The Ohio Bureau of Prisons chose not to renew its contract with the corporation that had been running North Central Correctional Complex located in Youngstown, Ohio.
Corrections Corporation of America is a Nashville, TN based company specializing in privately-run prisons. CCA is run by 12 members who sit on CCA’s Board of Directors.
“We are pleased that the Bureau of Prisons listened to our concerns about the mismanagement of the facility and mistreatment of prisoners, and decided not to renew its contract with CCA,” said the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, in a press release.
“What taxpayers gain from a publicly-run agency first and foremost is transparency and accountability,” said David Donofrio, who is running for the State Senate seat in Ohio’s District 16 in the next election.
The Associated press reported last summer that an estimated 250 prisoners housed at NCCC participated in a peaceful protest by refusing to return to their cells. Reportedly, the protest was in response to quality of food, medical care, access to recreation and respect from prison staff.
“Corrections is a business, not that the state is in it for the money,” said Pamela Chambers, Criminal Justice Professor at Sinclair.
Gary Mohr, current director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitations and Corrections was appointed by Governor Kasich in 2011, and previously worked for CCA.
CCA states on its website that, “In 1983, our company became the first to provide privatized prison, jail, and detention services. For more than three decades, we have strived to aid governments by reducing costs, alleviating overcrowding, and providing quality correctional care for inmates and detainees.”
In the last 8 years CCA has spent $2.5 million lobbying congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and spent $2.9 million in political contributions from years 2003 to 2012 according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
“With any business the first and primary motive is making profit. With the state, the first and primary motive is service. While a corporation in the prison business may be selling a service, make no mistake. All businesses exist only when they can turn a profit. In my eyes, serving the people of a state should not be open to the highest bidder,” said Donofrio.
The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country in the world, housing more than 2.2 million adults in state, federal, and privately-run institutions across the nation. This is a rise from the approximately 200,000 in 1973.
An estimated 6,899,000 persons were under the supervision of adult correctional systems at yearend 2013 according to the Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013 report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
These numbers represent offenders supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in prison or local jail.
CCA purchased the 1,700 bed Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, Ohio during 2011 for $72.7 million. This contract was haled by CCA as a model for the country.
USA Today reported shortly after the purchase that Linda Janes, chief of staff for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the purchase came at a time when the state was facing an $8 billion shortfall.
“This is not a bargain for the states, “ said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer and criminal justice expert at the University of Texas School of Public Affairs, in a 2013 Huffington Post report. “The longer the contracts are, the more likely you are to give rise to poor conditions and problems.”
A 2013 state audit found that inmates being disciplined in segregation at the prison were using plastic containers and bags as a makeshift restroom, in the absence of working toilets and running water, according to the Huffington Post.
Inadequate medical care and understaffing were among other breaches of the contract in the same audit, resulting in nearly $500,000 in penalties paid to the state.
Understaffing has resulted in changes made in staffing guidelines in both state-run and privately-run prisons after the 1993 riot at the maximum security state–run facility in Lucasville, Ohio. Overpopulation and understaffing were cited as the cause of the riot that resulted in the deaths of nine inmates and one prison guard.
Chambers described the many programs available for inmates at both state and private prisons.
“Pretty much, the programming is the same,” said Chambers while talking about volunteering opportunities for community members, basic living skills programs for inmates and many other programs offered. Chambers detailed such programs including recycling, water conservation and horticulture programs.
“I was surprised – they had classes, chapters of Christian-centered organizations and Bible studies, cultural and ethnic organizations and opportunities to volunteer,” said Donofrio while describing his experience when visiting Mansfield Correctional Institution. “It was a humbling experience – I saw them as people. And by the end, I even began to empathize with them. They made a mistake – a horrible, life-altering mistake, but that didn’t mean they were less human than any of us.”
“All of the institutions are involved in some kind of community service,” said Chambers. “It’s sad that we really can’t afford to build more brick and mortar, because we don’t have the human resources to assist.”
Chambers also explained a diversion program she learned about at a lecture called “net widening.”
