[Vision2020] FBI Investigates Company Running 'Gladiator School' Prison

[Saundra Lund]

For me, the biggest question is what the h*ll is wrong with Otter that it
took "political pressure" to order an investigation?!

 

And, what the h*ll is Otter's and the other GOPer's excuse for being asleep
at the helm for so long?!

 

Oh, wait . . . I get it.  Idaho's GOPers & tea baggers don't give a rip
about fiscal responsibility when it's the pockets of their pals that are
getting lined, but they NEVER miss an opportunity to go after the least
fortunate amongst us.  Disgusting.

 

With deep gratitude to AP's Rebecca Boone.

 

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/03/07/3067302/apnewsbreak-fbi-investigate
s-prison.html

 

FBI investigates Corrections Corporation of America that ran Idaho prison

By REBECCA BOONE

Associated Press

March 7, 2014 Updated 3 hours ago 

BOISE, Idaho - The FBI has launched an investigation of the Corrections
Corporation of America over the company's running of an Idaho prison with a
reputation so violent that inmates dubbed it "Gladiator School."

The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA has operated Idaho's largest prison for more
than a decade, but last year, CCA officials acknowledged it had understaffed
the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours in violation of the
state contract. CCA also said employees falsified reports to cover up the
vacancies. The announcement came after an Associated Press investigation
showed CCA sometimes listed guards as working 48 hours straight to meet
minimum staffing requirements.

The Idaho State Police was asked to investigate the company last year but
didn't, until amid increasing political pressure, the governor ordered the
agency to do so last month. Democratic state lawmakers asked the FBI to take
up the case last month.

Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray confirmed Friday that the
FBI met with department director Brent Reinke on Thursday to inform him
about the investigation. Idaho State Police spokeswoman Teresa Baker said
her agency was no longer involved with the investigation and the FBI has
taken it over entirely.

"They (the FBI) have other cases that are tied to this one so it worked out
better for them to handle it from here," Baker said.

Baker wouldn't comment on what the other cases entailed. U.S. Attorney Wendy
Olson in Boise also declined to comment on the scope of the FBI
investigation, but did say the agency was looking into fraud.

"The FBI is investigating CCA and looking at whether various federal fraud
statutes were violated and possibly other federal statutes connected with
the fraud," Olson said. "They will be working in close consultation with our
office. Beyond that I can't comment."

CCA spokesman Steve Owen said his company would cooperate with
investigators.

"Our own internal investigation concluded that this was not a criminal
matter, and we remain confident in those findings," Owen said in a prepared
statement.

The understaffing has been the subject of federal lawsuits and a contempt of
court action against CCA. The ACLU sued on behalf of inmates at the Idaho
Correctional Center in 2010, saying the facility was so violent that inmates
called it "Gladiator School" and that understaffing contributed to the high
levels of violence there.

In 2012, a Boise law firm sued on behalf of inmates contending that CCA had
ceded control to prison gangs so that they could understaff the prison and
save money on employee wages, and that the understaffing led to an attack by
one prison gang on another group of inmates that left some of them badly
injured.

The Department of Justice requested a copy of a forensic audit done for the
Idaho Department of Correction earlier this year. That audit showed that CCA
understaffed the prison by as much as 26,000 hours in 2012 alone; CCA is
strongly contesting those findings. CCA's Owen has said the company believes
the audit overestimates the staffing issues by more than a third.

CCA's contract with Idaho was worth about $29 million a year. In February
the company agreed to pay Idaho $1 million to settle the understaffing
claims.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter initially resisted the suggestion that a criminal
investigation was needed and earlier this year, rebuffed a suggestion from
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden that he order state law enforcement
agencies to investigate. But on Friday, Otter's spokesman, Jon Hanian, said
the governor thought the FBI's involvement was "great."

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