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| Report blasts state oversight of private prisons |
| By Daily Record |
| Published: 06/20/2005 |
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Two Colorado inmates incarcerated in privately operated prisons died after those prisons' physicians changed medications without first examining the patients, state auditors said June 13. The private prisons' failure to follow Colorado Department of Corrections' health-care standards "potentially contributed to the death of these inmates," Auditor Joanne Hill's staff charged in a scathing report to the Legislative Audit Committee. The two deaths - and the DOC's failure to adequately oversee medical and mental health services provided by private prisons - were among numerous criticisms auditors made about the Corrections Department's monitoring of private facilities that now house about 3,000 of this state's inmates. Auditors raised questions ranging from security and safety problems to the nutritional quality of some of the food being served inmates. DOC Executive Director Joe Ortiz and his staff acknowledged many of the problems the report highlighted. They also agreed with all of the more than 15 recommendations the auditors made and said many of those changes are already under way. Ortiz, however, noted that many of the report's suggestions for improving the state's oversight of private prison "come with a price tag" and that "sometimes we want platinum treatment when we're paying a copper fare." The Department of Corrections has contracts with six local governments for housing state inmates in those governments' jurisdictions, including five private prisons in Colorado as well as one in Tallahatchie County, Miss. Most of the 3,000-plus Colorado inmates now in those facilities have been classified as medium-custody or lower security levels, and the arrangement has provided the state a cheaper alternative to building and operating an equivalent number of its own medium- or minimum-security prison beds. Colorado paid more than $53 million to incarcerate inmates in private prisons during fiscal 2003-04 , and plans call for the state to pay $50.28 per inmate per day during the 2005-06 budget year that begins July 1. Lawmakers appeared particularly upset at provisions in the report about the Department of Corrections' lack of sufficient oversight over private prisons' health-care services. Auditors said none of the medical clinics operated by the five private prisons located in Colorado have met state licensing requirements, although DOC officials said that all five are in the process of getting those licenses now. State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, a Pueblo West Democrat who's not an Audit Committee member but who has 12 state prisons in her House district, said after sitting in on part of last Monday's presentation that "it's clear that the for-profit prison industry has no desire to follow their contracts, and it is costing taxpayers money every day in a state that is balancing a bare-bones budget." |
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