ACA accreditation does not determine constitutionality. See Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. at 543 n. 27; Rufo v. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail, 502 U.S. 367, 391 n. 13 (1992). "It is absurd to suggest that the federal courts should subvert their judgment as to alleged Eighth Amendment violations to the ACA whenever it has relevant standards." Gates v. Cook, 376 F.3d 323, 337 (5th Cir. 2004).  Although ACA standards "may be a relevant consideration," compliance with them "is not per se evidence of constitutionality."  Id. "[A]ccreditation, in itself, is not a clear indication that [defendant] is properly following its policies and procedures."  Ruiz v. Johnson, 37 F.Supp.2d 855, 924  (D. Tex. 1999) rev'd and remanded on other grounds by Ruiz v. U.S., 243 F.3d 941 (5th Cir. 2001).

Alexander Youth Services Center, Alexander, Arkansas
(AKA Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center)
Group 4 (formerly run by Cornell)
January 26, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The state's youth detention center near Alexander has been accredited for the first time by a national correctional association. But while officials expressed optimism that the center's beleaguered past was nearing an end, two days later they were explaining a Jan. 19 incident involving mistreatment of a teenager that resulted in the firing of three staff members. The private Virginia-based company, G4S, operates the 140-bed detention center under a contract with the state Youth Services Division. Officials said Wednesday the American Correctional Association inspected the quality of life, security, food service, medical care and educational programs in November at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, and later accredited the facility. Center administrator Todd Speight said he viewed accreditation as a sign that the center was making progress. "I see this as turning a corner," Speight said. "We've got a long way to go, but we're making good progress." The previous contractor, Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc., was fired in late 2006. G4S has run the center for about a year. Previously known as the Alexander Youth Services Center or the Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility, the center is the state's largest youth residential treatment facility. Two days after announcing the accreditation, officials said one staff member lost his job for using inappropriate physical force and two others were fired for trying to protect him. Speight said a male employee physically restrained a 17-year-old boy in a dormitory in a manner that was "completely inappropriate." He said two others were fired for misleading investigators because the original report attempted to conceal the nature of the scuffle. Speight, who did not disclose the employees' names, said he was disappointed by the firings, but stressed that center employees are hard workers who try to do their best. "These three did something inappropriate and were held accountable," he said. The Bryant Police Department and the Arkansas State Police are investigating. Scott Tanner, a state ombudsman for juvenile justice issues, said the teenager apparently suffered a sore ankle but his safety was not an issue. "This doesn't seem to be standard operating procedure, but something out of the ordinary," Tanner said. The center's history includes incidents of abuse, mismanagement and educational shortfalls. In 2003, the state and the U.S. Justice Department signed a court agreement to improve shortcomings in fire prevention, suicide prevention, religious policies and educational programs.

American Correctional Association, Lanham, Maryland
February 28, 2005 In These Times
"ACCREDITATION IS AWARDED to the 'best of the best' in the corrections field,'" as the ACA explains on its Web site (www.aca.org). "Accredited agencies have a stronger defense against litigation through . . . the demonstration of a 'good faith' effort to improve conditions of confinement." Yet the fact remains that the ACA is still a private, non-governmental organization with no authority to change prison conditions or to enforce standards. The ACA's accreditation process is kept secret from the public; all that outsiders know for sure is which facilities have been accredited. Today, only 10 percent of government-managed facilities are ACA-accredited, compared with 44 percent of privately managed prisons. Texas leads the pack in prison privatization, followed closely by Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Colorado. How meaningful is ACA accreditation? In July 2004, a severe prison riot broke out at the ACA-accredited Crowley County Correctional Facility, a CCA prison near Pueblo, Colo. For nearly six hours, several hundred Colorado and out-of-state prisoners wreaked havoc on the prison, destroying cells, furniture, plumbing and equipment. Prison administrators had continually ignored complaints about food quality, conditions of confinement and the physical abuse of prisoners. At the time of the riot, only 33 guards were watching over 1,122 prisoners. Several of those guards fled the facility in panic. An extensively detailed 174-page "After Action" report, prepared by the Colorado Department of Corrections, noted CCA's deficiencies and serious errors in running the prison. But CCA retained both its contract to run the prison and its accreditation. In September 2004, prisoners rioted at Kentucky's Lee Adjustment Center, another CCA-run, ACA-accredited prison. Correctional officers working there make less than $ 8.00 an hour, and sometimes work 12-hour shifts. The government-run Mississippi State Penitentiary, which was taken to court in July 2002 over its filthy, vermin- and mosquito-infested death row cells, is also accredited by the ACA (see "Cruel as Usual," January 19, 2004). So is the Santa Fe County Detention Center, run by the Management and Training Corporation, which faces a federal lawsuit for violations of civil and constitutional rights, including its former practice of mandatory strip searches of every inmate.

