Four guards charged in the death of female inmate

[Judi Lynn]

Sept. 29, 2005, 10:46PM

Four guards charged in the death of female inmate
The woman, 34, died of a skull fracture and had broken ribs
By KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press

NASHVILLE, TENN. - Four guards at a privately run jail have been indicted on reckless homicide charges accusing them of beating a female inmate to death.

The indictment issued this week also charges the four guards with aggravated assault against Estelle Richardson, 34, who died in 2004. A medical examiner said she died of a skull fracture and had broken ribs and a damaged liver.
Corrections Corporation of America, which employs the four guards, said it has cooperated with the investigation. It said the four guards have been on administrative leave since Richardson's death.

CCA is the largest for-profit prison operator in the United States and has run the Metro Nashville Detention Facility under a contract with the city and the county since 1990.

A police investigation found that the guards used excessive force on Richardson the day before she died. The guards acknowledged there was an altercation but said no excessive force was used.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3375960
(Free registration required)

[skooooo]

1. "for profit" prisons.....that's just sick

[redqueen]

13. Prison Industrial Complex

Isn't it nice having money rule everything?

[pushycat]

16. Prisons on Stock Exchange is also sick

http://www.plp.org/pamphlets/prisonpamphlet.html

<snip>California alone has the biggest prison system in the Western industrialized world, (in 1998, 160,000 inmates). That’s more than France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and the Netherlands COMBINED — just in California! Those five countries have a total population of 340,000,000, more than eleven times that of California.<snip>


Nship>The CCA is now the largest private prison corporation in the world. From 1995 to 1998 it was among the five top performing stocks on the NY Stock Exchange. Founded in 1983, the value of its stock rose from $50 million in 1986 (when it went public) to $53.5 BILLION IN 1997.39 Its careful selection of the most lucrative prison contracts, its use of prison labor and its slashing of labor costs led the Wall Street firm of Paine-Webber to conclude, "Crime pays."<snip>

<snip>The CCA formed the Prison Realty Trust to speculate on buying prisons as real estate, raising $338 million from investors. Their Wall Street backers were Lehman Bros. and Paine-Webber. CCA is building a new $100 million prison in California’s Mojave Desert (a bonanza for the investment bankers), "gambling that cheap, empty prison beds will prove irresistible to California lawmakers."<snip>

[regnaD kciN]

22. Talk about a great quote...!

...gambling that cheap, empty prison beds will prove irresistible to California lawmakers.

Hopefully so...at least to a few California lawmakers I can think of! :evilgrin:

[0007]

25. Yes it is extremely sick and must change.

Here is a video that will start right up for you, without you having to jump through hoops. It is about prisons in the US. I hope you watch it, skooooo!

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm

[barb162]

29. I never heard of for profit prisons until I read this story

Way too many government functions are being outsourced to private industry

[Dogmudgeon]

2. But she was a dangerous criminal who committed a heinous crime!

From the same article: Richardson had been awaiting trial on two charges of food stamp fraud.

Bashed to death for a couple of dollars' worth of misbehavior. That just compounds the obscenity.

--p!

[Binka]

5. Gee If Justice Were Parsed Out Fairly What Would Delays Fate Be?

Just sayin'.

[raccoon]

20. And Kenny Lay and those like him. nt

[Nostradammit]

3. Corrections Corporation of America

Private prisons. I can't imagine a less intelligent policy. No one should profit from society's failures.

God help us.

[whistle]

4. Who owns/controls CCA? Any known political or powerful people?

[rodeodance]

6. how horrible.

[slaveplanet]

19. The same folks who

Import the dope,write the laws and control the police.

where else are they going to stash the competition and others who won't pay to play?
also idiots and innocents foolish enough to use their product?

the whole scheme is quite profitable, they make money on the import, the fines, the housing and the slave labor.
they make the mafia look like pikers....

[Nihil]

7. "Innocent woman beaten to death by four guards"

> Richardson had been awaiting trial on two charges of food stamp fraud

Read that again ... "AWAITING TRIAL" ...

The cute phrasing of "an inmate" suggests that the victim was murdered
whilst imprisoned for a crime. The truth is that no court had found
her guilty.

[redqueen]

14. Oh, that crazy liberal media.

:grr:

[Briar]

31. Would it make a difference if she were guilty

Would it really?

[Nihil]

32. Not to me but it might to some of their readers

To me it is still a woman being beaten to death by four thugs.

My point was that by reporting it as "an inmate", it plays to the
audience of "well, she probably deserved it" self-appointed judges.

With the correct headline - "Innocent woman awaiting trial beaten to
death by four thugs" - even some of them would say "WTF?" (or maybe
I'm just being too optimistic).

