American Service Group
Brentwood, Tennessee
PHS
August 17, 2007 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc. said Thursday that its Prison Health Services subsidiary would lose its contract with the Alabama Department of Corrections. The contract expires on Oct. 31. PHS provides medical services to inmates. Brentwood-based America Service Group said it would update its fourth-quarter earnings estimate later. It had projected revenues from a renewed contract of $12.3 million in the three months ending Dec. 31.

April 12, 2007 Business Wire
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR) announced today that it has executed an asset purchase agreement for the sale of certain assets of its indirect subsidiary, Secure Pharmacy Plus, LLC (SPP), to Maxor National Pharmacy Services Corporation (Maxor). Additionally, as a part of the transaction, Maxor and Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS), the Company's primary operating subsidiary, have entered into a long-term pharmacy services agreement pursuant to which Maxor will become the provider of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to PHS. The asset purchase agreement is to be effective April 30, 2007, subject to standard closing conditions. The pharmacy services agreement will commence May 1, 2007, subject to the closing of the asset purchase agreement. America Service Group Inc., based in Brentwood, Tennessee, is a leading provider of correctional healthcare services in the United States. America Service Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a wide range of healthcare and pharmacy programs to government agencies for the medical care of inmates. More information about America Service Group Inc. can be found on the Company's website at www.asgr.com or www.prisonhealthmedia.com.

December 11, 2006 AP
Prison health care and pharmacy service provider America Service Group Inc. lowered its 2006 guidance again on Monday, but said it expects "stronger, more consistent performance from its contract portfolio in 2007." The company now sees adjusted 2006 earnings of $5.3 million, or 50 cents per share, on sales between $640 million and 650 million. In October, the company forecast adjusted earnings in a range of 58 cents to 61 cents per share, on sales between $650 million to $655 million. In August, America Service said it saw profit of 72 cents to 75 cents per share on revenue between $650 million and $660 million for the year. The company said its lower 2006 outlook is due mainly to the Florida Department of Corrections' decision to "reject all bids to provide comprehensive health care services in its Region IV," and to expected cost increases, including professional liability expenses. Looking toward 2007, the company sees adjusted earnings of $8.2 million, or 86 cents per share, on sales in the range of $570 million to $580 million. Shares fell 91 cents, or 5.8 percent, to $14.69 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed unchanged at $15.60 on the Nasdaq.

November 14, 2006 Burlington Free Press
Vermont prisons are looking for a new medical services provider for the second time in three years following a decision by Prison Health Services Inc. to opt out of its contract with the state. Robert Hofmann, state Corrections Department commissioner, said Monday the Tennessee-based Prison Health Services notified him Oct. 30 that it would stop providing care to the state's 1,700 in-state inmates at the end of January. "Obviously, we're disappointed and a little bit surprised," Hofmann said of the company's decision. "There were some bumps in the road at the start of their contract but, really, over the past 12 months, they had been doing a very good job." The company's top three officials in Vermont resigned their posts just 10 months after it began operations in Vermont and the firm, along with the state, was sued last month by the family of an inmate who died from heroin withdrawal symptoms in 2005. Prison Health Services won the three-year, $26 million contract to provide health care to inmates at the state's nine prisons in early 2005. The previous contractor, Correctional Medical Services Inc., had come under fire for $700,000 in billing mistakes, including $144,547 for services that company employees never provided. Susan Morgenstern, a spokeswoman for Prison Health Services, said Monday that the company decided to opt out of the contract at the end of the second year because it was losing too much money. "The cost of providing health care to inmates has risen beyond the contract's ability to cover that cost," Morgenstern said in a statement released by the company. "Prison Health Services will never compromise the quality of our patient care because of financial reasons." According to a company Web site, Prison Health Services lost $1 million on its Vermont contract in the third quarter of 2006 alone, a figure that Hofmann disputed. Morgenstern said the staffing costs were an issue for the company in Vermont.

August 9, 2006 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager's campaign took her opponent, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, to task for taking donations from those pursuing Dane County business. Lautenschlager's aides said that was inconsistent with Falk's statements that as attorney general she would not take money from people subject to enforcement actions by the state Department of Justice. Lautenschlager's campaign blasted Falk for accepting a $10,000 donation June 27 from the political action committee of Unite Here, a laundry workers union. The donation came six days after Dane County started an audit of non-union laundry contractor Superior Health Linens - a company that Unite Here has long criticized for its labor practices. Lautenschlager's campaign also criticized Falk for: • Accepting $1,500 from America Service Group Inc.'s political action committee in 2004 because its subsidiary Prison Health Services has a contract with the county. • Taking $2,500 from Government Payment Service CEO Dale Conrad last year because his firm has a county contract allowing people to pay bail with credit cards. • Receiving money from developers and others who sat on a committee that Falk convened to advise her on a land-use plan.

August 2, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
America Service Group Inc. saw its earnings for the second quarter plummet 81 percent compared to results for the same period last year. The provider of prison health care and pharmacy services showed a profit of $514,000, or 5 cents per diluted share, in the quarter ended June 30 compared to $2.8 million, or 26 cents per diluted share last year. Though earnings were down, the second quarter saw the company return to an operating profit - something that hasn't occurred since the second quarter last year. Nevertheless, the company's stock dropped nearly 19 percent, trading at $11.66 at 10:20 a.m. The 52-week range of the stock is $11.32 to $23.20. Brentwood-based America Service (NASDAQ: ASGR) lowered its guidance and now expects revenues to fall between $650 million and $660 million and earnings to range between $7.7 million to 8 million. The company cited an underperforming Florida Department of Corrections contract as the cause of the reduction. The company's previous guidance called for revenues between $660 million and $680 million and earnings between $9.4 million and $10 million. Second-quarter revenues were on the upswing, coming in at $160 million compared to $139 million in the second quarter a year ago. Expenses increased to $150 million in the quarter compared to $128 million in the second quarter last year. The company also recorded $1.0 million in charges associated with an audit committee investigation of its Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary. On March 15, the company said an investigation into financial improprieties at its Secure Pharmacy Plus unit found that the company failed to properly credit customers with discounts, rebates and savings and failed to give customers proper credit for returned pharmaceuticals. Expenses related to the audit amounted to $4.6 million through the first half of this year and the company expects it will spend another $400,000 to $900,000. The company continued its stock repurchase program approved in July of last year to repurchase and retire 217,000 shares at a value of $3.0 million. The repurchase was suspended during part of the second quarter when the company received a third-party proposal to acquire pharmacy services subsidiary Secure Pharmacy Plus. Ultimately, a deal wasn't reached.

June 22, 2006 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc. says it has received notice that its stock won't be dropped from the Nasdaq National Market. Last month, after two directors quit, the Brentwood-based prison health company said it had received notice that it was no longer in compliance with Nasdaq rules requiring a majority of independent directors. On June 14, ASG added four independent directors. On Wednesday, it said Nasdaq had determined the company is now in compliance with rules governing board membership and corporate oversight.

June 14, 2006 Tennessean
Brentwood’s America Service Group Inc., the prison health company whose stock was in danger of being dropped by the Nasdaq National Market, named four new independent members to its board today. The move should bring the company back into compliance with Nasdaq’s rules requiring a certain number of outside directors and allow the stock to continue to be listed, company officials said this afternoon. Two outside directors bolted from America Service Group’s board earlier this year after they unsuccessfully tried to oust CEO Michael Catalano. New board members are: • John C. McCauley, assistant vice chancellor of risk and insurance management at Vanderbilt University. • William E. Hale, formerly president and chief executive of Beech Street Corp., a preferred provider organization. • John W. Gildea, managing director of Gildea Management Co., and a former board member of America Service Group from 1986-1999. • William M. Fenimore, managing partner of BridgeLink LLC, Swiss-based capital advisors.

May 30, 2006 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc., the beleaguered prison health-care company, expects to beat a June 14 deadline to fill at least one vacancy on its board of directors so its stock won't be dropped from the Nasdaq National Market. Under Nasdaq rules, the departure this month of two board members who quit after trying to oust CEO Michael Catalano meant the company no longer complied with a requirement that a majority of its directors be independent. A third independent director left in December. Only two of its four remaining directors have no other ties to the company. ASG has until its next annual meeting, scheduled for June 14, to address the vacancies on its board. Catalano said the company would fill at least two of the three vacant seats by that deadline. "We're confident we'll come back into compliance," he said. But this month's departure of two board members and Nasdaq's threat to drop or delist the Brentwood-based company's stock as a result aren't its only problems. It has come under fire in several states over the quality of medical care it provides to inmates. The Washington Post in an editorial recently called on officials to keep a closer eye on the company's Prison Health Services subsidiary after the Associated Press reported that some inmates in Virginia had said medical care there was so shoddy that they feared for their lives. Last spring, a report by the Metro Health Department blamed the death of a diabetic inmate at Metro Jail on myriad failures by the jail's nurses, who were employed by PHS. Catalano wouldn't comment on the specific allegations against the company but said competitors get similar complaints about the quality of care they provide.

May 19, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
America Service Group Inc. announced today it received an expected notice on May 17 from NASDAQ Listing Qualifications indicating it no longer complies stock exchange's independent director and audit committee requirements. The company received the notification due to the resignation of Michael E. Gallagher and Carol R. Goldberg on May 6 and May 8 from the company's board of directors. NASDAQ rules requires that a majority of board members be comprised of independent directors and that the company's audit committee be comprised of at least three members, each of whom are independent. Gallagher and Goldberg were members of the company's audit committee. The addition of one qualified independent director to serve on the audit committee will allow the company to regain compliance. The company is actively conducting a search for at least two independent directors to serve on its board of directors and audit committee, according to a release announcing the NASDAQ notice. Gallagher is the director of Edgar Group LLC, a health care consulting firm and was a partner in Shamrock Investments LLC, a health care advisory firm. Goldberg is president of AVCAR Group Ltd., a management consulting firm. Brentwood-based America Service (NASDAQ: ASGR - News) provides prison health services through its subsidiaries Prison Health Services and Secure Pharmacy Plus.

May 11, 2006 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc. says two members of its board quit after saying they'd lost confidence in the company's chief executive officer. Michael Gallagher, who led the board's audit committee, which recently looked into mismanagement at the company's prison pharmacy unit, submitted his resignation on Friday. Carol Goldberg, who led the board's compensation com- mittee, resigned on Monday. Brentwood-based ASG, which is being sued by shareholders in federal court over the problems at its Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary, disclosed the resignations in a regulatory filing after the markets closed Tuesday. According to the filing, the company's remaining board members met Tuesday and "confirmed their view that the company's chief executive officer should continue to serve in that capacity." CEO Michael Catalano, who chairs the board, "abstained from consideration of this matter," the company said in its filing. On Wednesday, Catalano said in a statement that the company wouldn't allow itself to become distracted by the developments. "While the public filings from America Service Group Inc. speak to the issues of two directors' resignations, I think it is important to know that our focus remains unchanged," Catalano said. "The dedicated health-care professionals representing our company are committed to the mission of providing quality medical care to the patients we serve in jails and prisons nationwide." Gallagher and Goldberg, who couldn't be reached yesterday, told a meeting of the board's governance committee they believed "the company would be better served by replacing its chief executive." Gallagher apparently resigned soon after the meeting. Goldberg e-mailed her resignation letter to the company on Monday. She said simply, "I hereby tender my resignation as a director of America Service Group Inc., effective today. I wish the company the best in its future endeavors." In his letter, Gallagher wrote that because "my fellow independent board members are unwilling to make a change … I have no other alternative but to hold true to the courage of my convictions and resign. "It is my business judgment that while there are many good people in the executive ranks of the company there nonetheless needs to be a change at the top," Gallagher said. "Such change is urgently needed in order to maximize the probability of successfully meeting the company's challenges and to ensure the full implementation of the recommendations resulting from the recent investigation (into Secure Pharmacy Plus)," he said. In March, the company said the audit committee recommended strengthening the company's internal controls and compliance functions after finding that problems at Secure Pharmacy Plus caused the company as a whole to post inflated earnings over a four-and-a-half-year period. ASG, which provides health services at jails and prisons nationwide, said that problems with the subsidiary had caused the company as a whole to overstate profits by $2.1 million for 2001 through the second quarter of 2005. It also agreed to refund $3.6 million to clients who were overcharged for prescription drugs. It found that some clients weren't properly credited with discounts or rebates on drug purchases and others weren't properly credited for prescription drugs that were returned. The resignation of two board members was "just one of those unfortunate things following a hard year," said Anton Hie, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Nashville. In a research note to clients, he maintained his "hold" rating on the stock. ASG said in its quarterly earnings filing on Wednesday that it had 104 health-care and pharmacy contracts as of April 1, five fewer than it had a year earlier. It posted a net loss of about $1.1 million in the first quarter, compared with a profit of $3.9 million in the first quarter of 2005. Still, shares of the company were up Wednesday, climbing 44 cents, or 3.4 percent, in moderate trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market to close at $13.42 a share, well below its 52-week high of $23.81.

May 3, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
Prison health services provider America Service Group Inc.'s troubles with its Secure Pharmacy Plus business helped push the company into a first-quarter loss. The company posted a loss of $1.4 million in the quarter ended March 31 compared to a profit of $3.9 million in the first quarter a year ago. Revenue from health care services were up nearly 26 percent to $167 million, but expenses to provide those services rose nearly 30 percent. Further denting the first-quarter numbers was a $3.6 million charge associated with an audit committee investigation into financial improprieties at Secure Pharmacy Plus. Brentwood-based America Service (NASDAQ: ASGR) expects to record another $200,000 to $700,000 in expenses related to the audit this year. That audit found that the company failed to properly credit customers with discounts, rebates and savings and failed to give customers proper credit for returned pharmaceuticals. The investigation also found that SPP inappropriately created reserves over the past five years to ensure the company's reported earnings matched budgeted results. The company restated its earnings going back to 2001. Excluding that charge, income from operations prior to income tax, interest and discontinued operations, would have been $2.4 million. Income from operations in the first quarter a year ago amounted to $6.2 million. The company also saw a $1.6 million increase in selling, general and administrative expenses, with $1 million of that coming from share-based compensation expense. The company has affirmed its guidance for 2006 and expects total revenue to be in the range of $660 million to $680 million. Earnings per diluted share are expected to be in the range of 90 cents to 96 cents. The revised 2005 number was 39 cents.

April 11, 2006 Nashville City Paper
A Brentwood prison health company’s announcement that it will restate earnings because of internal problems in its pharmacy subsidiary has spawned a shareholders’ lawsuit by a union pension fund. The Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 51 Pension Fund filed the suit last week in U.S. District Court in Nashville against America Service Group, which provides health care services to prisons. The complaint stems from the company’s March 15 disclosure of an internal investigation that uncovered several problems with its Secure Pharmacy Plus (SPP) subsidiary, which contracts with governments to distribute medications to inmates. The announcement “shocked the market,” the suit states. The company’s stock price fell nearly 29 percent, or $5.65 per share, to close at $13.95. The pension fund claims that America Service Group, through its public statements and filings, knowingly misled shareholders about the company’s financial health, which artificially inflated ASG’s common stock. The pension fund’s law firms — Barrett, Johnston & Parsley of Nashville and Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins of New York — are seeking class-action status on behalf of shareholders of common stock between Sept. 24, 2003, and March 16, 2006. The suit asks for unspecified damages.

April 7, 2006 Tennessean
The law firm of Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP said yesterday that a potential class-action lawsuit has been filed in federal court here on behalf of investors who bought stock in America Service Group Inc. between Sept. 24, 2003, and March 16, 2006. Attorneys said the suit stems from the Brentwood-based prison health services company's internal investigation into the business practices of its Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary. Last month, ASG said an investigation into the unit had caused the company as a whole to overstate profits by $2.1 million for 2001 through the second quarter of 2005. ASG also said it would refund $3.6 million to clients who were overcharged for prescription drugs. It found that some clients weren't properly credited with discounts or rebates on drug purchases and others weren't properly credited for prescription drugs that were returned.

March 29, 2006 Tennessean
Brentwood-based America Service Group Inc. has named Richard Hallworth as chief operating officer. He will also serve as president and chief executive officer of the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Prison Health Services Inc. Hallworth previously held several executive positions with Tufts Health Plan, a managed care company. He began his career as a certified public accountant, first with Coopers & Lybrand and then as a partner with Ernst & Young LLP. He will replace former executive vice president Trey Hartman as president of Prison Health Services, which provides medical care to jail and prison inmates. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, America Service Group said Hartman was fired for cause in December in connection with an internal probe into whether the company’s Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary had overcharged for drugs and failed to follow proper accounting procedures. Hartman was a former head of the pharmacy unit.

March 16, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
Prison health care services company America Service Group Inc. has released the findings of an internal investigation into financial improprieties at its Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary. The results: restated earnings going back to 2001, a stock price plunge and a $3.7 million bill for the investigation. Last October, the company announced that the audit committee of its board of directors would conduct an investigation of SPP over pharmaceutical pricing and accounting practices. Independent forensic accountants conducted the investigation and found that SPP failed to properly credit customers with discounts, rebates and savings and failed to give customers proper credit for returned pharmaceuticals. Brentwood-based America Service (NASDAQ: ASGRE) plans to refund $3.6 million, plus interest, to customers as a result. Management of SPP also inappropriately created reserves over the past five years to ensure the company's reported earnings matched budgeted results. Auditors determined the company's pre-tax income was $355,000 higher than previously reported. Auditors also found that SPP charged some of its customers less than it should have to the tune of $5.9 million. The company will try to collect that money, but is uncertain of how much success it will have doing so. The news slammed America Service shares. At 12:40 p.m., they were trading at $13.90, down more than 29 percent their closing price Wednesday. The 52-week range of the stock is $12 to $26.10. On Dec. 7, the company fired Grant Bryson, president and CEO of SPP, in connection with the investigation. Two days later, it sent packing Trey Hartman, president and chief operating officer of Prison Health Services Inc., a move also connected with the investigation. Hartman was with SPP when America Service bought the company in 2000. Kendall Lynch is now CEO of SPP. In a statement announcing the results of the investigation, America Service said both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee are conducting informal inquiries. The company says it will continue to cooperate with both. As it wrapped up its own investigation, the company had delayed reporting its third-quarter results. Those financials were released after the market closed March 15 along with fourth-quarter and full-year numbers and restated earnings going back to 2001. Fourth-quarter results show America Service with a loss of $1.2 million compared to restated earnings of $4.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2004. Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 came to $149 million compared to $130 million the year before. The fourth-quarter loss includes $3.3 million in expenses related to the investigation. During the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the company also posted a loss of $1.2 million compared to restated earnings of $81,000 last year. Revenue for the quarter came to $140 million compared to $135 million last year. Third-quarter results include $370,000 in expenses related to the investigation. Other restated earnings: The company's earnings for the first two quarters of 2005 were $6.7 million instead of the $7.1 million that was reported. Revenues for the two-quarter period were $273 million instead of $315 million. In 2004, the company had a profit of $9.9 million instead of the $9 million that was reported. Revenues for the year were $517 million instead of $665 million. Earnings in 2003 were $11.3 million instead of the previously reported $11.9 million. Revenues for the year were $380 million instead of $517 million. In 2002, the company's profit was $11.3 million instead of $11.9 million. Revenue for the year was $293 million instead of $410 million. The company's loss in 2001 was $46.5 million rather than the reported $45 million. Revenue for the year was $299 million instead of $397 million.

January 16, 2006 Tennessean
Prison health care services provider America Service Group Inc. will continue to be listed on NASDAQ. The company had received notice from the stock exchange in November that it was subject to delisting because it had failed to make timely financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company delayed its third quarter financial reports pending the conclusion of an internal investigation by its audit committee of a subsidiary, Secure Pharmacy Plus. On Jan. 10, the company received a letter from NASDAQ that it would continue to be listed on the exchange provided it files its quarterly report for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 by March 15, according to a statement released by the company. The company also must provide the final report of the internal investigation by Feb. 28. The investigation was to "determine whether SPP provided pricing of pharmaceuticals in accordance with" client contracts and whether accruals and reserves maintained by the company were in line with accounting principles, according to a Oct. 24 statement by the company. America Service Group fired Grant Bryson, president and CEO of Secure Pharmacy, on Dec. 7 in connection with the internal investigation. On Dec. 9, the company also fired Trey Hartman, president and chief operating officer of Prison Health Services Inc. His termination also was based on the ongoing internal investigation. Hartman formerly served as the head of Secure Pharmacy. The trading symbol for the company currently is "ASGRE." The "E" will be removed from the trading symbol when the company has fully complied with NASDAQ filing requirements.

December 13, 2005 Tennessean
Brentwood-based America Service Group Inc. said today that it has fired two people in connection with an ongoing investigation into the billing practices of its prison pharmacy subsidiary. The company fired Trey Hartman, its executive vice president, on Dec. 9 and Grant Bryson, head of Secure Pharmacy Plus, on Dec. 7. Hartman also was president and chief operating officer of Prison Health Services, which provides medical services to jail and prison inmates. He previously ran America Service Group's pharmacy unit. The company said Hartman and Bryson were terminated for cause. Bryson had been on paid leave. He wasn't an executive officer of the company. America Service Group also said that Richard M. Mastaler would resign from the company's board of directors on Dec. 30 to pursue other interests. The company said his resignation is unrelated to its internal investigation of the pharmacy unit. The company announced in October that it was looking into whether its pharmacy operation overcharged for drugs and failed to follow proper accounting procedures. It said its audit committee had hired outside counsel who, in turn, had brought in a team of independent auditors to review the books of Secure Pharmacy Plus. Secure Pharmacy's former controller, who recently resigned, had identified the issues that are under investigation, the company said.

November 17, 2005 Tennessean
NASDAQ notified the company on Nov. 11 that its stock may be delisted because of a delay in filing its third-quarter report. ASG announced late Monday that it had received the notice. It informed the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. The Brentwood-based jail and prison health-care company said on Nov. 9 that it would be late in filing its quarterly financial report because of a previously announced internal investigation into a pharmacy subsidiary. On Tuesday, the company's stock symbol changed from "ASGR" to "ASGRE." Shares in the company were at $16.27, down 83 cents, or 4.85%, in early trading today. If the company is dropped from the stock exchange, its shares would be traded over the counter. Some institutional investors have policies against owning shares in companies that aren't traded on one of the major exchanges, analyst Anton Hie said. If these investors are forced to sell a large amount of stock, the price would probably fall sharply, said Hie, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Nashville.

October 25, 2005 Tennessean
Shares in America Service Group Inc. plunged 28% yesterday on news that the company is looking into whether its pharmacy unit overcharged for drugs and failed to follow proper accounting procedures. The Brentwood-based prison health-care company said its audit committee had hired outside counsel who, in turn, had brought in a team of independent auditors to review the books of Secure Pharmacy Plus. Secure Pharmacy's former controller, who recently resigned, had identified the issues that are under investigation, the company said. The unit's president, Grant Bryson, has been placed on paid leave. America Service Group didn't name the former controller, and there was no controller listed on the unit's Web site yesterday, but an earlier version of the site, saved on www.google.com, identified him as Randy Beaman. Beaman would not comment on issues under investigation. Because of the probe, America Service Group has withdrawn its earlier financial guidance and warned that it will delay filing its quarterly earnings report.

October 24, 2005 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc.'s stock tumbled in early trading today on the disclosure that its audit committee is investigating the company's pharmacy subsidiary. The Brentwood-based prison health company said in a news release this morning that the inquiry is being conducted to determine whether Secure Pharmacy Plus is providing pricing of prescription drugs in accordance with the terms of its contracts. America Service Group also is looking into whether some of the unit's financial accounts were established and utilized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. By mid-morning, the company's stock was trading at $13.31 a share, down $4.85, or nearly 27%, from Friday's closing price of $18.16 on the NASDAQ Stock Market. Jeffries & Company analysts Anton Hie downgraded the stock to "hold" from "buy" and lowered his target price to $20 from $22.50. The internal investigation is only the latest setback for America Service Group. Since its stock closed at $30 a share in February, the price has dropped on a string of bad news beginning with a series in The New York Times that month that claimed the company's care was "flawed and sometimes lethal." It also has lost several large contracts since the first of the year, including one to treat inmates at Nashville's Metro Jail. The company's nurses were blamed in the death of a diabetic inmate there last winter.

October 24, 2005 Yahoo
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR - News) announced today that the Audit Committee of its Board of Directors is conducting an internal investigation into certain matters related to its subsidiary, Secure Pharmacy Plus ("SPP"). The Company said the investigation primarily is being conducted to determine whether SPP provided pricing of pharmaceuticals in accordance with applicable client contract terms and whether some of the accruals and reserves maintained by SPP were established and utilized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. "We take allegations of impropriety very seriously, and we are conducting a thorough investigative process to determine if the issues described in this press release, as well as any other issues which may be identified as a result of the investigation, will impact the Company's previously reported financial results," said Michael Gallagher, a member of the Company's Board of Directors and Chairman of its Audit Committee. "We will report on our findings as soon as the investigation is complete." Secure Pharmacy Plus provides pharmacy services to the Company, in facilities where the Company provides correctional medical services, as well as to third party clients who provide their own correctional medical services. The Audit Committee's inquiry into whether SPP charged its clients in accordance with applicable contract terms includes reviewing whether discounts received from wholesalers, rebates received from manufacturers or wholesalers, certain temporary price reductions from alternate vendors and distributions received from a group purchasing organization of which SPP is a member should have been credited, under the terms of the contracts, to such clients. The Audit Committee also is examining whether returns of unused pharmaceuticals were appropriately credited to clients.

September 25, 2005 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc., whose business is built around providing care for sick or injured inmates, is having a rough year. Or, it's doing OK. It depends on your point of view. Since its stock closed at $30 a share in February, the price has fallen about 45% on a run of bad news — beginning with a series in The New York Times that month that claimed the company's care was "flawed and sometimes lethal." Based in Brentwood, the company has lost at least six contracts since the first of the year, including one to treat inmates at Nashville's Metro Jail. The company's nurses were blamed in the death of a diabetic inmate there last winter. Recently, it warned Wall Street of lower profits. Originally, the company expected to earn $1.45 to $1.52 a share on the year, but last month, on a Friday night, it disclosed the loss of yet another contract and lowered its earnings estimate by 2 cents. Its stock fell an additional 8% the following Monday. Only about a third of the country's correctional health services are provided by for-profit companies, said Michael Catalano, America Service Group's chairman, president and chief executive. But every year, more agencies privatize their medical services in hopes of reducing costs and improving the quality of care. It's not clear whether privatization improves the quality of correctional care; but since the 1970s, a growing number of public officials have decided that "it's much easier to turn it over to a health consortium, and they can handle the whole nine yards," said Ken Kerle, managing editor of American Jail, the magazine of the American Jail Association. America Service Group has 21% of the outsourced correctional health market, behind Correctional Medical Services, which has an estimated 22%, Catalano said. CMS, a privately held company based in St. Louis, underbid America Service Group by about 10% in Maryland, about 14% in Idaho and about 21% in Indiana. Catalano said he doesn't understand why CMS believes it can provide adequate care for less money. "We're there providing services," he said. "We know what it costs." Catalano said, "The most significant rebids we haven't won this year have been based upon price." But this month in South Carolina, the Richland County Council voted unanimously to fire Prison Health Services after the deaths of three mentally ill inmates. One council member told The State newspaper of Columbia the treatment of the prisoners was "unacceptable and inhumane." Richland County officials didn't return calls to The Tennessean. And locally, the company's contract with Metro Jail will be allowed to expire Sept. 30. In March, a city government report blamed the Jan. 19 death of a diabetic inmate on a "failure to adhere to established practices on the part of individual employees of Prison Health Services." Claims of poor medical care are common throughout the correctional health industry. Correct Care Solutions, the Nashville company replacing Prison Health Servicesat Metro Jail, was criticized by the family of a Virginia woman who died in July in a Norfolk jail. Relatives said she complained that her pneumonia wasn't being treated. Officials said the company wasn't to blame. A month earlier, the American Civil Liberties Union sued CMS, alleging that inmates of a Mississippi prison were misdiagnosed and received poor care.

July 3, 2005 The Tennessean
America Service Group couldn't seem to catch a break in the second quarter. Its stock fell 28.4% in the three months ended June 30, shoved lower by troubles that unnerved many investors and left the health-services company lying near the bottom of the Bloomberg Tennessee Index.  Of 73 businesses on the list, onlyonefell harder in the period.  "ASGR has had a tough 2005 so far," analyst Anton Hie said, referring to the Brentwood-based company by its stock symbol.  Its stock took a hit in the first quarter after The New York Times ran several stories questioningthe quality of care provided by its Prison Health Services subsidiary, which cares for inmates.  But investors really started to worry in the most recent three months, as the company announced the loss of lucrative contracts with the Maryland, Idaho and Indiana prison systems.  He said ASGR's greatest challenge, at least in the short term, could be aggressive bidding by one of its competitors, Correctional Medical Services.  CMS, based in St. Louis, is privately held, meaning it doesn't have the legal and auditing costs associated with filing quarterly earnings reports, Hie said.  Patrick Swindle, an analyst with Avondale Partners in Nashville, said CMS also doesn't have to please investors by posting ever-increasing quarterly earnings.  "What a private company can do," Swindle said, "is take lower margins in the short term, hoping to improve those margins in time."  CMS underbid ASGR in Maryland and Idaho and is likely to replace the company in Indiana, as well, Swindle said.  One issue that has affected the company's stock but shouldn't affect its ability to win business in the future is negative news about the company.   In a front-page story in February, The Times reported that a yearlong investigation into the company's operations had found numerous examples "of medical care that has been flawed and sometimes lethal."  "The company's performance around the nation has provoked criticism from judges and sheriffs, lawsuits from inmates' families and whistle-blowers and condemnations by federal, state and local authorities," the newspaper said.  Locally, the Metro Health Department concluded recently that the death of a diabetic inmate at the Metro Jail in January could have been prevented if nurses working for Prison Health Services had followed procedures. The report said nurses failed to properly document the patient's medical problems when he was booked, lost track of his medical history and ignored repeated requests for help.

Board of Probation and Parole
STOP
February 1, 2005 Tennessean
A state contract for satellite tracking of 600 sex and violent offenders will go up for bid a second time after a protest by a company chaired by the former chief executive officer of Corrections Corporation of America. Satellite Tracking of People LLC's challenge of plans for an award to rival Sentinel Offender Services has delayed start of the pilot project. ''We were anticipating it being up and running,'' said John W. Carney Jr., district attorney general for Montgomery and Robertson counties. Nashville-based STOP was among four bidders under the first request for proposals. STOP's chairman is Doctor Crants, co-founder of prison operator CCA. After the state's Board of Probation and Parole decided Sentinel had the best program, STOP protested. STOP, meanwhile, also sued another bidder, Pro Tech Monitoring of Odessa, Fla., last week. STOP's suit seeks to block Pro Tech from offering a rival product that STOP claims violates its patent. The patent in question was inherited through STOP's purchase earlier this year of a business called VeriTracks from defense contractor General Dynamics.

Brentwood Patrol
Forest Hills, Tennessee
September 3, 2003
The president of a private security firm at the center of a federal civil-rights lawsuit contends that he has ''nothing to hide'' as lawyers and state regulators begin combing through the firm's hiring practices and patrol activities.  A security guard for Brentwood Patrol was arrested last year after he was charged with rape and kidnapping. Metro police say that in August 2002, Loren Janosky flashed his green lights at a motorist, pulled her over, and after purportedly arresting her on DUI charges, took her to a Forest Hills swim club where he raped her. His jury trial is scheduled for November.  One past employee listed in the suit, Joseph Lee Bernell Bryant, had worked for Brentwood Patrol in 1993-94. After that, he worked for another security company. While employed at Integrity Security, he was charged with raping a colleague and was later convicted. Before his employment at Brentwood Patrol, court records show, he had amassed a lengthy criminal record in the 1980s.  (Tennessean.com)

Chad Youth Enhancement Center
Clarksville, Tennessee
Universal Health Services (formerly run by Keystone Education and Youth Services)
October 12, 2007 The Tennessean
A troubled Philadelphia, Pa., teen who was sent to a Tennessee youth center for treatment died of strangulation after a confrontation with staff members, a coroner found. The death of Omega Leach, 17, was ruled a homicide, according to the autopsy report by state medical examiner Bruce Levy. He found that Leach had multiple hemorrhages of his neck muscles after a struggle with two staff members at the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Clarksville, Tenn. A grand jury in Montgomery County will have to decide if charges are warranted, said Ted Denny, a spokesman for the county sheriff's office. The Philadelphia Department of Human Services has sent scores of emotionally troubled youngsters to Chad since 2001, saying no Pennsylvania facility would take them. Leach's death on June 3 prompted city officials to begin removing children from Chad, but eight still remain there, a city official told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday. The autopsy found other scrapes and bruises on Leach's body, but also noted that the teen's enlarged heart contributed to his death. Tennessee child-welfare officials have already cited Chad in the Leach case, saying staff members needlessly provoked him.

August 6, 2007 AP
A Pennsylvania family court judge has begun removing troubled Philadelphia children from a controversial treatment center in Montgomery County, Tenn., where a 17-year-old resident died after a confrontation with staff. The children were sent to the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Montgomery County by Philadelphia's Department of Human Services, even though an agency official who visited the facility in 2005 concluded that "residents were being harshly and improperly restrained." Chad leaders rebuked -- The family court's top judge, Kevin Dougherty, ordered six Philadelphia children discharged from Chad on Friday, and more hearings are planned. Dougherty said he harshly rebuked Chad leaders in court. "I told them I was not sending another kid down there," he told The Philadelphia Inquirer for Sunday's editions. "They were too aggressive." Philadelphia has sent scores of emotionally troubled youngsters to the center since 2001, saying it has been forced to do so because no Pennsylvania facility would take them. It has paid Chad $6 million in the past three years. A 14-year-old Long Island, N.Y., girl died of heart failure at Chad in 2005 after a confrontation with staff. Then in June, Omega Leach of Philadelphia died after Chad staff physically restrained him, pushing him face-down to the floor and apparently cutting off his air, investigators said. On the day Leach died, Philadelphia had 44 children and teens in Chad, all under city oversight. The Philadelphians — some from abusive homes, others with arrest records — made up the biggest share of 85 residents who slept, attended school and got therapy at Chad. Arthur C. Evans Jr., the acting human services commissioner, said his agency's oversight of Chad was unacceptable. The department has come under harsh criticism and has seen an administrative shake-up after Inquirer reports detailing the number of children who have died under its watch. Center defends its staff -- Chad spokesman Nick Ragone said in a statement Friday that staff put youngsters in physical holds only as a last resort to protect them or others. Moreover, he said, Chad worked zealously to train its staff and responded quickly to issues raised by Tennessee regulators.

August 5, 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer
In March 2005, a man called the Philadelphia child-abuse hotline with a warning: His coworkers were using "improper and illegal" force against city youngsters sent to the Chad Youth Enhancement Center. In June 2005, a Philadelphia child-care investigator learned that a staffer at the Tennessee center had been fired after he allegedly slammed a boy to the floor so hard the child fouled himself. In September 2005, the city was told that a 14-year-old girl from Long Island, N.Y., had dropped dead of a heart attack after a confrontation with staff. While an investigation cleared Chad of blame in the death, New York and Tennessee stopped sending children to the residential treatment center. But Philadelphia, despite a drumbeat of warnings that children were being violently subdued and injured, continued to send emotionally troubled children to Chad. The city's Department of Human Services stuck with Chad even after a top DHS official concluded that "residents were being harshly and improperly restrained." Not until the June death of 17-year-old Philadelphian Omega Leach did the city finally lose faith. In a physical restraint gone wrong, Leach died after Chad staff pushed him face-down to the floor, apparently cutting off his air, investigators say. When done safely, restraints can calm youths who are out of control and prevent children from hurting themselves or others. But when they go wrong, these "holds" can be brutal. They can dislocate a shoulder, split a chin or snap an arm. In extreme cases, they can kill. On the day Leach died, Philadelphia had 44 children and teens in Chad, all under DHS oversight. The Philadelphians - some from abusive homes, others with arrest records - made up the biggest share of 85 residents who slept, attended school and got therapy at Chad. Since 2001, the city has sent scores of youngsters to the center, saying it has been forced to do so because no Pennsylvania facility would take them. It has paid Chad $6 million in the last three years. Arthur C. Evans Jr., the acting DHS commissioner, took command late last year after Mayor Street ousted its top official following an Inquirer investigation into a string of child deaths in Philadelphia. "A good facility should not rely on restraints," Evans said. "This is really unacceptable." Further, he said, his agency's oversight of Chad was also unacceptable. Nick Ragone, a Chad spokesman, said in a statement Friday that the facility put youngsters in physical holds only as a last resort to protect them or others. Moreover, he said, Chad worked zealously to train its staff and responded quickly to issues raised by regulators. Last week, as a result of Leach's death, Philadelphia began Family Court hearings in a first step to pull children out of Chad. The court's top judge, Kevin Dougherty, said Friday that he had harshly rebuked Chad leaders in court. "I told them I was not sending another kid down there," he said. "They were too aggressive." On Friday, Dougherty ordered six children discharged from Chad, with more hearings to come. The Inquirer has obtained hundreds of regulatory documents about Chad, drawn from government files in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Based on these records and interviews with former Chad staff, regulatory officials in both states, and former Chad residents and their families, the newspaper found: Chad's workers resorted to physical force at high rates - rates experts term excessive. By Chad's own count, filed with Tennessee officials, its workers used 104 holds in one month alone in 2006. Chad staff would on occasion hold residents down for long periods - even though experts warn that deaths can occur within six minutes of a hold. In May, Chad reported one floor-hold that lasted 23 minutes, and others that lasted 20 and 15 minutes. Tennessee repeatedly cited Chad for failing to tell its regulators about children who had been injured there. In one case, the state learned that three residents had tried to strangle another only when the victim's mother called police, records show. Philadelphia acknowledges it never reviewed Tennessee licensing documents about Chad, which would have revealed the center's heavy reliance on physical holds. No tour permitted -- Set in rolling hills about 40 miles west of Nashville, Chad was refashioned out of a former county nursing home. The 20-acre site is surrounded by horse farms and not far from Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division across the Kentucky state line. When a reporter drove up its 800-yard entranceway recently, John McDuffie, a top administrator at Chad, emerged from its offices before his visitor could reach the front door. He said no one at the facility would answer questions or provide a tour. Chad was founded in 1996 by a psychologist, Robert D. Glasner, who named it after a son who had died young in a car crash. It is owned by a King of Prussia for-profit corporation, Universal Health Services Inc. UHS, which owns 110 mental-health facilities in 33 states, bought Chad in the fall of 2005, paying $210 million for Chad and 29 other centers. Chad has a gym, a classroom building and three dorms, where residents live two to a room. Boys range in age from 7 to 17, girls from 13 to 17. When the youths arrive, they sign a form acknowledging that, if they misbehave, they may be put in a "protective hold." Leach signed his May 2, his first day there. During holds, staff members restrain children by locking the residents' hands behind their backs. Sometimes, the children are held upright, or against a wall. In more serious cases, they are put to the floor, face-down. Such holds are controversial. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Rendell's administration has been on a crusade to all but eliminate physical holds in psychiatric hospitals, mental-health centers, reform schools and the like. Instead, public welfare secretary Estelle Richman is pushing facilities to get control of unruly residents with conversation or by isolating them in a quiet space. In interviews, experts and advocates said the sheer number of holds Chad used on children appeared troubling. "I worry about the culture of the facility. Why is it so restraint-happy?" asked Michael Carter, a lawyer with the federally funded Disability Law and Advocacy Center of Tennessee. His staff has been investigating Leach's death. When presented with the "restraint logs" from Chad, DHS Commissioner Evans agreed. He said the data reflected a workplace culture with few alternatives for calming residents or gaining control. "That, to me, is just not acceptable," Evans said last week. "One thing I can't and will never tolerate is the mistreatment of children." Evans said DHS had failed to recognize Chad's problems soon enough. In response to recent reports about Chad's performance, he said, he reassigned the man who oversaw contracts for DHS, Steven C. Oakman. Oakman did not respond to requests for comment in telephone calls and a letter left at his house. In his statement, Chad spokesman Ragone disputed the data showing a high number of holds at Chad. He said the figures reflected a wide variety of "hands-on" contact by staff with residents, not just the most serious interventions. Kim J. Masters, a child psychiatrist who wrote the guidelines on restraints for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, said he was struck by Chad's data showing as many as 100 holds in a month. "That's a lot," he said. When he took charge some years ago at one center - larger than Chad - Masters considered its tally of 100 restraints a year to be "out of control." Its staff now do about two per month. A high number of restraints, Masters said, reflects "a coercive environment that says, 'You have to do this or else.' " Such techniques rarely work and may backfire, he said. "Kids act out when they don't feel safe," Masters said. "And they don't feel safe when they're being restrained all the time." A litany of problems -- Regulatory files on Chad are publicly available in the state capital in Nashville and show a history of problems. In 2004, for example, Tennessee officials wrote: "Serious incident reports revealed that the agency uses what appears to be an excessive number of physical restraints." That year, Chad admitted that a worker had to be pulled off a resident after the staffer threw 16-year-old John T. Boy against a wall. The worker said he had "overacted" and apologized, records show. Chad acknowledged that the aide had had "problems like this two or three times in the past" and said he would be fired "once they found someone to take his place." In an interview in Tennessee, Boy's mother said she had been astounded that Chad kept the worker on. "They did not care about kids at this facility," Sharon Pruett said. "It needs to be shut down." The employee was finally dismissed, records show. Boy was shot to death last year, in a killing unrelated to his Chad experience. In 2005, when Tennessee staged a surprise inspection of Chad, a girl told the inspectors that a Chad supervisor "will try to hurt students during restraints and 'wants us to scream.' " Another youngster said she had seen "Big Mike slam kids down real hard on the floor. I don't want that happening to me, so I try hard to do everything they ask me to do." In March 2005, the anonymous caller, identifying himself as a Chad employee, called the DHS hotline to warn about force at the facility. In response, DHS dispatched an investigator to Chad - three months later. According to the investigator's report, just 14 Philadelphia youths were at Chad at that time. All had been restrained - some as many as five times, the investigator found. In one case, DHS staffer Haiying Xi reported, a youngster had been cut on the chin in a restraint, requiring stitches. Chad had not reported this to regulators, DHS learned. Finally, DHS official Stephen Rosenberg wrote to Chad. "The investigation could not determine any pattern for the use of illegal physical restraints," Rosenberg wrote. "However, the investigation did validate the allegations that some residents were being harshly and improperly restrained." In a reply, Chad administrator McDuffie assured DHS that Chad was a "nurturing and positive environment." He said the facility had hired more staff and made children's safety a priority. The former owners of Chad also said it was a safe and therapeutic place for children when they handed over the keys to Universal Health in October 2005. "Our goal was to effect treatment in as nonphysical a way as possible," former chief executive officer Michael G. Lindley said. Al Smith, another former top executive with Chad's former owner, said: "Did untoward events happen? Absolutely. But was it a culture? I don't believe so." After Universal Health purchased Chad, regulators continued to flag problems. In 2006, the state complained again that Chad wasn't reporting serious incidents to regulators. Another boy went to an emergency room for cuts sustained in a restraint. And a mental-health associate quit after she got into an argument with a youth and shoved her, records show. According to a Tennessee investigation, other youths were injured this year. On Jan. 2, Tennessee officials disclosed, staff broke the left arm of a 16-year-old boy during a restraint. Later in the year, Chad told regulators, another teenage resident was "taken to the floor" in a restraint that required four stitches for cuts on the lips. In May, Edith Ruland pulled her son, Dennis, 10, out of Chad after she found numerous bruises on him, she said. Ruland, who lives near Chad, took photographs of the bruises, which the boy said staff had inflicted in a restraint hold. Though Tennessee had stopped sending children in state custody, it still permitted families to use it. "They treat people wrong," Dennis said in an interview. "And they shouldn't be having a facility that would bruise people and stuff." In response, a spokesman for Chad said Tennessee had investigated and had been "unable to substantiate these complaints." Rob Johnson, a spokesman for regulators in Tennessee, agreed that investigators couldn't unravel the episode. "They know that the child got injured somehow," Johnson said. "They just don't know how." Out of sight, out of mind -- Experts and members of the commission appointed by Street to overhaul DHS say the city's heavy use of Chad exemplifies another key failing of the agency: its reliance on out-of-state treatment centers. At last count, 233 of Philadelphia's 1,554 children in residential facilities were outside Pennsylvania. Critics note that a main goal for social-service agencies is to eventually reunite troubled children with their families. Yet faraway locations make parental or guardian visits far more difficult. And as a DHS administrator noted in a 2005 report on Chad, such far-off facilities have an obvious weakness. It's hard for officials in Pennsylvania to regulate what happens in Tennessee. Philadelphia officials said they recognized the problem and were moving to solve it. They said they often had little choice but to lean on out-of-state facilities to care for the city's most troubled youths because many in-state treatment centers wouldn't take them. Smith, the former Chad executive, said kids who lashed out violently at authority figures were hard to place. "If a child has hit a teacher, you can be certain they'll have no problem going after staff," he said. So, each year, Philadelphia shops its most hardened cases to area centers, but ends up sending hundreds to Tennessee, Utah and Virginia for mental-health treatment. Child-welfare officials in other states, such as Illinois, and the second-largest child-welfare system in Pennsylvania, that of Allegheny County, say they have found ways to keep children closer to home. Marc Cherna, who heads the Allegheny child-welfare agency, studied DHS as a member of Street's reform panel. He said none of the children under his care were placed out of state. An agency task force makes sure that even the toughest cases are placed close to home. And money is no object, Cherna said. "We will pay extraordinary rates for people who are extraordinarily difficult," he said. "Our goal is to return these children back to the community." In 1995, Illinois was shipping 784 children out of state for care. Eventually, the state realized that counselors in far-flung treatment centers were abusing children. "We flew to facilities we used in a dozen states, and in every one it got worse and worse," said Ron Davidson, a psychologist who helped the state evaluate the programs. Today just a dozen children from Illinois are placed outside the state. "Children just perform better closer to home," said Kendall Marlowe, an Illinois child-service official. Philadelphia's acting DHS commissioner, Evans, agrees. He wants to reduce the number of children placed out of state. "It's a very high priority for me," Evans said. "We send too many kids away from Philadelphia." One of those kids was Omega Leach. A month before he died, a therapist placed a note in his file. "Omega is frustrated with being placed so far from home," the therapist wrote. "But he has expressed the desire to complete the program successfully so that he can return home and start working on getting his life together." A Key City Report, Uncensored -- In 2005, an investigator for the city wrote a detailed report focusing on the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Tennessee. The city made the report public at The Inquirer's request. Before releasing it, however, city lawyers removed the most explosive section - pages with allegations that Philadelphia children were being abused at Chad. In redacting the document, the city cited an exemption in Pennsylvania's right-to-know law that allows governments to withhold investigations, even finished ones, from the public. The Inquirer later obtained a complete version of the report. In this version, the only information removed is the names of children.