February 28, 2005 In These Times
IN 1971, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST Jessica Mitford attended the 101st Congress of the American Correctional Association (ACA) in Miami Beach. The ACA was founded in 1870 as the National Prison Association by reform-minded wardens who saw promise in the rehabilitation, religious redemption and humane treatment of prisoners. By 1971 they had developed a substantial membership, attracting 2,000 attendees to that year's congress. In her seminal 1973 book, Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business, Mitford reported that the organization had shifted its focus from reforming and rehabilitating prisoners to reaping profit from incarceration. Exhibitors, she wrote, sold everything from tear gas grenades to stun gun prototypes. And with prisons facing costly lawsuits instigated by prisoners, litigation, Mitford wrote, was "very much on everybody's mind." Thirty years later, how much has changed? The 2005 winter conference in Phoenix -- attended by an estimated 4,000 -- found the ACA still touting its principles: "Humanity, Justice, Protection, Opportunity, Knowledge, Competence and Accountability." The organization stresses that it brings together individuals and groups "that share a common goal of improving the justice system." But with the prison industry now bringing in annual revenue of $ 50 billion, the ACA seems most intent on "improving" profits. Today's ACA is a sleeker version of the organization Mitford examined, complete with online certification courses for correctional employees (starting at $ 29.95) and an expensive prison accreditation process that claims to instill transparency and accountability. Members are enticed to earn accreditation in order to receive up to a 10 percent discount on prison liability insurance (see "A Dubious Distinction"). Keeping litigation costs down is only one way prison corporations profit from incarceration. In addition, for-profit prisons also increase revenues by contracting with other corporations to provide substandard or overpriced services to prisoners. In some states, companies like Microsoft pay prisons to employ prisoners at wages far below market rates. The conference was financially supported by private prison giants such as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut), Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) and Correctional Medical Services (see "Detention Blues," July 5, 2004 for background on CSC). The titles of the dozens of overlapping workshops indicated what the ACA defined as the latest trends in corrections: "Faith-Based Juvenile Programming," "Anti-Terrorism in Correctional Facilities," and "Can't Simply Paint it Pink and Call it a Girl's Program." The real draw of the ACA conference was the exhibitors, who had two full days to showcase their wares. The exhibition hall corridors had been given names like "Corrections Corporation of America Court," "Verizon Expressway," "Western Union Avenue," and "The GEO Court Lounge," where one could sip Starbucks and eat free glazed doughnuts. Here, the discussions were all about increasing profit margins, lessening risks and liabilities, winning court cases, and new, improved techniques and technologies for managing the most troublesome inmates. In the glaringly bright exhibit hall, attendees buzzed around booths, snapping up freebies and admiring the latest in prison technology. Following a day of tours at Arizona jails and prisons, about 60 conference-goers headed to the Canteen fete at an upscale Italian restaurant in the nearby Arizona Center. Cocktails and bottles upon bottles of wine were poured out prior to a multicourse meal. Wardens and top-ranking corrections administrators from Arizona, New Mexico and Maryland sat in the outdoor patio under heat lamps. Salesmen from Canteen were pressing flesh and passing out business cards. There were smiles all around. Like so many other private companies working in prisons, Aramark and Canteen have had their share of problems. Aramark was singled out by "Stop the ACA" union-organized protests outside of the conference. On the third day of the conference, protesters snuck in and placed informational materials in the toilet seat cover holders of convention center bathrooms. The glossy GEO world magazine, distributed at the ACA conference, trumpeted the success of the largest "Private-Public Partnership in the World," a sprawling detention center complex in Pecos, Texas. Known as the Reeves County Detention Facility (RCDC), the complex consists of prisons for both Bureau of Prisons and Arizona state inmates. According to GEO, "the joint venture . . . between GEO Group and Reeves County has been a rewarding challenge." Unmentioned was the fact that a Reeves County judge, Jimmy Galindo, is facing a lawsuit over his role in granting the private operation and expansive construction of RCDC. According to the local Odessa American newspaper, building RCDC has led to the "near financial ruin of the county." RCDC is currently the subject of an FBI and Texas Ranger investigation into tampering with government documents. (In addition, two corrections officers resigned in early January 2005 over sexual molestation charges.) The RCDC is a private-public partnership in more ways than one. Randy DeLay, the brother of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), lobbied the Bureau of Prisons to send its prisoners to RCDC, at the behest of county officials. Randy DeLay isn't the only member of his family with an interest in corrections. In December, Rep. DeLay accepted a $ 100,000 check from the CCA for the DeLay Foundation for Kids. The CCA has become a leader in securing private prison contracts. In FY 2003, the CCA generated more than $ 268.9 million in revenue. Greasing the palms of legislators nationwide hasn't hurt: In 2004, the CCA's political action committee gave $ 59,000 to candidates for federal office -- 92 percent to Republicans. This is part and parcel of an industry in the business of locking up human beings. As the industry has grown, the ACA has moved away from the ideals of rehabilitation and redemption of the human spirit. Today, human beings behind bars are little more than commodities to be traded on the open market. Bill Deener, a financial writer for the Dallas Morning News, writing about recent gains in the private prison market, put it this way: "Crime may not pay, but prisons sure do."

