Hawaiian Prisoners Beaten, Threatened in CCA Prison in Arizona
by cell-out-arizona on Dec. 16, 2010, under Arizona, Arizona State Legislature, Corrections Corporation of America, private prison, PrivatizationA lawsuit brought on behalf of 18 Hawaiian prisoners held in Corrections Corporation of America’s Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy charges that guards stripped, beat, and kicked the prisoners and threatened to kill them in retaliation for a prison disturbance over the summer that injured a CCA employee.
The guards beat the prisoners in order to coerce statements from them. The guards beat their heads against tables while they were stripped to their underwear with their hands cuffed behind their backs. CCA staff, including the Warden of the facility, threatened the prisoners and their families. The Warden reportedly told them he would add time to their sentences if they did not cooperate.
The suit also alleges that the CCA administrators and guards destroyed evidence of the beatings, including videotapes, and deliberately falsified reports to cover the incident up. The prisoners were also denied prompt medical treatment for their injuries in an effort to conceal evidence of the abuse.
An article in the Honolulu Courthouse News provides the shocking details:
“Plaintiffs were threatened with harm to themselves and their families, including through such statements as:
“a. ‘We have your emergency contact information;’
“b. ‘We know who your family is and where they live and we are going to harm them;’
“c. ‘We are going to kill you;’
“d. ‘We will continue to beat you and the only way to stop that is to commit suicide;’
“e. ‘We will send you to hell;’
“f. ‘We will stick something up your ass.’
The Governor of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, has pledged to do everything in his power to bring all Hawaiian prisoners back to the islands and out of CCA and other private prisons on the mainland.
Meanwhile, here in Arizona, state legislative leaders are pledging to do everything they can to put more of our prisoners in these facilities. Representative Nancy McLain, who represents Mohave County, where the Kingman prison is located, said she’s all for allowing for-profit corporations to run our prisons: “I’m still in favor of private prisons, and the escape at the Kingman prison doesn’t change that,” she said.
