In this final installment marking the 30th Anniversary of Corrections Corporation of America, we bring you a list of the bodies left in the wake of CCA’s relentless pursuit of profits.

Compiled by our friend and colleague, Alex Friedman of Prison Legal News and the Human Rights Defense Center, here are the deaths in custody (prisoners) and in the line of duty (staff) in CCA facilities from 1987 to the present. These names are the most vivid testament to the fact that 30 years of imprisoning people for money is nothing to celebrate.

As of May 20, 2013

Note: This is an incomplete list; many more prisoners have died while in CCA custody, and this list includes only those deaths that have been reported by the news media or cited in government reports, court records and reports by non-governmental organizations.

Prisoners

Rosalind Bradford, 1987, Silverdale, medical

Alton Manning, 1995, HM Prison Blakenhurst (UK), death while being restrained

John Cowley, 1996, HM Prison Blakenhurst (UK), suicide

Michael Cephus, 1997, Youngstown, medical

William Christian, 1997, HCCF, homicide

Charles Edward Guffey, 1997, Tulsa Jail (DavidL.MossCriminalJusticeCenter), medical

Reginald Edmonds, 1998, HCCF, suicide

Ralph Carpenter, 1998, South Central Corr. Facility (SCCF), medical

Corey Smith, 1998, West TN Detention Facility, homicide

Stanley R. Rice, 1998, Youngstown, medical

Perry Clay, 1998, Youngstown, medical

Bill Hambly, 1998, Torrance County Jail, homicide

Gregory Allen Pope Sr., 1998, Tulsa Jail, medical

Bryson Chisley, 1998, Youngstown, homicide

Derrick David, 1998, Youngstown, homicide

Paula Richardson, 1998, MWCC (Australia), suicide

Geronimo Gonzales-Quintanilla, 1998, Torrance County Detention Facility, medical (after being restrained)

Donnell Reed, 1999, Correctional Treatment Facility (DC), during escape attempt

James Lebron Hurt, 1999, Silverdale Detention Facility, suicide

Merlin Lee Foster, 2000, Tulsa Jail, medical

Cory Adam Morris, 2000, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Leonia Sanchez Arriaga, 2000, Tulsa Jail, medical (head injury after assault)

Michael Schrecongost, 2000, Kit Carson, overdose

Marvin Borjas Diaz-Perez, 2001, West Tennessee Detention Facility, medical

Shane M. Spencer, 2001, Tulsa Jail, medical

Tom Harris, 2001, SCCC, homicide

Conrado Mestas Ochoa, 2001, EdenDetentionCenter, unknown

Jeffrey Buller, 2001, Kit Carson, medical

Calvin Lamy, 2001, Torrance Co. Detention Facility, suicide

Iulai Amani, 2001, FlorenceCorr.Center, medical

Antonio Lewis Franklin, 2002, Citrus County Jail, medical

Laren Sims Jordan, 2002, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Chad Littles, 2002, Bay County Jail, homicide

Justin Sturgis, 2002, Bay County Jail, medical

Benjamin David Brown, 2002, Correctional Treatment Facility (DC), medical

Estelle Richardson, 2004, MDF, homicide

Kevin Scott, 2004, ShelbyTrainingCenter, suicide

Sondria Allen, 2004, Tulsa Jail, accident

Scott Ray Dickens, 2002, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Michael Andrew Jones, 2004, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Jonathan Magbie, 2004, Correctional Treatment Facility (DC), medical

William Henry Cantor, 2004, Bay County Jail, suicide

Stacy Allan Tolbert, 2004, Bay County Jail, medical

Maria Solis-Perez, 2004, HoustonProcessingCenter, medical

Jose Lopez-Lara, 2004, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

James L, Kirk, Jr., 2004, WCF, suicide

Sarah Ah Mau, 2005, Otter Creek, medical

James T. Sly, 2005, Bay County Jail, suicide

Adam Gene Lippert, 2005, Cimarron Corr. Facility, homicide

Maya Nand, 2005, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Felipe Gonzalez, 2005, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Elias Lopez, 2005, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Emma Nobles, 2005, Gadsden Correctional Facility, medical

Daniel Ray Warren, 2005, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Walter Alvarez-Esquivel, 2005, LaredoProcessingCenter, medical

Reinaldo Prado-Arencilia, 2005, HoustonProcessingCenter, medical

Juan Salazar-Gomez, 2005, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Jose Lopez-Gregorio, 2006, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Mario Francisco Chavez-Torres, 2006, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Geoffrey M. Conley, 2006, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Jose Lopez-Gregario, 2006, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

John T. Wells, 2006, Hernando County Jail, medical

Truoc Tran, 2006, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Brian Keith Allen, 2006, Marion County Jail II (IN), medical

Charles Repass, 2006, Marion County Jail II (IN), medical

Anthony Kelly, 2007, West Tennessee Detention Facility, medical

Latasha Lorean Glover, 2007, Otter Creek, medical

Edward Duritsky, 2007, Hernando County Jail, medical

Felix Franklin Rodriguez-Torres, 2007, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Anthony David Bowman, 2007, SCCC, medical

Boubacar Bah, 2007, ElizabethDetentionCenter, medical

Rusty Hightower, 2007, Red Rock, unknown/found unresponsive in cell

Emmanuel Owusu, 2008, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

David Drashner, 2008, Northfork Corr. Facility, homicide

Joseph Alexie, 2008, Red Rock, medical

Robert Washington, 2008, Tallahatchie Co. Corr. Facility, medical

Terry Wayne Battle, 2008, MDF, medical

Gerald Townsend, 2008, MDF, homicide

Gregory Cole, 2008, Bradshaw State Jail, suicide

Ashleigh Shae Parks, 2008, Dawson State Jail, medical

Stephanie Rhaney, 2008, Gadsden Correctional Facility, unknown

Beverly Ford Murphy, 2008, Otter Creek, medical

Leonard Odom, 2009, Wheeler County Corr. Facility, unknown

Thomas Detric Adderson, 2009, Willacy Unit, medical

William Williams, 2009, MDF, suicide

Geoffrey A. Scheid, 2009, Bent County Correctional Facility, suicide

Roberto Medina-Martinez, 2009, StewartDetentionCenter, medical

Joseph Curtis, 2009, during transport by TransCor, heatstroke

Alan Young, 2009, West TN Detention Facility, suicide

Pam Weatherby, 2010, Dawson State Jail, medical

Bronson Nunuha, 2010, Saguaro, homicide

Clifford Medina, 2010, Saguaro, homicide

Terrell Griswold, 2010, Bent County Correctional Facility, medical

Joseph Mixon, 2010, Bay Correctional Facility, unknown

Eddie Moore, 2010, Leflore County Jail, medical

Andres Valdez, 2011, Kit Carson, transport van accident

Pablo Gracida-Conte, 2011, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Miguel Hernandez, 2011, NorthGeorgiaDetentionCenter, medical

