$1 Million Payout to Family of Man Who Died After Seizures in Montana Jail – Another needless, preventable death – kra
When will it end?! I have scores of articles on prison abuse. This is more of YOUR tax money needlessly wasted, because simple, proper administration of our prisons would end all of this.
Excerpts from the Article:
The family of Roger Lee Wells will receive $1 million in compensation for his death on March 10, 2018, after he suffered several consecutive seizures without ever receiving proper treatment at the Cascade County Detention Center located in Great Falls, Montana.
Wells was arrested a week earlier on a domestic violence charge. He was housed in the medical/geriatric pod of the detention center and slept on the floor of the overcrowded cell with two others. He submitted several written requests to the medical department explaining the need for his anti-seizure medication, yet never received it.
It is the responsibility of the medical staff to address all written requests for medication within a 48-hour period. According to Wells’ attorney, none of his written requests were responded to. His family attempted to drop off his medication at the county jail, but the jail refused to accept it. Wells finally told a nurse while doing her rounds about his medication. After looking into the situation, the nurse ordered the medication for Wells. It arrived at the jail the day after he died.
Wells had his first seizure around 3 a.m. on March 10. His second seizure occurred as jailers were transporting him to a padded observation room, and his third as he was placed in the cell when the nurse arrived. Wells experienced a total of nine seizures in a 2 ½-hour time period before he died, most recorded by camera between observation checks.
Current Sheriff Jesse Slaughter stated that it was protocol in the jail to transport someone to the emergency room after their second seizure. The Division of Criminal Investigation found that while some nurses working at the jail were aware of this policy, the one on duty handling Wells’ case was not.
A Billings, Montana, attorney representing the Wells estate submitted a demand letter to Planned Parenthood of Montana, which has the contract to provide the jail with general medical services. The insurance carrier for Planned Parenthood paid a $1 million settlement in October 2019 and no lawsuit was filed.
17 corrections officers disciplined in death of transgender woman at Rikers Island
All of our prisons are atrocious, but Rikers Island is a stand out. At least they took some action in this case. Mental health care in our prisons is virtually non existent. READ Prison Abuse – Why Massive Indifference is a Massive Mistake
The neglect of our mentally ill population costs YOU – the taxpayer, $444 billion every year!
Excerpts from the Article:
More than a dozen corrections officers will be disciplined in connection with the death of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco, a transgender woman held at New York’s Rikers Island jail, city officials said.
Three officers and a captain of the New York City Department of Correction were suspended without pay immediately, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement on Friday. Thirteen other uniformed staff are facing disciplinary action but officials did not discuss their status.
“The death of Layleen Polanco was an incredibly painful moment for our city,” de Blasio said. “What happened to Layleen was absolutely unacceptable and it is critical that there is accountability.”
Cubilette-Polanco, 27, died last year of complications from epilepsy while she was in “punitive segregation,” also known as solitary confinement, according to her autopsy and corrections officials.
She had been arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment, court records show. She was taken into custody because she missed court dates as part of an alternative to incarceration program stemming from prostitution charges, according to court records. She was sent to jail because she couldn’t afford the $500 bail, her family said.
Polanco was placed in what it called a restrictive housing unit at the Rose M. Singer Center on May 30, 2019, after she was adjudicated for an assault that injured another person in custody, the Department of Corrections said.
She was found unresponsive in her cell on June 7, 2019. When her autopsy was released, her family received records confirming that Polanco suffered multiple seizures while on Rikers Island, according to her family’s attorney, David Shanies. Her death renewed the conversation about the perils of cash bail, pretrial detention and other policies that civil rights groups say contribute to the criminalization of transgender women of color and other vulnerable communities.
The announcement of the disciplinary actions comes after the decision by the Bronx district attorney’s office earlier this month not to file criminal charges after completing a six-month investigation into Cubilette-Polanco’s death. Prosecutors concluded that they “would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any individual committed any crime associated with Ms. Polanco’s demise,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement.
But Clark said investigators found that corrections officers failed to follow the department’s policy to observe inmates in punitive segregation at least once every 15 minutes at irregular intervals.
“In this case, they allowed 47 minutes to pass between tours of Ms. Polanco’s cell. This violation was referred to DOC for appropriate administrative action,” Clark said.
The DOC describes the restrictive housing unit as a joint program with Correctional Health Services designed to “incentivize participation in mental health programs.” Residents of the unit receive up to seven hours a day outside of their cell for programming and services and entertainment.
