CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA

'Corrections Corporation of America' () (CCA) is a company that manages public prisons and other facilities[1], and has concessions for many others. The company had annual revenues in 2004 of $1.15 billion USD.
The company is the fifth largest prison (corrections) system in the United States, behind only 3 states and the federal government. As such, CCA manages 69,000 beds in 64 facilities, of which it owns 40 owned facilities, in 19 states and Washington, DC
CCA was incorporated on January 29, 1983, by three businessmen who sought to bring the provision of corrections, a traditionally government-administered service, into the private sector. CCA is based in Nashville, Tennessee.

Contents

Corporate governance

The Olympic Motel

Allegations of Mistreatment

External links

Corporate governance

The current executives of CCA are as follows:
CEO, President - John D. Ferguson,
CFO, EVP - Todd Mullenger,
CCO (Chief Corrections Officer), EVP - Dr. Rick Seiter,
General Counsel, EVP - Gus Puryear
CIO and Vice President of Information Technology - John R. Pfeiffer
Vice President of Health Services - John Tighe
Vice President of Marketing - Louise Gilchrist
Vice President of State Customer Relations - Tony Grande
Vice President of Federal and Local Relations - Damon Hininger
Vice President of Business Development - Lucibeth Mayberry
Vice President of Finance - David Garfinkle
Vice President, Treasurer - unavailable
Vice President of Design & Construction - Linda Staley
Vice President of Operations - Jimmy Turner
Current members of the board of directors of CCA are: Donna Alvarado, William F. Andrews, Lucius Burch, John Correnti, John D. Ferguson, John Horne, Michael Jacobi, Thurgood Marshall, Jr., Charles Overby, John Prann, Joseph Russel, and Herni Wedell.
CCA is the largest private prison "provider" in the United States, with meteoric stock growth, more than doubling in the first eight months of 2006. Among other facilities, CCA runs T Don Hutto, a former medium-security prison in Taylor, TX which, since 2006, has held non-criminal, immigrant "detainees," against their will, under a pass-through contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of Homeland Security. The basic contract pays CCA approximately $2.8 million monthly, for a maximum incarceration of 512 individuals. (Minimum = $5,000+ per prisoner.) Approximately 1half the prisoners are children, many of them born in this country. No prisoner held is charged with a crime, nor are they deemed to be a danger to national security; it is simply their immigration/amnesty request status that has marked them for imprisonment. This is the first (and only other) time since the interment of Japanese during WWII that children have been imprisoned by the United States. A recent lawsuit asserted that the children were being held in in humane conditions. The resulting settlement (9/2007) gained on-site pediatric service for the children being incarcerated, as well as a requirement that the toilets in their open cells be made private with the addition of a shower curtain. Additional visitation hours, schooling, and recreational opportunities were also agreed upon. The facility continues to be the site of vigils and protests by various human rights groups who find the dentention of the weak and helpless--and non-criminal---for CCA's excessive profits a most vile form of capitalisim.

The Olympic Motel

Houston Processing Center was CCA’s first design, build and manage contract from the U.S. Department of Justice for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service) in Texas. Construction was underway on the Houston Processing Center in Texas when the INS notified CCA that it needed housing for detainees earlier than expected – in January. Co-founders Tom Beasley and Don Hutto went to Houston to find a motel to temporarily house detainees. The owner of the local Olympic Motel agreed to a 90-day lease. After a team of contractors cleaned and secured the facility, an INS inspection team approved the facility for use by 86 detainees, scheduled to arrive at 11:00 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday. Hutto bought toiletries at Wal-Mart with his American Express card, produced photo ID cards and rolled fingerprints, while other corporate officers distributed sandwiches and helped security staff escort detainees to their living quarters. CCA’s Houston Processing Center opened a few months later, in March 1984, and remains in operation for ICE today.

Allegations of Mistreatment

Numerous individuals, organizations and former prisoners and immigration detainees have alleged mistreatment and inhumane conditions in CCA facilities.^[1] There have been rapes,^[2][3] beatings, and deaths at CCA facilities.^{[4] [1] [6][7]}
The inmates and immigration detainees at CCA's prisons generally do the menial labor, including cooking and cleaning, and are paid $1 per day for their work.^[1] CCA's T. Don Hutto Residential Center, an immigrant detention center for families and children in Texas has been heavily criticized for its use of solitary confinement, harsh conditions, lack of medical care, and other problems. An editorial in the Houston Chronicle stated:

The children at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, 35 miles northeast of Austin, live in cells; they wear uniforms and receive inadequate medical and educational services, are often cold and hungry, separated from their parents as punishment, and until recently received one hour of schooling per day and rarely played outside. They are guilty of no crimes, and endanger no one. Their parents, who are incarcerated here because they are seeking asylum after fleeing such circumstances as war, torture, political persecution and rape, or are accused of violating civil immigration laws, have committed no crimes.
...
Teachers at the center are not required to be licensed in Texas, and the state’s family welfare agency exempted Hutto from child care licensing requirements. Along with one other, less prison-like facility in Pennsylvania, Hutto is operated without official regulations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the arm of Homeland Security that runs the two centers, relies on custody rules designed for inmates.^[9]

External links

★ Corrections Corporation of America web site

★ Yahoo Finance! corporation info

★ Comparing Private and Public prisons on quality, Reason Foundation

★ The Economist on the CCA

★ Barry Yeoman, Steel-Town Lockdown, Mother Jones