Florida's Youth Abused In Private Facilities

Arianna Huffington Huffington Magazine This Week: Juvenile Injustice Posted: 11/01/2013 n this week's issue, Chris Kirkham takes an in-depth look at a private prison empire based in Florida. What he learns about the Youth Services International prison system is deeply disturbing -- the result of six months spent scouring thousands of pages of state audits, lawsuits, local police reports and probes by state and federal agencies, along with interviews with former employees and prisoners. In Florida, YSI manages more than $100 million in contracts. And despite a record of abuse and mistreatment at its facilities, the company has continued to win business in several states. Unwilling or unable to perform the necessary oversight, Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice "routinely awards contracts to private prison operators without scrutinizing their records," Chris writes. As one former Department executive tells him, "They don't want the providers to look bad, because they don't have anyone else to provide this service. Bottom line, the state of Florida doesn't want responsibility for these kids." As a result, young people have faced a range of abuses, from being served bloody, raw chicken to being "choked and slammed head first into concrete walls," as a 2010 lawsuit chronicles. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/huffington-magazine-this-_6_b_4184159.html -------------------------------------------

Young Male Raped By Female County Correctional Officer

By Joe Nelson, The Sun Posted: 10/23/13, 12:57 PM PDT | Updated: 1 day ago SAN BERNARDINO >> A San Bernardino County Probation Corrections Officer was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of raping a teenage male detainee at juvenile hall, according to the Probation Department. Latavia Davis, 30, of Menifee was arrested at her place of work, the Central Juvenile Detention and Assessment Center in San Bernardino, and booked into the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino on suspicion of forcible sexual penetration with someone under age 18. She was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in San Bernardino Superior Court, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said. The alleged victim reported the alleged sexual misconduct, which is reported to have occurred on Friday. It triggered the criminal investigation, police said. The Probation Department launched its own internal affairs investigation on Tuesday. Probation department spokesman Chris Condon said it was a combination of the reporting party’s statements and evidence gleaned from security cameras at juvenile hall that ultimately led to Davis’ arrest. “Within our institutions we have good supervision practices pertaining to the minors in custody and the staff supervising them,” Condon said. “Whenever any type of conduct that is occurring between staff and juveniles is noticed, and if it’s something that is outside of what we feel is the appropriate amount of contact, then we’ll look into it.” Chief Probation Officer Michelle Scray said in a statement that Davis’ alleged actions constituted the most egregious of conduct for someone entrusted with the supervision of minors. http://www.dailybulletin.com/general-news/20131023/san-bernardino-probation-corrections-officer-arrested-for-alleged-sexual-misconduct-with-juvenile-ward

Raped at Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian, MS

Private Prisons . I Was Raped at East Mississippi Correctional Facility By Anonymous Prisoner, East Mississippi Correctional Facility at 2:20pm My name is ______ and I am 23 years old and although my past criminal record isn't at its best, at heart I'm still a great kid! After being locked up for about six months, I suffered from something many young males would hate to speak on and that's rape. I was raped at Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian, MS. I was beat brutally and faced several facial and rectum injuries from this attack. I was raped, robbed, and assaulted by several other prisoners was held hostage due to the attack in a cell. I was threatened with knives and tormented by these inmates for several hours. I was raped from 11:30pm @nite until 3:30am in the morning by one other prisoner. As he raped me continuously all I could do was cry because one false move and I knew this guy would take my life. After being a victim of rape by another male I am suffering still from anxiety, depression and stress issues because of this attack. I fault the reason that I'm in prison today. If I had one wish I would wish that I never violated the law and shoplifting, which is what got me in prison. I've always wanted to live a normal life and hang out with friends and enjoy. But due to this tragic incident that happened to me all I want to do is speak out to others that are suffering from what I went through and let them know it's okay to speak up and tell someone because no one should be violated of their sexual personal space. I was hurt very badly and sometimes I feel like it's my fault but at the end of the day I know it wasn't. Again my name is ______ and I too was a victim of rape. This blog post was adapted from a handwritten letter the victim sent to the ACLU. Click here to read the complete letter. https://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/east-mississippi-correctional-facility-anonymous-prisoner-letter Today, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Law Offices of Elizabeth Alexander filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF), describing the for-profit prison as hyper-violent, grotesquely filthy and dangerous. Without sufficient staff to protect prisoners, rapes, beatings, and stabbings are rampant. https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights-human-rights/i-was-raped-east-mississippi- correctional-facility