More Than 200 Convicted of Corruption at Baltimore Department of Corrections; More Charges Announced
For 14 years now I have been sounding the alarm about America’s prisons. In every state, they are an agency out of control, so it is great to see that Baltimore (and afew other places) are cracking down!
Excerpts from the Article:
More than 200 guards, prisoners and civilians have been convicted of corruption at the Baltimore Department of Corrections’ prison system over the last four years. In a major new case revealed in December 2019, then-acting Captain Kevin Hickson and 24 other members of the Baltimore Central Regional Tactical Unit were indicted on 236 criminal charges of violent assault, tampering with and destroying evidence, and falsifying official public documents.
The Unit was investigated in 2016 for a series of incidents involving excessive use of force at several facilities. The Unit was responsible for maintaining order at the Metropolitan Transition Center, the Baltimore Pretrial Facility, the state Corrections Department’s Jail Industries Building, and Baltimore City Booking and Intake Facility.
Prosecutors and prison officials worked together and uncovered a criminal enterprise organized to maintain dominance within the prison system. Prosecutors stated that Hickson and his unit employed “illegal excessive use of force through assaults of inmates, use of threats against inmates, and various retaliatory practices to assure complete compliance with [the tactical team’s] authority, which bolsters [its] overall reputation within the territory and suppresses any dissension and discord among the overall prison population.”
Secretary of Corrections Robert Green said the allegations were “disturbing” and commended Governor Larry Hogan for making the issue a priority during his administration. “This case represents our strong effort to root out people who don’t belong in the field of public safety and rehabilitation,” he stated. “This is a disturbing case, but it does not and should not cast a shadow on the commitment and integrity of the exceptional correctional professionals in this department.”
Represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the 25 were charged December 3, 2019, after a year on administrative leave, and some could face up to 150 years in prison. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Friedman stated that she did not believe members of the Unit posed a risk to the public and released all but one pending trial.
Baltimore has previously seen multiple episodes of corruption within its prison system. In a contraband smuggling scheme, prosecutors stated that the Black Guerrilla Family used guards to gain control of the prison. [PLN, April 2015, p. 30.] In 2018 and 2019, more than three dozen guards were charged with smuggling heroin, cellphones, and pornography into the state’s medium-security and maximum-security prisons in Jessup. In September 2019, a former sergeant for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services was sentenced to 15 years for helping run the Crips gang inside state prisons and “enrich” it by helping the gang smuggle in contraband.
Green said this string of corruption cases did not show failure as a whole. “Evidence here today is that we investigated this case, we brought this forward,” he said. “It is a committed effort to be excellent.” Hogan stated, “We are again making clear that we have absolutely no tolerance whatsoever for corruption of any kind in our state prison system or anywhere else is state government.”
Lawmaker criticizes private prison raises
See my many articles on private prisons; they are a disaster! They spend billions of dollars in donations to legislators to get state contracts, but they will not spend the money they legally are required to spend to keep a sick inmate alive! That is FACT!
Excerpts from the Article:
A Republican lawmaker said he’s furious after legislators approved raises for private prison employees, but then said they can’t afford increases for workers already on state payrolls.
State Rep. J.J. Humphrey, R-Lane, said he’s asked Gov. Kevin Stitt to veto part of House Bill 4160. The measure calls for nearly $1.2 million in taxpayer funds to be spent to equalize employee pay at the contracted private correctional facilities statewide.
The measure passed the state House 98-0 and the state Senate 42-1.
Humphrey, who initially voted for the measure, said the raises were tucked into a larger Department of Corrections funding bill, which was pushed through in the final days of session. He thought he was funding raises for more than 400 public correctional employees and teachers, but didn’t notice the section also awarding increases to the private sector.
“It’s infuriating,” said Humphrey, who chairs the House’s public safety committee. “It makes me so mad I can hardly see straight. Let’s not tell people we can’t give (raises) because we don’t have the money then turn around and give it to private.”
Humphrey questioned why private prison employees are getting raises with public dollars when lawmakers are still struggling to increase compensation for other state employees. “It’s very disturbing that we would give a $1 million raise to private prison employees before a large majority of our (public) employees,” he said.
State Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, who authored the measure, said the Legislature was trying to equalize pay to ensure private prisons are adequately staffed.
