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Brush
Correctional Facility
Brush, Colorado
GRW
January 8, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
A lawsuit filed on behalf of two Hawai'i female prison inmates who claimed they
were sexually assaulted by a corrections officer in a privately run prison in
Colorado has been settled for an undisclosed amount of money. Honolulu lawyer
Myles Breiner, who sued on behalf of the inmates, said the settlement was for a
"significant amount of money," but said he cannot be more specific. "This a
private settlement among private parties, and I'm obliged not to disclose the
dollar amount," Breiner said. "The parties are satisfied with the agreed upon
settlement, and the plaintiffs have been sufficiently compensated. ... It was
the right thing to do to take responsibility and acknowledge the injuries of
these two jail inmates." Out-of court settlements where the state is required to
make payment become public record because public money is involved, but that
won't happen in this case. Breiner said the state won't have to pay any share of
the settlement because Hawai'i was indemnified against inmate lawsuits under its
contract with GRW Corp. to hold the women inmates at the Brush Correctional
Facility in Colorado. The inmates, 38 and 26, reported they were assaulted in
the Brush Correctional Facility law library the evening of Jan. 8, 2005. The
inmates claimed corrections officer Russell E. Rollison pushed one of them
against a wall and threatened to write up both inmates for misconduct if they
did not perform a sex act for him. One of the inmates saved semen from the
encounter that was later turned over to investigators with the Colorado
Department of Corrections. Rollison resigned and was charged with two counts of
felony sexual contact with an inmate in a penal institution, but pleaded guilty
in 2006 to a reduced charge of menacing with a real or simulated weapon, which
is also a felony. He was sentenced to two years' probation and 60 hours of
community service, according to Colorado court records. Gil Walker, chief
executive officer of Tennessee-based GRW, did not respond to an e-mailed request
for comment on the settlement. Brush prison officials have said the sex was
consensual and that the inmates planned the encounter as a way to get
transferred back to Hawai'i, and as the basis for a lawsuit. The allegations of
the two Hawai'i inmates became public when Colorado authorities launched an
investigation into charges of sexual misconduct involving prison staff and a
total of eight inmates from Colorado, Wyoming and Hawai'i. Another former Brush
guard, Fredrick Woller, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment of a Wyoming
inmate and was fined $200; and former Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned and
pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor false-reporting charge in connection with
Woller's case. All Hawai'i inmates at Brush were moved to the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., which is operated by Corrections Corp.
of America. The two female inmates are now serving sentences at the Women's
Community Correctional Center in Kailua, Breiner said. Hawai'i now pays more
than $50 million a year to house more than 2,000 men and women inmates on the
Mainland because there is no room for them in prisons in Hawai'i.
July 14, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Two Hawai'i women convicts who allege they were sexually assaulted in a
private women's prison in Colorado last year have sued Hawai'i prison officials,
the company that runs the prison and a former corrections officer. The suit
filed by Honolulu lawyer Myles Breiner in federal District Court in Denver
alleges the state of Hawai'i should have known conditions were unsafe for the
Hawai'i women inmates at Brush Correctional Facility, and was negligent for
failing to prevent the assaults. Inmates Jacqueline Overturf, 36, and Christina
Riley, 25, reported they were assaulted in the Brush Correctional Facility law
library on the evening of Jan. 8, 2005. The inmates claim guard Russell E.
Rollison, an employee of prison operator GRW Corp., pushed one of the women
against a wall and threatened to write up both inmates for misconduct if they
did not perform a sex act for him. Breiner said one of the inmates saved semen
from the encounter that was later turned over to investigators with the Colorado
Department of Corrections. Rollison resigned and was charged with two counts of
felony sexual contact with an inmate in a penal institution, but pleaded guilty
earlier this year to a reduced charge of menacing with a real or simulated
weapon, which is also a felony. He was sentenced last month to two years'
probation and 60 hours of community service, according to Colorado court
records. Deputy Attorney General Diane Taira declined comment because lawyers
for the state have not yet seen the lawsuit. Gil Walker, chief executive officer
of the Tennessee-based GRW, also declined comment on the lawsuit yesterday
because he had not seen it. GRW operates prisons in Colorado, Missouri and
Kansas. Brush prison officials have said the sex was consensual and that the
inmates were using the incident to get transferred back to Hawai'i and as the
basis for a lawsuit. Walker said yesterday the prison's inquiry into the case
revealed that Rollison was "a willing participant, but we know that (the
inmates) perpetrated it, that it was planned." Breiner denied the inmates were
involved in any "enticement" of the corrections officer. "This was a deliberate
criminal conduct by a senior correctional officer against my clients. They were
raped, and it makes no difference whether they were inmates or not, they were
raped and abused," he said. The suit also alleges women who complained they had
been sexually assaulted at the prison were punished, including Overturf and
Riley. The two Hawai'i inmates were locked in solitary confinement for 37 days,
according to the suit. The allegations of the two Hawai'i inmates became public
when Colorado authorities launched an investigation into charges of sexual
misconduct involving prison staff and a total of eight inmates from Colorado,
Wyoming and Hawai'i. Another former Brush guard, Fredrick Woller, pleaded guilty
in February to misdemeanor harassment of a Wyoming inmate and was fined $200;
and former Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned and pleaded guilty in August to a
misdemeanor false reporting charge in connection with Woller's case. The Hawai'i
inmates were moved last year from the Colorado prison to the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., which is operated by Corrections Corp.
