Video Visitation at the MCSO: InSecurus and Sheriff Joe's newest money-making scheme...

So, for those of you who missed it, there's no longer such a thing as a "contact visit" at the Maricopa County Jails. Prisoners are also now only allowed one "free" visit a week, which must be conducted via videophone from 4th Ave Jail or the Lower Buckeye Jail. All video visits from off-site are unlimited, however - so long as you are able to access a computer with a camera and the internet, and can afford the $12.95 every 20 minute visit will cost you. 

As for the "inmate Services" fund this extra money is supposed to be going to: he should just refund it straight to the families, since the last time he had a chunk of change in the "Inmate Services" fund (where MCSO profits from the canteen sales presumably go, as well) he "misappropriated" it. Remember that $99 million he lost - almost $15 million of which came from this "Inmate Services" fund he likes to force prisoners and their loved ones to contribute to?

There never was actual contact allowed that could have facilitated smuggling at "contact" visits when they had them anyway - not at Estrella, at least - the women were always chained to the tables when visitors sat across from them. Mothers weren't even allowed to hug their kids. MOre access to prisoners from family the world is great - but should be affordable and not result in fewer visitation privileges for those who can't afford it. 

This is just more of the same: extortion and exploitation of what is largely a population of individuals who haven't yet even been convicted of a crime.  Arpaio needs to rein in his departmental corruption, really, if he wants to get that contraband issue under control, as far as I can see.


Anyway, this is what you should really be checking out - we got taken for a ride, people! 

GRASSROOTSLEADERSHIP.org:

#inSecurus | Ensuring Visitation for Prisoners and their Loved Ones

.... (among other resources...)

• For more information about Securus Technologies and video visitation at the Travis County Jail, see our SECURUS FACT SHEET 
• Take our JAIL VIDEO VISITATION SURVEY (versión en Español aquí) to help us learn more about how video visitation impacts friends and family visiting people in jail. (
• SIGN OUR PETITION to restore in-person visitation at the Travis County Jail.
• Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #inSECURUS
• Check out our NEW REPORT!

---------or settle for this, from azcentral.com---------------

Video chats replace in-person visits at county jails

Paulina Pineda, The Republic | azcentral.com

 9:06 p.m. MST November 6, 2014

Face-to-face visitation has a new meaning for inmates at Maricopa County jails now that in-person visits have been swapped for Skype-like video chats.

On Thursday, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office launched a Web-based video-visitation platform that eliminates in-person visitations and expands visitation hours.

The system, developed by Texas-based Securus Technologies, allows people from all over the world to talk to any of the 8,500 inmates in the county's six jails via video, as long as they have a high-speed Internet connection and a webcam.

The Sheriff's Office is offering a promotional price of $5 for a 20-minute conversation, but that price will increase to $12.95 for 20 minutes after Jan. 1.

Securus is paying $2.3million to provide 600 video stations to the six jails at no expense to the taxpayers, according to Securus CEO Rick Smith.

The system, which Securus says is the largest in the country, is expected to generate thousands of dollars for the Sheriff's Office while increasing jail security by eliminating the potential for contraband smuggling, an issue during the more than 20,000 in-person visitations each month, according to sheriff's officials.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said it will also allow friends and family members to schedule visits without having to miss work or drive down to a facility.

"It's a win for everyone involved," Arpaio said.

Remote visitations can be scheduled seven days a week between 7 a.m. and 9:30 p.m at
visitfromhome.net/maricopa. Visits must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance.

Inmates can receive one free on-site visit per week, but they will be held through the video platform at either the Fourth Avenue or Lower Buckeye jails.

On-site visitation hours at those jails have expanded to seven days a week between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., up from a single visit on Sunday or Monday.

Sheriff's officials say on-site visits will no longer be conducted at the Durango, Estrella, Tent City or Towers jails, but inmates there have access to video chats.

Securus will receive 100 percent of the revenue until the number of calls reaches 8,000 per month. Ten percent of the excess revenue will then go to MCSO, and that will increase to 20 percent once the company's initial investment is recovered.

Money generated from the system will go toward the Sheriff's Office Inmate Services Fund for education.
The Sheriff's Office will store video calls for 60 days and will monitor calls for criminal or sexual activity.

Corizon and the deliberate indifference and ignorance of AZ Rep. John Kavanagh.

This piece was done in December 2013 - good job, Al Jazeera. And SHAME on Fountain Hills Representative John Kavanagh for suggesting that prisoners are making up stories of medical neglect and abuse. Kavanagh's denial and ignorance is the very reason so many state prisoners and their families are suffering now. He should speak to the Corizon and AZ department of Corrections whistleblowers that I've heard from over the past year - but he would no doubt come up with some excuse to accuse them of lying as well.

Or maybe he's really well-informed and deliberately throwing up a smoke screen to cover for Corizon's failure to deliver as promised on their contract to provide prison health care. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out someday that man has been taking kickbacks from more than one prison profiteer. How else can one explain why he'd try to outright GIVE AWAY $900,000 to GEO Group for doing absolutely nothing - his reasoning for that? From the AZ Republic:

Kavanagh said Monday that GEO had done the state a "big favor" by providing emergency private-prison beds at a discount rate during the Great Recession, and the company wanted to be financially restored. "I didn't see a problem in giving them a small increase," Kavanagh said. "If you don't treat people fairly they won't treat you fairly in the future." 

(Thank goodness he's such a fair man! These poor, mistreated "people" he wants to help at GEO Group claimed over $115 million in profits in 2013. )

Oh, and there's this as well, from the same Republic article: "State campaign finance records show that six GEO executives, including CEO George Zoley, gave Kavanagh's campaign committee a combined $2,544 in 2012." That's just the payoff that's on the books: imagine what he would have gotten from the nice $900,000 gift back to those guys it if had gone through.  

I find it very disturbing to know that man is a director with the criminal justice program at Scottsdale Community College - which leads me to suspect that anyone who graduates from that program is also either deluded about the real world of crime and punishment, or predisposed to corruption.

Privatizing prison health care and undercutting prisoner claims of abuse is not all that Kavanagh is behind, though. Here's his brilliant defense of SB 1062 on CNN, the "religious freedom" bill that Jan Brewer vetoed so Arizona's economy wouldn't tank from a nationwide boycott of transphobic legislation. Here's a short and sweet editorial about his opposition to expanding Medicaid coverage in AZ: note that life is so precious to him in the womb, but quite disposable if the baby is born poor. I think his "concern" for life of the unborn is really a charade to cover for his desire to control women's sexual and reproductive activity.

