Idaho private prison's cost cutting made facility dangerous

A former regional manager for private prison company Corrections Corporation of America says top employees at a private prison in Idaho were given yearly bonuses if they cut costs on salary, wages and other operational expenses, reported The Associated Press.

CCA, which has since changed its name to CoreCivic, operated the Idaho Correctional Center under a $29 million annual contract with the state of Idaho until chronic understaffing, violence and other problems prompted Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter to order the state to take over the facility in 2013.

Kevin Myers, CCA's former managing director who oversaw the Idaho facility and several others, testified in Boise's U.S. District Court recently as a witness in a lawsuit against the company.

A group of inmates at the Idaho prison sued in 2012, contending that CCA understaffed the prison to boost profits in a so-called "ghost worker scheme." The inmates contend the understaffing made the facility more dangerous and led to an attack where they were jumped, beaten and stabbed by members of a prison gang.

CCA has vigorously denied those claims.

Myers said his supervisor, CCA Vice President Steven Conry, sometimes directed him to reduce prison budgets. Conry told him that salary, wages and overtime were "the primary levers we can manipulate to impact our budgets," Myers said.

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GateHouse: Trump presidency boosts private prison industry

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

November 25, 2016

Just in the nick of time, President-elect Donald Trump may be the savior that a beleaguered private prison industry was longing for. With prison reform in many states focusing on reducing prison population, and in turn prison costs, the private prison industry was taking a hit.

Recent years have not been kind to the private prison industry, culminating in a Federal Office of Inspector General report that revealed serious safety and human rights concerns with private prisons. The Inspector General found, compared with government-run facilities, that private prisons had a higher rate of assaults, security incidents, solitary confinement, and gaps in medical care.

As a result of the report, the Barack Obama Administration announced it would close its private prisons. The Department of Homeland Security, which uses private prisons for immigration detention facilities, indicated the same.

Then came Trump’s stunning victory, private prison stock soared — CoreCivic Co., formerly Corrections Corporation of America, saw the biggest gain on the New York Stock Exchange with shares climbing 43 percent.

Just how bad were things in the private prison industry?

A prime example is Texas, where the private prison boon came crashing down in recent years. As the public sector’s need for private prison beds had diminished, the tally of failing prisons in Texas increased.

The bust is most evident in rural Texas, where more than a dozen once-profitable facilities have failed. At least seven of them, which together borrowed nearly $200 million, are in arrears on bond payments, according to figures from Municipal Market Analytics, a bond-research firm, reported the San Antonio Express-News.

In Polk, Newton, Dickens, Jones, Palo Pinto, Limestone, Lamb, Dallas, Jefferson and Burnet counties, former private prisons are either empty, losing money or are being converted to other uses.

A major source of the decline in prison population has been immigration enforcement. In 2000, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 1.67 million people; by 2014 the figure had dropped to fewer than 487,000, and has remained low, reported the Times News.

A Trump Administration is poised to change immigration enforcement in a big way and with it the fortunes of the private prison industry.

The president-elect pledged during a recent “60 Minutes” interview that he would prioritize the removal of “probably two million, it could be even three million” criminal aliens. The removal process will require mass incarceration and private prisons will be the answer.

Private prisons are out to make a profit. That profit is made on the backs of taxpayers. They have no incentive, like government run prisons, to explore alternatives to incarceration, such as electronic monitoring, half-way houses or other diversionary efforts to reduce the number offenders behind bars. The Texas-based criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast once revealed a portion of CoreCivic’s annual 10-K report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. CoreCivic acknowledged that the company is “dependent upon the governmental agencies with which we have contracts to provide inmates for our managed facilities. We cannot control occupancy levels at our managed facilities ... a decrease in our occupancy rates could cause a decrease in revenues and profitability.” The report continues, “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by … leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices.” CoreCivic did not ignore the threat of leniency or a reduction in occupancy. According the Chattanoogan, citing a report from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, CoreCivic hired hundreds of lobbyists and spent many millions of dollars on lobbying in an effort to orchestrate a private prison resurgence.

That money and effort has paid-off. The private prison industry has weathered the storm, and four years of President Trump promises to enrich the industry beyond its most optimistic expectations.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book, “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010,” was recently released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him atmattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.