August 5, 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer
Tennessee regulators have concluded that a center for troubled children needlessly provoked the confrontation that led to the death in June of a 17-year-old Philadelphia teen. The Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Ashland City "violated its own policy and procedures" in subduing Omega Leach, social-service regulators said. The state said a Chad staffer should have given Leach space to calm down June 2 when Leach had retreated to a dorm after a fight with another resident. Instead, the staffer, Randall D. Rae, 22, ordered Leach to leave the dorm, and Leach attacked him. The worker then forced Leach prone on the floor, face-down, and the teenager lost consciousness. Leach was pronounced dead the next day. Police say they think the hold cut off his air supply. In a response to the state, Chad officials did not directly address Leach's death, but said repeatedly that they would improve training of staff members and work to better teach them "verbal de-escalation." The confrontation began at 3:50 p.m. when Rae told Leach that residents weren't permitted in the dorm at that time of day. "His training should have told him this is not the time to approach this child," said Tracey Robinson-Coffee, head of licensing for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. Leach leaped on Rae, trying to choke him. Rae grabbed Leach - a slender 5-foot-9 and 152 pounds - and pulled Leach's hands behind his back and put him on the floor. Rae did that even though Chad's policies allow such holds only when at least two staffers are present, regulators say. At some point, Rae turned his grip on Leach over to another aide, Milton G. Francis, 31. A Chad nurse arrived and placed a block under Leach's head to help him breathe. While police and the state medical examiner are investigating, no criminal charges have been filed, and the cause of death is pending. But state regulators have already faulted Chad and frozen all admissions there until at least October. Rae hung up on a reporter Friday. Francis did not respond to a letter requesting comment. In its July ruling, the state also faulted Chad over its training of Rae and other staffers. So far, according to documents obtained by The Inquirer, investigators have been provided with at least three estimates for how long the hold on Leach lasted. Nursing staff said it had lasted 13 minutes. Other Chad officials said 11 minutes. In a third document, the duration was put down as seven or eight minutes. The timing is significant. In a 2006 policy statement, Pennsylvania social-service officials said that "most deaths occur within the first six minutes of a restraint," and "that in most situations a restrictive procedure should not last longer than 10 minutes."

July 22, 2007 Tennessean
As officials await results of a state toxicology report on the death of a troubled teen at Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Ashland City, a community group is calling for the center to be closed. Montgomery County Sheriff's officials said they had received reports of abuse and other problems at the facility and that state health officials had ordered a corrective plan for the facility after two other residents were injured while being restrained by staff. "Chad definitely needs to be shut down," said Terry McMoore, director of the Urban Resource Center. "Chad is a big corporation and has a corporate mentality when it comes to business, and you can't have that with kids." County and state agencies have been looking into Chad since the death of Omega Leach, 17, who had been placed at the center by the Philadelphia (Pa.) Department of Human Services. Leach died June 3 after being restrained a day earlier by Chad staff at the center. According to a report to the state from Mike Wallace, risk manager at Chad, Leach attacked staff member Randell Dale Rae Jr. after an argument over leaving his room. "The staff member and the resident struggled until the staff member was able to place the resident into a neutral protective hold," Wallace reported. State officials have said Leach was pinned to the floor, held down by staff members. Rae and staff member Milton Gerald Francis, 31, kept Leach in the hold for seven to eight minutes until he became calm — and unresponsive. Staff members tried to resuscitate Leach, Wallace wrote. Leach was pronounced dead the next day at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, where doctors reported he had suffered "significant" internal bleeding, a report says. Rae and Francis have been put on administrative leave, according to state officials. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is investigating Leach's death, and that investigation is awaiting the release of a state toxicology report.

June 25, 2007 AP
A teenager sent to a Tennessee facility for troubled youth died after a confrontation with the center's staff, prompting Philadelphia officials to consider relocating dozens of teens sent there. Omega Leach, described by Philadelphia officials as a 17-year-old whose many troubles included racing a stolen car, was sent last month to the Chad Youth Enhancement Center, a private 50-bed residential treatment center near Clarksville for children with a history of emotional and behavioral problems. Leach is the second student to die at the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in less than two years, and authorities and the Tennessee Department of Children's Services are investigating. Leach got into a physical confrontation with the staff June 3 and died the next day at a Nashville hospital. He tried to choke one counselor, and another staffer pushed Leach face down to the floor and pulled his arms behind his back, police said. Investigators are trying to find out whether he was restrained improperly, keeping him from breathing. Agency may move others: "There's no doubt that the kid had an attitude and probably needed to be locked up somewhere," Sgt. Brian Prentice, of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department, told The Philadelphia Inquirer for a story Sunday. "It doesn't mean he has to be dead." Leach's care was the responsibility of Philadelphia's Department of Human Services. The agency was paying Chad $285 a day for Leach's treatment, even though questions had been raised about the center. In September 2005, Linda Regina Harris, 14, of Long Island, died there of heart failure as she was being escorted by a counselor. The Philadelphia agency has frozen admissions to Chad and said it is putting into place "a contingency plan" for relocating 45 city children, pending further investigation. Chad and its corporate owner, Universal Health Services Inc. of King of Prussia, Pa., declined to respond to detailed questions, instead issuing a statement to the Inquirer defending their record. "We have a reputation and history of being a high-quality provider of behavioral health and substance-abuse services to troubled youth and their families," said Duwayne Glaser, chief executive officer.

September 20, 2005 Tennessean
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office yesterday was investigating the death of a 14-year-old girl who died while in the custody of a Montgomery County juvenile detention facility. According to officials, the girl, whose name had not been released, was being escorted by a staff member to another room of the privately owned Chad Youth Enhancement Center on Oak Plains Road near the Montgomery-Cheatham county line when she collapsed Sunday night. A press release from the Keystone Education and Youth Services in Nashville, which owns the Chad Youth Enhancement Center and 50 other facilities, said the girl was having trouble breathing and was immediately given CPR by the staff physician.

Con-Link Transportation
Memphis, Tennessee
November 25, 2003
After five days on the lam, a Tennessee prisoner was captured Sunday afternoon in a residential area a half-mile from where he escaped from custody, police said.  On Nov. 18, a private transport service was taking Robert L. South, 21, from Indiana to Blountville, Tenn., to stand trial on a bomb threat charge. The transport officers got off Interstate 64 at the Lewisburg exit about 11 p.m. and drove to a nearby Subway restaurant for a rest room break. Despite being handcuffed, South took off running across a parking lot and disappeared behind a construction site. Police later found his orange jump suit in the woods behind the Brier Inn and Conference Center.  Officers from the Lewisburg Police Department, the Greenbrier County Sheriff's Department, State Police and other law enforcement agencies scoured the area that night and warned residents to lock their doors. Despite the use of a tracking dog, they were unable to find South. Sunday at approximately 2:30 p.m., after receiving a 911 call from a resident, Lewisburg police officers J.C. Dove and D.W. Hedrick found South in the crawl space under a house on Village Road. They apprehended him without incident.  South apparently had been hiding under houses in the subdivision for several days. Earlier, he had stolen clothing from an unlocked vehicle.  South was charged with escape in Greenbrier County Magistrate Court and was taken to the Southern Regional Jail. Other charges are pending.  Lt. L.E. Reed of the Lewisburg Police Department said he is relieved South was captured without anyone being harmed. "That's the main thing, that we were able to do it without any problem," he commented.  As for South's escape, Reed said there will be an investigation of how he was able to run away from custody and later get free of his handcuffs and "belly chain."  "That never should have happened," he said. "Somebody's got some explaining to do."  The transport officers worked for Con-Link Transportation, based in Memphis, Tenn.  (The Register-Herald)

Corrections Corporation of America
Nashville, Tennessee
June 25, 2009 The Tennessean
Whether Nashville’s Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that runs state prisons, is equivalent to a governmental entity and should turn over records is in the hands of the State’s Court of Appeals. Appellate judges heard arguments this morning from CCA’s attorney, Joe Welborn, and civil rights lawyer Andy Clarke, who is representing Alex Friedmann, the prison reform activist requesting the records. CCA appealed a Chancery Court judge’s ruling last year that stated the for-profit prison operator must follow public records law and open its files for viewing. From the start, CCA’s argument has been that allowing access to some of their records will set a bad precedent with other private companies who contract with the state. Welborn says CCA does only 10 percent of its business in Tennessee and the company is not a state agency. In the lawsuit, Friedmann, a former inmate with CCA, is requesting records of audits by state and local agencies, every lawsuit, claim and legal action taken against them, settlement agreements, judgments, databases showing all litigation against CCA and contracts between the state and the company. “This will tell us how they operate these facilities that are all funded by taxpayer dollars,” says Friedmann.

June 10, 2009 Times Free Press
The company that runs Silverdale Detention Center in Hamilton County has settled a national class-action lawsuit that claimed it had a history of not paying employees for certain types of work. The settlement amount that Corrections Corp. of America must pay is confidential, according to Kansas attorney Brendan Donelon, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of 17 original plaintiffs last year in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. The plaintiffs now include about 282 corrections officers from 14 states who work in 29 CCA facilities. All CCA employees, including those in Hamilton County, who think they might have been affected by policies that allegedly prevented them from receiving compensation have until July 27 to file claim forms. Tommy Standifer, the superintendent at Silverdale, declined Tuesday to comment on the matter, specifically with regard to whether local employees are entitled to any back pay. He said the lawsuit was against CCA and has nothing to do with Hamilton County, which has a contract with CCA to run Silverdale. According to court documents, CCA “has a policy of not paying corrections counselors, case managers and clerks for work performed in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.” In particular, court documents state that CCA requires employees to be present at work before their shift starts but fails to compensate them for that time. Employees also are required to attend meetings off the clock, documents state.

May 20, 2009 Tennessean
A former business partner is suing several entities connected to past Corrections Corporation of America CEO Doctor R. Crants Jr., accusing the groups of taking stolen money from a homeland security company both men worked on. Bruce Siddle said in a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Illinois that apparently 19 parties knowingly accepted a total of more than $27.3 million stolen or unlawfully taken from Homeland Security Corp. The money could have been illegally taken from Siddle, his wife, a trust or Siddle’s company PCCT Management Systems Inc., the lawsuit said. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Illinois on Tuesday, is asking for more than $81.9 million in damages and names as defendants companies ranging from Connectgov Inc. to Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain that handled the accounting services to Homeland Security Corp. “All allegations of misconduct about LBMC are just false,” said Larry Thrailkill, the accounting firm’s outside counsel. “They will be defending the litigation very vigorously.” Siddle’s involvement with Homeland Security Corp. began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when he agreed to have all of PPCT stocks purchased by Homeland Security Corp. Crants founded Homeland Security Corp. in 2001 after he was ousted from Nashville-based prison operator Corrections Corporation of America. Working together, Siddle and Crants went after contracts, including a deal that involved training 80,000 baggage screeners for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration after the Sept. 11 attacks. It also trained air marshals for Delta Air Lines. Siddle sued Crants last year, alleging that Crants bilked Homeland Security Corp. of more than $41 million through self-dealings and embezzlement, among other allegations. Siddle also listed others as defendants who apparently assisted the racketeering activity. That case is still pending in federal court in Nashville. Siddle’s attorney, Bruce Carr, said there could be more lawsuits filed in the future on his client’s behalf. “We’re continuously finding out different things that Crants did,” Carr said. Crants’ attorney Steven Riley said he would comment after reviewing the case this afternoon.

March 30, 2009 Nashville Post
Nashville attorney Gregg Ramos has been interviewed by members of President Barack Obama's administration for vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, according to NashvillePost.com sources. The vacancies on the courts were created when 6th Circuit Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey took senior judge status on Jan. 1 and when Memphis based Judge Robert L. Echols took senior judge status in 2007. Echols' slot had been the focus of much controversy when then-President George W. Bush nominated Nashvillian Gus Puryear to fill the seat in June of 2007. Puryear, general counsel for Corrections Corp. of America, was the subject of an intense lobbying effort that eventually doomed his nomination.

March 12, 2009 AP
The agency that oversees Florida's six privately run prisons needs to ensure that problems found during audits _ such as broken alarms and unsanitary infirmaries _ are quickly fixed, lawmakers were told Thursday as part of a report reviewing the agency. Audits of private prisons by the Florida Department of Corrections had previously found broken escape sensors and buildings that had not been checked for any attempts by inmates to tunnel out. Audits also found delays in medical care and problems involving contraband. "Some of these problems were repeated year after year at the same prisons," said analyst Vic Williams, who summarized the report for lawmakers in testimony before the Senate Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations. The report was written by the Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability and released in December. Lawmakers heard a formal presentation of the details Thursday. An official with the Department of Management Services, the agency that oversees the private prisons, told lawmakers that his agency has already begun to address some of the issues raised by the report. "We've already started the process to implement a lot of these recommendations," Department of Management Services' J.D. Solie told the panel. Solie promised that any future violations found by Department of Corrections audits would be corrected within 45 days. "This is an eye-opening report," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. The state has six private prisons housing approximately 8,000 inmates or about 8 percent of the state's inmates. The facilities cost the state about $133 million a year, or some 6 percent of the Department of Corrections' $2.2 billion budget. The state currently contracts with two private prison companies: Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America and Boca Raton-based GEO Group Inc. The state's 131 other facilities are run by the Florida Department of Corrections. CCA said in a statement that it has "worked closely" with the state to "ensure contract compliance and will continue to do so." A message left for a spokesman at GEO was not immediately returned. Among recommendations, the report also said private prisons should be required to track the percentage of inmates who successfully complete substance abuse and education programs. It also noted that phone calls made from private prisons are more expensive than calls from prisons run by the Department of Corrections. A 15 minute phone call from a private prison costs around $6 while the same call costs 50 cents in a state-run prison, lawmakers were told. And while families can visit state-run prisons on Saturdays and Sundays, private facilities allow visits either every other weekend or only one of the two weekend days, the report found. The Department of Management Services said future contracts would require private prisons to measure and report graduation rates from education and treatment programs. Contracts will also require that phone call prices be "more in line" with the cost at state-run prisons, according to a written reply from the agency. But, the agency wrote it believed the visitation policies at private prisons were appropriate, though it agreed to ask inmates and families about their satisfaction.

March 6, 2009 Tennessean
Five national journalist groups and the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union have joined forces supporting a prison reform advocate who is seeking public records from Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America. A friend of the court brief filed in state appeals court Tuesday asks the court to uphold a July ruling by a Nashville chancellor saying that CCA must follow public records law and open its files for viewing. Alex Friedmann, a former inmate who is now an advocate and associate editor for Prison Legal News, has taken the nation's largest for-profit prison operator to court, seeking access to public records under the Tennessee Public Records Act. He has campaigned for records that deal with the deaths and questionable treatment of inmates. Friedmann, the journalism associations and the ACLU contend CCA is performing a governmental function, operating prisons, detention centers and jails with public funding, and, therefore, the public has a right to access documents. "Our state government cannot contract away its accountability to the public by hiring private, for-profit companies like CCA to perform core governmental functions, such as operating prisons," Friedmann said. "Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent." The journalism groups are: Society of Professional Journalists, American Society of Newspaper Editors, Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Associated Press. Nashville Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman had ruled that CCA, by running jails and prisons, which are essential governmental roles, was a "functional equivalent" to a governmental entity. Since most of its revenues are taxpayer-funded, she ordered the company to make all of its records available, except those sealed by a court order. CCA fights ruling -- CCA, which operates the Metro Detention Facility and six other detention facilities across Tennessee, has maintained the company does not have to comply with public records requests because it is private. CCA had its own ally file on its behalf. The Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association claims in its brief that the chancery court's ruling would affect other government contractors. Louise Grant, CCA's spokeswoman, declined to comment, referring to their appellate brief.

February 11, 2009 Nashville City Paper
U.S. stocks fell Tuesday, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its biggest drop since Barack Obama’s inauguration, on skepticism that the government’s bank rescue will work. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. slipped more than 15 percent after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he’s still “exploring a range of different structures” to bail out lenders. Principal Financial Group Inc. plunged 30 percent on concern the life insurer needs more capital. Alcoa Inc. slumped 10 percent after S&P cut the aluminum producer’s credit rating to the lowest investment grade. Corrections Corp. of America fell 27 percent, the most since November 2000, to $11. The Nashville-based company, which is the biggest U.S. private operator of prisons, said it expects to earn 26 cents a share at most in the first quarter. That missed the 30-cent average estimate from analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

February 10, 2009 AP
Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market: Corrections Corp. of America, down $3.37 at $11.65. The private prison operator gave first-quarter and fiscal year profit predictions that undershot average Wall Street predictions.

February 10, 2009 AP
Private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America on Tuesday issued first-quarter and fiscal year profit predictions that undershot average Wall Street predictions, partially as a result of fewer days in the 2009 periods. Corrections Corp. said it expects to post a first-quarter profit of 24 cents to 26 cents per share, while 2009 profit is expected to fall within a range of $1.10 to $1.20 per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect a first-quarter profit of 30 cents per share and a 2009 profit of $1.34 per share. Corrections Corp. said the 2009 periods will have fewer days than the comparable periods last year as a result of the leap year in 2008. The first quarter's results are also expected to be hurt by unemployment taxes as base wage rates reset for state unemployment tax purposes. The company said its guidance also reflects higher depreciation and interest expense, along with a decline in capitalized interest on expansion and development projects. Corrections Corp. added that it remains cautious about the economic outlook through this year, but believes that the long-term growth opportunities remain very attractive.

January 13, 2009 Press Release
A report released today by the Southwest Institute for Research on Women and the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program describes harsh conditions of confinement for the roughly three hundred women housed in immigration detention facilities in Arizona. The report, Unseen Prisoners: A Report on Women in Immigration Detention Facilities in Arizona, is based on over a year of research, including over 40 interviews with detainees, their family members, attorneys, and service providers. “Few people realize that we are locking up huge numbers of immigrants every day and holding them for months and in some cases years at a time. They are not being punished for a crime, and yet they are held in facilities that are identical to, and often double as, prisons or jails,” said Nina Rabin, the lead researcher and author of the report. “Women immigration detainees in particular are an invisible population. We hope this report will raise awareness about women locked up just an hour away from here in conditions that would shock most Americans. We also hope to raise awareness about the U.S. citizen children separated from their mothers right now because of immigration detention.” The report provides detailed information about day-to-day life in the three facilities that house women immigration detainees in Arizona: Central Arizona Detention Center, Pinal County Jail, and Eloy Detention Center. Rabin and several University of Arizona law students conducted interviews and extensive background research for the report over a twelve month period between August 2007 and August 2008. Rabin described the study’s participants: “In our small sample size of detainees who agreed to participate in this research study, we encountered pregnant and nursing mothers, domestic violence victims, low-wage workers swept up in worksite raids, and asylum-seekers fleeing persecution and sexual violence.” The federal agency in charge of the detention and removal of immigrants, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), contracts for two of the facilities to be run by the private prison company the Corrections Corporation of America. In the case of Pinal County Jail, ICE contracts with the county. ICE permitted the researchers access to two of the three facilities, but declined requests to interview ICE representatives or facility personnel for the report. Rabin met with ICE representatives in December to discuss the report’s findings and recommendations. Key findings of the report include: • Family separation: The majority of women interviewed were separated from at least one U.S. citizen child under the age of 10 and were transferred to Arizona from out of state. As a result, they were hundreds or at times thousands of miles away from their families and communities during their time in detention. • Severe penal conditions for women who are not serving criminal sentences: Women described conditions of confinement that are in many cases more restrictive than in county jails or prisons, including limited access to recreation, a complete absence of programming or activities, frugal provision of food and other supplies, and the routine use of strip searches and shackling during transport. • Aggressive government prosecution and detention of women who pose no security threat or flight risk: Attorneys reported that ICE routinely appeals decisions to release pregnant women on bond; rejects or does not respond to applications for humanitarian parole of victims of domestic violence, refugees, or women with serious health conditions; and refuses to reduce bonds for families unable to pay. • Inadequate medical care: Women reported inadequate gynecological and obstetrical care, long waits for medical attention, and dismissive responses to medical requests. The report contains detailed recommendations for Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the individual facilities researched. Recommendations range from broad policy changes, including the need for increased consideration of the impact of immigration detention on families, to specific facility-level concerns, such as the lack of outdoor recreation in Pinal County Jail. The report will be available beginning on January 13, 2009, at http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/clinics/ilc//UnseenPrisoners.pdf. For more information, please contact Nina Rabin at (520) 621-9206 or rabin@email.arizona.edu.

January 12, 2009 Tallahassee Democrat
Bill Cotterell: Perhaps privatized prisons just doesn't work -- There comes a point, when a car or a business venture or a relationship has repeatedly turned out to be more trouble than fun, when we need to step back and say, "Maybe this just is not going to work." A new report from the Legislature's fiscal analysts indicates that Florida may be at that point with private prisons. One of Gov. Jeb Bush's lasting legacies, particularly among Republicans, is the belief that privatization works. But the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability says — again — that our $133 million commerce in corrections might be something less than a smashing success. OPPAGA says the Department of Management Services has improved its oversight of the six privately run prisons, with state monitors spotting contract violations that resulted in removal of three prison wardens and levying of $3.4 million in fines and deductions from state payments to the companies. But over the years, prison privatization has been as troublesome, or more so, than the state's attempts at outsourcing personnel, purchasing and insurance administration. At least those "outsourcing" efforts, while profitable to the companies that got contracts and headaches for the employees who had to deal with them, didn't affect public safety. Prisons are different. Significantly, OPPAGA doesn't single out either of the worldwide companies that operate private prisons in Florida. It's the system itself — the corporate need to make money by cutting corners, the government's bureaucratic blame-shifting — that draws critical attention. The Department of Corrections inspects the six corporate-run prisons, which house nearly 8,000 inmates, and here is some of what OPPAGA said the inspectors found: Security violations, "including inoperable alarms, spotlights and escape sensors; buildings not checked for tunneling; and missing tools that could be crafted by inmates into weapons." "Contraband violations including positive inmate drug tests and inmate possession of drugs and drug residue, gang material and weapons as well as staff and visitors arriving at the prison in violation of contraband policies." Medical treatment violations, including lost or never-ordered laboratory tests, delays up to five months in filing records, "unsanitary conditions and nursing staff vacancies." Another way private prisons can operate 7 percent cheaper than comparable state institutions — as required by law — could be by having far fewer inmates with serious health and mental problems. At the Graceville prison, OPPAGA said, 18 percent of inmates were classified "psychological grade 3," compared with 67 percent in a comparable state prison; 16 percent of Graceville's inmates had medical upgrades, compared with 53 percent in a state prison of similar size. "As special-needs inmates are more expensive to serve than other inmates, the difference in the populations of public and private prisons results in the state shouldering a greater proportion of the cost of housing these inmates," said the report. "As a result, the requirement that the private prisons operate at 7 percent lower cost than state facilities is undermined." Then there are the phone calls home and visitation with families, which are considered important to rehabilitation. "While the families of inmates in state prisons pay 50 cents for a 15-minute collect call, families of inmates in private prisons, on average, pay $6.18 for the same length call," OPPAGA reported. State prisons normally allow visits on Saturdays and Sundays, but OPPAGA said the private prisons allow them on one of those days, not both. DMS said that's because of space limitations in common areas, but OPPAGA said "these centers have twice the median square feet of those in public prisons." There's an adage in corrections that people go to prison "as" punishment, not "for" punishment. Once there, they're supposed to get some help, so they don't come out — and almost every one of them is coming out, eventually — worse than they went in. But the OPPAGA report said DMS contracts for private prisons don't set standards or measure performance in GED completion, graduation from treatment programs, completion of vocational training or transition programs meant to reduce recidivism. OPPAGA, which does performance studies on agencies and reports to the Legislature on how things are going, also said the inmates' own money is not being properly accounted for in the private prisons. About $1.5 million a year is collected from sale of snacks, cigarettes and toiletries in the prison canteens, to be used for some extras that the taxpayers shouldn't have to provide. But OPPAGA said the some of the money was used to buy computers and software for administrative staff of the prison companies, and sometimes prisons simply couldn't account for some of it. If these were a few small, isolated events, they might be just unfortunate glitches and misunderstandings in a big, statewide operation of business and government. But the history of prison privatization is a troubled one. Under the old Correctional Privatization Commission, one executive director was fined and fired for ethics violations and another went to jail (admittedly not the companies' or the state's fault; he just happened to make a better inmate than executive). Shortly after assuming oversight, the DMS inspector general reported widespread billing of the state for nonexistent employees. There have been frequent disputes over who pays for equipment and services, and allegations of corner-cutting on staffing and security. True, a lot of the complaining has come from the Police Benevolent Association, which represents correctional officers in state prisons and understandably doesn't like privatization in any form. And DMS says it is currently satisfied that problems are being fixed and the 7-percent savings rate is being attained. The private prisons are a big business, hiring some of Tallahassee's top lobbyists. But when an enterprise has been so troubled, so long, maybe it's time to reconsider doing it. Contact Bill Cotterell at (850) 671-6545 or bcotterell@tallahassee.com.

November 14, 2008 Nashville City Paper
Tennessee Democrats had a losing record this election season in the state, but they are likely about to see a pack of federal appointments in the legal system roll their way. With the changing of the guard from President George W. Bush’s administration President-elect Barack Obama’s in 2009, appointments for a federal judgeship in the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee and the positions of U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshall for the same region are on the table. Currently filling those posts are U.S. Attorney Ed Yarbrough and U.S. Marshall Denny King. The spot that is open on the U.S. District Court has been publicized not because who was once in the seat, but who was nominated for it — Gus Puryear. Puryear, who is the executive vice president and general counsel for Nashville based Corrections Corporation of America, was nominated for the bench by President George W. Bush in June of 2007. Although Puryear did get a nomination hearing, the U.S. Senate, which has final say on these lifetime appointments, never voted on his appointment. Puryear’s nomination suffered from negative press reports about his ties to Belle Meade Country Club as well as the alleged practices of CCA in its prisons. Puryear was also targeted by an organization opposed to prison privatization. The Florida group had ties to organized labor that represents state corrections officers. Traditionally, when openings for a federal judgeship occur, the U.S. Senators from that state tell the president whom they want and he nominates them. When the Senators are from an opposing party, as is the case of Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, that courtesy falls to Democratic members of the U.S. Congress, in this case primarily Congressmen Jim Cooper and Bart Gordon. Because Cooper was such an early and strident supporter of Obama’s, he likely will have the upper hand. Protocol would dictate that Alexander and Corker would be given advance notice of the nomination and as a courtesy they would say if they had any major objections to the nomination.

October 5, 2008 San Francisco Chronicle
They're not dueling initiatives. But a pair of anti-crime measures on the Nov. 4 state ballot could hardly be more different in their approach to improving California's criminal justice system. Proposition 5 would divert more drug addicts and nonviolent offenders from prison to rehabilitation programs. Proposition 6 would set aside money for anti-crime agencies and put more convicts - gang members in particular - behind bars. One would shrink the prison system, the other make it bigger. ... Spending boost -- Prop. 6, the other measure, would require the state to spend at least $965 million a year on programs for police and probation departments, prosecutors, jails and juvenile lockups. That's a $365 million increase from current spending, a figure likely to rise to $500 million within a few years, the legislative analyst said. Penalties would increase for some crimes, particularly offenses that are gang-related. Civil injunctions restricting the movement of alleged gang members - like those that San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has pursued in recent years - would become easier to obtain. "It's a response to the growing gang problem, which is affecting all parts of California," said Prop. 6 supporter Scott Thorpe, who leads the California District Attorneys Association. Macallair said Prop. 6 would worsen the crisis in prisons and noted that law enforcement contractors had donated to the Prop. 6 campaign, including Corrections Corporation of America, which builds and manages prisons.

September 24, 2008 Nashville Scene
Yesterday, Lamar Alexander, the lead water-carrier for judicial nominee Gus Puryear, read the campaign its last rites. Alexander's statements are the last nail in the coffin for Puryear, lead counsel for private prison giant Corrections Corporation of America. They're also an unofficial acknowledgment of the power of the one-man campaign. No matter where your loyalties lie, it's tough to argue that anyone deserves more of the credit (or blame) for Puryear's failed nomination than Alex Friedmann. Getting the locals to care about who swings a gavel in Middle Tennessee is one thing. Getting pub from national outlets is another. Now with the campaign over, Friedmann is a stick without a spoke. He says he'll continue working on the humdrum elements of vigilanteism and may even aim his scope at larger targets. "There's always Palin," he jokes. We here at Pith, however, think Friedmann's bandwagon should be steered elsewhere. Trudging through the muck of rancorous politics during this election season has left us exhausted. It's time all of Nashville had a cause worth championing. Something fun and family-friendly that makes us forget about the world while alternately making us worry about the cleanliness of our undergarments.

September 24, 2008 Tennessean
Nominations of two Tennesseans — Gus Puryear of Nashville to be a federal judge and Susan Williams of Knoxville to be a TVA board member — have been derailed by political squabbles. Several prison rights and civil rights groups have objected to the nomination of Puryear, general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison giant based in Nashville. CCA had been hammered by allegations of underplaying serious incidents in its jails and misrepresenting the circumstances of in-custody deaths. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, said Tuesday that neither nomination would be approved before the end of the year. That means the nomination process for both slots will begin again after a new president takes office in January. "That's another example of the Democratic Congress not approving a qualified nominee," Alexander said of Puryear's choice by President Bush to be a judge in the Middle District of Tennessee. Democrats opposed both -- Puryear was caught in an election-year political fight. Republicans have tried to gain approval for as many of Bush's nominees as possible before the end of his term. Reasons cited by opponents as to why Puryear should not be confirmed include: a lack of trial and judicial experience, his role as chief lawyer for the country's largest private prison company, and the company's handling of the 2004 death of Estelle Richardson while she was in the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville. Democrats, who control the Senate, say they have treated the president's nominees as well as Republicans did near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency. But they have slowed the process, hoping they will be able to fill the vacancies if their nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, wins the presidency. Williams' nomination to the TVA board was a casualty of a battle between Alexander and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid held up her nomination and that of Bishop William Graves of Memphis because he wants a Democratic representative on the TVA board. In June, Reid let Graves' nomination go through after Alexander and Sen. Bob Corker blocked a nomination Reid wanted. In response to Alexander's comments, Puryear released a written statement through CCA. "I was honored to be nominated and understand fully how election-year politics works in Washington. I am very happy in my current job and look forward to continuing to work with my friends in Nashville to make our city and state a better place." Alex Friedmann, vice president of Private Corrections Institute, coordinated much of the opposition to the Puryear nomination, which Bush made in June 2007. "Mr. Puryear was an unqualified, inexperienced, conflicted and controversial nominee for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. The citizens of Middle Tennessee deserve better and hopefully will receive a more qualified candidate during the next administration," Friedmann said in a statement.

September 23, 2008 Tennessean
The nominations of Gus Puryear of Nashville to be a federal judge and Susan Williams of Knoxville to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority are dead for this year, Sen. Lamar Alexander said this morning. "That's not going to happen," Alexander said at a briefing with Tennessee reporters, referring to the nomination of Puryear for a federal judgeship in the Middle District of Tennessee. "That's another example of the Democratic Congress not approving a qualified nominee." The nomination by President Bush of Puryear, general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America, had been criticized by prison rights and civil rights organizations because of his role in representing the largest private prison company in the country. Williams' nomination has been stalled because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, wants a Democratic representative on the TVA board. Puryear issued a statement through CCA. "I was honored to be nominated and understand fully how election-year politics works in Washington. I am very happy in my current job and look forward to continuing to work with my friends in Nashville to make our city and state a better place."

September 21, 2008 Las Vegas Sun
Some state lawmakers plan to push to end local governments’ hiring of lobbyists to represent them at the Legislature, but the Clark County Commission last week agreed to negotiate a contract with R&R Partners to lobby on behalf of University Medical Center. Is there a particular lobbyist who will be working on the UMC account? Yes, a former assemblyman, Jim Spinello. He has a long history in state politics. The year after he lost a bid for secretary of state in November 1990, he became assistant general manager of the State Industrial Insurance System. Last year, he was appointed chairman of a 60-member committee, Nevada Educators for Edwards, established by then-presidential candidate John Edwards. Didn’t the county select someone else for the lobbying job recently? The county’s choice of R&R represents quite a change from its previous choice of J3, the lobbying firm of Robert Uithoven, a longtime Republican who withdrew his name from consideration in August. Democrats dominate the commission 5-2, with Rory Reid, son of the U.S. Senate majority leader, serving as chairman. Uithoven’s being considered for the job drew many questions. Not only has Uithoven worked on behalf of Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons, he argued last summer that the casino industry should be able to obtain refunds for up to $150 million in state taxes that casinos paid on comped meals. How much is the R&R contract for? The amount is to be negotiated before being brought to the commission for final approval. Who else does R&R represent? Perhaps the better question is: Who doesn’t it represent? During the 2007 session, lobbyists for the firm represented myriad businesses and industries including the Andre Agassi Foundation, the Corrections Corp. of America, the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, Medic West, Las Vegas Monorail, the Nevada Cancer Institute, the Nevada Mining Association, the Nevada Resort Association, Opportunity Village, Planned Parenthood, the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association and US Airways.

September 14, 2008 Indianapolis Star
Attorney Paul Ogden has been kicking some dirt lately about potential conflicts of interest involving the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg. Ogden's firm, Roberts & Bishop, has four lawsuits pending against Corrections Corporation of America, the company that manages the city's minimum-security jail. The suits evolve from allegations of inadequate medical care at the facility. Barnes & Thornburg represents CCA. Last week, Ogden wrote a letter to Democratic council members noting that the chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee is Ryan Vaughn, a Barnes & Thornburg attorney. Vaughn said he's open to scrutiny of the relationship. He said he's not a partner, so his salary does not change depending on the firm's revenues. He acknowledged there could be a situation where he would face a conflict in the future, such as if there were a proposal to privatize the maximum-security jail. "That's the nature of a representative legislature where the members have a full-time job," Vaughn sad. "Unless you're retired, most people will have a conflict at some level if you look hard enough." Vaughn said the solution is full disclosure and abstaining from any matters where the benefit for his firm would be obvious. Jackie Nytes, a Democratic council member, agreed. She said Vaughn will have to be careful because conflicts can arise. "The trouble with ethics legislation," Nytes said, "is that people have to work for a living."

September 7, 2008 Murfreesboro Post
Look, can we get this out of the way right here? When a teenager, Alex Friedmann pulled an armed robbery, got into a shoot out, was wounded, tried, convicted then spent 10 years in the pen. Unlike the rest of us, he made some mistakes when he was a teenager. “I can’t provide any reasonable explanation. I was stupid. I was greedy. In addition, I was a terrible criminal and was caught right away.” That was in ’87. “I was young, but there are a lot of young people out there who don’t get in trouble.” He’s aware of maybe a debt he still owes. “I’ve tried to make amends. The experience led me to become interested in criminal justice issues,” he said from his Nashville office where he is associate editor of Prison Legal News (www.prisonlegalnews.org). He’s also vice president of the non-profit Private Corrections Institute. Friedmann, who spent the usual college years—18-26 – behind bars, is an articulate spokesman for prison reform. “Look, we have 2.3 million locked up now and the number’s going up, and 95 percent of them will be released back into society. They’ll be given 50 bucks and shoved out the gate. They’ll go back, most of them, to their old neighborhoods that probably are crime infested. They’ll have trouble getting a job. Sixty percent of them will be back in prison sooner or later.” “We’re not preparing prisoners to be released. Drugs are a problem, OK, but many crimes are the result of alcohol.” Friedmann, a graduate of both types of prison, is solidly against privatization of prisons. “I have moral and philosophical objections to the privatization of prisons. Now, I want to be very careful not to imply that our public prisons are great. They aren’t. “But the privately run prisons are operated for one reason: profits. That’s a poor excuse to be in the prison business.” He points out that our “corrections system” fails to correct. “And I have a big gripe that we think institutionalizing is the only punishment. Most of the nation’s prisoners are not murderers or bank robbers. They are into drugs, drinking, fights, stealing, fraud, and they can be punished by drug and alcohol courts, fines, community work service, weekend incarceration, electronic monitoring, counseling, treatment. All this is cheaper than prison and will increase the chances of bringing about corrections in behavior.” Friedmann likes drug, alcohol and mental treatment courts. “Most of our citizens want less crime, less victimization. These measures will generate some correctional behavior.” Friedmann drew regional attention in mid-August when he led a fight to derail a federal court nominee.

September 2, 2008 Trading Markets
Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) recently promoted several senior-level employees within the company's Business Development department at its headquarters in Nashville, company officials announced. "These proven professionals bring a wealth of experience to their new roles at CCA," said Tony Grande, executive vice president and chief development officer. "The knowledge and skills of these individuals will only enhance our company as we maintain our leadership position in the corrections industry." According to the company, Lucibeth Mayberry has been promoted to vice president, deputy chief development officer. Mayberry began her career at CCA in 2003 as a senior director, Customer Relationship Manager (CRM). She has since served as managing director, State Customer Relations and most recently served as vice president, Research, Contracts and Proposals. Natasha Metcalf now serves as vice president, Customer Contracts. Metcalf also joined CCA in 2003 as vice president of Local Government Customer Relations and most recently served as vice president and associate general counsel, Contract Management, within CCA's Office of the General Counsel. Brad Regens is now managing director, State Customer Relations. Regens began his career at CCA in 2007 as senior director of State Customer Relations, where he was responsible for managing business relationships with established and prospective state partners in the southwestern United States. Bart VerHulst has assumed the role of managing director, Federal and Local Customer Relations. VerHulst spent 12 years on the staff of United States Senator Bill Frist in Washington, D.C., most recently as his chief of staff. The company also announced the addition of a new member to its Business Development team. Ben Shuster has joined CCA as a senior director/customer relationship manager for State Customer Relations. He previously served as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. Shuster has also worked as special assistant to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and as trip coordinator/lead advance representative in the White House for the Office of the Vice President. CCA is the founder and industry head of the private corrections management industry.

August 31, 2008 Murfreesboro Post
Four years ago, Estelle Richardson, 34, was murdered in a Nashville jail run by Corrections Corporation of America. That's a tangential issue in the legal career of Gustavus A. Puryear IV, just one of the things that has caught the attention of Alex Friedmann, an ex-con gone good and now an editor of Prison Legal News, an organization devoted to digging out mistreatment and maltreatment of prisoners. Charges were filed against four guards who were accused of beating Richardson to death. But their conviction foundered on a technical matter involving time of death. It is one of the things that troubles Friedmann (once a convict himself) about Puryear's nomination for a lifetime appointment to the federal district court in Middle Tennessee. Puryear is chief lawyer of Corrections Corporation of America that is headquartered in Nashville. "CCA is the defendant in scores and scores of lawsuits each year. It is difficult to see how Puryear could ever serve as presiding judge in a trial involving his old bosses." The nomination---presented before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Republican Senators Corker and Alexander---came about the way most do: Puryear has been a worker in the vineyards for Tennessee and national Republicans. He gave important money to Corker and Alexander and coached up Dick Cheney for the '00 vice presidential debates. He worked for Fred Thompson. He's been named a "Republican heavyweight" by a Nashville newspaper. Unhappily, his qualifications for a federal judgeship are wanting. Friedmann says Puryear has been personally involved in only five federal cases and two trials over his entire legal career, and lost one of those. "He has not served as a practicing attorney for years," Friedmann says. Republicans answer that Puryear has been rated as "qualified" by the American Bar Association. "Well," Friedmann says, deconstructing the classification methodology. "ABA rates lawyers Qualified, Unqualified, or Well Qualified. Seventy-five percent of all lawyers get the Well Qualified classification. Puryear, therefore, is in the bottom 25 percent." But Friedmann's great objection to Puryear's appointment remains his conflicted position. He's a CCA man and has been their chief lawyer for years. He says he'll recuse himself from their cases for five years. "Well, CCA's in the courts all the time. And what about after five years? He doesn't say what he'll do after that." In typical Republican fashion of the past seven years, Puryear's record was great from a political standpoint but wanting for professional creds. Today, the nomination is being held up in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which indicates it failed to get pro forma approval, a bad indicator for the state's Republican senators and party. There is a chance that Puryear won't be approved in the Senate committee. This would, in effect, kill the nomination.

August 21, 2008 The Nashville Scene
So this is hilarious. Corrections Corporation of America, the widely condemned prison company in Green Hills, has launched a Pravda-styled website aimed at providing "factual information" about its operations. The site makes out CCA to be as sweet and innocent a business as your daughter's lemonade stand. Sadly, as the company's PR push notes, a "local daily paper" has willfully mischaracterized the outfit's open and efficient approach to doing business. That's right: Only The Tennessean has raised pertinent questions about CCA. No one else has said a word, correct? Well, actually there was The New Yorker, arguably the most respected magazine in the country, which reported that CCA dressed the young children of detainees at its immigration farm in Texas in prison garb. At that same facility, the magazine continued, CCA stored women and children in the same cell, where they would sleep on bunk beds next to an open toilet. Nice to see how the company (which maintains strong Republican ties) practices its family values. For more horror stories, we turn to The New York Times, which wrote that CCA refused to divulge information about the immigrants who mysteriously die in its facilities. The Times chronicled how one inmate at a CCA facility in New Jersey—a man who had merely overstayed a tourist visa—found himself "shackled and pinned to the floor of a medical unit." He moaned and vomited and was thrown in a disciplinary cell for 13 hours, even as he foamed at the mouth like a rabid raccoon. The man later died. Then there's Time magazine, which reported the astonishing tale of a former CCA insider who suddenly grew a conscience. He told the magazine CCA kept two sets of books: an accurate one that chronicled an array of prison disturbance—and a heavily doctored one designed to limit bad publicity and federal fines. Meanwhile, the man who oversaw CCA's fraudulent reporting system was none other than Gus Puryear, the company's hapless corporate counsel, whose nomination to the federal bench appears to have gone belly up. (A side note: The local bar, which would like to argue cases before a competent jurist, couldn't be happier at Puryear's demise.) Next, in the Scene's recent cover story about CCA, we reported that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division (ICE), a body hardly known for its vigilance, slapped the company for running its Texas immigration facility on the cheap. "CCA is losing staff as quick as they can hire them," one internal memo said, tearing into the privatized prison company for paying its guards even less—much less—than the local county jail. "As long as CCA continues to hire employees at this rate per hour," the memo concluded, "they will continue to experience the problems they are currently experiencing on the floor." Finally, in that same story, we also reported that the Tennessee Department of Correction investigated allegations of abuse at CCA's Hardeman County Correctional Facility. So what did they uncover? How about a warden who shoved an inmate to the ground and then punched him in the face? That warden, a refined 40-something gentleman named Glen Turner, later resigned and pleaded guilty to a charge of official oppression. My guess is that he's now angling for the top job at Gitmo. His time at CCA would serve him well.