Too bad the voters of Fountain Hills and Scottsdale lack integrity themselves, or they'd recall that man for his many crimes against the most oppressed people of this state. Unfortunately, they seem to be as invested in their own hate, fear and self-interest (at everyone else's expense) as their elected representative is, since they keep sending him back to the AZ Legislature to torment the rest of us. For his critical role in assuring that Corizon and the AZ DOC can continue to neglect their patients without any legislative oversight, John Kavanagh's name should be at the top of every wrongful death prison lawsuit in the state.

Thanks to Abby Leonard and Adam May at Al Jazeera's America Tonight for this...

--------------

Arizona's privatized prison health care under fire after deaths

by Abigail Leonard , Adam May
December 2, 2013 Al Jazeera (America Tonight)

SAFFORD, Ariz. — Rylan is a healthy and hungry 5-month-old baby girl who now lives with her grandmother Jodi and the rest of her family in a small Arizona farming town.

It's a world away from where she was born: the state prison complex near Phoenix, where her mother, Regan Clarine, is still locked up.

“She's very fun-loving. Very hyper, fun to be around, kind of always the leader,” Jodi Clarine, Regan’s mother, said about her daughter. “Regan was the one that I knew would be sneaking out the window by the time she was 3 years old. I would say, ‘You know, she's going to be our problem.”

Two years ago, when Regan was 18, she was arrested for having prescription painkillers illegally and charged with possessing a narcotic for sale. The court sent her to drug rehab, where she met and started dating Rylan's father. She found out she was pregnant just two days before a judge sentenced her to two and a half years behind bars.

“She holds her emotions very well but once she's talking to me alone, it's complete devastation,” Jodi said.
Regan was transferred from county jail to Perryville State Prison, where Jodi said she was denied prenatal care.

Jodi showed a note from Regan, saying she was advised by a doctor to get an ultrasound to check for any possible problems with her pregnancy.

“She did not get that ultrasound,” Jodi said. “I believe had they done the ultrasound they would have known they had the wrong date.”

Jodi said she believes the prison medical staff induced Regan early, which might explain why Rylan was born small.

“It just infuriates me,” Jodi said.

After 48 hours in labor, Regan had to have a C-section. Jodi said the medical staff didn't stitch the wound shut. Instead, they dressed it with butterfly bandages.

“They sent her back to the prison and for the first two days things are going OK,” Jodi said. “But by about day three she's noticing it's oozing. It's not looking right, it's looking infected.”

Jodi said doctors refused to see Regan – and it got worse from there.

“Regan woke up one night and something just told her to get up,” Jodi said. Her daughter was covered in blood. "Her clothes were soaked. So she was terrified and she just screamed for you know a guard to come help her. And they came took her to see a nurse. And you know, the nurse said, ‘Well, come back at 10.’”
Regan was sent back to her cell instead of going to the hospital.

“She would cry because it scared her so much to be able to look inside her body was just freaking her out,” Jodi said.

After two weeks of living with an open wound, Regan was sent to the prison hospital.

“I truly believe I could have lost my daughter had they not given her antibiotics” before her delivery, Jodi said.

Regan spent five weeks in the hospital and, slowly, the wound healed. But her ordeal was not over.

“They decided she had been there long enough, that she could go back to her yard,” Jodi said. “But it was still open a little bit. And so they decided that the best thing to do for this would be to pack it with kitchen sugar … we're talking sugar that you get from, because they donate it from McDonald's from Burger King, you know? They're standing there ripping open these little packs of sugar and filling that wound.

“I called my brother who is a doctor and I said ‘Sean, they're talking about pouring sugar into Regan and have you ever heard of this?’ And he said no way are they putting sugar in her wound. He said it's just got to be some medical term like maybe it's medicine with glucose in it. He said, ‘it's probably just a nickname of something. Nobody would pour sugar in a wound. So don't worry about it.’”

Sugar was used to treat wounds before the advent of antibiotics in the early 1900s, but it's no longer accepted medical practice. America Tonight asked the Arizona Department of Corrections to comment on Regan’s care, but they declined.

While we were talking to Jodi, Regan called from prison and described her ordeal living with the fist-sized opening in her abdomen.

“It was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life,” Regan said.

When she did get care, she described seeing medical staff putting sugar in that wound.

“They were taking the kitchen sugar and pouring it inside and putting wet gauze over it and taping it,” she said.

We asked Regan if she actually saw prison officials opening up McDonald’s sugar packets and pouring the sugar inside her wound. “Yeah,” she said, adding that she was worried if it was sanitary.

“I was scared,” she said. “You know, it’s prison, maybe these packets are old, if there's something spilled on them and it dries, you know.”

Spending less on health care

Regan is not the only inmate alleging mistreatment. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Corrections in March 2012, alleging that prisoners are at serious risk of "pain, amputation, disfigurement and death."

It cites examples of prisoners being told to pray to be cured or drink energy shakes to treat cancer symptoms.

The ACLU says the treatment amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and that it violates prisoners' constitutional rights.

“People are often sent to prison for two-year, three-year sentences that have turned into death sentences because of the absence of the basic minimal care,” said Dan Pochoda, legal director for the ACLU in Arizona. He says in his forty year career, he’s never seen a worse prison healthcare system.

A year and a half ago, the state handed over prison healthcare to a private, for-profit company. Legislators who supported the privatization promised that it would save taxpayers money, while maintaining adequate levels of care for inmates. At least 27 other states have also privatized prison health care, rewarding private companies for keeping costs down.

But there are studies showing prisoners could be suffering as a result. An October report from the American Friends Services Committee in Arizona found that since the state privatized its prison health care, medical spending in prisons dropped by $30 million and staffing levels plummeted. It also found a sharp spike in the number of inmate deaths. In the first eight months of 2013, 50 people died in Arizona Department of Corrections custody, compared with 37 deaths in the previous two years combined.

Tony's story

After his cancer, inmate Tony Brown's pain medication was switched from morphine to less-powerful Lortab.

America Tonight

One of the inmates who died since the state privatized care was Tony Brown, who was serving a 10-year sentence for aggravated assault and was due to be released in September.

“They were supposed to come down for Thanksgiving this year,” his daughter Jenna Jumper said. “He never got to meet my husband and he wasn't there when I got married, so they were going to come visit.”

Brown had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, but his medical records show it was in remission. He had been prescribed morphine for the pain. But in October 2012, the prison ran out of morphine. The medical staff switched him to Lortab, a weaker painkiller.