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The private prison boon in Texas is over

While no one keeps an exact count on the number of private prison facilities in Texas, the six largest operators, the Geo Group, Corrections Corp. of America, LaSalle, Emerald, MTC and CEC operate more than 40 facilities containing about 50,000 beds, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which runs the state prison system, has about 150,000 beds. County jails have about 95,000 beds, many often empty.
Texas had some of the nation’s worst overcrowding 30 years ago. In the 1980s, the state prison system had fewer than 40,000 beds and was under a federal court order not to exceed 95 percent occupancy.
The private prison boon in Texas is over. And as the public sector’s need for private prison beds has diminished, the tally of failing prisons in Texas is increasing, with some already vacant for years.
The bust is evident on a rural tour of the state, where more than a dozen once-profitable facilities have failed. At least seven of them, which together borrowed nearly $200 million, are in arrears on bond payments, figures from Municipal Market Analytics, a bond-research firm, show.
In Polk, Newton, Dickens, Jones, Palo Pinto, Limestone, Lamb, Dallas, Jefferson and Burnet Counties, former private prisons either are empty, losing money or are being converted to other uses, county officials say.
In June 1995, Texas jails had 64,000 beds, and were operating at 80 percent capacity, with 7,775 beds available. In June 2015, having added nearly 30,000 beds, they were operating at 70 percent capacity, and had 19,870 available beds.
The number of federal and contract prisoners in county jails has declined in recent years, due in part to changes in federal policy.
Where in 2000, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 1.67 million people, by 2014 the figure had dropped to fewer than 487,000, and has stayed low since. Detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement also recently have dipped after a longtime rise.
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Arizona private prison promised 90% occupancy

The Red Rock Correctional Center, Arizona’s newest private prison, will begin housing inmates next month, with taxpayers guaranteeing its owner a profit to help alleviate overcrowding in the state penitentiary system, reported the Arizona Republic.

State Corrections Director Charles Ryan hopes to house up to 1,000 inmates there by the end of next year — twice the number originally planned in the first year. The facility along East Arica Road and Arizona 87 just outside Eloy has the capacity for 1,596 inmates.

The complex about 65 miles south of Phoenix was built in 2006 by Corrections Corporation of America to house inmates for the state of California. After CCA won an open-bid contract last year to house Arizona inmates, it moved its California prisoners to other CCA sites around the country.

According to Ryan, state-owned facilities have roughly 5,000 inmates sleeping in temporary beds because of overcrowding. Arizona, as of Friday, housed 41,157 inmates, about one-sixth of them in private facilities.

The Corrections Corporation of America beat four other private-prison companies in August 2012 to win the contract.

CCA is guaranteed a 90 percent occupancy rate at Red Rock, meaning the state will transfer inmates out of state-operated facilities and into the private prison until the minimum occupancy is met.

The guarantee requires a minimum of 450 inmates by the end of the first year, and 900 by the end of the second, but Ryan wants to accelerate the transfer of up to 1,000 inmates in 2014. There also is room to expand to the facility’s capacity.

Arizona will pay CCA $65.43 a day per inmate. Once the contract is fully implemented, the 90 percent occupancy guarantee will result in the company being paid at least $58,887 a day for 900 inmates — nearly $21.5 million a year. The contract is for an initial term of 10 years, with two five-year renewal options upon mutual agreement. Should the contract run 20 years, CCA could make at least $430 million. Ownership of the facility would transfer to the state after 20 years.

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Undocumented immigrants flood federal prisons

Now, just as the federal government has pulled back the throttle on the drug war, it is embarking on an unprecedented campaign to criminally prosecute undocumented immigrants crossing the border. The result: A new wave of non-violent offenders are flooding the nation's prisons.

"This is the crime du jour," Judith Greene, director of the nonprofit Justice Strategies, which has focused on the private prison industry's growing reliance on incarcerating undocumented immigrants told the Huffington Post. "It's the drug war all over again. It's what's driving the market in federal prisons."

Immigration offenders represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the federal prison population, providing a lucrative market for private prison corporations that largely control these inmates in the system. Over the last decade, revenue from the federal prison system has more than tripled for the GEO Group and nearly doubled for Corrections Corp. of America -- the two companies that dominate the private prison industry.

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Texas closes two private prisons as inmate population dips

 

For only the second time in the state’s history, Texas lawmakers are closing inmate facilities to reduce bed capacity as the state’s prison population continues to drop, reported the Texas Tribune.

