Is CCA a Death Camp For Joe Robertson?

Is CCA a Death Camp For Joe Robertson?

By Aubrie Bosworth

Major concerns regarding Joe Robertson, 77 year old vet from Montana.
Is Mr. Robertson getting the care he needs? Is his life in danger?

Here is my case against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) , who privately owns the prison in Montana in which Mr. Robertson is currently incarcerated.

CCA, founded in January 1983, is the nation’s oldest and largest for-profit private prison corporation. Corrections Corporations of America manages more then 65 correctional and detention facilities with the capacity of more then 90,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

A self-reported industry, statistics from 2000 showed that the average employee turnover rate was 53%  in private prisons compared to the 15% employee turnover rate in public prisons. In 2008 Texas state reported that private prisons had a 90% annual staff turnover rate and public prisons had a 24%.

The first state prison sold to a private company is the Lake Erie Correctional Institution that was purchased by CCA from the state of Ohio in late 2011 for 72.7 million dollars. This transaction was deemed the groundbreaking move that will pave the way for fellow states seeking to cut costs. Only a year into CCA’s control of the facility, state audits found staff mismanagement, widespread violence, delays in medical treatment and unacceptable living conditions. The audit detailed how staff did not follow proper procedures for chronically ill prisoners, including those with diabetes and AIDS, medical appointments were severely delayed, and prisoners were often triple-bunked or forced to sleep on mattresses on cell floors. As a result of the violations, CCA was fined nearly $500,000 by the state.

A Negligence in Training/ Employees put in Danger

On August 5th 1998 at Tennessee’s Whiteville Correctional Facility a guard named Jerry Reeves was left alone on a recreation yard only six weeks into the job. He had no significant training or any communications equipment resulting in Reeves being seriously assaulted by prisoners. The assault left him with multiple skull fractures.

According to an article published by the Grassroots Leadership, on October 1st 2009 CCA paid 1.3 million dollars to settle allegations of serious sexual harassment involving female employees at the company’s Crowley Country Correctional Facility (CCCF) in Colorado. In a lawsuit filed by the U,S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that female staff was subjected to sexual abuse and rape at the facility, at times under the threat of losing their job. In one incident the court heard that CCA management reassigned a female officer to an isolated location of the facility with a male co-worker whom she had previously complained had sexually harassed her, when she was reassigned, the same man then raped her.

Violence Incited by CCA

Idaho Correctional Center (ICC) has a reputation of being one of the most violent correctional facilities in the U.S. With ICC’s constant outbreaks of violence that is often watched and sometimes even incited by CCA guards ICC has picked up the nickname “Gladiator School”

An attorney for an inmate that was held at Gladiator School  finally got through to the media for his client to blow the whistle on the violence that was going on inside ICC. Later after this inmate served his time and was released his body was found in his pickup in the middle of the East Fork and South Fork of the Salmon River near Yellow Pine, his death was ruled an accident.

In 2012 Boise law firm sued CCA on behalf of inmates within ICC. The inmates claimed that CCA had taken control over the gangs inside of the Gladiator School and was using the gangs so they could under-staff  the prison so CCA could cut back on employee wages.

The press discovered CCA had charged the state for non existent guards for about $12 million in a single year. The press didn’t receive records for the other years. CCA’s contract with the state of Idaho was worth about $29 million a year, the company agreed to pay $1 million to settle the under-staffing claims.

So not a good track record for CCA. It is clear that they cut many corners to save a bit of money. Money that they enjoy at the expense of their employees and as we look into the well being of the prisoners it’s not any prettier.

Gross Denial of Medical Care.

September 2006 at Arizona’s Eloy Detention Center Jose Lopez-Gregario committed suicide. Jose was on suicide watch, and was known to be despondent and had made medical requests to CCA staff who failed to respond.

In 1988 CCA was accused of failing to provide adequate medical care and a lawsuit was filed by the family of twenty-three year old Rosalind Bradford  who was being held at CCA’s Silverdale Facility in Tennessee. Rosalind died from pregnancy complications. A shift supervisor testified that Rosalind was in extreme pain for at least 12 hours before staff agreed to have her transported to the hospital. CCA agreed to pay $100,000 to settle the lawsuit.

A lawsuit was filed against CCA in 2004 over the death of 27 year old quadriplegic Jonathan Magbie who was held at Correctional Treatment Center in DC. Jonathan was not given his diaphragmatic ventilator which led to him dying of respiratory failure four days into a ten day sentence.

These are just a very small handful of the lawsuits and allegations against CCA.

I long to question our founding fathers, is privately owned prisons that a profit is being made from even constitutional? I will say that at least it is definitely immoral.

Mr. Robertson

Joe Robertson is a 77 year old veteran who was put in prison for building a pond on his private property. Joe using someone else’s calling cards was able to have a one 30-60 second phone call with his wife. Where he informed her that he was not well. He continues to have chest pain and the prison refuses to give him his regular medication. Mr. Robertson should have a minimum of $50 that would have been transferred from Missoula county, and yet he still has to use someone else’s calling cards.

No one is able to send money yet because anyone including his wife must be on a pre-approved list and has to go through a complete back ground check for visitation with Mr. Robertson before the prison will accept any funds for his commissary. ¹ Joe’s heath continues to worsen, he recently had a stroke and was taken to the hospital for a few test but was then forced back to his cell. He is having trouble seeing and can barely walk half way around the yard compared to the 6-7 laps he would usually make when he was allowed out of his cell . He is now forced to stay in his cell because the staff  “fears” of him falling.

Will Robertson’s case be like Jeffery Buller’s?

Twenty-six year old Jeffery Buller died one day before he was to be released causing his mother to file a lawsuit against CCA in March of 2003. Jeffery was being held at Colorado’s Kit Carson Correctional Center. He suffered from Hereditary Angioedema, which caused his breathing passages to swell. This could be easily and effectively be controlled with medication. Throughout Jeffery’s incarceration he had been supplied with medication but the last few weeks of his stay the supply ran out. Despite his repeated pleas for a new prescription with CCA’s medical staff no new supply was reordered. CCA settled the lawsuit out of court in  2004.

I beg to question Corrections Corporations of America, is this just ongoing abuse in privately owned prisons or is this deliberate medical neglect of Joe Robertson?

How much longer do the corrupted elite expect us to keep submitting ourselves to this perverted justice system?

What recourse do we have left?

Do we go and appeal to anther tyrannical judge?

Appeal to another level of tyranny higher up the chain hoping that we might win and walk away with our life and liberties still intact?

Do we keep submitting ourselves to this tyrannical justice systems which convict citizens of felonies, not based on laws enacted by their elected legislature’s, but for violations of department policies put in place by UN-elected bureaucrats thousands of miles from the real world in which American citizens live?

When do we draw the line and stop putting our liberties and lives into their already blood-stained hands?

Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore says in a video:

“My message to you is we can change things, we’ve become an effete society which means weak, spoiled, lazy and no longer able to take effective action. I’m here sending you this message because you can take effective action”

Crossroads Leadership Team

Warden: Douglas Fender
Assistant Warden: Deborah Powell
Chief of Security: Raymond Busby
Chief if Unit Management: Domingo Stewart

Crossroads Correctional Center
50 Crossroads Drive
Shelby, MT 59474
406-434-7055