He said recent raises for public correctional officers did not cover their counterparts staffing private institutions. “That creates a difference in pay,” Thompson said. “They try to stay together in pay as much as possible.” It’s critical to make sure private facilities stay operational, and lawmakers were trying to take care of both types, he said. “(There was) nothing nefarious toward our people,” Thompson said. “We need to do more, and I understand that. If I was one of those not included, I would have concerns as well.”
He doesn’t think Stitt should veto the measure.
State Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, who authored the measure in the state House, did not immediately return a message left seeking comment.
Former legislator Bobby Cleveland, executive director of the Oklahoma Corrections Professionals, said the bill is probably one of the worst he’s ever seen. Cleveland’s group advocates for correctional employees.
“We should not be taking our money out of (the) DOC (Department of Corrections) budget when we can’t even give a raise to probation and parole officers who have a very dangerous job,” he said. “But we’re going to give private prisons a raise out of our budget? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. I think we’ve lost our ever-loving mind.”
Cleveland said public correctional employees will be very upset as news spreads. Morale will take a hit.
Public government should not be subsidizing private businesses that are under contract with the state, he said.
“That is just blatantly wrong,” Cleveland said.
Two Effingham Co. jail officers arrested for bringing controlled substances into the facility
Contrary to what prison officials say, the truth is that more than 90% of contraband is brought in by D O C staff, not “visitors”. If convicted, they need prison time!
Excerpts from the Article:
Two Effingham County jail officers have been arrested and two more on paid administrative leave after a three month investigation. Jaleen Connerly, 32, and Betrice Taylor, 50, were arrested and charged with numerous things to include bringing a controlled substance inside the facility.
Connerly is charged with:
Obtaining, procuring, or giving an inmate tobacco or tobacco product without consent of jailer
Attempt or conspiracy to violate Georgia controlled substance act
Bribery
Unlawful for person/employee to associate with criminal street gang to conduct/participate in criminal activity
Unlawful to come inside guard lines to deliver to inmate a controlled substance, giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Taylor is charged with:
Unlawful for person/employee to associate with criminal street gang to conduct/participate in criminal activity
Giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Unlawful to come inside guard lines to deliver to inmate a controlled substance
Attempt or conspiracy to violate Georgia controlled substance act
Both women posted bail and have been released. The ongoing investigation also indicated two other employees that will remain on leave until the investigation is completed.
Audit: Massachusetts Department of Corrections Failed to Provide Timely Health Care or Reentry Services
This is the ongoing saga of abysmal performance of prisons in America. Why should we improve them? Because 96% of all inmates will be released … to become your neighbors! That this audit was even done is perhaps a sign of oh so slow progress.
I have news for you. This prison just switched to Correct Care Solutions, LLC. They are no better!
Excerpts from the Article:
An audit of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MDOC) released January 9, 2020, found that the agency was failing to provide prisoners with timely health care and proper reentry services, including help with needed medical appointments. As a result, prisoner health has been jeopardized, especially after release, exposing MDOC to legal risk, according to the office of State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump, which authored the study.
“Inmates have a right to timely health services while incarcerated, and we all have a vested interest in their successful reentry into society,” Bump said.
She called it “concerning” that MDOC’s “lax oversight” in these two ways “may have negatively affected inmate treatment and rehabilitation.”
Under MDOC policy, each Sick Call Request Form (SCRF) received from a prisoner must be processed within 24 hours on weekdays or 72 hours on weekends. But from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2018 – the period covered by the audit – MDOC dropped the ball in one out of five cases, with 20% of SCRFs failing to meet that processing time requirement. Of 60 prisoners whose cases were reviewed, there were a total of 297 SCRFs, and 55 of those were processed late from one to 31 days.
Additionally, MDOC policy requires screening by a qualified health care professional (QHP) within seven days after a prisoner submits a sick request form. Yet for nearly one-third of the prisoners whose files were reviewed – 19 out of 60 – there was no evidence that they were ever seen by a QHP. In 23 of the files, 163 SCRFs were missing information: 33 didn’t have a referral to a QHP, 102 didn’t have a nurse’s triage determination, and 28 didn’t show where the prisoner was housed.
The audit also examined the files of 60 soon-to-be-released prisoners with an eye out for their required Individual Reentry Plan (IRP). An IRP includes physical and mental health appointments for post-release services, any needed authorization for release of medical record (ARMR), refill prescriptions for necessary medications and explanations of Medicaid coverage. Twenty-two files – almost 37% of the total – had no evidence that IRPs were even discussed with prisoners.
