Private Prison Co. Settles Labor Lawsuit

by Matt Kelley · 2009-09-06 15:34:00 UTC
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This Labor Day weekend, guards working with private prison giant Corrections Corporation of America have a few dollars in back pay headed their way. The company settled a class action lawsuit for $7 million with 30,000 current and former corrections officers who alleged that they were forced to work off the clock. So not only does CCA abuse its prisoners. It abuses employees, too.

The settlement was reached in February but sealed until last week, when a judge ruled that it should be made public. The deal was unsealed thanks to a lawsuit filed by Prison Legal News, the monthly newsletter, which argued (rightly) that making the details of the settlement public was a benefit to the public interest. CCA fought the unsealing, claiming the settlement wasn't newsworthy. News organizations, and the public, can decide if something is newsworthy, thank you.

Here's more from the Kansas City Star. I'm glad to see the CCA guards getting the back pay they deserve, and this reminds me:

This Labor Day, I want to say thanks to the thousands of hardworking, dedicated, respectful corrections officers (COs) working in the U.S. prison system. Advocates for prison reform, myself included, often give corrections unions a hard time, and they deserve it - some of these groups will lobby against sensible reforms simply because incarcerating fewer people may mean fewer jobs for guards. That's bad policy, and unions should be held accountable. But individual prison guards have a hard job, and there are countless COs doing a good, honest job in prisons across the U.S.

For all of the negative stories I've heard about individual COs (and I've certainly heard 'em), there's plenty of positive on the other side. There are stories about guards giving prisoners extra time in the law library to fight their conviction, or helping protect someone from violence or advocating for parole on behalf of someone who has changed their ways. There are simple stories of guard who will listen and engage with prisoners. These stories are more inspiring because many of the prisons where they work cultivate a culture of disrespect and violence toward prisoners, so to treat a prisoner with dignity and respect takes courage.

So to all the good, honest, hard-working corrections officers out there who treat prisoners as human beings: thank you.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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