Prison operator faces $104K in OSHA fines

Clarion Ledger

Written by: Jeff Amy  - The Associated Press

11:09 PM, Jun. 13, 2012

A private prison operator that is giving up its business in Mississippi could face up to $104,000 in fines from federal workplace safety regulators.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said GEO Group exposed employees to assaults by inmates at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Lost Gap.

Citations issued Tuesday by OSHA say GEO Group knowingly failed to provide adequate staffing, fix malfunctioning cell door locks or provide training to protect employees from inmate violence, including stabbings, bites and other injuries.

Forced Out: A Unity Forum at the Crossroads of Deportation & Incarceration

Forced Out: A Unity Forum at the Crossroads of Deportation & Incarceration

Thursday April 5, 2012, 9:00AM – 4:00 PM
University of Illinois at Chicago

Workshop on intersections of detention, criminalization, and the LGBTQ experience will take place from 11:50-1:00 PM during the wrokshop session.
full schedule 

This city-wide forum provides a starting place for a conversation among individuals and families impacted by “mass detention.” It also gives students, activists and allies a chance to make connections across issues that are often seen as separate and even competing. By educating people about the shared logic of the prison and immigration systems, Forced Out will increase the links among affected groups and help to create a more unified voice for policy change across all communities.

One of the workshops will focus on the experiences of LGBTQ people in detention and incarceration systems. Workshops will take place from 11:50 AM to 1:00 PM. The “Resisting Criminalization of Sexuality and Gender” workshop will take place in Room 605. It is a collaboration between the Transformative Justice Law Project, the Immigrant Youth Justice League, and the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy.

Conference on Immigration Detention System

Conference on Immigration Detention System

Immigrant Detainees: Alone, Unrepresented & Imprisoned
A joint conference of Rutgers School of Law–Newark, Seton Hall Law School, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and New York University School of Law.

Featuring keynote speaker U.S. Senator Robert Menendez ’79.

March 23, 2012, 8 am – 5:30 pm
Rutgers School of Law–Newark

To register for the conference, click here. To download the conference brochure, click here.

Death in GEO Detention Camp

Fernando Dominguez Died In Administrative Limbo While In Immigration Detention

By Fernando Romero | March 16, 2012 | Huffington Post

On the morning of Friday, February 24, I got out of bed with my usual swagger. I made a pot a coffee, a light breakfast and started getting ready for work. Still with lazy eyes, I started answering some e-mails when my phone rang. The person on the other line identified himself as an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement so I piqued up immediately (because if that doesn’t wake you up, I don’t know what else does).

Riot reveals Dangers of California’s relationship with CCA

A private-prison disaster in Oklahoma reveals the dangers of California’s reliance on Corrections Corporation of America

By Dave Maass | SD City Beat | March 14, 2012

At 11:37 a.m. on a Tuesday in October, a fight between two inmates started in the dining hall in a prison in western Oklahoma. Guards broke it up using pepper spray, and the situation returned to normal.

Or so they thought.

Minutes later, the dining hall erupted in all-out war with fists, kicks and food trays flying. Within 15 minutes, the entire facility was thrust into chaos as 600 inmates, mostly African-Americans and Hispanics associated with the Surenos prison gang, bloodied each other. Suddenly, one of the largest prison riots in California’s recent history was going down in a corrections facility a thousand miles outside the state.

Sign Petition! CCA Must Reveal Sexual Assault Reports

Private Prison Corporation Must Reveal Reports on Sexual Assault in its Facilities

By Mae White

Goal: To demand Corrections Corporation of America, the largest for-profit prison company in the country, release information regarding sexual abuse in its facilities to its shareholders.

Corrections is unfortunately a highly profitable industry in the United States. In 2010, the two largest prison companies generated over $4 billion in profit, and their CEOs each earned at least $3 million. Despite their affluence, however, American prison companies seem incapable of preventing sexual assault in their facilities. The largest for-profit prison company in the US, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), has recently come under pressure to reveal information about its efforts to reduce incidents of sexual assault.

Sign Petition!

Lawsuit Charges AZ Prison with Failing to Provide Adequate Health Care, Inhumane Use of Solitary Confinement

Lawsuit Charges Arizona Prison Officials with Failing to Provide Adequate Health Care, Inhumane Use of Solitary Confinement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

PHOENIX – Prisoners in the custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections receive such grossly inadequate medical, mental health and dental care that they are in grave danger of suffering serious and preventable injury, amputation, disfigurement and even death, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed today by a legal team led by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Office.

The lawsuit also charges that thousands of prisoners are routinely subjected to solitary confinement in windowless cells behind solid steel doors, in conditions of extreme social isolation and sensory deprivation, leading to serious physical and psychological harm. Some prisoners in solitary receive no outdoor exercise for months or years on end, and some receive only two meals a day.

