More Upheaval At ‘Gladiator’ School
Corrections Corporation of America - the people who gave you Idaho’s 2,100-bed “gladiator school” - is sending its third warden to the Idaho Correctional Center near Boise in as many years. First went Phillip Valdez, whose departure in 2010 came after CCA essentially admitted violating its contract with the state of Idaho when it settled an inmate class action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. Valdez’s replacement, Timothy Wengler, retired last week, although CCA says it was a personal decision that had nothing to do with how his administration falsified nearly 5,000 hours of staffing records last year. It’s the latest piece of upheaval involving a prison that is responsible for:
- Inmate violence that occurs three times more often than in the prisons Idaho manages on its own.
- A videotaped incident of inmate Hanniu Elabed being beaten while guards looked on.
- Allegations that CCA has turned to gangs to police portions of the prison.
- Confidential settlements in which CCA hands over sums of money to injured inmates who bring lawsuits against it.
Question: Did Idaho make a mistake by privatizing the Idaho Correctional Cener near Boise?
* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Huckleberries Online." Read all stories from this blog