APNewsBreak: FBI investigates prison company
Source: Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho The FBI has launched an investigation of the Corrections Corporation of America over the company's running of an Idaho prison with a reputation so violent that inmates dubbed it "Gladiator School."
The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA has operated Idaho's largest prison for more than a decade, but last year, CCA officials acknowledged it had understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours in violation of the state contract. CCA also said employees falsified reports to cover up the vacancies. The announcement came after an Associated Press investigation showed CCA sometimes listed guards as working 48 hours straight to meet minimum staffing requirements.
The Idaho State Police was asked to investigate the company last year but didn't, until amid increasing political pressure, the governor ordered the agency to do so last month. Democratic state lawmakers asked the FBI to take up the case last month.
Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray confirmed Friday that the FBI met with department director Brent Reinke on Thursday to inform him about the investigation. Idaho State Police spokeswoman Teresa Baker said her agency was no longer involved with the investigation and the FBI has taken it over entirely.
Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/03/07/3067302/apnewsbreak-fbi-investigates-prison.html
mia
(8,362 posts)In 2012, a Boise law firm sued on behalf of inmates contending that CCA had ceded control to prison gangs so that they could understaff the prison and save money on employee wages, and that the understaffing led to an attack by one prison gang on another group of inmates that left some of them badly injured.
Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/03/07/3067302/apnewsbreak-fbi-investigates-prison.html#storylink=cpy
PumpkinAle
(1,210 posts)The ACLU sued on behalf of inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center in 2010, saying the facility was so violent that inmates called it "Gladiator School" and that understaffing contributed to the high levels of violence there.
In 2012, a Boise law firm sued on behalf of inmates contending that CCA had ceded control to prison gangs so that they could understaff the prison and save money on employee wages, and that the understaffing led to an attack by one prison gang on another group of inmates that left some of them badly injured.
But, of course, private anything is so much better because you can lie, cheat and steal and underfund just as long as profits are made - heavy
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)Companies like this lobby heavily in State legislatures. The States even have to sign contracts which require that a high minimum of beds be filled, or the State will actually have to pay for the empty beds anyway. That, of course, leads to pressures on law enforcement to get out there and bust someone for some damn thing, so the State isn't made to look stupid when they pay the company for imprisoning inmates who aren't there.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Canada said that, "public-run prisons had measurably better outcomes"
Israel doesn't have 'for profit' prisons either. Their Supreme Court ruled that privately run prisons are unconstitutional, finding that "for the State to transfer authority for managing the prison to a private contractor whose aim is monetary profit would severely violate the prisoners' basic human rights to dignity and freedom."
freshwest
(53,661 posts)erronis
(15,330 posts)The penal corporatists are hand-in-hand with the corrupt politicians trying to incarcerate more and more of the populace.
While the real criminals own 99% of the wealth and get away with murder.
jsr
(7,712 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I think they would enjoy gladiator school
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)* must have been a lot of cruel & unusual punishment that happened in the for-profit "Gladiator School"
bemildred
(90,061 posts)IDemo
(16,926 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)NBachers
(17,136 posts)Mbrow
(1,090 posts)The state has been tea party happy for many years now, the assholes seem to use us as practice and the people buy it hook, line and sinker. Maybe if they can find out if Otter was involved and bust him as well, that would make my day.