Contractual statements of work generally specify that compliance will be required with the same procedural rules, regulations, and standards that are in force in the public facilities. For example, correctional administrators reported that 57 of the 91 contracts in force at the end of 1997 required that facilities achieve ACA accreditation within a specified time. In addition, administrators reported that 61contracts explicitly required compliance with conditions established in consent decrees or other court-mandated standards. Achieving ACA accreditation is not an outcomes-based performance goal. Rather, ACA standards primarily prescribe procedures. The great majority of ACA standards are written in this form: “The facility shall have written policies and procedures on . . . .” The standards emphasize the important benefits of procedural regularity and effective administrative control that flow from written procedures, and careful documentation of practices and events. But, for the most part, the standards prescribe neither the goals that ought to be achieved nor the indicators that would let officials know if they are making progress toward those goals over time. (Abt Associates, "Government's Management of Private Prisons," September 15, 2003)

Arizona Department of Corrections
A Corrections employee lost his job last week, more than a month after he sent 8,000 e-mails to prison officials around the country  eliciting support for Terry Stewart's bid to lead a private, national correctional organization.  Stewart, who led the state prison system from 1995 to 2002, is running for president-elect of the American Correctional Association.  (Arizona Daily Star, April 29, 2004)

Camino Nuevo Women's Prison, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Corrections Corporation of America
October 11, 2007 Albuquerque Journal
Before Anthony Townes started working at Nuevo Camino in July 2006, he went through a school offered by the Corrections Corporation of America, according to the company's Web site. He was also trained on where all of the cameras were positioned. Three CCA prisons are accredited by the American Correctional Association. Camino Nuevo had yet to receive its accreditation. The prison is supposed to go through an ACA audit next month. ACA officials told the Journal on Wednesday that there are no standards regulating where cameras should be placed and how much of a prison should be monitored. CCA's spokesman Steve Owen said his company would wait to review camera placement after the sheriff's office finished its investigation. But "I don't think there is a correctional facility in the country that has every area of a prison covered by a camera," he said. "Cameras are one of many things you utilize to maintain safety and security in a facility."

Delta Correctional Facility, Greenwood, Mississippi
Corrections Corporation of America
October 4, 2005 Greenwood Commonwealth
The contract between Corrections Corporation of America and Leflore County continues to be pushed back after four months of negotiations. On Monday, The Board of Supervisors approved another extension of the contract until Oct. 10 as the board attorney and CCA ironed out their differences. Within that contract was a clause stipulating that the jail acquire accreditation by the American Corrections Association, "within a reasonable amount of time." Jeb Beasley, who represents the company, said to comply with accreditation standards would cost much more than the annual $15,000.

September 28, 2005 Greenwood Commonwealth
Corrections Corporation of America and the Leflore County Supervisors can't seem to find a solution to the issue of national accreditation for the Leflore County Jail. Supervisors want the question answered before they agree on a new contract for CCA to operate the jail. Accreditation means the jail would meet national standards established for operation of a jail, including safety of prisoners and education of corrections officers. The American Corrections Association would provide accreditation for the jail. "Accreditation is a certificate that basically verifies you are staying within the standards," said Jerry Parker, warden of the jail and its neighbor, Delta Correctional Facility. But the jail's designation comes with a $15,000 yearly fee, which CCA says would be better spent elsewhere. For instance, said Parker, the 12-year-old indoor locks could be replaced for the cost.

