As this example from Glades County, Fla., shows, corporate giant Corrections Corporations of America refused to let a citizen view the visitors' log, which is a public record under Florida law. Steve Bousquet at the St. Pete Times tells us,
A citizen walks into a prison and says, Hello, I'd like to look at the visitors' sign-in log, which is a public record under state law.
No, a prison official says.
Things rapidly go downhill from there. Police are called, the citizen is given a trespass warning notice and now the citizen has filed a lawsuit, claiming his constitutional rights were trampled upon.
He's Joel Chandler, 47, of Lakeland, a self-appointed vanguard of public records laws. He is very serious about what he does and has sold most of his worldly possessions to support himself.
"I can't let go of it. It's a civil rights issue," Chandler says.Read the whole thing here.
Vast numbers of Americans incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. The private prison industry is aggressively trying to incarcerate more. It's kind of scary to think that private prison companies might not view themselves as obligated to obey the law.
