Arizona Area Program

103 N. Park Ave, Suite 111  Tucson, AZ 85719  Phone 520/623-9141  Fax 520/623-5901
afscaz@afsc.org  http://afsc.org/az

MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact:

February 23, 2016

Ben Roussel (212-255-2575/ ben@caminopr.com)

New report reveals private corporation backroom deals and ex-offender
warehousing rather than treatment
Grassroots Leadership and American Friends Service Committee expose lack
of accountability, poor care and the exploitation of ex-offenders
AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, prison reform advocacy organizations Grassroots Leadership and
American Friends Service Committee Tucson will host a telephone press briefing on its newly
released report, “Incorrect Care: A Prison Profiteer Turns Care into Confinement.” This report
outlines rampant, shocking mistreatment and abuse of power committed by private prison
corporations as these entities continue to swell–now also providing mental health and health care
treatment–as well as policy solutions to stop these abuses.
What: Press briefing on “Incorrect Care: A Prison Profiteer Turns Care into Confinement”
When: Tues., Mar. 1 at 1:00 pm Eastern
Who:
● Cate Graziani, mental health campaigns coordinator, Grassroots Leadership
● Caroline Isaacs, Arizona program director, American Friends Service Committee
RSVP: For dial-in information, email Ben Roussel at ben@caminopr.com or call 212-255-2575.
Key report examples of mistreatment and abuse include:
●

Florida has the most concentrated “Treatment Industrial Complex” (TIC) in the country and it
is killing people. For example, in 2011, Luis Santana died in a psychiatric facility run by
private corporation GEO, now Correct Care Solutions (CCS). He had been left unattended in
a scalding bathtub of 118 degree water.

●

The former executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission
was asked to step down from his position in 2015, after a contracting scandal exposed his
extremely close relationship with a GEO lobbyist with whom he was working to privatize
multiple state hospitals.

Quaker values in action

●

GEO/CCS contracts in Texas and Florida offer state governments financial incentives to
keep people locked up, charging a lower rate when the facilities are full. A resident of the
Florida Civil Commitment Center revealed that GEO/CCS can file as many disciplinary

reports against someone in the program as they please and then use those reports to keep
individuals confined.
This report is the first in a series of three reports to be released this year, as updated companion
reports to 2014’s “The Treatment Industrial Complex: How For-Profit Prison Corporations are
Undermining Efforts to Treat and Rehabilitate Prisoners for Corporate Gain.”

#####
The American Friends Service Committee is a non-profit organization that works for justice and human
rights both nationally and internationally. The Arizona office, based in Tucson, advocates for criminal justice
reform.

Quaker values in action