The decision by legislators this year to close two privately run jails,   Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility and Dawson State Jail in Dallas, operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) being met with very different reactions in the communities where the jails are situated.

Since 2011, Texas’ prison population has fallen to about 150,800 from more than 156,000, bringing the total of empty beds to about 12,000 statewide, said state Sen. John Whitmore, D-Houston, the chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Improved diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration have fueled the downward trend, he added.

“The logical thing to do is to look to close facilities you don’t need,” Whitmire said.

Along with city officials, local lawmakers and lobbyists for the CCA also fought unsuccessfully to keep the Mineral Wells facility open. CCA called the decision to close it shortsighted.

With the state’s ever-increasing population there is sure to be a need for more prison beds in the future, reported CCA.

But Whitmire said he was confident that the state’s continued focus on rehabilitation and diversion programs would keep the prison population from expanding. Even if it did, he said, the Mineral Wells facility would be a poor choice to house inmates because of security concerns.

The jail, which was not built as a place to put inmates, has long had problems with contraband. At one point, Whitmire said, officials hung a net above one side of the facility to keep passers-by from tossing items over the fence.

Lawmakers said they were expecting to save nearly$97 million by closing the two facilities — money that Whitmire said could be more wisely spent on the criminal justice system.

“We’re running a good program,” he said, “but we still have some flaws we’ve got to fix.”

 

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Ohio's private prison out of control

In Ohio, privatizing the prisons was part of a plan to help get the state out of its multi-billion dollar hole. Instead, the Lake Erie Correctional Institution, another CCA-owned prison, is overcrowded, with up to three inmates in single-inmate cells, and the spaces in which the inmates live are smaller than the law requires, reported the website www.addictinginfo.org .

According to an article in The Huffington Post, correctional officers said that they “had lost the prison within 3 months” of CCA taking it over, because the company was so afraid of being sued that they tied the officers’ hands when it came to pretty much everything. The officers themselves were so afraid of getting killed at work that they would often talk amongst themselves about who was going to die first.

Officer turnover at the prison is around 20% or so per year, and the new corrections officers that come in are less experienced and don’t know the Lake Erie facility at all. Furthermore, because of the profit motive, CCA has incentive to cut costs anywhere it can, and does so by eliminating inmate activities, staff, and reducing staff wages, which, according to experts, inevitably leads to a loss of quality in service.

 CCA also extracted a 90% occupancy rate guarantee from Ohio. Gangs essentially run the prison, and there are inmates who request to go into isolation just get away from the gangs.

In addition to all of that, calls to the police from the surrounding area have also risen sharply, due growing numbers of people throwing things from outside the prison, such as bags of drugs, cell phones and alcohol, over the fence to the inside of the prison. No need to smuggle anything in, just toss it over the fence! There aren’t enough guards to stop you.

Ohio is trying to get CCA to improve conditions there, but with so many violations across so many states, they probably shouldn’t expect much and would be better served to cut their ties with CCA as well, though their current contract, which is for 20 years, may not allow that.

To read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/22/private-prisons-were-supposed-to-solve-budget-problems-why-are-states-starting-to-dump-them/#ixzz2X8V5UrHC

Lucasville anniversary spotlights Ohio’s prison problems

The Youngstown Vindicator
April 14, 2013

In the fall of 2011, Ohio became the first, and remains the only, state to sell an existing state prison to a private prison company. A study by Policy Matters Ohio found that Ohio officials were not accurate with regard to their prison privatization savings projections.

A close look at the $72 million deal transferring a state owned prison to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) suggested that rather than saving up to $3 million a year as the state projected, it could cost taxpayers millions.

However, the disappearing savings is only one of a number of growing problems plaguing the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. A new report released last month about the Lake Erie Correctional Institution, the facility sold to CCA, described gang-related violence so commonplace and drug use so rampant that many guards looked the other way out of fear of reprisals. The resulting consequence was a mass exodus of experienced prison personnel.

Living conditions

According to the Dayton Daily News, a contract monitor assigned to the Lake Erie prison, reported in September that he “found unacceptable living conditions of inmates being housed inside recreation areas, with no immediate access to running water for hydration, showers or the use of a toilet.”

As a result, the state docked payments to CCA this year by more than $573,000 for violating terms of the contract.

Private prisons are not the only problem nagging Ohio corrections. According to the Columbus Dispatch, in the two years since Ohio’s newest prison in Toledo began putting two inmates in the same cell to deal with overcrowding, the number of assaults among prisoners has soared.