Derek Criddle, 2011, Delta Corr. Facility, homicide

Shebaa Green, 2012, Dawson State Jail, medical

Michael A. Nelson, 2012, Lake Erie Corr. Institution, overdose

Demond Flowers, 2013, Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, homicide

Jorge Garcia-Mejia, 2013, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Elsa Guadalupe-Gonzales, 2013, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Dustin Henning, 2013, HCCF, unknown

Raequayah Shropshire, 2013, Silverdale Detention Facility, medical

Babies

Babies that have died after being born to the following prisoners in CCA custody:

Meredith Manning, 2004, Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility (Elisha Edward Manning)

Countess Clemons, 2010, Silverdale Detention Facility (Roland Clemons)

Autumn Miller, 2012, Dawson State Jail (Gracie Miller)

Staff

Delbert Steed, January 2002, Hardeman Co. Corr. Facility (HCCF), homicide

Catlin Carithers, May 2012, AdamsCountyCorrectionalCenter, homicide

Grace Cortez, Dec. 2011, Kit Carson Corr. Facility, preventable van accident

Carla Meade, Jan. 2008, Otter Creek, suicide in the warden’s office

AFSC, along with our friends at Grassroots Leadership and the Public Safety and Justice Campaign, is participating in a week of coordinated actions to mark the 30th Anniversary of Corrections Corporation of America. We believe that 30 years of profiting from incarceration is nothing to celebrate.

As part of these coordinated actions, we’ve put together a little video birthday card for CCA. Check it out:

Birthday message to CCA

Today, at 4:00 at the Federal Court Building at Congress and Granada in downtown Tucson, we will be holding a demonstration and press conference featuring speakers from national and local organizations. We even got CCA a birthday pinata!

And stay tuned for Part III of the CCA Dirty Thirty series…

This year, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is celebrating 30 years of profiting from incarceration. CCA was one of the pioneers in for-profit prison management, and today is the world’s largest private prison company.

A publicly-traded company, in 2010, CCA saw record revenue of $1.67 billion, up $46 million from 2009.

Here in Arizona, CCA operates 6 facilities, holding prisoners from Arizona, California, Vermont, and Hawaii as well as federal prisoners. CCA is one of the main beneficiaries of harsh immigrant enforcement and detention policies, such as Operation Streamline. And recently CCA was awarded its first contract to run an Arizona state prison. The first 1,000 beds are set to come online in 2014.

Next week, at its shareholder meeting in Nashville, TN, CCA will be toasting itself with lavish parties hosting rich investors and well-connected lobbyists.

Meanwhile, people around the country say, 30 years of abuse, mismanagement, and political influence peddling is nothing to celebrate.

There will be protests to accompany the shareholder meeting in Nashville, as well as solidarity actions in Washington DC, Ohio, and and here in Tucson, where the AFSC is organizing a rally and press conference on Monday, May 13^th from 4:00-5:00pm at the aptly-named DeConcini Federal Courthouse, 405 W. Congress.

As part of the lead-up to this event, we at Cell-Out Arizona offer our readers a three-part retrospective of CCA’s Dirty 30: Thirty Reasons to Kick CCA Out of Arizona. Enjoy!

CCA’s Dirty Thirty, Part I: The All-Arizona Edition

30. CCA Pays to Play in AZ.

CCA employs Highground Public Affairs Consultants whose president is Governor Jan Brewer’s top political advisor Chuck Coughin. Governor Brewer’s former spokesman, Paul Senseman, was previously employed by CCA, then returned to his lobbying job after leaving the Governor’s office. His wife is currently employed as a lobbyist for the corporation (‘Ties that Bind’ In These Times 6/21/10).

CCA has given money to Governor Brewers past campaigns such as Prop.100 and stands to benefit greatly from SB1070. As more undocumented people are turned over to ICE it is likely that they will be sent to one of CCA’s three detention facilities in Arizona (‘Governor Brewer’s CCA Ties Burn Like Neon’ Phoenix New Times 7/29/10).

And let’s not forget former Senator Dennis DeConcini, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents (which oversees state universities) who also sits on CCA’s Board of Directors. Despite his claims of being a friend to the immigrant community, DeConcini owns upwards of 8,700 shares in CCA or roughly $222,268. Dennis has come under fire from community groups pointing out his own hypocrisy as well as the conflict of interest posed by the competition for state funds between prisons and universities.

29. CCA Greases Palms in Pinal County

CCA pays the Pinal county government based on the number of inmates in one of its prisons in Pinal, as part of an agreement to operate in the county. Last year that amounted to roughly $1.4 million, according to county budget documents. The payments increase as more beds are filled — under the agreement, the county receives two dollars per day for each inmate held in the facility.

The money in part funds the county sheriff’s office, whose enforcement actions have influence over the size of the prisoner population: Under an agreement with the federal government, the office acts as an enforcement agent on immigration law, arresting violators and referring them to federal authorities, who make the ultimate decision on detention. (“Private Prisons Profit From Immigration Crackdown,” Huffington Post, 6/7/12).

28. CCA Guards Participate in Drug Raids on Public High Schools

Guards from Corrections Corporation of America recently assisted local and state law enforcement in two drug raids on public high schools. CCA operates a total of six prisons and detention centers in Pinal County, where the schools are located.

According to an article by Beau Hodai in PR Watch, it was not the first time CCA guards were used in this way, despite the fact that CCA staff are not considered ‘peace officers’ and have no training or certification to allow them to participate in law enforcement activities in Arizona.

After the first incident raised a huge public outcry, the corporation issued a statement that read:

“Our company strives to be a good community partner, and it was in that spirit that local staff responded to the request. Decisions like this are usually made at the facility level. CCA has since reviewed this practice and decided that facilities can no longer provide this type of assistance, for reasons such as liability. Unfortunately, many of the communities where we operate lack these types of resources, but we think this is the appropriate corporate level policy. We’ll continue to support our communities in many other ways.”

However, just a few months later, CCA guards just participated in ANOTHER drug raid on a high school in Pinal County, even after they publicly announced they would not do this. This time, astonishingly, they called it a “teaching lockdown.” After the first report of the raid surfaced, the website quickly removed CCA from the list of participating agencies.

27. More Immigrant Deaths at CCA’s Eloy Detention Center

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently investigating two suicides that occurred in the space of three days at the Eloy Detention Center.

CCA’s Eloy Detention Center, which houses immigrant detainees, had the most deaths of any immigration detention center in the country. According to the ACLU, nine deaths have taken place in Eloy Detention Center–most were caused by inadequate or delayed medical attention (‘Lost and Ignored’ Tucson Weekly 2/11/10).

