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Corrections Corporation of America Idaho Prison beatings

Maricopa County Jail beatings

    The American prison system is no better or worse then the prisons of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union! Last remember that two thirds of the inmates in American prisons are there because of victimless drug war crimes. They didn't rob anybody, they didn't rape anybody, they didn't beat up anybody. All they did was the victimless crime of using or selling an illegal drug.

Source

Video shows Idaho prison guards watching inmate attack

Nov. 30, 2010 06:54 AM

Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho - The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed was knocked unconscious.

No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.

Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units.

Lawsuits from inmates contend the company that runs the prison, the Corrections Corporation of America, denies prisoners medical treatment as a way of covering up the assaults. They have dubbed the Idaho lockup "gladiator school" because it is so violent.

The AP initially sought a copy of the videos from state court, but Idaho 4th District Judge Patrick Owen denied that request. The AP decided to publish the videos after a person familiar with the case verified their authenticity.

The videos show at least three guards watching as Elabed was stomped on a dozen times. At no time during the recorded sequence did anyone try to pull away James Haver, a short, slight man.

About two minutes after Haver stopped the beating of his own accord, the metal cellblock door was unlocked. Haver was handcuffed and Elabed was examined for signs of life. He bled inside his skull and would spend three days in a coma.

CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, said it was "highly disappointed and deeply concerned" over AP's decision to release the videos.

"Public release of the video poses an unnecessary security risk to our staff, the inmates entrusted to our care, and ultimately to the public," the prison company said in a statement.

CCA, which oversees some 75,000 inmates in more than 60 facilities under contracts with the federal government, 19 states and the District of Columbia, has faced allegations of abuse by guards elsewhere.

A year ago, CCA and another company, Dominion Correctional Services LLC, agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit in which the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission claimed male officers at a prison in Colorado forced female workers to perform sex acts to keep their jobs.

In January, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ordered some 400 female inmates transferred to a state-run prison after more than a dozen reports of sexual misconduct by male guards employed by CCA. Similar accusations were made in March at a CCA-run prison in Hawaii, and in May, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed CCA on probation and launched an investigation of whether a guard at a central Texas detention facility sexually assaulted women on their way to being deported.

Before the Idaho attack, Elabed tried to get help from prison staffers, telling them that he had been threatened and giving them details about drug trafficking between inmates and staffers that he had witnessed, according to his lawsuit. He was put in solitary confinement for his protection but was later returned to the same unit with the inmates he snitched on, his lawsuit said. He was on the cellblock only six minutes before he was attacked.

Steven Pevar, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in 34 years of suing more than 100 prisons and jails, the Idaho lockup is the most violent he has seen.

"This isn't even what we know of as a prison - this is a gulag," Pevar said.

Pevar blames the violence on CCA and the former warden, Phillip Valdez, who was head of the prison when Elabed was attacked. Valdez was later transferred to another CCA prison in Kansas. The company refused to disclose its reason for moving him.

CCA officials maintain the prison is safe and run according to state and federal standards. But at least some of those standards appear to be violated in the video - including a requirement that emergency care arrive within four minutes of a disturbance. It took medical workers nearly six minutes to get to Elabed - a delay that can be life-threatening in serious injuries, according to state prisons officials.

"Nurses and medical professionals believe you need to get a heart beating and breathing started within four minutes or the person's going to die," Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray said.

CCA spokesman Steven Owen said employees receive training and supervision designed to protect both themselves and the inmates.

"As Mr. Haver's wanton attack illustrates, correctional and medical personnel must often respond to render aid in dangerous situations, not knowing the extent of the risk they may face when they do," Owen said.

Owen also condemned the attack and said the surveillance videos were key to Haver's guilty plea in the beating. CCA was unable to answer additional questions surrounding the circumstances of the attack due to pending litigation, he said.

Elabed's family learned through medical records that CCA officials pulled him out of the hospital before he could get significant treatment and against his doctor's advice, in order to treat him at the cheaper in-prison facility, the family said.

Elabed, who was originally sentenced to two to 12 years for robbery, was ultimately released on a medical parole because he was too badly injured to be cared for in prison.

A slew of federal lawsuits detail beatings behind prison walls and long waits for medical care at CCA-run prisons in Idaho. Inmate Todd Butters said in his lawsuit he was denied X-rays after he was severely beaten by gang members on his cellblock for refusing to pay $5 a week in "rent." The Idaho Supreme Court threw out the case after finding Butters didn't take the necessary steps to try to solve the problem with prison officials before suing.

In another attack, inmate Daniel Dixon said he was denied X-rays and a doctor's visit after he claimed other inmates beat him until he had broken ribs and facial bones and other injuries.

State officials have long been aware of allegations of mistreatment and poor management at the Idaho Correctional Center, the state's largest prison. A review of hundreds of public records by AP found in 2008 that ICC had a violence rate three times as high as other Idaho prisons.

The AP found in a follow-up investigation that ICC had only marginally improved its violence rate and that inspectors were still finding rampant gang violence and extortion. State auditors have also found widespread problems keeping medical charts updated, excessive wait times for medical care and other problems with treatment.

