, a blatant conflict of interest. Troubles Mount Within Texas Youth Detention Agency Juvenile detainees as young as 13 years old slept on filthy mats in dormitories with broken, overflowing toilets and feces smeared on the walls. Denied outside recreation for weeks at a time, they ate bug-infested food, did school work that consisted of little more than crossword puzzles and defecated in bags. After months of glowing state reports, the squalid conditions were disclosed on Oct. 1 by state inspectors at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in Bronte. Dimitria Pope, acting director of the Texas Youth Commission, has transferred the 197 offenders in Bronte to other institutions, fired seven monitoring officials and canceled an $8 million contract with the GEO Corporation, the prison company in Boca Raton, Fla., that managed the center. Public Eye on Private Prisons, A Resource Newsletter for the Springfield Gardens Community This 14-page December 2006 newsletter about The Geo Group was written and produced by the Prison Moratorium Project. PMP is part of a coalition that is fighting to prevent Geo from obtaining a Federal contract renewal in Queens, NY. The newsletter has some good information about Geo and may provide an example of the kind of information that can be put together in an anti-private prison campaign. Policy Lock-Down -- Prison Interests Court Political Players: Money in State Politics April 2006, 95 pages. Companies involved in building, financing and operating private prisons gave $3.3 million over two election cycles, channeling nearly two-thirds of the money to candidates and party committees in states with some of the toughest sentencing laws. This report looks at overall giving, as well as contributions by the companies and their lobbyists in 10 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. MAXIMUS' Report on the Evaluation of Arizona Department of Corrections' Operating Per Capita Cost Report and Private Prison Cost Model February 2006. The Arizona Department of Corrections retained MAXIMUS, Inc., to prepare studies that determine the total costs, both direct and indirect, of government services. The comparisons established that ADC-operated level-2 male beds cost was 8.5% to 13.5% less than comparable in-state private beds and that utilizing ADC-operated beds in FY 2003 and FY 2004 would have resulted in savings of $3,519,331 to $5,344,331 to state taxpayers. The summary is attached. The full report can be found at http://www.azcorrections.gov/reports/completemaximusreportdocuments.pdf Contract Management of Private Correctional Facilities June 30, 2005 report, 64 pages; Must read scathing audit by the Florida Department of Management Services' Office of Inspector General into poor oversight, overpayment and possible criminal activity by the Correctional Privatization Commission, CCA and GEO. Cost-Savings or Cost-Shifting: The Fiscal Impact of Prison Privatization in Arizona February 2005, 17 pages; Kevin Pranis, Justice Strategies; An in-depth look at past research on Arizona private prison cost studies and reports used to justify the expansion of private prisons. The report highlights that the past methodologically has been flawed, outdated, and in one case, discredited by the researcher's financial ties to the private prison industry.
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