Ky. Gov Orders Women Moved From Private Prison

[struggle4progress]

Source: Associated Press

Kentucky governor orders 400 women moved from privately run prison after assault reports
By ROGER ALFORD Associated Press Writer
FRANKFORT, Ky. January 8, 2010 (AP)

Gov. Steve Beshear on Friday ordered some 400 female inmates removed from a privately run prison after widespread allegations of sexual misconduct involving the predominantly male corps of corrections officers.

Beshear ordered the women moved from Otter Creek Correctional Complex, operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America, to the state-run Western Kentucky Correctional Complex starting by July 1.

The move came four months after the Kentucky Department of Corrections called for security improvements at Otter Creek in a report on the handling of 18 alleged cases of sexual misconduct by prison guards there ...

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9516971

[BlueIris]

1. Horrifying. nt

[thunder rising]

2. Private prisons have never worked. They are always corrupt.

[ThomCat]

8. And yet, because there is vast money to be made

corporations keep convincing politicians to privatize, and then expand. That money is too tempting for corporations to leave alone. This is especially sick when it means expanding the number of people who are criminalized and locked up for longer and longer periods of time. :(

[NashVegas]

17. CCA Stockholders Are Complicit

In promoting misery.

[snappyturtle]

3. K&R Good for Gov. Beshear! nt

[era veteran]

4. It took him long enough

The only thing I like about Beshear is that he was a better choice than Fletcher. A leader he is not.

[Downwinder]

5. Always "a few bad apples." The whole crop is rotten.

[Solly Mack]

6. k/r

[IScreamSundays]

7. State run facilities are just as corrupt.

Where do you think the people that work for the private sector come from?

[Hekate]

15. Privately run prisons are typically built in dirt-poor communities with high unemployment...

... where it is easy to convince the city council and citizenry that a new prison will provide a significant number of jobs. They are not built next door to an existing, overcrowded, prison. The employees are, from what I gather, pretty much raw recruits, and I question what kind of training they have been given.

They are not accountable to anyone but their stockholders, which is a very bad thing.

State-run facilities are accountable to the law and ultimately to us. If they are corrupt, they can be forced to change by sufficient targeted citizen action.

Hekate

[IScreamSundays]

16. Sounds good in concept but it is far from reality.

Prisons are like sovereigns. They are administered by a warden and they have there own laws, rules, and codes of conduct. Just as no one gets out, no one gets in either. The only people that really know what is going on are the inmates and the custody staff.

California prisons are a prime example. A three-judge federal panel that has deemed that the medical services and the living conditions are "unconstitutional". They have mandated a release of 40,000 prisoners and the State tells them to pound sand. The panel's assignment came about as a result of a wrongful death class action suit because of unconscionable medical care. People made to suffer and die in extreme pain while their medical needs and their rights to humane treatment were neglected. These events are not rare but commonplace in a still broken system that is accountable to NO ONE.

There is a culture of contempt amongst corrections professionals towards the criminals they harbor. Sexual exploitation is widespread and not just in the women's facilities. Extortion, blackmail, assault, et al are everyday prison business. Corrections officers throwing an inmate onto a yard of rival gang members and taking bets on how long they will live just for shits, giggles, and twenty bucks.

Oh, there is more. I will leave the rest to your imagination. It is a whole different world. You have no idea. Corruption in prison is about as easy to eradicate as the depravity in D. C.

[jwirr]

9. I wonder who owns the private prison? They should be named and

sued.

[SharonAnn]

10. Nashville based, CCA - Corrections Corporation of America

[jwirr]

12. I read that I am interested in major stockholders.

[WolverineDG]

14. CCA, why am I not surprised? nt

[Rage for Order]

11. I hope this is the start of a trend that other states will follow n/t

[Adsos Letter]

13. To the contrary; California is seriously considering replacing State run prisons

with the corporate run model.