Privateer Hit With 'Wrongful'-Death Verdict
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — A jury has ordered a for-profit corrections company and a former employee to pay a whopping $40.1 million in damages in connection with the death of an 18-year-old inmate.
The "wrongful"-death judgment against Correctional Services Corp. (CSC), and a registered nurse, Knyvett Reyes, involved inmate Bryan Alexander, who succumbed to a rare form of pneumonia in January 2001. Alexander had been confined on a drunk-driving conviction at the Tarrant County Community Correctional Facility in Mansfield, a now-defunct boot camp for young incorrigibles that was then operated by the Florida-based company.
As AFSCME Corrections United has often pointed out, private prison companies frequently have been cited for unsafe conditions.
During her trial, Reyes testified that after Alexander became ill, she treated him with an antibiotic for a cold, strep throat and flu. But a medical examiner said Alexander died in a hospital of a rare, penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia two days after he was transported from the camp.
His parents sued the nurse and the company, which operates 19 juvenile and 12 adult correctional facilities in 15 states. Last summer, the jury convicted Reyes of criminally negligent homicide for failing to report, assess and stabilize the young man's condition. The jury also found that the firm had acted with malice by ignoring Alexander's pleas for help. Witnesses said Alexander had been coughing up blood for days before he was hospitalized and also that Reyes thought he was faking his illness.
The jury ordered the company and the nurse to pay $40.1 million in punitive and compensatory damages. The CSC, a leading developer and operator of adult correctional facilities, is appealing the verdict and the punitive judgment.
