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March 13, 2008
CCA Top Lawyer and Federal Judicial Nominee Gus Puryear Implicated in Private Prison Cover-up Scheme
CCA Top Lawyer and Federal Judicial Nominee Gus Puryear Implicated in Private Prison Cover-up Scheme
March 13, 2008 – Private Corrections Institute
P R E S S R E L E A S E
For Immediate Release
Federal Judicial Nominee Gus Puryear Implicated in Private Prison Cover-up Scheme;
Watchdog Group Calls for New Hearing Following Whistleblower Disclosures
Nashville, TN – Today, Time magazine implicated Gustavus A Puryear IV, general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and a federal judicial nominee who is pending confirmation, in a scheme whereby certain incidents at CCA-operated prisons were excluded from the company's internal quality assurance reports before such reports were disclosed to contracting government agencies.
According to CCA whistleblower Ronald T. Jones, who until last year was employed as a senior manager in the company's quality assurance division, CCA reportedly maintained different sets of quality assurance reports. The unredacted reports were for internal use only under "attorney-client privilege," at Mr. Puryear's instruction. Mr. Jones worked under Mr. Puryear's direct supervision for over two years after CCA's quality assurance division was placed under the company's legal department in 2005.
As reported by Time magazine, CCA’s use of redacted internal reports was part of a larger corporate culture in which the company's employees had financial incentives to withhold or downplay the reporting of adverse incidents at CCA-operated facilities. Even the company's own board members may have received doctored reports.
"If these allegations are accurate, they raise significant concerns about Mr. Puryear’s involvement in failing to fully disclose adverse incidents at CCA's for-profit prisons," stated Alex Friedmann, Vice President of the Private Corrections Institute. "That is certainly not conduct worthy of a federal judicial candidate."
Mr. Puryear had a rocky nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 12, and since has been questioned about his conflicts of interest; his lack of trial and litigation experience; his comments related to a prisoner's death at a CCA-operated jail; and his membership in a private, almost exclusively-white club where women members are unable to vote or hold office.
Based upon the recently disclosed whistleblower information, the Private Corrections Institute, which opposes Mr. Puryear's nomination, has called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold another evidentiary hearing to consider Mr. Jones' testimony. Mr. Jones initially contacted the Private Corrections Institute concerning his allegations involving Mr. Puryear and CCA's questionable internal quality assurance reporting practices.
The Private Corrections Institute is a non-profit agency that works to educate the public about the significant dangers and pitfalls associated with the privatization of correctional services. PCI maintains an online collection of news reports and other resources related to the private prison industry, and holds the position that for-profit prisons have no place in a free and democratic society.
For further information, please contact:
Ken Kopczynski, Executive Director
Private Corrections Institute
1114 Brandt Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32308
(850) 980-0887
www.privateci.org
Alex Friedmann, Vice President
Private Corrections Institute
5341 Mt. View Road
Antioch, TN 37013
(615) 495-6568
Dee Hubbard, President
Private Corrections Institute
P.O. Box 88
Sterling, AK 99672
(907) 252-3155
Time magazine article
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1722065,00.html
For additional information on the opposition campaign against Mr. Puryear’s federal judicial nomination:
www.againstpuryear.org
Posted by lois at March 13, 2008 06:12 PM