Prosecutors Allege a Stare Down Led to Prison Guards Beating Inmate

Prosecutors allege a stare down led to prison guards beating inmate Robbery suspect Jamal Lightfoot was savagely beaten after he ‘locked eyes’ with Supervising Warden Eliseo Perez, who allegedly told a team of officers to attack the prisoner. Some of Lightfoot’s teeth were knocked out, and his eye sockets and his nose were broken, the Bronx district attorney's office said. By Vera Chinese , Oren Yaniv AND John Marzulli / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Wednesday, June 26, 2013, 10:50 PM A group of correction officers behaved like some of the prisoners they were supposed to be guarding — savagely beating an inmate for looking at one of them funny, prosecutors said Wednesday. “I want you to knock his f---ing teeth in,” supervising warden Eliseo Perez allegedly told a team of officers tasked with reducing inmate violence at Rikers Island. RELATED: GANG OF RIKERS ISLAND GUARDS TO BE INDICTED FOR BEATING INMATE The team — including another captain, Michael Pollard — not only knocked out some of Jamal Lightfoot’s teeth, but members also broke his eye sockets and his nose, the Bronx district attorney's office said. The robbery suspect was beaten so badly he had to be taken to an outside hospital, which led the accused attackers and five others to cover up the circumstances of the assault, the Bronx DA’s office said. They falsely claimed Lightfoot, who’s now doing 3 1/2 years behind bars for robbery, was armed. Lightfoot’s family lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said the incident is part of a “systemic problem” and shows that “prisoners in Rikers Island are not safe.” The probe was led by the city Department of Investigation. The agency's work has led to the arrests of 53 DOC staff since January 2009, on charges ranging from theft and contraband smuggling to assault. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/stare-led-prison-guards-beating-inmate-prosecutors-article-1.1383637

Prison Guard Beats Up 15-Year-Old Inmate On Camera Keeps Job

Prison Guard Beats Up 15-Year-Old Inmate On Camera, Keeps Job By Zack Beauchamp on December 13, 2012 at 3:50 pm For the third time in in recent memory, a Florida guard has been recorded viciously assaulting a defenseless teenage inmate on camera — but this guard is still supervising children. Shannon Lynn Abbott, an employee at the private Milton Girls Juvenile Residential Facility, threw an unidentified 15-year-old prisoner against a wall and a hard floor on a tape obtained by the Miami Herald. Though the prisoner showed no signs of resistance during the attack, Abbot and another guard proceeded to sit on the prisoner for several minutes while other people entered the room. Yet though Abbott is currently under arrest for assault, she’s somehow still in charge of young inmates: Although the encounter got Shannon Linn Abbott arrested, it didn’t get her fired. The 33-year-old bailed out and was back on the job right afterward and supervising children, to the extreme dismay of the Department of Juvenile Justice. Similar inhumanity is sadly common in the American juvenile prison system. Kids as young as 13 are thrown into solitary confinement and often denied access to basic health care. Many are in juvenile detention for minor school disciplinary violations that simply ”making adults mad.” Though private prisons like Milton Girls are rife with cruel treatment of prisoners, some members of Florida’s state legislature have pursued an illegal end-around to try to privatize the state’s prison health care system.

Two Bexar Co. Jail Guards Put on Leave, Third Quits After Inmate Beating

Two Bexar Co. Jail guards put on leave, third quits after inmate beating Two Bexar Co. Jail guards put on leave, third quits after inmate beating by Dillon Collier / KENS 5 Bio | Email | Follow: @dilloncollier Posted on June 3, 2013 at 11:15 PM SAN ANTONIO -- Two guards at the Bexar County Jail have been on administrative leave since late May after an inmate was beaten inside his cell. Alvaro Ramirez III and Michael Smith were placed on leave following a six-week internal investigation. Inmate Shawn McHazlett was attacked March 31. According to sources within the jail, McHazlett was asleep when Ramirez entered his cell and started to punch him. Officer Michael Smith also is accused of entering the cell and was placed on leave after investigators found he tried to cover up the attack. McHazlett was later treated for bruised ribs and muscle injuries from being shot by a stun gun. A third guard, who witnessed the attack, resigned three days later. He spoke with KENS 5 on Monday and said the beating crystalized his decision to quit. "I felt like I can't work in this type of environment," said the former guard, who asked KENS 5 to conceal his identity. McHazlett was arrested Jan. 13 on felony drug and firearm charges and a misdemeanor charge of interfering with a public servant. "There are almost 800 employees working inside the Bexar County Jail, and a vast majority of them do a wonderful job under stressful situations," said Paul Berry, spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Watch The Video >http://www.kens5.com/news/Two-Bexar-Co-Jail-guards-on-leave-third-quits-after-inmate-beating-210021761.html

CDC Never Told Female Inmates Biopsies Were Never Done

From July to November 1996, a private laboratory billed CCWF $161,000 "for thousands of medical tests, including Pap smears to detect cervical cancer, AIDS Tests and Biopsies, even though the tests had never been used on the inmates. . Although the State of California closed the laboratory in 1997, a 2000 newspaper investigation found that there was (little evidence of any attempt by the California Department of Corrections to retest inmates or notify them that their test results were faked.)