Private prison admits to false staffing records

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Private prison admits to false staffing records

Company confirmed some employees at the prison falsified the number of hours worked
AP
Published: 10:11 April 12, 2013

Boise, Idaho: The private company that operates Idaho’s largest prison admitted on Thursday that it falsified nearly 4,800 hours of staffing records over seven months last year in violation of its annual contract with the state.

The admission by the Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America is the latest in a string of staffing problems alleged or being investigated at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise. Earlier this year, the Idaho Department of Correction asked state police to investigate staffing discrepancies at the lockup.

The company on Thursday confirmed its internal review concluded some employees at the prison falsified the number of hours worked last year, starting in May and running through November. Those workers will be reprimanded, and the company told the Department of Correction it will reimburse the state for the falsified hours.

Department spokesman Jeff Ray said the agency intends to do a separate review of the Corrections Corporation of America’s findings. He said it’s too soon to determine how the state will proceed or act on the contract violation. The company’s annual $29 million contract expires in June 2014 but could be renewed another two years.


Read more: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/usa/private-prison-admits-to-false-staffing-records-1.1169557

[Malik Agar]

1. Surprise Surprise

Corporations colluding with the state to oppress citizens is one of the most horrifying things imaginable...

[cbrer]

2. More "crimes"

More corruption, more profits.

More obvious pandering to the Plutocracy. I haven't found a statistic to indicate how many law makers are in the revolving door between the penal system and the federal/state government.

But I'll bet it's a whopper!

[Moostache]

3. The first problem I saw was "private" prisons...

This country is fucked up beyond all recognition to begin with, but we have also lost our very soul when we lease out the enforcement of the law to the lowest bidding collections of thieves and bandits masquerading as "businessmen".

The STATE sets the law and the STATE (whether you take that to me local government or federal government) is the only entity that should retain the power to incarcerate citizens convicted in a legal trial.

I hate this policy and charade with the white hot passion of a thousand suns.

[sendero]

6. And I do as well..

.. (hate this policy). You watch, there will be NO REPERCUSSION for this fraud. People get thrown in their for-profit jails for things much more trivial.

[duhneece]

11. Some essential services should NEVER be privatized

Profit should never be a part of our judicial system.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Actually, the State doesn't set the law.

They've outsourced it to the corporations, including the private prison industry. That's one of the main forces behind the persistence of the drug laws in the face of all rationality. Gotta keep those cells filled, ya know.

[FiveGoodMen]

20. Right there with ya!

Can't believe it was even contemplated, let alone implemented.

[sofa king]

29. It doesn't seem like it can be very profitable, either.

The prisoners have got to know that it is they who really run the prisons, because they are the ultimate protectors of the prison's profit line. If they get upset, they can directly interfere with that line of profit and likely achieve near-instant results. Some of them surely have noticed that the threat of interference could be a very lucrative line of profit for themselves as well....

The prisoners have the power to make those places far more expensive than they have to be, in a myriad of destructive (and less-destructive) ways that don't necessarily have to worsen conditions within the prison itself.

I assume this is a big reason why the system selects for drug offenders rather than violent criminals, in order to have a docile prison population which is more interested in getting out than making it a better place. But the prison's interest is in prolonging the stay of the non-violent and spitting out the violent as soon as possible, so after a while the quiet ones are going to realize that the key to freedom is to make it too expensive for them to stay where they are.

I believe one corollary of that model's theory is that the prisons themselves will have an interest in aligning with the gangs within the prison. Look at that possibility for a moment, and then recent events in Colorado and Texas, and suddenly things begin to look very dark....

[bluedigger]

4. I take it the workers are being reprimanded for getting caught.

Fraud is part of their corporate profit model, after all.

[sendero]

7. In crimes..

... accomplices witting or unwitting are culpable in the eyes of the law. Which means claiming that "employees did it" is meaningless, it is BY DEFINITION the fault of the COMPANY because BY DEFINITION the company did it.

