Private Mississippi Prison Faces Lawsuit Over Treatment of Youth

The ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a class action lawsuit in federal court this week alleging that GEO Group, the nation's second-largest private prison operator, was subjecting young prisoners to "barbaric, unconstitutional conditions" at a Mississippi facility.

The lawsuit presents a laundry list of abuse at the 1,400-bed Walnut Grove Correctional Facility in north Mississippi. And it goes straight after GEO for allowing assaults and denying medical care and education while racking up healthy profits at the prison. The facility was built with $41 million in taxpayer dollars, while GEO has now earned more than $100 million in profit from its management, the suit estimates. The 1,400 boys and young men held there were all sentenced as adults, but two-thirds of them were convicted of non-violent crimes.

Among the abuses listed in the lawsuit:

• A young man who was held in his cell for 24 hours and raped while prison staff failed to act
• Boys forced into drug trafficking operations inside the facility by guards
• A young man who was beaten by GEO staff while handcuffed
• Several prisoners who have been denied critical mental health treatment, putting their lives in danger

Less than half of the boys and young men at the facility go to school. Many are denied mental health treatment and special education they need.While the prisoner population grew in 2010, the security staff shrunk. The list goes on, and these aren't vague, unfounded accusations. Cases are described by name in the ACLU / SPLC lawsuit. Download the full complaint here.

GEO is the same group that paid more than $112,000 in consulting fees to President Obama's nominee to head the U.S. Marshals, Stacia Hylton. Numerous human rights and prison reform groups are opposing her nomination, alleging a conflict of interest.

As long as prisons are run for profit, the bottom line will trump safety and critical services like education and health care. Lawsuits like this one are critical to eroding the grip of private prison operators on our cycle of crime, incarceration and recidivism. We can urge legislators to stop sending our tax dollars to private prison companies, but as long as companies like GEO line legislative pockets and dance through a revolving door with government jobs, it won't end. Calling them out in court on their unconstitutional behavior is a critical ingredient in the fight against private prison abuse.

Photo Credit: GEO Group

Via: Real Cost of Prison