Corizon HealthScare: Meet me in St. Louis...

The article below was posted from the AP to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today. This was the comment I left for their readers: 

Corizon has been nothing but disastrous to Arizona state prisoners, ignoring too many to death and leaving their families devastated. We've had a whistleblower speak out and a class action lawsuit here (Parsons v Ryan), exposing how evil they are - as well as numerous protests by prisoners' loved ones and interviews with survivors, but it has been to no avail. 

Some think that's due to Good Old Boy Terry Stewart's influence in AZ (he's the former AZ DOC director - Chuck Ryan's mentor - now in bed with the folks at Corizon Healthscare), but I can't explain why other states still have contracts with them. Voters should really scrutinize things closely if their jails or prison systems are going with these folks and renewing contracts year after year, there's probably something dirty going on that keeps them sucking your tax dollars up for their profits at the expense of some of your most vulnerable citizens. Stop the privatization all together, if you can. It doesn't deliver what it promises, and you'll end up paying more after too many die in the end.

Posted as Peggy Plews

God only knows why the new governor, Doug Ducey, has retained Chuck Ryan after the embarassment his administration was to Brewer - must have something on that guy, too. It's like the whole Republican party here just dug their heads in the sand when it comes to the AZ DOC, though, not just the chiefs. Their mascot should be an ostrich, not an elephant. Elephants are, after all, thoughtful, compassionate, and wise...

By the way, if you're fighting these bastards on behalf of a loved one at the AZ DOC, follow the links to these older pieces, but be sure to be current on the relevant AZDOC policies (Department Orders) and send them the right copies - the docs and links in these old posts have probably expired.

 Corizon's Cruel and Unusual Greed: Follow the Money with Prison Legal News

Corizon and the AZ DOC: Prisoners & Families, Know Your Rights.

 

Corizon's deliberate indifference: fighting back.

 

artwork is mine....

------------from the St Louis POST-DISPATCH--------

Country's biggest for-profit prisoner health care provider under increased scrutiny

St Louis Post-Dispatch

Janaury 20, 2014 

By ADAM GELLER Associated Press

Months after he landed in Florida’s Manatee County Jail, Jovon Frazier’s pleas for treatment of intense pain in his left shoulder were met mostly with Tylenol.

“I need to see a doctor!” he wrote on his eighth request form. “I done put a lot of sick calls in & ya’ll keep sending me back and ain’t tell me nothing.”

Four months later, after Frazier’s 13th request resulted in hospitalization and doctors diagnosed bone cancer, his arm was amputated, according to a lawsuit by his family.

But the cancer spread. Frazier died in 2011 at age 21, months after his release.

As an inmate, his medical care had been managed not by the county sheriff’s office that runs the jail, but by a private company under contract.

That company, Corizon Health Inc., is under growing pressure after the loss of five state prison contracts, downgrades by analysts and increasing scrutiny of its care of inmates held by some of its largest customers, including New York City.

Corizon, responsible for 345,000 inmates in 27 states, including Missouri, is the country’s biggest for-profit correctional health provider, but it’s just one of many firms vying for billions of public dollars spent on prisoner care.

Corizon was established in 2011 when privately held Valitás Health Services Inc., the Creve Coeur-based parent of Correctional Medical Services Inc., acquired America Service Group Inc., a Tennessee-based provider of prison health services.

With corporate headquarters in Brentwood, Tenn., Corizon touts Creve Coeur as home to its operational headquarters.

For-profit prison care raises questions about ceding public responsibilities to private companies. It turns, though, on a thornier issue: How do you ensure care of people who society mostly would prefer not to think about?

Inmates “are still human beings. I think some people forget that, I really do. They’re somebody’s child,” said Shirley Jenkins, Frazier’s grandmother.

PRIVATIZED CARE

States spend $8 billion a year, a fifth of their corrections budgets, on prison health care, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts and the MacArthur Foundation. Local jails spend millions more.

Some critics fault the idea of privatizing the job.

“The problem is a structure that creates incentives to cut corners and deny care to powerless people that have no other options,” said David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project.

Others say deficiencies with prison care go beyond whether it is privatized.

“I don’t have a great love for private health care ... but I don’t think that they’re the source of the problem,” said Dr. Marc Stern, former health services director for Washington state’s prisons. Stern, who once worked for a Corizon predecessor in New York state, issued a 2012 report criticizing the company’s care of Idaho prison inmates while serving as a court-appointed expert.

“I think the problem is how much money and effort we are willing to put into correctional health care,” Stern said.

Some critics, though, say Corizon is notably problematic.

“We get letters from prisoners about medical care not being provided, and the list is endless. And it’s increased tremendously since Corizon took over,” said Randall Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute, who represents inmates petitioning for care.

Corizon says it strives to provide quality care.

“We are always troubled by any questions on the care provided to our patients and view this as an opportunity to reconfirm our commitment to operational ethics and professionalism,” company spokeswoman Susan Morgenstern said in a written statement. The company declined to answer questions.

The criticism surrounding Corizon isn’t new. Correctional Medical Services, or CMS, which later became Corizon, was the main subject of a 1998 Post-Dispatch investigation of for-profit prison health care providers. Looking at CMS and other firms, the investigation found more than 20 cases nationwide in which inmates died as a result of alleged negligence, indifference, understaffing, inadequate training or cost-cutting.

In 2012, Corizon was sued for alleged medical missteps in the death of Courtland Lucas, an inmate in the St. Louis jail. He died May 25, 2009, from complications of a heart problem, congenital aortic valve stenosis, while under the care of CMS. The lawsuit was settled in the fall of 2014, but the terms were not disclosed.

Corizon’s struggles are widespread.

Its care of the 11,000 inmates at New York City’s Rikers Island is under “comprehensive review” by officials, who say they are concerned about problems including at least 16 deaths since 2009.

Arizona hired Corizon last year to replace Wexford Health Sources Inc. after its care came under fire. But an advocacy group warned that “if anything, things have gotten worse” in state prisons. Arizona and the ACLU recently reached a settlement calling for more monitoring of inmate care.

Meanwhile Corizon has lost long-standing prison contracts in Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania since 2012. Auditors in three states documented problems, including slowness to address poor recordkeeping and inmates’ urgent requests for off-site care.

Corizon, which generated $1.4 billion in revenue in 2013 and is owned by a Chicago private equity firm, has battled stiffening competition. In recent months, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have downgraded Corizon’s holding company, citing financial underperformance, contract losses and competition that has squeezed profits.

The connection between Corizon’s contract losses and questions about the quality of care it provides is not clear.

