On March 3, 2011, American Service Group, Inc. (ASG) and Valitás Health Services, Inc. (VHS) announced a planned merger of the two companies that would create the largest contractor for healthcare services in prisons and jails in the United States.
Under the deal, VHS will acquire ASG for $26 per ...
by David M. Reutter
Prisoners at California’s Kern Valley State Prison in Delano are being slowly poisoned through their drinking water. The “state of the art” facility opened at a cost of $379 million in 2005; the water problem was discovered within weeks of the prison’s opening, but years later ...
by David M. Reutter
A “clean hands” provision in a Florida law designed to compensate wrongfully convicted prisoners is preventing most of those prisoners from receiving compensation. Of 13 men cleared by DNA evidence in Florida, only one has qualified for compensation while two eventually received payments through legislative claim ...
by David M. Reutter
The foray by Ohio Penal Industries (OPI), a branch of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, into manufacturing toilet paper has turned out to be a crappy deal for taxpayers.
OPI creates a wide variety of products at 24 manufacturing sites in 16 prisons. The ...
by David M. Reutter
A Florida federal district court has rejected insider trading charges brought against a consultant for Correctional Services Corporation (CSC). The civil complaint, filed in September 2008 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), charged Dr. Zachariah P. Zachariah, his brother Dr. Mamen P. Zachariah, and his ...
by David M. Reutter
An attorney’s failure to respect the authority of the Louisiana Supreme Court, “as well as his use of his position as an attorney to obtain sexual gratification at the expense of his client’s interests,” has resulted in permanent disbarment.
The January 19, 2011 order to strike ...
by David M. Reutter
A monitor with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC) witnessed the brutal beating of a prisoner at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility by two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. Twin Towers is part of the county’s jail system.
The January 24, 2010 incident ...
by David M. Reutter
The estate of a prisoner who died at Alabama’s Washington County Jail has agreed to accept $450,000 to settle a wrongful death suit.
Shawn Desmond Woodard, 33, was being held at the Washington County Jail on a probation violation when he became sick on the evening ...
by David M. Reutter
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held on May 27, 2010 that Arizona’s felon disenfranchisement law does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The law is based on Arizona’s Constitution, which provides that anyone convicted of treason or a felony may not vote unless their civil rights ...
By David M. Reutter
In settling direct conflicts between two district courts of appeals decisions, the Florida Supreme Court has held that applying a statute retroactively to assess costs is not an ex post facto violation.
The Court accepted review of Griffin v. State, 946 So. 610 (Fla. 2d DCA ...