[DetlefK]

5. Let's apply capitalism: If a company delivers shoddy work, fire it.

[KansDem]

8. There's only one place for private-prison corporate criminals...

Public prisons.

[Sunlei]

9. who watches them? private prisons and private schools 'self-regulate', this is why states are BROKE

[dotymed]

10. I live near Nashville (50 miles)

the corporation used to be named CCI not CCA (maybe it still is here)...anyway, CCI also handles the local probation scam. The probationers (?) have to pay weekly fee's in order to not violate their probation.
Almost everyone in the area is aware that people here are are incarcerated for violation of probation (and their probation extended) more than any other "crime." Most people are "violated" because they cannot afford the weekly fee's.....
we are slaves.
All "criminal (misdemeanors too) convictions", no matter how trivial, include as part of the sentence, at least one year of probation...for the first "conviction."
from there it is usually a spiral into debt and incarceration unless you can afford to pay off the CCI fees. Then, you are usually placed on "unsupervised probation".
Honestly, that IS the system here. Even for people unable to pay child support...

[Moostache]

15. Sweet Christ! How the hell is there no open rebellion in TN?!?!?!

That kind of ridiculous shell game is completely nonsense and should be grounds for prosecution of everyone involved in such a scam.

When there is no justice before an impartial law, we do not have a society worth defending.

[Occulus]

17. Because too many, including right here on DU, are "Law And Order" punishist motherFUCKERS.

They gleefully insist there is no problem with this, if they couldn't do the time they shouldn't have done the crime, etc., etc.

Sick, sick shitheads, all of them, and they take joy in it.

[Moostache]

23. The most destructive element of western thought - the blood lust for punishment.

Whether people are believers or not, the Judea-Christian obsession with crime and punishment - whether temporal or in the form of that ghastly human torture device called "hell" (eternal punishment for time bounded behavior? it took a really sick mind to dream that up) is the root cause of so much pain and suffering right now it boggles the mind.

The world would be such a better place if people simply focused less on the need for their pound of flesh all the time...

[MindPilot]

25. ^^^^^THIS^^^^^ + teragoogleplex

If you want to find a single root cause for most of our nation's ills--this is it. Our whole cultural disinclination to provide for the least among us is rooted in the idea that people who make "bad choices" should be punished, not helped. Even when those "bad choices" are not necessarily conscious decisions--like your parents, or getting laid off--the people affected deserve not help and compassion but wrath. Ate too much? No healthcare for you! Can't find a job? Well, maybe cutting off your UI will help you get motivated.

Ask any person who opposes universal signal payer why they do so, and if they are anywhere close to honest, they will tell you "because I shouldn't have to pay for someone else 'bad choices'". It is that punitive culture consistently reenforcing the Biblical construct that suffering is the ticket to a good afterlife and therefore we need a lot of it.

[libodem]

33. Beautifully put

[MindPilot]

24. I and will call out those pieces of shit every chance I get

There is nothing more disgusting than someone who claims to be liberal and progressive demanding more and harsher punishment.

[dotymed]

21. I moved to Indiana for 20 years because of CCI..

The best thing I ever did. I joined the Carpenters Union and earned a living wage..
Still, in TN. when you try to represent yourself in "court", you are not allowed to speak...seriously. This is the most corrupt state That I have seen and I have been to many places.
The majority of the population are sheeple and very uninformed. If you demand your rights, you're arrested. The area I live in is mostly military or retired. Needless to say it is an R paradise with a heavily militarized police presence. I am always amazed at how many cops are employed here. 2-3 cars for every "traffic" stop. They just made a law that unless you are a "pain management" Dr. you better not routinely prescribe controlled substances. I have alot of old injuries and am in the last stages of heart failure. Two days ago, my (ex-army, money motivated) "Dr." informed me that I would have to see a pain dr, to get my the meds I have been on for over a decade. My injuries are well documented, I am disabled. My Cardiologist in Nashville recently informed me that now "it is just a quality of life situation." I won't get it here. Those pain docs. keep you on a leash and often require 2 monthly visits where they count your medicine..
My Indiana dr,'s have told me to come there....7 hour trip..

