PRISONER WELFARE FUND...

...Don’t you mean CCA Slush Fund?

 

Anthony L. Brown
09 June 2005
CCA/FCC

When Alaskan prisoners exiled to the private for-profit prison in Florence, Arizona, purchase any item from the Commissary or are allowed to purchase special items (i.e., games, foods, etc.), a percentage of the total sales is placed into the Prisoner Welfare Fund (aka Inmate Benefit Fund). By Departmental Policy and Procedure (P&P 302.10) these monies are to be used, at the discretion of prison administrators, for items and materials used by prisoners, but not provided for in the Corrections’ budget.

The contract between the State of Alaska Department of Corrections (ADOC) and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), requires that these monies be collected and an activity report for this fund be provided, by CCA to AKDOC each month. If this report is being generated, does it not follow that ADOC officials, specifically the Commissioner and Director of Institutions are complicit in the misuse of those monies by CCA?

For example:

  • When Hawaiian corrections officials placed a limitation on the wages paid to Hawaiian prisoners, also housed at this facility, causing a discrepancy between the wages paid between Alaskan and Hawaiian prisoners, monies from the Alaska Prisoner Welfare Fund were used to cover the difference.

 

  • When the Alaskan Native and Black Culture organizations have their annual potlatch and banquet for family members, those organizations must hold special sales to raise the proceeds to cover the costs.  CCA, or Warden Luna specifically, used monies from the Alaska Prisoner Welfare Fund to pay the costs of a similar function for Hawaiian prisoners.

 

  • These monies were used to purchase exercise equipment (machines that CCA were required to provide by contract), with the replaced equipment sent to another CCA facility for use by another states’ contract prisoners.

 

  • Under former Warden Samdberg, these funds were used to pay informants. Although, it is only fair to note that, during an orientation speech to incoming prisoners, the present chief administrator, Warden Luna, stated specifically that they no longer “do that.

Exiled Alaska prisoners brought this abuse to the attention of corrections officials, but oversight is sorely lacking, with Director of Institutions, Mike Addington, informing one questioning prisoner that ADOC is having a problem even getting CCA to provide the required monthly reports. Misuse of the Prisoner Welfare Fund can only be expected without diligent oversight of this fund. Regardless the high ideals published as “The CCA Way,” CCA has a long history of fiduciary shenanigans and prisoner abuse. We invite and encourage you to read about them at www.prisonlegalnews.org

 

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