Even though Idaho Department of Correction officials have increased oversight and top department leaders have spoken out about their concern over the medical issues, state lawmakers have renewed the company's multimillion-dollar contract with Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA and added 600 beds to the prison.

Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke said in a statement that he couldn't talk about the video because of pending litigation, but said the eight state-run prisons his agency operates are among the safest and most efficient in the country.

Reinke also said his department began beefing up oversight at the private prison three years ago.

"The Board of Correction acknowledges that when you put a group of people who have a history of criminal behavior together in one place, it is likely you will have problems. But that doesn't mean we should tolerate them," Reinke wrote.

Today, the 24-year-old Elabed isn't able to talk much about the assault. He has brain damage and persistent short-term memory loss.

"It's almost like Hanni's autistic after this. I feel like I'm talking to someone who's 12 or 13 years old," said his brother, Zahe Elabed.

Elabed's attorney, Ben Schwartzman, said the footage is tough to forget.

"Guard intervention was appropriate and could have happened in a way that would not have put the guards in danger of their personal safety," Schwartzman said. "They were spectators ... and that seems to indicate a level of callousness that I find shocking. It's an embarrassment to the institution and to the individuals."


Maricopa County Sheriff's officers video taped beating inmates!

Another Maricopa County Jail beating! I predict that the cops involved won't put on trial and the charges will be dropped. You don't have to be a psychic to make these predictions. About 5 years ago a News 12 helicopter caught several Phoenix Police officers beating up a Mexican after the guy surrendered and was laying on the ground. Rick Romley declined to prosecute the cops. He gave the lame excuse that it was unlikely the cops would be convicted, despite the fact that the entire beating by several cops was videotaped.

The system is corrupt to the core and cops are NEVER punished for beating or abusing their prisoners!

Source

Maricopa County detention officer arrested on suspicion of jail assaults

by William Hermann - Nov. 30, 2010 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Maricopa County Jail guards beat a handcuffed inmate

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scowled and shook his head as he watched a Nov. 11 video showing one of his jail detention officers put his foot on the neck of an inmate held bent over a table, and later repeatedly punch and kick the restrained inmate.

While Arpaio scowled, the audience of media representatives gasped at the brutality of the incident.

"We would get blistered for this if we didn't come out with it," Arpaio said. "We have to get out in front right away when we find problems in our organization."

The video that had caused Arpaio to scowl also prompted him to order the arrest and jailing of detention Officer Kevin Gerster, 31.

Inmate William Hughes, 24, was shown in a jail surveillance video being led by three escort officers into a room in the psychiatric ward of the Lower Buckeye Jail. After the officers bend Hughes - who is manacled and handcuffed and wearing a "spit mask" - over the table, Gerster is seen walking almost casually up to the table, stepping lightly onto it, then placing a foot onto Hughes' neck and evidently leaning onto his foot.

After Gerster takes his foot off Hughes' neck, another detention officer, Alan Keesee, walks up to the table and slams Hughes' head against the surface. Keesee, 32, was detained Monday for questioning and released.

Charges against both officers are pending.

Later in the video, Hughes is seen being led by deputies toward a cell, and Gerster is seen punching Hughes four times in the back of the head and kicking him in the left leg.

In another video, made on June 5, inmate Michael Flores, 28, who was being restrained on a psychiatric-ward bed but evidently using abusive language, is apparently struck in the jaw by Gerster, who was under orders to supervise the inmate during his time under restraint.

While Arpaio didn't try to hide his dismay at the videos, he also said that "being a detention officer is a difficult job."

"Most of our officers, 99.9 percent of them, follow policy and don't do this sort of thing," Arpaio said. "But we want people to know that when something like this happens, we take action."

Arpaio's interim chief deputy, Jerry Sheridan, said that the earlier incident, with Flores, "has been under investigation for some time." He said that after Flores was released, he went to a hospital and was found to have a broken jaw, which he claimed was caused by Gerster's punch. Hospital personnel notified the Sheriff's Office, and an investigation was started.

"There were more than 14 hours of videotape to be reviewed, and Mr. Flores was not always available to talk to," Sheridan said. "Also, there was the matter of due process. But when the November incident took place, we went back to the June incident."

Gerster is also under arrest for using the jail's computer system to get the home address of an inmate, then giving the address to a friend whose estranged wife was dating the inmate, Sheridan said.

Authorities allege that Gerster's friend used the information to locate the former inmate, then assault him and the estranged wife. Gerster's friend, Dennis McCarty, was arrested by Tempe police Sept. 19 and charged with aggravated assault, burglary and criminal damage.

Arpaio and Sheridan said an investigation is under way into the actions of officers who witnessed the actions of Gerster and Keesee.

Arpaio said he is also reviewing how detention officers are assigned to the "extremely demanding" psychiatric ward duty.

"I will look at having volunteer officers in the psych ward," Arpaio said. "Perhaps we can find people who will be best suited to work in that environment."

   

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