Briefs

• It’s been open less than a year but Colorado’s Department of Corrections is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct between officers and inmates, drug smuggling and brutality in the Kit Carson Correctional Facility in Burlington. The medium-security prison, which opened in November 1998, is operated by Corrections Corporation of America. Four male supervisors have been fired for harassing a female employee and one female staffer resigned as a result of sexual misconduct charges. Also, an inmate tried to escape the facility in July.

• The Police Correctional Officers in Philadelphia finally received the uniforms that Local 1637 (Council 33) had been seeking for them since 1996. The arbitrator in the case ruled that the city had to find out which parts of the uniform — including patrol jackets, ties and long-sleeve shirts — the members were lacking and issue them. The city must now provide basic uniform components on a yearly and as-needed basis. The arbitrator also ruled that a committee of union members and management must get together and determine what other benefits are owed to the Police Correctional Officers.

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Wisconsin Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher will stop sending inmates to Texas and terminate contracts with Texas county jails within one year in order to ship them to larger private prisons in other states. Wisconsin will send more inmates to private prisons run by CCA in Oklahoma and Tennessee. The state began shipping inmates to Texas three years ago because of overcrowding.

• A public records lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, charges Wackenhut Corrections Corp. of withholding information about the conditions of a private prison the company runs in Palm Beach (Fla.) County. The prison, South Bay Correctional Institution, apparently is rife with sexual harassment allegations and prisoner abuse. The ACLU also wants to look into the company’s finances, which may be exorbitant.

• Management & Training Corp. of Utah has been chosen by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to operate the second privately run state prison in northeast Ohio. The company has been awarded a $2.6 million contract to operate the Lake Erie Correctional Institute. The prison will house 1,380 medium-security inmates.