26. Who’s the Criminal?

A CCA employee pled guilty to drug charges in April 2010 for attempting to give prison inmates cocaine at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence (‘Arizona corrections officer caught buying cocaine for inmate’ ABC15 4/21/10).

25. Dead-End Jobs

While correctional officers working for state prisons receive $18-$20 an hour, CCA employees are paid less to do the same job, earning only $10-$12 an hour. CCA employees also receive 240 less hours of training than those employed by ADOC (‘CCA criticized by union, praised by Florence officials’ The Daily Currier 12/18/09)

24. What a Riot!

A prison employee suffered a broken nose and cheekbones as well as eye socket damage during a 30 inmate brawl over an Xbox owned by an inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center (‘Prison Employee seriously injured’ KITV4 7/30/10)

23. Deaths in Custody

A prisoner in CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Center strangled his cellmate while the prison was in lockdown in June 2010. Saguaro houses Hawaiian prisoners in Arizona and was also the site of the stabbing death by two inmates who now face the death penalty in Arizona although Hawaii has no death penalty. Prisoners claim the prison is ‘greatly understaffed.’ (‘HI inmates complain about CCA’ Hawaii News Now 6/17/10).

22. Widespread Prisoner Abuse

A lawsuit filed on behalf of Hawaiian prisoners in CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Center argued that officers stripped and beat prisoners, in some cases hitting their heads against tables while their hands were cuffed behind their backs.  Officers and even the warden threatened the prisoners and their families.  The officials then destroyed the evidence of the beatings, including videotapes, and faslified reports.  An additional suit was filed claiming that beatings and threats have continued in retaliation for prisoners filing the suit (“Private Prison Beatings Continue, Men Say,” Courthouse News, 7/27/11).

21. Unsafe Facilities

The Inspector General for the State of California (which houses prisoners in CCA’s Red Rock, LaPalma, and Florence Correctional Center in Arizona) slammed CCA for serious security flaws and improper treatment of inmates.  Inspectors found faulty alarms and malfunctioning security cameras, prisoners evading metal detectors, and discovered that CCA was not checking the arrest records of employees or screening out those with gang affiliations  (“Prison firm optimistic about Arizona bid despite incidents,” The Arizona Republic, 8/8/11).

Stay tuned for Parts II and III of CCA’s Dirty Thirty!

Tony Lester committed suicide while in ADC custody

Last Friday, 2/22/13, Channel 12 News KPNX in Phoenix, AZ reported on the two-year death of Tony Lester, a prisoner in the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) who bled to death from self-inflicted cuts as ADC staff looked on.  Reporter, Wendy Halloran fought for two years to bring this tragic story to light.  ADC Director Ryan tried to stop the damning video from being shown at all.

What the video shows is unconscionable and must be confronted.  People who are in prison deserve better care and attention than this.  Being in prison should not mean a the end to mental health care or quick, adequate emergency response.  Please watch the six minute video below.  We strongly encourage people to send notes of support for this type of critical investigative journalism to connect@ad.gannett.com so that it is made known that the public expects continued attention to these all-too-common tragedies behind bars.

Secret video reveals corrections officers watched inmate bleed to death

On Wednesday, January 30^th, the Department of Corrections abruptly announced that it had severed its contract with Wexford Health Sources Inc. and had already reached an agreement with Corizon, Inc. of Brentwood, Tenn., to become the health care provider for all state-run prisons as of March 4.

Reportedly, the divorce was initiated by Wexford, which claims it’s “performance was hindered by state monitors and a lack of cooperation by corrections.” The company was also testy about the fact that ADC had threatened it with a $10,000 fine for failure to fix staffing problems, properly distribute medication, and communicate problems to the state. Not to mention the fact that one of their “nurses” managed to expose 103 inmates to Hepatitis C because she apparently didn’t know that you can’t stick a dirty needle back into a bottle of insulin you plan to give to other people.

Is Wexford at all apologetic for all this? Not in the slightest. And they don’t have to be. They know that there’s another state legislature somewhere that, like ours, is naïve enough to believe that privatization of prisons and prison medical care will save them money. Why put up with Arizona’s pesky monitors and pay fines when you screw up when you can go somewhere where everybody’s willing to look the other way for the promise of saving a few bucks?

After all, it’s not like ADC didn’t know Wexford’s dismal track record when they hired them. Bob Ortega reported in the Arizona Republic that:

• Wexford opted not to renew a contract with Clark County, Wash., that expired at the beginning of 2010 after an independent audit concluded that “Wexford has systematically failed to comply” with its contract and had failed to provide adequate staffing, properly licensed staff, and adequate and timely medical service.
• In Mississippi, a 2007 audit was harshly critical of both the company and state corrections officials for failing to provide timely, adequate medical care. It also found that Mississippi’s Department of Corrections failed to collect $931,310 in fines its chief medical officer recommended against Wexford after the company charged the state for more staff members than it actually provided.
• Wexford has also faced fines for similar problems in numerous other states, including a $12,500 fine by New Mexico’s Department of Corrections in 2006; a $106,000 fine by Ohio’s Correction Department in 2009; $50,000 by Chesapeake, Va., in 2006 for staffing shortages; three fines totaling $273,000 by Florida’s Department of Corrections in 2005 for what it described as “service-delivery issues that were resolved” before the contract’s end; and a $68,000 fine by the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Florida in 2003 for delays in providing medical services.

And now ADC would have us believe that Corizon will do better. Did anybody bother to do the due diligence on these guys?

A little background: Corizon was created after the merger of two other huge for-profit prison health care corporations—PHS Corrections and Correctional Medical Services (CMS). Prior to the merger, PHS had 57 contracts in 150 jails across 19 states, serving about 165,000 prisoners. CMS served 250,000 in 19 states. When the two merged, Corizon became the largest prison health care provider in the country, operating in 400 correctional facilities in 31 states. Now, about 400,000 prisoners are subject to Corizon’s “care.”

A quick internet search of just the last three years of articles on the corporation’s misdeeds yielded enough evidence of medical neglect, wrongful death lawsuits, financial shenanigans, and outright abuse to give any rational person pause. Here’s a brief rundown:

A wrongful death and malpractice lawsuit was filed in St. Louis last year over the death of a jail inmate from complications of a heart problem. The suit alleges that the prisoner collapsed and died an hour after a doctor instructed jail staff to send him to a hospital immediately. Records show that a Corizon nurse believed that the prisoner’s episodes were ‘staged,’ and point to numerous instances of doctor’s orders not being consistently followed. (“Suit blames St. Louis medical care in inmate’s death,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, 5/24/12).

