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Corrections Corporation of America Wants Lawsuit Held During FBI Probe


Overview

Originally Published: 03/12/2014

Post Date: 03/18/2014

by REBECCA BOONE | Associated Press


Attachment Files

PDF | Corrections Corporation of America 2013 10K

Summary/Abstract

Corrections Corporation of America one of the major predatory players in the Prison outsourcing industry as stated in its December 31, 2013 10K was notified its contract for managing the Idaho Correctional Center will be terminated in June of 2014. The under staffing and current problems at this facility are certainly not a coincidence. No more business equals decrease in service levels.

Content

See attached PDF for CCA 10K


Private prison company Corrections Corporation of America is asking a federal judge to put an Idaho lawsuit on hold while an FBI investigation into the company is underway.

In a motion filed in Boise's U.S. District Court earlier this week, CCA's attorney Kirtlan Naylor said the company wants to stave off turning over documents or taking part in depositions until the federal fraud investigation ends.

CCA has operated the Idaho Correctional Center for more than a decade. In 2012, eight inmates at the facility sued the Nashville, Tenn.-based company, contending poor management and chronic understaffing led to an attack in which they were jumped, stabbed and beaten by a prison gang. The inmates also contend that CCA covered up the understaffing in monthly reports to the state of Idaho as part of a so-called "ghost worker scheme" designed to boost profits for the company despite putting inmates at risk.

At the start of 2013, the state announced it was launching an investigation into whether CCA understaffed the facility in violation of its $29 million annual contract. The state made that decision after an investigation by The Associated Press showed CCA reports sometimes listed guards working as much as 48 hours straight in order to meet minimum staffing requirements.

CCA later acknowledged that it had understaffed the facility by thousands of hours and that employees had falsified staffing records given to the state. The company has since agreed to pay Idaho $1 million to settle the understaffing issue. CCA also strongly contends that the understaffing had no impact on inmate safety and no bearing on the attack on the eight inmates who are suing.

But last week, the FBI notified state agencies that it was investigating whether CCA officials committed fraud or any related crimes in connection with the Idaho prison.

U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson told Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden in a letter dated March 7 that the state must preserve all records connected to CCA because of the FBI investigation. Olson also sent a letter to Wasden's chief of staff, Sherm Furey, advising him that employees at the Idaho Department of Correction and other state agencies are considered essential witnesses to the investigation.

"Further public release of information from these witnesses could negatively affect the investigation," Olson wrote in the letter, which the AP obtained through a public records request. "Ultimately however, the decision to submit to an interview in connection with pending litigation is the witness' alone."

CCA's attorney, Naylor, told the court in a motion filed Monday that allowing the depositions in the ghost-worker lawsuit to move forward could force CCA employees who aren't even named in the lawsuit to decide whether to ignore subpoenas ordering them to attend depositions or risk providing testimony that could later be used against them in a criminal case.

Normally, if a witness invokes the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuses to testify, a jury is free to assume that the witness' testimony would have been negative. If CCA employees not named in the ghost-worker lawsuit plead the Fifth during depositions or a trial, a jury could assume that CCA's defense was weak, Naylor said.

"Although little is known about the scope of the FBI's investigation at this time, many of these witnesses are likely either unaware of the implications of the investigation or have yet had the opportunity to assess the implications for them, personally. Should a witness elect to invoke his or her Fifth Amendment privilege, CCA — the sole Defendant in this matter at this time and the subject of the FBI's inquiry — runs the risk of being on the receiving end of the resulting negative inference," Naylor wrote.

CCA let gangs take over Idaho prison to save money on staffing

REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press – March 13th 2014

A gang war that appears to have taken over parts of an Idaho private prison is spilling into the federal courts, reports Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone, with some inmates contending prison officials are ceding control to gang leaders in an effort to save money. Eight inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center are suing the Corrections Corporation of America, Boone reports, contending the company is working with a few powerful prison gangs to control the facility south of Boise and spend less on staffing.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Boise's U.S. District Court, paints the prison as a place where correctional officers work in fear of angering inmate gang members and where housing supervisors ask permission from gang leaders before moving anyone new into an empty cell. 

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A gang war that appears to have taken over parts of an Idaho private prison is spilling into the federal courts, with some inmates contending prison officials are ceding control to gang leaders in an effort to save money on staffing.