In a video taken by prison guards and obtained by America Tonight, Brown is seen just after he was put on the new medication writhing in pain while handcuffed to a gurney. His medical records show that guards told nurses his condition was worsening and that he "needed to be checked out." But there is no record of medical staff visiting his cell. In another video, a prison chaplain checks on Brown at his wife Jami Brown’s request.

“Inmate Brown, I spoke with your wife earlier today,” the chaplain is heard saying. “Can you communicate with me please? I’d like to speak with your wife later on. Is there something I can tell her?”

Brown, face down on a bunk, barely moves and doesn’t respond. A guard can be heard saying, “Is it me or does this just not feel right to anybody else?”

Two days after Brown first started complaining of pain, medical staff had still not visited him, so the guards intervened and started CPR. Nurses came to assist, but 40 minutes passed before they realized no one had called an ambulance.

Eventually, an ambulance came and took Brown to a hospital. A day later, he died. Two days after his death, his widow Jami said she finally received a call back from the private prison health care company, Wexford.

“My husband passed away on Monday and I got a call from Wexford Medical on Wednesday wanting more information so that they can make sure he's seen,” she said. “I was pretty upset because I was like, ‘What are you talking about? He's dead.’”

“He may have been a prison inmate, but my dad was no different than the governor or the guy that you interviewed or you or me,” his daughter said. “My biggest thing is that if people would stop to realize that he did have family and that he did have a child and he did have a wife and he had plans.”

The official cause of death was listed as complications from cancer. But Brown's family is suing Wexford, claiming he died from lack of adequate medical care. An attorney for Wexford issued a statement to America Tonight on the matter.

"Due to federal health care privacy laws and the pending legal claim, we are very limited in what we can say about the circumstances surrounding this inmate’s tragic death," Ed Hochuli said in the statement. "Based on the limited information we have at this time, though, I am very confident Wexford Health and its employees acted appropriately, and further investigation of this claim will demonstrate and prove the lack of any wrongdoing or negligence by Wexford Health.”

Privatization proponent

State Rep. John Kavanagh

America Tonight

State Rep. John Kavanagh wrote the legislation that privatized Arizona's prison health care. We asked him whether he thought it had put inmates in danger.

“I mean, people die in prisons,” he said. “I receive a lot of handwritten notes from prisoners. I receive emails from prison families with all sorts of allegations of crazy behavior. And then, you call the prison people up and they usually have a reasonable explanation for it.”

Kavanagh said Regan’s story didn’t sound like a “true allegation,” adding that it “sounds ridiculous.”

“You know prisoners have 24/7 to think up allegations and write letters,” he said. “I'm not saying that some of them can't have a basis in fact. But you got to take them with a grain of salt or in the case of the hospital, with maybe a grain of sugar.”

We asked Kavanagh who would listen to prisoners’ concerns over their medical care.

“There's no shortage of prison advocacy groups and ACLU attorneys who at the drop of a dime will file a lawsuit,” he said. “I think most people who get into [class-action lawsuits] wind up with nothing and the lawyers walk away in limousines with their trunks full of cash.”

There are signs though, that Wexford, the private health company that was providing care at the time of Brown's death, was aware of the problems. America Tonight obtained a copy of a PowerPoint presentation written by top Wexford executives for a meeting with the Arizona governor's office in November 2012 – four months after the company started providing care in the state. It warned that the care it and the Department of Corrections were providing was "not compliant with … constitutional requirements" and that "the current class action lawsuits are accurate." It recommended an overall operational cleanup, staffing reassessment and the appointment of a governor’s office liaison.

The PowerPoint presentation also says that the department's "transparency" policy with the media could "encourage negative press."

Wexford was already in the spotlight for another incident just two months earlier. At a prison west of Phoenix, more than 100 inmates may have been exposed to hepatitis C. According to the Department of Corrections, a contractor nurse used dirty needles to deliver medication. Four months later, Arizona severed ties with Wexford and awarded the three-year, $369 million contract to another private healthcare company: Corizon, the largest prison healthcare company in the country. Corizon has similar contracts in 29 states, but it has faced problems in many of them. In fact, in the last five years, Corizon has been sued for malpractice 660 times.

Corizon’s no-bid contract

Arizona Democratic House minority Leader Chad Campbell said the Legislature didn't properly vet Corizon before signing the contract.

“I think the most concerning to us was the previous company when they started to lose that contract, the current company that got the contract didn't even have to go through a public process of any kind to get this contract,” he said. “No bid. Nothing. It was deemed an emergency situation by Department of Corrections so they didn't have to go through the normal process. But more interesting than that was this company that got the contract had just hired the former head of the Department of Corrections who was the mentor of the current head of Department of Corrections.”

Campbell said that is not the only tie that members of Arizona’s state government have to private prisons. Charles Coughlin, the former campaign strategist for Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer, runs a lobbying firm called HighGround Public Affairs Consultants, which represented one of the country’s largest private prison companies. HighGround donated $5,000 to Jan PAC, Brewer's super PAC.

The governor's office declined America Tonight’s request for an interview and referred us to Kavanagh, who said the allegations that Brewer accepted bids because of personal relationships were “baseless.”

“I think they're propaganda,” he said. “I mean, people say to me I've gotten campaign contributions from private-prison people. Well, yeah. I got from a lobbyist who represents them but that lobbyist also represents 40 other clients in different industries. It's smoke and mirrors. It's a façade.”

Campbell said that multiple people and corporations are profiting from the privatization of prison health care.
“They're profiting on taxpayer dollars and to me, if I'm going to hand out money to a private entity, I want to make sure it's being spent wisely,” he said. Campbell is now calling for an investigation.

Corizon defended its level of care. "These patients receive care that meets their health care needs and satisfies constitutional requirements," it said in a statement to America Tonight, adding that it has a rigorous quality control program to make sure its health care meets federal and Arizona Department of Corrections guidelines. "In addition, the ADC maintains a dedicated internal audit team of over 30 health care professionals whose sole purpose is to monitor Corizon’s delivery of care," the company added. (Read Corizon's full statement here.)

In the meantime, allegations of wrongdoing continue to mount. According to the American Friends Service Committee report, an inmate at the Whetstone Unit of the Arizona State Prison Complex tested positive for tuberculosis in August. But Corizon did not test other prisoners, even those who were doing community service outside the complex.

Hoping to survive prison

Regan Clarine

America Tonight

As for Regan, she still has six months left on her sentence. The separation has been tough on the family, but what's worse is their fear that prison health care could be a death sentence.

As their allotted time for a phone call wound down, Regan asked her mother if she would be making the four-hour drive that weekend.

“I'm gonna lose you. I love you honey,” Jodi said. “I'm coming on Saturday with Rylan. And you don't…”
An automated message cut her off when their time limit was up.

