Suicide reveals squalid prison conditions

updated 5:49 p.m. ET July 6, 2007

BOISE, Idaho - After months alone in his cell, Scot Noble Payne finished 20 pages of letters, describing to loved ones the decrepit conditions of the prison where he was serving time for molesting a child.

Then Payne used a razor blade to slice two 3-inch gashes in his throat. Guards found his body in the cell’s shower, with the water still running.

“Try to comfort my mum too and try to get her to see that I am truly happy again,” he wrote his uncle. “I tell you, it sure beats having water on the floor 24/7, a smelly pillow case, sheets with blood stains on them and a stinky towel that hasn’t been changed since they caught me.”

Payne’s suicide on March 4 came seven months after he was sent to the squalid privately run Texas prison by Idaho authorities trying to ease inmate overcrowding in their own state. His death exposed what had been Idaho’s standard practice for dealing with inmates sent to out-of-state prisons: Out of sight, out of mind.

It also raised questions about a company hired to operate prisons in 15 states, despite reports of abusive guards and terrible sanitation.

'They cut corners'
Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request show Idaho did little monitoring of out-of-state inmates, despite repeated complaints from prisoners, their families and a prison inspector.

More than 140,000 U.S. prison beds are in private hands, and inmates’ rights groups allege many such penitentiaries tolerate deplorable conditions and skimp on services to increase profits.

“They cut corners because the bottom line is making money,” said Caylor Rolling, prison program director at Partnership for Safety and Justice in Portland, Ore., a group that promotes prison alternatives.

Payne, 43, was placed in solitary confinement because he escaped from the prison in December by scaling a fence and eluding capture for a week.

He was among Idaho inmates sent to the prison in Spur, Texas, run by a Florida-based company called the GEO Group. The business operates more than 50 prisons across the United States as well as in Australia and South Africa.

'A major contributing factor'
Soon after Payne’s suicide, the Idaho Department of Correction’s health care director inspected the prison and declared it the worst facility he had ever seen. Don Stockman called Payne’s cell unacceptable and the rest of the Dickens County Correctional Center “beyond repair.”

“The physical environment ... would have only enhanced the inmate’s depression that could have been a major contributing factor in his suicide,” he wrote in a report on Payne’s death.

Stockman said the warden at Dickens ruled “based on verbal and physical intimidation” and that guards showed no concern for the living conditions.

Joe Don Buckner / AP Soon after Scot Noble Payne’s suicide, the Idaho Department of Correction’s health care director inspected the Dickens prison and declared it the worst facility he had ever seen.

After Idaho’s complaints, GEO reassigned warden Ron Alford, who told the AP he was later fired. He insisted GEO did not provide enough money to make necessary improvements.

“They denied me everything. To buy a pencil with GEO, it took three signatures. They’re cheap,” Alford said in an interview. He disputes Stockman’s findings on his treatment of Idaho inmates.

GEO spokesman Pablo Paez declined to comment on Alford’s performance and would say only that the company had been working to address Idaho officials’ concerns. But on Thursday, the state announced plans to move 125 inmates from Dickens to other facilities, citing the poor living conditions.

Booming business
The private prison business has been booming as the federal government seeks space to house more criminals and illegal immigrants.

“Sometimes it may be a better situation for the inmates, and sometimes it’s not,” said prison consultant Douglas Lansing, a former warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, N.J. “Monitoring is a vital component. You can’t just move them out of town and forget them.”

That appears to be largely what happened with Idaho’s inmates.

The prisoners were sent to Dickens in August from another GEO-run Texas prison after complaints about abuse by guards.

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