August 20, 2008 The City Paper
Bedeviled this year by negative publicity on several fronts, Corrections Corp. of America late last week launched a public relations push to counter what it says are biased reports. The Nashville-based company has been under the microscope since its general counsel, Gus Puryear, was nominated for the federal judgeship of the Tennessee Middle district in February. At the same time, activists have stepped up their work against the company, seeking the company’s contracts and other papers under public-record laws. CCA’s response includes an advertising campaign pointing people to a new Web site that promises an “unfiltered, full, 360-degree view of CCA.” The company has bought advertising on NashvillePost.com and the Web site of its sister publication, The City Paper. The company also published an open letter in The City Paper’s Monday print edition. The campaign, designed by local firm MMA Creative, accuses "a local daily paper" of ideological bias that CCA spokeswoman Louise Grant says has produced a media smear campaign. “It’s completely baffling,” Grant said. “We definitely think there’s a bias that’s been there for years and years.” Grant said the company was particularly stung by a recent Tennessean article that drew renewed attention to the unanswered questions surrounding the death of CCA inmate Estelle Richardson. “There was no new news in it," she said. "It was a very editorialized article." The article reiterated the details leading to Richardson’s death, featuring the comments of fellow inmate and friend Sharron Peterman, who called for the cold case to be solved. The Web site, called The CCA 360, responded by dissecting the article line by line, linking to evidence Grant says the company believes has been withheld from public consumption. She says accusations leveled against four prison guards were dropped because medical experts hired by both the prosecution and the defense found that Richardson sustained her injuries before the accused guards were in contact with her. The site also claims The Tennessean printed allegations against CCA without publishing the company’s accompanying denials. Grant also said that the paper ignored the medical evidence and focused only on the negative side of the story. “We have achieved excellence on American Correctional Association audits and our customers hold us in high regard,” Grant said. “That wasn’t a fair and balanced viewpoint.” Grant also said Tennessean editors have told CCA representatives that they oppose private correctional facilities from an editorial standpoint. Tennessean Editor Mark Silverman would only say that the paper stands by its article. But Alex Friedmann, a prison reform activist and associate editor of Prison Legal News, dispute the Web site’s claim to a 360-degree view of the issue. “They’re a corporation — their only responsibility is to their shareholders,” he said. “They’re interested in this incident because it causes problems with their stock price and shareholder confidence.” Shares of CCA (Ticker: CXW) are down about 6 percent in 2008 and are up almost 10 percent from a year ago. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has dropped more than 11 percent since last summer. Friedmann believes that, for the Web site to be considered balanced, it should have included a sheriff’s report excoriating CCA practices as well as an initial autopsy that conflicts with those conducted by the examiners during the trial. Friedmann’s credibility is also questioned on the Web site, which points to his lack of academic expertise and refers to him as a “former inmate.” Friedmann says everyone has an agenda and freely admits to his own. “Obviously, I have a bias. I have been an inmate at a CCA prison,” he said. “But CCA, they’re a private, for-profit organization. They have a $1.45 billion bias.”

August 15, 2008 AP
Private prison company Corrections Corp. of America spent $240,000 lobbying the federal government on legislation dealing with prison spending and policy, according to a recent disclosure form. The Nashville, Tenn.-based company lobbied on legislation dealing with private prisons and public safety, as well as on issues involving immigration, labor and more. Besides Congress, Corrections lobbied the Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department, Office of Management and Budget, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to a report filed July 18 with the House clerk's office.

August 14, 2008 AP
Had this been like most nominations for federal judgeships, the chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America might have been packing up his office and heading for the courthouse by now. But a determined opponent — a former prisoner at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Clifton, Tenn. — has worked tirelessly to see that would not happen. And he may have succeeded. More than a year after President Bush nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville, the 40-year-old's appointment appears to be in serious trouble, thanks in no small part to Alex Friedmann, a convicted armed robber turned inmate advocate. Friedmann, 39, contends Puryear is unqualified because he lacks experience in federal courts — he's been involved in only two federal trials — and might have a potential conflict of interest in hearing cases that involve CCA. On his Web site, http://www.againstpuryear.org, Friedmann also has detailed Puryear's ties to powerful Republicans like Dick Cheney, whom he helped prep for a 2000 debate, and portrayed Puryear as someone who got the nomination because of his connections rather than his qualifications. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Puryear's nomination in February but has yet to vote on whether to send his name to the full Senate. Erica Chabot, the press secretary for committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, said Puryear is one of only three people who have been nominated for district judgeships since January 2007 and have had hearings before the committee but have not had their nominations voted on. Leahy, D-Vt., has said the panel will not consider any more nominees this session without the consent of leaders from both parties. "I understand they have put Puryear in the 'controversial' category," said Brian Fitzpatrick, who once worked for Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas defending Bush's Supreme Court nominees and is now an assistant law professor at Vanderbilt University. "It's very rare for a district court nominee to become controversial. Usually they just fly through." The Senate typically defers heavily to the senators from the nominee's home state, and Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee solidly support Puryear. But the opposition has been unusually committed. Multiple organizations, including the left-leaning Alliance for Justice and the National Lawyer's Guild, have challenged Puryear's nomination, all of them using research that originated with Friedmann, occasionally quoting it verbatim. Friedmann says he learned of the nomination because he keeps track of Nashville-based CCA, which manages 66 facilities around the country. He looked through dockets and court cases, contacted former co-workers and made Freedom of Information Act requests. To get the word out, he relied on the nonprofit Private Corrections Institute, for which he serves as vice president, and a group he formed called Tennesseans Against Puryear. Puryear did not return calls from The Associated Press for this story. White House spokesman Blair Jones said the White House suggests that nominees not speak to the media, prior to confirmation, out of respect for the deliberative process of the Senate. "Groups can attack a nominee, but you'll never see (the nominee) respond to anything except at hearings," said Puryear's friend Ed Haden, an attorney in Birmingham, Ala. Haden said the obstacles to Puryear's nomination are political, and don't mean he is not qualified for the job. "As far as his qualifications go, he was at the top of his class in law school, he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals, he has legislative experience in the U.S. Senate, he manages litigation for a big Fortune 500 company, and the ABA (American Bar Association) rated him as qualified," Haden said. "Gus realizes this is a lame duck year in politics," he added. "It's true for all nominees — whether you're in the deal or not is beyond your control." Puryear's nomination remains active until Congress adjourns, and he could still be confirmed. The most likely scenario for that would be a deal struck between senators. "At the end of the session, it's, 'Who wants a bridge in Vermont?'" said Haden, who has worked with two U.S. senators on judicial nominations. Meanwhile, Friedmann is continuing his opposition campaign in the hopes of making a last-minute deal less likely. "I'm glad the Judiciary Committee is taking a closer look at Mr. Puryear as a candidate because the issues we raised are legitimate issues," he said. "But," he added, "I'm definitely not claiming victory."

August 13, 2008 Tennessean
Alex Friedmann doesn't think people can see past his conviction, so he's the first one to bring it up. He spent 10 years in a cell — six of them at a Corrections Corporation of America prison in Tennessee — for armed robbery and attempted murder. "I was absolutely not cut out for a life of crime," Friedmann, 39, says. "And I was quite incompetent at it. I deserved the punishment. But punishment, technically, ends at some point. Society says it doesn't, and that lasts for the rest of your life. It follows you around like a legacy." Now, years removed from prison, Friedmann is engaged in an ardent struggle against Nashville-based CCA, the nation's largest for-profit prison company. He is a self-described underdog, battling the multibillion-dollar corporation that has drawn nationwide criticism for its treatment of prisoners. He didn't like the way he was treated while he was incarcerated, and he has questioned whether CCA gave prompt medical attention to a friend who died while in CCA custody many years ago. CCA, in turn, paints him as a less-than-credible advocate for prison reform and a pawn of unions that oppose privatized prisons like those run by CCA, which has 17,000 employees nationwide and holds more than 75,000 inmates. "He is a former inmate convicted of armed robbery at Green Hills," said Louise Grant, a spokeswoman for CCA. "The fact that he shot at a father and a son is lost. He now works for a union-funded company.'' Still, Friedmann says prison reform is what defines his life. "I admire people who devote their lives to causes — to saving whales, the environment, child abuse," he said. "This cause gives meaning to my life." He's a CCA shareholder -- In that role, Friedmann has single-handedly taken CCA to task over the years — even at the shareholder meetings. Friedmann owns one share of CCA stock, giving him the right to attend and ask questions at the meetings. "What I'm saying is that CCA is for-profit and it colors their decision," he said. "It's their business model." He is seeking access to CCA records. He won that access, albeit briefly, when a judge said that because the for-profit prison operates similar to a government entity, it should make its records open to the public, but CCA is appealing the judge's ruling. Friedmann is vice president of Private Corrections Institute, which is against the privatization of correctional institutions and is supported by unions. He says he does not collect a paycheck in his role with Private Corrections Institute. The company has paid for his travel and he has been reimbursed for expenses. He also is associate editor of Prison Legal News, working 60 hours a week reading and editing dozens of stories for the monthly publication, which looks at the nation's penal system. Then he leaves his desk to hand out fliers asking for more information regarding the death of a CCA inmate. He went to Congress to testify against the federal judgeship nomination of Gus Puryear, CCA's general counsel, a battle he is even keener about. He double-checked every answer Puryear gave to the Senate Judicial Committee. He investigated the general counsel's commission meetings and memberships in a country club, and he challenged a contradictory statement regarding the death of an inmate. He started a Web site, againstpuryear.com. His was 'a harsh crime' -- Friedmann considers himself a private person despite the public battles he has waged against CCA. During a lunch interview, he does not want to talk in any depth about his family, his personal life or religious affiliations. He is succinct. His father's family was Jewish, his mother a Southern Baptist. Friedmann was born outside of Boston and left for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, with his parents as a 1-year-old only child. His father worked for Aramco, the Arabian American Oil Co. "I did not have to share my toys," he said jokingly as he eats a salad and waits for his pizza to cool down. They lived in a compound with people from around the world. Years later, with extended family in Tennessee, Friedmann returned to the U.S. as a teen. It was the 1980s and he was not accustomed to American society, he said. Caught in a downward spiral of greed, stupidity and his personal struggle to assimilate back to American life after being raised in Dhahran, the 18-year-old Friedmann armed himself with a gun and robbed a Green Hills store. During the robbery he got into a gunfight with the store owner, who shot Friedmann in his left hand. "It was a harsh introduction to the system, but I committed a harsh crime," he said. Friedmann says he was able to get probation but still fouled up. His probation was revoked and he had to serve 10 years after he was busted for shoplifting. In prison he read a number of books, including the classics and a couple that sparked his interest in activism: Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a story based on a character who served 10 years in prison in Stalin's gulag. He began writing and learning how to do research. He admired the in-depth investigative pieces produced by reporters. Today, he worries it's not done enough. He has no social life, he says. His downtime consists of zipping around in his restored 1982 Corvette and working on computer systems. But he sees himself as a reporter and an activist.

July 31, 2008 Nashville Scene
On Tuesday, Alex Friedmann and CCA went to court. Friedmann, whose Dumpster-diving exploits we profiled this week, was there on behalf of Prison Legal News (PLN) where he works as associate editor. Back in April of ‘07, PLN made a formal request for CCA records. The paper wanted to know how much the prison-operator paid out in lawsuit settlements. CCA said it couldn’t have the info. PLN’s logic seemed simple enough. Locking up criminals is a public service. And even though CCA is a private company, 100 percent of its funding comes from the government, making it subject to the same transparency expected of their agencies. Simple, right? If you answered “yes,” then you’re obviously not a lawyer… Because if you’d been to law school, you would have understood CCA's higher allegiance to semantics. Using the patented “Grasping at Straws” stratagem, CCA lawyers argued that the millions the company gets from Tennessee each year isn’t technically funding. It's “contractual payments for services rendered.” See? Running a prison is just like paying your cell phone bill. You wouldn’t call the money you give Verizon every month “funding,” would you? Good. Glad to know you’re not a commie. Fortunately for PLN and fans of logic everywhere, the ruling judge wasn’t havin’ it. “The court just cut right through that (argument),” says Friedmann. Which means a momentary victory for Friedmann and PLN, even if CCA is almost guaranteed to appeal. We'll keep ya posted.

July 30, 2008 Tennessean
Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America must follow public records law and open its files for viewing, a Chancery Court judge ruled Tuesday, a decision that could lead to more transparency in a historically hidden industry. Alex Friedmann, an ex-offender and vice president of advocacy group Private Corrections Institute, had filed suit after CCA denied his request for records about prison operations and lawsuits they were part of. CCA, which operates the Metro Davidson County Detention Facility and six other detention facilities across Tennessee, maintained the company did not have to comply with public records requests because it is private. Access to prison records could accomplish two main goals, said Michele Deitch, an expert on private prison issues and adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin: shedding light on the operation of the private facilities and showing taxpayers how much money is spent on settlements with those who claim mistreatment. "When the private sector says, 'We can do this cheaper and better,' people don't think about what happens if things go wrong," Deitch said. "Who pays for that? In fact, it does come back to the taxpayers and the government. We need that information for a fuller picture of the true cost of these prisons." CCA plans to appeal the ruling, according to attorney Joe Welborn, who represented the company. Public-private line blurs - It's too soon to say whether there will be national implications to the decision, said Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center. But as more governmental functions are turned over to private industry, he said, the issue of what documents remain public can get muddied. "These issues will be litigated more and more," Policinski said. "Where does public responsibility and public visibility end, and a private institution's own records begin, when performing public functions and accepting public money?" Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ruled that CCA was a "functional equivalent" to a governmental entity, because the operations of jails and prisons are essential governmental functions, and most of their revenues are taxpayer-funded. She ordered the company to make all of its records available, except those sealed by a court order. Andrew Clarke, attorney for Friedmann, said he kept his arguments simple because he felt the facts supported his client's assertion that CCA performs a governmental function. "Sometimes it just is what it is," Clarke said. 'A layer of secrecy' The chancellor has not yet ruled on whether to award attorney's fees to Friedmann. CCA spokesman Steve Owen said the company is reserving comment until a final order has been issued. CCA has been hammered in recent months by allegations of underplaying serious incidents in its jails and misrepresenting the circumstances of in-custody deaths. Much of the heat came after CCA's general counsel, Gus Puryear, was nominated to a federal judgeship. The company's treatment of mentally ill inmates locally also was questioned after it was reported that an inmate hadn't left his cell or showered for nine months. Friedmann's organization recently offered reward money for anyone who could shed light on the death of Estelle Richardson, who died in the Metro jail in 2004. CCA officials said that, because of a malfunction, there was no tape of the incident that led to Richardson's fatal injuries. Friedmann served six years in a CCA-run facility before his release in 1999. "This important ruling strips away a layer of secrecy that CCA has misused to conceal embarrassing and negative information from the public," Friedmann said.

July 29, 2008 AP
A Nashville judge ruled Tuesday that private prison company Corrections Corp. of America is subject to Tennessee's open records law. Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ordered CCA to provide information on settlements, judgments and complaints against the company to Alex Friedmann, who first requested the information in an April 2007 letter. Joe Welborn, an attorney representing CCA, said the company will appeal. Bonnyman said the overriding issue was whether the company performs a government function. "The court finds that CCA is the equivalent of a government agency based first and foremost on the fact that the Tennessee constitution makes the maintenance of prisons and keeping of prisoners a state function," she said. The ruling only applies to records of Tennessee prisons, not to federal prisons the company runs, or prisons in other states. Attorney Andy Clarke said he represented Friedmann pro bono because he felt the Nashville-based company was deliberately trying to keep damaging information from becoming public. "Information is knowledge," he said. "They probably don't mind a $4,000 settlement for a broken back becoming public, but if someone gets killed, they probably do." Friedmann, a Tennessee resident and associate editor at the monthly magazine Prison Legal News, sued CCA after the company denied his records request, claiming it was not subject to the state's open records law. Among other things, he asked to see verdicts against the company and settlement agreements with prisoners. The judge ruled that even confidential settlements were public records and had to be turned over as long as they had not been sealed by a court order.

July 1, 2008 News Channel 5
A victim's advocate claims someone got away with murder at a Nashville detention facility. On July 5, 2004, Estelle Richardson died while in solitary confinement at the Davidson County Detention Facility operated by Corrections Corporations of America. An autopsy showed she died from blunt-force trauma to the head. She also had several broken ribs. Her file at the facility indicated that she died of "homicide ... unsolved murder." "She died a brutal, painful, vicious death," said Denver Schimming, a victim's advocate. Schimming, a reformed felon who served time for bank robbery, has turned his life around. He is determined to solve the Richardson case. "She did get the death sentence. Yeah, CCA was the judge, jury, and executioner in this case," he said about the mother of two. Schimming was among a small gathering of people standing outside the medium security prison Tuesday night to commemorate Richardson and keep the investigation open. "We're saying that justice has not been served. That we need to dig harder, work harder, and find out who it is," he said. "The question is not did it happen? It did happen. The question is who it is. Let's find out who murdered Estelle Richardson." Richardson was found unresponsive in solitary confinement 24 hours after cell extraction, which is described by some as a violent procedure to forcibly remove an inmate. Charges were dismissed against four former CCA guards indicted for her death because the district attorney general had "no definitive proof that (Richardson) died as a result of the actions of these defendants." The medical examiner, according to the district attorney, ruled "the blunt trauma that eventually killed Ms. Richardson likely took place several days before she was extracted from her cell." A key piece of evidence in the case is a videotape of Richardson's cell extraction. It no longer exists. Schimming said it's protocol to record such maneuvers, but CCA claims the camera malfunctioned. The district attorney general's office said the case isn't solved, but it's not being actively investigated either.

June 26, 2008 Nashville Scene
Regarding the Scene’s cover story on CCA, “Locked and Loaded” (June 19), when it comes to prisons—particularly private prisons—the devil’s in the details. While the article was informative and wide-ranging, it missed some important details, including these: It wasn’t clear that there was a cover up of the assault on inmate James Ingram at CCA’s Hardeman County facility. The assault by Warden Turner occurred on May 17, 2007, but the Tennessee Department of Correction wasn’t notified until July 19—two months later. Nor were they notified by CCA; they learned about the incident from Ingram’s attorney. CCA staff had tried to hide the incident from state officials. CCA employees apparently have problems following the law. From February 2003 to April 2008, at least 55 CCA employees at three prisons in Tennessee (Hardeman County, Whiteville and South Central) were charged with criminal offenses—or an average of one a month. That doesn’t include arrests of CCA staff members at the company’s 62 other facilities. Gerald Townsend, the inmate at the CCA-Metro facility who was beaten to death by his cellmate in January, was the brother of Judy Townsend—who, ironically, was present at the same CCA-run facility in July 2004 when Estelle Richardson was found “unresponsive” in her segregation cell and later died. Four CCA guards were indicted in connection with her death, but the charges were later dropped. A $35,000 reward has been offered for information related to Estelle’s murder: See whokilledestelle.org. Alex Friedmann Vice President, Private Corrections Institute (and former CCA prisoner)

June 19, 2008 Nashville Scene
Located in a bland, almost anonymous Green Hills office park of fake lakes and fountains is the headquarters of the nation’s largest private prison company, which, at the moment, may be the most disparaged corporation in the country. Since its inception in 1983, CCA has encountered legions of angry detractors who believe that the business of punishing criminals should not be—well, a business. But if the company has become accustomed to criticism over the years—like a best-selling author whose novels garner predictably bad reviews—it is now mired in a series of scandals, embarrassments and public-relations catastrophes that may tar its reputation for years to come. In the last 18 months alone, CCA has been the target of several stinging lawsuits supported by detailed affidavits and third-party reports alleging dangerous and inhumane practices that have put inmates’ lives at risk. Whistle blowers, once in positions of trust at CCA, have emerged from the shadows to tell vivid tales of corporate misconduct. Federal authorities have castigated the publicly traded corporation for operating an immigration detention facility in Texas on the cheap. And at that CCA complex—which at one point forced children of immigrant detainees to dress in prison garb—dozens of incarcerated women and children have come forward with gut-wrenching tales of anguish and neglect. Here in Nashville, CCA’s officers volunteer on the boards of noble nonprofits. But the company’s local detention center, far removed from the world of tony fundraisers and white-tie dinners, has been the setting for a string of grim events. One inmate beat his cellmate to death. A mentally ill man apparently went nine months without being allowed a shower. And another inmate lost his ear in a fight. So considering the company’s problems in its own backyard, not to mention its near-epic failings in Texas, it may seem odd to begin our story at a CCA facility in West Tennessee, where last May a few inmates brawled inside a prison chapel. The disturbance at the Hardeman County Correctional Center, located in the tiny town of Whiteville, was no different from any other jailhouse scuffle, and it’s not clear that anyone was even hurt. But an inmate who saw the fight—and maybe even threw a punch or two—got a lesson about the workings of CCA’s particular brand of law and order and its longtime penchant of avoiding scrutiny. On May 16, 2007, James Ingram, an inmate from Memphis who battled a drug problem, was serving a 17-year sentence for aggravated robbery at the medium-security prison. Clean-cut and not much older than 30, Ingram was walking to his pod at the time of the brawl and overheard a group of inmates fighting at the chapel. Ingram fell into a fetal position to demonstrate, in his lawyer’s words, “a spirit of surrender and cooperation.” If that sounds implausible, consider the next part of the inmate’s story. After prison officials quelled the fight, they took Ingram to a back room and demanded that he give up the names of the prisoners who squared off. Ingram saw who was involved, but he wouldn’t talk. So the warden, a 40-something man named Glen Turner and the brother of one of CCA’s corporate vice presidents, placed him in solitary confinement. Shortly after, Turner shoved him to the ground and Ingram fell on his back. The warden then punched him in the face, opening a 2-inch cut below his eye. Typical convict hogwash, right? The state didn’t agree. Ingram called a lawyer, who called the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) to look into what happened. Joined by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, TDOC investigated the incident and determined that Turner assaulted Ingram by “throwing him to the floor and striking him at least twice in the head with the closed fist of his right hand.” In August, Ingram resigned as warden. A month later, he pled guilty to a charge of official oppression. It’s not clear when CCA’s headquarters learned what happened at its West Tennessee prison. But state authorities hint that company officials were slow to act. In an email to his colleagues, Jerry Lister, then TDOC’s acting director of internal affairs, notes that it was only when his department learned of the allegations from Ingram’s lawyer that “anyone at the facility [began] to acknowledge the excessive use of force by Warden Turner.” As a private company, CCA doesn’t have to answer for what happened at its prison. It refused a request from the Scene to review Turner’s original résumé, job application and disciplinary file. Meanwhile, TDOC never issued a press release about the findings of its investigation. As a result, the publicly traded company escaped the rounds of bad publicity that a state-run prison would have endured had one of its wardens pummeled an inmate. Until now, the media has never reported the details of Turner’s attack on Ingram. But if CCA was able to dodge a PR nightmare last summer, its luck has since faded. Now it can’t seem to serve so much as a cold meal without landing in hot water. The well-heeled company finds itself embroiled in an array of ugly incidents, both in Nashville and throughout the country, that have been featured on the pages of national newspapers and magazines and in the bold type of heavy-hitting lawsuits. Taken separately, the company’s struggles may not seem extraordinary. The business of incarceration is a rough one, even for those who don’t view it as a business. But for CCA, which for most of the decade has been able to avoid criticism from everyone other than a thin cast of anti-privatization foes, there seems to be a growing series of corroborated accounts that sketch a new portrait: that of a reckless, callous enterprise that treats inmates—even those who haven’t been convicted of a crime—as if they were cattle. Maybe, then, it’s appropriate that we move our story to cattle country. Elsa is a sturdy woman in her mid-20s with soft, round cheeks and straight, black hair that she sometimes pulls behind her head. Before she found herself locked up in a dusty Texas town, she lived in Honduras with her two children, Richard and Angelina. Here is her story: Elsa was happy in her native country and “didn’t need anything from anyone to be well-off.” Then one day, while walking on a quiet road, a man grabbed her hair and put a gun to her head. He forced her to take off her clothes, and then he hit her. He called her a “perra” or bitch and laughed as he ran his weapon over her body. Elsa cried and screamed and then, after being raped, begged for her life. “Please don’t kill me. I have two children.” The man struck her again, but let her live so that he could haunt her once more, showing up on a whim at her friend’s place to let her know he could have her again whenever he chose. The man’s father worked for the local police department, and Elsa knew the only way to flee him was to flee Honduras with Richard and Angelina. When she arrived in the United States, an immigration agent took her and her family to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, 30 miles north of Austin. It would be anything but a safe haven. In 2005, Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division (ICE), ended the practice of “catch-and-release”—which permitted undocumented immigrants like Elsa to remain free at-large while they awaited their day in court. Under catch-and-release, no-shows were common. So after 9/11, the specter of illegal immigrants from all over the world roaming the country became a security issue. Pilot programs sprung up that tracked immigrants with electronic bracelets, though Chertoff went with a draconian plan instead: Throw many of these men, women and children in Hutto, a former medium-security prison that was surrounded by a 15-foot fence topped with rings of barbed wire when it reopened in 2006 as a place for immigrant families. After she arrived in Taylor, Elsa and her family shared a tiny living area, where they’d be loudly awoken at 5:45 a.m. Elsa, Richard and Angelina then had 20 minutes to eat breakfast. When they didn’t finish on time, guards would just snatch their food and throw it in the trash. “When this happens, the children cry and cry,” Elsa later explained in an affidavit that chronicled her plight. The detention center was very cold, so much so that the guards walked around wearing gloves. But they’d yell at Elsa if she asked for a blanket. One time they came into her cell and confiscated two of her sweaters. “They don’t care that we are cold,” she said. “They don’t care if we eat or if we don’t eat.” Elsa and her children wore prison uniforms and spent hours in their pod, often with no toys or books for the kids. One day, Elsa and her family were in the doctor’s office, where all the kids were playing with crayons. Angelina drew a picture, but a guard grabbed the girl’s artwork. She cried a lot at Hutto, wondering what her family had done wrong. “Mommy, where is God that he doesn’t want to help us? Mommy, tell God to come and take us out of here and take us to our house,” Elsa recalled her daughter saying. “Mommy, why do they have us as prisoners if we have never killed anybody?” In March 2007, the ACLU helped bring suit against Michael Chertoff and the immigration officers who ran Hutto. As a part of that litigation, attorneys collected more than 20 affidavits from detainees like Elsa, nearly all of whom were bidding to receive political asylum from their home countries. The detainees hail from different continents—some are adults, others young children—but they all tell the same story because they lived it together. Raouitee Pamela Puran fled her home country, where her husband was kidnapped and murdered. Seeking political asylum in the United States, she and her daughter Wesleyann wound up at Hutto. The young girl, just 4 years old, had trouble sleeping. It was always cold, and it didn’t help that the guards kept turning the lights on and off in their living quarters. The food was awful too. When Wesleyann would talk to her aunt on the phone, she’d plead with her to cook her chicken curry and rice. That always stung her mom. Even worse, Wesleyann would hear the guards threaten the children who acted up. If you don’t behave, they’d tell them, we’re going to separate you from your parents. Wesleyann was terrified. A sixth-grader at a junior high school in Ohio, Aissha Ibrahim came to Hutto with his mother, brother and sister on Nov. 30, 2006. Aissha, whose family had fled war-torn Somalia, said in an affidavit that when his sister Bahja got in trouble, the guards threatened to take her away from her family. Another guard told Aissha that if he complained, he would never see his mother again. “I would be scared if I never got my mom back, and I would think of how she took care of me when I was a baby,” he said. Just about every affidavit from a child or mother portrayed Hutto the same way—as a rough and cold place, where kids lie awake at night hungry and crying in the dark. And if they act up, like children often do, a guard would threaten to remove them from their families. To hear the stories from inside the walls, Hutto seems more like a medieval dungeon than a 21st century facility run by a wealthy company. “The conditions were shocking,” says Barbara Hines, a University of Texas law professor who spent many hours inside the facility representing detainees. “There were children in prison garb dressed like their parents; it was like an adult prison system. Seven times a day parents and their children were required to stay in their pods so they could be counted. Laser beams shined through the cells at night.” Just about everyone else who walked through the gates at Hutto, including federal authorities, saw it as a deeply troubling facility. In March 2007, ICE inspectors visited Hutto and, in their own distinct bureaucratic language, corroborated the anguished accounts of the detainees. The inspectors noted that their “overall review of the facility can be accurately rated as deficient” and determined that the staff wasn’t following basic standards of detention. “The Review Team’s observation of CCA’s overall attitude is of disinterest and complacency in their work performance,” the agency noted in its report. A month later, an interoffice memo from ICE said that at Hutto, CCA is “losing staff as quick as they can hire them.” That’s because the company was only paying its detention officers around $10 an hour, nearly $4 less than what they could make at the county jail. “As long as CCA continues to hire employees at this rate per hour, they will continue to experience the problems they are currently experiencing on the floor,” read the memo. “The current problems CCA is experiencing are a direct result of what ‘they are paying their employees for.’ Unfortunately, it is at ICE’s expense.” Among other issues, the Scene asked CCA to address the portrayal of Hutto that emerges from both federal officials and the people who lived there. The company declined to comment on any and all matters in this story, instead emailing news clips and a U.S. magistrate’s report of the facility. That report, which came three months after the ACLU filed its federal lawsuit, depicted a more humane place than other earlier accounts and noted, “there have been attempts to ‘soften’ the feel of the building.” The magistrate observed that the staff removed door locks and hung murals on the walls, “although the building still retains a very institutional feel.” In August, the ACLU announced a settlement with ICE over the treatment of immigrant families at the Hutto facility. The settlement called for several common-sense measures, including installing privacy curtains around toilets in common areas and letting kids play with toys in their rooms. All 26 children and their parents who took part in the suit were released into the custody of family members who are legal residents of the United States. By all accounts, Hutto is no longer as oppressive as it was when Elsa and her family first arrived from Honduras. But why didn’t CCA get it right from the start? Or to put it more bluntly, why did a rich company—one with $388 million in revenues last quarter—have to be told by the ACLU to cease treating innocent children like criminals? “The point I’d like to make is that none of these changes were done voluntarily,” says Hines, the attorney. “When you look at CCA and ICE, the question is, how would this facility have been if no one found out about it?” The apathetic treatment of Hutto’s immigrants was hardly an anomaly. CCA also operates a detention facility in San Diego that drew a separate ACLU lawsuit last year. In the complaint, the group claims that CCA routinely denied basic medical care to immigrant detainees with hepatitis, diabetes and other serious illnesses. One man from Ghana died from heart failure after the center’s staff allegedly asked him to fill out some paper work—even though he was seen kneeling on the floor of his cell and complaining of chest pains. At jails and prisons across the country, inmates routinely die under dire circumstances; some commit suicide after nurses fail to fill their anti-psychotic prescriptions, others find themselves on the wrong end of a baton stick. And in fairness, CCA doesn’t have a monopoly on jailhouse horror stories. For every dark tale of cruelty at CCA, there is an equal travesty in a county jail or federal penitentiary. The difference, though, is that CCA can duck responsibility for what happens inside its walls, whereas a government-run facility can’t. CCA doesn’t have to turn over the disciplinary file of a disgraced guard or give a press conference when one of its inmates escapes over the fence. It has the luxury to operate in the shadows and turn a booming profit without having to explain how it runs the business. We don’t know a lot about Patrick Perry, a onetime captain for CCA’s Metro Detention Facility, located on Harding Road in South Nashville. But we do know that on the morning of Jan. 31, 2008, Perry arrived at the Metro Health Department to talk about his employer and offer a glimpse into some of its secret practices. Metro Health officials would later write a memo detailing what the captain told them. Perry was worried about a troubled inmate named Frank Horton, who was imprisoned on a drug conviction and had stayed in the same segregation cell since May 2007. Perry said that CCA’s policy dictates that an inmate has to leave his cell at least once every three days or else guards need to remove him by force. But at CCA’s Harding facility, the warden reprimanded the staff if they followed this policy. That’s because every time they had to escort an inmate against his will, it raised the facility’s “use of force” numbers. And that placed the Metro Detention Center in a negative light when CCA officials evaluated it against its other jails and prisons across the country. At first blush, the warden’s directive may not seem out of order. If an inmate doesn’t want to leave his cell, why should the guards care? But Frank Horton was a special case. As Perry told Metro officials, the 23-year-old inmate seemed disoriented and was speaking gibberish. At the very least, he needed medical care. (Metro Health Department officials say they made sure Horton received a psychiatric screening after their visit with Perry, but say they can’t divulge any more details due to privacy concerns.) Horton’s mother, Cytherea Braswell, had tried to visit her son before Christmas but says that a guard couldn’t find the necessary forms. She later had a lawyer, John Clemmons, drop in to see him in March, after she learned her son wasn’t well. When Clemmons arrived, a guard told him that Frank was just fine, that he’d received a shower and a shave. But when he went to see his client, what he saw troubled him. “He had a big, unkempt goatee, and some stubble on his face and lint on his hair,” Clemmons says. “He was completely naked except for a blanket draped around him, and when they walked me back there, they didn’t act like this was unusual.” Now contemplating a lawsuit against CCA, Clemmons says that his client went nine months without taking a shower, which dovetails with Perry’s account of how Horton went the better part of 2007 without leaving his cell. Even worse, Horton appeared as if he were completely oblivious to the outside world and lost in his own muddled thoughts. Brawell says that, as a child, her son was diagnosed with hyperactivity and mild to moderate bipolar disorder. As a young adult, he worked at a Waffle House and played basketball with his friends. With the right treatment, she says, he could live a normal life. “He was an average person,” she says. “He had a job, he went to work every day, he had friends. He knew how to take care of himself.” But when Clemmons went to visit Braswell’s son, he was talking in the same mysterious language that Perry described in his visit with Metro officials. It was an odd blend of broken Spanish and English, and Horton spoke it as if it were his native tongue, repeating the same incoherent phrases to identical questions. “When I saw him, he was in a state where he had no awareness of his mental capacity,” Clemmons says. With the help of the Metro Legal Department and the Davidson County Sheriff’s office, Clemmons was able to transfer Horton to a state facility for inmates with special needs. Now in the process of researching his case, Clemmons isn’t sure what kind of, if any, mental health treatment his client received behind bars. For that, he may subpoena Patrick Perry to discover whether the CCA facility risked Horton’s health to polish its internal data. “When I was there, the only medical staff I saw was a nurse who merely walked from window to window and looked at the inmates through a slot in the door,” he says. “It just looked like all they were concerned with was that their physical well-being was intact.” In his meeting with Metro Health officials, Patrick Perry also said that an alarm for inmates to trigger in the event of an emergency wasn’t working. He added that CCA knew the call system was a problem “but did nothing about it.” The former captain may find himself testifying about that observation as well. Two weeks before Perry came forward, Gerald Townsend, a 36-year-old inmate at the Harding facility who loved scary movies, died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after being diagnosed with internal bleeding. His spleen was ripped open and blood had flooded his lungs. In his final hours, Townsend told a nurse that Ronnie Sullivan, his 22-year-old cellmate, assaulted him. Metro police later charged Sullivan with Townsend’s murder. Attorney Blair Durham is representing Townsend’s mother, Jackie, who plans to file a suit against CCA this week. Durham says he’s learned that inmates were banging on their cells as Sullivan began to assault his cellmate. But no one rushed to help. Durham also heard that the alarm, which could have saved Townsend’s life, wasn’t working. A month after Townsend’s death, an inmate fled the same jail through an air vent. At first, the company announced that the man, who had a history of escape attempts, was simply hiding inside the grounds. A day or so later, when the Scene called to see if he had been found, the company refused to comment. Earlier this year, after CCA endured a series of PR nightmares at the Metro Detention Center during which the company largely ducked interviews with the media, the private jailer reassigned the facility’s warden, Brian Gardner. For the Davidson County Sheriff’s office, which contracts with CCA to run the Harding jail, the company needed to reevaluate its management of the facility. “We are satisfied that CCA has responded with a policy change as well as the fact that they have changed their management since these incidents have occurred,” says Karla Wiekal, the sheriff’s spokesperson. “At some point, (CCA) recognized there needed to be a leadership change and at this point forward we will see if these changes are effective.” In June 2007, President George Bush nominated CCA corporate counsel Gus Puryear to a federal seat in the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee. Initially viewed as a safe bet to receive a lifetime appointment, Puryear faltered badly in his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, appearing to some as arrogant and unprepared. The 39-year-old nominee, who twice served as debate coach for Vice President Dick Cheney, struggled in particular to explain how his company handled the brutal 2004 death of Nashville inmate Estelle Richardson, at one point wrongly stating that the guards initially charged in connection with her murder were “exonerated.” Now Puryear’s bid has turned into an unofficial referendum on CCA, and it appears unlikely that the Senate will confirm him before the end of Bush’s presidency. It’s been that kind of year for the private jailer. Puryear’s struggles, playing out awkwardly on a big stage, make up just the latest bout of bad publicity for the Nashville company, which has also been battered in the national press. In February, The New Yorker reported the definitive story about the company’s Hutto facility in Texas. The magazine detailed how immigrant families shared a tiny cell with a bunk bed, thin mattress and an exposed toilet, while ill-trained guards rounded them up seven times a day for a head count. Then in March, Time.com detailed the accusations of a former high-ranking CCA official who claimed that the company repeatedly misled state and local authorities about the rate of violent incidents at the prisons and jails it had under contract. In May, The New York Times chronicled how an ailing detainee was treated at a CCA facility in New Jersey just before he lapsed into a coma and died. The paper uncovered records that show that the man, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who overstayed a tourist visa, was “shackled and pinned to the floor of the medical unit.” He vomited and moaned and then was dumped in a disciplinary cell for 13 hours, even though he was foaming at the mouth. Operating 65 facilities in the country with more than 70,000 inmates and detainees in its custody, CCA will never have a perfect record. But what may say more about the company anchoring a Green Hills office park is not the middle-aged detainee who died of a heart failure or the sinister warden who struck an inmate, but the 9-year-old boy who was forced to live like a common criminal. Kevin Yourdkhani, whose parents fled from torture in their native Iran, wound up at CCA’s Hutto facility on Feb. 9, 2007. There, he shared a small cell with his mother and had to climb a tall ladder to get to his bunk bed. He slept right next to an open toilet that smelled. The boy also complained about the food—he called it “garbage”—saying that all he was ever fed were beans. “We are lucky if we get 30 minute to eat,” he said an affidavit for the ACLU’s lawsuit against the place. “It is usually 20 minutes, and they are always rushing.” In his pod, a small living area that he shared with other detainees, the children were always sick. Lots of kids had eye infections. Kevin attended school but rarely learned anything. All he did was watch “Spanish movies” and color and draw pictures. One day his father, who was being kept at another part of the facility, came to visit Kevin. That infuriated a guard, who told Kevin that he would be placed in foster care if his dad ever dropped by to see him again. “I cried and cried so much that I lost my energy and went to sleep.”

June 17, 2008 AlterNet
Gustavus "Gus" Puryear, head legal honcho for the nation's largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), isn't the kind of guy who's accustomed to sitting in the hot seat, much less showing visible signs of discomfort. The kind of discomfort, say, that Puryear might have felt when he heard that up to $35,000 in cash reward money had been announced for information leading to the conviction of Estelle Richardson's murderer(s). Ten thousand dollars will go to anyone who can recover "missing" cell extraction video footage from within the CCA-operated Nashville prison where Estelle was found dead in her solitary confinement cell. The cash reward announcement came a couple of weeks after AlterNet ran the two-part investigative feature I wrote about the Estelle Richardson, and what any of the events surrounding her life and death has to do with Puryear's bid for federal judgeship. This money's quite real, and the offer is quite legitimate, although the actual donor has chosen to remain anonymous. Check it out for yourself at WhoKilledEstelle.org. The grassroots organizing front has picked up steam, as well, especially after Amy Goodman took interest in the story and brought me on Democracy Now! to discuss some of the particulars. Many readers and viewers have followed up by going to AgainstPuryear.org, run by a man named Alex Friedmann. [T]he judicial nomination of CCA general counsel Gus Puryear is largely in the toilet," Friedmann wrote to me in a recent e-mail, referring to an article from The Tennessean. Wow. When President Bush nominated him to a lifetime federal judicial appointment last year, it seemed to most people paying attention that he'd be confirmed without much fanfare or fuss. Puryear had always been a staunch GOP loyalist, but he wasn't the kind to rock the boat with public, proclamations about controversial issues. Instead, he proved himself to be the behind-the-scenes guy; the kind of guy, for example, who got a kick out of prepping Dick Cheney for the 2000 and 2004 vice-presidential debates. By the time he was nominated for the U.S. District Court judgeship. Puryear also proved himself to be a relentlessly corporate litigator whose loyalty to CCA's bottom line had been (and still is) handsomely rewarded. If it weren't for the fact that CCA brought in a corporate commando in 2001 by the name of John Ferguson (and that Ferguson decided to bring Puryear in to create a new, formidable legal fortress), CCA's scandal-ridden, stock-price-tanking, shareholder-suing mess would have surely have brought the entire company crashing to the ground. (Yes, CCA scandals are now more prevalent than ever, but so are the number people cycling in and out of prison. Where federal and state governments have run out of options, CCA and other prison privatizers have made in their business to make themselves indispensable.) With a net worth of $13 million (and climbing), the 39-yr-old Puryear didn't just show up with an old-money pedigree and a seemingly skeleton-free closet; he was able to turn it up a few notches as a quick-witted, nattily-attired, blue-eyed whippersnapper eager to play his part to freshen up a stale party image. And what better way to do so than to slip on a nice, roomy judge's robe and decide on the fate of people's lives? He was riding in the slipstream of the most reprehensible driver of the American prison machine, Sure, he hit a few small speed bumps along the way, and Estelle Richardson was one of those. I'm grateful that Friedmann wasn't willing to let her memory fade away. "But the fight isn't over yet," he cautions. "Puryear can still be confirmed anytime from now until January 2009. Since his nomination is presently on the ropes, it's time for a knock-out blow. If you or your organization haven't already done so, now is the time to contact the Senate Judiciary Committee and object to Puryear's pending nomination. I'll second that. www.againstpuryear.org. Estelle, I hope that you can rest in peace.

June 13, 2008 Tennessean
A year ago today, Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV was nominated for a federal judgeship in Nashville and appeared headed to an easy confirmation. Now Puryear's confirmation seems unlikely. In addition to questions raised about his qualifications and actions as general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America, Puryear's fate is now caught in intense election-year battles between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate over lifetime judicial appointments. Senate Democrats are looking to approve as few of Republican President Bush's appointments as they can before his term expires, hoping Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency. Republicans did the same during the final months of the Democratic Clinton administration. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which vets nominees, said at a committee hearing Thursday that this practice is simply the "fact of the matter." "It is legitimate," Biden said. "These are lifetime appointments." Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said at the end of the hearing, which included approval of three judicial nominees, that no more judges would be confirmed unless there is agreement among him and ranking committee Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate. Even Tennessee's two Republican senators, who signed off on Puryear's nomination, acknowledge his confirmation is in trouble. "Gus Puryear is a qualified nominee who deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate, and we're continuing to pursue every option to that end," Sen. Bob Corker said in a written statement. "The current atmosphere in the Senate makes his confirmation more difficult — not impossible, just increasingly more difficult as we approach the fall elections." Sen. Lamar Alexander said he was still hopeful. "But the Democrats have slowed confirmation of President Bush's nominees to a ridiculous extent," Alexander said in a recent interview. CCA spokesman Steve Owen, responding to a request for Puryear to comment, said the company has "no way of knowing what the outcome of the confirmation process will be. We continue to believe that Mr. Puryear would make an excellent federal judge. He has served the company admirably and with great integrity as general counsel." The Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Puryear's nomination in February but has not scheduled a vote on whether to send his name to the full Senate for a vote. Reasons cited by opponents as to why Puryear should not be confirmed include: a lack of trial and judicial experience, his role as chief lawyer for the country's largest private prison company, and the company's handling of the 2004 death of Estelle Richardson while she was in the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville. Among those opposing Puryear's confirmation are: The Alliance for Justice, an umbrella group of national civil rights and other organizations, Private Corrections Institute Inc., which opposes prison privatization and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

May 19, 2008 Press Release
On May 19, 2008, Prison Legal News (PLN), an independent monthly publication that reports on corrections and criminal justice-related issues, filed suit in Davidson County Chancery Court against Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), the nation's largest private prison firm, which is headquartered in Nashville. Last year PLN's associate editor, Alex Friedmann, submitted a public records request to CCA under Tennessee's open records law. In 2002 the Tennessee Supreme Court had ruled that private companies which perform functionally equivalent public services must comply with public records requests to the same extent as government agencies. Although CCA performs an equivalent government function by operating prisons and jails through contracts that are funded with taxpayer dollars, the company refused to produce the requested records. CCA claimed it was not subject to the state's public records law despite the Tennessee Supreme Court's clear ruling to the contrary. PLN had requested records related to successful litigation against CCA, as well as "reports, audits, investigations or other similar documents which found ... that CCA did not comply with one or more terms of its contracts" with government agencies. The lawsuit filed by PLN is to ensure that records maintained by CCA as a private prison contractor are available to the public to the same extent as from government agencies, in order to ensure accountability and public oversight of CCA's prison and jail operations. "Public agencies cannot contract away the public's ability to review records that otherwise would be publicly accessible under the state's open records law. The public's right to know is not delegable to private corporations," said Paul Wright, PLN's editor. In a 2007 news article, Steven Owen, CCA's Director of Marketing, was quoted as saying prison privatization was "one of the most transparent industries out there." As CCA has refused to comply with Tennessee's public records law, PLN's lawsuit will put the company's self-proclaimed transparency to the test. The case is Friedmann v. CCA, Chancery Court of Davidson County, Tenn., Case No. 08-1105-I. PLN is represented by Andy Clarke of the Memphis law firm of Borod and Kramer, PLC.

