Inmates in Private Prisons 2000-2009
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Private Prisons: The Public’s Problem A Quality Assessment of Arizona’s Private Prisons February, 2012 Arizona Program 103 N. Park Avenue, Suite #111 Tucson, AZ 85719 520-623-9141 [email protected] Illustration by Jeffrey Collins The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that in- cludes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humani- tarian service. Our work is based on the principles of the Religious Society of Friends, the belief in the worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome vio- lence and injustice. AFSC was founded in 1917 by Quakers to provide conscientious objectors with an opportunity to aid civilian war victims. The Arizona office of AFSC was established in 1980 and focuses on criminal justice reform. About the Author Caroline Isaacs is the Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee of- fice in Tucson, Arizona. She has worked at AFSC for over 15 years, focusing on criminal justice reform in Arizona. Isaacs has a Bachelor’s in Political Science from the College of Wooster and a Master’s in Social Work from Arizona State University, where she teaches as an adjunct faculty member and serves as a Field Student Liaison. Acknowledgments The American Friends Service Committee expresses profound appreciation to all the im- prisoned men and women, ex-prisoners, and their family members whose lives are im- pacted every day by Arizona’s criminal justice system. Their words and testimonies make this a powerful document, from which change is possible. Our sincere gratitude to Maureen Milazzo, who compiled, sorted, and analyzed piles of data for the report. We are also grateful to Eisha Mason, King Downing, Alexis Moore, Richard Erstad, and Aaron Crosman for their assistance in editing this report. Thanks to Ken Kopczynski and Frank Smith at Private Corrections Working Group for their support of our efforts in Arizona and to Grassroots Leadership for their assistance. AFSC would also like to acknowledge the wonderful work of all of our persistent volun- teers, committee members, and interns. Published by American Friends Service Committee-Arizona 103 N Park Avenue, Suite #111 Tucson, AZ 85719 520.623.9141 [email protected] © 2012 American Friends Service Committee. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. Printed copies of this report are available from the AFSC’s Arizona Criminal Justice program. Available online at: http://afsc.org/arizona-prison-report. Table of Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... i Introduction and Overview ........................................................................................................... 1 Purpose of this Report ............................................................................................................. 1 Department of Corrections’ 2011 Biennial Comparison of Private and Public Prisons . 3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 6 Background and History .............................................................................................................. 10 Arizona Prison Population Growth ..................................................................................... 12 2010: Unprecedented Prison Expansion in Arizona ......................................................... 15 Arizona’s Cost Comparison Study ...................................................................................... 19 Who’s Doing Business In Arizona? ...................................................................................... 22 Performance Measure I: Safety and Security: ........................................................................... 29 State-Contracted Private Prison Security Assessments .................................................... 30 Security Assessments of CCA Facilities .............................................................................. 40 Assaults: Inmate-on-Inmate ................................................................................................. 41 Assaults: Staff on Inmate ...................................................................................................... 47 Riots .......................................................................................................................................... 49 Escapes ..................................................................................................................................... 57 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 59 Performance Measure II: Staffing ............................................................................................... 60 Staffing: State Contracts ........................................................................................................ 62 Staffing in CCA Prisons in Arizona ..................................................................................... 67 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 69 Performance Measure III: Programs and Services ................................................................... 70 Deaths in State-Operated Facilities: ..................................................................................... 70 Deaths in Privately Operated State Prisons ........................................................................ 71 Recidivism ............................................................................................................................... 74 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 79 Performance Measure IV: Transparency and Accountability ................................................ 80 Transparency ........................................................................................................................... 80 Accountability ......................................................................................................................... 82 Are Prison Corporations Are Writing Arizona’s Laws? ................................................... 84 Private Prison Influence-Peddling in Arizona ................................................................... 86 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 93 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 95 Recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 97 Executive Summary Arizona has enthusiastically embraced When AFSC learned that the state had not prison privatization, with 13% of the state properly monitored and reported on pri- prison population housed in private facili- vate prison operations since state law ties (the 11th highest percentage in the na- mandated it in 1987, AFSC undertook its tion). Motivated by a belief that private own investigation into the private prison enterprise could build and manage pris- industry in Arizona. The Arizona De- ons safely and at lower cost than the state, partment of Corrections (ADC) later an- the legislature has mandated construction nounced that it would complete the statu- of thousands of private prison beds. Lit- torily-required biennial comparison re- tle was done over the years to test actual view, which was released on December 21, performance of private prisons or to de- 2011. termine their cost effectiveness. The ADC study contains very little meth- In the summer of 2010, three inmates es- odological information or supporting data, caped from the privately operated King- suffers from inconsistent data collection man prison, killed two people, and shat- procedures, and overlooks important tered the myth that private prisons can measures of prison safety. By contrast, keep us safe. Since that time, more evi- AFSC’s report incorporates data that was dence has come to light unmasking the omitted or deemed to be outside the scope truth about the private prison industry in of the ADC review, including security au- Arizona: It is costly, plagued by security dits of private prisons before and after the problems, and in some cases is violating state Kingman escapes and data on six prisons and federal law. State leaders have failed in operated by Corrections Corporation of their responsibility to protect the public, to America that are located in Arizona but do provide adequate oversight of this indus- not contract with the state, putting them try, or to hold the corporations accounta- outside state oversight. ble for their failures. In addition, AFSC’s analysis incorporates This report is the first of its kind in Arizo- additional performance measures which na. To date, no independent analysis of the have emerged as important aspects of the performance and quality of all private