Effort to Force America’s Largest For-Profit Prison Corporation to Publish Records on Sexual Abuse

Righting the record on prison rape

One lone shareholder is on a crusade to force America’s largest private prison corporation to publish records on sexual abuse

By Sadhbh Walshe | March 1, 2012 | The Guardian UK

Alex Friedmann, the associate editor of the monthly magazine Prison Legal News, once served six years at a private prison run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country’s largest for-profit prison company. Friedmann now owns 191 shares of CCA stock, just enough to allow him to introduce a stockholder resolution.

His recent proposal that the CCA’s board of directors (pdf) provide biannual reports to their stockholders about the company’s efforts to reduce incidents of rape and sexual abuse in their facilities was greeted with outright horror by the CCA, which immediately wrote to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking to be allowed to omit the proposal from their proxy materials.

For-Profit Prison System Guarantees Injustice

Private Prisons Profit From Pain

By Jakada Imani | The Huffington Post | February 23, 2012

I’ve been working on issues of police accountability, locked-up youth, violence, and community investment for a long time. Sometimes I think that no example of injustice could still surprise me. I was recently proved wrong.

It happened when I was sent a Huffington Post article about the Corrections Corporation of America’s (CCA) move to buy prisons from cash-strapped states. As part of their offer to the 48 states they propositioned was a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full over the course of the contract. Shame on you CCA, shame on you!

Report Reveals Widespread Problems in Arizona’s Private Prisons: Cites Safety Issues, Lack of Accountability, and Cost

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 16, 2012

Contact:               Caroline Isaacs, (520) 256-4146 (cell), cisaacs@afsc.org

Report Reveals Widespread Problems in Arizona’s Private Prisons:

Cites Safety Issues, Lack of Accountability, and Cost

Phoenix:  Yesterday, a Quaker group that has been advocating against prison privatization in Arizona released an extensive report reviewing the safety, quality, and cost of private prisons in Arizona—including 6 prisons operated by Corrections Corporation of America that do not contract with the state.  The report is the first of its kind to be completed in Arizona, and reveals widespread and persistent problems in private facilities.

The report cites data showing that the private prisons under contract with the state cost more than equivalent units operated by the Department of Corrections.  The group estimates that in 2009 and 2010, Arizona overpaid for these units by as much as $7 million. If the state adds 2,000 medium-security private beds, Arizonans could be losing over $10 million every year on private prisons.

NM ex-inmates awarded more than $3M in rape case

Via KRQE

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A jury has awarded millions of dollars in damages to three women inmates who were raped by a guard New Mexico prison for women.

The decision came down Thursday when the federal jury ordered $3 million after hearing more than a week of testimony involving a 2007 case at the Camino Nuevo Women’s Correctional Facility.

Inmate rape resolution to be shared over objections of private prison giant

Inmate rape resolution to be shared over objections of private prison giant

By Alan Prendergast | Feb. 17 2012 | Westword

A former prisoner, now a shareholder in the country’s largest for-profit prison operator, has won a battle with company management over his campaign to hold the Corrections Corporation of America accountable for reducing sexual abuse at its facilities. The Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled that the shareholder resolution, calling attention to the issue of prison rape, can be included in proxy materials sent to CCA investors in advance of the company’s annual meeting.

SEC Rejects CCA’s Objection to Effort to Reduce Prisoner Sexual Abuse

For Immediate Release: SEC Rejects Corrections Corporation of America’s Objection to Shareholder Effort to Reduce Prisoner Sexual Abuse 

Criminal justice, sexual abuse prevention and women’s right organizations support shareholder resolution to hold CCA accountable for reducing rape and sexual abuse of prisoners at the company’s for-profit detention facilities.

Nashville, TN – Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected efforts by Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW), the nation’s largest private prison company, to exclude a shareholder resolution that seeks to hold CCA accountable for reducing incidents of rape and sexual abuse at the company’s for-profit detention facilities.

Private Prison Corporation Offers Cash In Exchange For State Prisons

Private Prison Corporation Offers Cash In Exchange For State Prisons

By Chris Kirkham | The Huffington Post | 2/14/12

A June 2005 file photo of the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, Ohio, which the state sold to Corrections Corporation of America last year.

As state governments wrestle with massive budget shortfalls, a Wall Street giant is offering a solution: cash in exchange for state property. Prisons, to be exact.

Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest operator of for-profit prisons, has sent letters recently to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons as a remedy for “challenging corrections budgets.” In exchange, the company is asking for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Huffington Post.

Report Reveals Widespread Problems in AZ’s Private Prisons: Cites Safety Issues, Lack of Accountability, and Cost

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact Caroline Isaacs, (520) 256-4146 (cell), cisaacs@afsc.org

Report Reveals Widespread Problems in Arizona’s Private Prisons: Cites Safety Issues, Lack of Accountability, and Cost

Phoenix:  A Quaker group that has been advocating against prison privatization in Arizona will release an extensive report reviewing the safety, quality, and cost of private prisons in Arizona.  The state is currently soliciting bids for construction and management of 2,000 new prison beds to for-profit operators, a move that would cost state taxpayers millions of dollars every year with little public safety return on the investment.