But the challenges are evident in Florida, where a year after the state privatized prison care and awarded Corizon a $1.2 billion contract, news reports point to rising inmate deaths. If the company does not address substandard care, the state’s corrections commissioner wrote to Corizon’s CEO in September, Florida may begin withholding payment.

In Minnesota, an audit last year found that inadequate communication between prison staff and Corizon doctors during overnight hours “may have been a contributing factor to inmate deaths.”

But in announcing Minnesota’s change of contractors, the corrections commissioner said Corizon had provided “excellent” service. In a written response to questions, the state corrections department said its decision was not related to the audit. It would not comment on inmate deaths.

Corizon’s work in local jails also has come under scrutiny.

In October, Volusia County, Fla., officials questioned Corizon executives about lawsuits and its financial stability before voting unanimously to switch contractors. The hearing was held in the shadow of a lawsuit filed locally by the family of Tracy Veira, an inmate who choked to death in 2009 in a cell where she was supposed to be under watch while detoxing from painkillers.

A nurse working for one of the companies that merged to form Corizon saw an ailing Veira in the jail’s clinic the afternoon before she died. She told a supervisor the inmate looked as if she needed hospitalization, but Veira was instead sent back to her cell, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

When the commissioners questioned Corizon’s executives, there was no mention of Veira. But Commissioner Deb Denys said she was mindful of the case, scheduled for a July trial.

“I think everybody was,” Denys said. “Sometimes you don’t state the obvious.”

Jennifer Mann of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

How greedy states and profiteers bleed prisoners and families dry.

The following article is the good work of my friend Vikki Law, who edits the zine Tenacious, which is by and for women in prison. She wrote the book on women's resistance in prison - literally. Vikki's pretty prolific, and covers a lot of issues re: prisoners, crime and punishment - find links to her other articles here.

Info about the AZ DOC revised (OCT 15, 2014) money policy is here:

https://corrections.az.gov/electronic-payments

here's the director's instruction, modifying the existing policy:
 
https://corrections.az.gov/sites/default/files/policies/DI/di_322.pdf

----from TRUTH-OUT.ORG (inserted art is mine)------

Public Prisons, Private Profits

Saturday, 01 November 2014 09:39 By Victoria Law, Truthout | Report

When her daughter was first incarcerated in Arizona's Perryville State Prison, "Rae" sent her money orders bought at the local cash-checking place or from Walmart. But those took too long to clear, leaving her daughter without needed supplies, so she began driving to the post office to buy money orders. Throughout her daughter's four years in prison, Rae has sent her money twice a month - $100 on the first of the month and whatever she can afford (usually $50 or less) on the 15th of the month.

"When she first got there, she was issued two pairs of underwear, which had been worn by someone else," Rae told Truthout. So Rae sent her daughter money to buy her own underwear, bras and socks as well as tennis shoes and a TV set. "It was $300 for the TV," she recalled.

Her daughter earns 35 cents an hour cleaning inside the prison. Although the prison supplies some necessities, like one roll of toilet paper each week and a limited number of tampons or pads, Rae's daughter relies on the money from home to get her through each week. These money orders enable her to buy the additional toilet paper and feminine hygiene supplies she needs each month. It also enables her to buy Tylenol and cold medicine as well as pay the $4 co-pay on each medical visit. "Occasionally she can splurge and buy herself a candy bar, but that's rare," Rae said.

Services that had previously been provided by the jail or prison, such as medical care, transportation, phone and communication services, food, and even money exchanges, are increasingly handled by private companies.

On October 15, 2014, however, Arizona changed the way family members like Rae can send money. Now, instead of paying $1.25 for a money order at the post office, Rae must use one of three companies - JPay, Global TelLink or Keefe - to send her daughter money. To send $50 through Keefe, Rae also needs to pay a $4.75 internet transaction fee. Families without internet access can deposit money by phone - for a fee of $5.75 - or in a storefront transaction for $5.95. (Global TelLink and JPay have different fee structures.)

Despite the added cost, Rae is determined to send her daughter the same amount of money. "I'm going to have to eat the fees and make up the money somewhere else," she said. "I'll have to give something up. So will my husband." The couple has already had to sell their camper to cover the cost of visiting their daughter once a month. They've cut down on going out and other activities that cost money. On occasion, they've also had to choose between sending money to their daughter in prison or helping their son, who is not. "I feel bad that I can't help him because all our money is going to his sister," Rae said.

Only 8 percent of the nation's prison population is held in private prisons. But, as Rae's experience and recent news stories have demonstrated, private companies have found other ways to profit from bodies in government-run prisons. Services that had previously been provided by the jail or prison, such as medical care, transportation, phone and communication services, food, and even money exchanges, are increasingly handled by private companies.

Sending in Money Costs Money
As Rae's story shows, prison systems have contracted with private companies to handle money sent by family members to their loved ones inside. In the federal prison system, the contract was awarded to Bank of America. In 32 state systems, the contract belongs to private company JPay.

In February 2014, New Jersey prisons began utilizing JPay to handle these monetary transactions. "Before, it would only cost a stamp and the cost of the money order," said "Pam," currently incarcerated at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women. "Now, it cost our families or friends $4.95 in addition to whatever amount they send us." Loved ones also have the option of mailing a money order to JPay, but the money takes seven to 10 days to be credited to a woman's account. Pam's mother balked at paying an additional $7 and mailed a money order. The money was not credited to Pam for 14 days.

At Edna Mahan, commissary - or the prison store - is only available every other week. For women like "Pam" whose family chooses to save money and mail money orders, the delay means missing the chance to buy necessities, such as shampoo and feminine hygiene supplies.

"If a person owes restitution, the prison takes 55 percent of whatever money he receives," a mother told Truthout. Thus, to put $56 in his prison account so that he can buy food, she had to send $125.

"Gwen" has also experienced delays of up to four weeks when her family mails a money order to JPay. She told Truthout that, while women can order from commissary every two weeks, certain items, such as photos, clothing and beauty supplies, are only available once a month. In addition, many women rely on food items at commissary to supplement the prison's meals, which she described as "truly inedible."

Daily wages at Edna Mahan range from $5 at the top-paying commissary job to $2.40 for working in the kitchen or cleaning housing units. If a woman is sick or unable to work, as in Gwen's case, she must either learn to go without supplies or rely on money from family. "It isn't a lot of money, but $28 can mean a whole commissary for me," Gwen explained.

California is another state that has instituted JPay to handle money sent to prisoners. But the fees make sending money an exorbitant expense for many family members. "Samantha," for instance, must send her son twice the amount of money that he needs. "If a person owes restitution, the prison takes 55 percent of whatever money he receives," she told Truthout. Thus, to put $56 in his prison account so that he can buy food, she had to send $125. And that's not including JPay's service fees, which vary depending on the amount of money sent. "There's no readily available list of charges," she told Truthout. "I literally had to call and hunt down how much would be charged."