“Oh, that's so frustrating when you can't finish talking,” Jodi said. “It's even tougher leaving. Her first visit with [her baby], my husband held Rylan up and she could just see Rylan's big blue eyes and she just started running and grabbed her and held her as tight as she could. It's very been hard. We all miss her very much.”

MCSO Deaths in Custody: the homicides of John Klatt and Douglas Walker.

As some folks out there are well aware, cops and prison guards often collaborate with gang leaders to set up people they want to see shut up or executed  - often by celling them with a likely assailant/killer, then looking the other way long enough for the deed to be done. 

Last week a prisoner was killed in a case I think is very much related to the murder of an accused child predator, John Klatt, in MCSO's jail in January by similar means - except this time, I think the intended victim is the one who survived the confrontation.  

In the January killing, it looks like the MCSO placed Klatt in minimum security with a ton of child molestation charges against him - an obvious attempt to have him executed by other prisoners before trial. 20 yo. Nike Black likely did the deed under order of one of the gangs, leaving him no choice but to kill the guy and be the hero, or or die as a coward himself. All the gangs police and punish the members of their own race in prison, whether or not those prisoners are gang members. That kid had a fresh charge that would have forced him to either seek protective custody in prison or do the gang's dirty work. The gang and yard leaders usually tell guys with domestic violence charges (or any offense against a woman) that they can only clear their own name by taking out some prisoner whose crime is worse than their own. What would most guys in similar shoes choose - and how much of a real choice is that, anyway? The MCSO helped force Black into that position, too, by celling him with Klatt.

The community has a lot to do with these extra-judicial execution of prisoners, as well - just look at the comments after this news article about the first of these two killings. Friends and family of both suspect and victim are there, and lots of people are giving the killer props for a job well done. For those of you who think accused pedophiles deserve to be executed, do you also think their killers deserve to have their lives destroyed as well? Because that's part of the collateral damage of extra-judicial executions and vigilantism - someone else then has to be punished for doing that job. Your champion, Nike Black's life will now be spent in prison and most likely shortened by violence and trauma, heroin addiction, or Hepatitis C (which most prisoners in this state contract during their incarceration...). In the meantime, you will all forget his noble sacrifice and he will become like all the other faceless, dehumanized prisoners you like to know are suffering.
 

Arpaio insisted in January that nothing could have been done to prevent Klatt's killing (How about segregating your sex offenders and child molesters from the rest of the population, as the AZ DOC does?) I think they have the right to be safe in custody, be they pre-trial or post-conviction. For those to whom guilt and innocence matters in prisoner rights cases, you're wrong. Let one be abused, and all are at risk - justifying punishments above and beyond those already sanctioned by the court, like rape of child predators, puts everyone in prison at greater risk, even the "good guys". But you should also be aware that up to 15% of convicted sex offenders may actually be innocent. What might the innocence rate be among those who have simply been accused? Sadly, all are condemned as soon as the news of their charges hits the media. Look at Courtney Bisbee.

So now we come to the current killing - a convicted prisoner awaiting sentencing on a violent crime who fears for his own safety is celled with an accused (and confessed) seriously mentally ill child killer awaiting trial, also fearing for his safety. If I was Walker's family's attorney, I'd look closely at Arpaio's refusal to take responsibility for re-visiting policies around celling people with crimes the rest of the prisoner population would find repugnant as the very reason that Walker ended up dead, even if Ward claims self-defense. As I observed earlier, the public was so pleased that the victim of the January attack was an accused pedophile that the MCSO wouldn't have felt much pressure to keep any other child predator in their custody safe from similar treatment. They were outright encouraged to set it up, in fact. It was ordained by that decision to cell those two together that one of the two parties would leave in a body bag - that was a reasonably forseeable event after the January homicide of John Klatt. That spells major liability.


In this more recent homicide,  I wouldn't be surprised if Walker was celled with Ward by folks at the MCSO wagering on whether or not he would kill him. Walker did time before and was on his way back to the joint - I guarantee the gangs would have put a green light on Ward to "discipline" him for the way he killed his 12 year old younger brother; his celly would be the most likely person they'd order to do it, regardless of whether or not the guy was in a gang. If Walker didn't follow those orders he'd be hitting the prison gates as a target himself in a short two weeks - he was expressing fear for his safety as it was, according to this report. I think everyone just underestimated Ward's determination to stay alive, and his capacity for fighting back.

Really, all of these men's families need to sue, with Arpaio's name at the top of the list. MCSO complicity will likely not be proven in criminal court, of course - the investigators handling these cases will never even try to hold officers or Arpaio accountable in their reports. Only the prisoners will appear to be the violent ones in all this - that's consistent with the way the good Sheriff Joe implements justice in the community, too: he subverts it and ducks responsibility every chance he can.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about this case down the road, as more is learned about what community-based psychiatric help, if any, Ward and his family got before he killed his brother. For now, though, I think the real story is about the proclivity of law enforcement officers to act as judges, juries and executioners (or their accomplices); moreover, the willingness of their adoring public to accept it. 

-------------------------

Phoenix man accused of killing brother now accused of killing cellmate

Vianka Villa, The Republic |

azcentral.com  

 April 4, 2014

A Maricopa County inmate charged in the fatal stabbing of his 12-year-old brother in Phoenix now stands accused of killing his cellmate in a frenzied attack on Wednesday night.

Andrew Ward, 27, was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of killing Douglas William Walker, who was awaiting sentencing on an armed robbery conviction, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff's officials said Walker was found "beaten, stabbed with a golf pencil and smeared with peanut butter over his head." He was discovered at about 7:30 p.m. when inmates notified detention officers on a security walk of a fight inside the cell.

Phoenix fire paramedics pronounced Walker dead on scene. Paramedics also determined that a plastic bag had been placed in Walker's nose and throat and obstructed his breathing.

Ward reportedly admitted to a play-by-play of the attack in an interview with detectives and told investigators that he had "no regrets," according to a sheriff's statement.

Ward relayed that he had cut Walker's throat with a plastic playing card, stabbed him in the eyes and throat with a golf pencil and finished the assault by stuffing a plastic bag down Walker's throat, according to a sheriff's statement.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Chris Hegstrom said Ward has been re-classifiedd and housed by himself in the Fourth Avenue Jail.

Both Ward and Walker were placed in segregated custody in the county jail system after each told jail administrators they feared for their safety, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Ward was arrested March 12 on suspicion of stabbing and killing his 12-year-old brother in a north Phoenix home last month, and pleaded not guilty to the allegations in a brief court hearing.

