Despite legal action, the horrors of privately run prisons continue, as inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center have learned. In 2010, inmates filed a lawsuit against CCA over a prison so violent that it was known as “Gladiator School.”
Although CCA denied allegations of widespread violence, an agreement was reached demanding sweeping changes in staffing and safety policies – an agreement that CCA is now accused of violating.
[U.S. District Judge David Carter] noted that CCA has acknowledged giving inaccurate staffing records to the Idaho Department of Correction and that it failed to meet the minimum staffing terms of its $29 million contract with the state of Idaho for several months in 2012.
CCA maintains the understaffing caused no safety issues at the prison.
A hearing is scheduled for August 7 to determine whether CCA is in contempt of court. The agreement was made public, but virtually all case records have been sealed. In June, Idaho news organizations requested that court documents be opened to allow news coverage. CCA’s attorneys contended that the ACLU was seeking to expose the documents only to promote a public scandal, in one small victory against the private prison business, Judge Carter has leaned the way of transparency:
“It is hardly private spite, promotion of public scandal, or libelous, to contend that CCA is wrong, and to submit sworn affidavits from past and current employees in support of that argument,” Carter wrote. “Idaho taxpayers pay CCA to operate one of their prisons. With public money comes a public concern about how that money is spent. Such a public interest cannot be swatted away by calling it a desire for ‘public spectacle’ or a form of ‘private spite’ or any of the other labels that CCA offers.”
Despite CCA’s claims that the news groups’ claims are “replete with conclusory assertions and assumptions, heavy on inaccuracies, and light on applicable law,” I wonder how blameless they could be when they’re worried about scandal if the documents are unsealed. How many more private prison atrocities will we need to see the truth about these companies?