The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice is a private nonprofit organization whose self-described mission is “to reduce society’s reliance on incarceration as a solution to social problems.”
Net widening is a term most commonly used to describe a phenomenon whereby a program is set up to divert youth away from an institutional placement or some other type of juvenile court disposition but, instead, merely brings more youth into the juvenile justice system who previously would never have entered. Instead of shrinking the “net” of social control, one actually “widens” it to bring more in according to CJCJ.
“If we create a program or you create a facility we’ll fill it. We’ll find a way to fill the institution with individuals,” said Chambers.
The 20-year management contract with the State of Ohio said that the State guaranteed an occupancy rate of 90 percent. Many in the political sphere have raised the question of how mandatory minimum sentencing has affected prison occupancy rates.
With the expedited passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 mandatory minimum sentencing was enhanced and penalty times lengthened in response to a rise in violent crime and drug activity. Mandatory minimum sentencing means when people are convicted of certain crimes they must be punished with at least a minimum number of years in prison.
“This was a different time in our history. Crime rates were way up, there was a lot of violence that was perceived to be associated with crack at the time. People in Congress meant well. I don’t mean to suggest otherwise. But it just turns out that policy is wrong. It was wrong at the time,” said U.S. District Judge John Gleeson in a National Public Radio report last month. “Mandatory minimums, to some degree, sometimes entirely, take judging out of the mix,” he says. “That’s a bad thing for our system.”
In the recommendations of the 2011 Report to the Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System it states that, “Certain mandatory minimum provisions apply too broadly, are set too high, or both, to warrant the prescribed minimum penalty for the full range of offenders who could be prosecuted under the particular criminal statute. This has led to inconsistencies in application of certain mandatory minimum penalties.”
There are disparities in who is locked up in the United States according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
According to the NAACP the United States represents five percent of the world population and has 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. African Americans represent 12 percent of the total population of drug users, but 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59 percent of those in state prison for a drug offense.
About 14 million Caucasians and 2.6 million African Americans report using an illicit drug. Five times as many Caucasians are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at ten times the rate of Caucasians.
How the government houses the overwhelming rise of adults being incarcerated is an issue faced by many communities across the nation.
The Summit County Jail in Ohio released 72 inmates due to overcrowding, financial and safety reasons. The jail was faced with either hiring 50 more staff members or closing a portion of the jail.
There have been suggestions that the decriminalization of drugs like marijuana, and a shift from incarceration to a public health priority focusing on mental health could help states with the overcrowding issue.
“I’m not going to say one way or the other, but do we decriminalize drugs? It doesn’t mean we ignore the issues that come from abusing drugs or substance abuse, but is prison the right place to address these issues,” said Chambers as she discussed the programs found in all prisons, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, that are aimed at recovery and solving the drug war.
Incidents of contraband being smuggled into the prison population by family members or prison staff are a constant issue in all prisons.
“It’s unfortunate that inmates can get high. You would want to think that they’re drug free environments, but they’re not,” said Chambers.
Then there is the question of profits and shareholders being dependent of high occupancy rates to stay in business. The current CEO of CCA, Damon Hininger, earned close to $3.5 million in total compensation in 2013 according to Forbes magazine. George C. Zoley, CEO in 2011, earned $5.7 million.
“I believe that people ought to be very skeptical when a tried – and true – system, particularly one accountable to the public, is suddenly being altered in some major way. What is the motive? What is the intention? The prison company will probably mention cost, but saving millions of dollars comes at what cost to the level of service provided?” said Donofrio.
In a statement released last month by the ACLU of Ohio, in response to the CCA’s loss of their contract at the Youngstown prison, Mike Brickner, senior policy director, stated the organization’s stance on the issue:
“As a just society, we have the responsibility to ensure that our jails and prisons treat inmates and detainees fairly and humanely. The track record of for-profit prisons run by CCA and other private companies is disgraceful, with increased violence and drug use, overcrowding, neglected medical care, and deteriorating facilities.,” said Brickner. “We cannot stress this enough, the for-profit prison business is bad for prisoners, prison employees, communities, and taxpayers.”