In addition, five of the IRPs revealed a documented physical/mental health issue, but there was no evidence that any appointments were made with external medical providers. And for the 23 prisoners who were scheduled for medical appointments after release, no ARMRs were obtained and signed.
“There certainly has been a great deal more emphasis [in recent years] in the community about reentry plans and the need to facilitate this, so we don’t just perpetuate cycles of crime in an individual’s life,” Bump observed.
The audit also examined areas specific to women’s health care, including breast and pelvic exams, as well as pregnancy-related concerns. MDOC was found in substantial compliance with its policies regarding its requirement to inform women of the availability of services and with providing those services to them. However, Bump noted that mold at the state women’s prison in Framingham prohibited her auditors from getting a look at the medical files of some female prisoners.
MDOC also runs the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center, a Plymouth facility for men involuntarily committed for treatment under the state Section 35 law. Though never convicted of a crime, 10 men held there have sued MDOC for the facility’s “appalling conditions” and the inadequate treatment they received at the former prison camp, where they arrived shackled and handcuffed in a prison van to be strip-searched and monitored mainly by MDOC prison guards and even forced to wear jumpsuits like prisoners.
The auditors recommended that MDOC educate staff in reentry-service standards and retrain staff members to correctly complete SCRs and IRPs. It was further recommended that staff assigned to reentry services work solely in that area rather than doing multiple jobs.
MDOC indicated that during the period of the audit, health care to prisoners was provided by a third-party vendor, Massachusetts Partnership for Correctional Healthcare, LLC. But as of July 1, 2018, MDOC entered into a new contract with Correct Care Solutions, LLC.
As of June 2018, MDOC’s 8,741 prisoners were kept in 16 correctional facilities with a total 4,600 employees. The agency received $645 million in state appropriations during fiscal year 2018.
U.S. Must Release Children From Family Detention Centers, Judge Rules The ruling applies to children held in the nation’s three family detention centers for more than 20 days. They must be let go by July 17, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
How bad is the tRump administration? It doesn’t get worse than killing people, and so far their incompetence has killed more than 125,000 via the coronavirus, and hundreds of thousands more with their dismantling of the EPA, poisoning land, water, and air.
But a close second is their cruelty to CHILDREN! You saw the kids in cages. I have written and posted several articles about it. Here is the latest decision by a federal judge, hammering ICE and saying: “The family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures.” Many of the children never should have been detained at all; they should have been placed with loved ones already in America!
Excerpts from the Article:
Citing the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday ordered the imminent release of migrant children held in the country’s three family detention centers.
The order to release the children by July 17 came after plaintiffs in a long-running case reported that some of them have tested positive for the virus. It applies to children who have been held for more than 20 days in the detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
There were 124 children living in those facilities on June 8, according to the ruling.
In her order, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California criticized the Trump administration for its spotty compliance with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To prevent the virus from spreading in congregate detention facilities, the agency had recommended social distancing, the wearing of masks and early medical intervention for those with virus symptoms.
“The family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures,” she wrote.
Given the pandemic, Judge Gee wrote, ICE must work to release the children with “all deliberate speed,” either along with their parents or to suitable guardians with the consent of their parents. The order was the first time a court had set a firm deadline for the release of minors in family detention if their parents designated a relative in the United States to take custody. Recent orders had required their “prompt” release.
“Some detained parents facing deportation brought their children to this country to save them from rampant violence in their home countries,” said Peter Schey, counsel for the class of detained children, “and would prefer to see their child released to relatives here rather than being deported with the parent to countries where children are routinely kidnapped, beaten and killed.”
Judge Gee oversees compliance with the 1997 Flores settlement agreement that sets national standards for the treatment and release of detained immigrant children.
The Trump administration has been trying to terminate the settlement for the last two years, but those efforts have been blocked by Judge Gee and are currently being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Eleven children and parents have tested positive for the coronavirus at a family detention center in Karnes City, Texas. Some migrants at a family facility in Dilley, Texas, are awaiting test results after workers there tested positive for the virus.
Over all, about 2,500 immigrants in ICE detention have tested positive for the virus. The agency has said that it has released at least 900 people with underlying conditions and that it has shrunk the population in each facility to mitigate the spread of the virus.
