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ACLU sues over CCA prison
TweetAssociated Press
BOISE, Idaho
The American Civil Liberties Union sued state prison officials and a private company Thursday, claiming violence is so rampant at the Idaho Correctional Center that it’s known as “gladiator school” among inmates.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit against Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America in U.S. District Court in Boise.
The lawsuit says Idaho’s only private prison is extraordinarily violent, with guards deliberately exposing inmates to brutal beatings from other prisoners as a management tool.
The group contends the prison then denies injured inmates medical care to save money and hide the extent of injuries.
Linda Sevison, the company’s public- information officer for the prison, said she had not yet heard about the lawsuit and could not immediately comment.
Steven Conry, company vice president of facility operations, previously maintained the prison is a safe and well-run facility.
Officials with the Idaho Department of Correction did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Stephen Pevar, senior attorney for the ACLU, said he has sued at least 100 jails and prisons, but none came close to the level of violence at Idaho Correctional Center.
“Our country should be ashamed to send human beings to that facility,” he said.
The ACLU is asking for class-action status and $155 million in punitive damages — the entire net profit reported by the company in 2009.
The ACLU says the money should go to lead plaintiff Marlin Riggs, who suffered permanent facial deformities and other medical problems after he was savagely beaten in his cell.
Guards use violence to control prisoner behavior, forcing inmates to “snitch” on other inmates under the threat of moving them to the most violent sections of the prison, ACLU-Idaho executive director Monica Hopkins says.
Hopkins says inmates will be beaten by fellow inmates if they become known as a snitch. If they refuse to give up names, the guards will have them beaten anyway, she says.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments
They sue because the prisoners are violent. They sue because the guards discipline the prisoners.
If the prisoners are acting like animals, it is only fair that you treat them like animals.
The thing I like about these limp wristers is that if this country was ever taken over by radical groups, (the very type of people ACLU loves to represent), the first ones that would be lined up and shot would be the ACLU garbage. They have no clue. Amazing!!!
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=111&pid=0&si...
In 1999, the company settled for $1.6 million in a class-action lawsuit brought by inmates at a private prison in Youngstown, Ohio, who said they'd been subjected to excessive force from guards. The company also has paid out millions of dollars to settle dozens of individual lawsuits brought by inmates, family members of prisoners and employees.