of America. Overturf was returned to Hawai'i, where she is serving a sentence at
the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua for drug offenses. Riley has
been released on parole after serving prison time for theft, forgery, burglary
and fraudulent use of a credit card. Both are undergoing counseling for the
assault, Breiner said. The lawsuit does not specify how much in monetary damages
the women are seeking, but does say the amount sought is larger than $150,000.
October 13, 2005 Pueblo Chieftain
The Colorado Department of Corrections has dramatically improved its oversight
of private prisons in the state, prisons officials told lawmakers last week. In
giving the Legislative Audit Committee an update on changes it has made in how
it manages the state's five private prisons, DOC director of prison operations
Nolin Renfrow told lawmakers that all is well. That audit he was referring to
was a scathing report released in June that criticized the department for being
lax in its oversight of private prisons and ignoring problems with them for
years. Prompted by a riot at the Crowley County Correction Facility in Olney
Springs last year, the audit said DOC knew or should have known about numerous
problems concerning the operations of the prisons but did little to nothing to
correct them. The state audit said the department diverted DOC workers whose job
was to monitor private prisons to other duties, and failed to enforce operations
rules and regulations. And in those instances when the department's private
prison monitoring units did discover problems, the department failed to follow
up to ensure that corrections were made, the audit said. Four of those
facilities are operated by the same Nashville-based company, Corrections
Corporation of American. In additional to the Crowley County facility, CCA also
operates private prisons in Bent, Huerfano and Kit Carson counties. A fifth
private facility that houses female inmates is located in Brush. It is owned by
the Brentwood, Tenn.-based GRW Corporation.
October 7, 2005 The Gazette
Private prisons in Colorado could face cash penalties for failing to meet
minimum safety standards under new contracts negotiated by the Department of
Corrections in the wake of a stinging audit. In June, an audit of Colorado's
private prisons, which house about 2,800 of Colorado's 18,000 prisoners, found
numerous problems, including inadequate staffing levels, unlicensed medical
clinics, employees with criminal backgrounds and poor food services. Thursday,
corrections officials gave state lawmakers an update on their response to the
audit. For instance, private prisons will be fined if staffing levels do not
meet minimum standards or if the meals they feed prisoners are not up to par.
"I'm not sure the liquidated damages have enough hammer to them," said
Rep. Fran Coleman, D-Denver. Corrections officials said they need time to see if
the new penalty system works.
October 2, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A decade ago, Hawai'i began exporting inmates to Mainland prisons in what was
supposed to be a temporary measure to save money and relieve overcrowding in
state prisons. Now, the state doesn't seem to be able to stop. With little
public debate or study, the practice of sending prisoners away has become a
predominant feature of Hawai'i's corrections policy, with nearly half of the
state's prison population - 1,828 inmates - held in privately operated
facilities in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona and Kentucky at a cost of $36
million this year. Hawai'i already leads all other states in holding the highest
percentage of its prison population in out-of-state correctional centers, and if
Hawai'i policymakers continue on their present course, by the end of 2006 there
likely will be more inmates housed in Mainland prisons than at home. Although
public safety officials say the private companies that house Hawai'i inmates
have generally done a good job, the history of Mainland prison placements is
pockmarked with reports of contract violations, riots, drug smuggling, and
allegations of sexual assaults of women inmates. Former prisons chief Keith
Kaneshiro says years in Mainland prisons have instilled a dangerous gang culture
in Hawai'i inmates that has spread back to the Islands and will present problems
for local corrections officials for years to come. There is also concern that
inmates who are incarcerated on the Mainland lose touch with their families,
increasing the likelihood they will return to crime once they are released.