May 7, 2008 Nashville Post
A series of articles by the New York Times have Washington, D.C. insiders saying that Gus Puryear should keep his day job. Puryear, executive vice president and general counsel for Nashville based Corrections Corporation of America, was nominated by President George W. Bush last year to serve on the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee. Since the nomination, Puryear has been attacked here and in Washington for everything from his handling of CCA legal matters, his membership in the Belle Meade Country Club, to his lack of experience outside of corporate law. While the nomination of Puryear has not moved due to objections of U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and Diane Feinstein, he still has had hope of being confirmed to the bench. Now, a number of NashvillePost.com sources are saying that hope is even in more jeopardy. Democratic insiders in Washington contacted by NashvillePost.com say that what hope Puryear had was effectively killed by a series of articles published this week by the New York Times. Republican insiders acknowledge that the articles have made Puryear's bid "more complicated" and there is no momentum to push him forward at this time. While the articles don't mention Puryear by name, CCA is sharply criticized for their handling of the death of Boubacar Bah and the labeling of his inmate file as "proprietary information - not for distribution." Bah was 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. While incarcerated, Bah had fallen and hit his head and became incoherent. According to the NYT, "documents detail how he was treated by guards and government employees: shackled and pinned to the floor of the medical unit as he moaned and vomited, then left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours, despite repeated notations that he was unresponsive and intermittently foaming at the mouth." He was eventually transported to a hospital, but his family was not notified of his whereabouts for five days. He died four months later. The Times also ran an editorial on this matter yesterday.

May 6, 2008 AlterNet
Until very recently, Puryear has enjoyed an easy climb up the political and corporate ladder. It hasn't hurt that the 39-year-old Republican Party loyalist has always kept the right company, starting with the day that he was born. Puryear's paternal lineage is flush with old money tied, in particular, to the Southern banking industry. (It's a tradition that Puryear has carried on by joining the board of the Nashville Bank & Trust Company.) Born in Atlanta, Puryear attended an exclusive Christian private school, Westminster. After high school graduation in 1986, Puryear received a full academic scholarship to Emory University, and then to the University of North Carolina School of Law. In 1993, freshly equipped with his J.D., Puryear landed a plum assignment as law clerk to Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale, Fifth U.S. District Court of Appeals. (Hawkins was appointed to the bench in 1990, by President George H.W. Bush.) In an odd twist of fate, clerking for Judge Barksdale brought Puryear close to the lives of prisoners, at least insofar as their legal paperwork. In an October 2005 feature in South magazine, "No more get out of jail free," Puryear noted that one-third of all the cases they dealt with were pro se prisoner cases: "In fact, when I got out of law school, I was appointed to represent an inmate in a Section 1983 civil rights action, and we took it to a jury trial," he told writer Greg Land, adding dryly, "We lost." Land made the apt observation that Puryear's district court experience was "fitting foreshadowing for the young lawyer who would eventually make 'no settlements' a key corporate goal at CCA." That case was to end up as one of only five federal cases Puryear has ever personally handled as practicing attorney, only two of which went to trial, in addition to one trial in Tennessee state court in the 1990s. This, despite Puryear's three years as an associate attorney at Farris, Warfield & Kanaday (now Stites & Harbison), a law firm to which his grandfather had longstanding ties. Perhaps Puryear had a sense all along that he was destined to use his legal mind for a different purpose, say, for the glory of the GOP and the size of his pocketbook. Puryear made the leap to GOP employment very quickly, serving as counsel from 1997-1998 for a legal team assembled by former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), as part of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. The Committee was busy investigating a major campaign finance scandal; 22 people were eventually convicted for fraud or illegally funneling foreign money to the DNC's federal election coffers. Puryear's work was duly noted. From 1998-2000, Puryear held the position of legislative director for Republican Senator Bill Frist, a former state deputy director for the 1992 Bush-Quayle campaign. Frist, who served in Congress from 1995-2007, was also a Belle Meade Country Club member, although he (unlike Puryear) had the common sense to resign from the historically racially segregated organization before heading toward his political career. Puryear's close friendship with beltway insider and Republican attorney/lobbyist powerhouse, Philip Perry, also yielded convenient connections to the Bush administration. When he was asked to help Perry's father-in-law prepare for high profile, televised debates, Puryear set about filling up the father-in-law's tricky brain with facts, statistics, zingers, and parrying tactics. The father-in-law and VP-to-be? Dick Cheney. The occasion? The 2000 and 2004 vice presidential debates. Friends like these can come in handy when it comes time to search for nominees for a slate of empty federal court benches. With his connections to Frist, Thompson, Barksdale, Perry, and Cheney in place, Puryear has also had a knack for knowing when to write the requisite donation checks to GOP leaders: to date, he's donated at least $13,000 to state and federal Republican campaign committees since 2001, including $1,000 to Mitt Romney in 2007. When Puryear donates money, he seems to do so to with a special patriotic flare: on September 11, 2003, he donated $2,000 to George W. Bush's re-election campaign to emphasize his loyalty to the War on Terrorism. Puryear would hardly be the first person appointed to the bench despite overtly partisan political allegiances and/or paltry legal chops. There's really no question about either. Puryear's affiliation with the ultra-conservative echelons of the Republican Party has spanned the course of his entire career, and his connections in the party clearly run quite deep. Small surprise, then, when Sen. Frist rose to Puryear's defense in an April 13th opinion piece for The Tennessean about the mounting opposition to his confirmation. One could almost hear the tremolo in Frist's voice as he bemoaned his besieged former employee's plight: "The infusion of political posturing, fed by outside groups, into our nomination process means that nominees are sometimes subject to unfair attack …. The toll on nominees and their families cannot be underestimated. The confirmation process has become so brutal that people who want to serve the public no longer do so." It's unlikely that Puryear's going to wilt away, no matter how vocal the opposition. After all, he's still got the right friends, wealth, and business connections. Most importantly, the people behind him have a lot at stake. If Puryear were to be confirmed, he would help cement a GOP/Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) stranglehold in the State of Tennessee. Most of these ducks are already in a row: both of Tennessee's U.S. Senate seats are controlled by CCA-supportive politicians, Republican Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker (both of whom have received tens in thousands in donations from CCA's PAC, as well as company employees and their spouses), and former Senator Frist is rumored to be running for governor in the next election cycle. The House that CCA Built -- It's worth taking an even closer look at the ties that have made CCA the corporate entity that it is. CCA's press materials tout the company's expansive network of detention centers (and its subsidiary prison transport company, TransCor America), as "prison privatization at its best." The company's top brass have all enjoyed illustrious careers in high-ranking positions as state legislative aides, lobbyists, and influential legislators. Some CCA officials held cushy jobs in governor's offices, while others came to CCA from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the U.S. Marshals, or the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Chuck Kupferer, CCA's Senior Director of Federal Customer Relations for U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service, is a former L.A. cop who became a chief deputy in New Orleans, and then went onto be the chief inspector with the CIA's Counter Narcotics Center in Virginia. With annual earnings and compensation nearing $1.5 million, Richard Seiter is handsomely compensated as CCA's Chief Corrections Officer and Executive Vice President. Of all the major CCA figureheads, Seiter's background is the one most based in corrections. Seiter was formerly the Chief Operating Officer for Federal Prison Industries (also known as UNICOR, which is in the business of selling prisoner-made goods and services), as well as the warden of two federal prisons, and one-time director of the scandal-ridden Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. CCA board members are similarly loaded with connections to state and federal level offices and agencies, including Donna Alvarado, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the U.S. Department of Defense. Board member Anthony Grant was the Commissioner of Economic Community Development for Tennessee, while former Senator Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), is perhaps best remembered as one of the Keating Five. (John McCain (R-AZ) was one of the lesser-implicated figures in the scandal.) These days, CCA's financial horizon looks quite splendid, even if the conditions in which the company's "customers" are housed are far from it. With projected 2008 revenue of roughly $390 million, and 4,000-6,000 new beds in development, CCA can generally report good news back to its shareholders (NASDAQ: CXW) -- as it is anticipated to do in its May 6th, first-quarterly report. Although CCA is hardly the only player in the facility operating-and-owning aspect of the private corrections industry (e.g., GEO and Corrections Corporation), CCA is the undisputed leader of the pack. To be sure, corrections-related stocks are generally on the upswing because the demand for incarceration has far outstripped the ability of city, county, state, and particularly federal agencies to handle all of those shackled bodies. (Federal agencies already constitute over 40% of CCA's revenue base.) Between demand and the opportunity for profit, it's no wonder that private prison companies hold at least seven percent of the national prison population behind their walls. In a recent article, "Lock in Some Dollars with Corrections Corporation of America," the stock advisory site, SeekingAlpha.com, makes no bones about the cold, hard facts: "Collectively, $44 billion was spent on corrections last year, a 127% increase over 1987 totals In this same time period, spending on higher education increased at just 21% -- this is dire news to hear, we know, but we believe policies aiming to cut the massive amounts of dollars spent on corrections will take longer than expected. This means jail stocks will still be good investments over the next couple of years The demographics at play suggest more crime is on its way, and no one's better positioned than CXW." Never mind that overall crime rates haven't, actually, been going up, especially when it comes to serious and/or violent criminal offenses. Because CCA can't bank on actual crime statistics, they must rely to some extent on the culture of fear that feeds the American prison machine. When the Institute on Money in State Politics studied the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, they found that private prison companies, directors, executives and lobbyists gave no less than $3.3 million to candidates and state political parties across 44 states. In general, CCA and other private prison companies have favored giving money to states with the toughest sentencing laws, because those are the states that are most likely to generate the bodies for empty jail and prison beds. Those states are also the ones most likely to have passed "two-strikes" or "three-strikes" laws -- including CCA's home turf, Tennessee. And those laws, in turn, are based on cookie-cutter legislation pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), whose corporate and "Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Task Force" members have come from the ranks of CCA and other private prison companies. It's a twisted game of prison-and-politics, and CCA certainly knows how to play it. According to disclosures filed with the Senate's public records office, CCA spent nearly $2.5 million in 2007 (down from 3.4 million in 2005) to lobby Congress and federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In particular, CCA sought to build support for immigration "reform" policies that would yield more arrests and deportations, and to build opposition against the Public Safety Act, which would outlaw private prisons, as well as the Private Prison Information Act, which would force private prisons to make public the same information that government-run detention facilities must provide. In the meantime, CCA's PAC money keeps flowing, as well: in the past four months alone, the PAC has spent nearly $200,000, including $52,500 to federal candidates, of whom 80% are Republican. But when Puryear was brought on board in 2001, CCA was saddled with debt, and company stock was in a tailspin. Puryear was hand picked by CCA President and Chief Executive Officer John Ferguson. Ferguson was determined to set the company on the right track. The former Commissioner of Finance for Tennessee, Ferguson was obviously up to the challenge -- actually, he exceeded expectations by leaps and bounds. Small wonder that his resulting financial reward has been of enormous magnitude. In FY 2007, Ferguson earned over $2.8 million in cash compensation, and holds over $28.5 million in unexercised stocks, by today's market value. Puryear's position in the company therefore became one of utmost importance. His no-nonsense, "no-settlements" approach is still the right fit for a company besieged by lawsuits and scandals. As it was true then, it is now: CCA must do everything it can to prevent cases from going to trial because the accompanying press almost always negatively impacts stock prices, and jeopardizes the renewal or acquisition of local, state, and federal contracts. To keep shareholders (and company executives) happy, CCA needed to avoid coughing up too much money to settle even a small percentage of the hundreds of lawsuits biting at the heels of company at any given time. (In the interview with South magazine, Puryear offered that the number of claims and lawsuits facing CCA on any given day range from 700-1,000.) In another interview with Corporate Legal Times in 2004, Puryear quipped thusly: "Litigation is an outlet for inmates ... it's something they can do in their spare time." Richardson, of course, had none of that spare time to speak of. But Puryear seemed to have handled her case, as most others, with the kind of diplomatic finesse upon which his reputation has been built. Unlikely Friends and Foes -- In the scope of things, Estelle Richardson's murder was hardly the biggest lawsuit or scandal that CCA ever faced. Indeed, if the Senate Judiciary Committee members had wanted to spotlight larger-scale scandals that took place during Puryear's tenure, they could have pointed to one of the biggest prison riots in recent memory, at the CCA-operated Crowley County Correctional Facility in Olney Springs, Colorado. On July 20, 2004, just days after a mass interstate of nearly 200 prisoners from Washington State, and despite numerous signs of impending trouble (including lack of food and grossly inadequate medical staffing), prisoners staged a full-scale riot that brought the facility to its knees. In the ensuing hours, all of the prison's living units but one were taken over, burned, and destroyed. Unbelievably, there were only 33 uniformed guards on duty when the riot broke out, although the prison population stood at 1,122 inmates. Most of the staff fled their stations, as a post-riot incident report revealed, while those that stayed were waiting on word from CCA headquarters. Ill-trained in emergency containment and medical response, munitions and chemical weapons usage, the prison was nearly burned to the ground by the time that the outside law enforcement agencies moved in to stop the situation from escalating even further. All totaled, 13 staff and prisoners were assaulted, not including the hundreds of prisoners who were gassed, beaten, shot, and made to lie in excrement in the post-riot "containment" situation. Those prisoners injured and abused post-riot, who had not participated in the violence and havoc to begin with, sued CCA in 2005 and 2006. According to a Trial Lawyers for Public Justice press release, "the punishment of bystanders included forcing tightly bound inmates to urinate and defecate in their own clothing; dragging handcuffed inmates from their cells face down through water filled with glass shards, blood, and raw sewage; shooting inmates who were lying down, or sitting or walking with their hands up; using tear gas on plaintiffs who were locked in their cells or were prone at gunpoint, waiting to be cuffed; withholding drinking water and medications; denying shower privileges and clean clothes for more than a week; and forcing inmates to strip and parade naked in front of female guards who snapped pictures and videotaped inmates bathing without a shower curtain." These extreme, Abu Ghraib-like circumstances, testified to by hundreds of prisoners, were not enough to gain remedy, something that Puryear's legal team would have had a hand in. The U.S. District Court of Appeals dismissed the complaint for "failure to exhaust administrative remedies," a common ruling in federal courts after the passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The Senate Judiciary Committee could also have taken a look at conditions at the CCA-run T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor, Texas, where immigrant adults and children are imprisoned in a medium-security correctional setting, and how the company's legal department worked with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to mitigate the damage brought about by a (now settled) ACLU lawsuit on behalf of the detainees. Also of concern could have been how CCA's legal team dealt with the knowledge that one of their own guards, who raped a female detainee at that facility, went without prosecution despite ample evidence of the crime. Puryear's nomination is opposed by a wide variety of organizations, including the National Lawyers Guild, AFSCME, Alliance for Justice, People for the American Way, and the Private Corrections Institute (PCI). In March, Women's Equal Rights Legal Defense and Education Fund president Gloria Allred issued her own a statement against Puryear's confirmation, after it was revealed that he is a resident member of the Belle Meade Country Club. Puryear's nomination is supported, on the other hand, by the likes of Frist, Thompson, Corker and Alexander, as well as Thurgood Marshall, Jr., something touted by his allies as evidence of Puryear's non-racism. All of that would sound good indeed, were it not for the fact that Marshall, Jr., is actually on the board of CCA. Why would the Senate Judiciary Committee focus on Richardson's case, then? The answer comes down to two words: Alex Friedmann. The organizer of the grassroots effort to derail Puryear's nomination for the U.S. District Court, Tennesseans Against Puryear, Friedmann is also a former CCA prisoner, a bonafide genius of a jailhouse lawyer, and vice president of PCI. Friedmann speaks with a steady pace, in a nearly expressionless monotone, but the words he chooses are carefully placed and to the point: "People should be concerned about this nomination as a matter of justice," he explains. "We shouldn't make the mistake and think that U.S. District Court nominations are not something to be worked up about. In fact, these judges are among the most powerful in the country. They make serious, precedent-setting, and life-and-death decisions on a regular basis." It was because of his efforts that the Senate Judiciary Committee first came across information about Richardson's case, and it was primarily because of his efforts that Puryear's relative lack of experience as a trial lawyer in any court system caught the committee's notice. (And then there is that pesky bit about Puryear's membership in the Belle Meade Country Club; Puryear can thank Friedmann for that, as well.) Because of Friedmann's efforts, much of the opposition to Puryear's appointment has centered on the question of whether the top corporate lawyer could possibly be impartial enough to serve as a U.S. District Court judge in the same district where CCA headquarters are located. Hundreds of lawsuits related to CCA have been filed in that court, but Puryear insists that this would not be a problem: he has promised, in advance, that he would recuse himself from any such lawsuits for a period of five years. Friedmann says that he didn't actually set out to highlight Richardson's case, because he didn't anticipate that the committee members would even bring their attention to it. Moreover, he didn't anticipate that Puryear would so blatantly downplay the very fact and circumstances related to Richardson's murder. Nor did he expect that the committee would fire off a series of challenges to Puryear's February testimony, or that Puryear would rally his defense troops in such a way that one of the primary attorneys who sued CCA on behalf of Richardson's family would wind up on his side. After it became evident that Puryear's original testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee hadn't gone particularly well, a series of behind-the-scene moves appear to have been set into motion. That process seems to have accelerated after Dr. Bruce Levy, Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Tennessee, got wind of Puryear's assertions. Dr. Levy took particular exception to Puryear's suggestion that Richardson's broken ribs were quite possibly the result of CPR, and that it was also quite possible that she hadn't been murdered, after all. Because Dr. Levy had personally conducted the autopsy on Richardson, he took it upon himself to fire off an unusually opinionated letter. "The committee should be very concerned about a nominee for federal judge who is less than truthful when answering questions from the [committee]," he wrote on February 21, 2008, emphasizing that there was no question that Richardson had, indeed, been brutally beaten while still alive -- and that her injuries led directly to her death. Then, in quick succession, these events transpired: On February 22, David Randolph Smith, lawyer for the Richardson family and Joseph Welborn, representing CCA, files a joint motion in U.S. District Court (Middle District of Tennessee) to unseal the transcript of the settlement hearing re: Richardson's minor children. The attorneys argue that the transcript would not violate the confidentiality component of the agreement because that portion didn't contain the actual terms of the settlement (or the monetary amount). Judge Campbell grants the motion, although none of the Richardson family members are notified that the action is taking place; That transcript, however, did make clear the actual dollar amount of CCA's gross settlement: $2 million dollars, of which one-quarter went to various plaintiffs' attorneys. Of that $500,000, Richardson family attorney Smith received $192,000; On February 25, Smith, freed from certain confidentiality concerns, sends an unexpected letter of support for Puryear to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the letter, he agrees that Richardson could have died for any number of reasons and that her death was not necessarily a murder at all; On February 26, James Sanders, a Tennessee attorney with Neal & Harwell, issues a three-page letter of support, praising Puryear's skills and talents. Also freed from confidentiality concerns, Sanders, who helped to represent CCA in the Richardson case, addresses her death specifically: "I can tell you that the facts, particularly the medical evidence, showed conclusively that Ms. Richardson's death was not caused by correctional officers extracting Ms. Richardson from a cell in short, there is no credible evidence to support Dr. Levy's homicide conclusion, other than the head injury and the death itself." Ah, yes, just those bothersome little details. The head injury and the death itself. In his written response to the Senate Judiciary Committee in March, Puryear tried to show his sympathetic side: "I regret that this uncertainty leaves a cloud over CCA; however, I know that the far greater tragedy is that the children of Estelle Richardson will likely never know exactly why their mother died." But if Richardson herself could speak from her grave, she would be likely to say that the far greater tragedy is this: That a man like Puryear would have the sheer audacity to try to sweep her murder under the rug, yet again. Silja J.A. Talvi is an investigative journalist and the author of Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (Seal Press: 2007). Her work has already appeared in many book anthologies, including It's So You (Seal Press, 2007), Prison Nation (Routledge: 2005), Prison Profiteers (The New Press: 2008), and Body Outlaws (Seal Press: 2004). She is a senior editor at In These Times.

May 5, 2008 AlterNet
It's hard to say what Estelle Ann Richardson would have thought if she had would have the chance to meet the man who authorized a hefty settlement check for her children. Maybe she would have noticed that he moved in the world like someone who was used to things going his way, that he had a lot of money, or that he looked a lot younger and more relaxed than most of his corporate peers. It's hard to say, because she never had the chance to be introduced to the harmless-enough looking man possessed of a rather ostentatious name: Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV. The 39-year-old lawyer, awaiting a lifetime appointment as a judge in U.S. District Court, prefers to be called "Gus." By all accounts, Gus is a charismatic, outgoing guy who likes to spend time with his family. He volunteers as a Deacon in the Presbyterian Church, and serves as a board member of The Exchange Club of Nashville, where one of his responsibilities is to organize the annual Antiques and Garden Show. From a corporate standpoint, Puryear has excelled in his job as general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest and most influential private prison company. Under his direction, CCA's in-house attorneys work with a stable of contracted law firms to handle corporate legal matters of all kinds, not the least of which are the hundreds of claims and lawsuits filed against the company at any given time. A smart, enthusiastic GOP stalwart, Puryear is the kind of guy the party wants around. It doesn't hurt that he's also very, very rich: between his bank account, assets, and unexercised CCA shares, he's worth about $13 million, give or take a few thousand. On the other hand, Richardson, a low-income, African American mother of two, moved through a world quite removed from that of the upper-echelon neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces that afford Puryear his comfort zone. It's unlikely that the two would have ever met under even the most random of circumstances. The exclusive, members-only Belle Meade Country Club to which Puryear belongs, for instance, wouldn't have been the kind of place Richardson would have set foot in, particularly considering that African Americans weren't even allowed to join until 1994. (To this day, the only Black member lives out-of-state. To boot, none of the women who have been admitted to the club, called "lady members," hold voting privileges.) Belle Meade country clubbers probably raised a glass to toast Puryear when President Bush nominated him to sit on the federal bench in the Middle District of Tennessee. Yet, instead of breezing through what should have been an easy, perfunctory hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this past February, Puryear was confronted with a series of uncomfortable questions about his legal and professional qualifications for the bench. Nothing about Puryear's hobnobbing, rapid ascent to the status of a GOP darling suggested emergence of an ad-hoc, grassroots movement to derail his nomination, much less the methodical persistence of a former CCA prisoner-turned-jailhouse lawyer hell bent on exposing the judicial candidate's affiliations, biases, and lack of courtroom experience. What Richardson's story has to do with all of this isn't obvious on the face of it, but the connection between the two has bubbled to the surface amidst a strange series of post-nomination twists and turns that no one, including Puryear, could have seen coming. A mysterious homicide -- On July 5, 2004, Richardson's lifeless, 34-year-old body was found slumped on the floor of an isolation cell in a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)-operated detention facility in Nashville, Tennessee. An autopsy revealed that she died as a result of massive blunt force injuries to the head, resulting in a cracked skull. Richardson also had four broken ribs and serious internal organ injuries. Dr. Bruce Levy, Tennessee's chief medical examiner, ruled that Richardson's death was homicide. His autopsy revealed a set of injuries that were consistent with a "deceleration injury," meaning that her head and body slammed simultaneously toward a hard surface, such as a wall or a floor. In an interview with The Tennessean in September 2004, Dr. Levy emphasized that Richardson's injuries could not have been the result of a fall or suicide. Richardson, as he pointed out, was in a highly restricted segregation unit, allowed no freedom of movement outside of her small, one-woman cell, much less contact with other prisoners. "It's a restricted area," he said. "There's a limit to what you can do. If she had fallen from a high window or if she had been hit by a car, I would expect to see these types of injuries." Richardson was murdered in the notoriously overcrowded and understaffed CCA-run Metro Detention Facility (MDF). Previously known as the Metro Davis County Detention Facility, MDF serves as a multipurpose role as a pre-trial detention facility, a jail for misdemeanant offenders and, under $17 million annual contract with the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC), a medium-security prison for convicted felons serving one-to-six year sentences. Overseeing the entire operation is Sheriff Daron Hall, a former prison administrator for a CCA-run prison in Brisbane, Australia. While Richardson was locked up at MDF, the prison still held men and women alike in grossly overcrowded conditions. (A few months after her death, women were moved into a separate facility.) Two years before Richardson's death, a 12-year period of federal court supervision related to overcrowding had finally been lifted, but it would have been hard for anyone to argue that conditions had improved to any meaningful extent. Operated by CCA since 1992, MDF was designed to accommodate fewer than 900 people. MDF's population now surpasses 1,300 inmates. Chronic overcrowding and understaffing in private or public detention facilities has inevitable consequences, ranging from the spread of contagious diseases to an increase in sexual and physical violence. At MDF, in just a three-and-a-half year period (2000-2004), ten prisoners died in custody. Eight of those were deemed "natural" deaths, although specific details on these kinds of incidents are difficult to suss out, especially because the TDOC does not collect any incident reports or statistics from MDF. The state prison system uses the strange rationale that these inmates are housed in a county jail run by an outside contractor, and therefore not subject to the same kind of reporting requirements. With 70,000 juveniles and adults in its custody in 65 detention facilities nationwide, CCA contracts with all three federal corrections agencies, nearly half of all states, and more than a dozen municipalities. Representing the fifth-largest prison system in the country, CCA is the nation's largest private prison corporation and, as such, the publicly traded company is directly accountable to its shareholders, not to taxpaying citizens. Although the company is expected to comply with federal and state laws and provide contract-specific reports to governmental agencies, there can be long delays before an agency (much less the public) receives word of in-detention suicides, violence, disease epidemics, employee sexual harassment complaints -- even prison escapes and riots. In March, a former CCA employee, Ronald Jones, went public with his assertion that Puryear directly told him and other staff in the quality assurance department to create two audit reports relating to serious incidents at their detention facilities-such as riots, escapes, and "unnatural" deaths. According to Jones, one of the audit reports was intended for clients, board members, and shareholders, while the other was kept secret as an internal company document. CCA responded by calling his assertions inaccurate and those of an employee bent on retaliation for a pending termination: "If our interest was in under-reporting or not finding quality issues, we simply would not have created this department or its programs in the first place," CCA spokesperson Louise Grant told The Tennessean. Richardson's death occurred in 2004, one year before Puryear subsumed quality assurance under the legal department and instituted the policy. As such, Richardson's murder might have generated little media interest were it not for the fact that she died during three weeks in solitary confinement, and was allowed out of her cell only one hour a day for either closely supervised "recreation" time or a brief opportunity to bathe in a caged shower under guard supervision. In search of a better life -- In 1999, Richardson headed down to Tennessee with her young children in tow. Diane Buie, her older sister, says that Richardson had grown tired of stagnating in her hometown. Although she had skills as both a medical technician and an interior decorator, Richardson was struggling financially, working a dead-end job as a telemarketer. She had decided to go after the necessary training to become a surgical assistant, Buie explained, because she wanted to provide a better life for her children. The interstate move in 1999 didn't prove to be a fortuitous one. Richardson missed her sister and mother back home, and she was having real trouble making ends meet. Somewhere along the way, Richardson fell in with a crowd of small-scale hustlers who sold prescription drugs on the black market. At first, she helped out with obtaining the drugs sold to habitual pill poppers. Later, she started to sample the goods, and developed a habit of her own, resulting in a March 2002 arrest when she tried to acquire painkillers with a forged prescription. Her children were with her at the pharmacy, and so in addition to charges of illegal drug possession, forgery, and theft, the D.A.'s office added a charge of attempted child neglect. Richardson pled guilty in September 2002, and was handed a suspended six-year sentence, as long as she complied with the terms of her parole. Like so many others struggling in the grip of both addiction and poverty, Richardson tried to hold everything together for a while, but eventually fell back into drug use. In November 2003, she failed urine analysis by testing positive for marijuana and cocaine; her probation officer issued an arrest warrant when Richardson didn't turn herself in. Busted for food stamp fraud in March 2004, Richardson was sent to MDF as a pre-trial detainee. It wasn't until April 23, 2004, that a judge decided to revoke her probation and sentence her to a two-year prison term. Buie was in regular contact with her younger sister by phone. She says that they were able to keep each other strong by focusing on Richardson's post-release plan of returning to Michigan to be reunited with her children, who had since moved back to Lansing. "I was going to help her find a nice place and buy new furniture for her," Buie explains. It was going to be the end of a bad chapter in Richardson's life, and the beginning of a new day. Unbeknownst to Buie, Richardson hadn't been at MDF for long before CCA staff identified her as a "special needs" inmate. According to information that CCA shared with the press after a $60 million lawsuit was filed on behalf of Richardson's minor children, Richardson had gotten into three fights since she had been imprisoned, and that she required psychotropic medication. To be more specific, CCA noted that she had been classified "mentally deficient and psychologically impaired," something that the company's legal defense team, directed by Puryear, would later make a point of great emphasis. While CCA spokespersons seemed to have no problem letting out the information about Richardson's special classification and her need for medication, they claimed the imperative to protect the confidentiality of medical records as the reason why they couldn't provide more detail about what kind of care Richardson actually received and when, if at all, a mental disorder had been diagnosed. Whether Richardson was actually mentally ill or "deficient" cannot be conclusively established. Some family members seemed eager to allow the lawsuit against CCA to highlight this alleged mental deficiency as an indication of her vulnerability. Buie and her mother, Estella, reject it altogether, and see it as yet another attempt by CCA to point the finger at Richardson's allegedly erratic behavior instead of the violence inflicted by their prison guards. To boot, Richardson's probation officer said that she had never seen evidence of any kind of mental deficiency. On the other hand, it is quite possible that Richardson had developed psychological problems that weren't as obvious until she got to prison. Understandably, the experience of being separated from her children, trying to recover from drug addiction without any kind of treatment incarceration, and being in prison for the first time in her life, would compromise her mental health. Whatever the underlying factors, CCA staff made the decision to put her in a segregated, "lockdown" area of the prison reserved for the ill-defined "special needs" population, and/or for those who had been deemed too disruptive for the general population. The last days -- What we are able to piece together about these last few weeks of Richardson's life are the products of a police and prosecutor's investigation, copies of MDF/CCA prison logs in evidence, the public statements of one prison guard, in-detention videotape of physically violent encounters, and sworn affidavits from four women who were also locked up in administrative segregation. Together, they point toward a brutal end to Richardson's life. As the plaintiffs in Vilella v. CCA asserted: "CCA employees routinely and systematically unconstitutionally used excessive force and caused injuries to Estelle Richardson." Most significantly, the evidence gathered by the plaintiff's investigation reveal circumstances leading to her death radically different from the explanations that Puryear has tried to put forth: On April 26, 2004, a CCA guard pepper-sprayed Richardson while she was in the "shower cage" of the segregation unit, something captured by the automatic video cameras mounted throughout the unit, according to the lawsuit. (Buie attests to the existence of the videotape, which was entered into evidence and cited in the lawsuit. She still possesses transcripts of this and later altercations.) The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, David Randolph Smith, notes in the Second Amended Complaint to Vilella v. CCA that Richardson that had been pepper-sprayed for not "putting on her pants following the shower quickly enough to suit the officer." Richardson was then cuffed and placed in leg irons, placed face down on the floor. During the incident, one or more officers put their body weight on Richardson's back. On or about June 27th, 2004, guards notified medical personnel that Richardson had "blood on her head." The nurse who examined her in the early morning hours of June 28th noted that Richardson had "blood oozing from [left] ear," gave her Tylenol, and made an urgent doctor's referral for an appointment later that day. There is no record she was subsequently seen by a physician. On June 29th, 2004, CCA Captain Hambrick recorded Richardson's pleas for medical attention in the unit log: "Can you get the nurse down here? I am hurting, and if you don't get the nurse down here I am going to die." Other prisoners in the isolation unit later attested to Richardson's attempts to stop constant, untreated ear bleeding with sanitary napkins or tampons. Hambrick reported that she notified medical personnel. There is no record of a follow-up examination by a nurse or physician. According to the complaint, these observed injuries were "the result of the use of excessive force by [unidentified CCA guards]," and that a physician's order on July 2 was ignored. When CCA was asked to validate whether Richardson was seen (or not), the company cited the need to protect medical confidentiality. On July 2nd, 2004, four prisoners in the segregation unit offered similar accounts of another incident in Shower Cage 3. According to their affidavits, CCA guard Shirley Foster assaulted Richardson with "excessive force." Richardson screamed, and there was "blood all over the shower cage," said prisoner Cameron James. Another noted that the guard pushed Richardson so hard that she fell and "busted her mouth." One prisoner, who kept her own, daily calendar, had written an entry that day: "Foster slamed [sic] Estelle in shower Fri." From that point forward, there are numerous and consistent prisoner accounts of Richardson's blood stains on her sheets, of non-stop bleeding from her ear, and of disregard by prison guards for her well-being. It is particularly notable that these prisoners were willing to come forward and provide affidavits despite their fears of retaliation. Indeed, It is possible, although not provable, that retaliation did take place, after all. This past January, 36-year-old Gerald Townsend, died from internal bleeding after, Ronnie Sullivan, 22, attacked him for an unknown reason. Townsend was serving a sentence for non-violent burglary and vehicle theft, while Sullivan was had been convicted for an aggravated assault charges. As it turned out, Gerald was the brother of Judy Townsend, one of the four women who were willing to sign affidavits regarding the assault on Richardson. Then, on July 4, 2004, Richardson was to have her last, physical encounter with CCA guards. According to information gathered from the guards and prisoners in the unit, Senior Officer Keith Andre Hendricks told Richardson to get her "nasty ass up and clean [your] room," referring to bloodied sanitary napkins and other debris in her cell. When she did not respond, he entered the cell with Officer Joshua Shockman, with Officer Jeremy Neese observing. According to the investigation, Hendricks pulled her off the cell bed and threw her to the ground. James, one of the prisoners, recalled that he kicked Richardson [while she was face down," with his knee in her back. Another prisoner in the unit, Ruby Champlin, swore that she heard Richardson's head hit the floor, before Hendricks sprayed her with mace. In her diary from that time, prisoner Tracey Alexander recorded that all three officers beat Richardson after she was maced. Early the next morning, at 5:37 a.m., a call to 911 came in from MDF. A CCA supervisor alerted the 911 operator that a "female inmate was on the floor and needed medical assistance." Paramedics arrived and found her unresponsive at 6:00 a.m. Richardson was pronounced dead at Southern Hills Medical Center. Police conducting the murder investigation shortly after Richardson's death asked to see the videotape footage which would have been recorded by the constantly running video camera in the unit. According to the CCA guards, the video camera somehow malfunctioned during this incident. Upon examination, the police investigators noted that there appeared to be nothing wrong with the camera. Two of the four CCA guards were working double-shifts because of staffing shortages at MDF. Three of the four were young, relatively new employees: Schockman, 23; Wood, 26; and Ness, 24. Only Keith Andre Hendricks, 35, was a senior prison guard, with four years of experience. Neese had only been on the job for four months. Shockman, who shared a residence with Neese, had been on the job for little over a year, coming to CCA from a background as a boxing instructor and club bouncer with extensive experience in various martial arts. It is very unlikely that the three younger guards had receiving sufficient training to help them understand (or manage) the psychological stressors of working in a lockdown unit, in which prisoners are likely to exhibit various states of distress, anger, and/or serious psychiatric problems. Even experienced correctional officers tend to avoid working in these prisons-within-a-prison, in these increasingly prevalent 23-hour lockdown units known as "Administrative Segregation," "Security Housing Units (SHU)," Intensive Management Units (IMU)," "Special Management Units (SMU)," or what MDF refers to as "Admin Max." With little else to do but sit and stew in stripped-down cells for days, weeks, months (or even years on end), many prisoners begin to lose touch with reality altogether, which is only exacerbated by the absence of natural light, human touch, limited or non-existent reading materials or phone privileges. Hallucination, paranoia, aggression, self-mutilation, and suicidal ideation are among the more common by-products of this form of isolation, which Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Stuart Grassian first identified and entitled the "SHU syndrome" in the 1980s. As such, it's entirely possible that Richardson was mad at the prison for putting her in a unit like this one, and it's also quite possible that her first experience dealing with this kind of deprivation-oriented punitive confinement led her to act disruptively. Based on the incident the day before she was found dead in her cell, it is just as likely that she could have been responding sluggishly or erratically. The latter scenario is even more likely in the wake of autopsy and toxicological reports that revealed Richardson had not only suffered severe physical trauma, but that she had died with extremely high doses of psychiatric medicines in her system. The levels of Paxil and Doxepin found in her body were extremely high, according to post-mortem toxicological analysis by a Vanderbilt University clinical pharmacist; Richardson would have likely been behaving abnormally. There's also the possibility that Richardson could have incurred the wrath of these guards because she persisted in asking for help for pain and bleeding. No matter what, Richardson would have been very weak, which begs the question: why would it take four, healthy adult males to perform a forcible cell extraction with the use of a chemical agent? By definition, cell extractions in jails and prisons are very physical: armed with some kind of chemical agent, electrified or non-electrified shields, riot gear, batons, and/or stun guns, any number of guards rush into a prisoner's cell to subdue him/her as quickly as possible, to get that person down to the ground, and to hogtie (or otherwise restrain) that person. According to most jail/prison guidelines, cell extractions are only to be committed as a matter of last resort (especially in relation to the safety of the individual, or other prisoners and staff); usually with the presence of medical staff; and must be videotaped from start to finish. The commonplace mandate for cell extractions to be videotaped isn't hard to deduce: people get hurt. Considering the force with which prisoners are taken down, injuries sustained by prisoners related to cell extractions are more common than not, whether in the form of lacerations, broken teeth, or more serious bodily harm. Without videotaped evidence, prisoners can sue on grounds of cruel and unusual punishment-for short-term injuries or permanent disabilities sustained. Without videotaped evidence, it was the word of those four prisoners and the opinion of the state's top medical examiner, who conducted the autopsy that Richardson died as a result of one or more serious assaults inflicted by CCA guards -- the only people who could have possibly had physical contact with Richardson for nearly three weeks on end. Handling the damage -- It took one year and three months for the four male guards to be charged with reckless homicide. (The female guard was not charged.) During that time period, all four guards were on paid administrative leave. After they were arrested, ach posted bail and were quickly released from custody. While the prosecution moved forward, the Richardson family filed the $60 million lawsuit against CCA for being responsible for her murder by failing to provide adequate training and supervision of its guards. Under Puryear's direction, a bevy of outside lawyers were already hard at work so as to minimize the damage to CCA. Medical experts were brought in to challenge chief medical examiner Dr. Bruce Levy's original autopsy conclusions about the injuries indicating that she had been murdered, who reported that her fatal injuries were several days old and thus could have been self-inflicted or caused by earlier fights with prisoners. CCA's hired pathologist, Dr. William McCormick, went so far as to postulate that the "cause of the rib and liver injuries is almost certainly the resuscitative attempts made on Ms. Richardson." In the process, Puryear and his legal while emphasizing their empathy for the family's "tragic loss," their desire to comply with the investigation, and alleged that her death could have been the result of earlier injuries sustained from fights with other prisoners, a seizure, or a self-inflicted injury. "My understanding of the medical experts' opinions is that this raises the possibility that Ms. Richardson could have unintentionally struck her own head against an object or concrete floor (as in the case of a seizure or fall)," Puryear wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee. CCA's interpretation of the injuries leading to Richardson's death, a lack of videotaped evidence, provided the necessary level of doubt to help Puryear lessen the PR and financial damage to CCA. Puryear's legal strategy worked. His timing was good: not only had the medical findings cast doubt on the circumstances surrounding Richardson's death -- something that would making a court victory much harder to obtain -- but severe infighting between economically struggling family members had worn them down. Buie's mother lost custody of Richardson's children. As a result, they were shut out of the lawsuit, although the two of them had always been in the children's lives (and had assumed the primary responsibility of raising the kids when Richardson left for Tennessee), Buie and her mother aren't related to Richardson by blood; they were her mother- and sister-by-adoption. On February 22, 2006, Puryear personally represented CCA in the final mediation between the company and Richardson's family members. CCA settled with the plaintiffs for an undisclosed sum after plaintiffs dropped all civil actions against the four guards. Citing lack of definitive proof that the four guards caused her death, the Davidson County D.A.'s office dropped all charges against them, while acknowledging that she had, indeed, been killed. Richardson's murder remains unsolved to this day. A story like this isn't particularly unusual within the American prison system. It's not unusual for correctional employees accused of abuses behind prison walls to have charges dropped once enough time has passed -- that is, if charges got filed in the first place. It's certainly not unusual for public and private prison systems to settle lawsuits away from the public eye, reassured by the knowledge that strict non-disclosure clauses can keep aggrieved parties from speaking out. It's not unusual that Richardson entered the CCA jail as a non-violent offender with a drug problem, or that she was abused in the confines of an out-of-sight segregation unit. What is unusual is that a woman with so little power in her day-to-day life, particularly in the eyes of the people who arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned her, would heavily influence Puryear's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this past February. Much of the reason why Richardson's murder popped back up to haunt Puryear's appointment as a federal court judge is attributable to a former CCA prisoner, Alex Friedmann. It can be said with a fair amount of certainty that Puryear couldn't possibly have seen Friedmann's agitation against his confirmation coming his way. And he certainly couldn't have expected that Estelle Richardson's unsolved murder didn't just go away with a few handshakes, a confidentiality agreement, and a two million dollar settlement check. In Part 2: Puryear battles his opposition with a few unlikely allies, including the lead attorney on the lawsuit against CCA, Thurgood Marshall, Jr., U.S. Senators, and bipartisan Tennessee attorneys. What most of them have in common is the company that Puryear has spent over a half-decade defending, the GOP, and a bunch of well-placed campaign donations. Silja J.A. Talvi is an investigative journalist and the author of Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (Seal Press: 2007). Her work has already appeared in many book anthologies, including It's So You (Seal Press, 2007), Prison Nation (Routledge: 2005), Prison Profiteers (The New Press: 2008), and Body Outlaws (Seal Press: 2004). She is a senior editor at In These Times.

May 5, 2008 New York Times
The four sons of Maya Nand, 56, are still haunted by the last collect call he made to them from an immigration detention center in Eloy, Ariz. “This was the first time we ever heard our dad cry,” said one, Jay Ashis Nand, 25. “He said, ‘Son, if you don’t get me out of here today, I’m going to die.’ ” Mr. Nand, a legal immigrant from Fiji who was diabetic, had been calling his family with mounting desperation over a 10-day period, the sons said. Already ailing when he was abruptly taken into custody at the family’s home in Sacramento early in the morning of Jan. 13, 2005, he had deteriorated after a week at the Arizona detention center, which is run for the federal government by Corrections Corporation of America, a publicly traded prison company. “He felt a lot of pain in his heart,” Jay Ashis said. “He would stand up all night because he couldn’t breathe.” The sons, all naturalized American citizens, said their father told them that the medical staff at Eloy did not take his condition seriously, and that when he could barely walk, guards would tell him to stop faking. The sons kept calling the center to plead for medical attention, they said, but could get through only to an answering machine. They said they hired a lawyer to reach the warden, but nothing changed. And in their father’s last call, it seemed his life was hanging in the balance. That he was being detained at all was hard for the family to understand. Mr. Nand, whose forefathers were brought to Fiji from India as slaves by the British, had waited 10 years so he could move the family legally to the United States, in November 1998. A former civil servant, he struggled to find work as an architectural draftsman, and eventually applied for United States citizenship. It was the rejection of his citizenship application, because of a 2002 misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, that apparently prompted his arrest. The misdemeanor was the lone blot on his record, his sons said, and had been resolved to the court’s satisfaction with a year of anger management classes. But immigration authorities considered it grounds for deportation. And instead of summoning him by letter to immigration court, where he could have fought to stay in the United States, immigration agents arrested him without warning and shipped him to detention in another state. On Jan. 25, 2005, the day after Mr. Nand’s last call from Eloy, about midway between Phoenix and Tucson, he was found slumped in the lobby of the detention center’s clinic suffering cardiac arrest, said his second son, Jay Pranawnip Nand, 27. Then he was taken by ambulance to an emergency room in Casa Grande, Ariz., where, according to a letter to the family from an immigration official, doctors diagnosed congestive heart failure and later a heart attack. He was airlifted to a hospital in Tucson, on life support. After driving 12 hours to get to the hospital, the sons and their mother, Malti, said they watched helplessly as Mr. Nand’s damaged heart failed. He died Feb. 2, shackled to the bed. Asked about Mr. Nand’s treatment, Corrections Corporation officials said in a written statement that he had been medically screened when he arrived at the Eloy center, seen and treated “multiple times” by its medical staff, and taken to a hospital. According to a government list of deaths in immigration custody, Mr. Nand was one of five detainees to die at Eloy within a 26-month period; none of the deaths have previously been brought to public attention. “After the funeral, I was like, ‘I want to sue the hell out of them,’ ” Jay Pranawnip said. “I don’t want money. I just want them to realize what they have done and change the policy, because there are people dying.” But he said an inexperienced lawyer who took the case dropped it a year later without having filed anything. After hunting fruitlessly for a replacement, the family gave up. “Just talking about it now, I’ve got goose bumps,” he added. “I’ve got rage and anger and sorrow at the same time.”