The Whole Story
To save money, California will close its youth prison system – GREAT! – kra
This article was sent to me by my dear friend, Charito, who teaches restorative justice internationally, and now heads the Delaware Civil Rights Coalition.
Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, J.D./M.A.C.T.
Coordinator, Delaware Civil Rights Coalition
charitocw@aol.com
Cell 717-951-0905
I have written much about juvenile detention, and, bottom line: it is ineffective, counter productive, and often cruel!
Excerpts from the Article:
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh heavily on state budgets, state leaders are working to reappropriate funds as they try to deal with the massive loss of revenue. In California, though, money woes have indirectly delivered a win for criminal justice reform advocates. To forestall the severity of an inevitable budgetary shortfall, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a revised spending plan Thursday that includes dissolving the state’s juvenile incarceration arm, the Department of Juvenile Justice.
The announcement calls for disbanding the DJJ in two parts: halting entrance of new youth detainees beginning next January, and closing the four currently operational state-run facilities by 2023. The 750 youth detainees held by DJJ are generally between the ages of 15 and 25, says Renee Menart, a spokesperson for Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, and most have been convicted of robberies and burglaries. Menart tells Mic that those under the age of 18 will be directed to county-run facilities, and those over the age of 18 will be directed to adult facilities.
The conditions of incarceration are dire — and as the governor indicates in the new budget, they’re also expensive. State-run juvenile detention and probation programs cost the state about $200 million each year, and a state budget report found that California spent about $300,000 on each incarcerated young person in 2019.
In order to stave off the economic harm from coronavirus, the state needs to cut costs. “With a higher demand for social safety net services increasing state costs, the $54.3 billion deficit is more than three times the size of the record $16 billion set aside in the state’s Rainy Day Fund,” a press release from the governor’s office explained.
The move isn’t a surprise to advocates, as the governor had already indicated in earlier budget proposals a readiness to reduce the state’s rate of incarceration, with specific attention paid to the hundreds of young people who are incarcerated in California. The pandemic did accelerate Newsom’s timeline, though, which Jay Jordan, the executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, says is a “huge win.” Ideally, no child would be locked up, Jordan tells Mic, but it’s a “transformative step in the right direction” and a shift in “the way California is viewing public safety.”
Jordan says that minors who are incarcerated in DJJ facilities will be transferred back to a local juvenile detention center, an important move as half of those currently incarcerated by the state are over 100 miles from their “home communities,” according to CJCJ. Isolation from family and support systems can have dire consequences on the health and wellbeing of an incarcerated young person, Jordan says, and connection to community is one of the “biggest indicators of [future] success.”
Jordan, who was himself incarcerated by the state’s juvenile system, says that his parents “visited me every visiting time they got. It helped me out so much that I felt loved.” Being close to family and loved ones is a way of saying “you are still human, we still value your life. That speaks volumes to kids,” Jordan tells Mic.
The move also indicates to the public, Jordan says, that “we don’t need youth prisons.” The CJCJ found that “most youth return to the justice system within three years of their release from DJJ.” In other words, incarceration often leads to further incarceration for young people. Menart says that these “facilities prepare youth for an institutional setting,” as opposed to preparing them to be successful members of their local communities when they’re free.
Closing the larger state-run juvenile prisons is also a matter of public health: A CJCJ report found that the state-run prisons often had unsanitary common area and dormitory conditions, and additionally failed to protect incarcerated youth from beatings and sexual assault. There’s also evidence that suicide attempts are on the rise.
California’s move to close state juvenile detention facilities is just the latest in a number of steps taken across the country to reduce the number of incarcerated people incarcerated. The movement has gained particular steam as coronavirus threatens the close quarters and resource-strapped conditions in jails.
Prison broke rules 600 times, inquest finds – No Surprise to Me! – kra
Standard for so many prisons! They ignore the law, they ignore their own rules, and inmates DIE!
NDIT
AND IT CONTINUES BECAUSE NOBODY IS PROSECUTED!
Excerpts from the Article:
Andrew Jones died while being held in segregated conditions without essential medication or access to exercise, showers or phone calls as he awaited a hearing into an incident. He was not informed that his case had been delayed after earlier hearings overran.
Senior Coroner Dr James Adeley found that Jones, 37, was being “unlawfully segregated” beyond the permitted four-hour period. He added that while prisoners could legitimately be segregated while awaiting a hearing, there was “no legitimate reason” to segregate Jones given that no-one else was involved in the original incident, and thus there was no danger that he could collude or intimidate anyone.
