Prisoners are our clients _ CCA
Private Prisons of America
CCA founded the private corrections management industry three
decades ago, establishing industry standards for future-focused,
forward-thinking correctional solutions. A commitment to innovation,
efficiency, cost effectiveness and achievement has made the company the
partnership corrections provider of choice for federal, state and local
agencies since 1983.
As a full-service corrections management provider, we specialize
in the design, construction, expansion and management of prisons, jails and
detention facilities, along with residential reentry services, as well as
inmate transportation services through its subsidiary company TransCor America. We are the fifth-largest
corrections system in the nation, behind only the federal government and three
states. CCA houses nearly 70,000 inmates in more than 70 facilities, the
majority of which are company-owned, with a total bed capacity of more than
80,000. CCA currently partners with all three federal corrections agencies (The
Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and
Customs Enforcement), many states and local municipalities.
Since our inception, CCA has maintained its market leadership
position in private corrections, managing more than 40 percent of all
adult-secure beds under contract with such providers in the United States. The
company joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1994 and now trades under the
ticker symbol CXW.
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, CCA employs more than
13,000 professionals nationwide in security, academic and vocational education,
health services, inmate programs, facility maintenance, human resources,
management and administration. We are proud of the distinctions of having been
named among “America’s Best
Big Companies” by Forbes magazine and ranked number one in
the publication’s “Business Services and Supplies” category and having been
consistently named by G.I. Jobs magazine as a
“Top Military-Friendly Employer.” Being a part of the
community also provides valuable economic benefits to our partners by paying
property, sales and other taxes, and providing a stable employment base that
focuses on building careers with unlimited growth and development
opportunities. As a strong corporate citizen, recognized by Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine,
CCA contributes generously to host communities through volunteerism and
charitable giving.
We offer offenders a variety of dynamic evidence-based reentry and
rehabilitation programs, including education, addictions treatment,
GED preparation and testing, post-secondary studies, life skills, employment
training, recreational options, faith-based services and work opportunities.
As an enhanced focus on reentry, CCA's community
corrections facilities, specializing in providing work furlough, housing and
rehabilitation in residential reentry centers. Our work is grounded in
providing hope, direction and the best possible opportunity and environment for
offenders within the communities we serve. We offer government agencies
responsive, innovative and cost-effective solutions for offenders, including a
variety of rehabilitation and education programs, including substance abuse
treatment using the cognitive behavioral approach, a specialized women’s
program, onsite Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous meetings, life skills
lessons, employment readiness, cultural diversity workshops, release planning
and assistance in re-establishing family ties.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit
Friday accusing the U.S. government of broadly separating immigrant families
seeking asylum.
The lawsuit follows action the ACLU took in the case of a
Congolese woman and her 7-year-old daughter, who the group said was taken from
her mother "screaming and crying" and placed in a Chicago facility.
Though the woman was released Tuesday from a San Diego detention center, the
girl remains in the facility 2,000 miles away.
Immigrant advocates say the case is emblematic of the approach
taken by President Trump's administration. The lawsuit, which asks a judge to
declare family separation unlawful, says "hundreds of families" have
been split by immigration authorities.
The lawsuit also raises the case of a Brazilian woman who the
ACLU says was separated from her 14-year-old son after they sought asylum in
August. The ACLU says the woman was given an approximately 25-day sentence jail
sentence for illegally entering the country and then placed in immigration
detention facilities in West Texas, while her son was taken to a Chicago
facility.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not announced a
formal policy to hold adult asylum seekers separately from their children. But
administration officials have said they are separating parents and children to
deter others from trying to enter the U.S.
DHS acting press secretary Tyler Houlton, in a statement last
week on the case of the Congolese woman and her daughter, said government
officials have to verify that children entering the U.S. are not victims of
traffickers and that the adult accompanying them is actually their parent.
In separate court papers filed Wednesday, the U.S. government
said it is awaiting the results of DNA testing to confirm the woman is the
girl's mother.
"We ask that members of the public and media view advocacy
group claims that we are separating women and children for reasons other than
to protect the child with the level of skepticism they deserve," Houlton
said.
It's hard to determine how often parents and children are placed
in separate facilities after they seek asylum, which is granted to people who
have a credible fear of persecution if they are forced to return to their home
country.
Different government agencies are responsible for holding adults
and children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains adults accused
of immigration violations, while the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services cares for unaccompanied immigrant children.
Immigration advocates criticized President Obama's administration
for opening new family detention facilities in Texas, and called for parents
and children to be released. The two Texas facilities that it opened were found
by a federal judge in 2015 to violate a 1997 settlement requiring children be
released or otherwise held in the "least restrictive setting"
available.
That settlement set other standards for the detention of
children. The Trump administration has called for ending the settlement as part
of its demands for changes to immigration laws.
Top administration officials have said they believe the asylum
process is overwhelmed and challenged by people making frivolous claims.
Advocates have also accused border agents of unlawfully turning away people who
are seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Michelle Brané, director of the migrant rights and justice
program for the Women's Refugee Commission, said that through attorneys and
social service organizations, she had identified at least 426 immigrant adults
and children who had been separated by authorities since Trump took office in
January 2017. Brané said she did not have a comparable figure for Obama's
administration.
But Brané said since the new administration began, her office
has received far more reports of adults being held in ICE facilities without
knowing where their children are.
"A lot of these kids are already afraid because they're
fleeing something and they know they're fleeing something," Brané said.
"And to have them pulled away, that can be devastating for a parent."
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