Idaho Judge Holds Private Prison Company CCA In Contempt For Deliberately Understaffing Prisons
Matt Stroud
Quick hit this morning from the Associated Press about Corrections Corporation of America’s abysmal record in Idaho. Yesterday, a local judge held the company in contempt of court for deliberately understaffing a prison in direct violation of a legal settlement with the ACLU.
From the AP:
[The judge] wrote that CCA had ample reason to make sure it was meeting the staffing requirements at the prison, yet the level of understaffing was apparently far worse than the company originally acknowledged. He is appointing an independent monitor to oversee staffing at the prison, and says steep fines — starting at $100 an hour — will incur if the company violates the agreement again.
The judge also rejected CCA’s contention that the former warden and other company officials didn’t know about the understaffing, saying that they had been warned of the staffing problems multiple times and at the very least failed to check it out.
“For CCA staff to lie on so basic a point — whether an officer is actually at a post — leaves the Court with serious concerns about compliance in other respects, such as whether every violent incident is reported,” Carter wrote.
Read the decision/order here.
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