Private Correctional Institutions

Crowley inmates settle riot lawsuit for $600,000

On the eve of a 25-week trial that promised to focus on claims of poor training and worse management, the nation's largest private prison company has reached a settlement with nearly 200 former inmates over a 2004 riot at the Crowley County Correctional Facility in southeastern Colorado. The uprisin ... More >>

Terrell Griswold: State reprimands prison doctor David Oba over inmate's death

Most physicians go through their entire careers without ever running afoul of state regulators. But two years after a 26-year-old inmate with chronic kidney problems died while under his care, prison doctor David M. Oba has received a sharply worded letter of admonition from the Colorado Department ... More >>

Thomas Wierdsma, GEO prison exec, on losing end of civil suit by abused daughter in law

Back in February, our Alan Prendergast reported about allegations of intimidation and harassment against Thomas Wierdsma, a senior vice president for The GEO Group, which operates more than one-hundred prisons around the world. including the ICE detention center in Aurora. The accuser: Wierdsma's d ... More >>

ACLU, faith groups urge governors not to sell out to private prison giant

A broad proposal by the country's largest private prison company to buy up and privatize state prisons has been met with a stiff rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of justice policy and religious groups, who are urging all fifty state governors to reject the company's "in ... More >>

Thomas Wierdsma, private prison exec, accused of seeking to deport daughter-in-law

T. Wierdsma.​A high-ranking official at one of the nation's largest private prison operators has been accused by his daughter-in-law of intimidation and harassment in a Boulder domestic dispute -- including threatening to initiate a federal inquiry into her legal status by Immigration and Cust ... More >>

Private prisons' blueprint for success: more lobbying, less security

The use of private prisons by states and the federal government continues to increase, yielding billions in annual revenues for two dominant companies in the industry -- despite a lack of solid research that America's experiment with for-profit incarceration actually saves taxpayers money in the lon ... More >>

Terrell Griswold: Mother questions inmate's "natural" death in private prison

On October 28, 2010, a 26-year-old inmate named Terrell Griswold was found slumped over and unresponsive in his cell in the Bent County Correctional Facility, a private prison in southeastern Colorado. The official cause of death is listed as cardiac hypertrophy, or an enlarged heart. But Lagalia Af ... More >>

Crowley prison riot: New details of unheeded warnings emerge in epic lawsuit

After the riot, 2004. ​Seven years ago inmates at a private prison in southeastern Colorado went on an all-night rampage, chasing the shorthanded staff from the premises, attacking suspected snitches, setting fires and causing millions of dollars in damages. Now documents filed in a long-runni ... More >>

Wells Fargo to be targeted by Denver protesters in week of actions "to restructure Wall Street"

​Update, below: Wells Fargo will be the target of several actions this week by the Colorado Progressive Coalition, including plans to "move in" to a branch on Thursday with lamps, pillows and coffee pots to protest the bank's high number of foreclosures. Dubbed the Mile High Showdown, the acti ... More >>

Immigrant activist groups protest Wells Fargo and its investment in private prisons (PHOTOS)

Jeanette Vizguerra.​Many people Wells Fargo claims to serve gathered to protest its investment in private prison companies such as GEO, Inc., which owns an Aurora detention center. Protesters marched on an East Colfax branch as part of a national day of action to educate people about the hypoc ... More >>

Private prisons thrive on greed and bad policy, new report says

​Back in the lock-em-up frenzy of the 1990s, overcrowded state prison systems relied heavily on the emerging private prison industry to handle their excess inmates. Now that state prison populations are falling, you might expect the private sector to be taking a few hits, too -- but guess agai ... More >>

Harley Lappin: Private prison industry woos another top public official

​There are two revolving doors in every prison system. One is for the inmates, many of whom fail on parole and keep coming back. The other is reserved for top administrators who, even amid scandal, move easily from high-powered positions of public trust to high-paid jobs in the private prison ... More >>

Swapping One McPrison for Another

"What You Deserve"

A lawsuit claims brutal treatment of prisoners after last year's riot.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of January 13, 2005

Maxed Out

Shipping inmates to private prisons is Colorado's cheap solution to overcrowding and violence. But so far, it's cost plenty.

Off Limits

Prison nation...

McPrison

How a private prison brought jobs-and violence, corruption and scandal-to Burlington.

Captive Market

Jobs. Gadgets. Profits. Crime pays big-time for the prison-industrial complex.

This Jail for Hire

Colorado's cheap solution to prison overcrowding has cost inmates plenty. It could cost the state millions.