Injuries needing outside hospital treatment have quadrupled. Two inmates have been killed since September — the most recent several weeks ago, when a prisoner was strangled with a rope in his cell.

The increase in violence is raising concerns about overcrowding, understaffing and a general sense of neglect with regard to corrections funding.

The current circumstances remind some of the conditions that existed in Ohio prior to one of the nation’s most deadly prison riots. This week marks the 20th anniversary of the riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution near Lucasville. The riot lasted 11 days and resulted in the death of a corrections officer and nine inmates. Twelve staff members were held hostage after inmates took over a unit of the prison.

Population increase

Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections’ records indicate that the current prison population is about 50,000. In 1994, there were about 41,500 inmates—the inmate population has jumped by more than 20 percent since the Lucasville riot.

Christopher Mabe, president of the corrections officers union, told the Dispatch, “Short staffing and overcrowding are the No. 1 issues today, just as they were before the riot.” The ratio of inmates to corrections officers, which rose to 8.8-to-1 in the 1990s, fell in the 2000s, but it is back up to about 7.3-to-1. That’s higher than the national average and “not acceptable,” Mabe said.

Overcrowding can create dangerous conditions for inmates and prison staff.

Cramped quarters and a lack of privacy can lead to a heightened level of tension in correction facilities. In turn, as tension grows the incidence of violence against staff and fellow inmates increase. With minimum staffing and growing supervision responsibilities, corrections officers and inmates are more vulnerable.

The inability to get into programming can adversely affect an inmate in several important ways. First, mental health issues, drug and alcohol or anger issues are not being addressed. Second, inmates who want and need the programming begin to get frustrated, and that can lead to acting out. Third, some inmates, without programming, head home without addressing their criminogenic needs.

Desensitized inmates

Overcrowding and understaffing is a recipe for disaster, not only inside the prison wall — but also on the street. When an angry, frustrated, desensitized inmate hits the street without treatment or vocational training, more victims are created and correction costs continue to soar.

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Ohio's Prison Sold to Private Company "Dysfunctional"

A new report released last month on conditions inside the 1,700-bed Lake Erie Correctional Institution describes a tableau of dysfunction, lending confirmation to two previous audits that identified widespread problems at the facility, according to The Huffington Post. The report describes gang-related violence so commonplace and drug use so rampant that many guards are afraid to intervene -- instead, they are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate.

In interviews with The Huffington Post, current and former correctional officers at the Lake Erie prison confirmed the findings in the state report while describing their own fears about going to work at the institution.

"It was common for us to speak about who was going to die first," Paul Reynolds, a former correctional officer at Lake Erie who says he was released last year because of disagreements with CCA management, told The Huffington Post. "They were afraid to get sued for any little thing, so management basically tied our hands on everything. Within three months, we lost that prison to those inmates."

Some inmates have become so afraid that they are requesting to go into isolation -- being locked up 23 hours a day -- just to protect themselves from gangs, the employee said. The number of prisoners in the segregation unit this week was at an all-time high, according to the employee, a trend also noted in the inspection report.

The report's findings offer ammunition for those decrying the trend toward privatizing prisons -- not only in Ohio, but across much of the country -- as strapped communities seek to raise revenue and minimize costs by handing control of inmates to profit-making entities, reported The Huffington Post.

Corrections Corporation of America, which bought the Lake Erie institution in late 2011 for $73 million, has touted the purchase as a model of the benefits of prison privatization, arguing that it saves state taxpayers money while elevating the welfare of inmates.

CCA's purchase of the Lake Erie institution was the first-ever sale of a public prison to a private firm. The company took over operations in January 2012, and used the Ohio prison purchase in a nationwide sales pitch urging other states to sell off prisons as a way generate cash and trim budgets with CCA's "safe and efficient" management approach.

To read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/lake-erie-prison-violence_n_2925151.html

Ohio sells-off prison, violations soar

Last year, Corrections Corporation of America paid Ohio $72.7 million in 2011 to purchase the 1,700-bed Lake Erie Correctional Institution.  According to the Huffington Post the company touted the deal as a "groundbreaking" move that would serve as a model for other states looking to cut costs.  Ohio was the first state in the nation to sell an existing prison to a private company.