"If you put money in a couple of times a month, you pay that fee a couple of times a month. Families with the least amount of money get hit the hardest."

JPay provides money transfers to more than 1.7 million people or nearly 70 percent of the US prison population. It charges state prison systems nothing for handling payments and, for every payment processed, it sends between 50 cents and $2.50 back to the prison. According to an exposé in Time, JPay sent approximately $4,000 each month to the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2013.

"Jill"'s daughter has less than two years on her sentence at Arizona's Perryville prison. When Arizona announced the switch to electronic money transfers, Jill decided to skip the fees and send a money order for the total amount her daughter would need during her last year behind bars. But, she told Truthout, many of the family members she has met cannot afford that option. "Many families have to budget in order to send money," she said. "If you put money in a couple of times a month, you pay that fee a couple of times a month. Families with the least amount of money get hit the hardest."

The Kick-Out Fee - and the Fees That Go With It

A person leaving the Arizona prison system for the first time is given $100 upon her release. The money, saved from the wages earned at prison jobs, is called the "kick-out fee."

Until 2013, people released from Arizona's prisons were given the kick-out fee in the form of a check. However, banks often refused to cash the check with a prison ID, usually the only form of identification many women have after years in prison. Thus, accessing their only $100 first required a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles for identification or finding a friend willing to deposit the check for them.

Now, they are issued a debit card through Bank of America. "If women are coming out after a long time, they don't know how to use debit cards," Jill explained. "They're scared to death about using them." In addition, Bank of America charges a $1.50 monthly maintenance fee and, like many other banks, charges a $1.50 withdrawal fee if a person uses a non-Bank of America ATM and a 25 cent point-of-sale fee for every transaction.

No staff member explains the various fee structures, which means that people are unaware that they deplete their funds each time they use the card. If a person chooses to withdraw the entire amount from her debit card, she is charged a $5 fee.

In addition, if she loses the card, no replacement is issued. Her money is simply gone. For a woman in a halfway house, shelter or other temporary living situation, this means sleeping with the card tucked into her bra or panties.

Arizona is not alone in utilizing this new method. The Center for Public Integrity recently reported on Bank of America's contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to issue debit cards to people upon release. Under that contract, they've issued cards to nearly 50,000 people. The Center's report has spurred a government audit into the contract.

Privatizing Health Care - But at What Cost?

"We live by violence, but we die by neglect."

Handling prisoner accounts is not the only service that has been privatized. Across the country, jails and prisons have been contracting with private, for-profit companies to provide medical services to people inside.

Cecily McMillan experienced this firsthand during her 58 days on Rikers Island, New York City's island jail complex. When she arrived, she was denied her prescribed medications for mild anxiety and ADHD. Instead, jail medical staff gave her BuSpar, the same medication, McMillan says, that every woman was prescribed regardless of her actual needs. After three weeks of fighting for her proper medication, a fight that included help from sympathetic city council members, McMillan had her medications reinstated. But that was not the only medical horror she encountered.

She recalled making an appointment to see a gynecologist. Warned that the jail's male gynecologist was "kind of handsy," she requested to see the jail's female gynecologist only to be told that she wasn't available for six weeks. When she saw the doctor, he informed her that she needed to undergo a gynecological scrape even though McMillan had had a check-up before entering Rikers. "He scraped me until I was bleeding," she recalled. When he finished, McMillan realized that his fly had been open the whole time.

During her 58 days on the island, McMillan also saw how medical care could be deadly: Judith had been prescribed low-dose methadone pills for back pain, McMillan recalled. But when Judith arrived at Rikers, the doctors insisted that she take methadone in high-dose liquid form. Taking higher dosages of methadone induced intense vomiting in Judith, who had hepatitis C. McMillan recalls seeing her friend vomit blood and what she described as "chunks of her liver." The women in the housing unit demanded that the officers call the doctor. When medical staff failed to respond, they physically carried Judith to the clinic. Days later, Judith was dead.

Judith's death is only one of a string of recent deaths on Rikers Island. In 2013, 19-year-old Andy Henriquez died from a tear in his aorta after his pleas for medical attention were ignored. That same year, 46-year-old Carlos Mercado and 39-year-old Bradley Ballard died after their medications were withheld. The families of all three men are suing Corizon, the private medical provider that has held the contract for medical services at Rikers since 2003. However, according to DNAinfo, Corizon's contract with New York City stipulates that the city will represent the firm in lawsuits arising from its care. It also ensures that the city will cover costs arising from medical malpractice or civil rights violations.

New York is not alone in turning to privatized health care for people behind bars. In 2011, Florida governor Rick Scott contracted with Corizon to provide medical care in its state prison system for $1.2 billion. Corizon took complete control in 2013. According to an investigation by The Palm Beach Post, three months later the number of deaths "shot to a 10-year high," with 30 deaths in four of the past seven months.

Corizon currently holds contracts in 27 states with approximately 345,000 people under their care. (In October 2013, Therese Brumfeld, vice president of Corizon's provider operations and purchasing, stated that Corizon had contracts in 29 states with over 400,000 people.) From 2008 to 2013, Corizon has been sued 660 times for malpractice.

In Alabama, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal suit against the state's prison system for ignoring the medical and mental health needs of its prisoners. (Corizon provides medical care only. MHM, another private company, holds the contract for mental health care.) Unlike its contract with New York City, Corizon's 34-month, $224 million contract with Alabama requires it to pay for any legal work in the event of a lawsuit, even if it is not named in the suit.

Arizona recently settled class-action suit Parsons v. Ryan. The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 2012, charged that the state ignored the basic needs, including medical needs, of people in its prison system for years. Corizon took over the state prison's health care system in March 2013 after the state terminated its contract with private health care provider Wexford following multiple deaths and accusations of medical neglect.

However, medical care did not improve under Corizon and the ACLU continued its suit. On October 14, 2014, Arizona settled the suit, agreeing to meet more than 100 health care performance measures, including monitoring people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension as well as improving pregnancy and dental care.

Before the court decides whether to approve the settlement, however, each of the 33,000 people in Arizona state prisons must receive notice of the settlement and an opportunity to submit comments to the court. David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project and co-lead counsel on Parsons, estimated that the process would probably take two months. The settlement does not become effective until the court grants its approval.

In the meantime, health care needs continue to go unaddressed. The day after the settlement was announced, Jill spoke with her daughter who told her that her yard had no health needs request forms, which every person must fill out to start the process of receiving medical attention.

"We live by violence, but we die by neglect," a woman told McMillan when she entered Rikers.

