Private Prisons Gone Wild
from In These Times:
Private Prisons Gone Wild
Legal challenges are no match for Arizona politicians determined to privatize the states correctional services.
BY Beau Hodai
The recent dismissal of a lawsuit filed against both Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) Director Charles Ryan and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) is the latest step in the states hell-bent plan to roughly double its number of privately managed prison beds.
The suit, filed in an Arizona Superior Court by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) on September 12, sought an injunction against ADC and the governors pending award of 5,000 new prison beds to be operated by a for-profit vendor. The state currently contracts out more than 6,500 minimum- and medium-security beds at seven facilities with Geo Group, the nations second largest private prison operator, and Management and Training Corporation (MTC).
AFSC argued that ADC is negligent in its statutorily required duty to conduct biennial cost and quality assessments of the states private prisons. The purpose of these assessments is to determine whether the state is receiving the same quality of service from private prison operators as provided by public facilities.
Nevertheless, ADC has not completed a single survey. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12423/private_prisons_gone_wild