In CCA's first year of operation state audits have found patterns of inadequate staffing, delays in medical treatment and "unacceptable living conditions" inside the prison -- including inmates lacking access to running water and toilets. The state docked the company nearly $500,000 in payments because of the violations, reported the Post.

In addition, a major uptick in crime near the private prison has burdened the small town of Conneaut, Ohio, with police there making a series of recent arrests related to attempts to smuggle drugs and alcohol into the facility. Officers responded to 229 calls related to the prison last year, nearly four times as many as the previous five years combined, according to the city's crime data.

"This is not a bargain for the states," Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer and criminal justice expert at the University of Texas School of Public Affairs told the Post. "The longer the contracts are, the more likely you are to give rise to poor conditions and problems. It gives the states very little leverage to demand improvements."

 In an attempt to trim the state's corrections budget, Governor John Kasich, a Republican, in 2011 proposed selling off and privatizing up to five state prisons. After studying the costs, the state decided to sell only one: the Lake Erie Correctional Institution. The state previously owned the prison but it had been managed by another contractor, Management & Training Corp.

For its purchase price, CCA obtained not only the prison but a 20-year management contract to house inmates for the state and an initial guaranteed 90 percent occupancy rate. The state has the option of renegotiating the occupancy rate down the line.

Other breaches highlighted in the September audit, according to the Post, included problems with medical care and concerns about security:

•Inmates requesting to be seen by a nurse were not seen within 48 hours

•Doctors' appointments were usually delayed, and often there were no follow-ups

•Staff wasn't following the proper procedures for chronically ill inmates, including those with diabetes and AIDS

•Inmates were triple-bunked, with some sleeping on mattresses on cell floors

•"Some staff expressed safety concerns due to low staffing numbers and not having enough coverage."

To read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/02/lake-erie-correctional-institution_n_2599428.html

Louisiana is the world's prison capital

Louisiana is the world's prison capital, according to the Times-Picayune. The state imprisons more of its people, per capita, than any other state. First in America means first in the world. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran's, 13 times China's and 20 times Germany's.

The hidden engine behind the state's well-oiled prison machine is cold, hard cash. A majority of Louisiana inmates are housed in for-profit facilities, which must be supplied with a constant influx of human beings or a $182 million industry will go bankrupt.

Several homegrown private prison companies command a slice of the market. But in a uniquely Louisiana twist, most prison entrepreneurs are rural sheriffs, who hold tremendous sway in remote parishes like Madison, Avoyelles, East Carroll and Concordia. A good portion of Louisiana law enforcement is financed with dollars legally skimmed off the top of prison operations.

If the inmate count dips, sheriffs bleed money. Their constituents lose jobs. The prison lobby ensures this does not happen by thwarting nearly every reform that could result in fewer people behind bars.

In the past two decades, Louisiana's prison population has doubled, costing taxpayers billions while New Orleans continues to lead the nation in homicides, reported the Times-Picayune.

One in 86 adult Louisianians is doing time, nearly double the national average. Among black men from New Orleans, one in 14 is behind bars; one in seven is either in prison, on parole or on probation. Crime rates in Louisiana are relatively high, but that does not begin to explain the state's No. 1 ranking, year after year, in the percentage of residents it locks up.

Louisiana also specializes in incarceration on the cheap, allocating by far the least money per inmate of any state. The $24.39 per diem is several times lower than what Angola and other state-run prisons spend -- even before the sheriff takes his share, according to the Times-Picayune. All local wardens can offer is GED classes and perhaps an inmate-led support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Their facilities are cramped and airless compared with the spacious grounds of state prisons, where inmates walk along outdoor breezeways and stay busy with jobs or classes.

To read more: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/louisiana_is_the_worlds_prison.html

Officials object to Arizona private prison plan

At the end of this week, the Arizona Department of Corrections is slated to award contract to a private prison company. The contract calls for up to 2,000 medium-security beds if the prison population increases, reported the Arizona Republic. The first 500 beds would come online in 2014, while 500 more would be added the following year. There's no timetable for the potential 1,000 remaining beds.

The contract comes even though the state's overall prison population is expected to remain flat the next two years and increase only slightly thereafter. State records also show it's more costly for taxpayers to have private businesses run prisons.

State Corrections Director Charles Ryan has acknowledged that the state has an overall surplus of roughly 2,000 beds. But he also has said that Arizona has a shortage of permanent medium-security beds and that the problem is expected to get worse in 2016.