Eight inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center are suing the Corrections Corporation of America, contending the company is working with a few powerful prison gangs to control the facility south of Boise.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Boise's U.S. District Court, paints the prison as a place where correctional officers work in fear of angering inmate gang members and where housing supervisors ask permission from gang leaders before moving anyone new into an empty cell. The inmates also contend that CCA officials use gang violence and the threat of gang violence as an “inexpensive device to gain control over the inmate population,” according to the lawsuit, and that housing gang members together allows the company to use fewer guards, reducing payroll costs.

“The complaint alleges that CCA fosters and develops criminal gangs,” attorney Wyatt Johnson, who along with T.J. Angstman represents the inmates, said in a statement. “Ideally, the lawsuit should force this to come to an end.”

The inmates point to investigative reports from the Idaho Department of Correction that suggest gangs like the Aryan Knights and the Severely Violent Criminals were able to wrest control from staff members after prison officials began housing members of the same gangs together in some cellblocks to reduce violent clashes.

The power shift meant a prison staffer had to negotiate the placement of new inmates with gang leaders, according to the department reports, and that prison guards were afraid to enforce certain rules.

Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison company, says its top priority is the safety and security of its prisons, employees and inmates.

“We take all allegations seriously and act swiftly if our standards have not been met,” spokesman Steve Owen said in a statement. “… At all times, we are held to the highest standards of accountability and transparency by our government partners, and expect to be.”

Owen said the Nashville, Tenn.-based company has operated the Idaho prison in partnership with the state correction department for more than a decade, providing housing and rehabilitation for “some of the state's most challenging inmate populations.”

Both Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter's spokesman Jon Hanian and state Corrections Department spokesman Jeff Ray declined to comment because of the litigation, though neither the state nor the department is named as a defendant. The Idaho Correctional Center is the largest prison in the state, with an operating capacity of 2,080 beds.

The inmates also cite security footage of a violent gang attack carried out in May, which they say shows CCA staffers failed to follow basic safety and security policies.

The video, filed with the lawsuit, shows six members of the Aryan Knights prison gang jumping out of a janitor supply closet to attack seven members of a rival gang. The Aryan Knights in the video are armed with knives and other weapons made out of toothbrushes, drawer pulls and other materials.

Just one guard appears to be nearby at the time, and that guard tries to pull away one inmate who is repeatedly stabbing another. Other guards soon arrive and jump in to separate the offenders, deploying pepper spray and ordering the inmates to the ground.

After the attack the state Department of Correction completed a series of investigative reports, which showed CCA staffers weren't following basic safety and security policies at the prison.

The reports said prison staff failed to take such basic steps as making sure other inmates didn't go near the weapons used in the fight. As a result, the chain of evidence wasn't preserved, according to the reports, and it's unclear if any of the inmates were ever criminally charged.

The reports also include details from an interview with CCA's unit manager at the prison, Norma Rodriguez, who told department investigators that the gang members essentially were running some of the cellblocks.

Rodriguez said sex offenders can't be housed in those units because they're at risk of attacks by gang members, and inmates without gang affiliation can't be moved into the pods because it would force them to join the gangs or be targeted themselves.

Rodriguez told the corrections investigators that as a result, she had to negotiate new inmate placements with gang leaders. She also said prison guards were afraid to enforce basic safety rules, such as keeping inmates from covering over the small windows on their cell doors. Rodriguez said that when she tries to enforce the rules, gang members warn her that she's only making it “hard on” the other guards, implying her staffers will be attacked in retaliation.

The corrections department documents also imply that guards may have helped the inmates plan for the attack shown in the security footage, or they at the least looked the other way.

A similar incident, with a group of gang members hiding in a closet to attack rivals, happened less than a year ago, according to the reports, so CCA guards knew such an attack was a possibility.

In the May attack, only one guard was on hand because the other had gone to get candy bars and sodas for the inmates in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, according to the reports, and cell searches were sometimes skipped or shoddily done, allowing the inmates to build and store weapons.

Guards apparently also failed to take the basic security measure of doing a head count as offenders moved from the cellblock to the dining and recreation areas, so it wasn't immediately clear that the six inmates were hiding in the janitor's closet.

 

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