Sunday, January 30, 2011

Allen Stanford's Case Highlights Prison Violence

An inmate at the Joe Corley Detention Facility, a private prison owned by the GEO Group, was on the phone in his cell. The other prisoners in his unit on that day in late September 2009 didn't like that.

"While sitting in a chair, he was grabbed from behind and fell backwards hitting the back of his head on the concrete floor resulting in a concussion and loss of consciousness," his lawyers wrote in a later court filing. "While unconscious, he was repeatedly beaten about the head resulting in severe injuries to his face, i.e., right orbital fractures, fractures of the nose, and severe trauma to the right trigeminal nerve sensory branches requiring reconstructive general anesthesia surgery."

After the violent attack, the inmate was moved to a federal prison facility operated by the Bureau of Prisons, which falls under the purview of the Justice Department. Soon he was coughing up blood and passing it in his stool. He lost 40 pounds in 90 days.

Had this been one of the many other assaults that take place in federal and private prisons each year, that would have been the end of it. But this was Allen Stanford.

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