A letter sent to Governor Jan Brewer with more than 50 signatures, including current and former state legislators as well as a Pima County supervisor, Tucson's mayor and a few Tucson City Council members is opposed to the private prison contract, according to the Republic.

"There is ample evidence to suggest that for-profit corporations are not accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of Arizona," the letter states. "As private companies, they are not subject to the same transparency requirements or checks and balances as the Department of Corrections, despite the fact that they are performing the same functions and are paid with taxpayer dollars."

To read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2012/08/28/20120828arizona-last-push-block-prison-deal.html#ixzz24zfeTQo2

The Cautionary Instruction: Immigration detainees drive private prison growth

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
August 24, 2012

At the end of 2010, state and federal correctional authorities housed over 1.6 million prisoners, a decrease of over 5,000 inmates from 2009. The prison population nationwide declined for the first time since 1972.

Logic would dictate that a decrease in incarceration would have an impact on the private prison industry. Not so, the federal government has picked up the slack for private prison entities.

In 2010, private prisons held about 128,000 or eight percent of the total prison population. From 1999 to 2010, the number of individuals held in private prisons grew by 80 percent, compared to 18 percent for the overall prison population.

Private prison growth was fairly predictable through 2008. However, when the economy soured some states began to look to prisons to cut costs and reduce government budgets. With that came scrutiny of private prison contracts.

The resulting losses for private prison companies were more than offset by the rapid expansion of federal detention pursuant to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to a recently released report by The Sentencing Project, between 2008 and 2010, the number of privately-held inmates decreased by 1,281, while the number of privately-held detainees increased by 3,327. This growth was part of a larger trend to step-up efforts to find, incarcerate, and deport people who violate immigration laws.

The horrible attacks of 9/11 had an impact on immigration enforcement. The number of federal prisoners held in private prisons rose by 784 percent since shortly before 2001.
There are two basic concerns with prison privatization -- first, unsubstantiated claims of cost savings; and second, problems with oversight.

Last fall, Ohio became the first state to sell an existing state prison to a private prison company. A study by Policy Matters Ohio found that Ohio officials were not accurate with regard to their prison privatization savings projections.

A close look at the sale of the facility to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) suggested that that deal, rather than saving up to $3 million a year as the state projected, could instead wind up costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

Municipal Corrections LLC, a privately owned detention center housing illegal immigrants in Ocilla, Georgia is in bankruptcy after getting local leaders authorize bond financing to expand the local jail from 512 beds to 1,201. Ocilla, a town of 10,000 people, is left hanging without revenue to pay on the bonds and delinquent taxes.

A recent prison riot at the Adams County Correctional Center in southwest Mississippi resulted in the death of a guard and the taking of hostages. The 2,567-bed prison, owned and operated by CCA, holds ICE detainees for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

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Private prisons look to the Feds for survival

The Sentencing Project issued a new report "Dollars and Detainees; The Growth of For-Profit Detention." The report details how harsh immigration enforcement and legislation led to a 59 percent increase in the number of detainees being held by the federal government between 2002 and 2011 and that 29 percent of all federal detainee are being held by for-profit entities.

In 2010, one in every 13 prisoners in the U.S. was held by for-profit companies.

For-profit prison companies could count on predictable growth in the number of state and federal prisoners until 2008, when budget crises and policy changes led some states to reduce their prison populations and private prison contracts.

The resulting losses for private prison companies were more than offset by expansion of their management of federal detainees under the jurisdiction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Read the full report: http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Dollars_and_Detainees.pdfdespite evidence that private prisons often provide inadequate levels of service and are no more cost-effective than publicly-run facilities.

Riot at private prison in Mississippi

A riot on Sunday at the privately run Adams County Correctional Center in southwest Mississippi began around involved dozens of inmates before it was brought under control that night. A guard was killed and, at one point, hostages were taken during the riot.

The prison, owned and operated by Corrections Corp. of America, holds illegal immigrants, most for charges of re-entering the United States after being deported, reported The Associated Press. The 2,567-bed prison in Natchez houses adult male illegal immigrants for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield told the Natchez Democrat that 15 employees were freed at one time during the uprising by opening a fence and protecting the route with guns. The sheriff said in a statement early Monday that there were at least two dozen hostages being held at one time.

Adams County Coroner James Lee confirmed that a guard died, but said he could not provide any other details until the correctional officer's family was notified. In addition to the guard who was killed, five other correctional officers and three inmates were injured.