Or did you mean that people are no longer "innocent until proven guilty"
so details like this don't matter? (Not accusing, just questioning if
you are being as cynical as I usually am ...)

[harlinchi]

8. Was Ms. Richardson Black? Are they beating white women to death now?

Naw. You know they are not.



But as you all know, race is never the issue in America. Class, poverty, education and other factors may cause this kind of situation but never race, right?

[chat_noir]

9. Corrections Corporation Of America: A Critical Look

Corrections Corporation Of America: A Critical Look At Its First Twenty Years

Grassroots Leadership

Philip Mattera, Mafruza Khan, Stephen Nathan

In 2003, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the leaders in the private prison industry, celebrated its 20th anniversary. In this report, commissioned by Grassroots Leadership, the authors detail the 20-year history of a corporation that, contrary to its celebratory public relations campaign, has been fraught with malfeasance, mismanagement, and abuse. The report's findings include CCA's:

failure to provide adequate medical care to prisoners;
failure to control violence in its prisons;
substandard conditions that have resulted in prisoner protests and uprisings;
criminal activity on the part of some CCA employees, including the sale of illegal drugs to prisoners; and
escapes, which in the case of at least two facilities include inadvertent releases of prisoners who were supposed to remain in custody.

Other areas of CCA's legacy covered in the report include the firm's:

financial instability;
self-defeating labor practices;
attempts to influence public policy;
use of campaign contributions and soft money; and
use of questionable research by biased academics.

http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/articles_publications/publications/cca_20_years_20031201


Haven't take the time to read the linked PDF document.

[chat_noir]

10. CCA and Cracker Barrel big Republican Donors

By MATT GOURAS
The Associated Press
Oct 25 2004

NASHVILLE - Tennessee's largest corporations favor Republicans with their political donations, but none more so than Cracker Barrel and Corrections Corporation of America.

(snip)

The nation's largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, and most of its senior officers, give nearly all their political money to Republicans, according to federal election filings through August.

CCA's political action committee has given 96 percent of its money to Republicans so far this election cycle.

(snip)

CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, has credited the Bush administration's expansion of federal police for creating new business for the firm.

Three times, the Corrections Corporation of America Political Action Committee made $15,000 donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A number of $5,000 donations went to the Bush-Cheney campaign, the New Republican Majority Fund, and other GOP money groups.

http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2004/10/cca_and_cracker.html

[lumpy]

11. Skull fracture, broken ribs and a

damaged liver. No excessive force was used, they say.

[EFerrari]

12. Which means, they weren't even trying.

Geezus.

[ninkasi]

21. If they don't consider the injuries which led to her death

as excessive force, what would excessive force be, then? These for-profit prisons are one of the reasons marijuana laws will never be changed. I know this lady was in jail for something different, but we know that huge numbers of people are in prisons due to the idiotic drug laws.

As far as the charges, food stamp fraud, the truth is that the smaller the crime, the harsher the punishment. White men, like Ken Lay, who steal hundreds of millions, and ruin other people's lives, are able to evade any kind of punishment. This is just sick. The Republican party, after being taken over by the insane religious right, is making the United States into a very, very mean-spirited place to live.

This is a death that should be considered murder, because that's what it was. I hope her family sues the hell out of this company, and is awarded millions. It won't make up for their loss, but at least it might make the company less likely to abuse other prisoners in the future.

[raccoon]

27. I hope they do too. This is awful. To me, about on the

order of Emmett Till.

[superconnected]

15. Uh, how can anyone get fairness in a prison for profit.

If they let inmates go, they lose money. Doesn't every inmate go before panels to see if they are going to be let out now and then.

Plus what if the privatized prison folk make their own rules - after all businesses get to make their own rules, and prisoners start getting treated the cheapest, shabbiest way possible. Barely letting them outside because of cuts in Guards so they only have a few to watch them, food ends up being the bare minimum and cheapest stuff possible without nutrition content in mind.

I just can't see a prison business not being completely profit oriented and letting the prisoners sacrifice for that.

How many businesses actually give anything that they arent forced to, not many. Let's conserve water and electricity folks - one shower a week and lights off at 6pm.

[regnaD kciN]

23. Unfortunately, that's missing the point...

Plus what if the privatized prison folk make their own rules - after all businesses get to make their own rules, and prisoners start getting treated the cheapest, shabbiest way possible. Barely letting them outside because of cuts in Guards so they only have a few to watch them, food ends up being the bare minimum and cheapest stuff possible without nutrition content in mind.

I just can't see a prison business not being completely profit oriented and letting the prisoners sacrifice for that.