[Moostache]

22. I'm so sad to hear that...my condolences for a nation that easily forgets what its swears not to.

I wish that your situation were better and that more people cared more deeply for their living fellow man than for the pursuit of the pictures of dead ones on paper bills. I hope that you are able to find a way to get the medicine that will make the days more bearable for you. Good luck.

[dotymed]

32. Thanks.

My Cardiologist in Nashville, e-mailed me and I see him on Wednesday. I suspect that he will have me a family physicians appointment set up at Vanderbilt. He was pissed.
I wish that I could tolerate the 7 hour (one way) drive to see my previous Dr. in Indiana. He is a real Dr. He is in favor of Universal health care, as any Dr. who truly cares about people should be.
During my SS "battle" he wrote them as did my Cardiologist. I miss them.My cardiologist at IU is a pioneer in the study and treatment of my specific heart disease.
The tough part is my 16 y.o. baseball playing Son. I coached him until he was about 11. After breakfast he asked me to play catch. I wish.. not whining..it's a part of life.

I do wish I could leave him with a better country than America of present.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. CCA is a nasty piece of work.

I find it chilling they are considered in Arizona to be official police dept:

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.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022642028

[valerief]

14. But it's not a crime when private industry does it. Not in America. nt

[IDemo]

16. There's a reason they don't need all those man-hours

CCA gets help running the place from the inmates:

BOISE, Idaho -- The ACLU of Idaho says Corrections Corporation of America appears to be violating a settlement reached with inmates in a so-called "Gladiator School" lawsuit over violence at an Idaho prison run by the company.

The organization sent CCA a letter last week detailing its concerns about safety at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise, executive director Monica Hopkins said. The letter was sent just a day before by a group of inmates filed a separate lawsuit in Boise's U.S. District Court alleging continued mismanagement and gang violence at the prison.

The settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union stemmed from a 2010 lawsuit the organization filed on behalf of inmates at the prison, contending the CCA-run facility was so violent that inmates called it "Gladiator School." CCA firmly denied the allegations, but the two sides reached a deal requiring staffing and safety changes at the prison.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/aclu-idaho-corrections-corporation-of-america-gladiator-school-_n_2133450.html

[Sunlei]

18. I know someone who spent time in a private prison. you 'work' long hours in there and they will put

a couple dollars in your food account so you can eat enough. I bet they charge the State for a well paid employee.

They should really weigh every inmate on entrance day. The guards can withhold meals and cut off water on people they don't like. No one regulates or watches guards.

[MindPilot]

27. The figure is ~$300 per day per inmate

And they are guaranteed a 93% fulfillment rate.

I have that from someone on the inside of a federal facility.

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[kestrel91316]

26. The job of corporations is to generate ever-increasing profits.

This is impossible in the long run without decreasing expenditures and quality of product/services. Lying, cheating, and stealing are just part of what is necessary to keep the numbers looking good so the shareholders will agree with paying board members obscene amounts of money.

[MindPilot]

28. a chronicle of the first 18-months in the life of the nation’s first for-profit prison

Timeline tells the story of a facility that has rapidly become unsafe for inmates, employees, and the surrounding community.

[Sunlei]

31. Our Federal funds will be used to clean up these messes after they finish with the 30 year

contracts taking all the state money. Remember 'they' said it costs 20k to house one prisoner? thats why the states fork over state taxpayer money under that contract rate forever.

This prison corp also claims on their website, they are the number one employer of our returning Vets. So I bet they get all those federal bonuses and have employees they don't even have to provide medical insurance.

They also wrote the laws in states like Az. before all the round-up of unpapered mexicans began. Then they took over federal immigration prisons for profit.

Welcome, to America the land of peonage.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

30. This is important because CCA maximizes its profits by relying upon gangs which work cheaper than

regular guards.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2665430

The falsified records make it appear that CCA is employing guards for the alleged hours that they worked.