Walker pleaded guilty to armed robbery charges last month and was due to be sentenced, and likely transferred to the Department of Corrections, on April 11.

In September 2013 Walker and an accomplice robbed a man in a McDonald's parking lot on Indian School, threatening him with a knife and an Airsoft gun, a type of replica toy gun that fires plastic BB's, according to court documents.

Walker and his accomplice demanded money from the man and took his iPhone, which they later tried to sell after they fled the scene, court documents show. He was charged with armed robbery.


It is the second murder Ward has been accused of in the past three weeks.

Police said Ward called 911 on March 12 from a convenience store and reported he had stabbed someone at a house off 35th Avenue south of Deer Valley Road.

Officers found Austin Tapia with multiple and fatal stab wounds when they arrived at the home at about 5:30 p.m.

Ward had blood on his clothing and was believed to be carrying a knife in his pants pocket when he was taken into custody at the convenience store, said Sgt. Steve Martos, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Police said Ward was alone with his brother, whose mother and two sisters were out to dinner.

Austin had decided to stay home.

Detectives said that when they asked Ward why he killed his brother he told them, "Honestly, I just felt like killing."

Court records suggest Ward struggled with drugs and alcohol.

In filing the probable-cause statement, police suggested Ward may be an addict and mentally ill and had asked to "go to (a) mental hospital" instead of jail when he called police.

The report said Ward's family reported that he suffered from depression and had a history of domestic violence in the home.

The family also said Ward had threatened them in the past and that his siblings had called the police on him before.

Ward's previous convictions included DUI, assault, marijuana possession and resisting arrest, according to court records.

Corrupt Kavanagh's $900K gift to GEO group deleted from state budget.

How brazen that he thought nothing of trying to give away all that money to those people - that's how little he thinks of his constituents, that he can give our money away to prison profiteers like that while kids are going without in this state. If the people of Fountain Hills had any integrity or sincere concern for the rest of Arizona, they would recall this man for corruption. Meanwhile, he needs to be removed from chairing the House Appropriations committee immediately. 

----------from the AZ Republic-----

Rep. John Kavanagh (Fountain Hills)

Chair of the AZ House Appropriations Committee

$900k for private prisons removed from Arizona budget

Craig Harris, AZ Republic
March 31, 2014

Nearly $1 million in additional funding for private prisons was removed from the state budget today, following an uproar of criticism from Arizonans.

The Senate Appropriations Committee took out $900,000 in excess funds the House last week had earmarked for GEO Group Inc., which is expected to receive $45 million this fiscal year for providing minimum- and medium-security beds in Phoenix and Florence.

The company has contracts with the state that guarantees at least a 95 percent occupancy rate, virtually ensuring the company a profit for operating its prisons in Arizona.

Read previous coverage: Private prisons may get $1 million

House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who has received campaign contributions from GEO executives, sought the increase that was approved by the House.

Kavanagh said Monday that GEO had done the state a "big favor" by providing emergency private-prison beds at a discount rate during the Great Recession, and the company wanted to be financially restored.
"I didn't see a problem in giving them a small increase," Kavanagh said. "If you don't treat people fairly they won't treat you fairly in the future."

Kavanagh said he did not know if he would try to restore the funding taken out of the budget on Monday.
GEO's lobbying firm, Pivotal Policy Consulting, approached Kavanagh directly about getting additional funds even though the company had agreed to contracts with the Arizona Department of Corrections, which did not seek any more money for GEO.

Kavanagh said Monday that Kristen Boilini was the lobbyist who sought the additional money. Boilini did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

State campaign finance records show that six GEO executives, including CEO George Zoley, gave Kavanagh's campaign committee a combined $2,544 in 2012.

Kavanagh said it is common for individuals who share the same political ideology as candidates to contribute to their campaigns, and that he receives contributions from numerous people.

GEO is based in Boca Raton, Fla. The company posted $115 million in profits on $1.52 billion in revenue in 2013. The company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, paid Zoley $4.62 million in total compensation last year.

STOP Rep Kavanagh's $900,000 bonus for GEO Group!

thanks to the AFSC-Tucson for this:

URGENT ACTION ALERT

No Handouts for GEO Group!! Tell Senate Appropriations Chair to pull $900,000 appropriation for GEO Group in state budget! The budget deal negotiated Thursday in the state House included an EXTRA $900,000 specifically earmarked for facilities run by one private prison corporation: GEO Group. This money was not requested by the Department of Corrections.  The Arizona Republic reported that a lobbyist for GEO Group went directly to Rep. John Kavanagh, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee to make the request. The corporation essentially circumvented both the contract negotiation process AND the state agency budgeting process. Despite a contentious process in which a group of holdout Republicans were fighting to secure needed funds for the states broken child welfare system, Kavanagh handed this corporation $1 million that the Department of Corrections says it doesn't need. How many needy Arizona families will go without child care?  How many CPS cases will go uninvestigated because John Kavanagh cares more about the interests of GEO Group than about the people of Arizona? Read The Republic story here

YOU CAN STOP THIS The Senate hears the budget THIS MONDAY, March 31. Call the Senate Appropriations Chair Don Shooter and Senate President Andy Biggs and tell them to pull the plug on Kavanagh's $1 million GEO Group giveaway. Sen. Don Shooter: (602) 926-4139; dshooter@azleg.gov Sen. President Andy Biggs: (602) 926-4371; abiggs@azleg.gov Send emails this weekend, but please call first thing Monday morning. *Please CC cisaacs@afsc.org on any emails you send and forward any responses you get (even automatic ones) so we have an idea of how much impact this action has had. Thanks! Caroline Isaacs Program Director AFSC Arizona

Learn more about the work of AFSC Arizona

AFSC Arizona combines advocacy for incarcerated people and their families with statewide policy change to document and improve prison conditions while working to reduce the number of people incarcerated in Arizona.

Through research, documentation, advocacy, and sentencing reform, AFSC Arizona secures more humane prison conditions, prevents prison expansion, and fosters alternatives to incarceration.

We serve as a resource for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their family members, providing information and resources to address questions, and a place to get involved in bringing their voice to the seats of power in Arizona.

Suing the AZ DOC? Judicial Watch, Arizona Corrections Association seeking assault records.

This is interesting - Judicial Watch is typically right wingers going after liberal judges and bureaucrats - it sure would be fun to see them come out after Chuck Ryan. Anyway, for all you wrongful death and personal injury attorneys out there suing the AZ DOC, I'm posting it exactly as I got it tonight. Subpoena the ACA's records of this matter for more details about falsified documents and ghost posting of rosters at the AZ DOC.