In 2012, Corizon paid the city of Philadelphia a $1.8 million fine after an investigation found the company was using a sham female-owned subcontractor to falsely claim it was meeting city requirements for participation by firms owned by women or people of color. A rival company owned by a woman claimed that it submitted a bid that was $3.5 million per year less than Corizon’s. Despite the fine, Corizon retained its right to bid on contracts and is up for renewal. Meanwhile, the city has paid out at least $1 million since 1995 to settle lawsuits over negligent medical care.. (“With contract out to bid, prison health care questioned,” Philadelphia Daily News, 8/28/12 and “City questioned over prison health care firm,” Philadelphia Daily News, 1/10/13).

A federal lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Corrections was filed last year after an inmate with a history of seizures was denied emergency care by a Corizon nurse who overrode doctors’ orders for an ambulance. Within an hour, the man suffered irreversible brain damage that led to his death. Records indicate that Corizon’s “rationed care philosophy” is at the root of many such problems. For example, no Corizon doctors work after 4pm or on weekends. Nurses employed by the state department of corrections end their shifts at 10:30pm, leaving the prisons without medical staff overnight. Under Corizon’s contract, there is just one on-call doctor to serve the entire state prison system, and this doctor cannot access the medical files because the health services units are shut down overnight. (“Prisoner dies after denial of care,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 7/9/12).

Washington County, OR ordered an audit of Corizon’s jail health services after the county went $171,000 over its almost $4.6 million budget in FY 2011-12. Cost overruns were reportedly common over the past six years. However, the county ran into “legal roadblocks” in obtaining the needed documents from Corizon. The company’s lack of transparency prompted the county to amend its contract with Corizon in 2012 in order to ensure that the county will have access to financial records and other documents, as well as the ability to perform site reviews. (“Long-delayed Washington County audit of jail health services points to contract problems, new auditing approach,” The Oregonian, 8/20/12).

In 2011, Corizon was fined nearly $400,000 by the state of Idaho for failing to meet some of the most basic health care requirements outlined by the state. Among the problems listed were the fact that one women’s prison had gone without an OB/GYN for two years and another maximum security prison had no staff psychologies for at least 8 months. These lapses were in violation of Idaho’s contract, which requires that vacant positions be filled within 60 days. The Director of the Department of Corrections indicated that the steep fines were the only way to ensure that the corporation comply with its contract requirements. “They’re bottom-line driven,” he remarked. (“Idaho fines prison health care company $382K,” Associated Press, 6/5/11).

Then, in 2012, A Federal report on the Idaho State Correctional Institution charged that prison care under Corizon “amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.” The court-ordered report, part of decades of litigation by Idaho inmates, was released publicly even though the state had argued to keep the report sealed. The report states that Idaho Department authorities are “deliberately indifferent to the serious health care needs of their charges,” says corrections medical expert Dr. Marc Stern, who was appointed by the court to review Idaho prison care. According to the report, Corizon failed 23 of 33 audit categories in 2010 – and despite feedback and follow-up – failed 26 of 33 categories in 2011. (“Federal court unseals report on prison health care,” KIVI News, 3/19/12). You can read the full report here.

Here’s the take-home message to taxpayers: Privatization of anything in a corrections context will always result in fraud, waste, abuse, and neglect.

That’s because the profit motive is directly at odds with the purpose of correctional institutions. There will always be a perverse incentive not to rehabilitate, not to treat, and to prioritize the bottom line over public safety. Because it is in the corporation’s financial interest to keep prisoners coming back. And, if they get sick or even die, the worst your company will face will be a series of fines. Even if the state cancels the contract, there are always some schmucks in some other state or some other town, who want to believe the myth that you can have mass incarceration on the cheap and who really don’t give a damn what happens to incarcerated people.

Noted privatization expert Alex Friedmann, Associate Editor of Prison Legal News, said it best:

“If you take all the bad parts of the HMO [Health Maintenance Organization] and put it in a monopoly situation, then you have the private prison medical care industry…But prisoners can’t go to another clinic, can’t pick a plan.”

As the August 31st deadline for award of a new private prison contract draws near, there’s been a healthy public debate as to the justification (or lack thereof) of the state’s plan for up to 2,000 more medium security prison beds.

Last week, Tucson Citizen Editor Mark Evans asked the $17 million question: “Private prisons are not saving us money–so why do we still have them?”

Then, Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic put out an excellent and comprehensive analysis of the facts–prison population is down, private prisons cost more–contrasted with the bogus rationale touted by Department of Corrections Director Chuck Ryan to justify their plans to go ahead with the contracts anyway. All you Psychology Majors out there can use this for your term papers on “cognitive dissonance.”

Even Linda Ronstadt took a shot at the for-profit prison industry on CNN’s Situation Room Friday. In a scathing rebuke of Gov. Brewer’s stance on immigration, Ronstadt connected the dots for viewers on the influence of the for-profit prison industry, which manages immigrant detention centers as well as prisons. Ronstadt stated, “…let’s look at the money for a minute. What Arizona is spending an awful lot of money on is private prisons. And Chuck Coughlin and Paul [Senseman]…are two of her top advisers. They are both lobbyists for the Correction Corporation of America, which is the biggest — one of the prison giants, private prison giants in the country.” At this point she was cut off by the host. Go figure.

Finally, a broad coalition of over 50 state and national leaders and organizations sent a letter to Governor Brewer today asking her to halt plans for a new for-profit prison contract. The list of over 50 leaders and organizations includes several Arizona elected officials—both Democrat and Republican—from the state, county and city levels of government. Also signed on to the letter are Arizona groups such as the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the National Organization for Women’s Phoenix/Scottsdale chapter, and the Center for Economic Integrity.

We are posting the letter in its entirety here, along with the full list of signatories:

State and National Groups Oppose Plan for 2,000 More For-Profit Prison Beds in Arizona

August 28, 2012

Dear Governor Brewer and Director Ryan,

We write as organizations and individuals, both in Arizona and nationally, to oppose Arizona’s planned expansion of its for-profit prison beds. We urge you to immediately cancel the 2,000-bed prison RFP and do not award a contract for this procurement. These beds are unnecessary and costly, and the corporations bidding for the contract all have histories of mismanagement, abuse, and safety problems—including several incidents in Arizona prisons already under contract.

Firstly, Arizona does not need more prison beds, private or otherwise. The state prison population is dropping, and this decrease is projected to continue.[1] Furthermore, crime rates are down and thus investing $17 million in a new facility is a poor use of the state’s limited resources, particularly considering the crippling cuts to vital services of the last few years.