After hearing stories from her daughter, Jill doesn't dispute this. She recalls her daughter telling her about a woman on her yard whose complaints about bleeding and pain were ignored. She was finally taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died in her 30s.

"My daughter went in a very healthy 25-year-old," Jill said. "She was not given a life sentence or death. She should be given enough medical care so that when she comes out, she can resume living a normal life."

CCA in AZ: Putting private prisons in our public schools.

Troubling...nice job, Beau. Talk about the school-to-prison pipeline. Seems CCA is getting into our kids' heads in every way they can - gotta fill those beds someday. Casa Grande thought they would just be getting jobs when prisons began filling Pinal County, not rooms for their own kids at CAA's Red Rock Inn. 

Interestingly, two members of the board of Corrections Corporation of America (Anne L. Mariucci and Dennis DeConcini are also on the Arizona Board of Regents, and Jan Brewer's former Chief of Staff just became the President of ABOR ("Although Klein does not have a background in education, the board felt that she best fit the job because of her administrative experience...").  

What does CCA and Arizona's extreme conservatives have in mind for Arizona's educational system down the road, anyway? Hmm...

---------from DBA Press and  PR Watch at the Center for Media and Democracy---------

America Eats its Young: Arizona communities embrace use of private prison employees in drug raids at public schools

by Beau Hodai 

November 27, 2012 - 7:00am

DBA Press

 
In Arizona an unsettling trend appears to be underway: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.

The state has graced national headlines in recent years as the result of its cozy relationship with the for-profit prison industry. Such controversies have included the role of private prison corporations in SB 1070 and similar anti-immigrant legislation disseminated in other states; a 2010 private prison escape that resulted in two murders and a nationwide manhunt; and a failed bid to privatize nearly the entire Arizona prison system. 

And now, recent events in the central Arizona town of Casa Grande show the hand of private corrections corporations reaching into the classroom, assisting local law enforcement agencies in drug raids at public schools.



Trick or Treat
 
At 9 a.m. on the morning of October 31, 2012, students at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande were settling in to their daily routine when something unusual occurred.

Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school -- with a student population of 1,776 -- on "lock down," kicking off the first "drug sweep" in the school's four-year history. According to Hamilton, "lock down" is a state in which, "everybody is locked in the room they are in, and nobody leaves -- nobody leaves the school, nobody comes into the school." 


"Everybody is locked in, and then they bring the dogs in, and they are teamed with an administrator and go in and out of classrooms. They go to a classroom and they have the kids come out and line up against a wall. The dog goes in and they close the door behind, and then the dog does its thing, and if it gets a hit, it sits on a bag and won't move."

While such "drug sweeps" have become a routine matter in many of the nation's schools, along with the use of metal detectors and zero-tolerance policies, one feature of this raid was unusual. According to Casa Grande Police Department (CGPD) Public Information Officer Thomas Anderson, four "law enforcement agencies" took part in the operation: CGPD (which served as the lead agency and operation coordinator), the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Gila River Indian Community Police Department, and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

It is the involvement of CCA -- the nation's largest private, for-profit prison corporation -- that causes this high school "drug sweep" to stand out as unusual; CCA is not, despite CGPD's evident opinion to the contrary, a law enforcement agency. 

"To invite for-profit prison guards to conduct law enforcement actions in a high school is perhaps the most direct expression of the 'schools-to-prison pipeline' I've ever seen," said Caroline Isaacs, program director of the Tucson office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social justice organization that advocates for criminal justice reform. 

"All the research shows that CCA doesn't properly train its staff to do the jobs they actually have. They most certainly do not have anywhere near the training and experience--to say nothing of the legal authority--to conduct a drug raid on a high school," Isaacs added. "It is chilling to think that any school official would be willing to put vulnerable students at risk this way."

Welcome to Prison Town, U.S.A.

CCA, the nation's largest for-profit prison/immigrant detention center operator, with more than 92,000 prison and immigrant detention "beds" in 20 states and the District of Columbia, reported $1.7 billion in gross revenue last year. This revenue is derived almost exclusively from tax payer-funded government (county, state, federal) contracts through which the corporation is paid per-diem, per-prisoner rates for the warehousing of prisoners and immigrant detainees. 

And, CCA has a substantial presence in Casa Grande and throughout Arizona's Pinal County (Casa Grande is the largest town in Pinal County). The corporation owns and operates a total of six correctional/detention facilities in the county, distributed through the towns of Florence and Eloy. 

These facilities hold a mixture of prisoners from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Hawaii Department of Public Safety Division of Corrections, TransCor (a detainee/prisoner transportation subsidiary of CCA), the Pascua Yaqi Tribe, the U.S. Air Force, the Vermont Department of Corrections, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In September of this year, CCA was awarded a contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) to house 1,000 medium security prisoners at the corporation's Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy. 

In 2009, the Central Arizona Regional Economic Development Foundation listed CCA as the largest non-governmental employer in Pinal County. To boot, CCA is a "Board Level" member of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a powerful trade/lobby organization, and is active in the Eloy, Florence, and Casa Grande chambers of commerce. (For more on CCA's political influence in Arizona, see "Brownskins and Greenbacks [7]," DBA Press, June 2010.)

This CCA presence, coupled with the location of two correctional facilities operated by GEO Group (the nation's second largest for-profit prison/immigrant detention center contractor) in the county, as well as two ADC-run prison complexes, makes Pinal County -- which once cited mining and agriculture as its economic bedrock -- a de facto prison industry community. 

Despite the obvious differences between CCA and actual law enforcement agencies, those involved in the Vista Grande High School drug sweep seem unable to differentiate between CCA employees and law enforcement officers.


"CCA is like a skip and a hop away from us-- as far as the one in Florence," said Anderson. "We work pretty closely with all surrounding agencies, whatever kind of law enforcement they are-- be they police, or immigration and naturalization, or the prison systems. So, yeah, this seems pretty regular to me."


For his part, Hamilton seems equally unable to differentiate between law enforcement officers and employees of a for-profit prison corporation.

"To be honest with you, I couldn't tell if they were Casa Grande Police, Pinal County police, Gila River, the sheriff's department-- they all look the same," said Hamilton.

Questions of Legality
But they are not the same. 

Aside from the fact that CCA is a private corporation that derives its profits from the incarceration of human beings-- such as minimum and medium security drug offenders -- Arizona Administrative Code provides that, in order for any individual to engage in the duties of a "peace officer," that individual must obtain certification from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board. Arizona Revised Statutes defines "peace officer" to include such law enforcement personnel as: municipal police officers, constables, marshals, Department of Public Safety personnel, and community college/university police.

