Controversies
A full scale prisoner uprising occurred on April 24, 2007 at the Geo Group-operated New Castle Correctional Facility in Indiana. The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel reported that "Authorities were investigating whether the six-hour fracas that involved about 500 offenders started Tuesday afternoon because some of the newly arrived prisoners from Arizona were upset about their treatment at the medium-security men’s prison."
Between 2005 and 2009, at least eight people had died at the Geo Group-operated George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, the state's only privately run jail. Several of those deaths resulted in lawsuits by family members who say the facility did not provide adequate medical care or proper supervision for offenders. On December 31, 2008, Geo pulled out of operations at this facility, "citing underperformance and frequent litigations" as the reasons.
In 2008, Sandy Morgan, a schizophrenic woman who suffered from a thyroid condition died at the Delaware County jail where she had been held for six weeks. Family members said she did not receive her medication during her incarceration.
On April 25, 2008, Kenneth Keith Kallenbach died from cystic fibrosis, an inherited chronic disease after being denied his medication. He had been housed at the jail since mid-March. Kallenbach's mother, Fay, said her son called her a week before his death, asking her to intervene and help him receive better treatment.
An inmate in 2008 claimed he was denied access to dental care for a cavity, and as a result it festered into an ulcer that burst open requiring three surgeries.
In November 2010 plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit against the agencies that operate and own the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, saying that the prison authorities allowed abuses and negligence to occur at the facility. The lawsuit states that prison guards engaged in sexual intercourse with the prisoners and smuggled illegal drugs into the facilities, and that prison authorities denied education and medical care. As of that month the prison has about 1,200 prisoners ages 13–22; the lawsuit says that half of the prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. Weeks prior to the filing of the lawsuit, United States Department of Justice officials informed Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour that the department had started an investigation concerning the prison. GEO settled the lawsuit in February 2012 and it was agreed to move the remaining youths from the prison to more suitable locations that conform to juvenile standards. Former Walnut Grove YCF warden and 8-term mayor, William Grady Sims, resigned and pleaded guilty to removing a female inmate to a motel for sex and pressuring her to lie about it. He faces up to 20 years in Federal prison. Sims also owned 18 vending machines inside the prison.
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