African American Inmates Sue Prison Company for endangering their lives
Four California inmates are suing the nation’s largest private prison company for allegedly endangering their lives.
The inmates were sent to North Fork Correctional Facility in Western Oklahoma as part of California’s efforts to ease prison overcrowding.
The plaintiffs, all African-Americans, claim Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) put them at risk by housing them and other black inmates in the same wing with Hispanic gang members. All 2,400 prisoners at the North Fork Correctional Facility in Western Oklahoma are from California, which shipped them there in 2007 after then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed an executive order designed to alleviate overcrowding in the state’s prison system.But in October 2011, a riot broke out at North Fork as Hispanic prisoners attacked black inmates.
Nearly 50 inmates were injured, with 16 requiring hospitalization. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that CCA and former warden Fred Figueroa did not properly train guards leading to “severe and permanent physical and mental injuries suffered by the plaintiffs.”
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