Robert Perkinson, a University of Hawai'i assistant professor of American
studies, called the state's prison policy "completely backward."
"None of this makes sense if your goal is to make the citizens of Hawai'i
safer and use your tax dollars as effectively as you can to make the streets
safer, based on the best available research that we have," said Perkinson,
who is writing a book on the Texas prison system. Marilyn Brown, assistant
professor of sociology at UH-Hilo, said Hawai'i's out-of-state inmate transfers
are a strange throwback to corrections policies of two or three centuries ago,
when felons were banished to penal colonies in Australia or the New World. Most
of the $36 million being spent this year on out-of-state prison accommodations
will go to Corrections Corp. of America, a pioneer in the private corrections
industry. The company holds about 62,000 inmates nationwide, including about
1,750 men from Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi. Last
week the state transferred 80 Hawai'i women inmates from a prison in Brush,
Colo., owned by GRW Corp. to Otter Creek Correctional Center, a CCA prison in
Wheelwright, Ky. Those selected for Mainland transfers generally are felons with
at least several years left on their sentences who have no major health problems
or pending court cases that would require their presence in Hawai'i. Private
prison contractors have the final say, and can reject troublesome inmates with a
history of misconduct. Ted Sakai, who ran the state prison system from 1998 to
2002, said it will always be cheaper to house inmates on the Mainland because of
labor costs, which are considerably lower in the rural communities where many
prisons are. But there are benefits to keeping prison jobs here, he said. In
2000, state House Republican leaders scolded then-Gov. Ben Cayetano for
proposing to lease more prison beds on the Mainland. House Minority Leader Galen
Fox said doing so would be bad for the state's economy and the inmates'
families. An Advertiser poll of Democrats and Republicans before the start of
the Legislature's 2003 session found a majority of state lawmakers opposed the
practice. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle also has said she is opposed to sending
more prisoners away. Yet spending on Mainland prisons has steadily increased
over the past 10 years, and politicians have failed to take action on
alternatives. The Cayetano administration explored several options for privately
built or privately operated facilities on the Big Island and O'ahu, but each
proposal was thwarted by political resistance or opposition from communities
near suggested prison sites. Lingle campaigned in 2002 on a promise to build two
500-bed secure "treatment facilities," but three years later, no
specifics have been provided on when or where the projects might be built. As
Hawai'i's policy of out-of-state incarceration becomes more entrenched, other
states are moving in the opposite direction. Connecticut and Wisconsin both
recently brought home almost all of their inmates who had been housed elsewhere,
and Indiana returned 600 convicts from out-of-state prisons. Alabama, meanwhile,
doubled the number of convicts on parole to allow inmates to return from a
Corrections Corp. of America-run prison in Tutwiler, Miss., last year. The
vacancies at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility were filled by more than
700 Hawai'i inmates. Wyoming plans to open a new prison in 2007 that would allow
the state to bring back 550 inmates now held out of state, and lawmakers in
Alaska last year authorized planning for a new prison of their own.
September 29, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
About 80 Hawai'i women prison inmates boarded an airplane in Colorado yesterday
for a trip to the small rural town of Wheelwright, Ky., where they will be
housed in a prison run by Corrections Corporation of America. The women had been
held for the past 14 months in the Brush Correctional Facility in Brush, Colo.,
a private prison run by GRW Corp. that was plagued by problems including
allegations of sexual misconduct between staff at the prison and eight inmates
from three states, including Hawai'i. The inmates are among 1,828 Hawai'i
convicts who are housed at privately run prisons on the Mainland because there
is no room for them in Hawai'i prisons. Colorado Department of Corrections
officials launched investigations into Brush Correctional Facility earlier this
year that resulted in a number of criminal charges against staff and inmates in
Colorado. Two prison employees were indicted on charges of alleged sexual
misconduct with inmates, and two more prison workers were charged along with
five inmates in connection with an alleged cigarette-smuggling ring. Brush
Warden Rick Soares resigned in February, and was later indicted as an alleged
accomplice in one of the sexual misconduct cases. In March the Colorado
Department of Corrections revealed that five convicted felons were allowed to
work at the prison because background checks on some staff members had never
been completed. Colorado authorities later released an audit that was highly
critical of the prison, and contract monitors from Hawai'i reported the prison
failed to comply with its contract with the state in a number of areas.