The POST Board is comprised of the Arizona Attorney General, the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, the director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, municipal police department chiefs, county sheriffs, state university personnel, and other public safety/law enforcement personnel. POST's essential purpose, as defined by Arizona law is to "prescribe reasonable minimum qualifications for officers to be appointed to enforce the laws of this state and the political subdivisions of this state and certify officers in compliance with these qualifications."

And, Arizona Administrative Code is very clear on this point: "a person who is not certified by the Board or whose certified status is inactive shall not function as a peace officer or be assigned the duties of a peace officer by an agency . . . "

According to POST Executive Director Lyle Mann, POST provides two types of certification: standards and training certification for "peace officers," and standards and training certification for correctional officers. Arizona Administrative Code mandates that ADC officers be POST certified. However, according to Mann, employees of private prison contractors are exempt from this standards and training requirements. As such, said Mann, no CCA employee is POST certified -- as either a "peace officer" or a correctional officer. 

It is important to note that Arizona Administrative Code explicitly states that non-regular "peace officers" -- secondary parties engaging in certain limited aspects of law enforcement under the command/supervision of regular peace officers -- must also be POST certified. 

According to Arizona Administrative Code, a "limited-authority peace officer" is defined as "a peace officer who is certified to perform the duties of a peace officer only in the presence and under the supervision of a full-authority peace officer." The Code goes on to state that duties which may be performed by a "limited-authority peace officer" in the presence of a "full-authority peace officer" include: "investigative activities performed to detect, prevent, or suppress crime, or to enforce criminal or traffic laws of the state, county, or municipality."

This definition seems to fit the description -- with the exception that CCA employees aiding CGPD "peace officers" are not POST certified -- of what occurred at Vista Grande High School on the morning of October 31, 2012. 

According to Officer Anderson and Principal Hamilton, the raid was organized and conducted at Hamilton's request.

"We need to keep drugs off our campus," said Hamilton when asked why he requested the raid. "We wanted to make sure our campus . . . we wanted to send a message to kids that we don't want that stuff on our campus."


Hamilton stated that, outside from this desire to send a "message to kids," he had no knowledge of any particular drug use problem on his school's campus.


CGPD then issued a request for assistance to what it considered to be other local law enforcement agencies -- including CCA. 

According to Anderson, CCA provided two canine units (handlers and dogs) to aid in the high school "drug sweep." These CCA canine units worked under the command of the lead CGPD canine unit.

According to Anderson, there is no contract or formal agreement for such services extant between CGPD and CCA. Rather, said Anderson, CCA simply agreed to participate in the raid when approached by CGPD "K-9" officers. Anderson stated that he does not know whether CGPD ever contacted POST-certified correctional canine units at either of the two nearby ADC-operated prisons. 

As to the general role canine units play in such school "drug sweeps," Anderson stated that the dogs and their handlers are typically utilized to detect the presence of illicit materials in classrooms and school parking lots. 

This activity, as was conducted by CCA employees, would seem to fall squarely under the Arizona Administrative Code description of duties performed by "limited-authority peace officers" -- officers who may perform "investigative activities" for the purpose of detecting, preventing, or suppressing criminal activity, and who are only authorized to do so while in the presence of "full-authority peace officers," such as CGPD. Such "limited-authority peace officers" are required to be POST certified.
Regardless, according to both Anderson and Hamilton, this type of activity has been going on for years in Pinal County. 

According to Anderson, a similar "drug sweep" -- utilizing CCA canine units -- was conducted at Casa Grande's Union High School in 2011. Anderson has been unable to provide further details relating to this event. 

According to Anderson, the Vista Grande High School raid is unlikely to be the last instance of CCA partnership with local law enforcement, as he assumed CGPD would use the corporation's canine teams again, if needed. 

And, according to Hamilton, he requested and had executed "drug sweeps" utilizing CCA canine units "two or three times a year," while serving as principal at Coolidge High School in Coolidge, Arizona -- also located in Pinal County, roughly ten miles from the private prison mecca of Florence. Hamilton was principal at Coolidge High School from 2003 through 2007. 

CCA did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding their involvement in law enforcement operations at public schools in Pinal County. 

Conflict of Interest: From the Cradle to the Cell

According to Anderson, three students were arrested as a result of the October 31 Vista Grande raid: two female students, ages 15 and 17, as well as one 15-year-old male. According to Anderson, the 15-year-old female was found in possession of .10 grams of marijuana; the 15-year-old male student was found in possession of .50 grams of marijuana; and the 17-year-old female was found in possession of 10 ounces of marijuana. According to Anderson, this last quantity was "individually packaged." 



According to Anderson, the students were referred to the juvenile division of Pinal County Superior Court. All students were then released to their parents/legal guardians. 

According to Hamilton, the school will commence expulsion hearings against all students arrested.

It is worth noting that, while (as of November 12, 2012) charges have yet to be filed against students arrested in the October 31 Vista Grande drug raid, it is possible, under Arizona law, for the 17-year-old female allegedly found to be in possession of 10 ounces of "individually packaged" marijuana to be sentenced as an adult if charged with possession with intent to distribute -- a felony which would could carry a prison sentence.

In addition, it is important to note that, under Arizona law, individuals arrested for illicit activity/possession of illicit substances on or near school grounds may face "drug-free school zone" sentencing enhancements. Those convicted of drug (including marijuana) offenses in Arizona courts, and sentenced through the stringent criteria of "drug-free school zone" sentencing enhancements, lose the possibility of sentence suspension, parole, or probation (which would rule out the possibility of a deferral or diversion). This sentencing enhancement also adds a mandatory year to any prison sentence handed down by the court. 

While the recently-awarded 1,000 CCA Arizona prison beds have yet to come into operation, it is exactly this kind of low risk, minimum to medium security prisoner that corporations such as CCA derive much of their profit from.

Furthermore, according to Anderson, the Vista Grande High School marijuana arrests have sparked a broader, ongoing investigation. 

Given the fact that such high school raids may serve as the foundation for larger narcotics investigations which may net additional adult offenders -- and given the tremendous pressure for information a prosecutor may exert on a student through discretionary use of "drug-free school zone" sentencing enhancements -- concerned citizens say that CCA's involvement in such raids constitutes a clear conflict of interest. 

"They're [CCA] not the criminal justice system. They are benefactors of the criminal justice system," said correctional specialist and prison reform advocate, Carl Toersbijns. 

Toersbijns, now retired (he retired in 2010), served as a deputy warden of operations at ADC-operated Arizona State Prison (ASP) Eyeman, as a deputy warden of operations at ASP Safford, as a deputy warden of operations at New Mexico Department of Corrections-operated Western New Mexico Correctional Facility (Grants, New Mexico), and as an associate warden at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility (at Los Lunas, New Mexico). Collectively, Toersbijns' career in corrections has spanned over 25 years in both Arizona and New Mexico. Such work, said Toersbijns, has entailed everything from details with prison canine units, to prison gang units.