May 5, 2008 New York Times
Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive. But outside, for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was in a coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why. Mr. Bah’s name is one of 66 on a government list of deaths that occurred in immigration custody from January 2004 to November 2007, when nearly a million people passed through. The list, compiled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Congress demanded the information, and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, is the fullest accounting to date of deaths in immigration detention, a patchwork of federal centers, county jails and privately run prisons that has become the nation’s fastest-growing form of incarceration. The list has few details, and they are often unreliable, but it serves as a rough road map to previously unreported cases like Mr. Bah’s. And it reflects a reality that haunts grieving families like his: the difficulty of getting information about the fate of people taken into immigration custody, even when they die. Mr. Bah’s relatives never saw the internal records labeled “proprietary information — not for distribution” by the Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the New Jersey detention center for the federal government. The documents detail how he was treated by guards and government employees: shackled and pinned to the floor of the medical unit as he moaned and vomited, then left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours, despite repeated notations that he was unresponsive and intermittently foaming at the mouth. Mr. Bah had lived in New York for a decade, surrounded by a large circle of friends and relatives. The extravagant gowns he sewed to support his wife and children in West Africa were on display in a Manhattan boutique. But he died in a sequestered system where questions about what had happened to him, or even his whereabouts, were met with silence. As the country debates stricter enforcement of immigration laws, thousands of people who are not American citizens are being locked up for days, months or years while the government decides whether to deport them. Some have no valid visa; some are legal residents, but have past criminal convictions; others are seeking asylum from persecution. Death is a reality in any jail, and the medical neglect of inmates is a perennial issue. But far more than in the criminal justice system, immigration detainees and their families lack basic ways to get answers when things go wrong. No government body is required to keep track of deaths and publicly report them. No independent inquiry is mandated. And often relatives who try to investigate the treatment of those who died say they are stymied by fear of immigration authorities, lack of access to lawyers, or sheer distance. Federal officials say deaths are reviewed internally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which reports them to its inspector general and decides which ones warrant investigation. Officials say they notify the detainee’s next of kin or consulate, and report the deaths to local medical authorities, who may conduct autopsies. In Mr. Bah’s case, a review before his death found no evidence of foul play, an immigration spokesman said, though after later inquiries from The Times, he said a full review of the death was under way. But critics, including many in Congress, say this piecemeal process leaves too much to the agency’s discretion, allowing some deaths to be swept under the rug while potential witnesses are transferred or deported. They say it also obscures underlying complaints about medical care, abusive conditions or inadequate suicide prevention. In January, the House passed a bill that would require states that receive certain federal money to report deaths in custody to their attorneys general. But the bill is stalled in the Senate, and it does not cover federal facilities. The only tangible result of Congressional concern has been the list of 66 deaths, which names Mr. Bah and many other detainees for the first time, but raises as many questions as it answers. For Mr. Bah’s survivors, the mystery of his death is hard to bear. In Guinea, his first wife, Dalanda, wept as she spoke about the contradictory accounts that had reached her and her two teenage sons through other detainees, including some who speculated that Mr. Bah had been beaten. In New York, a cousin who is an American citizen, Khadidiatou Bah, 38, said she was unable to bring a lawsuit, in part because other relatives were afraid of antagonizing the authorities. “They don’t want to push the case, or maybe they will be sent home,” she said. “This guy was killed, and we don’t know what happened.” Lingering Questions -- The list of deaths where Mr. Bah’s name surfaced is often cryptic. Along with 13 deaths cited as suicides and 14 as the result of cardiac ailments, it offers such causes as “undetermined” and “unwitnessed arrest, epilepsy.” No one’s nationality is given, some places of detention are omitted, and some names and birth dates seem garbled. As a result, many families could not be tracked down for this article. But when they could be, they posed more disturbing questions. In California, relatives of Walter Rodriguez-Castro, 28, said they were rebuffed when they tried to find out why his calls had stopped coming from the Kern County Jail in Bakersfield in April 2006. Then in June, his wife went to his scheduled hearing in San Francisco’s immigration court and learned that he had been dead for many weeks, his body unclaimed in the county morgue. The coroner found that Mr. Rodriguez-Castro, a mover from El Salvador in the country illegally, had died of undiagnosed meningitis and H.I.V., after days complaining of fever, stiff neck and vomiting. The cause of death on the government’s list: “unresponsive.” Immigration authorities said on Friday that the case was now under review, but would not answer questions about it or other deaths on the list. Sgt. Ed Komin, a spokesman for the jail, said the death had been promptly reported to immigration officials, who were responsible for notifying families. Four sons in another family, in Sacramento, described trying for days to get medical care for their father, Maya Nand, a 56-year-old legal immigrant from Fiji, at a detention center run by the Corrections Corporation in Eloy, Ariz. Mr. Nand, an architectural draftsman, had been ailing when he was taken into custody on Jan. 13, 2005, apparently because his application for citizenship had been rejected, based on an earlier conviction for misdemeanor domestic violence. In collect calls, the sons said, he told them that despite his chest pains and breathing problems, doctors at the detention center did not take his condition seriously. The Corrections Corporation said he had been seen and treated “multiple times.” But a letter to the family from an immigration official said his treatment was for a respiratory infection. The letter said that Mr. Nand was taken to an emergency room on Jan. 25, where congestive heart failure was diagnosed, and that he “suffered an apparent heart attack while at the hospital.” He died on Feb. 2, 2005, shackled to a hospital bed in Tucson. Boubacar Bah had more going for him than many detainees. He had a lawyer and many friends and relatives in the United States, and his detention center in New Jersey was one of the few frequented by immigrant advocates. But three days after he suffered a head injury in detention last year, no one in his New York circle knew that he was lying comatose in a Newark hospital, where he had already been identified as a possible organ donor. “Thank you for the referral,” an organ-sharing network wrote on Feb. 3, 2007, according to hospital records. “This patient is a potential candidate for organ donation once brain death criteria is met.” Four days after the fall, tipped off by a detainee who called Mr. Bah’s roommate in Brooklyn, relatives rushed to the detention center to ask Corrections Corporation employees where he was. “They wouldn’t give us any information,” said Lamine Dieng, an American citizen who teaches physics at Bronx Community College and is married to Mr. Bah’s cousin Khadidiatou. On the fifth day, they said, a detention official called them with the name of the hospital. There they found Mr. Bah on life support, still in custody, with a detention guard around the clock. “There was one guard who knew Boubacar,” Ms. Bah said. “He told me on the down-low: ‘This guy, you have to fight for him. This guy was neglected.’ ” Within the week, word of the case reached a reporter at The Times, through an immigration lawyer who had received separate calls from two detainees; they were upset about a badly injured man — named “something like Aboubakar” — left in an isolation cell and later found near death. But advocacy groups said they were unaware of the case. And Michael Gilhooly, the spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that without the man’s full name and eight-digit alien registration number, he could not check the information. For those who knew Mr. Bah, it was hard to understand how such a man could lie dying without explanations. “Everybody liked Boubacar,” said Sadio Diallo, 48, who has a tailor shop in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he and Mr. Bah had shared an apartment with fellow immigrants since arriving in 1998. “He’s a very, very, very good man.” For six years, Mr. Bah had worked for L’Impasse, a clothing store in the West Village, sewing dresses that sold for up to $2,000 with what a former manager, Abdul Sall, called his “magic hands.” Mr. Bah often spent Sundays at the Bronx townhouse his cousins had inherited from the family’s first American citizen, a seaman who arrived in 1943. In Africa, Mr. Bah’s earnings not only supported his first wife, sons and ailing mother, but in Guinean tradition, allowed him to wed a second wife, long distance. It was his longing to see them all again after eight years that landed him in detention. When he returned from a three-month visit to Guinea in May 2006, immigration authorities at Kennedy Airport told him that his green card application had been denied while he was away, automatically revoking his permission to re-enter the United States. An immigration lawyer hired by his friends was unable to reopen the application while Mr. Bah waited for nine months in detention, records showed. Mr. Bah died on May 30, 2007, after four months in a coma. His lawyer, Theodore Vialet, requested detention reports and hospital records under the Freedom of Information Act. But by the time the records arrived last autumn, the idea of a lawsuit had been dropped. So Mr. Vialet just filed the records away — until a reporter’s call about a name on the list of dead detainees prompted him to dig them out. After the Fall -- There are 57 pages of documents, some neatly typed by medics, some scrawled by guards. Some quote detainees who said Mr. Bah was ailing for two days before his fall on Feb. 1, and asked in vain to see a doctor. The records leave unclear exactly when or how Mr. Bah was injured in detention. But they leave no doubt that guards, supervisors, government medical employees and federal immigration officers played a role in leaving him untreated, hour after hour, as he lapsed into a stupor. It began about 8 a.m., according to the earliest report. Guards called a medical emergency after a detainee saw Mr. Bah collapse near a toilet, hitting the back of his head on the floor. When he regained consciousness, Mr. Bah was taken to the medical unit, which is run by the federal Public Health Service. He became incoherent and agitated, reports said, pulling away from the doctor and grabbing at the unit staff. Physicians consulted later by The Times called this a textbook symptom of intracranial bleeding, but apparently no one recognized that at the time. He was handcuffed and placed in leg restraints on the floor with medical approval, “to prevent injury,” a guard reported. “While on the floor the detainee began to yell in a foreign language and turn from side to side,” the guard wrote, and the medical staff deemed that “the screaming and resisting is behavior problems.” Mr. Bah was ordered to calm down. Instead, he kept crying out, then “began to regurgitate on the floor of medical,” the report said. So Mr. Bah was written up for disobeying orders. And with the approval of a physician assistant, Michael Chuley, who wrote that Mr. Bah’s fall was unwitnessed and “questionable,” the tailor was taken in shackles to a solitary confinement cell with instructions that he be monitored. Under detention protocols, an officer videotaped Mr. Bah as he lay vomiting in the medical unit, but the camera’s battery failed, guards wrote, when they tried to tape his trip to cell No. 7. Inside the cell, a supervisor removed Mr. Bah’s restraints. He was unresponsive to questions asked by the Public Health Service officer on duty, a report said, adding: “The detainee set up in his bed and moan and he fell to his left side and hit his head on the bed rail.” About 9 a.m., with the approval of the health officer and a federal immigration agent, the cell was locked. The watching began. As guards checked hourly, Mr. Bah appeared to be asleep on the concrete floor, snoring. But he could not be roused to eat lunch or dinner, and at 7:10 p.m., “he began to breathe heavily and started foaming slightly at the mouth,” a guard wrote. “I notified medical at this time.” However, the nurse on duty rejected the guard’s request to come check, according to reports. And at 8 p.m., when the warden went to the medical unit to describe Mr. Bah’s condition, the nurse, Raymund Dela Pena, was not alarmed. “Detainee is likely exhibiting the same behavior as earlier in the day,” he wrote, adding that Mr. Bah would get a mental health exam in the morning. About 10:30 p.m., more than 14 hours after Mr. Bah’s fall, the same nurse, on rounds, recognized the gravity of his condition: “unresponsive on the floor incontinent with foamy brown vomitus noted around mouth.” Smelling salts were tried. Mr. Bah was carried back to the medical unit on a stretcher. Just before 11, someone at the jail called 911. When an ambulance left Mr. Bah at the hospital, brain scans showed he had a fractured skull and hemorrhages at all sides of his swelling brain. He was rushed to surgery, and the detention center was informed of the findings. But in a report to their supervisors the next day, immigration officials at the center described Mr. Bah’s ailment as “brain aneurysms” — a diagnosis they corrected a week later to “hemorrhages,” without mentioning the skull fracture. After Mr. Bah’s death, they wrote that his hospitalization was “subsequent to a fall in the shower.” The nurse, Mr. Dela Pena, and the physician assistant, Mr. Chuley, said that only their superiors could discuss the case. The Public Health Service did not respond to questions, and the Corrections Corporation said medical decisions were the responsibility of the Public Health Service. Mr. Bah’s cousins demanded an autopsy, but the Union County medical examiner’s confidential report was not completed until Dec. 6. It was sent to the county prosecutor’s office only as a matter of routine, because the matter had been classified as an “unattended accident resulting in death.” Prosecutors said they did not investigate. “According to the report, Bah suffered a fall in the shower,” Eileen Walsh, a spokeswoman for the prosecutors, said in an e-mail message. “We are not privy to any other bits of information.” In the home movies Mr. Bah made of his last journey home, he is only a fleeting presence: a slim man with a shy smile. But without his support, relatives in Africa say they have little money for food and none for his sons’ schooling. His body went back to Guinea in a sealed coffin. “I stayed here seven years, waiting for him,” his second wife, Mariama, said in French, recalling their long separation and the brief reunion that led to the birth of their son, now a toddler, while Mr. Bah was in detention. “I wanted them to open the casket,” she added, “to know if it was him inside. Until today, I cry for him.”

April 25, 2008 Nashville Scene
State Rep. Mike Turner has fired off a missive to Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner George Little about the spate of questionable practices and incidents that have landed Corrections Corporation of America in the news. CCA, as you'll recall, contracts with Tennessee (along with many other state and federal authorities) to run their prisons and jails. In his April 16 letter, which Pith obtained this morning, Turner mentions the Time magazine story that alleges CCA counsel Gus Puryear allegedly whitewashed incident reports on escapes and unnatural deaths, so as not to alarm the company's clients. He also cites The Tennessean piece on an inmate at a Metro-controlled, CCA-run correctional facility who went nine months without a shower, as well as the recent Nashville Scene article that reported how guards at that same facility falsely claimed a jail-cell surveillance camera wasn't working—just one day after an inmate was found in her cell with a broken skull, according to the detective who wanted to review the footage. In other words, it's just another day in the life of CCA and Gus Puryear—who, we should add, is called out in the upcoming issue of the National Law Journal for being one of Bush's most controversial judicial appointees.

April 11, 2008 AP
The president and chief executive of private prison operator Corrections Corp. of America exercised options for 18,000 shares of common stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. In a Form 4 filed with the SEC Thursday, John D. Ferguson reported he exercised the options Tuesday for $5.70 apiece and then sold all 18,000 shares on the same day for $27.57 to $28.02 apiece.

April 10, 2008 Muckety
On the spectrum of freedom, Charles Overby pretty much has the full range covered. He heads the Freedom Forum, which opens its new $450 million Newseum Friday in Washington, D.C. And, in his free time, he’s a director at the Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the nation’s largest privatized prison system. The Freedom Forum says it is a “nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people.” CCA says its vision is “to be the best adult corrections company in the United States.” Overby is a former Gannett newsman who led The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., to a public service Pulitzer in the early 1980s. He became president and CEO of the Gannett Foundation in 1989. In 1991, after former Gannett CEO Al Neuharth re-directed (some might even say “hijacked”) the foundation’s mission and money, it was renamed the Freedom Forum. Overby joined the Nashville-based Correction Corporation’s board in 2001. Today, he is chairman, president and CEO of the Freedom Forum and CEO of the Newseum.

April 2, 2008 AP
The executive vice president and chief corrections officer of private prison operator Corrections Corp. of America exercised options for 9,000 shares of common stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday. In a Form 4 filed with SEC, Richard P. Seiter reported he exercised the options on Tuesday for $13.06 apiece, then sold all 9,000 shares on the same day for $27.51 apiece.

March 31, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data to make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems than was actually the case. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct performance audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawai'i inmates, including reviews of the food, medical, drug treatment, vocational and other services provided to Hawai'i inmates. The audit also would scrutinize the way the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private prisons and enforces the terms of the state's contracts with CCA. According to the bill, "there has never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the Mainland." Clayton Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, testified against the proposed audits in Senate hearings last month, calling the audits "unnecessary and repetitive" because his department already conducts quarterly audits to make sure CCA is complying with its contracts with the state. Frank also suggested his department was being singled out, arguing that if lawmakers want performance audits to provide more accountability and transparency to the public, "then it should apply to all state contracts and not be limited to just the Department of Public Safety." Critics of the Mainland prison contracts contend the audits are needed because the private prisons are for-profit ventures designed to keep costs as low as possible. During the decade that Hawai'i has housed inmates on the Mainland, the state itself has criticized private prison operators when the companies failed to provide Hawai'i inmates with programs that were required under the contract. Now, supporters of the audit bill say an independent review is necessary to scrutinize what is one of the state's largest ongoing contracts of any kind with a private vendor. "Are we getting what we pay for? We'd like to know," testified Jeanne Y. Ohta, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i. The audit would cover the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., which houses only male prisoners from Hawai'i, and the 656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., which holds about 175 Hawai'i women inmates. The House Finance Committee hearing on the bill today comes in the wake of Mainland media reports citing a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce misleading reports about incidents in CCA prisons. The company operates about 65 prisons with about 75,000 inmates. Time magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent incidents such as inmate disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults as if they were less serious events to make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge. The Private Corrections Institute Inc., an organization opposed to private prisons, wrote to Hawai'i prison officials urging them to investigate CCA's reporting procedures in the wake of the Time report. Alex Friedmann, vice president of the institute, said most state monitors who are overseeing CCA prisons "largely rely on information and data provided by CCA; further, the accuracy of incident reports is entirely dependent on whether those incidents are documented by the company's employees." Hawai'i Public Safety officials did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations in the Time article.

March 27, 2008 AP
The president and chief executive of prison-operator Corrections Corp. of America exercised options for 18,000 shares of common stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday. In a Form 4 filed with the SEC, John D. Ferguson reported he exercised options for the shares on Monday for $5.70 apiece and then sold them all the same day for $26.73 to $27.68 apiece.

March 26, 2008 Tennessean
Add women’s rights groups to the list opposing the federal judicial nomination of Gus Puryear IV, the embattled general counsel for the Corrections Corporation of America. Puryear’s membership to Nashville’s Belle Meade County Club is under fire by the women’s rights organization who say women are unable to vote or hold office at the private golf club. National Organization of Women, the National Council for Women’s Organizations and the Women’s Equal rights Legal Defense and Education Fund have sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Puryear’s nomination ignited a debate whether the general counsel of CCA, the for-profit prison giant, is suited for the bench in light of allegations that he encouraged misleading incident reports. Private Corrections Institute, an advocacy group that opposes prison privatization, has been an outspoken critic of Puryear's nomination. The Alliance for Justice and the National Lawyers Guild are among the opposition. There’s also a website, www.againstpuryear.org, is part of the opposition campaign. The hearings were held last month and the committee has not voted on his nomination. President Bush nominated Puryear last June to serve as a federal judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.

March 21, 2008 Nashville Scene
Yesterday I talked with Rob McGuire, the local prosecutor who brought charges against four CCA guards in the death of inmate Estelle Richardson, who in 2004 was found in her solitary cell with a broken skull and four cracked ribs. McGuire ultimately dropped the case, after doctors for both CCA and Richardson's family determined that her head injuries might have been sustained before she was placed in solitary confinement. Now, though, the Richardson case has taken center stage in the nomination hearings of Gus Puryear, the CCA general counsel who was nominated by President George W. Bush to a federal judgeship in Tennessee's Middle District. The Senate Judiciary Committee has grilled Puryear about his statements about the case—he falsely claimed the guards were “exonerated”—and how his company handled the investigation. On that count, McGuire has a rather interesting story to share. And now we're going to have to jump. McGuire says that when a Metro homicide detective began to investigate Richardson's death, he asked to see videotape of the extractions—i.e., those times when an inmate is ushered in and out of her cell. Instead, guards told him the camera had mysteriously malfunctioned. Wouldn't you know it, the detective was told, there's no footage available—which is not much different than when the suspect tells Lennie Briscoe he doesn't remember what he was doing the night of the murder. At that point, the detective examined the camera and could find nothing wrong with it. “He turns it on and it appears to be working just fine,” McGuire says. “That was a significant problem for us; it did not help their cause.” Of course, McGuire ultimately had to drop the case when it appeared that any number of different people—from inmates to guards—could have caused Richardson's head injuries. And because she was heavily medicated at the time, it was certainly possible that the inmate could have endured a serious injury without realizing until it was too late. But none of this lets CCA off the hook. First, there's the issue that, no matter how you look at it, Richardson was almost certainly killed in a CCA facility, which Puryear glosses over in his correspondence with members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. In fact, Puryear makes her death out to be a veritable mystery, even though it's ludicrous to imagine how someone could break their skull and crack their ribs by simply slipping on the floor. So if—and we're using the word “if” lightly here—she was killed in jail, that doesn't reflect well on CCA. Then, of course, there's McGuire's fresh anecdote about the supposedly malfunctioning camera, which makes you wonder if CCA took an awkward stab at a cover-up. CCA and Puryear are already under fire for last week's Time.com report, in which a former prison manager accused the company of lying to its government clients about the safety of its prisons. Is there a pattern here? It's next to impossible to gleam objective data from CCA, even though it manages public facilities across the country. But with Puryear likely to face additional additional questions from the members of the judiciary committee about the Richardson case and other CCA matters, a little more transparency might be in order. Developing....

March 21, 2008 The California Majority Report
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who railed against special interests during his recall campaign and has since shattered all fundraising efforts -- has quietly been padding his campaign accounts with hundreds of thousands of dollars during the past few weeks. In the last week, Schwarzenegger has added five- and six-figure donations from health care interests, pharmaceutical companies, homebuilders, and private prison companies -- just as he begins reviewing legislation being passed in the legislature reviewing those industries. For example, he has received $25,000 from Pacific West Pharmacy, $5,000 from the Corrections Corporation of America, and $25,000 from General Motors Corporation. The funds have been funneled to this "California Dream Team" account, one of several the governor has to raise campaign cash. It should be noted, however, that Schwarzenegger cannot run for re-election. Fascinating that Schwarzenegger can shake down the wealthy and contributions from millions in campaign money but rules out Democratic proposals to tax these very same interests to pay their fair share for our kids education.

March 18, 2008 The Huffington Report
At a moment when Democratic Party officials are urging voters to trust unelected superdelegates to act in the country's best interests, HuffPost's Off-The-Bus investigation into the background of DNC superdelegates reveals at least one appointed superdelegate who is as likely to use his political connections for personal profit as for the greater good. Take the case of Joseph F. Johnson, a member-at-large of the Democratic National Committee from Chantilliy, Virginia -a suburb of Washington D.C. -- and a superdelegate currently tilting toward Hillary Clinton. Using his web of connections, Johnson successfully lobbied for the construction of a private prison linked to a company on whose board he sat; he managed to have that prison contract with other companies he was linked to; and though the prison became a notorious and dangerous failure, Johnson benefited personally, pulling in millions of dollars in stock options and fees. Johnson first rose through the ranks of the Democratic machine in the early 1990s, as executive director of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition. He brought with him strong ties to D.C. government that he'd built after his first job in the nation's capital, as chief of staff for the city of Washington DC's city council head. He also managed Douglas Wilder's successful campaign to become Virginia's first African-American governor in 1991. And Johnson advised Mark Warner on his successful 2001 gubernatorial bid in Virginia. Johnson's reputation as a mover and shaker in D.C. Democratic politics helped pave the way for his appointment to the board of Corrections Corporation of America, the largest operator of private prisons in the country. While serving in that position from 1996 to 1999, Johnson was instrumental in convincing the local government in Washington, DC to pay CCA to run a prison in Youngstown, Ohio for DC inmates, according to SEC filings for the company. Meanwhile, two of Johnson's own companies, National Corrections and Rehabilitation (NCRC) and MedCorr, were contracted to provide employment rehabilitation and health services in the same prison he helped establish. The private Ohio prison which Johnson helped establish was, according to Youngstown's then-mayor, "a nightmare." By 1998, there had been two fatal stabbings, 44 assaults, and six escapes at the prison. A Department of Justice report found that under CCA, the prison had "failed to accomplish the basic mission of correctional safety;" and prisoners eventually collected $1.65 million in damages and legal costs for their treatment under CCA. News reports traced the problems at the prison to both CCA's management and D.C. Corrections' practice of sending high-security inmates to the medium-security facility. The problems, Johnson told the Washington Post at the time, weren't "anyone's fault, it was just one of those things." Mr. Johnson nonetheless profited from the deal, receiving $2.6 million in stock options for his work linking CCA with officials in Washington, D.C. Calling his work "instrumental" to their receipt of the contract, CCA said that Mr. Johnson had "exceeded his duties and obligations" to the company and also paid him $382,000 for his "consulting services" in helping to arrange the deal, and $991,000 for NCRC's services in another CCA prison in Texas. Johnson had also helped arrange for Washington, D.C. to sell one of its local prisons to CCA in 1996. Local activists complained that procurement rules had been skipped over to hand the bid to CCA, but the deal ultimately went through, and CCA then managed the facility and used NCRC to provide services to inmates. When the Washington Post asked Johnson if he considered his dual roles as a conflict of interest, he replied, "Not in my mind." Two years later, the Washington Post reported that CCA faced $1.3 million in fines for failing to provide services to inmates, including $536,000 in fines for failing to properly administer medications and another $77,400 for failing to provide vision services. The city's Department of Corrections, despite being $8.8 million in the red, suspended most of the fines, according to Post reports from the time. Johnson has over time expanded his list of companies; NCRC is technically a subsidiary of his firm, the Johnson Companies [www.jcmps.com]. Under that umbrella, Mr. Johnson also houses the Houston-based Satellite Tracking of People, LLC (STOP), which deals in GPS tracking devices for inmates and parolees; the Nashville-based ConnectGov, Inc, which coordinates distance learning; and the National Preparedness Training Center, which trains first responders to disasters.

March 14, 2008 Nashville Scene
Once thought to be a sure thing, Gus Puryear's nomination to the federal bench is now in serious trouble. A devastating story published on Time magazine's website yesterday alleged that the young attorney whitewashed company reports in his role as corporate counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The story revolves around Ronald T. Jones, a former CCA prison manager described as a loyal Republican like the judicial nominee himself. Jones claims Puryear oversaw a reporting system in which the company basically lied to its public-sector clients, minimizing outbreaks of prison disturbances in the jails it operates. In theory at least, CCA is supposed to provide thorough and objective reports to the government agencies who have outsourced the management of its jails to the private company. But Jones says his ex-boss Puryear masked or omitted details that could result in litigation, fines or bad press. That aside, he behaved admirably. “When Puryear felt there was highly sensitive or potentially damaging information to CCA, I would then be directed to remove that information from an audit report,” Jones told Time.com. Today, The Tennessean published a well-reported front-page story that included additional details, including how in 2005 a CCA official once had the temerity to issue a memo with potentially damaging information about a prison incident. That led to a change in company policy—in which any reports to be made public had to be cleared by the office of the general counsel. The Private Corrections Institute, which has led the charge against Puryear, issued a press release calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to summon the nominee back to Washington for yet another hearing. The group may well get its wish. It's been a dismal week for Puryear—right as he tries to explain his membership in the historically discriminatory Belle Meade Country Club, he now will likely have to defend himself against serious charges of turning CCA’s cold, hard facts into creative fiction. It's still possible for Puryear to survive this latest onslaught of bad press and go on to become a good judge. But considering how much trouble he's had so far convincing people he's up for the job, couldn't the Bush administration have just plucked someone else? There are plenty of intelligent Republican attorneys in Nashville. How many of them have Puryear's baggage?

March 14, 2008 Tennessean
A former Corrections Corporation of America manager is accusing the company's general counsel and federal judicial nominee Gus Puryear IV of overseeing a practice that produced misleading reports about safety incidents at its prisons. Ronald T. Jones, who until last year worked as a senior manager in quality assurance at the Nashville-based prison operator, said that Puryear directed him and other staff to classify incidents such as escapes, unnatural deaths and disturbances as less serious to make its performance look better in reports to government agency clients. Reports prepared for internal use, meanwhile, included more details about the specific incidents, Jones said. Private Corrections Institute, an advocacy group that opposes prison privatization and has been an outspoken critic of Puryear's nomination, Thursday urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold another round of hearings at which Jones could testify and Puryear be asked more questions about his actions. "Alternatively, we support the position of not bringing Mr. Puryear's judicial nomination forward for a committee vote," said Alex Friedmann, a former inmate at a CCA prison and the group's vice president. At a Feb. 12 hearing before the Judiciary Committee, Puryear faced tough questions on the 2004 death of a woman at the Metro Detention Facility, possible conflict of interest with cases involving CCA and its executives that are often filed in Middle Tennessee District, where he would serve, and his membership in the exclusive Belle Meade Country Club. In response, Puryear said that he would recuse himself for at least five years from all cases involving CCA and its executives: said there were disagreements among medical experts about what happened in the death of Estelle Richardson at the detention facility; and promised to resign from Belle Meade if he found its membership policies violated the code of judicial ethics. Committee staff said any action on Puryear's nomination is unlikely until April at the earliest. The committee has no more business meetings this week and Congress is on Easter break for the next two weeks. The Judiciary Committee usually does not hold additional hearings with the nominee and other witnesses. Instead, the senators rely on written responses to questions and the transcript of the original hearing when discussing and voting on a nominee. Puryear couldn't be reached last night for comment. CCA denies allegations -- Louise Grant, a CCA spokeswoman, called Jones' allegations inaccurate and added that it paints a false picture of CCA's quality assurance process and of Puryear's role. "We question the motives of this former employee, who was not in a leadership position in quality assurance and resigned in lieu of termination," Grant added. "If our interest was in under-reporting or not finding quality issues, we simply would not have created this (quality assurance) department or its programs in the first place." Jones denies that he faced termination at CCA. He now lives in Detroit and said he left CCA to pursue a legal career. He said in his job he was responsible for tracking information on events such as unusual deaths, disturbances and audit findings and that the misleading practices began in early 2005, when the quality assurance department was put under Puryear as general counsel. A CCA staff member in 2005 provided a report containing potentially damaging information about an incident at a prison to a government client without corporate approval, Jones said. That incident, according to Jones, led to a new policy in which any reports that could be made public needed to be cleared by the office of the general counsel. "Mr. Puryear then directed me, and other quality assurance department staff who process audit report finding, to create two reports for distribution of audit findings," Jones wrote in a statement sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I would prepare one report with all of the audit findings and auditor comments in it for "internal purposes only" and a separate more generic report that contained only general information about audit results as a whole." In a separate interview with The Tennessean, Jones added that the more information that could potentially damage the company if it was released publicly, the more that its operations and financial status could be affected. In the corrections industry, the number of incidents such as prison escapes, riots, and sexual assaults are among variables often used to determine bonuses for employees from wardens to chief executives, industry observers said. If a prison contract provides for a bonus, such incidents also would be taken into account by a client government agency in determining the award. CCA is required to file reports with the state on incidents such as inmate-on-inmate assaults or inmate-on-staff assaults, disturbances and a daily census of inmates at its prisons that house state inmates, said Dorinda Carter, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections. The department has onsite contract monitors and other designated employees at the prisons that report daily on incidents and another division that conducts annual audits of the CCA prisons, she said. "We feel pretty sure that we're finding out about incidents as they happen," Carter said. She added that CCA is required to follow the same policies as the 13 prisons run by the state and that officials are confident in their monitoring of the company.

March 13, 2008 Mother Jones
Most ambitious lawyers know that if they want to become a federal judge, they have to fulfill several key requirements. First, they must schmooze the right people, sit on the right bar committees, and make the requisite political contributions. Then, above all, they must 1) pay nanny taxes, and 2) wait until after securing a lifetime appointment to join an exclusive, discriminatory country club. Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV, Bush's choice for a trial court seat in the middle district of Tennessee, had ticked off most of the items on the list by the time he was nominated last summer. He'd given money, befriended Dick Cheney's son-in-law, and even prepped Cheney for the vice-presidential debates in 2000 and 2004. But he forgot about rule number 2, an oversight that might be his undoing. As a prison company lawyer with virtually no litigation experience, Puryear's resume offers any number of reasons why he shouldn't be confirmed. But inexperience has never stopped the politically connected from ascending to the bench. Country club memberships, however, are a different matter. And Puryear happens to be a member of the exclusive Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville, a club whose racist history is so well known that even former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had the good sense to quit the club before running for office. After Puryear's surprisingly contentious confirmation hearing last month, several senators asked him to provide additional written answers to their questions. According to the Nashville Scene, Puryear's responses aren't likely to win him any friends with the Democrats on the committee, particularly Ted Kennedy, who sent Puryear four sets of questions regarding the club, including one about its racial diversity. Puryear replied in legalese, writing, “I am advised that the club does not track its members based on race, nor does it respond to such requests. I am personally aware that there are minority members, but I do not myself know the number,” he wrote. The number of black members of the Belle Meade Country Club is an open secret in Nashville, largely because the number is exactly one. Belle Meade didn't allow black members until 1994, when they admitted one guy, a lawyer from Atlanta. Today, that same guy remains the only black member of the club. So either Puryear is being incredibly disingenuous, or he is a lot dumber than his supporters claim. (The Nashville Scene had no trouble figuring out how many black members the club had, after all, so it's hard to believe Puryear, who's actually a member, couldn't do the same.) It's rare for the Senate to see confirmation fights over trial court judges, but Puryear could be the exception. His country club membership has caught the attention of women's groups, who are mounting some opposition. Feminist lawyer Gloria Allred has written a letter to the Judiciary Committee raising questions about Puryear's nomination. She, too, doesn't buy his claim of ignorance about the club's discriminatory practices, noting that the club's "entire voting membership is male, "Lady members" are not allowed to vote, and no women have been proposed for Resident Member status that would afford voting privileges." As a trial court judge, Puryear would preside over a fair number of sexual and racial discrimination trials, which is another reason women's groups are worried about his nomination. If Puryear can't see the blatant, longstanding discrimination going on in his own country club, can you imagine what he'd be like in the courtroom? Egads!

March 13, 2008 AP
The president and chief executive of prison operator Corrections Corporation of America exercised options for 18,000 shares of stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. In Form 4s filed with the SEC Wednesday, John D. Ferguson reported he exercised the options Monday for $5.70 apiece and then sold all the shares the same day for $26.14 to $27.20 apiece. The stock sale was conducted under a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan, which allows a company insider to set up a program in advance for such transactions and proceed with them even if he or she comes into possession of material nonpublic information.

March 13, 2008 TIME
As the top lawyer for America's biggest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Gus Puryear IV, is known to sport well-pressed preppy pink shirts, and his brownish mop of hair stands out among most of President Bush's graying nominees to the federal bench. A favorite of G.O.P. hardliners, Puryear, 39, prepped Dick Cheney for the vice presidential debates — both in 2000 and 2004 — and served as a senior aide to two former senators and onetime presidential hopefuls, Bill Frist and Fred Thompson. Political connections, though, may not be enough to get Puryear a lifetime post as a federal district judge in Tennessee. Puryear recently confronted tough questions about his conduct, experience and potential conflicts of interest from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must approve him before a full Senate vote. Now, a former CCA manager tells TIME that Puryear oversaw a reporting system in which accounts of major, sometimes violent prison disturbances and other significant events were often masked or minimized in accounts provided to government agencies with oversight over prison contracts. Ronald T. Jones, the former CCA manager, alleges that the company even began keeping two sets of books — one for internal use that described prison deficiencies in telling detail, and a second set that Jones describes as "doctored" for public consumption, to limit bad publicity, litigation or fines that could derail CCA's multimillion dollar contracts with federal, state or local agencies. CCA owns or operates 65 prisons, housing some 70,000 inmates across the U.S. According to the company's website, it has a greater than 50% share of the booming private prison market. CCA is also a major contributor to Republican candidates and causes, and spends millions of dollars each year lobbying for government contracts. (Puryear enjoys a friendship with Cheney's son-in-law, Philip Perry, who lobbied for CCA in Washington before serving as general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, which has millions of dollars in contracts with CCA, from 2005 to 2007.) The company has likewise given financial support to tax-exempt policy groups that support tough sentencing laws that help put more people behind bars. Like other prison companies, CCA has faced numerous lawsuits that stem from allegedly inadequate staff levels that can be a cause of high levels of violence in the prisons. Though hundreds of such lawsuits are often pending at any given time, many brought by inmates in its own facilities, CCA under Puryear has mounted an especially vigorous defense against them, refusing to settle all but the most damaging. Jones knows CCA intimately. Until last summer, the longtime Republican was in charge of "quality assurance" records for CCA prisons across the U.S. He says that in 2005, after CCA found itself embarrassed on several occasions by the public release of internal records to government agencies, Puryear mandated that detailed, raw reports on prison shortcomings carry a blanket assertion of "attorney client privilege," thus forbidding their release without his written consent. From then on, Jones says, the audits delivered to agencies were filled with increasingly vague performance measures. "If the wrong party found out that a facility's operations scored low in an audit, then CCA could be subject to litigation, fines or worse," explains Jones. "When Mr. Puryear felt there was highly sensitive or potentially damaging information to CCA, I would then be directed to remove that information from an audit report." Puryear would not comment on the allegations. Jones resigned from CCA last summer to pursue a legal career. According to Jones, Puryear was most concerned about what CCA described as "zero tolerance" events, or ZT's — including unnatural deaths, major disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults. According to Jones, bonuses and job security at the company were tied to reporting low ZT numbers. Low numbers also pleased CCA's government clients, as well as the company's board, which received a regular tally, and Wall Street analysts concerned about potentially costly lawsuits that CCA might face. In 2006, for example, Jones says CCA had to lock down a prison in Texas to control rioting by as many as 60 inmates. Despite clear internal guidelines defining the incident as a ZT, Jones says he was ordered not to label it that way. Instead it was logged as, "Altered facility schedule due to inmate action". And this was not unusual, says Jones: "Information was misrepresented in a very disturbing way concerning the company's most important performance indicators, which included escapes, suicides, violent outbreaks and sexual assaults." Companies often try to show their best face to customers, and safeguard internal records with "attorney-client privilege." But according to Stephen Gillers, a leading expert on legal ethics at New York University, CCA's use of that privilege seems like "a wholesale, possibly overreaching claim," similiar to the blanket assertions of major tobacco companies that tried to keep damaging internal documents from public view. Those assertions of privilege have been rejected by federal judges as an attempt to improperly conceal their internal data on the dangers of smoking from customers, the courts and legal adversaries. CCA could also be in legal trouble if it minimized the tally of serious prison incidents and, by implication, its possible financial liability. As chief legal counsel, Puryear would have also had an obligation to ensure his board had all the information it needed, good or bad, to make decisions. If Puryear's reporting system had the effect of withholding information relevant to official prison oversight, that could bear on his suitability as a federal judge by suggesting his "disdain for the proper operation of an important function of government," notes Gillers. Contacted by TIME, CCA says that Puryear, "has served the company well and honorably as general counsel and will be an outstanding judge." The company denies allegations that it keeps two sets of books, saying: "A final audit report is made available to our customers. Appropriate information gathered in the audits is separately provided to our legal department." The company adds that "CCA has produced all relevant, non-privileged documents in litigation," that its board is regularly apprised of the most serious prison incidents, and that "all appropriate" information is given to the financial community. President Bush recently called Puryear and his 27 other judicial nominees facing Senate confirmation "highly qualified." Whether or not the Senate agrees on Puryear, Bush is likely to leave the White House with fewer judges approved than Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan, both two-term chief executives.

March 7, 2008 Tennessean
Long list of problems exists in use of CCA By ALEX FRIEDMANN Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest for-profit prison firm, has a history in Tennessee that dates back to 1983. It hasn't always been a proud history, though. Last May, the warden of CCA's Hardeman County facility assaulted an inmate who was in restraints. The warden resigned, was prosecuted and pled guilty. The prison's internal affairs officer was charged with an unrelated assault. On July 30, 2007, a riot occurred at CCA's South Central Correctional Center in Wayne County. The company's tactical officers responded; however, there was a delay when they tried to enter the housing units because no one had the gate keys. On Jan. 14, 2008, an inmate at the CCA-run Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility was beaten to death by his cellmate. Also, a prisoner escaped from CCA's Metro jail. CCA initially didn't know he had absconded on Feb. 16. Those are just the latest in a long line of assaults, escapes, inmate and employee deaths, and riots at CCA facilities in Tennessee. Most people don't care because they don't have a private prison in their backyard. That will soon change for residents of Trousdale County, where CCA plans to build a 2,040-bed detention center. Type of jobs an issue  -- Proponents cite the estimated 350 jobs the prison will bring. But what kind of jobs? According to internal CCA documents, as recently as October 2007, guards at the Hardeman County prison were paid a starting wage of $9.41 an hour; after two years, they were earning less than $10.25. An administrative clerk at the prison was hired at $7.67 per hour. CCA's supporters also point to taxes and fees the company will pay. Those payments are partially offset by other costs, such as $6 million in water and sewage upgrades that Trousdale County will make in preparation for the prison. In at least two cases, in Ohio and Texas, CCA was sued over tax breaks and failure to pay taxes owed. In another case, CCA sued the state of New Mexico in an attempt to recover $2.5 million in tax payments. A 2003 report titled, "Big Prisons, Small Towns," found that incarceration is a poor form of economic development. Once a city becomes a "prison town" other industries are less likely to move in, making the community dependent on the facility for income — and in the case of a private prison, at the mercy of the company that owns it. Last month, CCA threatened to remove inmates from one of the company's prisons in Colorado if the state didn't increase its payments. After a for-profit facility is filled, the contracting government agencies can be held captive to rate increases or other demands, as they have nowhere else to put their prisoners. The residents of Trousdale County may be stuck with a private prison despite the objections of concerned community members whose repeated requests for a public hearing were denied. Those who favor the CCA facility will deserve exactly what they get.

March 5, 2008 Tennessean
The accuracy of testimony by Gustavus "Gus'' Puryear IV at his confirmation hearing to be a federal judge is being questioned by four Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Puryear is general counsel of Nashville-based private prison giant Corrections Corporation of America and was nominated by Republican President Bush. After the February hearing, he provided written answers to additional questions about the company's handling of the death of an inmate at a company-run facility in Nashville, potential conflicts of interest he would face as a judge and his membership in the Belle Meade Country Club. The sometimes-pointed questions and Puryear's responses again raise the stakes in his confirmation. Once thought to be routine, Puryear's nomination is being fought by a coalition of civil rights, labor and other groups spearheaded by the Private Corrections Institute, which opposes prison privatization. Puryear's responses were released Thursday. Inmate death testimony -- Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, along with Sens. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin questioned the testimony Puryear gave last month about the 2004 death of Estelle Richardson. Richardson died at the Metro Detention Facility after she was forcibly removed from her solitary confinement cell by four guards. She had a fractured skull, broken ribs and liver damage. The state's medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and the four guards were charged, but the indictments eventually were dropped. Later, a civil suit brought by Richardson's family was settled out of court when experts representing the family and the CCA concluded the skull fracture occurred before she was extracted from her cell. At his Feb. 12 hearing, Puryear testified it was not clear how Richardson received her head injuries and that they could have been self-inflicted. He said CPR done in an attempt to revive Richardson could have caused her broken ribs and liver damage. All four senators questioned that testimony, citing a letter sent to the committee from Dr. Bruce Levy, Tennessee's chief medical examiner, who conducted the autopsy on Richardson. He reiterated that the death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma that was not self-inflicted. Levy called "misleading at best'' Puryear's comment about CPR causing injuries. Puryear responded by citing a letter to the committee from David Smith, attorney for the Richardson family, who wrote that the "the circumstances and causes of Ms. Richardson's tragic death were complex and debated ... our own experts attributed the death to a seizure.'' "There were also issues on whether CPR may have caused the liver and rib injuries,'' Smith wrote. Puryear said the company's expert, Dr. William McCormick, former deputy chief medical examiner for Tennessee, wrote that the rib and liver injuries were "almost certainly'' caused by CPR and cited medical research to back his claim. Promises made -- Puryear expanded on a promise made during testimony that he would recuse himself for at least five years from CCA cases and would also not take on personal cases involving company executives. He said at the hearing he also would sell all of his CCA stock. Puryear also wrote that he would resign from the Belle Meade Country Club if he discovered that the club's membership practices violated the judicial code of conduct. Kennedy wrote that the club did not allow blacks to join until 1994 and does not give women the right to vote on club business. Puryear said there are no women who are "resident members,'' the class allowed to vote, but that he knows of no policy that restricts women from being recommended for that category. "I am not aware ... that any woman has been proposed or has sought to be proposed as a 'resident member,' " he said. Judiciary Committee spokesman Erica Chabot said the committee would likely not deal with the nomination until April at the earliest because members may want to ask follow-up questions and Congress is out of session the last two weeks of March. The full Senate must confirm the nomination once it is out of committee.

February 27, 2008 AP
The president and chief executive of prison management company Corrections Corp. of America exercised options for 18,000 shares of common stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In Form 4s filed with the SEC Tuesday, John D. Ferguson reported he exercised the options on Friday for $5.70 apiece, then sold all 18,000 shares on the same day for $25.92 to $26.70 apiece.