------------from Donna Hamm at Middle Ground-------------

From: Middle Ground Prison Reform
Date: Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 7:41 PM
Subject: Investigation Required

The below letter was sent to me by an anonymous source.  The underlining is mine, as well as the spelling out of what "ACA" means.  The letter was authored  and distributed to the membership by Anthony Spears, President, ACA.  Please scroll downward to read the letter.

The portions I underlined  strongly suggest the need for an independent investigation, audit  and/or hearings.  Middle Ground Prison Reform is a prisoner rights organization, but we certainly understand the perspective of staff who believe they are being lied to, asked to cover-up liability issues, falsify records,  and to risk their own safety while Department administrators sit at their comfortable Central Office desks.

It is time for the Governor and the Legislature to conduct comprehensive hearings and an unbiased, INDEPENDENT investigation into the claims made by the "boots on the ground."  If any of these individual allegations are credible, then the seriousness of the allegations demand a serious and formal investigation.

As we see it, the CORE of the problem is the reference to  "ghost" posting rosters, which implies that the DOC is  short-staffing shifts of guards, and later -- when reporting is required for some reason (such as a lawsuit or a request from a legislator who has received a complaint) -- someone is deliberately altering the rosters to indicate that more guards were on duty than were actually on duty on a certain shift or day.  Hence, this would explain why inmate-on-staff and inmate-on-inmate assaults are occurring and increasing.  It would also suggest illegal tampering with public records documents and other liability for the DOC, not to mention a host of other serious issues.

Mr. Spears has made some serious claims.  Investigation into these claims would clearly expose him either as a crackpot or a responsible leader of his organization.  The allegations he makes are so serious, it would be almost criminal not to investigate -- the Legislature must not be complicit in these matters.  The pubic needs to know.

Middle Ground Prison Reform stands ready to support the efforts of ACA to obtain a resolution to these serious problems and accusations. Even if it involves wrong-doing at the highest levels, llegislators have a responsibility not to turn a blind eye to these matters.



Donna Leone Hamm, Judge (Ret.)
Executive Director, Middle Ground Prison Reform
 MIDDLE GROUND IS ARIZONA'S PREMIER ADVOCACY AGENCY PROTECTING THE
CONSTITUTIONAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE INCARCERATED SINCE 1983

________________________________

Fighting for the Safety of DOC Officers

As the membership is well aware, the officers at the Department of Corrections are being subjected to serious safety concerns resulting in numerous officers being viciously attacked, injured, and abused without a blink from the AZ DOC's management. Our research has revealed shocking and disturbing patterns of poor staffing, alarming increases in prisoner on prisoner and prisoner on staff assaults, increase in officer disciplines for officer's compliance with DOC policy which conflicts with ostensible unlawful managerial directives, discipline/administrative reprisals for reporting deficiencies or wrong doing, request from management to rewrite official documents skewing the facts and the truth to avoid liability, ghost posting rosters which are deceptive and seemingly unethical in violation of public records laws, and a complete lack of transparency and accountability on behalf of the AZ DOC managerial staff. The corruption bubbling, slithering and oozing down the chain of command from the top is alarming.

Despite our best efforts and desires to work through these serious personnel and safety issues with management, the ACA  (Arizona Corrections Association) has exhausted all of the internal methods to resolve problems brought to us by our membership. Unfortunately, the internal methods have been met to no avail, leaving the ACA with no other option than to seek resolution through other means. The ACA, through its President and Board, have enlisted the assistance of our State organization, the Arizona Police Association (APA) and Judicial Watch. The ACA has requested that the serious safety issues be taken directly to the Governor's Office. We believe that only an external examination of the policies, staffing model, actual staffing schedules, disciplinary policies and managerial retaliation upon employees reporting wrong doing, the lack of availability of post orders and other governing policies, managerial accountability, in concert with investigations into the reasons for staff and prisoner assaults are examined with great care and that an unbiased, external review will see beyond the veneer of deceptive, "sound good" vernacular and self-preservative explanations currently promulgated by the director and managerial staff in an attempt to cover-up the serious mismanagement occurring at DOC and have now caught the attention of the legislature and the media.

As usual, the ACA is staying engaged in these issues and will keep you posted on the progresses made.

Anthony Spears
Arizona Corrections Association President

Arizona Corrections Association, 1102 West Adams Street , Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Now, back to me - Peggy, that is - this is what this is all about...

From the ACA's website 
as of 02/10/2014

Judicial Watch

The ACA has listened carefully to your concerns regarding staff safety. When those concerns appeared to fall on deaf ears within the department, the ACA along with APA Executive Director Levi Bolton brought your concerns regarding staff safety and staff assaults to the attention of the Legislature and the Attorney General’s office. Now your concerns are the concerns of the Judicial Watch. 

---

Judicial Watch 
Because no one is above the law!
VIA & CERTIFIED U.S. MAIL
October 18, 2013
Mr. Charles Ryan, Director Arizona Department of Corrections 1600 W. Jefferson Phoenix, AZ 85007
Re: Arizona Public Records Request

Dear Mr. Ryan:

Pursuant to the provisions of the Arizona Public Records Law (APRL), AR.S. 39-101 through 39-221, Judicial Watch is requesting from the Arizona Department of Corrections access.to and copies of the following public records be made available for inspection pursuant to the Arizona Public Records Law, AR.S. § 39-121, et seq.:

1. Copies of any Incident Reports, reports, memos, notes, and/or any documentation of the assault of COIl Boykin at Kaibab -Cell Block 2.
2. Statistics on how many Correctional Officers I, II, III, Sergeants, and/or Captains have been assaulted by inmates throughout the State of Arizona in Department of Corrections from January 1,2011 through October 16,2013.
3. Statistics regarding the level of security for the inmates who have assaulted Correctional Officers I, II, III, Sergeants, and/or Captains, including but not limited to, if the inmates were from SMU and designated as "1-5, MH 3+ inmates", from January 1,2011 through October 16,2013.
4. Statistics on how many Correctional Officers I, II, III, Sergeants, and/or Captains have been assaulted when the "posts" have been "collapsed" from January 1,2011 through October 16,2013.
5. Copies of any Incident Reports, reports, memos, notes, and/or any documentation of the assault of Lopez which occurred on or about July 24, 2013 during swing shift in CB2.
6. Documentation on why the Arizona Department of Corrections is allowing staff at SMU to escort unrestrained level 1-5, Mental Health 3+ inmates.

