'Gladiator School': Camera's Catch Prison Guards Watching Inmate-On-Inmate Attack At Idaho Prison

REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho - The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed is knocked unconscious.

No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.

Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units.

Lawsuits from inmates contend the company that runs the prison, the Corrections Corporation of America, denies prisoners medical treatment as a way of covering up the assaults. They have dubbed the Idaho lockup "gladiator school" because it is so violent.

The AP initially sought a copy of the videos from state court, but Idaho 4th District Judge Patrick Owen denied that request. The AP decided to publish the videos after a person familiar with the case verified their authenticity.

The videos show at least three guards watching as Elabed was stomped on a dozen times. At no time during the recorded sequence did anyone try to pull away James Haver, a short, slight man.

About two minutes after Haver stopped the beating of his own accord, the metal cellblock door was unlocked. Haver was handcuffed and Elabed was examined for signs of life. He bled inside his skull and would spend three days in a coma.

CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, said it was "highly disappointed and deeply concerned" over AP's decision to release the videos.

Comments

[buhhdaluvsallbutyou]

01:59 PM on 01/02/2011

we have become a country that makes very good bombs, lots of prisons and a very good health care system that only a few can afford. China is looking very attractive right now.

[Baukunin]

09:29 PM on 12/04/2010

The story neglects to mention that neo-Nazi prisoners were essentially running the prison, allowed to by guards who were terrified of them. The guards were also very involved in smuggling and this prisoner ratted them out. They were probably actually anxious that he be murdered.

[buhhdaluvsallbutyou]

01:54 PM on 01/02/2011

buy

[Baukunin]

09:21 PM on 12/04/2010

The level of violence at this prison has been extraordinary, for most of the last few years. The Idaho Department of Corrections has been covering up for the for-profit prison industry for many years, going back to when its exported inmates were dying in Texas.

The warden, Phillip Valdez, was gotten out of the line of fire in March and sent to become the assistant warden of the CCA Leavenworth owned and operated prison. The assistant warden, Dan Prado, was also sequestered as the assistant warden of the empty CCA "detention facility" prison in Pahrump, Nevada. There his warden will be Joe Ponte, recycled from the Idaho Dept. of Corrections. Quite a "coincidence."

[Joel Hudgins]

12:02 PM on 12/01/2010

Cowards run so many functions of this country...........

[AndyWright68]

08:46 AM on 12/01/2010

Stanford Experiment

[joelb5000]

08:43 PM on 11/30/2010

They were highly disturbed the AP snitched? I hope that guy sues the prison.

[Baukunin]

09:27 PM on 12/04/2010

The inmate's family got a substantial settlement, I'm guessing, when it settled the case. CCA wanted to close the books on this case before the plaintiffs got discovery.

[Sean Dominish]

08:39 PM on 11/30/2010

for profit prisons, what a novel concept.

[Frenbar]

04:56 PM on 11/30/2010

If you can't cut it at the TSA you work at Mcdonalds.

If you can't cut it at Mcdonalds you join the army.

If you can't cut it in the army you become a prison guard.

[Dan Stewart]

04:51 PM on 11/30/2010

The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world and the highest incarceration rate in the world.  We have 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners.

There’s no where on Earth you could go to have a greater chance of going to prison, or staying there longer, than right here in the Land of the Free.

Just think how many times a day beating just like the one in the video happen here in America.

[Andythelawyer]

04:48 PM on 11/30/2010

I look forward to the guards' arrest, trial and improsonment among these same prisoners, who will happily give them some up close and personal "gladiator" lessons.

[Dan Stewart]

05:52 PM on 11/30/2010

Look forward, but don't hold your breath.

[rosiebond007]

04:43 PM on 11/30/2010

"CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, said it was "highly disappointed and deeply concerned" over AP's decision to release the videos."

What an idiotic remark.

CCA should be working furiously to eradicate this type of behaviour.

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

04:27 PM on 11/30/2010

Dystopian movies gradually becoming the reality in this country. Orwell was only off by a couple of decades.

[ObjectiveRealist]

04:36 PM on 11/30/2010

Oh, I don't know about that, either. I think a lot of it began with Reagan and Bush.

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

04:42 PM on 11/30/2010

True, but at least they were more subtle. Now they don't even bother denying their crimes.

[ta2t2o]

04:25 PM on 11/30/2010

"CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, said it was "highly disappointed and deeply concerned" over AP's decision to release the videos...."

Do you think?

[rosiebond007]

04:42 PM on 11/30/2010

They are being welcomed in AZ now after helping to write the SB Immigration Bill that Gov. Brewer was so quick to sign.

Heaven help the prisoners in that state.

[Dan Stewart]

04:58 PM on 11/30/2010

And did you note this (recurring theme) in their press release:  “Release of the video poses a threat to the security of the guards, inmates and the public…”

Apparently, much like WikiLeaks, this release of information risks the safety of the public.  The new magic words: Risk, Safety, Security. And, the American public, being the Good Germans that they are, eats up every words of it.

[ResistImperialism]

04:23 PM on 11/30/2010

The atrocities America commits abroad in wars will naturally be reflected in their own local bastions of wholesale injustice, the Prison Industrial Complex, keep privatising them America, keep profiteering from this system.

[INVet]

04:14 PM on 11/30/2010

More proof that pure Capitalism belongs in the dustbin of history.