https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreCivic
CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley, a Republican Party chairman, Robert Crants, and T. Don Hutto, it received initial investments from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University, and Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America.
As of 2016, the company is the second largest private corrections company in the United States. CoreCivic manages more than 65 state and federal correctional and detention facilities with a capacity of more than 90,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia. The company's revenue in 2012 exceeded $1.7 billion. By 2015, its contracts with federal correctional and detention authorities generated up to 51% of its revenues. It operated 22 federal facilities with the capacity for 25,851 prisoners. By 2016, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) along with GEO Group were running "more than 170 prisons and detention centres". CCA's revenues in 2015 were $1.79bn.
CCA has been the subject of much controversy over the years, mostly related to apparent attempts to save money, such as hiring inadequate staff, extensive lobbying, and lack of proper cooperation with legal entities to avoid repercussions. CCA rebranded as CoreCivic amid the ongoing scrutiny of the private prison industry
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreCivic#Controversies
Controversies
Treatment of inmates and disclosure of shortcomings of oversight
Responding to an detainee’s death in 2006 at CCA's immigration jail in Eloy, Arizona, government investigators found the medical care provided meant that "detainee welfare is in jeopardy". A subsequent detainee death at the facility resulted in an additional inquiry and "another scathing report," according to The New York Times.
In August 2009 the ACLU filed suit against CCA and related government agencies because government officials who were responsible for overseeing the care provided failed to provide data about conditions. The Obama administration acknowledged that immigration detention facilities had suffered rates of death of 1 in 10 deaths among detainees, and that these data had been omitted from a list of deaths presented to Congress earlier that year. Two of those deaths took place at CCA's Eloy Detention Center. CCA's Eloy prison had nine known fatalities – more than any other immigration jail under contract to the federal government, according to documents obtained in 2009 under FOIA requests by The New York Times and the ACLU.
In 2013, CCA confirmed that an internal review showed the corporation had falsified records involving about 4,800 employee hours over a period of seven months, at its Idaho State Correctional Center. In 2014 a subsequent KPMG audit showed the actual overbilling was for over 26,000 hours. Governor Butch Otter ordered Idaho State Police to investigate to see if criminal charges should be brought. Otter had received a total of $20,000 in campaign contributions from employees of the company since 2003. In March, the state announced that the FBI was taking over the investigation, as well as investigating CCA operations in other states.
CCA has been criticized for hiring executives from agencies with which it has contracted, in what is known as a "revolving door" of personnel. For instance, Harley Lappin and J. Michael Quinlan, former directors of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, were hired soon after they resigned from BOP following scandal at the agency.
In the fall of 2012, state auditors of the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Ohio, which CCA had acquired and operated since January of that same year, deducted $500,000 for contract violations and inadequate staffing. The prison had suffered a high rate of violence and contraband drugs after CCA took it over.
In July 2017, federal lawsuits were brought against CoreCivic by inmates and employees at the Metro-Davidson county jail in Nashville, Tennessee, after the corporation had failed to adequately respond with referrals, diagnosis, medication, treatment and prevention, to a widespread, long-term scabies outbreak. At least 40 males inmates and as many as 80 females were infected, and inmates who complained reportedly suffered retaliation from management. Laundering of clothes and bedding were not frequent enough or managed appropriately to contain the outbreak. The outbreak had spread to courthouse employees and their families. After being pressured by elected officials, Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said there would be a "serious effort" to take over CoreCivic contract in 2020, although he indicated a takeover by the county would be difficult.[80] Hall is the former president of the American Correctional Association, which has accredited CoreCivic's prisons around the nation, and a former program manager with CCA. In a separate action, the state of California leased the CCA California City prison, which had been faced with closure, and volunteered to hire any current employees who could pass the more stringent background check and complete the rigorous eight weeks of training required in the hiring of state correctional officers.
Lobbying efforts
CCA lobbyists have worked to shape and support private prison legislation in many localities, including Texas, New York, Illinois and Tennessee. Between 2002 and 2012, CCA spent $17.4 million lobbying the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Office of Management and Budget, the Bureau of Prisons, both houses of Congress, and others. This sum included $1.9 million in campaign contributions.
According to the Boston Phoenix, CCA spent more than $2.7 million from 2006 through September 2008 on lobbying for stricter criminal laws and mandatory sentencing terms, in order to generate prisoners. CCA responded that it does not lobby lawmakers to increase jail time or push for longer sentences under any circumstance, noting that it "educates officials on the benefits of public-private partnership but does not lobby on crime and sentencing policies."
Among its risk factors listed in its 10-K annual report, as required by the SEC, CCA includes the following:
The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.
At the federal level, the corporation's lobbying focuses largely on immigrant detention. In 2012, CCA spent nearly $1.8 million lobbying Congress and federal bureaucracies on issues relating to homeland security, law enforcement, immigrant detention, and information disclosure legislation.
Lawsuit about gang influence in Idaho prison
In 2010 the FBI conducted an investigation of CCA practices following an incident at their prison in Idaho Correctional Center in which a prison inmate was beaten unconscious in an inmate attack. A video released by the Associated Press showed the incident underway as guards watched without taking action. Because the matter was under litigation, the company had said publicly that the release of the video is "an unnecessary security risk to our staff, the inmates entrusted to our care and ultimately to the public." CCA said it was cooperating with investigators.
