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| U.S. Justice Department investigating alleged wrongdoing by CCA |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/18/2001 |
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Officials at Corrections Corporation of America say they are unaware of a U.S. Justice Department investigation against the company. A federal court filing claims the Justice Department is exploring whether CCA has coerced inmates to waive their rights to sue over injuries suffered while in custody. Former CCA inmate Ricky Lee Thompson claimed that after he was attacked by other inmates, CCA prison officials used solitary confinement to try to persuade him to sign a settlement. In a filing to report on progress in the case, Thompson's lawyers said they had been notified in writing that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division was interested in 'investigating whether the allegations ... may be a corporate and institutional pattern and practice.' Dan Nelson, a spokesman for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said that 'a criminal matter has been opened into the Thompson case.' But Nelson said there was no specific investigation into whether CCA's management has had a pattern of policy as described in the filing. In the lawsuit, Thompson - an Alabama resident who had served time at CCA's South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Tenn. - said that he had been harassed by members of a prison gang demanding money for protection. He said that to avoid the men he told the correctional officer on duty that he wanted to 'be locked down in his restricted living cell ... and out of harm's way.' The lawsuit says that after admitting Thompson to the restricted living area, the officer also let in the inmates he was trying to avoid. Thompson says the men assaulted him with knives and the prison staff did not immediately give him aid. After spending several days at Nashville Memorial Hospital to recover, Thompson says in his lawsuit that he was returned to the prison. He says he was then placed 'in punitive solitary confinement in a cell to sleep on the floor like an animal with his wounds reopened and bleeding.' The lawsuit claims that Thompson remained confined alone for 30 days while prison officials attempted to 'intimidate, terrorize, threaten and coerce' him if he didn't sign a waiver releasing CCA from liability for the incident and accepting a $25,000 settlement. When he repeatedly refused, the lawsuit said, Thompson was transferred to a state prison facility to serve the remainder of his sentence. CCA chief executive John Ferguson denied the company ever offered Thompson any kind of monetary settlement. |
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