Report says Metro is lax on CCA

Originally found here.

Contact Jaime Sarrio at 615-726-5964 or jsarrio@tennessean.com.

Metro Nashville officials don't properly penalize Corrections Corporation of America for apparent contract violations in running the city's jail, claims a new report released Tuesday by a Tennessee-based watchdog group.

The report from Tennesseans for Improving Public Accountability says the Nashville-based company potentially violated its contract in the way it handled an inmate's suicide and an escape, among other incidents. Metro imposed no fines and withheld no payments as a result of these incidents, the report says, which calls on Metro to revise its contract to allow those measures and get tougher on CCA.

"When prisoners are treated in a less-than-humane manner, that reflects badly on not just the organization doing the immediate treatment, but also on the people that are paying them," said Toni Hall, volunteer director of the group. "If you hire someone to do a job for you and they do it badly, you want to have a contract that allows you to do something about that."

Metro's sheriff says many of the concerns raised in the report have been addressed. CCA hired a new warden, and staff from the health department are working inside the jail rather than reviewing situations from afar.

Metro government first contracted with CCA in January 1992 to run the 1,092-bed jail, which is mostly used for prisoners serving one- to six-year sentences.
This report is the latest in a series of hits against the private prison provider.
Last week, CCA was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union over claims an Idaho jail operated by the company is so violent, inmates call it "gladiator school." Last year, the company was sued by a Metro police officer shot by a man who escaped from a CCA facility and by a group of 23 female inmates who claim they were raped at a Kentucky prison.

Sheriff: Changes made

The report highlights several high-profile incidents at the Metro jail as examples of contract violations.

In the death of Terry Battle, an inmate who died from pneumonia, the report suggests that CCA violated its contract by not providing up-to-standard medical treatment to prevent the death. In the case of William Williams, an inmate who hung himself in November, the report alleges the company did not offer the appropriate psychiatric care. Williams killed himself two hours after being treated for a slit on his wrist, which he said was from a fall.

Metro Sheriff Daron Hall said CCA and the city have made changes to improve the care of Metro's prisoners. The sheriff's department is also now reviewing all "use-of-force cases," he said.

"We need to look and see what's been going on last 12 months and what's working," he said of the report's recommendations to add additional outside staff. "I think we need to evaluate how the monitoring is going now — as far as I can tell, it's improved dramatically."

Inmate Ricky Escue, who is serving a six-year sentence for DUI, said he hasn't seen a big improvement in the conditions. His biggest complaint is the inconsistency from officer to officer.

"Every officer has different rules and guidelines," he said. "You never know whether you're breaking a rule or not."

A CCA spokesman e-mailed The Tennessean a response to the report, saying that Metro has always held the company to a high standard of performance and questioning the watchdog group's motives.

"The selective use of salacious excerpts from past news articles, unsubstantiated individual accounts, and other partial information on which to base its claims should cause readers to question the merits," CCA spokesman Steven Owen said.
Tennesseans for Improving Public Accountability's director said she would not reveal the authors of the report out of fear of retaliation. She said one is a Metro employee, one is a state employee, one has a relative working at CCA and one is a former CCA employee.

Longtime CCA critic Alex Friedmann, a former prisoner who now works with the Private Corrections Institute, a nonprofit that opposes for-profit prisons, confirmed that he provided some research and information for the report.

A Child Who Needs Your Help

I am asking all of my blog readers to please consider supporting this young child. The actual Ebay auction is found here.


Originally found here.

By Jade Bulecza

HAHIRA, GA (WALB) – Nine-year-old Malkolm Poyer will undergo open heart surgery next week. And he's come up with a unique way to help pay the medical bills.

Little Malkolm Poyer is selling copies of a story he wrote on EBay. It's a Buy It Now item, and more than 200 of them have sold so far.

He just found out Friday he will have to have open heart surgery March 24. His heart condition he's been taking medication for has gotten worse.

"If he does anything he could have a heart attack and they said it can't wait," said his mother, Jennifer Poyer. He was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or 'Sudden Death Disease' at birth.

"The septum is thicker than it should be, and it takes up space the blood needs," said Ms. Poyer.

Normal stress tests are zero. "He just had a stress test that was 183. They usually do surgery between 10 and 90 so that's pretty significant," said Ms. Poyer.

You may recognize Malkolm's dad. He's the volleyball coach at Valdosta State University and also has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. "It's in my family but by the grace of God I've been able to live a normal life physically without any medication or seeing any doctors," said Sia Soyer.

He's glad doctors could notice Malkolm's condition early on. Malkolm suggested putting a story he wrote in school on EBay to raise money for the surgery and since then, interest has spring boarded.

Since Friday, $2,500 has been raised. "It almost took a life of it's own, the support from friends, from people we don't know, it's just been incredible," said Sia Soyer.

"For all those people that bought the stories, I want to thank them for donating and praying for me," said Malkolm.

The recovery process will take awhile after the surgery but Malkolm hopes he'll be able to participate in activities he couldn't before.

"I'm really excited because I'll be able to actually win races with my friends, and actually be able to keep up," said Malkolm.

The story is going for $10.00 on EBay.

CCA Says "We Lost Another Contract"

Originally found here.

Mar 16, 2010 08:30 ET

CCA Announces Receipt of Previously Anticipated Arizona Notification Not to Renew Contract at Diamondback Correctional FacilityNASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwire - March 16, 2010) - CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), the nation's largest partnership corrections provider to government agencies, announced today that it has received notification from the Arizona Department of Corrections of its election not to renew its contract at CCA's 2,160-bed Diamondback Correctional Facility in Oklahoma, which is scheduled to expire on May 1, 2010. Arizona expects to begin transferring offenders from the Diamondback facility beginning in May 2010 and expects to complete the transfer in June 2010. As a result of this notification, CCA intends to idle the Diamondback facility shortly thereafter, but will continue marketing the facility to other customers.

In January, CCA reported that Arizona budget proposals would phase-out the out-of-state private prisons, and the risk that CCA could lose the opportunity to house offenders from Arizona at its Huerfano and Diamondback facilities during 2010. Later in January we announced that we received notification from Arizona of its election not to renew its contract at CCA's Huerfano facility and that we would idle the Huerfano facility in late March 2010. CCA's 2010 guidance, made at the time of its year-end earnings release, included the anticipated loss of the Arizona contract at the Diamondback facility.