February 25, 2008 Tennessean
Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV is the top attorney for Corrections Corporation of America, the Nashville-based private prison giant. He graduated with honors from law school, is a deacon in his church and serves on the boards of numerous community organizations. Now President Bush has nominated him to be a federal judge for the Middle District of Tennessee. But Puryear has never been a judge, has little trial experience, and works for and holds stock in a company enmeshed with the federal government through campaign donations, lobbying and huge contracts. And the company he represents gets sued a lot, many times in federal court in Nashville. Civil rights and prison rights advocates and others say those and other concerns make Puryear a poor choice to be a judge in the very court where his company is often a defendant. And his answers at his confirmation hearing earlier this month are raising questions among some senators and the state's top medical examiner. What appeared to be a routine confirmation process has suddenly become complicated. "During that hearing, a lot of red flags were raised," said Erica Chabot, spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "You can bet there are some follow-ups." Senators on the committee were given two weeks to submit additional questions that will be sent to Puryear for written responses. Puryear, 39, declined to comment on questions about his fitness for the bench while the confirmation process is ongoing, said Steve Owen, spokesman for CCA. Trial experience lacking -- Letters opposing Puryear were sent to the committee by Private Corrections Institute Inc., which opposes prison privatization; the Alliance for Justice, an umbrella group of dozens of national civil rights and other organizations; and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Among their arguments: Puryear doesn't have the proper legal qualifications. Puryear spent less than three years in private practice in Nashville before signing on as counsel for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, headed by then-Sen. Fred Thompson. Next, he served as legislative director for former Sen. Bill Frist for about three years before becoming general counsel and vice president at CCA in January 2001. Puryear's lack of trial experience is a greater concern than his role as a corporate lawyer and his lack of judicial service, said Douglas Laycock, a professor of the University of Michigan Law School. "District court judges have to run a trial and run it efficiently. It's just a different skill set," Laycock said. An analysis of a database of the nearly 1,200 sitting and senior federal judges shows slightly more than one-third served as judges prior to their appointment. Only 18 served as general counsels or assistant or associate general counsels for private companies. Puryear's lack of trial experience is probably why he received a "qualified" rating by the American Bar Association, instead of the higher "well qualified," Laycock said. Of the 67 judges nominated by President Bush since January 2007, 14 received a unanimous or majority "qualified" rating. The rest had unanimous or majority "well-qualified" ratings. Alex Friedman, vice president of Private Corrections Institute, said conflict of interest is a major reason not to confirm Puryear because lawsuits against the company and its executives are often filed in the court on which he would serve. Friedman served six years in a CCA-run facility in Tennessee. Puryear told the committee he would sell off all his CCA stock and recuse himself from cases involving the company. Laycock said "that CCA gets sued a lot is not a problem" because the number of cases would be relatively small and could be picked up by other judges. CCA and Puryear have strong connections to the federal government. Puryear gave $3,000 to Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker's campaign in 2005-06 and $1,000 to Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander in 2005. CCA executives and its political action committee have given $48,950 to Alexander since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Corker has received $27,250 from CCA and its executives. Puryear is a registered lobbyist for CCA and the company spent more than $3 million in 2007 lobbying the federal government, according to lobbying reports. It has received nearly $1.2 billion in federal contracts since 2004, according to a database of federal contracts compiled by the Office of Management and Budget. Nashville death cited -- Another complaint is the company's handling of the 2004 death of Estelle Richardson in the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville. Puryear testified at his confirmation hearing that her broken ribs and liver injuries could have been caused by CPR attempts to revive her. Tennessee's Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Bruce Levy, who conducted the autopsy on Richardson, said in an e-mail that Puryear's "statement that the rib fractures and liver damage could have been caused by CPR is in error and is not based on sound forensic medicine." Levy has contacted the judiciary committee. But Dr. William McCormick, the state's former deputy chief medical examiner, concluded in a report prepared for attorneys defending the company in a civil lawsuit that the injuries were "almost certainly" caused by the CPR, said Joe Welborn, one of the attorneys. Four CCA guards were charged, but the charges were dropped and Richardson's family ultimately settled a lawsuit against the company. Both Tennessee Republican senators, Alexander and Corker, released written statements last week repeating their support for Puryear. "The American Bar Association investigated all allegations raised by liberal interest groups, but still concluded that Mr. Puryear was qualified to serve on the federal bench," Alexander said. The Senate Judiciary Committee is not likely to hold a second hearing on the nomination, said Chabot, spokeswoman for chairman Leahy. The committee will rely on the record of the first hearing and answers to written questions to vote. It is not clear when that vote will take place.

February 22, 2008 National Lawyers Guild PR
On June 13, 2007, President Bush nominated Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mr. Puryear currently serves as vice president and general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest for-profit private prison company. If appointed he would serve as a federal judge in the same jurisdiction where CCA is headquartered. Since 2000, at least 260 federal lawsuits naming CCA, company subsidiaries or CCA employees have been filed in the Middle District of Tennessee. Such cases would constitute a conflict of interest for Mr. Puryear, and assigning them to other judges would not be an effective use of judicial resources. Of greater concern is that Mr. Puryear lacks familiarity with the federal courts and has little trial or litigation experience. By his own admission he has tried only two cases to verdict; he has been personally involved in only five federal cases, most recently a decade ago. He is not admitted to practice before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is over the Middle District of Tennessee, and received only a "qualified" rating from the American Bar Association rather than a "highly qualified" rating. Both Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker strongly support Mr. Puryear's nomination. Neither Senator has acknowledged the substantial financial contributions received from Mr. Puryear and his employer, CCA – which include over $80,000 to Senator Alexander and $27,000 to Senator Corker since 2004. Further, Mr. Puryear mentioned in disclosure statements that he is a member of the Nashville-based Belle Meade Country Club. The fact that Mr. Puryear maintains membership in an exclusive, predominately white club that did not admit its first minority member until 1994, and reportedly does not afford voting privileges to female members but only to male members, is a matter of significant concern for a federal judicial nominee. In an Associated Press national wire article concerning Mr. Puryear's nomination, Vanderbilt Professor Stefanie Lindquist was quoted as saying his judicial appointment "might slide through as a compromise." The National Lawyers Guild does not believe the people of Tennessee should have to compromise or settle for a less-than-qualified federal judge to represent their interests in U.S. District Court. The National Lawyers Guild calls on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to vote down this unqualified, conflicted and controversial judicial candidate.

February 21, 2008 AP
A private prison company executive nominated to become a federal judge has run into a determined opponent — a former inmate. President Bush in June nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America, to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville. That led Alex Friedmann, who spent six years at the company's prison in Clifton, Tenn., to investigate Puryear's qualifications. He looked up every case where Puryear was listed on the docket as counsel. The prisoner-turned-inmate advocate found only five instances where Puryear was the attorney of record. By his count and Puryear's, the judicial nominee has been involved in only two federal court trials during his career. That's just one more case than Friedmann himself has handled in federal court. Convinced that the well-connected Puryear was unqualified to be a federal judge and might face a conflict of interest overseeing litigation involving his former employer, Friedmann began a public relations campaign against the nomination that led all the way to the Senate. He formed the group Tennesseans Against Puryear and enlisted the help of the liberal Washington-based Alliance for Justice and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, both of which sent letters opposing the appointment. Puryear, a 1993 graduate of the University of North Carolina law school, didn't respond to several phone and e-mail requests left at his home and office for an interview with The Associated Press. At a Feb. 12 hearing of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., questioned Puryear about several issues originally raised by Friedmann and the nonprofit Private Corrections Institute, a group opposing private prisons that Friedmann helps run. Puryear told the Senate committee he already was selling off his stock in the company, according to reports in The Tennessean newspaper. He owned CCA shares valued at just under $1.3 million as of Feb. 1, according to Lionshares.com, an online database of stock ownership. He also pledged to recuse himself from cases involving CCA even after he no longer holds a financial interest. The committee also questioned Puryear about whether the volume of lawsuits against Nashville-based CCA — the nation's largest for-profit private prison company — would burden other judges who would have to hear the cases when Puryear recused himself. Puryear said it would not be a significant burden. Friedmann's campaign against Puryear continues. He plans to send a letter to the Committee on the Judiciary pointing out what he contends are inaccuracies in Puryear's answers. The two men have never met. Although Friedmann learned of the nomination because he keeps tabs on CCA, he insists his crusade is based on Puryear's lack of qualification and not because he's a CCA executive. Friedmann sued CCA and several employees in 1996 while incarcerated for six years for armed robbery. Serving as his own lawyer, Friedmann eventually won a $6,000 judgment against a former prison unit manager for a civil rights violation. Puryear's legal resume includes significant political work — serving as counsel to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and junior counsel during the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee investigation of campaign finance abuse led by former Sen. Fred Thompson. He also was a debate adviser for Dick Cheney in 2000. Stefanie Lindquist, an associate professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, said courtroom experience is good but not essential for federal judge nominees. She sees more significance in the American Bar Association rating of Puryear as "qualified," instead of "well qualified" to be a judge. "A 'qualified' rating is relatively weak. That's going to hurt him," Lindquist said. Lindquist said Friedmann's efforts are unusual for even temporarily disrupting what should be a routine confirmation. There are about 180 Bush nominations pending as the administration and Democratic-controlled Senate tangle over some sharply contested nominees. Of the Puryear nomination, Lindquist said: "If there are other, more controversial nominees, this might slide through as a compromise."

February 20, 2008 Mother Jones
In October 2000, Dick Cheney faced off for a debate with Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The 60-year-old Cheney appeared comfortable discussing the ins and outs of policy and made good-natured jokes about Lieberman's singing abilities, or lack thereof. Cheney's smooth performance reflected his many years in public service. But the aspiring vice president also had a strong debate-preparation team made up of longtime friends and GOP loyalists. Among them was Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV, a legislative director for Tennessee senator Bill Frist, who was on contract with the Bush/Cheney campaign. Puryear apparently did such a good job prepping Cheney that he was called in again in 2004 to help him gear up for his debate with Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. Puryear's efforts on behalf of the Bush administration paid off last June when the president nominated him to be a federal trial court judge for the Middle District of Tennessee. Puryear certainly isn't the first judicial nominee selected primarily for his political service, but still, his resume is remarkably thin on the practice of law, a basic prerequisite even for the best-connected political hacks. Puryear got his start in politics in the mid-1990s working as counsel to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, then chaired by Fred Thompson, as it investigated the Clinton fundraising scandals. From there he went to work for Frist. Beyond a brief stint in private practice for a corporate law firm when he was fresh out of law school, Puryear has spent more time inside an executive suite than a courtroom. And it's that corporate work that makes him an especially questionable candidate for the federal bench. Puryear was in Washington last week for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Senators Arlen Specter (D.-Pa,) and Dianne Feinstein (D.-Ca.) both put his resume under a microscope, noting his conspicuous lack of trial experience. At one point Specter asked him point blank, "How many cases have you actually tried?" To which Puryear answered: Two. Indeed, according to his written questionnaire for the committee, of the two cases he has tried in the entirety of his legal career, he was lead counsel on one of them. The last time he litigated a case in federal court was more than a decade ago. Puryear has spent the bulk of his legal career at the Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison company. As its general counsel since 2001, Puryear has made millions of dollars working for a company that profits from the country's incarceration boom, particularly through his recent sale of more than $3 million worth of the company's stock. (His financial disclosure form shows a net worth of more than $13 million.) His employer creates enormous conflicts for Puryear as a potential federal judge, as the CCA gets sued all the time, often in the very district where he hopes to preside as judge. Since 2000, roughly 260 cases have been filed in that court against the CCA, its officers, and subsidiaries. In addition, Puryear's current job involves overseeing the CCA's defense against inmate litigation, a prison staple that he has publicly dismissed as a nuisance, even though such litigation has led to significant verdicts and settlements against the company. For instance, in 2000, a South Carolina jury hit the CCA with a $3 million verdict for abusing juveniles. Other successful suits have alleged that the company's employees abused inmates and provided negligent medical care. Yet in a quote he no doubt now regrets, in 2004 Puryear said that, "Litigation is an outlet for inmates. It's something they can do in their spare time." Inmate lawsuits typically account for more than 10 percent of the docket in Tennessee's Middle District, meaning that Puryear will see his share of them if he gets confirmed. During his confirmation hearing last week, Puryear told the committee that he would recuse himself from any cases involving the CCA—at least, he said, for some time after he's divested all of his stock in the company. He dismissed concerns about his conflict of interest by noting that the CCA cases make up a small part of the court's workload and that his recusals would not create problems for the other judges. But his promises to recuse still don't get to the heart of a fundamental conflict: To the CCA, inmates are a revenue stream warehoused at the cheapest price. This not exactly the view of the criminal justice system you want from a judge if you are a defendant. A trial court judge in Tennessee's Middle District can expect to handle more than 60 criminal cases a year. Every person Puryear sends to prison is a potential money-maker for his former employer, which contracts with the federal government to manage 15 detention facilities, and also holds federal prisoners in other CCA institutions that house state and local prisoners when the need arises, according to Steve Owen, the company's director of marketing and communications. The number of inmates coming from Tennessee may be relatively small, but still, it seems fair to ask whether Puryear's conflict of interest runs so deep that he might have to recuse himself from criminal cases entirely. Thus far, Puryear has largely escaped media scrutiny, as the activist groups that monitor the federal courts tend to focus mostly on appellate courts and the occasional Supreme Court battle rather than on trial court nominees. Puryear's CV also doesn't signal fights on many of the hot-button social issues that usually set off a confirmation battle. He doesn't sound—or look—like Robert Bork. He's young, patrician, a model member of the exclusive Belle Meade Country Club, and director of the Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville. But for his deep voice he could be Niles on "Frasier." Nonetheless, Puryear might be in for an unexpected fight, due in part to his decision to publicly dis jailhouse lawyers. Alex Friedmann was one of those jailhouse lawyers. He spent six years inside one of the CCA's prisons in Tennessee for attempted murder and armed robbery. Friedmann actually sued the CCA while incarcerated for retaliating against him for his comments to a reporter for The Nation. Representing himself, he took another case all the way to a jury trial, where he mostly lost, though he won a default judgment against a former unit manager. He also appealed a different case against the state, over censorship, that went all the way to the Sixth Circuit court of appeals where he won. "In that regard, I'm more qualified than [Puryear] is," he observes, noting that Puryear isn't even admitted to practice in the Sixth Circuit. Now out of prison nine years, Friedmann is an editor for Prison Legal News, which is how he first learned about Puryear's nomination. After doing a little checking on him, Friedmann ran across Puryear's quote about inmate litigation, which didn't sit too well with him, and he set out to torpedo Puryear's nomination. As a former CCA inmate and a board member of a Florida nonprofit group that opposes prison privatization, Friedmann readily admits that he's not a disinterested party in the nomination battle. Nonetheless, his political instincts are sound. He is cobbling together a coalition to oppose Puryear's nomination, including the American Federal State and Municipal Employees Union, which opposes private prisons for their anti-labor positions. Friedmann's currently at work trying to enlist the real powerhouse of liberal judicial activists to join the coalition: women's groups. Friedmann has compiled stats from the federal court docket on the CCA's lawsuit history in order to highlight the potential conflicts of interest Puryear might face, and he picked apart Puryear's resume and his responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee's questions last week. For instance, when pressed on his view of criminal defendants and prison inmates, Puryear pointed to his service as a commissioner on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. Skeptical, Friedmann checked out Puryear's attendance record with the commission. He says the commission held eight public hearings between 2005 and 2007—and Puryear missed at least four of them. "If the gentleman does have a genuine concern about inmates, why did he miss half the meetings?" he asks. Friedmann is also raising significant questions about Puryear's response to questions about the death of a female inmate at the CCA's facility in Nashville. The medical examiner ruled that 34-year-old Estelle Richardson was beaten to death while in the company's custody. She suffered a skull fracture, broken ribs, and liver damage. Prosecutors indicted four CCA guards in 2005, but later dropped the charges after being unable to determine the time of death. So far, no one has been held responsible for Richardson's death, although the CCA settled a private lawsuit filed by her family. When Sen. Feinstein asked Puryear about the case, Puryear disputed the medical examiner's findings and claimed that Richardson's death might not have been a homicide at all. He suggested that the broken ribs and liver injury may have been caused by CPR. It's "common" for people to suffer such injuries from CPR, Puryear said, to which a dumbfounded Feinstein exclaimed, "Common?" Apparently not satisfied with Puryear's answers, Feinstein asked him to provide the committee with further written information about the case. Meanwhile, after the hearing, Friedmann called the Tennessee medical examiner who worked the case, who he says reaffirmed the original finding that Robinson's death was a homicide and that there was nothing to suggest her injuries were caused by resuscitation efforts. Friedmann also spoke with the lawyers who represented Richardson's family and he says that they told him that the CCA never raised CPR injuries as a defense in the litigation. Puryear's comments to the committee, says Freidmann, are "not supported by the medical record," which makes him skeptical about Puryear's judgment as a lawyer—and his credibility. Friedmann seems to recognize that prison inmates are not the stuff of judicial confirmation fights, so he has also homed in on another issue that might provide more traction, not to mention the interest of powerful women's groups: Puryear's country club. The tony Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville is so exclusive that you have to be a member just to access its website. It didn’t admit a single black member until 1994, a racist history so potent that even Puryear's mentor, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, quit the club in 1993 when he first ran for office. While Belle Meade admits women, Friedmann has heard that it still won't give "lady members" voting rights. (Troy Cunningham, the controller of the club for the past 17 years, wouldn’t respond to questions about women's voting rights, saying that "all questions flow through the members," meaning that someone will have to put the question to Puryear himself.) But if Friedmann can stir up controversy over Puryear's country club membership, he might actually have a shot at scuttling his nomination.

February 20, 2008 AP
Corrections Corp. of America spent almost $2.5 million in 2007 to lobby on legislation and regulations related to the private prison industry. The prison management company spent more than $1.1 million in the second half of 2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a disclosure form posted online Thursday by the Senate's public records office. The company lobbied on the privatization of Bureau of Indian Affairs prisons and on the Public Safety Act, which would outlaw private prisons, as well as the Private Prison Information Act, which would force private prisons to make public the same information government jails must provide. Corrections Corp. spent more than $1.3 million in the first six months of 2007 to lobby on similar issues. In addition to lobbying Congress, the company also lobbied the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Labor and Office of Management and Budget. Corrections Corp. lobbyists included Bart VerHulst, previously chief of staff for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Mike Quinlan, former director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons; and Gus Puryear, previously counsel to Frist and an adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.

February 13, 2008 Market-Wire
Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE:CXW - News), the nation's largest provider of corrections management services to government agencies, announced today that Dennis DeConcini, the former U.S. Senator from Arizona, has been elected as an independent member of CCA's Board of Directors. "Senator Dennis DeConcini has a distinguished career serving the state of Arizona and the U.S. government," said William F. Andrews, chairman of CCA's Board of Directors. "We are extremely pleased to bring Dennis onto our Board. His extensive knowledge and understanding of government, coupled with his experience with other directorship positions, make him ideally suited to help lead management's initiatives to enhance government's utilization of public/private partnership in corrections." Senator DeConcini served three terms, from January 1977 through January 1995, representing the State of Arizona in the United States Senate. As Senator, he served on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government. He also served on the Subcommittees of Defense, Foreign Operations, Energy and Water Development, and Interior and Related Agencies. Prior to his service as a U.S. Senator, DeConcini served one elected term as the County Attorney for Pima County, Arizona. Senator DeConcini, age 70, is a partner in the law firm of DeConcini McDonald Yetwin and Lacy in Tucson, Arizona, which he co-founded in 1968. DeConcini also is a Principal in the lobbyist consulting firm Parry, Romani, DeConcini & Lacy P.C. in Washington, D.C.

February 13, 2008 The Tennessean
The expected smooth confirmation of Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV to be a federal judge in Nashville hit some bumps Tuesday during a sometimes-tense congressional hearing that raised questions about his role as chief lawyer for Corrections Corporation of America. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., quoted letters from civil rights and other groups opposing Puryear's nomination. Despite Tuesday's tough questioning, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing could suggest Puryear is on track to win confirmation at a time when Senate Democrats and President Bush are feuding over judicial nominations. Many nominees have never been granted a hearing before the panel. The groups say Puryear is biased against inmates' rights and was more interested in protecting CCA in 2004 than in finding out why a woman died in a Nashville jail run by the company. They also say Puryear would have to recuse himself from cases involving CCA, which they contend would clog up the court system. Puryear carefully rebutted each claim and said he has already started to sell off his stock in the Nashville-based company. He promised to sell off all his stock and said he would avoid hearing cases involving the company even after completely divesting. He did not say how long he would wait before he would begin hearing cases involving CCA. The committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., could not attend the hearing but submitted a written statement saying it shows he's trying to fill vacant judgeships. Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander support Puryear's nomination to U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. They introduced him at the hearing. Various groups opposed -- The campaign against Puryear is being led by the Alliance for Justice, a Washington-based umbrella group representing dozens of national civil rights and other groups ranging from Planned Parenthood Federation of America to The Sierra Club Foundation. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents workers at CCA prisons, also sent a letter opposing Puryear's nomination. The Alliance for Justice letter says Puryear "cavalierly dismissed" the legitimacy of civil rights lawsuits filed by prisoners when he said in 2004 that "litigation is an outlet for inmates. ... It's something they can do in their spare time." "The courts should be open to civil rights lawsuits of all types," Puryear said when Specter asked him about the comment. Puryear said he was referring to "frivolous" lawsuits filed by prisoners, prompting Specter to demand what he meant by frivolous. Jail death is an issue -- Feinstein asked about allegations on an anti-Puryear Web site claiming Puryear was more concerned in 2004 with protecting CCA than with finding out who killed Estelle Richardson in the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville in 2004. Richardson, 34, had a fractured skull, broken ribs and liver damage. Four CCA guards were charged, but the charges were dropped and Richardson's family ultimately settled a lawsuit against the company. Puryear said Tuesday that "four innocent correctional officers were exonerated" and that the cause of Richardson's death could not be determined. He suggested her broken ribs and liver damage could have been caused by CPR, which he said is a "common" occurrence during such resuscitation. "Common?" Feinstein responded, sounding incredulous. Puryear's opponents say 400 cases involving CCA have been filed in Tennessee's Middle District since 2000. That volume would place a significant burden on other judges if Puryear had to recuse himself from such cases, they said. Puryear disputed the allegation, saying the correct number is 181 cases. An electronic search of the Middle District's docket since 2000 lists 165 cases with Corrections Corporation of America or CCA named as a party. Few are still active. Feinstein asked Puryear to respond to some claims in writing. The committee could then hold another hearing and question Puryear more, or the panel could move ahead with a vote on whether to send the nomination to the full Senate with a recommendation for approval or disapproval, or with no recommendation at all.

February 6, 2008 Pueblo Chieftain
A private prison company is threatening to move all Colorado inmates out of one of its facilities if it doesn't get an increase in what the state pays to house them. Corrections Corporation of America, which operates four of the state's five private prisons, including three in Southern Colorado, is demanding that the Colorado Legislature give it a 5 percent hike in the per diem it receives to house about 4,000 state inmates, Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, said Tuesday. Buescher, chairman of the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee, said the Tennessee-based company is using its weight to try to force more money out of the state. "We've got a negotiating disadvantage," he said. "The choice we've got to make is to give them a provider rate increase that is three times what we're giving to all other providers, or to build hundreds of millions of dollars in additional prisons. We don't have that hundreds of millions of dollars, and they know it. The decisions that have been made over the last 12 years (in using private prisons) have put us in a very difficult negotiating position." Steve Owen, spokesman for the Nashville company, said CCA is simply trying to do what's best for its business. He said the company agreed to a lower per diem rate in 2001 when the state was suffering from a major budget shortfall. Since then, however, the state hasn't made up the difference. "We were basically asked to help with the burden of trying to ease some of those (budget) constraints, which we did," Owen said. "So, there's nothing Draconian at work here in terms at what has been presented to the state. We're just honestly trying to put options out there to help preserve this partnership with Colorado so we can continue to provide the services to the state and keep our folks employed out there." In 2001, the state had been paying CCA a $53.33 per diem. That amount was lowered to less than $50 and has since risen to $52.69, still far less than what it would be receiving after seven years of inflation and cost increases. Now the company is asking for $55.32 per inmate a day. "We've actually had a real dollar decrease," Owen said. "That's compounded with another issue that the state has underutilized beds that we've made available. Between those two things, it makes for a difficult situation on a financially viable business operation." Currently, the company - which operates private prisons in Bent, Huerfano, Crowley and Kit Carson counties - has about 460 open beds, and that doesn't count the 1,440 more that are expected to become available later this year because of expansions of the Bent and Kit Carson facilities, Owen said. Owen said that if the state can't pony up more money, his company would consider consolidating all Colorado prisoners in three of its facilities. The fourth facility, which has not been determined, would be used for inmates from the federal prison system or other states, some of which pay anywhere from $10 to $15 a day more than Colorado. Still, some lawmakers said they didn't like the idea of the company demanding a 5 percent hike at a time when the state can only afford to give other private providers, from health care to human services, less than 1 percent. Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West and a longtime critic of private prisons, said the state should call CCA's bluff and give them no increase. "I don't like doing business when we're being held hostage, and that's exactly what this is," McFadyen said. "We saw it coming. We had a past governor (Bill Owens) who brought us private prisons without a bid process, now we're dealing with it. If they don't want to work with us, we don't have to play ball with them."

January 28, 2008 Colorado Confidential
In just two months, two executives of the nation's largest prison business gave $2,400 to various campaigns in Colorado, nearly triple the total amount contributed a year before. According to records from the Secretary of State's office, high- ranking officials with Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America went on a spending spree during the last two months of 2007, contributing money to the candidate committees of seven state legislators, usually in $400 increments, the highest legal amount. State campaign finance records show that Marsha Wedell, wife of CCA board member Henri Wedell and a listed vice president at the company, gave $1,400 to the campaigns of Reps. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood; Mary Hodge, D-Brighton; Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield; and House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker. May's committee received $200, while the rest were given $400 contributions -- the maximum allowed by law. Josh Brown, a senior director at CCA who handles business relations in Colorado, gave a total of $1000 to the committees of Reps. David Balmer, R-Centennial; Michael Garcia, D-Aurora; and Nancy Spence, R- Centennial, according to SOS documents. What makes the spending surge unique is not the monetary amounts given to state lawmakers, but the sheer increase in spending from last year by CCA. State records show that CCA board member Henri Wedell gave $400 in November 2006 to the campaign of House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D- Denver, while CCA gave a business contribution of $500 to the Colorado Leadership Fund, a Republican political committee, during the same month. The company didn't contribute again until the end of 2007, when executives gave nearly triple the $900 amount contributed at the same time in 2006. CCA operates four detention facilities in Colorado. Earlier in the month, the company demanded a 5 percent increase in the daily rate the state pays to hold inmates and threatened to stop housing prisoners.

November 12, 2007 AP
Private prison operator Corrections Corp. of America paid Sisco Consulting Inc. $140,000 in the first half of 2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a disclosure form. The form, which was posted online Nov. 7 by the Senate's public records office, did not indicate any specific initiatives the lobbying firm worked on. The Nashville, Tenn.-based company, which designs, builds and manages prisons, jails and detention facilities, previously indicated it spent $1.3 million lobbying so far this year on issues related to prison privatization. The company owns 40 facilities, but also operates in another 25 facilities across the nation. Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995. They must register with Congress within 45 days of being hired or engaging in lobbying.

November 11, 2007 Tennessean
They are some of the most powerful people in the state, but you rarely hear about them. They make decisions that address hot-button topics ranging from abortion and political corruption to religious freedom and the death penalty. They can put you in prison or they can vindicate your civil rights. Who am I talking about? Federal judges. The legal decisions rendered by U.S. district court judges seldom make the news unless they deal with issues of public importance, such as Judge Aleta Trauger's ruling last month that suspended executions in Tennessee. Federal judges, who are appointed for life, wield an enormous amount of power. Thus, it stands to reason that only highly qualified candidates would be nominated for federal judicial positions. Considering the nomination of Gustavus A. Puryear IV for the district court in Middle Tennessee, however, that apparently isn't the case. You've probably never heard of Mr. Puryear, but you may know his employer, Corrections Corporation of America — the nation's largest private-prison company. Mr. Puryear serves as CCA's general counsel. He received a salary of $237,308 plus $602,957 in other compensation last year, and since November 2006 has cashed in $2.64 million in CCA stock. This presumably means he would have a conflict of interest should he preside over cases involving CCA ... and more than 400 federal cases naming CCA or CCA employees have been filed in Middle Tennessee. While Mr. Puryear may be wealthy in terms of cash and stock, whether he is equally rich in legal experience is debatable. He spent just three years at a Nashville law firm. He has been named as counsel in 130 federal cases in Tennessee, mostly after hiring on with CCA in 2001. However, 85 of those cases were dismissed by the court, with no action taken by Mr. Puryear. In 39 of the cases, other attorneys handled the actual litigation. Mr. Puryear sent a letter to the court in one case and was actively involved in five others — most recently in 1998. According to court records, only one case in which he was personally involved went to trial, and he has never litigated a case on his own. So what makes Mr. Puryear qualified for appointment as a federal judge? He has strong political connections. He worked under former Sens. Bill Frist and Fred Thompson, and served as an adviser to Dick Cheney during the 2000 debates. He has donated more than $13,000 to Republican candidates since 2001 — including to Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, who have endorsed his nomination. But lifetime federal judicial appointments should not be based on political payback; only the most experienced and qualified candidates should be appointed to the federal bench. Sadly, this does not seem to be the case in regard to Mr. Puryear's nomination, which ill-serves all Middle Tennessee residents. Last week, the Alliance for Justice submitted a formal letter to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, opposing Mr. Puryear's nomination. For more information on Mr. Puryear's judicial nomination, please visit: www.privateci.org/puryear2.htm. By ALEX FRIEDMANN

November 8, 2007 The Tennessean
On Oct. 31, John Ferguson, CEO of Corrections Corp. of America, wrote that his private prison company saves the state money despite charging higher rates than those paid to county jails that house state prisoners. Most studies that have been conducted on private prison costs have found uncertain or minimal savings — including a study by the Tennessee Legislative Fiscal Review Committee that compared expenses at two state prisons, and the CCA-run South Central Correctional Center. Regardless, I don’t doubt Ferguson’s statement that CCA has lower per-diem rates than state prisons. But he didn’t explain why, so I will. CCA doesn’t operate any maximum-security prisons in Tennessee, does not house death-row prisoners and doesn’t operate women’s facilities. All of those prison populations have much higher incarceration costs that CCA doesn’t have to pay. The state must also cover all medical costs for prisoners. CCA’s medical expenses are capped at a certain amount ($5,000 the last time I checked); after that, the state has to pick up the tab. Further, CCA has cherry-picked prisoners at South Central, such as transferring prisoners who are HIV-positive — and more expensive to house — to state facilities. So, yes, CCA might have lower per-diem costs than state prisons, but only if you compare public apples with privately-managed oranges. Alex Friedmann, Antioch 37013

October 22, 2007 Times Free Press
Tennessee's payments to facilities run by the privately owned Corrections Corporation of America for housing felons increased substantially since 1998, a time when state reimbursements to local jails was frozen, figures show. Money the state paid per day to house a felon at the CCA-run South Central Correctional Facility increased 22.8 percent from fiscal 1998 to the fiscal year that began July 1, the state Department of Correction reported. Payments to the Hardeman County Correctional Facility, owned by a Hardeman County entity but managed by CCA, increased 29.1 percent during the same period, state figures show. But state payments for housing convicted felons at the Hamilton County Jail and many other local jails across Tennessee have been stuck at $35 per day since 1994. "I don't know if it's fair or not," Hamilton County Sheriff Billy Long recently said of state increases to CCA. "It's just we need to be paid whatever our jail cost is." The Hamilton County Jail's daily cost per prisoner as of June 30 was $59.24, said Bill McGriff, county auditor. He estimates county taxpayers in fiscal 2007, which ended June 30, lost $692,596 because of the state's cap. Hamilton County Commissioner John Allen Brooks said it is hard for the county "to make up what the state isn't paying us." Gov. Phil Bredesen and state Correction Commissioner George Little recently said they are willing to re-examine jail payments but contend a number of local jails make money housing state felons. According to a Department of Correction list of local jail costs provided by Mr. McGriff, 65 city or county jails in Tennessee have costs that are above the $35 cap, while 38 have costs below or at the $35 cap. Facilities below the cap are reimbursed at their costs. Mr. Little said the privately operated facilities have annual reimbursement increases written into their contracts. "I'm not suggesting for a moment that county jail costs are not going up or that it's not a real issue," Mr. Little said. "I'm merely suggesting that as the state looks at raising the rate of reimbursement, we need to be prudent and take a broad look, not just pop more dollars into that pot." David Connor, executive director of the Tennessee County Commissioners Association, said, "The private providers are getting a better contractual deal than counties are right now." "I would hope we would treat our local government partners at least equally as well as we're treating the private sector," Mr. Connor said.

October 13, 2007 Billings Gazette
Forty percent of the money raised this year by Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer for his 2008 re-election campaign came from non-Montanans, including slightly more than half of the $175,700 he raised in the past three months, an analysis by the state Republican Party shows. Schweitzer's sizeable chunk of cash from out-of-state donors this year - $281,000 of the approximately $684,000 he has received from all contributors - prompted criticism from the GOP on Friday. "The governor has spent the last three years courting wealthy Democrat elites from all around the country," said Erik Iverson, chairman of the state Republican Party. "We've got a governor who puts self-promotion and campaign fundraising ahead of doing what's right for Montana." A spokesman for the state Democratic Party said the GOP analysis conveniently omitted some key facts: That Schweitzer had 1,333 in-state donors the past three months, or more than in any other quarter this year, and that he has taken no money from political-action committees. "These are small-dollar donors from all across the state who recognize that Montana is on the move," said Harper Lawson. "They want to make sure it stays that way. Their backing is a sign of enormous grass-roots support for Governor Schweitzer." Lawson noted that 84 percent of the donors to the governor's campaign are Montanans. Schweitzer, who's running for a second four-year term as governor next year, has no opponent so far, from any political party. He has been raising money for his re-election campaign since last year. Nonresidents contributing to statewide campaigns in Montana is not unusual, particularly when it involves candidates for Congress. Relatively large amounts of out-of-state money going to gubernatorial candidates, however, is not as common. Schweitzer has traveled out of state many times during his nearly three years as governor, to attend political events, fundraisers, conferences and speaking engagements. He's also the finance chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, a job that has taken him out of state for fundraising and political strategizing events. He went to the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Ky., this spring for a Democratic Governors Association meeting. Here's a summary of information from the GOP analysis of Schweitzer's fundraising: • Of Schweitzer's $684,000 raised this year, about 59 percent came from Montanans, while the remainder came from nonresidents. • Nonresident donors tended to give larger amounts, averaging $420 per donation. The maximum allowed gift from any one donor is $500 per election cycle. Money from Montana residents averaged $118 per donation. • About one of every six donations, or 16 percent, came from a nonresident. • In the past three months, Schweitzer had donors from 26 states other than Montana. Behind Montana, the states providing the most money for his campaign were California, Washington, Colorado, Tennessee and Texas. The Republican Party also provided a list of the more than 200 nonresident individuals who donated to Schweitzer in the past three months, culled from campaign finance records. They include utility executives, health insurance executives, radio personality Casey Kasem of Los Angeles, college professors, executives from Qwest and Verizon telephone companies, physicians, numerous attorneys and several executives from Corrections Corp. of America, the Tennessee private-prison firm that owns a facility near Shelby.

October 5, 2007 AP
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, so far unopposed for re-election, continues to sock away campaign money in case a challenger steps forward. Schweitzer reported raising $175,000 this quarter, for a total of more than $750,000 this election cycle. The Democrat reported having just over $452,000 in the bank. A Republican who stepped into the race would start in a big campaign fundraising hole. The GOP remains undaunted, however, saying a Republican candidate could catch up. The governor says 84% of the campaign's more than 5,000 contributions came from Montanans. The average donation was just over $140. A number of the largest donations came from out-of-state donors in states ranging from New York to California. Executives with companies such as Corrections Corporation of America, which runs a private prison in Montana, and United Healthcare were among the donors giving the maximum $500 allowed by Montana campaign finance law. Schweitzer, a Democrat, has vowed he will not take money from political action committees.

September 17, 2007 Forbes
Corrections Corp. of America, which builds and manages prisons, spent $1.3 million to lobby the federal government in the first half of 2007, according to a disclosure form. The company lobbied Congress on legislation and regulations related to the privately owned prison industry, according to the disclosure form posted online Aug. 10 by the Senate's public records office. In addition to lawmakers, the company lobbied the Bureau of Indian Affairs, plus the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, the White House budget office. Under a federal law enacted in 1995, lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches. They must register with Congress within 45 days of being hired or engaging in lobbying.

September 12, 2007 Boise Weekly
There's little to no distinction in the world of private prisons, a place where capitalism meets public service. It's an industry based on keeping people locked up, and doing it as efficiently as possible. It's also an industry that generates lots of controversy. While some argue that privately owned and operated prisons allow government agencies to deal with increasingly overcrowded prison systems and dwindling budgets, others say that introducing the element of profit into the management of incarcerated people leads to corruption, mismanagement and mistreatment of prisoners. "You shouldn't introduce a profit margin and a profit motive into a prison," said Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. "The industry as a whole shouldn't exist." But it's an industry that may be expanding into Idaho if some state leaders get their way. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has asked lawmakers to begin drafting legislation that would allow privately owned and operated prisons to go to work in Idaho. There are currently no private facilities in the state, although the Idaho Correctional Center in Kuna is managed by the Correction Corporation of America of Tennessee. CCA is the largest private prison business in the country, ranking just behind the federal prison system. The company owns 41 prisons nationwide, and manages another 24 facilities in 19 states and Washington, D.C., for a combined total of roughly 75,000 beds. To pave the way for their Idaho entry, a work group made up of lawmakers, Idaho Department of Corrections officials and industry representatives are in the early stages of drafting legislation that will be introduced in the next legislative session. "[It would] set the stage for a private firm to come into the state of Idaho and create a facility that the firm would own and operate," said Brent Reinke, director of the Idaho Department of Corrections. "Truly, Gov. Otter is very insistent in this area and has been very, very outspoken and there's no doubt at all the way he wants to proceed," Reinke said. "We have a critical need right now to do something immediately to address the [prison] population crisis that we're seeing," said Jon Hanian, Otter's press secretary. "When you're talking about a private prison vs. a state-run one, building one, you're talking about up to four years on the state-run side vs. 18 to 24 months. The private side is going to be a more immediate impact." Hanian said Otter's priority was to get prisoners now housed in out-of-state facilities back in the state. Until Idaho has more room, Hanian said, "our hands are tied on that." Otter has vowed that any agreement reached with a private company would include stipulations that the state has a first right of refusal on any beds, and could bump any out-of-state inmates if the space is needed. It's not so cut and dried for opponents of the industry, though. "The bottom line for the private prison industry is to make a profit," said Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections Institute, a Florida-based group that opposes the private prison industry. "They give you a snow job about rules and training. They have to provide a profit, and they actually turn quite a profit for quite a few years. "They do a very good P.R. job," he said. A key part of that public relations campaign is to make inroads with politicians in states targeted by the industry as likely locations for expansion. Opponents of private prisons are full of stories of corrupt officials and lobbyists serving as advisers for the state, including a college professor in Florida who served as a state adviser on the private prison industry while that industry funded his professional research. There's also Manny Aragon, former president of the New Mexico Senate, who was indicted by a jury in April for an alleged kickback scheme. "There's going to be more of it when it's [in Idaho]," said Kopczynski. "They're not stupid. Most of these folks [private corrections company leaders] come out of government anyways." The industry has already made its first foray into the wallets of Idaho politicians. According to campaign finance reports filed with the state, both CCA and GEO Group, the two largest private prison operators, donated $5,000 to Otter's 2006 campaign for governor. But Hanian said there is no impropriety in Otter's interest in private prisons. "There is no quid pro quo when it comes to any campaign contribution the governor has received and the establishment of state policy. None," Hanian said. "He bases every decision solely on its merits." Reinke said he doesn't feel there's any undue influence within the state government. "It's very important that we have the system in place so that it is competitive, and everything is done in the light of day. That's a challenge we're faced with," he said. The Texas Connection -- Idaho has already had experience with the industry. Some 750 of Idaho's roughly 7,300 inmates are housed in private prisons in Texas and Oklahoma, and plans call for another 240 to be moved by the end of the year, according to Reinke. Another 500 are being housed in county facilities. "Our needs are very significant," Reinke said. Idaho's prison population has been growing by roughly 6.5 percent annually, and Reinke estimates it will take an additional 2,000 to 3,000 beds to meet the state's short-term needs. "What I'm concerned with right now is bed capacity," Reinke said. "This is not a new need." If the prison population continues to increase at the same rate, Reinke said the state will need several new facilities within the next 10 years. "We need to do what we can to meet the need of Idahoans within the state of Idaho," he said. "The longer we wait on this, the longer the inmates are going to be out of state." Currently, Idaho has eight prisons, four community work centers and 22 probation and parole district satellite offices. The state corrections agency employs roughly 1,500 people. While moving inmates to out-of-state facilities with extra room seems to offer some relief for Idaho prison managers, the practice hasn't been without its problems. Idaho's troubles with private prisons began when they shipped 302 prisoners to a private prison in Minnesota in October 2005. After space ran out at the Minnesota prison in August 2006, the Idaho inmates were sent to two facilities in Texas, one of which was the Dickens County Correctional Facility in Spur, Texas, a private prison owned by GEO Group. In March, according to news reports, Idaho inmate Scot Noble Payne committed suicide. In letters to family, he placed the blame for his depression on the unsanitary conditions at the prison and the poor treatment by staff. While Idaho officials plan to move the 56 inmates remaining at the Dickens County facility by the end of the year, they will be transferred to another Texas facility owned by the same company. It's just the latest of the state's problems stemming from housing prisoners out of state—a list that includes riots and escapes at a private prison in Louisiana in 1997. Those who oppose private prisons say these sort of problems are indicative of the industry as a whole. "Why does your governor think having a private prison in Idaho is going to be any different than the mess they had in Texas?" Kopczynski said. Among his and Donner's chief concerns is the hiring of untrained correctional officers, who they say are paid wages below that of their public sector counterparts. This, coupled with poor training, leads to prisoner abuses, poor conditions, high employee turnover and an unwillingness to respond in the face of a dangerous situation, they believe. "The problems we have had in Colorado are around some of the tactics of private prisons use to make money: smaller staff, fewer programs, lower pay," said Donner. "If you want a riot, that's a great strategy." "There's no institutional knowledge," said Kopczynski. "You don't know your elbow from a hole in the ground when it comes to correctional work." Industry representatives vehemently disagree. "That's completely baseless," said Steven Owen, director of marketing for CCA. "It's absolutely, categorically false." Owen argues that all employees of CCA meet the training standards of the American Correctional Association, the largest correctional trade association in the world, and because of contractual agreements with the states they serve, must have as much training as correctional officers in public facilities. When it comes to wages, Owen said it's a philosophical difference. "Generally, in a state correctional system, it's a one-size-fits-all starting salary for a correctional officer," he said. "CCA prices salary and wages by the facility. We compete with the labor pool in the area around the facility. "Critics like to focus in on wages," Owen said. "We are competitive in the locations where we operate." He added that wages for mid-management positions are typically much higher than in the public sector. A 2003 report published by Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First and Prison Privatization Report International—both corporate watchdog groups—stated that CCA has managed to stem the tide of negative publicity. But the report didn't have a favorable overview of the company. "CCA has built a reputation marred by numerous instances of scandal, mismanagement, alleged mistreatment of prisoners and its own employees, attempted manipulation of public policy and a proliferation of questionable research. Its record is a clear example of how the pursuit of profit stands in the way of carrying out a core public function such as corrections. CCA has succeeded in staying in business for two decades, but it has not succeeded in demonstrating that prison privatization makes sense," the report reads. From CCA's perspective though, the advantages are clear and numerous. "We try to operate as well as, or better than, our public counterparts," Owen said. "We don't have some of the bureaucracy that can sometimes get in the way of government processes." It's the company's size that Owen said gives it an advantage, not only with purchasing power for goods, but with the ability to get a new facility up and running quickly. "It takes three to five years for the state to have to go through the legislative process," Owen said. "We can bring a new facility on line in 12 to 18 months." He said a privately owned prison also saves taxpayers the cost of the capital investment. Typically, the states pay CCA on a per-prisoner, per-day basis depending on the level of programs required by the state contract, as well as the level of security needed. "It's the capacity that we bring on line that relieves overcrowded systems," he said. "It helps existing systems to become safer and more efficient." Since the company typically hires much of its workforce from the local community, Owen said there's a strong economic impact. "We want to do business in places where we're wanted," he said. Apparently, Idaho ranks among those places. Owen said CCA has had a good partnership with the state since the Idaho Correctional Center opened in 2000. He said if the law should change, the company would be interested in building a facility in the state. Problems Behind the Bars -- One of the biggest issues for critics of the private prison system is the practice of moving prisoners out of state. For many, separating inmates from their families and familiar environments only leads to more problems and creates an unending cycle of prisoners returning to jail. "They're doomed to re-offend," said Frank Smith, national field coordinator for the Private Corrections Institute. "They're estranged from their families and support systems. It's a futile effort. It's life on the installment plan. It drains tax money, and they're never rehabilitated." If prisoners from other states are involved in conflicts, there are jurisdictional issues, Donner said. "If prisoners from other states have problems, it's in your jurisdiction," she said. "Now they have to be under your cost." Owen said CCA does extensive work assimilating prisoners brought from out of state. Including sending staff to their home state to learn about the habits and cultural practices of the inmates. "It's worked well for us," he said. But that doesn't always seem to be enough. In 2004, one of the largest prison riots in recent Colorado history took place at the Crowley County Correctional Facility, a prison owned by CCA. Apparently, the incident was touched off by tensions between a group of inmates from Washington state and prison staff. A general feeling of unrest spread through the prison, and more than 1,000 inmates rioted. In the end, 13 prisoners were injured. Following the incident, a state investigation placed the blame on staff shortages and inexperience. Additionally, the final report stated that the prison's emergency plan was not effective and that basic security measures weren't followed. CCA also took flak because the company's incident commander refused an order from state officials to use gas to quell the riot, until he had approval from the parent company. CCA was recently fined by the state of Colorado for continued understaffing. Fines totaled $23,000 for leaving 157 shifts unfilled at the Crowley facility, $103,743 for 701 unfilled shifts at the Kit Carson Correctional Center and $2,651 for 18 shifts at the Bent County Correctional Facility. Corrections Corporation of America -- "This is a broader issue," Owen said. "It is a reality in both public and private facilities around this country that disturbances do occur. It's just an unfortunate reality." Owen said the company is proud of its security record. The proof, he said, is in the amount of repeat business. "[We've had a] 95 percent contract renewal rate in our 25-year history," he said. "For all critics to be right about some of the things they lob out there, means that all three federal agencies that contract for facilities would all collectively have to be wrong about us. "It doesn't make any sense," Owen said. "The fact is that we do have a very good reputation and customers trust us. "There's a lot of emotional rhetoric that is out there," he said. "You can't just look at isolated incidents." Owen says the key to success is the oversight by states contracting with CCA. "We're one of the most transparent industries out there," he said. Several state and federal agencies routinely monitor the health and welfare of inmates, he added. "At the end of the day, you have to remember the employees that work in these facilities are citizens in these communities as well," he said. "They have as much vested interest in making sure the facility is safe and secure." But the issue of oversight is exactly what critics of the private system say is lacking. "The biggest issue is oversight, or lack of oversight," Kopczynski said. "Public prisons have problems, but not as much as private." Smith, who began studying private prisons in Alaska 11 years ago, said he's seen the same trend across the industry. "What I see is almost 100 percent failure to monitor," he said. Smith said that's exactly what happened in Texas earlier this year, when Idaho inmates found themselves in unacceptable conditions. "Idaho is claiming they had no idea," he said. "That's B.S. They knew exactly what was going on. What they didn't know was what they didn't want to know." Reinke admits that monitoring was a large factor in what happened in Texas. "It plays into the problems from out of state," he said. Reinke said the department has recently created a position that is basically a virtual prison warden in a new Contract Operations division. The virtual warden is responsible for monitoring all of the inmates who are sent out of state and will continue to do so as they are brought back to Idaho. Reinke said opening a private, for-profit facility in the state has some distinct issues. "We need to monitor it very closely," he said. "When we sit down and look at a facility of this nature, it comes down to management and how we monitor it. It's important that the staff and facility goes through the same amount of training as state employees do until it acts, walks and talks like an Idaho facility. "We're not going to wait for an incident," Reinke said. "We're going to be proactive in that area." Why Idaho Wants Them -- For Reinke, it comes down to bringing Idaho prisoners back to the state that locked them up in the first place. "We can do a better job monitoring in-state than out of state," he said. "We would like to keep Idaho inmates in Idaho. We would like to have Idaho jobs here if we're going to be paying." Reinke said the state would also have to approve any inmate brought from out of state as part of any contract agreement with a private operator. If a private prison is built in Idaho, Reinke said he expects the state would pay between $40 and $50 per prisoner per day, a price comparable to what is currently being paid for prisoners being housed out of state. Instead of planning for even more prison facilities in Idaho, Reinke said he would prefer to focus on stemming the tide of future inmates before they ever become part of the prison system. "We're looking at what we can do upstream to slow the growth," he said. "We have to deal with the growth, and why they're coming in the first place." The state's growing prison population is not only a result of a growing overall population, but with increased substance abuse problems, Reinke said. By creating more programs within the state to provide services for substance abuse and even mental illness, officials can better deal with the issue of overcrowded prisons. Reinke said Idaho is working with Boise State to look at what would be the most effective methods for addressing the issues. The first part of Boise State's report is due out in late November. The private corrections industry critics say Idaho will face the same problems other states have if they allow the businesses to enter into the Gem State. It's a scenario they've seen played out again and again. "If you think private companies can do better, you should privatize the legislature," Kopczynski said. "There are certain things that government should be doing." "This is not a no-brainer," Donner said. "People have to really look at the consequences." But Reinke said no one is going into this blindly. "I'm sure there are strengths and weaknesses and unforeseen challenges," he said. "We'll apply our own experiences."