"They [CCA] use the criminal justice system as a means of making income -- for profit," added Toersbijns. "So, their interest in the criminal justice system is totally opposite of the police officer. The police officer is public safety. The primary interest for CCA and associated entities is profit. So, there most definitely is a conflict of interest."

Profit-Driven Roadmap to the Present: "Tough-on-Crime" Mania and the Introduction of the "War on Drugs" to the Classroom. 

As some opponents of prison privatization attest, CCA embodies the worst pitfalls of public-private partnerships, in that the corporation has worked in the past to advance criminal justice legislation that has contributed to both a swell in U.S. prison/detention center populations and, consequently, CCA's bottom line. 

For example, CCA was active (both as a co-chair and member) in the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Public Safety and Elections Task Force (formerly the ALEC Criminal Justice Task Force) through the 1990s, to the end of 2010. 

ALEC bills itself as "the nation’s largest, non-partisan, individual public-private membership association of state legislators," working toward the advancement of the "Jeffersonian ideals" of limited federal government. In reality, ALEC is almost entirely funded by corporations and sources other than legislative dues, and it is overwhelmingly comprised of Republican state lawmakers and an untold number of large corporations and influential law/lobby firms (although at least 41 companies have announced they have stopped funding ALEC in the wake of public exposure of its activities). ALEC's primary objective is to adopt and disseminate "model legislation," much of which is drafted entirely by its private sector members. ALEC boasts that nearly 20 percent of this "model legislation" introduced in state legislatures nationwide is passed into law annually. 

In the wake of reporting outlining CCA's involvement with ALEC and the spread of immigration law based on SB 1070, CCA [8] told the Arizona Republic, in September 2011, that the corporation left ALEC at an undisclosed time in 2010. 

Records obtained by DBA Press [9] show the direct sponsorship of both CCA and of Management and Training Corporation ("MTC," currently the nation's third largest for-profit prison/immigrant detention center operator) of the August 2010 ALEC Annual Meeting, as well as the likely involvement of lobbyists employed by both CCA, MTC and GEO Group in the December, 2010 ALEC "States and Nation Policy Summit".

Arizona lobby reports also show clear GEO Group involvement with ALEC during the December, 2009 ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit -- the meeting at which then-Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce introduced legislation (that would later be introduced in the Arizona legislature as SB 1070) for adoption as a piece of ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force "model legislation." Subsequently, copycat legislation similar to this ALEC model bill -- the "No More Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act" -- began appearing in state legislatures throughout the nation. 

Furthermore, the ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force was instrumental, during the years of CCA's membership and leadership, in proliferating such 'tough-on-crime' legislation as: "three strikes," "truth in sentencing" and "mandatory minimum" sentencing guidelines. 

And ALEC also advanced the model "Private Correctional Facilities Act," which allowed private corporations to operate state prisons. 

These guidelines and pieces of "model legislation" (including the "Private Correctional Facilities Act") were advanced by ALEC in partnership with CrimeStrike, a division of the National Rifle Association ("NRA," a longtime ALEC private sector member), throughout the first half of the 1990s. Critics of this effort saw CrimeStrike largely as a response to the Clinton administration's desire to strengthen firearms violence prevention laws. As such, the CrimeStrike campaign spawned the saying, "guns don't kill people, people kill people"-- and posited that the solution to crime would be found through the use of greater criminal penalties. This strategy took advantage of, and perpetuated, the "tough-on-crime" sentiments of the day.

Largely as a result of model laws/sentencing guidelines advanced by the ALEC/NRA CrimeStrike partnership, the United States experienced a boom in the number of incarcerated individuals (in state and federal prisons, as well as in jails)-- from just over 1.1 million incarcerated in 1990, to nearly 2.3 million in 2010. 

During the years of CCA's Criminal Justice/Public Safety and Elections Task Force involvement, ALEC also advanced and advocated "model legislation" that not only resulted in greater drug law enforcement presence on public school campuses, but that also mandated tough sentencing enhancements for drug offenses committed in "drug-free school zones."

The ALEC "Drug-Free Schools Act" called for the use of federal funds provided through the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act of 1986 for "enhanced apprehension, prevention and education efforts" in joint cooperation between law enforcement agencies and local school districts. 

Multiple ALEC publications (including the ALEC "Sourcebook for American State Legislation 1993-94," which lists CCA among the organization's private sector members and advisors), along with the ALEC "Use of a Minor in Drug Operations Act" reference the "model Drug-Free School Zone Act," although it is unclear whether this "model" bill originated with ALEC.

It is clear, however, that the model "Drug-Free School Zone Act," which establishes "drug-free school zones" and carries sentencing enhancements similar to the enhancements codified in Arizona law, was promoted by a broad coalition of public interests groups during the 'tough-on-crime' fervor of the early-to-mid 1990s. The model bill enjoyed such support that the 1992 National Office of Drug Control Policy (NODCP) established federal assistance in establishing "drug-free school zones," as well as mandatory sentencing enhancements nationwide. 

Interestingly enough, this NODCP initiative, which was set forth in a report discussing the agency’s "national priorities" for 1992, advocated state adoption of several other known pieces of ALEC model legislation, such as the "Use of a Minor in a Drug Operations Act," as well as other ALEC "models" calling for the suspension or revocation of occupational licenses for professionals convicted of drug crimes, the eviction of drug offenders from public housing, and the use of "mandatory minimum" sentencing guidelines. 

Not surprisingly, ALEC, along with several other public policy groups, was credited by the NODCP as having been "especially helpful in the formulation of this strategy."

In April of 2012, following widespread criticism and loss of corporate sponsorship due to such pieces of "model legislation" disseminated by the Public Safety and Elections Task Force as the "Stand Your Ground Act," the "Voter ID Act" and the "No More Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act," ALEC announced that it would disband the task force (an announcement that PRWatch has critiqued as a "PR" maneuver).

Unfortunately, as the October 31 Vista Grande High School drug raid illustrates, the purported discontinuation of this task force comes only after the damage of two decades of private prison industry influence in the legislative process has taken its toll. 

Is Any of this Right?

Vast differences between law enforcement agencies and private, for-profit corrections corporations aside, former ADC deputy warden and corrections specialist Carl Toersbijns said he sees a greater underlying problem in the practice of using any prison -- public or private -- personnel in school drug raids. 

The simple fact is this: correctional officers -- people who work on a continual basis around adult criminal offenders-- have a much different mentality than a teacher, principal, or police officer. This mentality, he believes, may not be the most suitable mentality to subject school children to.

