A 170-page report recently released by the D.C. corrections trustee on the troubled prison housing D.C. inmates in Youngstown, Ohio, paints a picture of a poorly organized institution with a relatively inexperienced staff where "unnecessarily harsh and humiliating procedures were systematically employed" against inmates.

Trustee John L. Clark’s findings come as a group of D.C. officials are working behind-the-scenes to revise the contract governing the services provided to the District at the private Youngstown facility by Corrections Corporation of America. The one-year contract, which expired Sept. 9, has been extended through Jan. 9 as representatives of the Department of Corrections, the chief management officer, corporation counsel’s office, and city contracting office work to address flaws in the contract highlighted by Clark’s report.

Meanwhile, Mayor Marion Barry Jr. and control board counsel Dan Reznick were preparing at press time to fly to Akron, Ohio, to comply with a federal judge’s order that they attend a closed-door conference Dec. 23 to discuss settling a class-action lawsuit brought against the District by inmates housed at the private prison. The inmates claim the facility lacks adequate health care and work opportunities and that city officials and prison management failed to protect them from violent attacks by other inmates.

The trustee’s report, the product of a four-month in-vestigation by Clark and a team of corrections experts, supports at least some of the prisoners’ claims. The report documents a series of mistakes and poor practices by Nashville-based CCA and the D.C. Department of Correc-tions that led to a widely publicized series of stabbings, assaults and homicides last spring and the escape July 25 of six inmates from an "unsupervised" recreation yard at the Northeast Ohio Correc-tional Center (NEOCC).

The report includes a detailed account of a prolonged "shakedown" by prison management in the wake of the second murder at the facility last March. The report describes several rounds of "degrading" and "unusual" strip searches during which prisoners were "paraded," naked and shackled, in open areas, frequently in the presence of female staff. The report also details frequent use of force, including gas, chemical agents and electric stun belts against inmates, sometimes for minor offenses such as looking in the wrong direction.

"The administration’s approach to management of the facility, which previously had been particularly lax and slow to respond, suddenly became harsh and reactive," the report said. "(This period) could fairly be described as a reign of humiliation directed indiscriminately at the entire inmate population."

The report also lists more than 110 weapons confiscated from inmates during several weeks in March and April of this year, including scissors, knives, razor blades, sharpened metal rods and a saw blade. The report faults prison management for, among other things, buying carts and other equipment from which prisoners could easily remove metal parts to make homemade weapons. The widespread presence of makeshift weapons led investigators to conclude that inmates had access to sharpening tools and other equipment. Prison records also show two inmates were found possessing handcuff keys.

According to the report, the recreation yard from which six inmates escaped in July was "completely unsupervised for as long as 40 minutes." Prison officials did not become aware of the escape until an inmate alerted a supervisor about it about half an hour later, the report said. The report faulted prison management for a disorganized response to the escape. Local law enforcement officials arrived on the scene to find "near chaos," the report said.

The report concludes that CCA operated in "a reactive mode," instituting change in its procedures only after intense negative publicity and public scrutiny.

The trustee’s report commends CCA for bringing in new leadership and revising procedures at the facility in the wake of its widely publicized problems. Violence and disruption have since de-creased, the report said, and steps have been taken to improve conditions in a number of areas. Yet, the report concludes that inadequate work and education programs, damaged relations between inmates and staff, a still unseasoned crop of guards and a deep mistrust of CCA among Youngstown residents make long-term success of the prison "uncertain."

"Emergency teams heavily outfitted in riot gear, after performing a customary strip search of each inmate, refused to allow the inmates to at least cover themselves with shorts and led them shackled and naked out of their cells where they forced them to lie on the floor in groups or to kneel, leaning their face against the wall for 30 to 60 minutes while the cells were searched."

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"Records show that calculated uses of force was employed on 52 inmates during several weeks in March and April... For example, in one case, the official staff report indicates that after an inmate had been handcuffed behind his back and moved outside his cell, he did not obey an order to ‘keep his eyes and head looking forward and down towards the wall.’ The officer wrote, ‘Shortly after this he began to look around again. I sprayed pepper spray on my glove and wiped it on his face.’

"In another case an inmate looked out of his cell window at the activity of the Special Operations Response Team. After being told not to look out, he was later observed looking through his window. A seven member team in riot gear was assembled at his door. The small slot for passing food was opened and the cell was sprayed with a pepper mace fogger. The SORT team then forcefully entered the cell, restrained the inmate and his cell mate and removed them... These cases represent an over-reaction by staff... It might be noted that the team leader who directed these and several other incidents of use of force was soon promoted to become the chief of security."

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"The harsh and unusual manner of these wide-spread, systematic searches left a deep scar of humiliation on the population, which is made up primarily of African-American prisoners... The unusual and degrading manner of the searches served no legitimate security or correctional purpose. Rather, it is apparent that the searches had a profoundly negative effect on the operations and life of the facility."

According to the report, there was no policy in place to guide corrections officers at the prison about appropriate use of chemical agents and electronic stun shields to control inmates.

"Institutional policy does not describe a sequence of events that must normally occur before (chemical agents) can be applied to an inmate. In addition, no guidance is provided regarding the amount of (chemical agent) that may normally be utilized.

"NEOCC written policy states that electronic stun shields are justified ‘to enforce institutional regulations and/or orders.’ This statement appears to be too general and provides too much discretion in the use of these devices. Policy that references the conditions that must exist prior to activating the stun belt was non-existent."