August 24, 2007 AP
Corrections Corp. of America, a company that designs, builds and manages prisons, paid Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLC $120,000 in the first half of 2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a disclosure form. The firm lobbied on issues related to the management of private prisons and detention centers, immigration reform, as well as the fiscal 2008 spending authorization bills for the Homeland Security and Commerce departments, according to the form posted Aug. 13 by the Senate's public records office. Besides Congress, the firm also lobbied the Labor Department and the Office of Management and Budget. Under a federal law enacted in 1995, lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches. They must register with Congress within 45 days of being hired or engaging in lobbying.

May 15, 2007 Tennessean
Corrections Corporation of America won't have to reveal how much money it gives politicians and political causes after an overwhelming majority of shareholders voted down a proposal Thursday calling for twice-yearly disclosures. A group of faith-based activist shareholders sought the disclosures, which would have included information on CCA's policies and procedures, saying it would improve accountability and transparency. "We just feel that all of the shareholders should be aware of that, so it should be easily available," said Gwen M. Farry of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which owns 100 shares in CCA and is part of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. But at the Nashville-based prison operator's annual meeting Thursday, two-thirds of shares voted were against the proposal. CCA officials had recommended a vote against the proposal, saying the time and expenses required to implement the proposal would have resulted in little or no corresponding benefit to shareholders. The holders of roughly 26.2 million of about 40 million voting shares agreed. Currently, the board's nominating and governance committee oversees procedures and policies regarding CCA's political activities, General Counsel Gus Puryear said. The activists cited published reports showing that CCA contributed at least $403,000 to political candidates and parties during the 2006 election cycle — money that was not subject to federal regulations. They also said payments by CCA to trade groups that use money for political activities weren't disclosed and sought to make those public as well. One-third voted in favor -- Farry said after the meeting she was pleased that one-third of shares voted were in favor of the groups' proposal.

March 16, 2007 Vermont Guardian
Gov. Jim Douglas’ third inaugural celebration raised $47,000 from some of the state’s top contractors, and corporations. The money raised will benefit the Vermont Military Family Emergency Assistance Fund, and the collected several hundred pounds of food for the Vermont Foodbank. The events top two sponsors, who donated $5,000 apiece, were Electronic Data Systems, which handles Medicaid payments for the state, and Pike Industries, Inc., a paving contractor. “Choosing a charity to receive the proceeds of the ball is always a challenge. There are many capable organizations and worthy causes in Vermont,” Douglas said. “Dorothy and I decided the proceeds should again go to military families in Vermont who are struggling to make ends meet. These families are making extraordinary sacrifices on our behalf and this is another way for us to show them that Vermont will always stand by them.” Douglas’ first inaugural ball raised thousands of dollars for alcohol and drug rehabilitation and prevention programs of the United Ways of Vermont and collected non-perishable food for the Vermont Foodbank. The second inaugural celebration, in January of 2005, raised $27,000 for the family assistance fund and, like this year, collected more than 700 pounds of food for the Vermont Foodbank. The Vermont Military Family Emergency Assistance Fund, Inc. non-profit group created solely to provide emergency financial assistance to service members and their families. It is for the benefit of any Vermont service member and their families that live in Vermont as well as service members who live outside the state but belong to a Vermont unit. Sponsors at the $2,500 level were: AT&T; Barr Laboratories; Blue Cross Blue Shield; Casella Waste Systems; CIGNA; Corrections Corporation of America; Goodrich Corporation; Green Mountain Power; and, Kimbell, Sherman, Ellis.

March 14, 2007 Tennessean
Owners of stock in Corrections Corp. of America will vote in May on whether the company must start revealing more about funding it provides for political causes. A shareholder group has placed the proposal on CCA's 2007 proxy statement, a first draft of which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. The measure, if passed, will require the Burton Hills-based operator of privately run prisons to report twice a year on "soft money" contributions it has made to organizations that support political causes and candidates. It would also have to identify the people within the company who made the decisions to give. The shareholders behind the push are the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, based in Chicago; the Mercy Investment Program, of New York; and The Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order, of Milwaukee. Between them, the three groups own some 400 shares of CCA stock. The proponents claim that CCA spread around nearly $1 million in soft money during the election cycles of 2002, 2004 and 2006. They say that "publicly available data does not provide a complete picture of the company’s political expenditures" that would allow shareholders "to fully evaluate the political use of corporate assets." CCA recommends in the proxy that shareholders vote against the proposal. The company calls it "unnecessary" and contrary to CCA's best interests. "The Board believes that participating in the political process is an important means to enhance stockholder value and promote good corporate citizenship," the statement in opposition says. "From our perspective, it is important that federal, state and local governments have an understanding of how their actions impact the Company’s business, customers and employees as well as an understanding of the benefits of public-private partnerships and the Company’s ability to assist them in meeting their corrections needs." The company says its political activities are "important efforts that should not be burdened by special disclosures in addition to those required by federal, state and local regulatory authorities."

March 14, 2007 Tennessean
Corrections Corporation of America said its outgoing chief financial officer would continue to receive his annual base salary of $353,550 for another year. Two weeks ago, the Nashville-based prison operator said that Irving Lingo Jr. planned to retire as CFO on this Friday but stay with CCA for a year to help with the transition. In a regulatory filing Tuesday, the company said in addition to his salary Lingo should continue to receive life and health insurance benefits. He won't get a bonus for 2007.

February 23, 2007 The Arizona Republic
The parent company of the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence has agreed to pay more than $400,000 to settle findings of hiring discrimination. U.S. Department of Labor investigators said the privately run prison's selection process disproportionately rejected non-Hispanic job applicants who applied to be correctional officers during a two-year period that ended in March 2005. The prison has agreed to pay 464 former applicants an equal share of $438,626, or $945.32 each, which includes back pay and interest. The prison will also hire 16 previously rejected applicants. The Corrections Corporation of America, which manages the prison, said the settlement doesn't mean it violated federal affirmative action law. "Although we continue to disagree with the position taken by (the Labor Department), we have agreed to take certain steps to resolve this matter," a company statement said. The investigation was the result of routine audits that the Labor Department conducts with companies contracting with the federal government. "We'll go in and we'll look at the job applicant pool for more than one position, and we look at who applied for the jobs and who was hired," spokeswoman Deanne Amaden said. "In this case, what we found was a high disproportionate number of Hispanics were being hired. The result was that the non-Hispanics were not getting that job opportunity." Corrections Corporation of America has also agreed to immediately stop discriminatory practices and undergo self-monitoring measures to ensure legal hiring practices, according to the Labor Department.

February 21, 2007 AP
Private prison operator Corrections Corp. of America shares dropped Wednesday morning after a judge ruled California could not transfer thousands of prisoners out of state. In October, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency because of prison overcrowding and ordered that as many as 5,000 prisoners be sent to private prisons around the country. But the prison guard union sued, and Tuesday Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian said the situation was not an emergency, and the order violated the state Constitution, which bans jobs normally done by state workers from being done by a private company. She gave the state until June to reduce overcrowding in its prisons - rather than work with CCA. Banc of America Securities analyst T.C. Robillard said the ruling was not unexpected and would be appealed, though it does create a brief psychological barrier for CCA and, thus, an opportunity for investors. "We continue to be buyers of the stock and would use any near-term weakness as a buying opportunity," he said. Corrections Corp. shares gave up $1.02, or 1.9 percent, to $52.35 on the New York Stock Exchange.

January 31, 2007 AP
Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Wednesday to conduct a preliminary investigation into more than $4.5 million in alleged overpayments to two companies that operate private prisons for the state. The contracts with GEO Group of Boca Raton and Nashville,Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America were signed by the now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission. Crist sent a letter to FDLE Commissioner Gerald M. Bailey directing him to "conduct a preliminary investigation to determine whether any criminal violations have occurred." The Department of Management Services, which inherited the contracts, recently reached a $402,501 settlement with GEO but is still negotiating with CCA. Management Services Secretary Linda South, in a statement Friday, blamed the excessive payments on concessions the commission had included in the contracts. The commission was abolished by the Legislature in 2004. Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said Wednesday that she asked her staff what went wrong and received the same answer. "The contract was so poorly written and so poorly conceived that we were only able to verify $400,000 in overpayments even though we know there were huge abuses through the auditing procedures," Sink said. "We had virtually no legal standing to go back and get back from the taxpayers the dollars that we deserved." Audits concluded the state paid for vacant jobs and other questionable expenses. Telephone messages left at the offices of the two companies after hours Wednesday were not immediately returned. GEO runs the Moore Haven and Southbay correctional facilities and has a contract to run a new one at Graceville. CCA operates correctional facilities in Lake City, Panama City and Quincy. State Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, who is not related to the governor, last week urged FDLE to investigate the relationship between the commission and contractors.

January 27, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The first definition of "oversight" involves supervision, as in the oversight of a contract by a state agency; the second involves a careless mistake or omission, as in, "Sorry for my oversight. I'll straighten it out right away." The problem with a settlement between the state and a private prison contractor that was one of two firms that were overpaid $4.5 million is that it's not at all clear which kind of oversight was in play. But if it's the first, the Department of Management Services' agreement with a Boca Raton company called GEO Group was highly questionable and very possibly a lousy deal for Florida taxpayers. DMS' agreement with the company calls for the collection by the state of $402,501 to settle previous claims. That comes to about 10 cents on your dollar that the state decided was a sensible arrangement - although the state is still negotiating with a second contractor, Corrections Corporation of America, which also received overpayments. It's no wonder that Sen. Victor Crist, R-Temple Terrace, was taken aback this week, saying the settlement "almost seems criminal." He asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. That's a reasonable request. If there's more here than meets the eye, taxpayers would love to know. If the rest of the story smells just as fishy, taxpayers should know that, too. There's little question that politics and past mismanagement are helping to cloud the picture. The original contract was handled by the now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission, an agency created to oversee prisons in the state that are run by private companies. That board was legislated out of existence in 2004 and the commission's oversight responsibilities transferred to DMS. Given the performance of the Correctional Privatization Commission, that was a smart move. But the news about the DMS agreement with GEO now raises real questions about that agency's ability to effectively manage contracts with private prison companies. "It was not an honest mistake," Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Police Benevolent Association who's been tracking private prison contracts for more than 10 years, said of GEO. "I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to know that if a bank teller gives you $100 more than you are legally liable to receive, you need to give the money back." The politically influential PBA, which represents state corrections officers, has been the most consistent opponent of prison privatization. It maintained for years that the defunct commission had inappropriately cozy ties to the industry it was supposed to regulate - a charge that Mr. Crist, the Senate justice appropriations chairman, echoed last week. Mr. Kopczynski said he asked FDLE to investigate last year, but without success. But an investigation is still appropriate - before any more bad deals are cut on taxpayers' behalf.

January 26, 2007 St Petersburg Times
Alarmed by millions of dollars in overpayments the state made to a private prison contractor, a state senator called for a criminal investigation Thursday. The payments have been known since 2005, but a settlement was reported this week in which the contractor will pay a fraction of what it received. Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, said he read a story about the settlement, and "it just didn't rest well with me." Crist asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look at the contract between GEO Group of Boca Raton and the state Correctional Privatization Commission, which was disbanded in 2004 amid allegations of mismanagement and cronyism. A spokeswoman for the FDLE declined to say whether the agency would investigate. A 2005 state audit revealed that over an eight-year period GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, another private contractor, were overpaid $4.5-million. The Correctional Privatization Commission also gave GEO $5-million in cost-of-living salary adjustments that, auditors said, were not fully passed on to employees. At the Quincy facility, Corrections Corp., of Nashville, got $2.9-million more for facility maintenance than it spent. This month, GEO agreed to pay $402,501 under a deal reached with the Department of Management Services, which took over oversight of the contracts. Crist called the payback "unacceptable," but said his main focus was on what seems a too cozy relationship between the former Correctional Privatization Commission and the contractors. A GEO spokesman did not return a call Thursday. Corrections Corp. has not reached a deal with the state.

January 25, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The head of a Senate budget committee today called for a criminal investigation of overpayments to two companies running private prisons for the state. Sen. Victor Crist, R-Temple Terrace, said he is not satisfied with a $402,501 settlement negotiated by the Department of Management Services this month with GEO Group, a Boca Raton-based company that runs prisons for the state in South Bay and Moore Haven. The state is still negotiating reimbursement of overpayments with Corrections Corp. of America, the Nashville company that runs prisons at Quincy, Lake City and Panama City. "This almost seems criminal," Crist told his Senate Justice Appropriations Committee. He said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement should investigate how the overpayments occurred. After DMS assumed oversight from the old Correctional Privatization Commission, the department's inspector general did an audit that questioned some $13 million in payments to the two private prison operators. The audit said the companies were overpaid $4.5 million for unfilled positions. Crist said he was not blaming DMS because the overpayments occurred under the defunct commission, but that "we'd like an extra set of eyes to take a closer look at" the settlement with GEO and past payments to both companies. "If it was an honest mistake and $4.5 million was overpaid, they ought to write a check and clear it up," he said after the meeting of his committee. "They (CCA and GEO) took more than $4 million for positions that didn't exist and it just sticks in my craw that we would be getting $400,000 for it." The settlement includes $111,000 for partial reimbursement of legal fees incurred by the state in court challenges to the property-tax exemption of the state-owned, privately operated prisons. Those fees were unrelated to the overpayment. Roz Ingram, director of specialized services for DMS, said almost $5 million in overpayments occurred under "competitive area differential" provisions carried forward from the old contracts between the CPC and the companies. She said the differentials were killed by DMS when renegotiating contracts. "We used this a as a tool to go in and try to revamp the system and we've put a lot of different things in place," Ingram said of the audit. Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Police Benevolent Association, cheered Crist's action. The PBA, which represents correctional officers in state prisons, has been a vocal critic of privatization. "God bless 'em. It's about time," said Kopczynski.

January 24, 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
The state has reached a $402,000 agreement with one of the two companies that run private prisons in Florida. Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South said Tuesday night she was satisfied with the settlement with The GEO Group Inc., which operates prisons in South Bay and Moore Haven. GEO also has a contract for the Graceville prison opening in September. South said DMS is negotiating terms with Corrections Corporation of America, the company that runs three other privatized prisons. She declined to discuss those talks. After the Correctional Privatization Commission was abolished and oversight of the five private prisons was shifted to DMS in 2004, the DMS inspector general did an audit that cited numerous discrepancies. The GEO Group settlement involved $357,520.94 in overpayments. Under the agreement, signed by previous DMS Secretary Tom Lewis, GEO agreed to pay $290,952.43. The company separately agreed to pay $111,549.27 of the state's legal fees in a court fight over disputed property-tax bills for the prison facilities. The agreement said DMS has paid $446,197.08 defending the sovereign immunity of the state-owned prisons. Ken Kopczynski, a lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent Association, said the state "let them off easy." The PBA, which represents correctional officers in state-run institutions, has been highly critical of privatization. South said "this is good news for DMS" and that the audits ended "some really critical lack of internal controls" under the defunct Correctional Privatization Commission. She added, "The $400,000 is a lot higher than zero."

January 24, 2007 St Petersburg Times
A private prison contractor that was one of two companies the state overpaid by nearly $13-million has agreed to pay back a small amount. The GEO Group of Boca Raton will pay $402,501 under a deal settled this month by the state Department of Management Services. The company also will cover half of the legal fees to defend local governments' challenges to its tax-exempt status. A state audit in 2005 found that over an eight-year period, Florida overpaid GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville, $4.5-million for unfilled jobs. The now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission, which was supposed to oversee the private prisons, also authorized $5-million in cost-of-living salary adjustments at GEO's South Bay Correctional facility. At a facility in Quincy, Corrections Corporation got $2.9-million more for facility maintenance than it spent. The state is still working on a settlement with Corrections Corporation. A GEO spokesman was not working Tuesday and a woman who answered the phone said no one else was available. DMS Secretary Linda H. South, asked about the large disparity in what GEO Group was overpaid and what it will pay back, said if the agency had not done its "due diligence there would be no money to recover."

January 9, 2007 AP
The president and chief executive officer of Corrections Corp. of America, which operates prisons and detention facilities, exercised options for 22,500 shares of common stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday. In a Form 4 filed with the SEC, John D. Ferguson reported he exercised the shares last Wednesday for $5.83 and then sold them the same day for $45.20 apiece.

November 14, 2006 Tennessean
Doc Crants had big plans for Homeland Security Corp. when he founded the security management and training company five years ago, including a possible listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Then Crants, co-founder of Nashville prison operator Corrections Corporation of America, recently sold his 60 percent stake in the security firm to a group that includes his Illinois co-owner, who said he plans to be more aggressive in seeking contracts with the United Nations, U.S. State Department and Department of Defense to provide personnel in political hot spots around the globe. Bruce K. Siddle, who merged his Belleville, Ill.-based PPCT Management Systems Inc. into Homeland Security in 2002, bought out Crants' stake with backing from investors including businessman Joseph F. Johnson, who was a director. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed. Crants declined to comment. On Monday, Homeland Security's Vice President Valerie Van Eaton said that the future remains bullish for the company, adding that Crants "was just ready to move on to something else." Homeland Security, with annual revenues between $10 million and $12 million, has handled such chores as training more than 80,000 airport passenger screeners for the Transportation Security Administration. It also pro vides police, corrections and judicial officers to serve as peacekeepers around the globe. The company already works in countries such as Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor. Siddle said Homeland Security, which employs about 256 people, plans to maintain its staff of eight in Nashville. The corporate headquarters will be in Illinois. Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst at Morgan Keegan in Nashville, said demand remains strong nationwide and worldwide for security services and training.

November 13, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
An executive at Corrections Corp. of America last week completed a stock transaction worth $929,475. G.A. Puryear IV, executive vice president and general counsel at Nashville-based CCA (NYSE: CXW), on Thursday exercised an option to buy 22,500 shares of CCA stock at $5.83 and sold the same number of shares for $47.14 each. Several executives at CCA - a private prison operator that has some 69,000 beds under management in 19 states and Washington, D.C. - have made stock sales in recent weeks.

October 2, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
John Ferguson, president and CEO of the Nashville company (NYSE :CXW), exercised options to buy 22,500 shares at $5.83 each, then sold the same number of shares at a price of $42.97. The transaction netted Ferguson $835,650. Shares of Corrections Corp., which owns and operates prisons across the country, have been on a tear - rising from about $30 to $45 since May - prompting several stock sales by company officials. At about 12:35 p.m., the company's shares were down 0.4 percent to $43.51. The stock's 52-week range is $24.34 to $45.26.

September 14, 2006 Nashville City Paper
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) General Counsel Gus Puryear said Wednesday he is not a candidate to replace outgoing U.S. Attorney Jim Vines, who is stepping down at the end of the month. Puryear was mentioned Tuesday by a number of prominent Nashville politicians as a potential top candidate for the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee position.

September 13, 2006 Nashville City Paper
With little fanfare and without a formal announcement, Jim Vines has confirmed he will step down from his post as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, effective Oct. 1. The news came as a shock to many in Nashville’s court and law enforcement community, as a slew of state and local officials said they had no idea Vines would be retiring. Many of those same officials said they did not understand why — with just over a year of his appointment remaining — Vines would chose to leave now. Whoever succeeds Vines will have to be appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate — a process that could be complicated by the fact that Congress has only days left before it adjourns for the November elections. In the absence of a formal appointment, though, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may appoint a temporary successor. Names of a potential successor mentioned by prominent political officials in Nashville include Gary Brown, a partner with Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell and Berkowitz, and Gus Puryear, general counsel for the Corrections Corporation of America.

August 29, 2006 Yahoo.com
CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX - News) today announced that Donna M. Alvarado and Steven T. Halverson have been elected to the company's board of directors effective September 1, 2006. Alvarado was appointed to serve on the company's audit and finance committees and Halverson on the finance and governance committees. Alvarado is founder and president of Aguila International, a Columbus, Ohio-based business consulting firm specializing in human resources and leadership development. Previously, she held senior positions in federal government, including deputy assistant secretary of defense, counsel for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy, and staff member of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as director of ACTION, the domestic volunteer agency. Alvarado currently serves on the board of directors of Corrections Corporation of America, a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. She also serves on the Ohio Board of Regents and as chair of the Ohio Governor's Workforce Policy Board.

August 25, 2006 AP
Gov. Jim Douglas has nearly three times as big a war chest as challenger Scudder Parker as they head into the fall campaign, campaign finance reports filed Friday show. Douglas' donors included a range of business people -- some who do business with the state -- and longtime Republican stalwarts. They include former GOP U.S. Senate candidate Jack McMullen, who gave $200; and Corrections Corporation of America, owner of a private Kentucky prison where Vermont inmates rioted two years ago. The company gave $2,000.

August 14, 2006 In These Times
While New Mexico’s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment, its rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting. What’s worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation’s list for privatizing prisons; nearly one-half of the state’s prisons and jails are run by corporations. Supposedly, states turn to private companies to cope better with chronic overcrowding and for low-cost management. However, a closer look suggests a different rationale. A recent report from the Montana-based Institute on Money in State Politics reveals that during the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, private prison companies, directors, executives and lobbyists gave $3.3 million to candidates and state political parties across 44 states. According to Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute on Money in State Politics, private prison companies strongly favor giving to states with the toughest sentencing laws—in essence, the ones that are more likely to come up with the bodies to fill prison beds. Those states, adds Bender, are also the ones most likely to have passed “three-strikes” laws. Those laws, first passed by Washington state voters in 1993 and then California voters in 1994, quickly swept the nation. They were largely based on “cookie-cutter legislation” pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), some of whose members come from the ranks of private prison companies. Florida leads the pack in terms of private prison dollars, with its candidates and political parties receiving almost 20 percent of their total contributions from private prison companies and their affiliates. Florida already has five privately owned and operated prisons, with a sixth on the way. It’s also privatized the bulk of its juvenile detention system. Texas and New Jersey are close behind. But in Florida, some of the influence peddling finally seems to be backfiring. Florida State Corrections Secretary James McDonough alarmed private prison companies with a comment during an Aug. 2 morning call-in radio show. “I actually think the state is better at running the prisons,” McDonough told an interviewer. His comments followed an internal audit last year by the state’s Department of Management Services, which demonstrated that Florida overpaid private prison operators by $1.3 million. Things may no longer be quite as sunny as they once were in Florida for the likes of Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the former Wackenhut, now known as the GEO Group of Boca Raton, Fla. But with a little bit of spiel-tinkering—and a shift of attention to other states—the prison privatizers are likely to keep going. The key shift, Bender explains, is that “the prison industry has gone from a we-can-save-you-money pitch to an economic-development model pitch.” In other words, says Bender, “you need [their] prisons for jobs.” If political donations are any measure, economically challenged and poverty-stricken states like New Mexico are a great target. In this campaign cycle, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has already received more contributions from a private prison company than any other politician campaigning for state office in the United States. The Institute of Money in State Politics, which traced the donations, reported that GEO has contributed $42,750 to Richardson since 2005—and another $8,000 to his running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. Another $30,000 went from GEO to the Richardson-headed Democratic Governors Association this past March. Richardson’s PAC, Moving America Forward, was another prominent recipient of GEO donations. Now, its former head, prominent state capitol lobbyist Joe Velasquez, is a registered lobbyist for GEO Care Inc., a healthcare subsidiary that runs a hospital in New Mexico. But don’t get the idea that GEO has any particular love for Democrats: $95,000 from the corporation went to the Republican Governors Association last year alone. What companies like GEO do love are the millions of dollars rolling in from lucrative New Mexico contracts to run the Lea County Correctional Facility (operating budget: $25 million/year), and the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility ($13 million/year), among others. CCA also owns and operates the state’s only women’s facility in Grants ($11 million per year). To make sure that those dollars keep flowing, GEO and CCA have perfected the art of the “very tight revolving door,” says Bender, which involves snapping up former corrections administrators, PAC lobbyists and state officials to serve as consultants to private prison companies. In fact, the current New Mexico Corrections Department Secretary Joe Williams was once on GEO’s payroll as their warden of the Lea County Correctional Facility. Earlier this year, Williams was placed on unpaid administrative leave after accusations surfaced that he spent state travel and phone funds to pursue a very close relationship with Ann Casey. Casey is a registered lobbyist in New Mexico for Wexford Health Sources, which provides health care for prisoners at Grants, and Aramark, which provides most of the state’s inmate meals. In her non-lobbying hours, it turns out that Casey is also an assistant warden at a state prison in Centralia, Ill. It appears that even for a prison industry enchanted by public-private partnership, Williams and Casey may have gone too far.

August 14, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
Three more executives and a director at Corrections Corp. of America have sold stock in recent days, in transactions that resulted in a total profit of more than $3.3 million. The sales came just days after two other execs at the company unloaded shares. With stock in the Nashville-based company -- which owns and operates prisons -- trading near its 52-week high, the transactions were the latest by officials at CCA, and included three officers at the executive vice president level who sold shares on Friday. General Counsel G.A. Puryear exercised options to buy 15,000 shares at $8.75, then sold them for $60.22, netting a $772,050 profit. CFO Irving Lingo bought 15,000 shares at $8.75, then sold them at $60.23, for a $772,200 profit. Chief Development Officer Kenneth Bouldin bought 20,000 shares at $16.74 and sold them at $60.17, for an $868,600 profit. Meanwhile, CCA director Henri Wedell sold 15,000 shares on Monday at $61, for a profit of $914,963. Earlier this month, CCA Treasurer Todd Mullenger and CEO John Ferguson sold shares for a combined net profit of more than $1.5 million.

August 11, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
With Corrections Corp. of America stock flying high, a pair of executives at the company cashed in shares this month. On Aug. 1, President and CEO John Ferguson exercised an option to buy 10,000 shares at $8.75, then sold them for $54.52, netting a profit of $457,700. Meanwhile, Vice President and Treasurer Todd Mullenger on Tuesday sold 18,057 shares at a price of $60.55, netting him $1.1 million. Nashville-based CCA owns and operates prisons across the country, and has seen its stock price climb from the mid-$30s to more than $60 in the past year. At about 10:50 a.m. Friday, the shares were trading at $61.07, up 0.4 percent from their Thursday close.

August 1, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
The head of Florida's prison system, who has been cleaning up contracting scandals for six months, today expressed skepticism about prison privatization. Secretary Jim McDonough said private companies are good at financing and building prisons but that the Department of Corrections is better at running them. The state has five privately operated prisons and a sixth under construction, but McDonough said he doesn't see it as a growth industry. "In some areas, we've saved the state a lot of money by out-sourcing," McDonough said on a radio call-in program. "The inmates in that system are still mine. I still have the obligation to make sure that they're properly taken care of - and even more important, that they're secure." McDonough took over the prison system last February after former Secretary Jim Crosby was fired by Gov. Jeb Bush. Crosby and a top aide, former Panhandle regional chief Allen Clark, last month pleaded guilty in a Jacksonville federal court to taking kickbacks from a company that sold snacks and other items to visitors at a prison canteen. The state separately charged several other prison employees with theft of prison property and misuse of inmate labor. The two companies that run privatized prisons, Corrections Corp. of America and GEO Group, were not involved in the scandals but an internal audit by the Department of Management Services last year said the defunct Correctional Privatization Commission allowed the companies to overbill the state by $13 million. "Whether or not we'll do more, I'm not so sure," McDonough said of privatization. "They're very good at bonding out and building prisons and providing services within the prisons. I actually think the state is better at running the prisons." McDonough was interviewed for a half-hour on The Morning Show with Preston Scott, on WFLA radio (100.7 FM). State Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, called in to commend McDonough on "rooting out the rot in DOC" management. Richardson also praised the new department chief for emphasizing education and job training in the prisons. "With younger and younger prisoners, they're going to be coming out eventually," said Richardson. "Either they're going to contribute to society when they come out, or they're going to continue to be a drain on society." McDonough said the prison system turns out about 30,000 inmates every year but too many get in trouble again. He said even a 10 percent increase in the success rate would save the state millions in new prison costs every year. He said the state has nearly 90,000 prisoners and far more than that number under probation supervision. "We've been in a growth spurt for several years now," said McDonough. "But the growth rate doesn't have to keep growing."

May 7, 2006 Clarion Ledger
As a direct consequence of "get-tough-on-crime" legislation adopted over a decade ago, the private-prison industry and related companies have become increasingly active as campaign contributors in Mississippi politics. A new study conducted by the Institute for Money in State Politics documents that Mississippi is one of 10 states where "industry giving is high and the states had either enacted tough sentencing laws, turned to private prison to help ease prison overcrowding in recent years or considered significant changes to corrections policies." The report found that in 2002 and 2003, prison-industry contributors gave a total of $63,250 to 27 Mississippi candidates and the state Democratic Party. Democrats got $28,850 of the donations while Republicans got $31,900 over the two-year period. Major recipients included current Republican Gov. Haley Barbour at $10,800, Republican Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck at $10,500, state Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley, at $10,000, and former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove at $7,500. A half-dozen state legislators and one state Supreme Court candidate rounded out the donation recipients, including state Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg. Donors listed in the report included private prison companies Wackenhut Corrections and its lobbyists at $21,250 and Corrections Corporation of America and its lobbyists at $17,700. Another major donor cited in the report was Carothers Construction, a Mississippi construction company that has built or expanded six prison facilities in the state, two of which were operated by CCA. In 1995, Mississippi lawmakers took an apparent bold step toward getting tough on crime. But in doing so, the lawmakers also dramatically increased the state's prison population and therefore the operating costs of the state prison system. The Legislature adopted the so-called "85 percent rule" which mandated that all state convicts must serve at least 85 percent of their sentences before being eligible for parole. Mississippi's law was in sharp contrast to other states, where the 85 percent rule applied only to violent offenders.The rapid growth in the state's prison population brought about by the "85 percent rule" opened the doors for the private prison industry in the state. By 2002, there were 2,600 empty state-owned prison beds while two private prisons were being guaranteed an inmate population sufficient to keep them profitable. In 2001, the Legislature voted near the end of the regular session to divert $6 million to pay for empty private prison bed space for so-called "ghost inmates." Then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove vetoed the measure, but the Legislature overrode that veto 40-12 in the Senate and 111-9 in the House. Between 1998 and 2000, prison industry lobbyists spent $228,216 trying to influence policy at the state Capitol. The report notes that when Barbour released his Fiscal Year 2005 state budget in 2004, he put a priority on using private prisons "to save money" in the state's prison system. While the FY 2005 corrections budget was 4 percent less than in 2004, private prison payments jumped more than 30 percent, the report shows. The first bill Barbour signed into law after taking office as governor in 2004 was a bill to keep the private-operated Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility open by allowing it to house maximum security inmates.

May 2, 2006 Progressive State Network
The Institute on Money in State Politics, a tireless group of people who compile campaign finance data for all fifty states and regularly report national trends, have a new report "Policy Lock-Down: Prison Interests Court Political Players" looking at the $3.3 million private prison companies have donated to state-level actors in the last two election cycles. The report specifically notes: Analysis of campaign contributions made to state-level candidates and political parties also reveals that private-prison interests: Concentrated their giving on legislative candidates who, if elected, act on state budgets and sentencing laws. These candidates received almost half of the money given to candidates — slightly more than $1 million. So the priority is budgets and people who determine sentencing? This will come as no shock to anyone who has studied the origin of strict sentencing laws in America. As Nathan Newman noted in "Governing the Nation From the Statehouses: ": For two decades, ALEC has been a driving force in lobbying for legislation to hand over prisons to corporate management, with 95,000 inmates in at least 31 states or 6.5% of all prisoners in private prisons, two-thirds of them in prisons run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of ALEC's leading corporate sponsors. Seven states place more than one-fifth of their prison population in corporate-run prisons. A 2000 report by the Western States Center, "The Prison Payoff: The Role of Politics and Private Prisons in the Incarceration Boom," traced the rise of private prisons to "tough on crime" legislation sponsored by ALEC and its allies that extended sentences and pushed prison populations beyond the capacities of existing state facilities. And conservatives who pushed budget-busting sentencing laws then turned around and blamed guard salaries for the resulting funding crisis. With tight fiscal budgets, privatization was sold as the solution. State prison guards, who had often supported many of the tougher sentencing laws, have found their jobs disappearing to privatization through this two-step process. In Wisconsin, for example, more than 3000 inmates are sent out of state to CCA facilities, leaving the remaining state guards in overcrowded prisons subject to riots and other threats. CCA isn't just one of ALEC's leading sponsors. For a time, they chaired the task force that authors model legislation on sentencing issues for ALEC. Humorously, when Wyoming's Casper Star-Tribune reported on this fact, they drew a quick response from CCA, claiming that CCA does not believe that mandatory sentencing laws help their business. No word yet on how private prison companies are responding to the new Institute report.

February 6, 2006 Tennessean
Big businesses in Tennessee have made the largest donations to help restore the state's Executive Residence over the past three years. Citizens and businesses gave almost $4.3 million toward the dilapidated mansion, on South Curtiswood Lane in the Oak Hill community of Nashville, which Gov. Phil Bredesen and his wife decided to renovate because they already had a home in nearby Forest Hills and didn't need to move into the residence. Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest for-profit prison operator, gave $125,000, Nissan North America Inc. donated $100,000, and a combined $125,000 came from Pilot Travel Centers LLC and the Haslam family, who founded Pilot. Donated money for restoration of the governor's mansion means taxpayers have to spend less, but it also can be a way for businesses to gain favor with the governor, said Dick Williams, state chairman of Common Cause, a nonprofit advocacy group. He said the state should consider capping the size of donations to public projects to avoid the appearance that businesses are trying to influence political decisions.

January 5, 2006 The Prospect
Representative Hal Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee -- that is, the politician who controls the purse strings -- has filled his fund-raising coffers with contributions from companies that do business with the Department of Homeland Security. Through Rogers' campaign and his leadership PAC, which can be used to buy influence with colleagues, interested donors have more than one way to give, and they do. In the 2004 election cycle, Rogers' PAC, Help America's Leaders, or HALPAC, pulled in nearly $1.3 million -- about twice as much as his campaign fund. In turn, HALPAC doled out more than $650,000 to the campaigns of fellow Republicans in 2004, making it one of the eight biggest-spending leadership PACs. Many of its contributors were the PACs of lobbyists and DHS contractors who later scored major DHS contracts. Several corporations that ranked among the top 10 DHS contractors last year also gave money to HALPAC, including third-ranked Boeing ($5,000); fourth-ranked InVision Technologies, which manufactures explosive-detection equipment ($7,000); sixth-ranked Lockheed Martin ($5,000); and Northrop Grumman ($10,000), which, with partner Lockheed Martin, is the department's top contractor. Its Integrated Coast Guard Systems joint venture netted more than $500 million from DHS in 2004. Other big contributors included the PACs of the Corrections Corporation of America ($5,000); L-3 Communications ($10,000), which is the prime contractor on a $500 million border surveillance contract currently under investigation by the General Services Administration; and Science Applications International Corporation ($10,000), which won a $20 million contract from DHS this year for disaster preparedness.

September 18, 2005 Leavenworth Times
CCA chief executive John Ferguson has had a busy week. The head of Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America visited six of his company's facilities during that time. The last one was the Leavenworth Detention Center, where he spoke to employees and several elected officials Friday morning before touring the institution. Ferguson said he made a commitment to the wardens of the company's facilities when he took over in August 2000 that he would visit all of them. At that time, there were 70; now there are 63, with the emphasis on adult corrections in the United States. At one point, the country's first and largest private corrections corporation had international contracts. But Ferguson said he's more interested in providing the best service possible to government customers in the United States.

August 8, 2005 Forbes
The best 100 stock pickers at Marketocracy are moving big money into two Asian country funds as they sell off some of their materials stocks and cash out of the largest operator of private prisons in the United States. On the sell side, the gurus got out of jail, selling their entire position in Corrections Corporation of America (nyse: CXW - news - people ). On Aug. 4, the company reported its inmate population was declining along with its second-quarter results of operations. The company reported a drop in its net income profit, Thursday, and reported second-quarter net income of 37 cents a share, down from 38 cents per share a year before. The Nashville, Tenn.-based company is the largest operator of private prisons in the U.S., with 41 detention facilities in 19 states, for a total of 70,000 beds. The company produced $117 million in cash flow on sales of $1.16 billion.

July 4, 2005 The Tennessean
From a distance, the home in tree-lined Oak Hill seems powerful and proud. But up close, the mansion built in 1929 is showing its age: The paint is peeling, the walls are water-stained and old furniture from years ago has left shadows on the walls — the sun never bleached the wallpaper behind pieces, leaving the area a different shade than the rest of the room.  This is the official governor's residence of Tennessee.  But the state's first lady, Andrea Conte, is on a mission to turn the executive home elegant.  Conte, so far, has avoided the public relations pitfalls that have befuddled leaders in other states who have tried to raise money for mansion renovations.  The only questions that have been raised stem from donations made by corporations that have contracts with Tennessee state government. A handful of such companies are donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the rehab, a pet project of Conte and Gov. Phil Bredesen.  Some people say it's ethically questionable for the first family and the Tennessee Executive Residence Foundation, the organization created to collect money from donors, to accept large sums of money from companies, as it could appear to be another way to buy access to or curry favor with the governor.  Such donations are not capped as campaign contributions to candidates are, which means companies doing business with the state — or that want to — can write eye-popping checks to the Bredesen family's important cause. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, for example, which provides health insurance for state employees, donated $150,000. Corrections Corporation of America, which runs several prisons for the state, donated $50,000.  Businesses said they had no problem cutting a check for an effort such as this one.  "We've been pleased to be able to support the state of Tennessee," said Louise Chickering of Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America. "We see it as the civic responsibility of a major corporation."

May 25, 2005 Nashville City Paper
After 20 years in business, Corrections Corporation of America still finds itself having to defend the very nature of its existence. Being the largest private prison operator in the country has thrust CCA into the spotlight of the ongoing debate over whether the nation's prisons should be privately owned and run. The issue hit home for CCA in May when a union of jailers picketed in front of their Nashville headquarters on Burton Hills Boulevard. Their beef: Don't replace the government-run county jail in Shelby County with a private prison. Opponents claim privately-run jails are understaffed and suffer from high turnover and inadequate training - claims that CCA insists have no basis in fact. Critics, led by the Private Corrections Institute Inc. in Florida, strongly disagree with CCA's assessment, saying that many of the studies that CCA relies upon have been financed by the industry. "What I found with the industry is they don't save money. It's always an apples to oranges comparison," said Ken Kopczynski, the institute's executive director and lobbyist for the Florida Police Benevolent Association. His institute has been leading the charge on behalf of unionized corrections officers, taking their cause to battlegrounds around the country, including Dickson and Shelby counties. He said per-diem cost comparisons done by CCA don't take into account the health care and pension tabs picked up by state governments after employee benefits exceed the caps placed by private operators. Florida absorbed $1.8 million in cost shifts last year, he said. Labor officials argue that although private operators pay jailers an average of $3,000 less a year in wages than public prisons, the issue is not one of union jobs erosion. "This is more of a public safety issue. When you start cutting corners in prisons, you start having riots, you start having inmates burn the place down," Kopczynski said. In fact, 2004 proved to be a challenge for CCA, which saw disturbances and riots break out in its facilities in Arizona, Florida and Kentucky. A riot that lasted several hours last July at the Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado prompted a review by the state Department of Corrections. State officials found flaws in the prison staff's level of emergency preparedness.

May 6, 2005 Jackson Sun
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling affecting federal sentencing guidelines could hinder long-term prospects for private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America, which reported a first-quarter loss Thursday. In addition to declining inmate populations at CCA facilities in the first quarter, the nation's largest private prison operator also said in an SEC filing Wednesday that business may take a hit after the Supreme Court declared in January that federal sentencing guidelines - previously considered mandatory - are unconstitutional. ''Although it is too early to predict the impact, if any, on our business, the ruling could lead to federal sentences becoming more varied which could lead to a reduction in the length of sentences at correctional facilities,'' the SEC filing stated. On Thursday, Nashville-based CCA said it had a net loss of $8.9 million, or 24 cents a share, compared to a profit of $14.4 million, or 37 cents per share, in the same period last year.

