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Articles by Ronald Young

Private Prison Lobbying Group Founded

A group of private prison has formed an alliance to promote the growth of the private prison industry and to further develop prisoners as a marketable commodity. Among the founding members of the Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations (APTCO) are industry giants Corrections Corporation of America, Wackenhut Corrections ...

Ohio Eliminates Prison Oversight Committee; Reduces Prison Funding

The Ohio legislature reduced funding for the state prison system that will result in the elimination of 1,100 jobs within the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DORC). The May 2001 legislative action also eliminates a prison oversight committee.

Ohio prison officials began hiring hundreds of prison guards after a deadly ...

Corrections Corporation of America Announces Closing of Youngstown Prison

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) announced it would close its Youngstown, Ohio prison on August 18, 2001. The shutdown means the loss of more than 500 jobs. So much for the recession-proof industry.

The 2,016-bed Northeast Ohio Correctional Center last housed 350 prisoners from the District of Columbia. The Nashville-based ...

Colorado ACLU Settles Restraint Board Suit

A monitoring agreement was reached between the ACLU Foundation of Colorado, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office (EPSO) regarding EPSO's use of a restraint board and Level 3 restraints on jail prisoners. The January 31, 2000, agreement also calls for ...

New Missouri Mega-Prison Mothballed

What if they built a prison and nobody came? It's every prison abolitionist's dream come true. Such a reality has unfolded, even if only temporarily, in the rural Missouri community of Bonne Terre.

The economic history of Bonne Terre is a familiar one, which has played out in many communities ...

Texas Jury Awards $70,000 in Prison Stabbing

In May 2001, a federal court jury in Corpus Christi, Texas, held three Texas prison officials responsible for a 1997 attack during which a prisoner at the McConnell Unit was stabbed about a dozen times by another prisoner who had escaped from his locked cell. The jury assessed $70,000 in ...

Arizona CCA Prison Found 'In Turmoil'

Hawaii officials found a prison "in turmoil" while inspecting a Florence, Arizona prison where about 560 Hawaii prisoners are being warehoused. The prison is operated by Nashville based Corrections Corporation of America.

An inspection of the prison conducted in April 2001 by a team of two men and two women ...

Family of BOP Prisoner Awarded $1.1 Million in Wrongful Death Suit

A federal judge in Oklahoma City ruled in May 2001 that the government was negligent in the death of federal prisoner Kenneth Michael Trentadue and ordered the family to be paid $1.1 million for emotional distress. However, U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard rejected arguments that Trentadue was murdered and the ...

Blind Ohio Prisoner Spends Months in Strip Cell

Blind Ohio Prisoner Spends Months In Strip Cell

by Ronald Young

An investigation by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) revealed that a blind prisoner at the Orient Correctional Institution in Pickaway County was subjected to three months of continuous isolation in a strip cell.

Willie Thomas, a ...

Mississippi Taxpayers Fund Welfare Payments to Private Prisons

Mississippi Taxpayers Fund Welfare Payments To Private Prisons

by Ronald A. Young

Mississippi taxpayers will pay about $6 million a year to private and regional prisons for "ghost inmates" under a bill the legislature approved on March 26, 2001. The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) funding bill includes a provision ...