July 28, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
They're out of sight, but must not be out of mind. Hawai'i's overflow inmate
population, housed at private prisons on the Mainland, remain our
responsibility. And making sure they are treated humanely while serving their
time must be our concern. That's why state officials are right to demand an
investigation into the sudden opening of cell doors in the predawn hours of July
17 at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility that resulted in a riot. More
than 700 Hawai'i inmates have been housed since last year at the Mississippi
prison, owned by Corrections Corp. of America. Two inmates were injured in the
fight. Kane'ohe resident Sandra Cooper, the mother of one inmate, has her doubts
that an internal probe will be enough to bring out the truth about how the cell
doors opened. She called on the FBI to do a thorough inquiry, and that indeed
would be the ideal way to proceed here. There's precedent for the FBI to take
jurisdiction in a case where inmates are brought across state lines. At the very
least, an independent authority should drive the investigation, rather than the
prison's private owners. And state officials here must continue to ride herd to
see that the investigation proceeds to a satisfactory conclusion. In a separate
prison issue, it's a relief to see that the state has decided to pull the plug
on its contract with the troubled Brush Correctional Facility, a northeastern
Colorado prison housing 80 women inmates from Hawai'i. Because of ongoing
investigations into alleged sexual misconduct between staff and prisoners, it's
imperative that the move be made as soon as possible, while allowing for careful
scrutiny of the prisoners' next destination. The end-of-September target date
for the move seems reasonable, assuming that the state maintain its careful
monitoring of Brush in the meantime. These painful episodes clearly illustrate
that housing inmates on the Mainland is merely a short-term response to our
critical prison shortage here, and creates its own additional problems. Hawai'i
must continue to: work toward expanded prison capacity in the Islands, where we
can retain better control of conditions; strengthen the probation system to keep
some first-time offenders out of prison; and work on preventive strategies aimed
at stemming the tide in drug abuse, which fuels so much of the state's crime
problem. Sending inmates to the Mainland is just a stopgap solution.
July 27, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i plans to move 80 women inmates out of a troubled private prison in
Colorado by the end of September but is unsure where they will go, prison
officials said. Hawai'i prison spokesman Michael Gaede confirmed the state
is requesting bids from facilities to house the Hawai'i inmates and that the
request in effect requires they be moved out of the Brush Correctional Facility,
a 250-bed prison in northeastern Colorado. The Brush prison has been under
close scrutiny since Colorado authorities disclosed in February they were
investigating allegations of sexual misconduct between staff at the prison and
eight inmates from three states, including Hawai'i. Brush Warden Rick
Soares resigned in February, and was later indicted as an alleged accomplice in
one of the sexual misconduct cases. Two other prison employees also were
indicted on charges of alleged sexual misconduct with inmates, and two more
prison workers were indicted along with five inmates in connection with an
alleged cigarette smuggling ring. Those disclosures were followed by
reports in March that five convicted felons were allowed to work at the prison
because background checks on some staff members had never been completed. Since
then Hawai'i monitors have filed reports noting that the prison failed to comply
with its contract with the state in a number of areas, and Colorado authorities
released an audit that was highly critical of the prison. Contract
monitors and other reports this year cited a litany of concerns about the
prison, including: GRW for many months used inmates to teach
required rehabilitation classes to other inmates. Colorado corrections officials
repeatedly complained about the practice, and Hawai'i contract monitors in
February warned the practice was a "serious concern" for Hawai'i as
well. After the sexual misconduct allegations were made public at Brush,
virtually all inmate rehabilitative and educational programming was shut down
from January to early June, prison officials acknowledged. That violates the
state's contract requirement that those services be offered to inmates.
Inmates and state monitors have repeatedly complained the Brush prison was
providing inadequate dental and medical care. Brush prison officials
reported in May that the facility was visited by a doctor only once a month, and
a Hawai'i contract monitor's report in May called that staffing
inadequate. Hawai'i contract monitors also warned the facility in February
that it was obliged by contract to give inmates better access to dental care,
and monitors again cited the same problem in a follow-up inspection in
May. Hawai'i monitors complained last year the Brush prison was not
conducting drug testing of inmates that is required by contract, and once again
criticized the prison in May for not doing the required testing. A
Colorado audit released in June found the Brush prison clinic was not licensed
as required under Colorado law, a lapse that also violated the prison's contract
with Hawai'i.