April 21, 2005 New York Times
A children's charity established by Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, has been underwritten by several of the nation's largest companies and their executives, including companies that routinely lobby lawmakers on issues before Congress, according to a review of charity records released by the companies and other documents. The 19-year-old charity, the DeLay Foundation for Kids, has consistently declined to identify its donors, citing their desire for privacy. But a review of corporate and charitable records shows that recent donors have included AT&T, the Corrections Corporation of America, Exxon Mobil, Limited Brands and the Southern Company, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates, the Microsoft founder and his wife, and Michael Dell of Dell computers. The Gates and Dell family foundations have donated at least $350,000 to Mr. DeLay's charity since 2001. Among the largest corporate gifts was a $100,000 check given to Mr. DeLay last year by the Corrections Corporation of Nashville, which manages federal prisons. AT&T and Exxon Mobil say they have each donated $50,000.

April 15, 2005 Salon
"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special-interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know. I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure." That populist polemic was delivered on the House floor in November 1995 by well-known reformer Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Now nationally notorious for his own lobbyist-paid luxury trips to Scotland, Russia and South Korea, among other places, where he has been wined and dined by a bewildering variety of special-interest groups, the House majority leader is no longer quite so strict about full disclosure, either. Even the trait often described as his most admirable -- his concern for abused children -- has been tainted by his penchant for backroom influence peddling. Last year, DeLay was forced to cancel an ambitious series of charitable events to be held at the Republican Convention in New York, following a blast of public criticism over the grossness of the solicitations sent out to lobbyists and corporate donors. For donations ranging between $10,000 and $500,000, these potential benefactors of abused children were to be feted at an exclusive Long Island golf club, as well as provided with a yacht cruise, a VIP suite at the convention, and a special suite for viewing the president's acceptance speech. As the Houston Chronicle noted sourly at the time, the 13-page promotional brochure "had exactly one sentence mentioning abused and neglected children." While that venture was abruptly canceled, DeLay hasn't stopped soliciting corporate interests to raise funds for his charity -- and himself -- at venues around the country. These events aren't publicized and in fact are rarely reported. Last August, for example, DeLay appeared at a luncheon in Lexington, Ky., hosted by Rep. Hal Rodgers, R-Ky., at which donors coughed up money for the DeLay legal defense fund, but this event wasn't reported in the local press until four months later. Among those attending the Lexington luncheon was an executive of the Corrections Corporation of America, who handed the majority leader a $100,000 check made out to the DeLay Foundation for Kids. As the largest private prison contractor in America, CCA relies on the federal government to fill its prisons and its coffers, and is seeking to privatize the prison system in Texas, where DeLay has a bit of influence, too. A spokeswoman for the company told the Lexington Herald-Leader that CCA gives to charities and politicians alike without any expectation of favors in return. In fact, those present at the DeLay luncheon were reportedly emotionally moved to see that big check being handed over.

April 1, 2005 Washington Post
President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department. In Bush's first term in office, Perry was general counsel to the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he helped draft the 2002 legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier, Perry, of Virginia, was acting associate attorney general. Among Perry's other clients in the last two years were private prison firm Corrections Corp. of America and hospital proprietor HCA Corp., but he did not represent them on any work with Homeland Security, the congressional filings said.

March 16, 2005 The Free Press
Some civilians believe the definition of an honest Texas pol is one who stays bought. But among pols of the old school, the saying was, "If you can't take their money, drink their whiskey, screw their women and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in the Legislature." Many of our pols have the ethical sensitivity of a walnut. All this has led many to conclude erroneously that Tom DeLay, an alumnus of the Texas Legislature, is somehow our fault. I grant you a certain resemblance to some of our more notorious standards: "Everybody does it" and "They did it first" are actually considered excuses here. But I categorically reject cultural responsibility for Tom DeLay. Real Texas politicians are neither hypocritical nor sanctimonious. A pol does what he must -- fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly -- but no pol of the Old School, when DeLay served in the Lege, would add self-righteousness to shady dealing. Doing favors for big campaign donors may indeed be an "everybody does it," but when those favors take the form of laws that directly hurt your people, you're supposed to draw the line. Over the line is where Texas pols would put using a children's charity as a cover for collecting soft money from special interest groups and then spending it on dinners, a golf tournament, a rock concert, Broadway tickets and so forth. Because the money was supposedly for a charity, Celebrations for Children, Inc., special interests who wanted favors from DeLay were able to give him money without revealing themselves as campaign donors. Cute trick, Tom, but a really cruddy thing to do. In another example of ethical rot, DeLay took a $100,000 check from the Corrections Corporation of America, a company that runs private prisons in Texas and has a 20-year history that includes mismanagement and abuse. CCA wants the Texas Lege, over which DeLay exercises considerable sway because he's a money conduit, to privatize the prisons. And that check? Made out to DeLay's children's charity, the DeLay Foundation for Kids. Barf.

January 17, 2005 USA Today
This week's presidential inauguration marks more than the start of a new term. It's also the kickoff for a new lobbying season, a chance for the capital's permanent influence class to cement its status with money and entertainment. To that end, corporate America has showered the inaugural organizing committee with money. It has given $25.5 million so far to help pay the costs of a week of parties, balls, receptions and other official functions. The money has come mostly in six-figure chunks from companies and their executives - nearly all of them with business before the government that affects their industries. Heavily regulated sectors such as finance, energy, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications are as prominent on the list as they are in the capital's lobbying circles. Other sponsors include MCI, Pfizer, Corrections Corporation of America, R.J. Reynolds, Hospital Corporation of America, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association and the Managed Funds Association.

December 13, 2004 Newsweek
Faced with mounting lawyers' bills to fend off ethics complaints and a grand-jury probe in Texas, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is increasing efforts to raise money for his legal-defense fund. But DeLay, who has raked in more than $400,000 for the fund since last July, could face new questions over how he's raised the cash in the past. In addition, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader last week reported that, while attending a fund-raiser for DeLay's legal fund last August, the head of a private prison firm handed DeLay a $100,000 check for a foundation he operates for abused children.

December 1, 2004 Democrats.org
House Republican leader Tom Delay, after being shielded from losing his leadership position upon indictment by a grand jury, is yet again pushing the ethical envelope. Recently, Delay took a check for $100,000 for his charity from Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison company that was looking to add to its list of government prison contracts. So Delay's ethical problems cost him a sizable amount of money in legal bills, then House Republicans changed their ethics rules so that he could stay in the leadership even if indicted on criminal charges, then those same House Republicans helped organize a fundraiser to help him pay for his bills, then at the fundraiser he took a check for $100,000 from a company looking for federal prison contracts and yet, the Republicans still want this man as their leader?

December 1, 2004 Star Telegram
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, whose aggressive campaign fund raising is the subject of a Texas grand jury investigation, took a $100,000 check from a private prison company at a Lexington fund-raiser in August for a charity he operates. DeLay, R-Sugar Land, has refused to identify donors to his nonprofit DeLay Foundation for Kids, despite calls for disclosure from government-ethics groups that criticize anonymous, unlimited gifts to the charities of powerful members of Congress. However, Corrections Corporation of America confirmed last week that its chief executive officer, John Ferguson, traveled to Lexington to present $100,000 to DeLay's charity. "We absolutely get no favors in return, and we expect no favors in return," Louise Chickering said. Ferguson announced the $100,000 gift before scores of guests at a fund-raising luncheon for DeLay's legal defense fund, organized by Rep. Hal Rogers, Kentucky's senior congressman. Through its political-action committee, CCA contributed nearly $180,000 for federal races during the 2004 elections. DeLay and Rogers took at least $4,500 and $6,000, respectively, from CCA for their campaigns or their "leadership PACs," used to help their colleagues' campaigns.  Calls to Rogers' congressional office were not returned this week.  "These political foundations have become methods for well-heeled corporate executives, lobbyists and others to purchase influence and face time with top politicians, and without the limits or disclosure required of campaign donations or lobbying," said Rick Cohen, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

October 25, 2004 AP
Tennessee's largest corporations favor Republicans with their political donations, but none more so than Cracker Barrel and Corrections Corporation of America. Federal campaign filings show the state's Fortune 500 companies gave anywhere from 62 percent to 75 percent of their donations from their political action committees to Republicans - with the rest mostly going to Democrats. The nation's largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, and most of its senior officers, give nearly all their political money to Republicans, according to federal election filings through August. CCA's political action committee has given 96 percent of its money to Republicans so far this election cycle. ''We are supportive, regardless of party lines, of those individuals that believe in the private sector playing a role in delivering government services,'' said Louise Chickering, a CCA vice president. CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, has credited the Bush administration's expansion of federal police for creating new business for the firm. Three times, the Corrections Corporation of America Political Action Committee made $15,000 donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A number of $5,000 donations went to the Bush-Cheney campaign, the New Republican Majority Fund, and other GOP money groups. Of the $149,500 doled out by the company's PAC in the 2004 election cycle, 96 percent went to Republicans around the country. Money was also doled out to candidates from states where CCA has deals to run prisons, such as Colorado, Georgia and Florida. Dick Williams, state chairman for Common Cause of Tennessee, a Nashville-based government watchdog group, said it's obvious that CCA is trying to buy influence. CCA wins when politicians from the local to federal level decide to send prisoners to its private jails, he said. ''We have a concern any time you have large campaign contribution from an interest that has a direct interest in the actions of politicians they are supporting,'' said Williams. One notable exception at CCA is Thurgood Marshall Jr., the son of the first black Supreme Court justice. Marshall sits on the company's board of directors. His money focused on Democrats, including John Kerry, one-time presidential hopeful Wesley Clark, Ford, and other congressional candidates.

October 13, 2004 Chattanooga Times Free Press
Tennessee companies have contributed almost $1.47 million to independent campaign groups since January 2003, according to federal disclosure records. In all, Tennessee residents and companies have contributed more than $1.7 million to so-called 527 committees, independent campaign organizations that can accept unlimited contributions. The 527 committees are named for the section of the federal tax code that authorizes them. In Tennessee, the largest contributors to 527 committees since January 2003 are two corporations: Nissan North America Inc., which has given $436,000, and Corrections Corp. of America Inc., which has given $370,055. The two companies together have contributed almost 47 percent of Tennessee's donations to 527 committees. Louise Chickering, a spokeswoman for CCA, said she is proud of her company's record on campaign giving.   "We support organizations that want to further public-private partnerships and efficient government use of taxpayer money," she said. Ms. Chickering said company executives attended the governors' associations events to help those organizations learn about CCA.

August 11, 2004
James A. Seaton has resigned as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Corrections Corporation of America.  The Nashville-based prison operator gave no reason for the move, which was effective yesterday. In a statement, Chief Executive John Ferguson said the company wished Seaton well in his future endeavors.  CCA has faced a string of operational troubles in recent weeks, including the death of a 34-year-old prisoner in Nashville that has led to a homicide investigation, the suspension of four guards employed by the company at the Metro Detention Facility at Harding Place and a lawsuit against CCA. Seaton's departure comes as CCA over the weekend dealt with the escape and subsequent recapture of an inmate from the Hardeman County Correctional Facility in Whiteville, Tenn.  Last month, CCA also faced riots at two company-owned prisons as well as a lawsuit seeking $60 million in damages filed on behalf of the family of inmate Estelle Richardson, whose death after an incident with guards at a CCA–run prison in Nashville was ruled a homicide.  Seaton oversaw operational management of the company's 65 prisons. Before joining CCA, he had run his own consulting company after spending 28 years in management positions with the Marriott hotel chain.  (The Tennessean)

July 23, 2004
Troubles seem to keep mounting this month for the nation's largest operator of private prisons. Corrections Corporation of America suffered through two prison riots this week _ one in Colorado and another in Mississippi. The uprisings follow a July 7 homicide at a Nashville facility, which is still being investigated, and a smaller uprising in Oklahoma.  The spate of bad news is providing fodder for critics of privately run prisons and prompting a slight drop in CCA's stock price. In the prison industry, no news is often good news.  "I think the idea of privately operated prisons is one that is still controversial," said Richard Crane, a consultant in the industry and former CCA attorney. "(Bad incidents) give those who are opposed to privatization something to beat their drum about."  Critics said the string of problems shows that privately run prisons are a bad idea, and that grouping prisoners from multiple states under the care of low-paid, often inexperienced guards will lead to trouble.  "Almost half of the employees in the facility have no experience whatsoever," said Ken Kopczynski, with the Private Corrections Institute Inc., an advocacy group opposing private prisons. "I just hope enough people will wake up to the bad idea of private prisons. It just goes against all the principles of democracy."  (Henry Herald)

January 8, 2004
Families of inmates at prisons run by a Tennessee company have asked the federal government to investigate whether they are being overcharged for long-distance calls.  When Laurie Nelson's husband was in prison in Arizona, she felt as if they were both paying for his crime.  Darrell Nelson called her often, but charges for his collect calls added up quickly.  A 15-minute collect call from the Central Arizona Detention Center, in Florence, Ariz., to Mrs. Nelson in Youngstown, Ohio, cost $9.20. The detention center, containing 55,000 inmates, is one of 59 prisons operated by Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville.  "But we had no other options. There was nothing we could do," Mrs. Nelson said.  Now that her husband is at a federally run prison in Atlanta, a 15-minute call costs $3.  Attorneys for prisoners and their families argued in a petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission last week that phone calls from Corrections Corporation facilities cost inmates too much because of restrictions that force them to make collect calls. They also assert that the Tennessee company has entered into a series of exclusive licensing deals that give telephone carriers a monopoly on phone service.  (The Washington Times)

January 7, 2004
County Mayor Claude Ramsey has directed a review of the contract with a private firm to operate the workhouse after the workhouse costs exceeded those at the county jail for the first time in 19 years.  Scott Schoolfield, administrator of human services, said staff is in the midst of the review of the contract with Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America.  He said the county is trying to determine "if we can do it cheaper another way."  County Auditor Bill McGriff said the county jail is a maximum security facility and the workhouse is a minimum to medium security facility so costs at the jail are expected to be higher. He said the situation may be explained by the fact that an automatic escalator clause was built into the CCA contract several years ago rather than having periodic negotiations.  He said the CCA fee has been going up by about 2 percent each year.  When Hamilton County contracted with CCA for private operation of the Silverdale workhouse, it was the first such privatization in the country.  Assessor Bill Bennett said this week that the switch to CCA was made after former County Executive Dalton Roberts sought to have the state take over the workhouse, which was a continual headache for the Roberts administration.  Mr. Bennett, who was the lone Republican on the County Commission at the time, said he went with Mr. Roberts to Nashville to meet with Republican Gov. Lamar Alexander.  He said Gov. Alexander did not want to take the workhouse, but suggested they check with Tom Beasley, a former state Republican Party chairman who started CCA. Mr. Beasley came to Hamilton County, made a pitch for CCA, and the County Commission approved it.  (Chattanooga)

May 23, 2003
Corrections Corporation of America yesterday said it has completed the final procedures needed to settle the last of various shareholder lawsuits filed against the Nashville-based company.  In the lawsuits, the shareholders accused CCA's former management of failing to disclose information about a corporate restructuring that caused the firm's stock to plunge 93%.  (The Tennessean)

May 20, 2003
Corrections Corporation of America announced today that the settlement claims process has been completed in connection with the final settlement of previously outstanding state court stockholder litigation against CCA and certain of its current and former directors and executive officers.  As a result of the completion of the state court claims process, CCA has issued approximately 310,000 shares of its common stock to the eligible claimants under the terms of the settlement.  In addition, pursuant to the terms of the settlement, CCA has issued a $2.9 million subordinated promissory note payable to the eligible claimants in the event CCA's common stock does not achieve certain trading prices prior to the maturity of the note on January 2, 2009. The settlement claims administrator, Gilardi & Co. LLC, is also in the process of distributing approximately $3 million in cash insurance proceeds to the eligible claimants as part of the settlement.  (Yahoo Finance)

February 7, 2003
The end of the Don Sundquist administration saw many of the former governor’s appointees departing for jobs all over Tennessee , but several have hit the jackpot by landing at Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).  In three of these instances, the Nashville-based prison management company even invented positions for them.  Among the highest profile hires were John Tighe, former deputy to the governor for Health Policy; Natasha Metcalf, former Tennessee commissioner of Human Services; and Tony Grande, former Tennessee commissioner of Economic and Community Development.  “Almost all of these newly created positions are at the vice president level of the company,” said Louise Green, the company’s vice president of marketing and communications. “We are in a very good position today to capitalize on new opportunities to strengthen relationships with our federal, state and local government partners.”  But watchdog groups are leery about “prison industrial complex,” as some call it, and government.  “Anytime you mix the government with a private sector, you’re muddying the lines,” said Nadia Khastagir, spokesperson at San Francisco-based Corpwatch, a non-profit organization that counters corporate-led globalization. “We don’t even believe that corporations and prisons should be joined together.”  Ed Bender, research director at The National Institute on Money in State Politics, said CCA’s hiring public officials is nothing new.  “This is the way CCA operates,” he said. “They are getting people who know how to work the system.”  Bender said interest in private prisons at the state level is shrinking, while the federal sector is seeing the growth in prison privatization.  This month, CCA celebrated the twentieth anniversary of its founding in 1983. Nashville businessmen Thomas Beasley and Doctor Crants along with Don Hutto, who was then president-elect of the American Correctional Association, launched what became CCA. The company currently has a market capitalization of $478.64 million.  (Nashville City Paper)

January 6, 2003
CCA has named Tennessee's Commissioner of Economic and Community Development (ECD), Tony Grande, to a newly created role of Vice President of State Customer Relations.  In his capacity, Grande will manage the national prison operator's business development efforts to forge new partnerships with state Department sof Corrections.  Grande will begin his career at CCA on January 21, 2003.  (Yahoo Finance)

November 19, 2002
CCA of Human Services, Natasha Metcalf, to the newly created role of Vice President of Local Government Customer Relations.  Metcalf will be in charge of managing the company's existing relationships with county commissions and sheriffs, through CCA's operation of nine jails and detention centers.  Metcalf was appointed Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services in December 1998.In 19996 she served as Deputy Legal Counsel to Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist.  (Yahoo Finance)

October 31, 2002
CCA will pay $54 million to settle a dispute with the IRS over a 1997 tax audit of its predecessor.  The IRS had raised issues with validity of a tax deduction taken by the former Prison Realty Trust, said Irving Lingo, chief financial officer with Nashville prison operator CCA.  (Tennessean.com)

October 26, 2002
The Sundquist administration has scaled back the size of a new prison it had proposed for rural West Tennessee.  Officials have now proposed adding beds either through expansion or construction of a new facility in Bledsoe County in East Tennessee.  (AP)

October 28, 2002
Prison operator CCA on Monday said it agreed to pay $54 million in cash to settle an audit of its predecessor's 1997 federal income tax return.  Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corp. said the settlement with the IRS, which satisfies federal and state tax obligations along with interest, will primarily be paid during the fourth quarter of 2002.  It said it is still appealing the IRS's findings regarding audits of its predecessor's 1998 and 2000 tax returns.  Representatives of the company were not available for further comment.  (Yahoo Finance)

July 31, 2002
Republican Ed Bryant told party activists Tuesday that Democrats will attack Lamar
Alexander's personal "financial dealings" if he wins the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, leaving the seat vulnerable to a loss.  In a campaign stop at the Rutherford County GOP headquarters, Bryant and a prominent campaign supporter, retired TBI director Arzo Carson, cited Alexander's personal finances to bolster Bryant's argument he is more capable of holding the Senate seat for the GOP in the general election.  Only Carson cited any specific financial "dealing":  Honey Alexander's investment in a private prison company while her husband was governor.  Carson, appointed by Alexander to head the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation after becoming governor in 1979, spoke of Alexander's "personal enrichment" as a campaign weakness.  He said a "family member invested $5,2000" in a private prisons company while Alexander was governor "and two years later sold it for $140,000 to $145,000."  Alexander's wife was one of the original investors in the private Corrections Corporation of America, founded in Nashville in the early 1980s.  Alexander said CCA never did business with the state during his tenure and when it tried to contract with the state his wife exchanged her stock in the company for an investment in an insurance company she sold for a profit years later.  Records show she sold the shares for $142,000.  (GoMemphis)

June 23, 2002
William Andrews has had his share or corporate board duties in 30 years of being a director.  Still, the collapse nationally of Enron Corp., Adelphia Communications and other public firms following questions related to their financial statements has brought the whole concept of "corporate governance" into national focus, said the chairman of Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America.  "It's a healthy thing as long as they don't go too far," Andrews said of federal and market regulators.  "Boards have to have flexibility, and they have to use judgment."  Earlier this month, the New York Stock Exchange weighed in, proposing a 17-point program that could dramatically alter the structure of boards, the responsibilities of directors, how they are paid and how they interact with their management teams and their employees.  Because of their own  financial and litigation problems in the past few years, several prominent Nashville-area companies, such as HCA Inc., Gaylord Entertainment Co. and Andrews' CCA have been moving in the direction the NYSE has proposed.  With CCA on the brink of bankruptcy and with its stock price depressed, Chairman Andrews presided in 2000 over a major reshuffling at the prison operator.  The company ousted Chief Executive Officer Doc Grants and brought on new board directors.  (Tennessean.com)

May 23, 2002
Can Doc Crant's stock rise again?  Two years after leaving Corrections Corporation of America, the man considered a pioneer of the private prisons industry has his eye on a new mark.  Doctor R. Crants is chief executive of Homeland Security Corp., a Nashville company he founded last year to offer security management and training to government and commercial clients.  Last month, Homeland was part of a team chosen by a federal agency to train more than 30,000 passenger screeners at 429 airports nationwide.  In February, a company affiliate called PPCT Management Systems was hired by Delta Air Lines to provide voluntary self-defense training to its more than 19,000 flight attendants.  "Unfortunately it will be (his legacy)," Bob Buchanan, a CCA shareholder who lives in Overland Park, Kan.  "Most people that weren't with him during the middle-to-early CCA are going to remember CCA went from one of the the top companies on Wall Street to a company that traded at one time at 20 cents a share."  Crants wouldn't discuss his CCA missteps but said Homeland is based on a similar model of providing a service at a reasonable price to government agencies.  After leaving CCA in August2000, he started a vehicle known as Entrepreneurial Ventures to explore business ideas.  An initial emphasis on technology-related ideas gave birth to ConnectGov Inc., a company also led by Crants that offers math and science content to urban school districts such as the District of Colombia's.  The idea for Homeland was born from a similar brainstorming process as Crants considered a start-up in the guard or security services area.  Crants values the security services market at $35 billion.  Andrew L. Vita, a one-time assistant director of field operations for the ATF, is chief operating officer of Homeland.  Locally and nationwide, many who lost money remain upset about how he sold Wall Street on CCA as a growth story but later oversaw its fall to near bankruptcy.  (Tennessean.com)

May 30, 2002
Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW - News) announced today that it has been awarded a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to house approximately 1,500 federal detainees at the Company's McRae Correctional Facility located in McRae, georgia.  The three-year contact, awarded as part of the Criminal Alien Requirement Phase II Solicitation ("CAR II"), also provides for seven one-year renewal options and includes contact provision that are materially comparable to the Company's other contacts with the BOP.  Revenues for the contact are expected to commence last in the fourth quarter of 2002.  Under the provisions of the award, the company could earn revenues of up to approximately $109 million in the first three years of the contact.  "We are delighted that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has chose our company in awarding this contact, " stated John Ferguson, President and utilize the private sector to allow the agency the flexibility in managing their bed-space needs in a resonable and cost effective manner.  We believe our commitment to providing quality service and our ability to immediately provide a facility capable of meeting the capacity requirements of the BOP were important factors in obtaining this award."  (YAHOO! Finance)

May 3, 2002
Corrections Corporation of America yesterday reported a first-quarter net loss of $46.3 million, or $1.23 a share, largely because of an accounting charge.  The first-quarter loss compares with a loss of $10.1 million, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier. It was due largely to an $80.3 million non-cash charge to write-down the value of prisons. The charge was offset in part by a $32.2 million tax refund.  During the quarter, the company also agreed to settle for $5 million a lawsuit brought by two female detainees who claimed they were sexually assaulted in 1999 by two male employees of its TransCor America unit while being transported. Insurance will cover about $4 million; CCA is expected to pay about $1 million.  The company said Puerto Rico plans tomorrow to take over management of two prisons CCA manages for the commonwealth.   The prisons had generated $2.2 million in after-tax earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.  (Tennessean.com)

May 2, 2002
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has been recognized as the first annual winner of the Tennessee American Business Ethics Award (TABEA), presented by the state Society of Financial Services Professionals. The award recognizes Tennessee companies that exemplify high standards of ethical behavior in their everyday business conduct and in response to specific crises or challenges.  (PRNewswire)

April 16, 2002
Saturday morning would not be complete without listening to Scott Simon on National Public Radio -- even while on vacation. Last Saturday he dealt with the prison industrial complex, and Wisconsin had a star role. Simon exposed those behind the "tough on crime" policies that have filled our prisons.  It turns out that legislators and governors have been receiving lots of help, research, and campaign contributions from profit-oriented corporations in defining how we should deal with those who break the law, and, indeed, which laws to enact.  Prison was a means to an end, not an end in itself. And profit was not in the equation.  What was fascinating about the Simon radio program were the public confessions of Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker, the latter holding the chairmanship of the Assembly committee with jurisdiction over our prisons.   They made his point. Thompson, speaking to a thousand people at a dinner for a lobbying group, began with his familiar cheerleading roar: "Isn't it great to be a conservative." It was not a question. The crowd of corporate representatives who profit from prisons and prisoners loved it. Phone companies, health care delivery and drug companies, those hawking the latest laser weapon and, of course, Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison company that takes most of Wisconsin's prisoners sent out of state at an annual cost of $50 million. They love long sentences, overcrowded prisons, and the Thompson decision to effectively end parole. Each prisoner is a profit center for these corporations.  But never mind the usurpation; the ideas that the profiteers push is what we should focus on: truth in sentencing, three strikes and you're out, and privatization of our prisons.   Sound familiar? The more prisoners there are, the more phone calls they make, the more food they devour, the more profit for those corporations that have figured out the game.  (Capital Times)

February 15, 2002
J. Michael Quinlan, who headed the Federal Bureau of Prisons from 1987 to 1992, is stepping down as the operations chief at Corrections Corp. of America.  After stepping down as COO, he plans to return to the Washington, D.C., area, where his family lives, but will continue to help CCA with business development, CCA said.  (The Tennessean)

January 25, 2002
AutoZone, Corrections Corp. of America, TBC Corp.   Prisoners, auto parts, and tires as the cornerstones of a great stock portfolio? Who'd have thought it? But each was the source of some great gains in 2001. To be sure, Corrections Corp. of America is one very tangled web. With two major restructurings in three years, the company ran through the whole corporate playbook - acquisitions, reverse stock splits, special dividends, two classes of stock, name changes, executive turnover, severance payments, lawsuits. It even paid $15 million in cash to settle a lawsuit by the investment bankers who reorganized the company.   Who better, then, to untangle such a skein than a CEO, John Ferguson, who used to be the commissioner of finance for the state of Tennessee and, before that, CEO of Community Bancshares of Germantown.   In his last year as a state employee, Ferguson made less than $150,000. In his first year as a CEO, he made over $1 million including stock options.   When you get down to it, prisons are sort of like hotels, with the locks on the other side of the door, of course. From an investment point of view, both come down to beds and occupancy.   "Our sales team," says Ferguson, "is focused on increasing occupancy rates and maximizing opportunities to provide new services to our customers."   CCA calculates average available beds (61,408) and average compensated occupancy (89.1 percent) plus revenue per compensated man-day ($48.03) and operating margin per compensated man-day ($10.89) to get operating margin (22.7 percent). In the dry view of the auditor, it's all numbers.   To make a long story short, the turmoil left investors in a fog as to the value of the stock, and the bottom nearly fell out of Corrections Corp. last year when the stock declined 93 percent. By year end it was selling for pennies a share. That's when two directors of the company, Memphian Henri Wedell and Nashvillian Lucius Burch III (nephew of the late Memphis lawyer), each bought approximately one million shares at 34 cents a share.   Within weeks, the stock turned around. In May, the company did a reverse one-for-ten split to boost its share price and keep from being delisted by the Nasdaq. Adjusting for the split, Waddell, Burch, and Ferguson have quadrupled their money at the recent share price of $14.  (Memphis Magazine)

December 23, 2001
One of Gov. Don Sundquist's longest-serving aides is leaving government to lobby for Corrections Corporation of America.  Brian Ferrell, 35, who has served the governor since the 1994 election $ 82,788-a-year post as assistant to the governor for legislation effective Jan. 7, Sundquist Administration officials announced.  He will serve as CCA's vice president of government relations, CCA officials confirmed.  Mr. Ferrell is the latest member of the Sundquist administration to leave for Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest operator of private prisons.  Former Finance Commissioner John Ferguson left the state last year to serve as chief executive officer at CCA, and Mr. Ferguson's assistant, Leslie Higinbotham, joined CCA this fall.  (Chattanooga Times/Chattanooga Free Press)

December 9, 2001
GOV. Don Sundquist's administration estimates Tennessee will need another 500 prison beds as early as next spring and 2,700 by 2005. Given the state's unresolved budget crisis, the first substantial expansion of its prison system since the mid-1990s will need to balance taxpayers' legitimate concerns for personal security and government efficiency.  Greater reliance on private prisons is one - but only one - credible option for easing the capacity crunch. If it is invoked, though, it must be accompanied by more effective regulation than the state has provided so far.  Critics contend CCA exerts undue political muscle in its home state.  The Commercial Appeal reported last year that state officials do not require reports from CCA-owned facilities about their inmate populations, and do not license, monitor or inspect them. Efforts to enable Tennessee to exert greater control over the kinds of inmates CCA imported from other states failed.  CCA prisons in Tennessee have had several well-publicized escapes and uprisings. In 1998, a group of Wisconsin inmates that included three convicted murderers attacked, nearly killed and permanently disabled a guard trainee at Whiteville.  If Tennessee is to make greater use of private facilities as part of its prison expansion plan, it needs tougher regulations to govern their operations, including such issues as staffing, employee training and security. The fact that CCA's chief executive, John Ferguson, served as state finance commissioner under Sundquist might offer encouragement for such regulation.  TennCare and state-subsidized child care offer two glaring examples of government services the state has privatized without providing adequate oversight. A similar failure in the matter of private prisons could have dangerous, even deadly, consequences.  (The Commercial Appeal)

August 16, 2001
Dozens of Texas prisoners in the 1990s were given a drug so researchers could test a theory: Could the drug _ typically used for epileptic seizures _ make inmates less violent?   The study found that phenytoin, sold under the name Dilantin, can make "a dramatic impact" in controlling violent prisoners. It showed success in reducing impulsive aggression, such as attacking another inmate or guard without planning it, for instance.   Against that backdrop, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating in 1997 wrote the first of his letters to the chairman of Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private prison company. Dilantin, Keating wrote, could be an effective tool for prisons.   In October 1999, Oklahoma prison officials and CCA executives gathered to hear a presentation on Dilantin by retired Wall Street financier Jack Dreyfus, records show.   However, "we as a company don't go out and push any particular drug or treatment per se," CCA spokesman Steve Owen said.   Keating's relationship with Dreyfus is now the subject of a complaint filed with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Dreyfus has promoted Dilantin for years.   His Dreyfus Health Foundation funded the Texas prison study.   Keating has said he and Dreyfus are old friends and acknowledged receiving gifts from Dreyfus totaling $250,000 from 1990 to 1997. The governor later repaid the money and maintains that he has done nothing improper.   Keating's first letter to CCA was dated April 14, 1997 _ 17 days after the Texas study was accepted for publication.   Two years later, in late 1999, Oklahoma and CCA officials were talking about using Dilantin to manage inmate behavior in prisons far beyond Texas.   A month after Oklahoma Department of Corrections officials and CCA's chief executive officer heard Dreyfus' presentation, CCA officials had plans to meet with corrections medical officers "from across the country" and recommend a new way of using Dilantin, according to a Nov. 16, 1999, memo written to Keating.  (Tulsa World)

August 15, 2001
Corrections Corp. of America, the largest private owner of prisons, is paying Merrill Lynch & Co. a $3 million fee related to the company's merger with an affiliate, $5.1 million less than the securities firm sought.  (The Commercial Appeal)

August 9, 2001
The company said it agreed to pay $15 million in fees to the Blackstone Group and the Fortress Investment Group to settle a lawsuit that was filed after Corrections canceled a proposed restructuring that would have been led by Blackstone and Fortress.  (Yahoo! Finance)

May 19, 2001
A former controller at Corrections Corporation of America and his wife have agreed to pay more than $90,000 to settle charges related to 1997 insider trading of options and stocks in CCA.  The payments due from W. Blake Brock, 44, and Kathy O. Brock, 42, of Nashville are part of an overall $250,000 in settlements in the insider trading case, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.  Kenneth L. Unker of Atlanta, a friend and associate of Kathy Brock who the SEC said tipped she tipped off, will pay more than $158,000.  After learning in October 1997 that CCA's third-quarter earnings would fall short of analysts' expectations, Brock tipped off his wife and directed her to buy put options in CCA in advance of the negative earnings release, the SEC said.  The couple then tipped Blake Brock's father and Unker, who also tipped off two of his friends and personally sold all of his CCA stock and bought the options.  Put options generally grant the owner of the bonds or securities the right to sell at a specified price a specified number of shares by a certain date. (Tennessean)

May 5, 2001
CCA said the Federal Bureau of Prisons will award the company $520,000 above what it is due under contracts to house inmates at two prisons.  It follows a semi-annual performance review by the Bureau of Prisons.  Its shares rose 7 cents to 71 cents.  (Tennessean)

May 4, 2001
Corrections Corporation of America has received notification from the Federal Bureau of Prisons that an award in the amount of $520,000 will be given to the Company, over and above its standard contracted fees from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), for "optimum performance" of two CCA facilities above contracted goals.  The Eloy Detention Center in Eloy, Arizona will be awarded $285,000; the California City Correctional Center in California City, California will receive $235,000.  (Business Wire) 

April 18, 2001
Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville yesterday said it is contesting an $8.1 million request for payment from Merrill Lynch & Co. related to its hiring of the investment firm in late 1999 for advice on a company restructuring.  In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, CCA also said its insurers have refused to cover damages from lawsuits by employees and prisoners that seek more than $50 million.  The suits include one brought by CCA employees in 1998 seeking more than $30 million related to a stock ownership plan and another by a woman demanding $20 million.  She claims she was assaulted by two former employees of CCA's TransCor unit.  A third deals with a more than $3 million jury verdict stemming from charges of mistreatment against juveniles at a South Carolina prison.  (Bloomberg News)

Davidson County Criminal Justice Center
Davidson, Tennessee
CMS
September 4, 2004
A state prison inmate who contends that he had to wait months for surgery to repair his fractured wrist has filed suit against the private firm that provides health care for Tennessee's penitentiaries.  Michael W. Mallory, 45, slipped and fell in the Davidson County Criminal Justice Center immediately before his transfer to the state prison system in 2003. The fall fractured his hand and wrist, according to his federal lawsuit against St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services Inc.  Although initially treated with a fiberglass splint at Meharry Medical Center, the Aug. 31 injury failed to heal properly. It was not until March 26, 2004, that he received the surgical repairs he claims he needed all along.  CMS officials said yesterday that medical privacy laws prevent them from discussing the particulars of Mallory's medical case. But Mallory ''was seen and treated by health-care professionals and specialists on numerous occasions,'' according to company spokesman Ken Fields. ''We will defend against these allegations,'' Fields said.  The suit echoes the complaints of other inmates who have filed suit in recent months contending that painful and sometimes life-threatening conditions have been ignored — including that of Terry Crouch, whose headaches and precipitous weight loss were treated with antacids administered by prison doctors.  In fact, Crouch had a brain tumor and was transferred, partially blind and unable to walk, to a local nursing home after long-delayed surgery.  (The Tennessean)

Dickson County
Charlotte, Tennessee
CCA
March 8, 2006 Dickson Herald
A motion by Dickson County Commissioner Danny Tidwell to let voters decide in the August general election if the county jail should be privatized was shot down Monday night. “I know this is a hot issue, but I think we should let the voters have a say on it,” said Tidwell, who represents District 11. The commission voted down the measure 7-4. The county was in negotiations with Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America in 2004 for the company to build and operate the county jail. The commission rejected the proposal in January 2005. If the commission voted on the measure, Dickson County Attorney Larry Ramsey said it would have taken a private act by the General Assembly to get the matter on the ballot. Jeri Duggan, a concerned citizen, spoke in favor of the jail referendum. Duggan believes outsiders helped sway the county’s vote. “The jail issue was turned into a political issue by people and money from outside the county with a lot of help from a few of our own taxpayers,” Duggan said.

December 30, 2004 Dickson Herald
A special called meeting scheduled for last night in which the Dickson County Commission was expected to make a decision on a contract to privatize the county jail and consider a possible site for the new facility was suddenly cancelled after residents in the Highway 48 South area raised an uproar with officials. The county and Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America are considering an abandoned truck stop near Interstate 40 off Highway 48 South to build a 624-bed jail. “On the surface, I’m opposed to a jail out there, but it’s the way they (commissioners) tried to proceed with this that has me concerned,” said Steve Haley, who lives near the Highway 48 South site. Haley said he and others in the area first learned of Thursday’s county commission meeting when they read it in The Dickson Herald on Wednesday. “The first I heard of this was in the newspaper. What upsets me and others is the fact that they held several meetings for the Charlotte residents, but were just trying to fly this over on us,” said Jimmy Stokes, who lives in the area.

Department of Economic and Community Development
January 22, 2004
The state Department of Economic and Community Development under former Gov. Don Sundquist repeatedly violated state laws and policies regarding expenditures and contracts, an audit released Wednesday by the state comptroller's office shows.  The department also "concealed questionable transactions" including the purchase of $17,523 worth of sport shirts and $2,300 worth of luggage; awarded two no-bid contracts for the same service at the same time; circumvented state law in the way it awarded $2.8 million worth of infrastructure-improvement contracts to the city of Smyrna for an expansion of the Nissan plant; and awarded job-skills grants without receiving proper applications.  The audit covers the period of July 1, 2000, through March 31, 2003. Gov. Phil Bredesen took office on Jan. 18, 2003.  In its response, the department concurred in all the findings and said it had taken steps to correct lax accounting procedures.  "We worked very closely with the comptroller's office not only to address the internal and external accounting control issues, but also very aggressively have tried to ferret out the problem areas and deal with them," said Assistant ECD Commissioner Mike Kopp. "When we came on board there were few if any internal accounting controls."  Kopp said that "within a very short time of getting here," the new administration "started putting those processes into place because they didn't exist, and we felt they needed to. We feel very good about where we are today versus where we were when we came into office a year ago."  During the period of the audit, except the last two months when the Bredesen administration was in place, the commissioners of ECD were Knoxville businessman Bill Baxter, now one of three TVA directors; Alex Fischer, now director of technology transfer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Tony Grande, now with Corrections Corporation of America.  Comptroller John Morgan said the findings would be referred to the state Attorney General and the Davidson County district attorney for their determination of whether any charges should be brought, which he said is doubtful. Morgan said it is rare for such audit findings to lead to criminal prosecution, even though it appears some laws were broken.  "As we have just recently seen with the University of Tennessee, it's difficult to prove intent," Morgan said, referring to prosecutors declining to pursue charges against former UT President John Shumaker.  The audit points out that in awarding the $2.8 million worth of TIIPS grants to Smyrna, the purpose may have been legitimate. However, the contract was broken into four smaller amounts so that it did not have to go through the State Building Commission.  Neither Baxter, Fischer nor Grande could be reached for comment.  (AP)

Federal Extradition Agency Inc.
Nashville, Tennessee
March 1, 2001
A federal jury awarded 49.5 million yesterday to the daughter of a man who perished when a private extradition van burned on Interstate 40 with its six caged and shackled inmates pleading for their lives. The jury leveled 100% of the fault at Federal Extradition Agency, the Memphis prisoner-transport firm, while finding that co-defendant Oakley-Keesee Ford shouldered none of the blame for James Catalano's April 3, 1997, death. FEA began the trail by admitting it was negligent in Catalano's death and had violated his civil rights. The jury found that 10-year-old Kathryn Catalano was entitled to 3.5 million in compensatory damages and, for the civil rights violation alone, $6 million ion punitive damages FEA faces for its admitted negligence. Also pending are the resolutions of five other lawsuits against FEA, one for each of the men who died in the back of a Ford cargo van. "We don't know what's going to happen with that," said Rosemary Bonifacio, mother of David Speakmen, who also died in the van. An energetic critic of the private extradition services, the Michigan women said that she hoped yesterday's verdict would get the attention of other companies transporting prisoners on behalf of government agencies. The van had been vibrating severely throughout a FEA trip that went from Memphis and on to Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and back to Memphis -- before leaving for Mississippi and Arkansas. FEA officials overruled their drivers' wishes to have the problems checked before leaving with Catalano agreed with Oakley-Keesee's defense. (Tennessean)

February 20, 2001
Almost four years ago, a customized van loaded with prisoners for Florida jails rattled apart and exploded as it cruised along a Tennessee interstate, incinerating the six men who had been shackled inside a padlocked cage. U.S. District Court trail promises to shed light on the long-haul operations of a private prisoner-transport firm whose vans, laden with wanted men, parole violators and convicted felons, crisscrossed the country on behalf of public law-enforcement agencies. According to court documents, the 1995 E-150 van had been vibrating severely for several days. A truck stop mechanic crawled under the van and told the drivers they were going to have a "U-joint problem" with the van, which had amassed more than 246,000 miles in two years. When they arrived April 2 in Memphis, court records show, the FEA drivers told the home office about the troublesome U-joint. They had planned to stop for service but instead pressed on. They drove virtually nonstop for 24 hours, through Arkansas. Mississippi, and Tennessee. (Tennessean

Hamilton County Workhouse
Hamilton County, Tennessee
CCA
April 24, 2009 Chattanoogan
A correctional officer at the Hamilton County Workhouse has been indicted by the Hamilton County Grand Jury for having sex with a female prisoner. Kenon Dontae Arnold, an employee of the Corrections Corporation of America, is charged with having sexual contact with an inmate. The indictment says on Dec. 9 he "did unlawfully engage in sexual contact or sexual penetration" with the female prisoner.

Hardeman County Correctional Center
Whiteville, Tennessee
CCA
August 9, 2004 
A convicted murderer remained on the loose from the Hardeman County Correctional Facility on Sunday night, and the family of the elderly McKenzie woman whom he killed is furious. They want to know why Tracy Lynn Harris was not serving his life sentence without the possibility of parole at a maximum security facility.  ''We were shocked to find out he wasn't,'' said Susan Reid, the daughter of Madelyn Ruth Bomar, whom Harris killed and raped six years ago. ''That doesn't make sense.''  As law enforcement officials expanded their search to a 22-mile radius mostly south and west of the prison in Whiteville in far western Hardeman County, assistant warden Joe Patterson explained the reasons why Harris was doing time at the medium security prison. He also said prison officials are looking into why three guards failed to spot Harris' escape on Saturday morning.  Patterson also said the prison is wondering how three guards failed to spot Harris' escape. He was missing from the prison on Saturday morning after guards found a hole cut in a chain-link fence in one of the facility's four recreational areas.  (Jackson Sun)

August 9, 2004
More than 70 law enforcement officers throughout West Tennessee continued searching Sunday for a convicted murderer and rapist who escaped from a Whiteville, Tenn., prison Saturday.  The search included an airplane, helicopter, men on horseback and a team of dogs from Louisiana.  Tracy Lynn Harris, 26, walked away from the Hardeman County Correctional Facility about 60 miles east of Memphis sometime before 9:30 a.m. Saturday.  Prison officials found a hole in a fence on the south side of the facility, run by Corrections Corporation of America. After placing the facility on lockdown and taking a head count, they determined Harris had escaped. Harris may have blood on his clothing from razor wire cuts.  (Commercial Appeal)

August 8, 2004
Harris doing life for raping, killing 81-year-old woman  A 26-year-old convicted murderer who was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole remained at large Saturday night after he escaped from the Hardeman County Correctional Facility in Whiteville.  Tracy Lynn Harris is believed to be heading south of Whiteville after he escaped about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, said Joe Patterson, the assistant warden of the correctional facility.  Meanwhile, the McKenzie family of the late Madelyn Ruth Bomar, the 81-year-old woman whom Harris was convicted of murdering and raping in 1998, wondered Saturday whether Harris instead would head back to Carroll County. Harris is from McKenzie.  'The whole family is flabbergasted,'' said Susan Reid, the youngest daughter of Harris' victim.  A hole was found in the facility's fence on Saturday, but what tools were used to cut the fence and whether any guards would be disciplined over the situation remained under investigation, Patterson said. The fence was cut from within and was t