These records are considered public under AR.S. 39-101 through 39-221. For purpose of this request the term "record" shall mean: (1) any written, printed, or typed material of any kind, including without limitation all correspondence, memoranda, notes, messages, letters, cards, telegrams, teletypes, facsimiles, papers, forms, records, telephone messages, diaries, schedules, calendars, chronological data, minutes, books, reports, charts, lists, ledgers, invoices, worksheets, receipts, returns, computer printouts, printed matter, prospectuses, statements, check, statistics, surveys, affidavits, contracts, agreements, transcripts, magazine or newspaper articles, or press releases, (2) any electronically, magnetically, or mechanically stored material of any kind, including without limitation all electronic mail or e-mail, meaning any electronically transmitted text or graphic communication created upon and transmitted or received by any computer or other electronic device, and all materials stored on compact disk, computer disk, diskette, hard drive, server, or tape; (3) any audio, aural, visual, or video records, recordings, or representations of any kind, including without limitation all cassette tapes, compact disks, digital video disks, microfiche, microfilm, motion pictures, pictures, photographs, or videotapes; (4) any graphic materials and data compilations from which information can be obtained; (5) any materials using other means of preserving thought or expression; and (6) any tangible things from which data or information can be obtained, processed recorded, or transcribed. The term "record" also shall mean any drafts, alterations, amendments, changes, or modifications of or to any of the foregoing.

Judicial Watch, Inc. also requests that copies of the above-referenced public records be mailed to it promptly pursuant to AR.S. § 39-121.01(D)(1).

For purposes of this request, the term "record" shall be given its broadest possible meaning and shall include, but not be limited to, any and all materials coming within the definition of the term "records" set forth in AR.S. § 41-151.18. It also shall include any and all electronically, magnetically, or mechanically stored material of any kind, any and all electronic mail or e-mail, meaning any electronically transmitted text or graphic communication created upon and transmitted or received by any computer or other electronic device, and any and all material stored on compact disc, computer disk, diskette, hard drive, flash drive, or other electronic storage device. The term "record" also shall mean any drafts, alterations, amendments, changes, or modifications of or to any of the foregoing.

If any responsive records or categories of records are withheld from inspection and copying, please provide an index of the records or categories records that have been withheld and identify the reasons that each record or categories of record has been withheld, pursuant to AR.S. § 39-121.01(D)(2).

Judicial Watch, Inc. is a not-for-profit, public interest organization. It does not seek copies of the requested records for any commercial purpose, as that term is defined by AR.S. § 39-121.03(D). In addition, Judicial Watch, Inc. requests a waiver of any copying or postage fees. Should its request for a fee waiver be denied, Judicial Watch, Inc. agrees to pay reasonable fees associated with the production and mailing of the requested records. If any fee is to be charged, please notify Judicial Watch, Inc. in advance if the expected fee is likely to exceed $350.00.

Please note that, pursuant to AR.S. § 39-121.01(E), access to a public record is deemed denied if a response to a request for inspection and production of a public record, or an index of any record or categories of records withheld from inspection and production, is not provided promptly. Pursuant to A.R.S. 39-121.01.3.D, these records related to these requests must be furnished promptly. Please provide us a prompt written response and records.

If you do not understand this request or any portion thereof, or if you feel you require additional information or clarification in order to respond to this request or any portion thereof, please contact me immediately at (602) 510-7875 or mspencer@judicialwatch.org.
Very truly yours,

Mark Spencer
Southwest Projects Coordinator 
Judicial Watch
Information contributed by: ACA and Mark Spencer
Last updated: 02/08/2014

Corruption and extortion at the AZ DOC: There are no safe places in prison....

To paraphrase a young transgender activist in Phoenix, the best we can do in such a dangerous world sometimes is help people create places they can be brave, because safety isn't attainable. That means looking out for eachother. This is especially the case when you're confined in hell where the people responsible for assuring your safety who hold the keys to your cage are the ones perpetrating the worst violence. The prisoners who most often end up being victimized by sociopaths behind bars in orange and brown alike are the mentally ill, developmentally disabled, the very young, the very old, gay and transgender prisoners, and others who are socially-isolated. Take it as a given that the prisons are being run by bullies of all kinds, including the ones they call noble public servants. Good for this prisoner and his family for busting this one.

Sadly, this story of a prisoner being threatened and extorted with the complicity of a law enforcement officer is not that far out - if you have a loved one telling you similar stories, don't just assume they're lying to make their jailers look bad. It's so hard to substantiate their corruption, too - this guy was just an idiot; he could have made a fortune smuggling contraband and giving intel to the gangs instead, like so many other officers get away with.

Families, if you're dealing with extortion or have evidence of officer corruption, feel free to contact me and I can help you make sure it gets followed up on. Often the DOC minimizes extortion when it happens at the hands of other prisoners and the victim is seeking protective custody - "tell him he should pay his debts", is often the response I've heard families get - so don't take that as a sign that it's okay for it to happen to you or your loved one. My name is Peggy Plews; contact me at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com or 480-580-6807.

Firehouse Gallery, Phoenix 

(September 2013)

 

--------------------

Arizona detention officer Jordan Martie faces extortion charges

November 22, 2012 
abc15.com

WINSLOW, AZ - Authorities say a former Arizona Department of Corrections Officer has been arrested for allegedly taking part in the extortion of an inmate.

Jordan Martie, 22, of Winslow, is accused of multiple counts of theft by extortion, fraudulent schemes and artifices and attempted fraudulent schemes and artifices.

Facing the same charges is a fellow inmate who allegedly took part in the scheme. Authorities have not released his name pending formal charges.

Martie had worked for DOC since February 11, 2013 but has resigned his position.

According to DOC investigators, Martie and the suspect inmate concocted a scheme in which the inmate threatened a fellow inmate at Arizona State Prison Complex – Winslow and demanded $900 in protection money.

Martie then allegedly offered to personally protect the victim inmate in exchange for the money to be paid by the victim’s family.

Martie allegedly made contact with a family member of the victim, saying the victim’s safety and well-being depended on Martie getting the money and gave them instructions on how to make the payment.

The victim’s family member made a partial payment, then contacted the DOC’s Criminal Investigations Unit at ASPC – Winslow and an investigation was launched.

Enough evidence was collected to arrest Martie and to prepare charges against the suspect inmate, authorities said.

The case has been turned over to the Navajo County Attorney’s Office.

Lock-up quotas and private prisons: sweet deals!

Is it any wonder? These are the kinds of "sound fiscal" decisions AZ Republicans make with prison profiteers, while they try to tell the rest of us it's a good idea and will save money for the state to privatize everything. Really, it's not only immoral, it's a rip-off of the taxpayers as well - we all pay for this kind of thing in more ways than one. 

