PLN associate editor quoted in news report on release of CCA Idaho prison assault video
KTRV-TV, Jan. 1, 2010.
http://www.fox12idaho.com/Global/story.asp?S=13...
PLN associate editor quoted in news report on release of CCA Idaho prison assault video - KTRV-TV 2010
Another Former CCA Prisoner Alleges Abuse
Boise, Idaho-- Surveillance video of the beating of an Idaho Correctional Center inmate, while guards look on has gotten national attention. Now one man says this isn't the first time something like this has happened.
The President of the Private Corrections Institute, a non profit that opposes private prisons, Alex Friedmann, says the prison's operator, Corrections Corporation of America, is not only the largest private prison company, they're the most sued.
In fact back in the early 1990's he was a prisoner at a Corrections Corporation prison, not located here Idaho.
He says he too was mistreated and endangered while held by them. "I was retaliated against by CCA officials and took them to court and obtained a federal jury award against a former CCA Unit Manager for threatening to have other prisoners assault me for filing complaints against CCA," explained Friedmann.
Friedmann has since turned his life around and has even testified before congress on the issue of private prisons.
When CCA issued a statement calling the surveillance video an unnecessary security risk to staff and inmates, he felt he had to speak out.
"I've watched the video myself and the only unnecessary risk it poses is to CCA's liability in prisoner assault cases and the notion CCA's employees are corrections professionals."
The beating has prompted a federal class-action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and now the Department of Justice is looking into the conduct of CCA prison staff.
Another Former CCA Prisoner Alleges Abuse
Boise, Idaho-- Surveillance video of the beating of an Idaho Correctional Center inmate, while guards look on has gotten national attention. Now one man says this isn't the first time something like this has happened.
The President of the Private Corrections Institute, a non profit that opposes private prisons, Alex Friedmann, says the prison's operator, Corrections Corporation of America, is not only the largest private prison company, they're the most sued.
In fact back in the early 1990's he was a prisoner at a Corrections Corporation prison, not located here Idaho.
He says he too was mistreated and endangered while held by them. "I was retaliated against by CCA officials and took them to court and obtained a federal jury award against a former CCA Unit Manager for threatening to have other prisoners assault me for filing complaints against CCA," explained Friedmann.
Friedmann has since turned his life around and has even testified before congress on the issue of private prisons.
When CCA issued a statement calling the surveillance video an unnecessary security risk to staff and inmates, he felt he had to speak out.
"I've watched the video myself and the only unnecessary risk it poses is to CCA's liability in prisoner assault cases and the notion CCA's employees are corrections professionals."
The beating has prompted a federal class-action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and now the Department of Justice is looking into the conduct of CCA prison staff.
