From AP, via USA Today:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho's governor says the corrections department will take over operation of the largest privately-run prison in the state after more than a decade of mismanagement and other problems at the facility.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America has contracted with the state to run the prison since it was built in 1997. Taxpayers currently pay CCA $29 million per year to operate the 2080-bed prison south of Boise.
...
The CCA prison has been the subject of multiple lawsuits alleging rampant violence, understaffing, gang activity and contract fraud by CCA.
CCA acknowledged last year that falsified staffing reports were given to the state showing thousands of hours were staffed by CCA workers when the positions were actually vacant. And the Idaho State Police is investigating the operation of the facility for possible criminal activity.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
Governor of Idaho, C.L. "Butch" Otter (R) made the announcement yesterday. It must have broken his cold heart to do so, as he was until recently a huge proponent of prison privatization. According to the article, he was even a big booster of importing out-of-state inmates to privately-run facilities in Idaho.
The rampant privatizing of American prisons is an abomination. Untold thousands of our citizens have been locked up for little more than the craven profit of a greedy few.
You know who is invested heavily in private prisons? - Dick Cheney, natch. Believe it or not, both Cheney and Alberto Gonzalez were indicted by a Texas grand jury in 2008 for crimes related to their involvement in the incarceration industry. From The Washington Post, Nov. 19, 2008:
Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. Cheney is accused of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
May this most recent development herald at least a partial return of our collective humanity. Perhaps we could start by sentencing various CCA executives to hard time (State-run, of course) for the crimes they appear to have committed in Idaho.