BOISE, Idaho - A potential class-action lawsuit against the nation’s largest private prison company over allegations of violence at the Idaho Correctional Center has been settled in federal court.
The agreement between the inmates and Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America was filed yesterday in US District Court in Boise.
In it, CCA doesn’t acknowledge the allegations but agrees to increase staffing, investigate all assaults, and make other sweeping changes at the lockup south of Boise. If the company fails to make the changes, the inmates can ask the courts to force CCA to comply.
The inmates, represented by the ACLU, sued last year on behalf of everyone incarcerated at the CCA-run state prison. They said that the prison was so violent it was dubbed “Gladiator School’’ and that guards used inmate-on-inmate violence as a management tool and then denied prisoners medical care.
Torture.
CCA has denied all the allegations as part of the settlement....
Both sides said that rather than trying to litigate allegations of past problems, the groups would work toward improving future conditions at the prison.
Kumbaya.
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