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First published on WhyIHateCCA
The ACLU of Hawaii has filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of the family of Clifford Medina, a 23-year-old Hawaiian prisoner who was murdered in the Saguaro Correctional Center, a CCA prison in Arizona. The lawsuit contends that the company’s negligence and drive for profit led to Medina’s murder by a fellow prisoner. This murder was one of two in a very short time frame at the facility, and one of a few issues that led the Governor of Hawaii to pledge to return all his prisoners to the islands, including an alleged sexual assault by a staff member at this same prison.
The lawsuit has already been covered by a ton of media outlets, so I won’t go into a detailed breakdown. Suffice it to say, I effing hate CCA. I’ll just give you links
KVOA News in Tucson, AZ
KITV News in Honolulu
Hawaii Reporter
Hawaii News Now
Nashville Scene
Courthouse News Service
5 Comments
Suffice it to say, you are my hero.
You keep me updated on this subject (since I sometimes hang out here at myFDL) and your perseverance and passion are unimpeachable. Stay golden.
Additional links I think are important:
ACLU, Hawaii, Press Release
Rosen Bien & Galvan, LLP, Press Release
Complaint in Medeiros v. State of Hawaii and CCA PDF
I also hate CCA…Not because I personally know of any transgressions/criminal offenses, but because I believe it is immoral to gamble on human life. I also believe that locking people up in cages is not in the best interest of society, especially one that now has a higher incarceration rate than Stalin.
Thanks for the up-dates. Any CCA news in New England?
agreed! not to my knowledge; New England really doesn’t have a lot of private prisons; New Hampshire is considering proposals to privatize its entire system and/or ship all its prisoners to out-of-state private facilities. Only VT and CT currently house any of their prisoners in private facilities, but I haven’t heard anything about CCA in New England recently.
I have only lived in Vermont for a short while and didn’t know we had a private prison. I will look into what is going on here. Thanks for the updates.
to be honest, I didn’t really know you did either. I don’t know the specific situation with Vermont since I only really follow the horror stories. As of 2010, the state kept 27% of its male prison population in private facilities. That could mean they are housed in a private prison in another state, or in a private prison located in Vermont. I think they’re shipped out-of-state though. That is the most recent year for which the Federal government has released data.