The Idaho State Police has launched an investigation into staffing levels at the state's largest private prison after state officials said they found discrepancies in the prison's monthly reports, reports Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone. The Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise is run by Corrections Corp. of America, which has held the contract for a decade; both the contract and a legal settlement set minimum staffing requirements. Boone reports that Correction Director Brent Reinke told the Idaho Board of Correction this morning that he asked the state police to investigate because the department found “potential anomalies” during an audit; an AP analysis of the prison's records showed some guards apparently working 48 hours straight; double-posting, where one guard is shown as working two different posts at the same time; and vacant security posts.

Click below for Boone's full report.

Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Attorneys for inmates at Idaho's largest private prison say Corrections Corporation of America is falsifying staff logs to hide chronic understaffing. The allegation was raised Friday in an amended federal lawsuit. Attorneys for CCA have not yet responded, and a CCA spokesman didn't immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press. Officials with the Idaho Department Correction also didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. CCA operates the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise for the state, and the company was required to increase staffing as part of a settlement ending a different lawsuit in 2011. In the new lawsuit, inmates claim CCA is secretly violating its state contract by listing employees on staff shift logs even if they didn't work that day or only worked a half-hour.

Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

The ACLU of Idaho is charging that the Corrections Corp. of America is violating the terms of a settlement agreement it reached with the group in a 2010 lawsuit over prison violence at the CCA-run Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise, the AP reports, a settlement that required staffing and safety changes at the prison. The charge comes as a new lawsuit from inmates charges that CCA has turned over control of the lockup to prison gangs to save on staffing; click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

A gang war that appears to have taken over parts of an Idaho private prison is spilling into the federal courts, reports Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone, with some inmates contending prison officials are ceding control to gang leaders in an effort to save money. Eight inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center are suing the Corrections Corporation of America, Boone reports, contending the company is working with a few powerful prison gangs to control the facility south of Boise and spend less on staffing.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Boise's U.S. District Court, paints the prison as a place where correctional officers work in fear of angering inmate gang members and where housing supervisors ask permission from gang leaders before moving anyone new into an empty cell; click below for Boone's full report, and click here for a link to video and documents filed in the case.

Idaho has sent another 120 of its state prison inmates to a private prison in Colorado, bring the total transfered there in the past few months to 250. The moves are aimed at easing overpopulation in Idaho lockups; the latest group of inmates was transported by bus in four groups over the past two weeks. They're being housed at Kit Carson Correctional Center in Burlington, Colo., a medium-security prison owned and operated by Corrections Corp. of America, the same private prison firm that runs the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise.

Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) ― The Idaho Department of Correction has flown 130 inmates to a prison in Colorado because Idaho's prison don't have enough room to hold the state's growing inmate population. The inmates were flown Tuesday morning on a chartered jet to Denver, and from there they took a bus to the Kit Carson Correctional Center in Burlington, Colo. The prison is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. Idaho's inmate population reached more than 8,000 for the first time in April. The Department of Correction has been renting beds in county jails to ease the pressure, but that wasn't enough to accommodate the demand. Department Director Brent Reinke says the move is hard on families, but the state is simply out of room.

The Idaho Department of Correction has signed a contract with Corrections Corp. of America to pay the private prison firm more than $4.8 million in the current fiscal year to house Idaho inmates at a private lockup in Colorado, the Associated Press reports. With the state's prison population growing far faster than forecast, the department plans to ship 250 Idaho inmates to Colorado in August, and have a total of 450 inmates there by this time next year. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Jessie Bonner.

A federal judge has refused to unseal a settlement agreement between an Idaho inmate and a private prison company involving allegations of rampant violence at Idaho's privately operated prison, the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise, the AP reports. The Associated Press had asked the court to unseal the settlement between Marlin Riggs and Corrections Corp. of America. However, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge said Wednesday the interests of Riggs and the company in keeping the settlement confidential outweighed the interest the public has in learning its terms; click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

Click here for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone on today's settlement of the prison-violence lawsuit between Idaho prison inmates and Corrections Corp. of America, which operates the Idaho Correctional Center state prison south of Boise. CCA doesn’t acknowledge the allegations but agrees to increase staffing, investigate all assaults and make other sweeping changes at the lockup south of Boise. If the company fails to make the changes, the inmates can ask the courts to force CCA to comply.

While the prison is owned by the state, Boone reports, it is run for a profit by CCA under a contract with the Idaho Department of Corrections. The inmates claimed the company made decisions based on profit, rather than on “responsible administration of the prison.”
  

Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A potential class-action lawsuit against the nation's largest private prison company over allegations of violence at the Idaho Correctional Center has been settled in federal court. The agreement between the inmates and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. In it, CCA doesn't acknowledge the allegations but agrees to increase staffing, investigate all assaults and make other sweeping changes at the lockup south of Boise. If the company fails to make the changes, the inmates can ask the courts to force CCA to comply. The inmates, represented by the ACLU, said in their lawsuit that the prison was so violent it was dubbed “Gladiator School,” that guards used inmate-on-inmate violence as a management tool, and that assaulted prisoners were frequently denied medical care.