In March 2010, the ACLU filed suit in federal court against CCA in Idaho, alleging that guards were not protecting inmates from other violent inmates. In February 2014, the federal judge hearing the case awarded $349,000 in attorney fees to the ACLU for its costs in bringing the action.[90] A settlement was reached to correct conditions at the prisons run by CCA.
In November 2012, eight inmates filed a federal lawsuit in Idaho alleging that CCA prison officials partially ceded control of the Idaho Correctional Center to gang leaders. The lawsuit cited Idaho Department of Correction reports suggesting that 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 cell blocks to reduce violent clashes. In September 2013, a federal judge held CCA in contempt of court for persistently understaffing the Idaho Correctional Center in direct violation of a legal settlement. In October 2013, CCA was discouraged from bidding on a new contract to operate the Idaho Correctional Center. The state took back control and operations of its prison on July 1, 2014.
Also in 2012, former and current employees in Lieutenant positions, who were categorized as "Salary Employees," filed lawsuits arguing that their daily duties and work hours were not that of a salary employee. They worked considerable overtime. Specifically, they sued CCA because their actual duties were not those of typical salaried employees in criminal justice, nor did they have the authority to "Hire and Fire" as a salaried employee should. CCA lost the lawsuit and paid a settlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars to its current and former Lieutenants.[citation needed] After losing the suit, CCA continued to classify their Lieutenants as salaried employees, saying, "It's cheaper to pay out law suits every couple years than it is to pay them for the (overtime) hours they actually work."
Co-operation with local law enforcement in a school drug sweep
In 2012, CCA conducted a drug sweep of Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande, Arizona in concert with local law enforcement. Caroline Isaacs, the program director of the Tucson office of the American Friends Service Committee said, "It is chilling to think that any school official would be willing to put vulnerable students at risk this way."
2012 fatal prison riot in Mississippi facility
In May 2012 a riot at CCA-operated Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez, Mississippi resulted in the death of a Corrections Officer and injury to sixteen staff members and three prisoners. Twenty-five employees were held hostage during the disturbance. It was quelled by facility staff with assistance from the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.[96] According to a company statement, the fatality was the second time an employee had "lost his life to inmate assault."
Prison incidents and fatalities in Oklahoma
In 2015 violence increased at Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, Oklahoma, including a riot involving 200–300 prisoners in June 2015 that resulted in eleven inmates being hospitalized. On September 13, 2015, a fight between white gangs broke out that resulted in the deaths of four inmates and hospitalization of four others because of their injuries. It was the deadliest event in Oklahoma corrections' history. CCA declined multiple requests for a recorded interview after the Cimmaron events. Corrections Commissioner Joe Allbaugh said, "We don't have the flexibility in our system to segregate these gangs, so they are together in close quarters and so sometimes things happen."
The director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU) of Oklahoma says the non-profit receives numerous complaints about treatment in private prisons: "I would say we get roughly double the number per capita from private prison inmates from public prison inmates." The complaints range from safety concerns to lack of appropriate food and medical care.
Oklahoma sent a "notice to cure" in October 2015 to inform Cimarron Correctional Facility that it was more than seven months behind in reporting use of force standards and reportable incidents. According to DOC's contract with CCA, the business has five days to submit proper reporting, but the state was waiting on reports dating back to March 2015.
The ACLU's Brady Henderson said this demonstrated a practice within the prison system of concealing records of activities. "Even in public facilities, there's an incredible amount of secrecy," a lack of transparency. "It's already hard to know. It gets 10 times harder with a private facility," he said.
In 2015 Allbaugh said that because of overcrowding in the Oklahoma system, his agency would continue to do business with private prison companies. "As much as I don't think the state ought to be doing business with private prisons, I'm glad they're around because they're our only relief valve available to us during this crunch."[98] In March 2016, video from a contraband cell phone was released that showed a group of inmates throwing another prisoner off a tier.
In 2017, two guards at Cimarron, a man and a woman, separately admitted to having had sexual relationships with male inmates there. The woman said she bore a child as a result.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversight
In August 2016, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh C. Johnson announced that the group would be reviewing its use of private detention facilities for housing illegal immigrants. This followed the announcement by the Department of Justice that the Bureau of Prisons would phase out its private contracts. As of 2015, federal revenues made up 51% of CCA's total income. CCA operates 22 federal facilities with a capacity of 25,851 prisoners.
In 2017, however, after the change in administrations, officials under President Donald Trump said that both the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security would continue to use private prisons.
Contempt of court
In May 2016, the company was found in contempt of court for having failed to comply with a court order regarding the Idaho State Correctional Institution. In an apparent attempt to increase profits, the company had been assigning too few staff to the prison. They submitted false staffing reports to appear to be in compliance.
Undercover exposé of mismanagement
In 2016, Shane Bauer went into a prison run by Corrections Corporation of America in Louisiana as an undercover journalist working as a guard for the company. In his report for Mother Jones, he exposed the violence among inmates, poor medical and mental healthcare for prisoners, mismanagement and lack of training for staff.
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