While segregated, he had his prescribed supplies of Quetiapine, a mood stabilisation medication, and Tramadol, an opiate for severe back pain, taken away. Because healthcare was not informed that he had been moved to a different wing while segregated, the medication was not resumed, leading to withdrawal symptoms.
Dr Adeley estimated that over a three or four year period leading up to Jones’s death in November 2018, between 600 and 700 prisoners at Garth had been isolated beyond the de facto four hour period allowed under segregation laws.
Senior prison staff admitted at the inquest that the segregation was illegal and that Jones should have been returned to his wing after the four hours were up. The inquest jury found that “prolonged confinement in his cell was detrimental to Andrew Jones’ mental health and contributed to his death”. It found that there had been a “gross failure to provide even basic care for a fully dependent person”, and that “every opportunity to provide this care was missed”.
It concluded that his death “was contributed to by gross neglect”.
In his report, Dr Adeley also condemned an investigation into the death by NHS England which concluded that the prisoner’s medications “were prescribed appropriately” and that he “received healthcare equivalent to that which he could have expected to receive in the community”. The coroner said: “This statement is almost entirely inaccurate and is based upon inadequate medical evidence.”
A consultant psychiatrist who assessed the case found that factors including stopping Jones’s medication; denying him access to a shower, phone call or exercise; the delay to the hearing; and a lack of distraction activities had created a “perfect storm” which contributed to his death.
The Whole Story:
Company Hawking Prison Phone Monitoring Technology as Way to Discover Coronavirus Infections – Stupid Idea – kra
As the article points out, this is a stupid idea, invades inmates’ privacy, and does not accomplish its intended goal!
Prison IS the worst place to get coronavirus because (1) the health care workers are lazy, incompetent, or worse, (2) they and prison staff have NO clue what they are doing, and (3) staff often ignore protocol and the law.
Excerpts from the Article:
A Los Angeles-based company has been selling to jails and prison systems phone-monitoring technology that searches for keywords, touting it as a way to discover COVID-19 infections early.
LEO Technologies developed the Verus system, which has already been deployed in at least 26 facilities in 11 states, including the Georgia prison system, at least seven Alabama county jails, and at least one facility in California. Some use LEO for non-COVID-19-related purposes. The prisons implement Verus by asking their prison phone service provider to share call data with LEO, which routes the data though Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud-computing division of Amazon. AWS sends LEO transcripts and the transcripts are read for keywords such as “coughing,” “sick,” “sneezing” or “COVID-19” by LEO staff. Could anything go wrong?
“Obviously, people talking about COVID-19 on the phone does not necessarily mean they are infected with COVID-19. The whole world is talking about the virus right now,” said Shilpi Agarwal, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. “It’s not at all clear that any of the monitoring and analysis would be accurate; we know that voice recognition technology is deeply biased. Moreover, we also know that this kind of recording technology has been misused in the past to financially exploit inmates and to spy on their conversations with attorneys.”
LEO Technologies CEO Scott Kernan is a former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation secretary who sits on the board of GEO Group, one of the largest private prison companies in the world. LEO Technologies is funded by Elliott Broidy, a former national deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee whose office was raided by the FBI in 2018 in conjunction with an investigation of money laundering and influence peddling. In 2009, Broidy pleaded guilty to New York felony bribery charges, admitting to providing payments to staffers in the state’s comptroller’s office.
Kernan admits Verus is not subject to any outside auditing for accuracy and there is no “hard and fast rule” about who handles prisoners’ call data and for how long. He said Verus has already transcribed over 84 million minutes of calls at a cost of 6 to 8 cents a minute.
But who is going to pay those 6 to 8 cents per minute? It will not be the prisons and jails, and LEO certainly is not going to provide the service for free. That leaves prisoners–or rather their families—who will be stuck with a bill just to be able to spend a few minutes on the line with their loved ones.
“While this may be well intentioned, it’s absurd to rely on eavesdropping on prisoners’ phone calls to identify those who may have COVID-19,” said David Fathi, director of the ALCU’s National Prison Project. “If prisons and jails want sick prisoners to self-identify, they should stop charging them for medical care, and eliminate the many other barriers and disincentives to seeking care that currently exist.”
“To be clear, the way we can actually protect folks from COVID-19 is to decarcerate the prisons and jails,” said Agarwal.
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