CCA spokesman Steve Owen confirmed to The Associated Press in an email "there has been one employee death" but he said he could not provide more details immediately.

Ohio recently sold one of it prisons to CCA. CCA is based in Nashville and houses about 75,000 offenders and detainees in more than 60 facilities around the country.

To read more:  http://news.yahoo.com/miss-prison-riot-leaves-guard-dead-8-hurt-052917497.html

New Hampshire considers privatizing prisons

New Hampshire is considering privatizing its prison system.The state's prison population climbed 31 percent between 2000 and 2010 despite a stable crime rate, according to state officials. Half of that increase was attributed to inmates who leave prison only to return for a parole violation or a new offense, reported the Concord Monitor.

"The governor thinks we need to look at different options, including various forms of public/private partnerships to ensure we can meet the future needs of our corrections system," New Hampshire Governor John Lynch's spokesman, Colin Manning, wrote in an email sent to the Monitor. "The responses to these (requests for bids) will provide important information about the feasibility of various alternatives and how they compare to our current model."

A private company, Diana Lacey, president of the state employees union told the Monitor, needs to keep inmate beds full and security, salary and program costs down to make money. Meanwhile, the state's goal is to rehabilitate inmates and keep them out of prison. "Those are totally conflicting viewpoints," she said.

"The trend is positive," corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons told the Monitor, citing the population drop the prison has seen each of the last 13 months. "But we won't have any hard numbers until 2013 or 2014. People want something right away, but you can't really (assess efforts to curb recidivism) right away."

Privatizing prisons is a conversation state leaders say is worth having.  One of the bidders is Correction Corporations of America which reportedly requires states to sign a contract guaranteeing 90 percent occupancy.  In a first of its kind contract, Ohio sold a prison to CCA with a reported occupancy clause.

To read more:  http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/322211/nh-officials-mull-private-prison-bids?CSAuthResp=1333937366%3Aqk5adijhg8etbn90jreb8tcj44%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Aapproved%3A42AB47265FDA5470FC608674C69BFE22&CSUserId=94&CSGroupId=1

Arizona privatizes prison health care: Pays more for it!

Arizona's Department of Corrections awarded a three-year contract to privatize health care for prison inmates that will cost the state $5 million a year more than it spent in 2011.

The contract was awarded to Wexford Health Sources Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Wexford, which has previously lost contracts for poor service and was implicated in a 2008 payoff scandal in Illinois, bid $116.3million a year, $1.1million less than the second-place bid by Corizon Inc. of Brentwood, Tennesseee, reported the Arizona Republic.

The contract, which is renewable for two additional years, was approved by Corrections Director Charles Ryan and reviewed by the Governor's Office before it was issued. Arizona spent $111.3 million last fiscal year on correctional health-care services for nearly 34,000 inmates in 10 state prisons.

Over the past three years, health-care spending by the Corrections Department has dropped nearly $30 million, in part because of a declining prison population and reduced staff levels. Caroline Isaacs, director of the American Friends Service Committee's Tucson office, a prison-watchdog group, told the Republic, "This has never been about saving money; the real reason is that legislators are ideologically wedded to privatization and damn the evidence."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/04/03/20120403arizona-prisons-health-care-run-by-penn-company.html#ixzz1rVL3ji7B

Ohio's private prison plan based on faulty projections

Last fall, Ohio became the first state to sell an existing state prison to a private prison company.  Ohio Governor John Kasich originally proposed the sale of five Ohio prisons – a dramatic expansion of the state’s 10-year-old prison-privatization experiment – as a way to save millions of dollars in the face a deep budget crisis.  The state only sold the one prison.

A study by Policy Matters Ohio has found that Ohio was not accurate with regard to their prison privatization savings projections.

A close look at the sale of the Lake Erie facility to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) suggests that that deal, rather than saving up to $3 million a year as the state projects, could easily wind up costing taxpayers millions of dollars instead. In addition, the state’s claim that private operation of the combined Marion facility will save another $3 million a year is based on what appear to be highly dubious accounting assumptions that one expert calls “bogus” and that seem to bear little relation to reality.

It has been recently revealed that Ohio's deal with CCA required the state to maintain a 90 percent occupancy rate in the know privately owned prison.

To read more: http://www.policymattersohio.org/prison-privatization-dec2011