June
21, 2005 Rocky Mountain News
Three states could pull their inmates from Colorado's private prisons by the end
of the summer, spooked by a recent sexual misconduct scandal and squeezed by
Colorado's own rising prisoner population. The state's five private facilities
house about 2,700 Colorado inmates. They also contract with three other states -
Hawaii, Washington and Wyoming - to hold prisoners those states can't, due to
overcrowding. The private prisons have lost or stand to lose nearly 400
out-of-state inmates, which would be an approximately $20,000 per-day hit spread
between two Tennessee firms who run them. State officials say they can fill the
gap with 400 Colorado inmates waiting for prison beds - contradicting warnings
the private firms sounded earlier this year - and suggest that facilities filled
only with Colorado prisoners could prove easier to control. Corrections
officials say it's easier to manage prisoners from one state, because they are
all used to the same rules. Some states, for example allow cigarette smoking or
conjugal visits, which Colorado does not. "It is always easier to manage a
single jurisdiction population," said Alison Morgan, a corrections
department spokeswoman. Later, she said the loss of out-of-state inmates
"is not a bad thing." Officials also have said out-of- state
inmates may have fueled or contributed to two riots in the past decade,
including one at the Crowley County Correctional Facility last July. Washington
once sent more than 200 prisoners to Colorado. The state has moved all but a few
to other states, a Washington corrections official said Monday. Wyoming will
move its 54 male inmates - already down from a high of 300 - from Colorado by
summer's end, a corrections spokeswoman there said. Wyoming has already moved 38
female inmates from a private prison in Brush, in part because of alleged sexual
misconduct between prison guards and inmates that surfaced in February. Hawaiian
officials are rebidding their contract to house 80 women who are in Brush.
Twenty- one state lawmakers urged their governor in April to move those inmates
"immediately," the Honolulu Advertiser reported.
April 17, 2005 AP
Lawmakers are petitioning Gov. Linda Lingle to move
dozens of female Hawaii inmates out of a Colorado prison where staffers were
allegedly involved in sexual misconduct with prisoners. Twenty-one members of
the Women's Legislative Caucus want Lingle to increase state monitoring of the
Brush Correctional Facility in Colorado and ultimately move the 80 Hawaii
inmates to another facility. House Judiciary Chairwoman Sylvia Luke, D-Pacific
Heights-Punchbowl, said she is concerned about reports that prison staff may be
retaliating against Hawaii inmates following allegations that guards were
involved in sexual misconduct earlier this year with inmates from Hawaii,
Colorado and Wyoming. Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on
Prisons, said Hawaii inmates have faced unfair administrative punishments and
had legal records confiscated. The inmates believe these are examples of
retaliatory acts, Brady said. GRW chief executive officer Gil Walker has said he
expects Colorado to increase its number of inmates in Brush, so the company
won't take a financial hit when Wyoming removes it's inmates. "I don't
think it will hurt us at all," Walker said.
April 14, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Wyoming will remove its women inmates from a privately run Mainland prison that
also houses Hawai'i women inmates, the same prison where staff members were
accused of sexual misconduct involving Hawai'i, Wyoming and Colorado inmates.
Melinda Brazzale, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Department of Corrections, cited a
recent series of problems at the prison in the decision to remove the Wyoming
inmates from the Brush Correctional Facility in Colorado. Those problems
included criminal charges filed against staff members and the former warden in
connection with the sexual misconduct allegations, and revelations that the
prison allowed five convicted felons to work there because their background
checks had not been completed. Investigations by Colorado state prison officials
concluded prison staff had been involved in alleged sexual misconduct with two
Hawai'i inmates, two Colorado inmates and four Wyoming inmates. Two other
members of the prison staff were charged in an alleged cigarette smuggling ring.
March 24, 2005 AP
Colorado prison officials are reviewing background checks
for employees at five private prisons run by Tennessee companies after
discovering that some employees at one of them had criminal records. State
Corrections Department spokeswoman Alison Morgan said Thursday that five
convicted criminals and three people whose backgrounds "merited further
investigation" had been hired at the Brush Correctional Facility, a
privately run women's prison where several guards face charges of having
consensual sex with inmates and smuggling tobacco into the facility. Morgan said
a former warden for GRW Corp., a Brentwood, Tenn.-based company that has held a
state contract to run the prison for 18 months, failed to complete background
checks for some employees. The failure was first reported by KCNC-TV of Denver.