"Children are different -- they don't act like adults, and I don't think you ought to use corrections officers around children," said Toersbijns. "It's a different culture, it's a different setting, it's a different approach. It's inappropriate." 

For example, the term "lockdown," said Toersbijns, may mean an entirely different thing to a corrections officer than it means to school personnel, students, or police.



"They use that terminology, 'lock down,' in the police department too. When they've got something going on in the neighborhood -- a robbery suspect in the neighborhood -- they lock the schools down [. . .] If you have a group there, that you've called in to do a job, and some of them are correctional officers, and they hear the words 'lock down,' it has a different meaning -- it has a total different meaning [. . .] You don't tell a correctional officer 'this school's on lock down,' because the mentality is: 'oh, I can go anywhere I want and tear up anything I want and grab anything that I want. That's the mentality we use in prison. Prisoners don't have rights -- you and I both know that -- when it comes to search and seizure, they don't have no rights. Children have rights."

---
Thanks to Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News (www.prisonlegalnews.org) for his contribution to this article. CMD staffers Rebekah Wilce and Alex Oberley also contributed to this article.

Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703
Phone: 608-260-9713 • Fax: 608-260-9714 

---

Source URL: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/11/11876/corrections-corporation-america-used-drug-sweeps-public-school-students

Links:
[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35302/beau-hodai
[2] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/children
[3] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations
[4] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/education
[5] http://www.prwatch.org/projects/alec-exposed
[6] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2012%2F11%2F11876%2Fcorrections-corporation-america-used-drug-sweeps-public-school-students&linkname=Corrections%20Corporation%20of%20America%20Used%20in%20Drug%20Sweeps%20of%20Public%20School%20Students
[7] http://dbapress.com/front-page/brownskins-and-greenbacks-alec-the-for-profit-prison-industry-and-arizonas-sb-1070
[8] http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/09/04/20110904arizona-prison-business-politics.html
[9] http://dbapress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ALEC-AZ-Ash-Farnsworth-Tobin-Lesko-Kavanagh-Smoldon-Leal-2011.pdf

CCA awarded Brewer's Prison Contract.

Corrections Corporation of America won the DOC contract for 2000 new beds. Is it any wonder?

 This should trouble AZ Regents Dennis Diconcini and Anne L. Mariucci - they will profit from the prisons that are funded with money that could have otherwise gone to Arizona's educational system. But I doubt they will do much but celebrate this news.

And of course, we all know about Jan Brewer's ties to CCA.

As for the City of Eloy - it's essentially owned by CCA, and its prisons seem to be a haven for abusive people (the ones in the brown uniform, that is). CCA is already being sued for serious abuse of their Hawaiian prisoners at Saguaro prison in Eloy AZ, among other things. They seem to have particular problems with sexual predators working in their prisons in that town. One Saguaro guard was recently convicted of forcing a prisoner to give him a blow job. And the ICE facility in Eloy run by CCA is being sued for abusing a transgender detainee. I don't think that was the best town to trust with more of our prisoners.

 

-----good question yesterday from the AZ Republic-----

Why are we building private prisons when crime is down?

Laurie Roberts

AZ Republic (AUG 30, 2012)

On Friday, the state of Arizona plans to award one lucky – or perhaps just well connected -- company the contract to build and operate 1,000 private prison beds for medium security inmates.

This, despite the fact that we have 2,000 empty beds and the overall crime rate is down.

This, despite the fact that it actually costs taxpayers more to operate  private prisons.

This, despite that fact that it’s been only two years since three inmates escaped from a private prison in Kingman, murdering an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico. That prison, which was later found to have a number of deficiencies (clearly), was run by Management & Training Corporation.

Yep, Management & Training Corp. is one of the five out-of-state companies in the hunt for the lucrative contract to be awarded on Friday. Another of the bidders is Corrections Corporation of America, whose lobbyist is no less than Gov. Jan Brewer confidante, Chuck Coughlin. Among others, that is. All five companies employ a phalanx of lobbyists to roam the Capitol hallways.

Apparently, it pays off.

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell today renewed his call for Attorney General Tom Horne to investigate possible violations of state law and the procurement code.

“The Attorney General’s Office has the power and an obligation to intervene before that contract is signed and nothing is being done,” Campbell said. “We should not be rewarding out-of-state, for-profit prison companies with contracts if they are violating the law and wasting taxpayer money.”

Among the possible violations, Campbell says, is a requirement that any proposed private prisons save taxpayers’ money while providing the same or better quality prison digs.

Yet a report this week by The Republic’s Craig Harris suggests that private prisons are nearly 10 percent more expensive to operate.  The average daily cost per inmate in a state-run medium-security prison in 2010 was $48.42 while the cost in a similar private prison was $53.02.

Corrections Director Charles Ryan says the savings come in having a private company foot the bill to build the prison.

So says the man with 2,000 empty beds – some of which surely could be reconfigured to hold drunk drivers and other non-violent criminals.

 

Exile to the Desert: 3 more years of CCA abuse.

Shame on the state of Hawaii for continuing this contract after all the abuses (including torture and the sexual assault of a prisoner by a guard) that have occurred in Saguaro Correctional Center in the prison town of Eloy under CCA's watch. The people of the Islands should oppose this vociferously...your prisoners are just in for more abuse at the hands of Arizonans - especially your Indigenous. In fact, following this news article is a link to a decent piece by a friend of mine, Frank Smith from Private Corrections Institute, who's an expert on the private prison industry. He did some extensive research into the experience of Native Americans in private prisons - it's worth reading.

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

State Signs New Three-Year Arizona Prison Deal

Hawaii Reporter

June 23, 2011

BY JIM DOOLEY – The state has signed a new, three-year contract with Corrections Corporation of America to house up to 1,900 prison inmates at private prisons in Arizona.

The price carries a one per cent increase over the current contract with CCA, which expires at the end of the month. The Department of Public Safety will pay CCA $63.85 per inmate per day. The old rate was $63.22.

CCA is believed to have submitted the sole bid for the contract.

The new deal, which carries two possible one-year contract extensions, was signed as Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s administration is making plans to end the longstanding policy of imprisoning Hawaii inmates in out-of-state facilities.

Public Safety officials are drawing up a plan for the return of out-of-state prisoners, but its completion is sometime in the future and will depend on construction of new correctional facilities here and development of new community-based programs for men and women now locked behind bars.

The Hawaii State Auditor said in a report issued late last year the total cost of the private prison program more than tripled since 2001, from just under $20 million to more than $60 million.

The per-day charges under the new contract would total some $44.3 million, although there are millions the state must pay in associated costs which the contract with CCA doesn’t cover.