-------from PR WATCH------

Lockup Quotas Help For-Profit Prison Companies Keep Profits High and Prisons Full

by Brendan Fischer — 

Center for Media and Democracy: PR WATCH

September 20, 2013 - 9:26am

For-profit prison companies like Corrections Corporation of American and GEO Group are no strangers to controversy. Their business model rests on incarceration, and their profits soared throughout the 1990s and 2000s as harsh sentencing laws, the War on Drugs, and tough immigration enforcement led to a dramatic rise in detention and incarceration.

But with crime rates dropping for more than a decade and a new push for sentencing reform and cost-effective alternatives to incarceration, for-profit prison operators have found a new way to keep beds full and profits high. They call them "bed guarantees."

Majority of For-Profit Prison Contracts Include "Lockup Quotas"

A new report from In the Public Interest, a resource center on privatization and public contracting, documented for the first time that some 65 percent of contracts between for-profit prisons and state or local governments include bed guarantees or "lockup quotas." These contractual clauses require that a state keeps prisons full, usually at ninety percent, but in some cases up to a one hundred percent occupancy requirement.

If judges and law enforcement are not pushing enough people into for-profit prisons to meet the quota, taxpayers are on the hook for any unused beds.

“Private prisons have gamed the system and tied the hands of policymakers across the country to an alarming degree,” says report author Shar Habibi, In the Public Interest Research and Policy Director.

The lockup quotas range between 70 percent in a California facility to 100 percent in an Arizona facility, with most contracts requiring a 90 percent occupancy. In Ohio, a 20-year deal with CCA to privately operate the Lake Erie Correctional Institution includes a 90 percent quota; cost-cutting measures in the facility have also led to significant growth in violence, gang activity, and drug use.

Given the longstanding, cozy relationships between for-profit prison companies and legislators -- developed by way of significant campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, and participation in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) -- questions have long been raised about their role in promoting policies that put more people behind bars and create more demand for prisons. Although these companies have denied lobbying for tough on crime laws, lockup quotas can have a similar impact.

"To keep their private business model successful, [for-profit prison companies] look to the children of tomorrow as the next harvest for their shareholders," says Justin Jones, former head of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. "Society deserves better."

Lockup Quotas "Morally Reprehensible"

Bed guarantee clauses can encourage tough enforcement and sentencing policies, or, at a minimum, can help deter criminal justice reforms that reduce sentences and focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration. And reform in this area is long overdue.

America has become the world's leader in incarceration, with around half of all prisoners in state facilities there for nonviolent crimes, and half of inmates in federal prisons serving time for drug-related offenses. And the impact of mass incarceration has been disproportionately borne by communities of color. For example, people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but have much higher rate of arrests; just 14 percent of regular drug users are black, but they represent 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses.

But the social costs of mass incarceration have little relevance for CCA or GEO shareholders or Wall Street investors.

"These lockup quotas are morally reprehensible," said Reverend Michael McBride with PICO National Network. “We have a moral charge to rehabilitate incarcerated persons, not to provide an incentive for filling up cells."

Private Contractors Paid for Services They Don't Perform

"Corrections should not be a turnkey for profit machine, and that’s what we turn them into with lockup guarantees," said Jones, the former head of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

In Colorado, even though crime has dropped by a third in the past decade, a lockup quota covering three for-profit prisons has forced taxpayers to keep CCA's prisons full, even as state facilities remain empty; the state has wasted at least $2 million in taxpayer money by using CCA's prisons instead of its own.

“Where else can private contractors get paid for services they do not perform?” asks Alex Friedman, Managing Editor of Prison Legal News.

In Arizona, where three for-profit prison contracts have a 100 percent quota, reports show that the company’s per-day charge for each prisoner has increased an average of 13.9 percent over the course of the contracts.

"When entering a contract to operate a prison, a private company should be required to take on some risk," ITPI's report concludes. "Private prison beds were intended to be a safety valve to address demand that exceeded public capacity. It was never intended that taxpayers would be the safety valve to ensure private prison companies' profits."

New CCA and GEO Group Rap Sheets on SourceWatch

CCA and GEO are the largest for-profit prison operators in the United States. Almost all of their profits are generated by government contracts and therefore come directly from taxpayers. Yet their facilities are failing to deliver, with increased costs, higher levels of recidivism and egregious levels of violence and even death.
The Center for Media and Democracy has created extensive corporate rap sheets on Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group on its wiki resource Sourcewatch.org. The profiles document:

• Allegations of prisoner abuse, civil rights violations, violence, riots, and escapes;

• Accusations of sexual abuse and juvenile mistreatment;

• How cost-cutting strategies have resulted in lower wages and benefits for workers, high employee turnover, insufficient training, and under-staffing, resulting in poor oversight and poor security conditions;

• The high incidence of sexual harassment, employment discrimination, or other labor violations by for-profit prison companies;

• How the companies have evaded taxes and fleeced taxpayers;

• How immigrant detention is a new profit center for these for-profit prison providers.

In addition, the profiles connect the dots between CCA, GEO Group, and organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which pushed legislation to privatize prisons, and at the same time spearheaded the effort to advance harsh sentencing bills to put more people in prison for more time. ALEC was a key proponent of "three-strikes-you're-out" and "truth-in-sentencing" bills, which became law in a majority of states during the 1990s and early 2000s and helped balloon prison populations. GEO Group was an ALEC member for many years and CCA led the Criminal Justice Task Force in the late 1990s.

"Crime control" became a campaign strategy for winning elections in the 1990s -- particularly after the racially-charged "Willie Horton" ad in the 1988 presidential campaign -- and private prisons were presented as a possible solution. At a 1994 ALEC conference, for example, CCA's Robert Britton and Crime Strike's Steve Twist were part of a presentation titled "Campaign School on Crime" designed "to provide legislators with an agenda and plan to advance meaningful crime control this fall and during the coming legislative session." Also part of the "Campaign School" training were Republican pollster Frank Luntz and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist (who in more recent years has become a supporter of criminal justice reform).

"This fall, candidates who campaign on crime, frame the issue effectively, present a credible, tough-on-crime agenda, and debunk the myths and misinformation of their opponents will find an electorate ready to take back the streets from criminals and their apologists," the agenda item read.

Using "crime control" as a political strategy helped lead to America's mass incarceration boom, and high profit margins for CCA and GEO Group -- which these companies are now trying to maintain with lockup quotas.

Read more at the Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group profiles on our sister site Sourcewatch.org.