Years of study by the Arizona Department of Corrections reveal that for-profit prisons are a bad bargain for state taxpayers. These studies have shown that, even though the corporate vendors promised the facilities would save the state money, in fact Arizona is overpaying for its private prisons. A recent investigation showed that many private prisons are more expensive than their state-operated counterparts. This study estimates that Arizona taxpayers are wasting $3.5 million per year on for-profit beds.[2]

All five of the prison corporations under consideration have spotty records of poor management, violence and disturbances, chronic understaffing of facilities, safety lapses, and other problems. Perhaps most notable is Management and Training Corporation (MTC), which manages the Kingman state prison where three prisoners escaped in 2010, leading authorities on a two-week, multi-state manhunt culminating in the murder of a couple vacationing in New Mexico. Investigations after the incident revealed that the alarms in the facility had been malfunctioning for over a year, but were never fixed.[3]

After the escapes from Kingman, the Arizona Department of Corrections conducted security audits of its other private prisons. At the three GEO prisons – Florence West, Phoenix West and the Central Arizona Correctional Facility – inspectors found such issues as inmates having access to a control panel that could open emergency exits; an alarm system that did not ring properly when doors were opened or left ajar; and that staff didn’t carry out such basic security practices as searching commissary trucks and drivers.[4] Similar problems were uncovered at MTC’s other Arizona facility in Marana, where inspectors also found that the swamp coolers were not working (in August), making it hotter inside the prison than outside.[5]

Three additional corporations that do not currently have contracts with the state of Arizona have also submitted proposals: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Emerald Corrections, and LaSalle. Corrections Corporation of America operates 6 prisons located in Arizona that import prisoners from other states and the federal government, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A national investigation revealed that the company’s Eloy Detention Center had the highest number of immigrant detainee deaths of any ICE facility.[6] The Inspector General for the State of California (which houses prisoners in CCA’s Red Rock, La Palma, and Florence Correctional Center in Arizona) slammed CCA in 2010 for serious security flaws and improper treatment of inmates.  Inspectors found faulty alarms and malfunctioning security cameras, prisoners evading metal detectors, and discovered that CCA was not checking the arrest records of employees or screening out those with gang affiliations.[7]

Emerald’s only facility in Arizona is an immigrant detention center in San Luis. LaSalle currently operates prisons only in Texas and Louisiana.  Both companies have had issues in other states where they operate. For a full accounting of the problems in all five corporations’ prisons, please see the attached “Rap Sheets,” drawn from published news accounts.

In their efforts to reduce operational costs, private prison managers often focus cost-containment strategies on personnel and training, the two most expensive aspects of incarceration. Privately managed prisons generally minimize costs by reducing labor expenditures, including providing a lower level of salaries, staff benefits, and professional training. Consequently, there are higher employee turnover rates in private prisons than in publicly operated facilities.

This trend is reflected in Arizona’s existing private prisons. The Department of Corrections’ Biennial Comparison Review found that, across the board, all five of the state’s privately managed facilities had higher staff turnover and vacancy rates than publicly managed facilities, and guards frequently scored lower on core competency tests. GEO Group’s Phoenix West facility had a 61% turnover rate in 2011 and MTC’s Marana prison had a turnover rate of 56.8% that same year.[8] Deficiencies in personnel and programming among private prison facilities can compromise correctional operations, including basic safety and security. Undertrained and inexperienced guards may not be prepared to handle serious incidents. Security audits revealed that at the time of the escapes from MTC’s Kingman prison, 80% of the staff were new or newly promoted.[9]

There is ample evidence to suggest that for-profit prison corporations are not accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of Arizona. As private companies, they are not subject to the same transparency requirements or checks and balances as the Department of Corrections, despite the fact that they are performing the same functions and are paid with taxpayer dollars. The public has very little information about these facilities, or a voice in how they are run.

And as a result of the corrections budget bill passed last session, the Department of Corrections is no longer required to conduct a biennial comparison review of the cost and quality of these facilities, removing the last shred of public oversight over for-profit prisons and leaving lawmakers with little information on which to base budgetary decisions.

This action recently prompted Arizona State Legislator Chad Campbell to call on Arizona’s Attorney General to initiate an investigation into possible violations of state law and/or contract provisions requiring private prisons to save money and provide the same or better quality of service as the Department of Corrections. Given the Department’s own cost studies showing that for-profit prisons are more expensive and recent investigations into safety lapses, staff vacancies, and poor quality of service, there is substantial basis for such an investigation. It would be unwise for Arizona to award a contract to a corporation that may later be found to be violating state law and/or the terms of its existing contracts.

If containing costs is a goal, changes to sentencing and community supervision can help to further stabilize Arizona’s prison population and avoid unnecessary expenditures on prison expansion. The significant decline of Arizona’s prison population is attributed in part to legislative and probation policy changes enacted in the past few years that have effectively reduced revocations to prison for technical violations. A bill passed in the 2012 legislative session expanding eligibility for diversion programs has the potential to contribute to a further decline in prison populations. Continuing this trend with additional policy reforms in the upcoming session could render new beds completely unnecessary, while saving taxpayers millions and doing more to protect public safety.

The evidence is clear: For-profit prisons are costly, ineffective, and are not accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of Arizona. To invest millions more in this failed enterprise is throwing good money after bad. We urge you to show strong leadership and stewardship of public funds. Immediately cancel the 2,000-bed prison RFP and do not award a contract for this procurement.

We appreciate your consideration and would be pleased to provide further information.

Sincerely,

Arizona

American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona

American Friends Service Committee, Arizona Office

Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice

Arizona Ecumenical Council

Arizona Prison Watch

Center for Economic Integrity

Citizens to Protect Globe’s Resources

David’s Hope

Justice 4 All

League of Women Voters of Arizona

NAACP, Arizona State Conference

NAACP of Maricopa County

National Organization for Women, Phoenix/Scottsdale

 

State Representative Cecil Ash

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell

State Representative Tom Chabin

State Representative Debbie McCune Davis

Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias

State Representative Ruben Gallego

State Representative SallyAnn Gonzales

State Representative Katie Hobbs

Tucson City Council Member Steve Kozachik

Former Arizona State Representative Phil Lopes

State Senator David Lujan

State Representative Catherine Miranda

State Representative Macario Saldate

Tucson City Council Member Regina Romero

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild

Senate Minority Leader David Schapira

State Representative Bruce Wheeler

 

Bishop Minerva Carcaño, Resident Bishop of the Phoenix Episcopal Area of the United Methodist Church

Billie K. Fidlin, Chair, Public Policy Commission, Arizona Ecumenical Council

Anne Morgan-Roettger, Parish Secretary, The Community of Blessed Sacrament

The Rt. Reverend Kirk Stevan Smith, The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona

Bishop Stephen Talmage, Grand Canyon Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

Mark Homan, Pima Community College Professor (Ret.)

Susan Maurer, New Jersey Department of Corrections Commissioner, Ret.

Dr. Doris Marie Provine, ASU Professor

David Wells, ASU Professor

 

National

AdvoCare, Inc.