September 7, 2005 Greenwood Commonwealth
A representative of an architectural firm has received the authority to negotiate with Malouf Construction over the cost of the Leflore County Justice Center project. Also Tuesday, the supervisors delayed a decision on whether to allow the removal of a clause in the county jail's contract that requires accreditation by the American Correctional Association. Jerry Parker, warden of Delta Correctional Facility, which houses the jail, asked the board that the clause be removed. Parker said that the jail adheres to the ACA standards already and that removing the accreditation requirement would save $10,000 that could be used to improve the jail. Improvements he suggested included an upgrade of the security system and construction of an interior wall to separate pods. Removing the requirement wouldn't change the way the facility operates, Parker said. Plus, he added, jails of this size seldom are accredited anyway.

Hernando County Jail, Hernando County, Florida
Corrections Corporation of America
The Hernando County Jail receives a high score after being reviewed by the American Correctional Association. However, of the six areas that did not meet the recommendations, five were the same ones mentioned in the jail's last audit three years ago. Among them are the following: The jail exceeded its recommended housing capacity by about 10 inmates, housed inmates 15 years old and younger, lacked enough single-cell rooms for inmates, did not have enough "day room" space for inmates to spend time outside their cells, and did not have an indoor exercise facility. Of the six areas, Warden Jim Cooke says he has no plans to change any of them and will simply ask the ACA's commission to reconsider flagging them. In late 1999, The St. Petersburg Times investigated and found that in 1998, the jail had a 78 percent turnover in staff, and 44 percent of officers were not certified. (Hernando Times, October 5, 2000)

Rolling Plains Regional Jail, Texas
Federal authorities say they are investigating allegations that workers at a detention center have mistreated in mates.   Inmate complaints at the Rolling Plain Regional Jail and Detention Center in Haskell range from not getting enough soap and lotion to a lack of proper medical treatment, said Patricia Mancha, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  A special assessment team dispatched from Washington to investigate is expected to issue a report in a few weeks, Mancha said. The 551-bed private jail contracts with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas.  Judy Morrell, a corrections officer for two years, said she quit recently over "inhumane" treatment of inmates. She alerted federal officials about the conditions weeks ago.  "Animals were treated better than the inmates," Morrell, who lives in Seymour, told the Wichita Falls Times Record News in a Thursday story. "I refuse to be a part of it anymore."  Because of overcrowding, some inmates were forced to sleep on the floor and given rations that were substandard and irregular, she said.  (AP, April 16, 2004)

Vermont Legislature
Corrections Corporation of America
October 19, 2005 Rutland Herald
The Indiana resident starts work Nov. 7 as the Springfield prison's new superintendent. Ashburn started working at the sheriff's office in his Maryland hometown while still in high school. He became department sheriff and helped to open a county jail and a state prison. He later worked as an instructor at the Maryland Police and Corrections Training Academy. Robert Kupec, facilities executive for the Vermont Department of Corrections, said he was particularly impressed with Ashburn's experience setting standards and accreditation with the American Correctional Association. Ashburn also worked for Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison management company, for seven years. He was CCA's warden at Marion County Jail, a 1,000-bed prison in Indianapolis, Ind., two years ago and has served as senior director of customer relations and business development at CCA's corporate office. Ashburn's connection with the private company raised flags for Kurt Staudter, chairman of the town's Community Liaison Committee. "I don't have any respect for CCA as a company," he said. CCA came under criticism after a riot last September at its 800-inmate Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky. Half of those inmates were Vermont prisoners, some of whom were involved in the riot. The riot incident, which occurred after Ashburn worked for CCA, put a spotlight on Vermont's policy of sending large numbers of prisoners out of state. The Corrections Department sent a staffer to the Lee Adjustment Center to monitor the treatment of Vermont inmates there. CCA agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for failing to adequately organize, equip, train the staffers whose job was to respond to the riot. When the Springfield prison was built two years ago, Howard Dean promised the committee that as long as he was governor, the state's prison system would not be privatized. Staudter said privatization has become a constant concern.