Here's a news item from the Associated Press:  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An inmate who sued a privately run Idaho prison over allegations of extreme violence and medical neglect has reached a settlement with the private prison company Corrections Corp. of America. Meanwhile, dozens of other inmates who also sued the Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA in federal court are in settlement talks with the company that could end the potentially class-action case by the close of the week. Riggs and the other inmates claimed the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise was so violent that it's called “Gladiator School,” and that guards used inmate-on-inmate violence as a management tool and then denied injured prisoners adequate medical care. Riggs' settlement with CCA was sealed by the court, so the terms weren't available. He was seeking $55 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

A federal judge has sided with the Associated Press and rejected Corrections Corp. of America's request for a sweeping gag order in the lawsuit over prison violence at Idaho's privately-run state prison, the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

There’s a really stunning video story out from the Associated Press about Idaho’s privately operated prison, the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise, where surveillance videos show an inmate being brutally attacked by another inmate while guards do nothing to stop the attack, even when the attacker stops and sits in a chair to rest, then gets up and resumes the kicking and beating. The victim suffered brain damage and won a medical release from prison. Corrections Corp. of America, which operates the prison for the state, incredibly had this response: That it was wrong of the AP to release the video. “Public release of the video poses an unnecessary security risk to our staff, the inmates entrusted to our care, and ultimately to the public,” CCA said in a statement. You can watch the story below.

Associated Press reporter Rebecca Boone reports that the FBI is investigating Idaho’s private-run state prison. Here’s her report:  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson says the U.S. Department of Justice is looking into allegations of criminal conduct among the staff at Idaho’s only private prison. The inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation is focused on the conduct by prison staff at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise. The lockup is run by Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest private prison operator. Olson told the Associated Press Tuesday the investigation is focused on whether prison staff violated the civil rights of inmates at the prison. She said the investigation covers multiple assaults between inmates, including one attack on former inmate Hanni Elabed. His January 2010 assault left him with brain damage and prompted his medical release from prison. Click below to read Boone’s full story.

Here’s a news item from the Associated Press about the Idaho Correctional Center, the privately operated state prison south of Boise operated by Corrections Corp. of America that’s currently the target of a huge lawsuit over prison violence:  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Traces of the E. coli bacteria have been found in the water supply at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise. ICC says they’re boiling water that will be used for drinking and cooking. So far, there have been no reported illnesses among staff or inmates. No other businesses or homes are supplied with water from the same source.

The private prison company that runs Idaho’s Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise is trying to get a federal lawsuit over violence there dismissed, saying the severely beaten inmates bringing the case didn’t exhaust administrative remedies before filing suit. The ACLU’s attorney said the Corrections Corp. of America was twisting the issues and the lawsuit should proceed; a judge is mulling it now, and will issue a decision in the coming weeks. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

Here’s a news item from The Associated Press:  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The ACLU has reached a settlement with the Idaho Department of Correction in a potentially class-action lawsuit over violence at a privately run prison near Boise. Under the agreement, the Idaho Department of Correction has agreed to “aggressively oversee compliance with any such order” a federal judge makes against private prison company Corrections Corporation of America in connection with the lawsuit. The ACLU filed the lawsuit against CCA and the state earlier this year, saying the Idaho Correctional Center is so violent that inmates refer to it as “gladiator school” and that guards deliberately expose prisoners to brutal beatings from other inmates. CCA has countered that the prison is under the constant supervision of the state and that it meets the highest professional standards in the country for correctional management.

The Boise Weekly reports today that violent assaults on inmates at Idaho’s privately-run Idaho Correctional Center increased in April and May after a drop in March, with six incidents in April and 11 in May through the 26th of the month. The Weekly obtained the information through a request under the Idaho Public Records Act. Among the incidents: On May 19, an ICC inmate with golf ball-sized lumps on his temple and the side of his head was hospitalized for emergency cranial surgery after an assault. In another, on May 24, two inmates beat another with a radio. The ICC, run by Corrections Corp. of America, is in the midst of a giant federal lawsuit over prison violence; you can read the Boise Weekly article here.

Here’s a news item from The Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The state is fining private prison company Correction Corp. of America more than $40,000 and ordering it to fix problems with drug and alcohol treatment and medical care at the Idaho Correctional Center. Ten of 13 drug and alcohol counselors at the prison near Boise aren’t qualified to provide treatment under CCA’s contract with the state, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Additionally, a medical audit done by Idaho Department of Correction officials at the prison earlier this year shows the private prison has extensive problems administering medical care, with inadequate records, delays in providing medications, immunizations and mental health care, and a lack of follow-up or oversight when inmates are returned to the lockup after being hospitalized. CCA, in a prepared statement, said that like the Idaho Department of Corrections it is concerned by the audit findings. The company also said it is working to hire qualified drug and alcohol program staffers.

Click below to read the full story from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

Did you know that the influenza virus can survive on surfaces for two to eight hours, spreading the disease? That’s what the CDC says, and the warden of Idaho’s privately operated prison, Phillip Valdez of the Idaho Correctional Center, says he has no “no idea how we got it” at the prison south of Boise, where at least 13 inmates have been sickened so far with the H1N1 virus - swine flu - and all visitors and volunteers have been shut out for at least two weeks. “You know, I wish we could pinpoint it - it sure would make it easier,” Valdez told Eye on Boise. “But I think, to be honest with you, we’re all susceptible to it. You and I could go to a Wal-Mart store, shake a hand, touch a doorknob.” The ICC has been sanitized with cleaning chemicals from top to bottom, inmates have been educated about hygiene, and Valdez says none of the sickened inmates thus far has suffered complications. All those with the virus have suffered from high fevers that peaked on the third day; all have been quarantined.

At the ICC, which is operated for the state by Correctional Corp. of America, there are beds for 1,805 Idaho inmates, including 708 in open dormitories, in which 59 inmates share a single large dorm unit filled with bunk beds. Others are housed in two-man cells. Before the ICC outbreak was first reported July 14, one inmate at the South Idaho Correctional Institution Community Work Center, a state-operated facility also located south of Boise, tested positive for the swine flu virus in late June. That inmate was moved to an isolation unit. You can read my full story here from Saturday’s Spokesman-Review.