AFSCME

Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform

Criminon New Life, DC

Enlace

Grassroots Leadership

Human Rights Defense Center

In the Public Interest

Justice Strategies

Private Corrections Working Group

The Sentencing Project

 

Church of Scientology

The Disciples Justice Action Network

National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

Presbyterian Criminal Justice Network

Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

State Legislator Chad Campbell (D-14) sent a letter two weeks ago to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne requesting an investigation into the state’s current contracts with private, for-profit prison corporations. The letter relies heavily on the findings in AFSC’s recent report on the for-profit prison industry in Arizona, Private Prisons: The Public’s Problem.

In the letter, Campbell cites alleged violations of:

• State law and individual contract provisions requiring proposed private prisons to demonstrate cost savings to the state
• State law requiring private prisons to provide the same or better quality than state prisons
• Contract provisions requiring private prisons to maintain safety standards and rehabilitate prisoners
• State uniform contract provisions requiring private prisons to provide adequate staffing levels

A more recent Cell Out Arizona investigation revealed that the state has known for some time that its private prisons are not saving money, so it recently repealed a state law requiring the corporations to demonstrate cost savings in their bids for new contracts. The legislature also repealed another section of the same law that requires the state to conduct a Biennial Comparison Review of the quality of the state’s private prisons every two years.

Rep. Campbell is a member of the Joint Committee on Capitol Review. The objectives and major products of the staff of the JCCR are to:

• Review the scope, purpose and cost of projects before releasing appropriations.
• Approve corrections facilities expenditures from the Corrections Fund.

Rep. Campbell asserts that he and other members of the JCCR cannot achieve these objectives without the data provided by the Biennial Comparison Reports.  He states in the letter,

“Recent investigations have uncovered troubling evidence that state-contracted private prisons are not providing cost savings to the state and are not providing the same or better level of quality services.  Therefore, it is necessary and prudent for the Attorney General to conduct an investigation in order to provide lawmakers with the information they need to make decisions about prison expenditures.”

The situation is particularly urgent because the state of Arizona is poised to award a new contract for 2,000 more medium-security prison beds to a for-profit prison corporation. The legislature has mandated that the contract be signed by September 1st. The legislature appropriated $16 million for the prison in FY 2015.

Both Managment and Training Corporation (MTC) and GEO Group are bidding on the proposed prison. Both currently operate state prisons and would therefore be the subjects of the investigation. In addition, Corrections Corporation of America, Emerald Corrections, and LaSalle have also submitted proposals.

Arizona Department of Corrections Director Chuck Ryan was asked about the investigation last night at a public hearing for one of these prison proposals, submitted by Corrections Corporation of America for the town of Eloy. When asked whether he would suspend the procurement to await the results of the Attorney General’s investigation, he stated flatly, “no.” When asked if he would confirm, on the record, that the Department was willing to give a multi-million dollar contract to a corporation that may be violating state law and/or the terms of its current contract, he replied that he would need to consult an attorney before responding.

Following up on the groundbreaking report, Buried Alive (2007), the American Friends Service Committee of Arizona has released Lifetime Lockdown: How Isolation Conditions Impact Prisoner Reentry.  Based on hundreds of hours of research by Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Brackette F. Williams in a collaborative effort with the AFSC, Lifetime Lockdown details the long-lasting effects of solitary confinement even after release from prison.

Lifetime Lockdown highlights the importance of why it matters how people who are incarcerated are treated.  It doesn’t just matter how they are treated while they are in prison, but it is critical to whether or not people are successful upon reentry into life on the outside.  The lingering effects of isolation create numerous barriers upon release and long after.

It is important to remember that successful reentry does not only mean staying out of prison.  Successful re-entry means everything from the ability to find a job, secure housing, and stay out of prison.  It also means the ability to interact with others (especially in larger social settings), overcoming and/or finding treatment for PTSD as a result of years in isolation, and managing relatively simple tasks that access to social services and support networks are critical to.

To read Lifetime Lockdown, follow this link.  Below is a story about one individual, Mike and his experiences dealing with the enormous difficulties of reentry into the community.

Lifetime Lockdown:  The Story of Mike

The oldest of the Project Homecoming participants was “Mike” (not his real name).  He spent 40 years in and out of Arizona prisons and jails. Given the length and number of his periods of incarceration, his experiences demonstrate the shifts that took place in the Arizona Department of Corrections over the years, and the impacts that his forced isolation had on him personally.

The following vignette was originally compiled in a longer form by Dr. Brackette F. Williams and has been adjusted with permission for the purposes of this report.

–

Mike’s story reads like a recent history of the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), spanning over forty years and the advent of supermax prisons. He first entered prison after being honorably discharged from the armed services. Mike was one of the first people to enter SMU I, the state’s first supermax unit, and one of the first in SMU II (now Browning), as well. He characterized those first years in supermax as some of the most violent prison environments he had experienced.

Mike was also among the first group of prisoners classified for supermax incarceration under the Security Threat Group (STG) policy for his affiliation with a prison gang – he asserts that he was not actively gang involved but was assigned this status based primarily on his race.

When he was first placed in supermax, he had already spent a couple of decades going in and out of prison; life in a cell was not new to Mike. However, the increased use of prolonged isolation was something to which he could never adjust. By a conservative estimate, Mike spent more than 80 percent of his incarceration in isolation; including short periods of four to six months and longer periods of one and a half to three and a half years. His longest stay in supermax lasted nearly five years.

Over the course of four decades, Mike never managed more than a few years of freedom at a time, and usually less. He often returned to prison within a few days or months. Even when he was released, he was usually under state supervision, and had trouble meeting the conditions of his parole.

On one occasion, he deliberately violated parole. He struggled to follow the daily plans required as a condition of his parole and the medications he was taking for his schizophrenia was making him “too high to make it worthwhile to be out of prison.”