"There are very few constructive work or program opportunities for most prisoners, which directly violates the Department of Corrections contract... resulting in inmate boredom and negative inmate interactions."

The recreation department is staffed by one person... The recreation facilities for those in the Special Housing Unit are ten fenced cages, with concrete floors, and surrounded by a wall. The cages are completely empty, without a bench or any equipment."

"80 percent of the correctional officers hired were new to corrections. This fact is particularly alarming given the type of inmate population housed at the facility. Interviews revealed that most (officers) believed they were ill-prepared because of their lack of experience and training to deal with this inmate population."

"The lack of correctional experience on the part of almost all staff, especially supervisors, severely hampered NEOCC’s attempts to manage a difficult inmate population. In spite of the commitment and enthusiasm of the line staff as a group, they are not yet sufficiently experienced and trained for their duties."

"Although all six escapees were serving very long sentences and five of the six were convicted murderers, they were assigned to the Low-Medium security housing unit. They were counted and processed to the (recreation) yard through a malfunctioning metal detector by five relatively inexperienced correctional officers... Reports show that officers were allowed to leave their posts to use the rest room for unspecified periods. One staff member was playing ping pong in the gym with a group of inmates. It appears that the outside yard area went completely unsupervised for as long as 40 minutes... During the entire period of recreation, no supervisors visited the area nor were there any telephone checks. In fact, the shift commander, a captain, turned over command of the entire facility to a very inexperienced lieutenant. The captain’s activities are mostly unaccounted for, as he reportedly completed paperwork in an isolated office...

"Sometime during this period, the six inmates cut a four-foot hole in the heavy gauge chain link inner perimeter fence near the recreation yard. They then moved a distance along the fence to a less visible area and cut through the outer fence, managed to make their way through three rolls of razor ribbon and escape undetected. No alarm was activated in the electronic detection and motion alarm system.

"(After the escape) the staff who processed the inmates back in (from the yard) did not count them as was called for by procedure, or the escape might have been discovered considerably earlier. Likewise, no staff inspected the recreation yard after the close of the activity as would be common practice. Had they done so, they may well have discovered the holes in the fence. Staff only became aware of the escape after the inmates returned to the unit and a unit manager was informed of the problem by an inmate."

"At CCA’s Torrance County, New Mexico, facility in early August 1998, a D.C. inmate from the high security unit being removed from a small fenced recreation cage, managed to slip his (hand)cuffs, assault the officer and take his keys. He then freed approximately 10 other inmates from adjacent recreation areas who engaged in a serious brawl with staff.

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"A homicide occurred at CCA’s Mason, Tennessee, facility on August 27, 1998. Two D.C. inmates... who had animosity... were somehow allowed out of their cells at the same time. One slipped his handcuffs and assaulted the other with a sharpened weapon. The victim was stabbed seven times and died a short while later."

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"On October 12... four high security state inmates at the CCA facility in Clifton, Tennessee, escaped through a hole in the fence of the recreation yard. This was a near carbon copy of the NEOCC escape."

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"In October 1996, at the CCA facility in Florence, Arizona,... six Alaska state inmates escaped undetected through the perimeter fence during a recreation period. Three were murderers and two were sex offenders. A number of the high security D.C. inmates from NEOCC have recently been transferred to this facility."

"The Review Team discovered no company-wide policy changes or alerts to wardens on lessons learned from these escapes... CCA management has not provided any investigative report in response to the request of the Department of Corrections Director. Likewise, they have not responded to several oral requests and two written requests from the Trustee’s Review Team for a written report... These failures have hampered and obstructed the important work of the Department of Corrections and this Review Team....

On several occasions Review Team staff were informed by CCA administrators that written reports were not done after critical incidents on advice of legal counsel. It is apparent that more importance was given to concerns for documents turning up in subsequent litigation than with correcting past problems or preventing future ones...."

"There is a strong perception that after first winning the good will of the community prior to opening, CCA’s Northeast Ohio Correctional Center leadership soon adopted a posture of independence and isolationism... A number of officials voiced a concern that CCA exhibits a limited sense of public accountability and responsiveness as it carries out a sensitive societal mission."

"... Once the prison was established, little effort was made by NEOCC to maintain a partnership with citizens or public officials or to create an open line of communication... Unresponsiveness on the part of NEOCC leadership significantly contributed to an environment of community mistrust of the corporation... An addition to this situation was the corporate policy of restricting the media from information regarding the negative occurrences at NEOCC."

"The recent creation of a Citizens Advisory Committee by NEOCC is seen as a positive step toward community outreach and inclusion. While the development of the committee is considered to be favorable, its ability to reverse what appears to be deep-seated public skepticism regarding NEOCC is uncertain. Part of this skepticism is based on the perception that the establishment of this committee came about only very belatedly and half-heartedly, in response to the pressure of public and media attention."

"There has been significant, though fragile, improvement at NEOCC in the past several months. In particular, there has been a marked reduction in reported violence and disruption, with most of the more troublesome inmates having recently been removed. The facility appears to be more organized and is working on solving many of its previous problems. This situation remains vulnerable and significant problems persist. Long-term success can be achieved only if there is a strong commitment to improvement and accountability by CCA and D.C. Department of Corrections, along with close public scrutiny."

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator