Corrections Corporation of America CCA, Lapalma Correctional Center CCA, Lapalma Correctional Center: The inmates get treated better than the employees and officers. Eloy, Arizona

When CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) opened it's largest correctional center to date, I was one of the first officers hired to work there. We opened LaPalma Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, in the summer of 2008. When we were in training, we were told that the inmates that would be housed in this prison would be level one and two inmates. That meant that they would be fairly low-risk and not as dangerous. Keep in mind, that CCA is a contract prison business, and all the inmates at LaPalma would be from California. We were also told that, because it was a new facility and we would have alot of senority due to us being in the first training class, that we would all surely be promoted very quickly.

Well, needless to say, the inmates were mostly level 3 and level 4 (Arizona prohibits level 4 inmates to be contracted to the state, so CCA "covered it up"), and VERY FEW of us were ever promoted. The company brought staff from other facilities to be promoted. We were also forced to work very long hours, in some cases three shifts in a row. We were never allowed to take any lunch breaks, even between shifts. Our paychecks were often several hours late, so when you got off of your shift, you would have to wait two or three hours to get paid on payday. Vacation and overtime pay was frequently left out of our checks, and when it was brought to the attention of HR, there were plenty of excuses on why they didn't have to pay it. There were several times that staff members were attacked and injured by inmates, and the said employees were supposedly told to change their stories around, to say that they were injured in accidents rather than attacked. CCA was worried that they would lose their contract if it seemed that they were unable to maintain control of their prison. There were also several incidents involving weapons and untrained/uncertified staff.

All in all, it was one of the most frustrating periods of my life. I worked for CCA for close to a year and a half. I would NEVER reccomend that anyone work for this company. In my opinion, CCA should be investigated for labour violations and forced to compensate all employees that were wronged by the company. To date, there have been several lawsuits involving the company and former employees, including one that forced CCA to pay out millions of daollars to current and former employees.