Perhaps from an outside perspective, Mike fits the stereotype of someone who accepted his role as a “repeat offender.” But a closer examination reveals a cycle of dysfunction and missed opportunities. His failure to remain out of prison weighed heavily on him and only increased the anger he felt with himself.  Characteristic of PTSD, he displaced his self-anger primarily onto prison staff, but also onto any other prisoner who tried to exert ‘any sort of control’ over him.  His label as a member of a prison gang ensured that his misbehavior was viewed as deliberate trouble-making rather than symptoms of mental illness or PTSD.  As a result, Mike continued to spend long and frequent stints in isolation.  Here he describes the conditions and their impact on him:

Isolation was 24-7 locked down; just like SMU II, just like the hole over there in [the Tucson unit where he had previously been held in isolation].  They took us to the shower, handcuffed, from behind. [They] let us shower for five minutes, and then, took us back to our cell.  They would let us out for an hour a day to, uh, clean out the cell and the pod. And well, they let us shower three times a week, but they let us out for an hour every other day to [exercise], so that every other day thing was when you did your one hour out of the cell.  Most of the time you [would be] locked down. So you’re locked down more than just 24-7.  They added a little bit more onto it for those that were, [STG] associated, you know. [By added on, he meant that STG prisoners in isolation often went for two or more weeks with no release time for showers and exercise.] Yeah it was very, uh, [very long pause, with his eyes closed and head down] Oh man… 

On June 1, 2008, Mike finished his parole, had no outstanding warrants, and for only the second time in his life since he was first incarcerated, was finally free of all forms of state supervision.  He was 60 years old at the time.  He moved in with one of his two sisters.  He stayed out of trouble until he was arrested late in 2008 for driving under the influence.  He had turned to alcohol largely to manage chronic pain in a body that he said was merely showing the consequences of four decades of prison conditions.

Mike entered prison with a high school education and by the 1990s he had earned a college certificate in counseling.  He said during one of the interviews, “I’m no dummy…I would like to work, but I can’t find something I can do.”  Suffering from a range of health ailments, he had little time to look for employment, seek independent housing, or think about civil rights restoration. Still, given his long prison record, he said that even if he were healthy, he expects he would have difficulty finding living-wage employment.

At the time of his Project Homecoming interviews, Mike was taking medications to help him manage schizophrenia, paranoia, PTSD, and stage-four cancer (diagnosed after his release from prison).  He indicated that he wanted to try to make a life for himself out of prison and “find someone to love.”  He was supporting himself and managing his medical and mental health issues on the $985 per month he received as disability payment from the Veteran Administration. Looking five years into the future, Mike had this to say:

Well, five years from now I’m hoping to be…comfortably remarried…able to love somebody again, because I haven’t really been able to experience love.  Every woman I’ve been with, she ends up having to deal with my…attitude, [not] like [my] present attitude.  And, my violent actions; like I’ve been locked up, you know what I mean.  Being locked up in isolation had a real effect on me. 

Mike pauses for a long time, perhaps looking for the right words to capture so many varied experiences.  He resumes,

“[Isolation] made me really hate and wanna kill.  Seriously…it was real, not imagined.”

 –

Postscript:  Since participating in Project Homecoming and prior to the publication of Lifetime Lockdown, Mike passed away.

In Part I, we revealed that state officials have known for some time that proposed for-profit prisons will not save the state money. We referred to a state law, now partially repealed, that requires for-profit prison corporations to demonstrate cost savings during the competitive bidding process before a contract is awarded.

But once they’re built, the law does not provide any penalty for failure to actually save the state money. So in essence, the for-profit prison corporations can promise us the moon, but there’s nothing to ensure that they will deliver on those promises.

And indeed, they haven’t. Cost comparison studies have consistently shown that Arizona is losing money on private prisons—an average of $3.5 million per year, according to an AFSC analysis.

The cost of a private prison contract is calculated through the “per-diem payment.” This is the amount that Arizona agrees to pay the corporation to house one prisoner for one day. But contracts with for-profit prison operators are renegotiated or amended regularly, often annually. And those per-diem rates invariably increase.

An analysis of the state’s three oldest private prison contracts, (1) With GEO Group for Florence West, (2) With GEO Group for Phoenix West, and (3) with Management and Training Corporation (MTC) for Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility, shows that the per diem rates for regular (non-emergency) beds in these facilities increased an average of 13.9% since the contracts were awarded, as demonstrated in the chart below. 

These records, obtained through a public records request, also show that these contracts were more recently amended to promise 100% occupancy of these private prisons.

Beginning in 2008 with Phoenix West, the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) began working out new agreements in which the corporations agreed to a lower per-diem payment for ‘emergency beds’ (intended to temporarily absorb system overflow), from an average of $30.46 to $10.00 for Florence West and Phoenix West and from $25.10 to $12.60 for Marana.

In exchange for this concession, Arizona agreed to a guaranteed 100% occupancy for all the beds in all three facilities, including the much more expensive “rated beds.” The average per diem rate for these beds is $49.07.

In the cases of the two GEO prisons (Phoenix and Florence West), a 2010 amendment later lowered the guaranteed occupancy for the emergency beds to 95%, but left in place the 100% occupancy rate for the more expensive rated beds.

Amendment 14 for Marana (signed on June 6, 2011) has an additional, more interesting provision. The documents refer to a “dispute” between the Department of Corrections and for-profit operator MTC as to whether or not the 5-year contract renewal was done in a timely manner (ADC says yes, MTC apparently said no). The negotiated settlement of this dispute consolidates 450 rated beds with 50 emergency beds into a total of 500 rated beds. These 500 beds will carry a guaranteed occupancy of 100% at a rate of $49.03 per prisoner, per day.

What’s more, this agreement was applied retroactively to October 6, 2010, effectively erasing all but three months of the reduced emergency bed per diem in the previous amendment (from July 2010). It also guaranteed that Arizona would continue to pay about three times as much for the emergency beds. In essence, ADC is handing over four years’ worth of extra money to keep MTC happy.

How much money? In the July 2010 contract amendment for the facility, the state had bargained the emergency beds down to a $12.60 per diem. Now they will be paying $49.03 per diem for the same beds. Which means that MTC is raking in an extra $36.43 per prisoner, per day. Multiply by 50 such beds, and MTC will make additional profits of $664,847.50 per year– a total of $2,659,390 through the remainder of the contract, which expires in October of 2013. Not bad!

Allow us to pause here to remember that MTC is the corporation whose negligence led to the horrific escapes from the Kingman prison in the summer of 2010, resulting in the murder of a couple vacationing in New Mexico. Yeah, that MTC.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it appears that Arizona is looking to cut MTC loose, at least from managing the Marana prison (they still manage two units at Kingman, for which they have a guaranteed occupancy rate of 97%). The final component of this contract amendment is an agreement that Arizona will buy the Marana prison back from MTC in October of 2013 for the tidy sum of $150,000. You can insert your own jokes about ‘short sales’ here.

Documents recently obtained by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) show that the state of Arizona deliberately circumvented and ultimately repealed a state law requiring private for-profit prison corporations to demonstrate cost savings in their bids on new prison contracts. These records reveal that the state was aware that existing private prison contracts were not saving the state money–despite state laws requiring private prison contractors to deliver such savings.

One such statute, ARS 41-1609.01 (G), previously stated:

“A proposal shall not be accepted unless the proposal offers cost savings to this state.  Cost savings shall be determined based upon the standard cost comparison model for privatization established by the Director.”

In response to a public records request, the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) has confirmed that the “standard cost comparison model” referred to in the statute is the Department of Corrections Operating Per Capita Cost Report (Per Capita Cost Report).