She said it appears that fingerprints for the guards that were sent to the
Colorado Bureau of Investigation were smudged or otherwise unreadable. The
prints were sent back to the prison, which did not follow up, Morgan said.
Morgan said the Corrections Department's Private Prisons Monitoring Unit does
not have the staff or funding to regularly conduct its own background checks of
private-prison employees.
March 23, 2005 Rocky Mountain News
People with criminal records were hired to work at a Brush
prison where several employees are facing charges for allegedly having sex with
inmates, according to a CBS 4 News investigation. The Brush Correctional
Facility is a medium-security prison that holds 250 women. GRW Corp., a private
company headquartered in Tennessee, runs the prison and hired several employees
with criminal records to watch over the inmates, according to CBS 4 News. The
company has fired six employees with criminal histories so far. Four guards have
resigned from the prison, and one has been put on administrative leave. The
warden, Rick Soares, resigned Feb. 18, a month after the Department of
Corrections first received reports of sexual misconduct. Three prison guards are
facing criminal charges for allegedly having sex with seven inmates. Two other
guards and an inmate are accused of smuggling contraband cigarettes into the
facility. The list of the prison employees with questionable backgrounds
includes 28-year-old Angela Gallegos, CBS 4 News said. A prison guard, she was
arrested on a felony charge three years ago and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor
harassment. Heather Henry, 24, was also hired as a guard. Her record includes
arrests for harassment, domestic violence-assault, violating protective orders
and child abuse. Richard Fairchild, 42, was convicted of domestic violence and
violating a restraining order. Gil Walker, president of GRW, said these are the
last people who should be working in a prison and should have never been hired.
"We don't hire questionable people, and that's the embarrassing part,"
Walker told CBS 4 News. Walker said the company never finished its background
checks on potential employees and didn't know their full histories.
March 10, 2005 Fort Morgan Times
Morgan County District Attorney Bob Watson filed
additional charges Wednesday in connection with the prison sexual misconduct
scandal in Brush. The new indictments include a charge of unlawful sexual
conduct in a penal institution lodged against a second guard, charges of being
an accessory to a crime against the former warden and charges against another
nine current or former prison employees related to introducing contraband
cigarettes into the prison and conspiracy to commit introduction of contraband.
According to Watson, the new charges are not necessarily all that will result
from his office's ongoing investigation of the GRW-owned private prison.
According to case filings made Wednesday in Morgan County District Court,
corrections officer Fredrick Henry Woller, 32, of Brush is charged with unlawful
sexual conduct in a penal institution, a class five felony. Specifically, Woller
is alleged to have engaged in sexual conduct with prisoner Cristie Maez. Also
charged Wednesday was former Warden Richard "Rick" Soares Jr., 57, of
Sterling, who was allegedly an accessory to the crime of unlawful sexual conduct
in a penal institution, also a class five felony. He is accused of hindering the
investigation. The pair joins corrections officer Russell Rollison, 31, of
Brush, who was charged last week with unlawful sexual conduct in a penal
institution. Other charges resulting from the criminal probe to date regard
prison food service and other prison employees allegedly conspiring with inmates
to bring cigarettes into the prison. Cigarettes have been banned from Colorado
penal institutions since 1999. Those charged with introducing contraband in the
second degree, a class six felony, and conspiracy to commit introduction of
contraband, also a class six felony, are: Pania Akopian, 31, Pisa Tuvale, 35,
Annette Cummings, 38, Janice Crockett, 47, and Jeannette Dillon, 38, all of whom
have the Brush Correctional Facility listed as their address; Gail Guerrero, no
age listed, and Maria Ramirez, 46, both of Brush; Charmayne Kalama, 28, of
Kapolei, Hawaii, and Stannie T. Muramoto, 46, of Honolulu, Hawaii. According to
Gil Walker, CEO of Tennessee-based GRW, which owns the 250-bed private prison,
an internal investigation uncovered only consensual sex between the guards and
prisoners. Alison Morgan, a state corrections department spokeswoman, said the
DOC investigation revealed at least some of the sex as having been initiated by
inmates. She said inmates from both Hawaii and Wyoming admitted to initiating
the encounters either so they could be returned home or in an effort to sue the
prison. However, a Hawaii attorney representing two of the inmates has alleged
his clients were raped. The case was referred to DA Watson's office by the state
corrections department's inspector general's office. The Brush prison, which
became the first private prison for women in Colorado, opened in August, 2003.
