HDNet's 'Dan Rather Reports' Investigates the Billion Dollar Business of Private Prisons

DALLAS, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Every day, thousands of federal inmates across the country are locked up in prisons...prisons that answer more to their shareholders than they do to the U.S. taxpayers.  These private prisons are the subject of a months-long Dan Rather Reports investigation. Since 1997, the U.S. government has been outsourcing a growing percentage of its inmate population to private facilities. But unlike federally-owned and operated prisons, private prisons are not required to open their books or operations to public scrutiny.

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The focus of Rather's investigation is the case of a 32-year-old illegal immigrant named Jesus Galindo, who died in December 2008 of an epileptic seizure while in solitary confinement at the Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, Texas. Reeves is a low-security facility run by the private prison giant The GEO Group. Galindo was a federal inmate whose death sparked a series of riots with prisoners demanding better medical care. The case and riots drew the interest of human rights advocates. Was the death of Jesus Galindo due to a lack of medical attention? Why had inmates at a detention center receiving millions of federal dollars every year complained of medical neglect?  And will the full story of what's happening at this prison, and others like it, ever be known?

The answer, according to David Shapiro, an attorney at the ACLU National Prison Project, is no, unless federal law is changed. He says that's because private prisons are immune from one of the most powerful tools for the American public to learn what is being done in its name. "They're not subject to the Freedom of Information Act like other federal prisons," Shapiro said. "And the Freedom of Information Act is an information lifeline that lets us know what's going on behind the prison walls."

The investigation explores how this one case in Texas could break through the walls that have protected the private prison industry from public scrutiny.

The hour will also include a report from Haiti and how one of the shortest runways in the world is the only connect between a coastal city and the food and medical supplies that are desperately needed to keep its residents alive.

With the capital of Port-au-Prince in ruins, hundreds of thousands have fled to the countryside, but aid has not always followed. Trying to fill the need is Corporate Aircraft Responding In Emergencies (CARE), a group established after Hurricane Katrina that has rallied corporate and private airplane owners and pilots to donate their aircraft and time to fly into places that can't be reached by roads made impassable by the quake. The flights in can be harrowing, but the desperation on the ground is proof that they're necessary.

"Dan Rather Reports" airs Tuesday, February 16 at 8:00 p.m. ET with an encore presentation at 11:00 p.m. ET to accommodate West Coast Prime Time.

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HDNet (www.hd.net) is the independent network with unique and provocative content that appeals to men of all ages and is delivered in true high definition.

HDNet is the exclusive, high definition home for popular, original programming, including television's only HD news feature programs "HDNet World Report," and the Emmy Award winning "Dan Rather Reports," featuring legendary journalist Dan Rather.  Only HDNet goes beyond the headlines to deliver real news that is redefining the way we look at our world.  HDNet News is provocative, sometimes controversial and always relevant  - telling the important stories of our time in-depth, with attitude and with independence.

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