As far as the average "person-in-the-street" goes, prisoners are scum who deserve to suffer as much as possible. In fact, there was a lot of criticism a couple of decades ago of the prison system, not for inhumane treatment, but for "coddling criminals" by making their life too easy.

It got so that sheriff in Phoenix could treat prisoners guilty of minor misdemeanors in ways that would be considered harsh in the 19th century (housing them in tents in the desert in the midsummer Arizona heat while restricting their allotment of water) and achieve folk-hero status for "finally getting tough on crime."

I doubt many people other than us dyed-in-the-wool liberals would shed tears over what happens to prisoners, short of this sort of lethal incident.

:-(

(P.S.: The panels the inmates would have to go before would be state-run parole boards not connected with the privatized prison...although I could certainly imagine a corporation attempting to influence the parole board to keep inmates locked up. Of course, that would be irrelevant in an America run by Republicans, where there will always be a steady supply of new prisoners.)

[maxrandb]

17. Did our Founding Fathers

envision "privately owned and operated" prisons??

[ernstbass]

18. Sickening

Here in Virginia our private prisons have been the target of multiple justice dept investigations for abuse. The abuses that are perpetrated on our nations' inmates are criminal. And nobody gives a shit because they are inmates.

[RedRocco]

24. $50,000 per year

thats how much per prisoner the private prisons get here in SC. hell, give me $50k and I wouldn't have to commit a crime in the first place

[Judi Lynn]

26. Update to story: 4 charged with killing ex-Lansing woman

Published October 1, 2005
< From the Lansing State Journal >

4 charged with killing ex-Lansing woman
Guards accused of 2004 assault in Nashville jail

By Christian Bottorff
Gannett News Service


NASHVILLE, Tenn. - More than a year after a former Lansing woman died in solitary confinement at a Nashville jail, four guards have been charged with killing her.
(snip)

The guards work for Corrections Corporation of America, a Nashville firm that contracts with the government to run the county lockup. All are free on $25,000 bond.
(snip)

Company officials declined to comment on the arrests but said the four guards remain on the payroll on administrative leave.

Richardson had been serving a six-year sentence for a probation violation after pleading guilty to trying to buy addictive Lortab tablets while her children were with her.

CCA officials and other authorities have refused to give details of the events leading up to her death, but in an interview last year, Wood said the guards used pepper spray during a struggle to handcuff Richardson, who, he said, had refused to exit her cell. He denied that any of the officers struck her or used any force that would have caused injuries.
(snip/...)

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051001/NEWS01/510010333/1001/opinion

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't believe she was doing 6 years for trying to buy Lortab tablets. Is that similar to the material Rush Limbaugh has been scarfing in mega-amounts all these years, while remaining free, and bellowing about it on his obnoxious radio show?

[loudsue]

28. Privatized prisons are one of the MOST dangerous things going on

in our society today. Add that to our "privatized military"....the thugs that are shooting people in New Orleans....and you've got an ATROCIOUS set up for destroying human rights in this country.

REPUBLICANS have privatized our prisons.
REPUBLICANS have privatized our military.
REPUBLICANS have privatized our schools.
REPUBLICANS have privatized our welfare system to REPUBLICAN churches, or black and poor churches in order to buy their votes.
REPUBLICANS have privatized some of our water supplies.
REPUBLICANS have corporatized our media.

And MOST important, REPUBLICANS have privatized our ELECTIONS.

Criminality runs rampant in corporatized environments, as we've seen with all of the corporate criminality via the REPUBLICAN party.

This nation has GOT TO deal with the REPUBLICAN problem!!! They're destroying this country with their criminality and corporatization.

:kick::kick::kick:

[barbaraann]

30. CCA's faith-based programs:

Idle to Able

Every day in CCA facilities, thousands of dedicated, highly specialized program staff members teach inmates positive new methods of thinking, behaving and earning a living – preparing them to return to their families and communities with marketable new job skills, a sense of accomplishment and hope. The addition of several faith-based and addictions treatment programs to the CCA inmate curriculum promotes even broader developmental success.

CCA’s faith-based partnerships are numerous, including Good News Jail and Prison Ministries, the Institute in Basic Life Principles, School of Christ International, and Champions for Life – all which provide inmates with opportunities to adopt new core values through non-denominational spiritual guidance. Earlier this year, CCA teamed up with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) – the world's largest mission agency ministering to children – to develop a correspondence faith program tailored for inmates and their children that will be implemented at all CCA facilities in 2006. At no cost, inmates can sign up to receive weekly lesson plans and devotional books and have CEF age-appropriate enrichment materials mailed to their children to ensure positive development, even when their parents are away.

http://www.correctionscorp.com/whatsnew.html