The actual number of Hawaii inmates now held at CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy, Arizona is now believed to have dropped under 1,800 as the state has stepped up efforts to bring certain categories of prisoners home.

Some 60 Hawaii inmates are also being held at CCA’s Red Rock Correctional Facility, next door to the Saguaro complex.

--------------------------Native Americans in Private Prisons------------------

Native Americans in Private Prisons.

Arizona Prison Watch
Friday, December 3, 2010

The following is the intro to a piece written by my friend Frank Smith, an expert on private prisons with the Private Corrections Working Group (where I dig up all those rap sheets on prison profiteers). Here's the testimony he gave to the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons several years back - which makes some good points still relevant to the violence and abuse of prisoners at CCA's Idaho Correctional Center, among other places.

Follow the link for the full text of the article, which I found posted to a great website on Lenape (Delaware Indian) culture and issues. The article was originally published as a chapter in the book "Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization and Human Rights" (Elizabeth Alexander, et al), a worthwhile text for any library on crime and punishment.

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

Incarceration of Native Americans and Private Prisons
By Frank Smith

Introduction

There are currently slightly over two million inmates in local, state and federal jails and prisons. Of these, some 1.6 percent are Native Americans and Hawaiian Natives; in Federal institutions, Native Americans constitute 2 percent of the population, since the U.S. government is involved in criminal justice enforcement on reservations. Because approximately 6 percent of all U.S. inmates are held in private prisons, the total number of Native Americans in these for-profit prisons is comparatively rather small. For that reason, this article presents a picture of the conditions in which Native Americans are held given that limited experience.

Historical Perspective

In order to achieve an informed understanding of the current situation with regard to Native Americans in prison, it is necessary to place it within a larger historical and sociological context. While most residents of the US have the notion their country was founded on the principles of justice and freedom, closer examination reveals that perception is not accurate, particularly in the case of Native Americans.1

The more progressive of our founding fathers whom we remember so fondly as protectors of these ideals include Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Paine consistently referred to Indians as "savages", and used them as a negative comparative stereotype. Jefferson considered his contemporary Indians to be hindrances to colonial progress. The US only granted Natives citizenship in 1924, five years after women and 59 years after Black males were allowed to vote.

African Americans have undoubtedly been pervasively discriminated against in US history--their dehumanization was even embodied in the Constitution. Schoolchildren learn of the more egregious Supreme Court-approved violations of the rights of Blacks such as the Dred Scott decision or Plessy v. Feurgeson,2 and that the Civil War was fought in part over slavery.

They may have read the Emancipation Proclamation and even the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The sordid history in America of slave owning, in the north and south, of lynching, of Jim Crow, is discussed in most schools. The role of such historic figures as Frederick Douglas or Sojourner Truth is widely recognized. Martin Luther King Jr., is certainly better known than many mediocre presidents. Selma, Alabama, and Little Rock, Arkansas are familiar mileposts, as is Brown v. Board of Education. Students may even understand the meaning of racial profiling, of the immensedisparity between sentencing for crack cocaine, more prevalent in inner-city neighborhoods, and powdered cocaine, more favored by wealthier uburbanites.

They may possibly be aware that a Black adolescent has perhaps a 50 times greater chance of being placed in an adult penal institution than a white youth who has been charged with exactly the same crime,3 and that perhaps one of three young Black men has been subjected to some criminal sanction, such as probation, parole, jail or prison.

Yet how many Americans, young or old, fully understand that this same disenfranchisement; this same disproportionate treatment by the criminal justice system, has affected Native Americans since the Articles of Confederation were signed? How many realize that broken treaties have been the order of the day for over two hundred years? Do they know that the early settlement of this nation involved pushing indigenous peoples into ever smaller, less habitable reservations?

How many school children are taught the cruel facts behind the genocidal removal of the inhabitants of the post-Revolutionary Southeast? There is hardly a Native American tribe that does not have a history of broken treaties and persecution. What this long, troubled relationship between European Americans and Natives constitutes is deliberate disregard for and discrimination against Native culture. Theft of lands, exiles, dispossessions, and a prevailing condemnatory and paternalistic attitude provide the background for the problems of Native Americans in prisons, both public and private, today. It particularly pervades the conditions of confinement of Indians in private prisons...

(follow for the full text)

City of Hospitality: Globe's Prison town ballot initiative.

The Globe community group "Citizens Opposed to Becoming a Prison Town" just put out this press release today....Congrats to Jim and the rest of the gang out there. Save that little city from becoming another hell like Eloy, known for preying on and abusing prisoners...many of whom happen to be indigenous peoples far from their homes. That's got to be bad Karma for that community.

"Caging Arizona"
Arizona State University, NEEB Hall
Tempe, AZ (May 5, 2011)

Remember, people of Globe: in the end, all that you have is your soul. Please don't let the economic development people ever convince you that selling it would be a boost to your town's character or a blessing to your future and your youth...

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

Date: June 21, 2011


Press Release: 1,000 Signatures Collected on Ballot Initiatives --- Will Let Voters Decide the Prison Issue


From: Ballot Initiatives Campaign Chairman, Jim Moss



Update: As of Monday, 6-20, just under 1,000 signatures have been collected by community Volunteers to place TWO Initiatives on the ballot at Globe's next regular election in March, 2012. The two Initiatives deal with any new prison project proposed for the Globe community.



1. One Initiative will require Voter approval for any new prison project built within Globe City Limits.



2. The other Initiative will require Voter Approval for ANY Municipal money, resource, or infrastructure to be used in any way for a new prison project located inside, or outside, of Globe City Limits.



The minimum number of signatures required to place these Initiatives on the ballot was 582.



Citizens Opposed to Becoming a Prison Town launched a 10-Day Campaign over a week ago. Tomorrow they will submit 1,000 Official Petition Signatures for Each Initiative, to Globe's City Clerk, to begin the Certification process. The signatures must be validated to make sure signers are registered to vote AND reside within Globe City Limits. The Volunteers who collected signatures were careful about making sure these criteria were satisfied, so the Campaign Committee is confident that a very high percentage of the signatures will be validated.



The number of signatures collected represents approximately 25% of registered voters residing within Globe City Limits. If the Campaign had been extended for a couple more weeks, the number of signatures collected could have easily doubled to 2,000. Very, very few Globe residents opted not to sign when given the opportunity. Hundreds of disappointed area residents living in the Canyon, or just outside the City limits, wanted to sign the Initiative Petitions. In fact, many were downright upset that their voice could not be counted. But, since these two Ballot Initiatives will appear on a Municipal Ballot, only City residents were eligible to sign.



Over the past 10 days, the City of Globe witnessed democracy in action. This year's July 4 Celebration will have an extra special meaning for all who participated in this community endeavor!