For the past six years, these reports have consistently found that private prisons are not saving the state money, and in many cases, the private beds cost more than equivalent public beds. In fact, an AFSC analysis of ADC Per Capita Cost Reports revealed that between 2008-2010, Arizona overpaid for its private prison beds by $10 million.

Therefore, it would be impossible for a for-profit prison corporation to claim that its proposed prison would save the state money using this data as the basis of the assessment.  But instead of holding the for-profit prison corporations accountable or changing course, the Arizona State Legislature simply began circumventing the law.

The two most recent private prison contracts that have been awarded in Arizona— 1,000 additional beds at Geo Group-operated Central Arizona Correctional Facility (in 2003), and 2,000 additional beds at Management and Training Corporation (MTC)-operated Kingman Cerbat Unit (in 2007)—were deliberately exempted from the both the cost savings and quality review requirements.

The Department of Corrections itself provides the evidence:

“Laws 2003, 2nd Special Session, Chapter 5, Section 15, which authorized the one thousand beds awarded to Central Arizona Correctional Facility (GEO), stated that “Notwithstanding section 41-1609.01, subsections G and K and section 41- 1609.02, subsection B, Arizona Revised Statutes, the director of the department of corrections shall negotiate contracts or amendments to existing contracts for the construction of a total of 1,000 new private prison beds not previously authorized by the legislature, as soon as practicable…”

Similarly, Laws 2007, 1st Regular Session, Chapter 261, Section 8, which authorized the two thousand private beds awarded by contract to ASP-Kingman (MTC) – Cerbat Unit, stated that “…notwithstanding section 41-1609.01, subsections G and K and section 41-1609.02, subsection B, Arizona Revised Statutes, the department of administration shall reissue the revised request for proposals to contract for two thousand private prison beds.”

That one quaint little word, “notwithstanding,” means that the state legislature gave a green light to new private prison contracts without any accountability or expectation that they save money, run safe prisons, or provide a quality of service to the taxpayers footing the bill.

Rather than having to go to the trouble of inserting this exemption into the authorization language of future for-profit prison contracts, the state legislature recently decided to eliminate the cost savings requirement law altogether.

In the 2012 legislative session, the Criminal Justice Budget Reconciliation Act (CJBRA) repealed the sentence in the statute referring to the standard cost comparison model.

But they didn’t stop there.  The bill also repealed a requirement for the state to conduct a quality comparison assessment of public and private prisons.

This statute was the basis of a 2011 lawsuit filed by AFSC seeking to halt the award of a contract for 5,000 new for-profit private prison beds.  AFSC argued that the statute had been on the books since the late 1980’s, but that the statutorily-required assessment had never been completed. While the lawsuit was dismissed on a technical issue of ‘standing,’ the Department of Corrections was compelled to release the first-ever Biennial Comparison Review and cancel the 5,000-bed procurement.

Such a significant concession was deeply embarrassing for the Governor and the Department of Corrections.  The negative press generated by the lawsuit, on top of the scandal generated by the escapes from the Kingman private prison in 2010, amounted to a public relations nightmare.  And the delays and eventual cancellation of the RFP had to be infuriating for the prison corporations, who are investing serious money in their bids for a contract in Arizona.  The removal of the statute was not only necessary to prevent such hiccups in the future, it was also a demonstration of the power of these corporations and state government actors.  The message:  We’re not just above the law, we make the law.

In repealing these requirements, the state legislature has all but admitted that it simply does not care if private prisons are safe, saving money, or providing a quality service. This has only added to the growing pile of evidence that elected officials in Arizona are beholden to the for-profit prison industry. Over the past few years, it has been widely reported that for-profit prison corporations like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group, and Management and Training Corporation (MTC) pour millions of dollars into lobbying and campaign contributions annually in order to secure contracts at the state and federal level.

Several of the key players in the Arizona budget process have accepted contributions from lobbyists, political action committees (PACs) and other individuals/entities associated with for-profit prison corporations. For example:

• Governor Brewer’s campaign manager and top advisor, Chuck Coughlin. Coughlin runs Highground Consulting, which lobbies for CCA in Arizona.
• Paul Senseman, a CCA lobbyist, is also the “spokesman” for Brewer’s PAC
• John Kavanagh, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has accepted numerous campaign contributions from lobbyists associated with the for-profit prison industry.  Kavanagh was instrumental in the passage of the 2012 CJBRA.
• House Speaker Andy Tobin has raked in thousands of dollars from lobbyists and others associated with three of the for-profit prison corporations currently bidding on contracts in Arizona. This includes donations from the CEO’s of both GEO Group and GEO Care, as well as the MTC PAC.

Suspecting that the “invisible hand of the market” was behind the effort to remove the cost and quality assessment requirements, muckraking journalist extraordinaire, Beau Hodai, sent a public records request to Kavanagh’s office seeking documents related to the drafting and passage of the budget bill.  [Mr. Hodai, you may recall, was responsible for first revealing the links between CCA and the Governor’s office in relationship to SB1070 for In These Times.]

In response, Hodai received a two-paragraph letter, denying access to records relating to the bill and invoking “legislative privilege.” Because, after all, what good will it do to remove all accountability from the for-profit prison industry if snooping reporters can uncover records relating to influence working behind the scenes through public records law?

The timing of the repeal coincides with plans to award a new contract for 1,000 more for-profit prison beds. The contract for these beds is expected to be signed by September 1, 2012. Funding for the beds was approved in the same budget that removed the accountability provisions.  Many have questioned the wisdom of building prisons we don’t need (the state’s prison population is decreasing) and can’t afford.  After all, the state is barely beginning to come back from a crippling budget deficit.  And where was Arizona supposed to find the funds for a massive prison expansion, anyway?

Soon after the budget passed, the answer was revealed:  The legislature planned to pay for new prison beds by sweeping $50 million from a housing trust containing money from a settlement the federal government negotiated with big banks in the wake of the mortgage crisis.  The monetary aid was intended for states to assist people impacted by foreclosures.  So, essentially the legislature planned to pay for overpriced prisons we don’t need by stealing the money from victims of the housing crisis.  Classy.

On May 24, 2012, The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest and the William E Morris Institute for Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of distressed homeowners to prevent the transfer.

So, to recap, private prisons are a waste of money and everybody knows it. But because the corporations pour millions into lobbying and campaign donations, Arizona politicians have adjusted state law to “look the other way”– thus paving the way for future contracts unencumbered by pesky accountability measures and ensuring that the state budget will continue to bleed millions into corrections at the expense of education, health care and social services.

Tune in next week for Part Deux, in which we reveal that the per diem rates for the state’s three oldest private prisons have increased an average of 14 % over 5 years and were recently renegotiated to guarantee 100% occupancy.