It houses 80 inmates from Hawaii, 73 from Colorado and 45 from Wyoming. Colorado
pays $50 a day to GRW to house its prisoners.
March 10, 2005 The Denver Channel
The former warden and 10 other people at the privately run Brush Correctional
Facility for Women face felony charges for conduct ranging from having sex with
inmates to smuggling tobacco into the prison. Filings released by District
Attorney Robert Watson show 32-year-old Fredrick Henry Woller faces a felony
charge for allegedly having sex with an inmate. Former warden Rick Soares, 57,
faces charges of being an accessory for allegedly hindering the discovery of
Woller's conduct. Earlier this month, two correctional officers and seven female
inmates were charged with several offenses, including introducing contraband in
the form of tobacco. Watson said other investigations are pending. Soares last
month resigned from Tennessee-based GRW, which owns the 250-bed prison in Morgan
County, after a month-long investigation implicated several officers. The
department's inspector general's staff reported to Watson last month that three
officers had sex with four inmates from Wyoming, two from Colorado and two from
Hawaii. Some of the women alleged they were raped, but investigators concluded
the sex was consensual. Having sex with an inmate is a felony for guards. The
facility became the first private prison for women in Colorado in August 2003.
March 4, 2005 Star Bulletin
Female inmates from Hawaii will remain at a privately run women's prison in
Colorado where five officers face sexual misconduct and contraband charges,
Hawaii officials said yesterday. A visit to the prison by state monitors last
month shows Hawaii does not need to transfer its inmates to an alternate
facility, said Richard Bissen, interim director of Hawaii's Department of Public
Safety. "Incidents like this happen at facilities," Bissen said.
"But that place is being more closely monitored than ever, and the women
themselves say they are safe." Three prison officers had sex with a total
of four Hawaii inmates, two Colorado inmates and one Wyoming inmate, according
to Alison Morgan, a spokesperson for the Colorado corrections department. Two of
the officers have resigned, and a third is on administrative leave.
Investigations show the sex was consensual, said Gil Walker, founder and chief
executive of Tennessee-based GRW, which owns the Brush Correctional Facility for
Women, located in Colorado. One case involved two Hawaii inmates and a guard,
who admitted to engaging in sexual activity in January in the prison library.
Some civil rights advocates argue that there is no such thing as consensual sex
between an inmate and an authority figure. "We have a law that says it's a
felony. It's not consensual when someone is in custody," said Kat Brady, an
advocate with the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. Myles Breiner, a
Honolulu lawyer who is representing the Hawaii inmates, has said the women were
forced to perform a sex act for Rollison. Morgan said some Hawaii and Wyoming
inmates admitted they believed having sex with the guards would help them get
transferred to their home states, where they would be closer to relatives.
February 25, 2005 Denver Post
The warden resigned and five correctional officers at the privately run Brush
Correctional Facility for women face sexual misconduct and contraband charges in
the wake of a criminal probe. Warden Rick Soares resigned from Tennessee-based
GRW, which owns the 250-bed prison in Brush, on Feb. 18 after a month-long
investigation implicated the five officers, said Alison Morgan, state Department
of Corrections spokeswoman. The warden was not implicated in the wrongdoing. The
department's inspector general's office referred contraband allegations
involving two staff members and one inmate and sexual misconduct allegations
involving three staff members to District Attorney Robert Watson on Thursday.
Three officers who were not named had sex with four Hawaiian inmates, two
Colorado inmates and one Wyoming inmate, Morgan said. Two of the officers
resigned, and a third is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the
criminal case. Some of the women alleged they were raped, but investigators
concluded the sex was consensual, sometimes initiated by inmates, Morgan said.
It's still a felony offense for correctional officers, she said. She said some
Hawaiian and Wyoming inmates acknowledged they had sex with correctional
officers because they believed they would be returned home, where they would be
closer to relatives. Others hoped to file lawsuits against the prison. Two
officers and an inmate were caught sneaking tobacco into the prison, Morgan
said.
Diamondback
CF
Watonga, Oklahoma
CCA
September 17, 2007 KITV 4
Another lawsuit has been filed against the mainland prison corporation that
houses thousands of Hawaii inmates. This lawsuit claimed the company knowingly
hired sexual predators as guards to torment inmates. Convicted car thief Nelson
Abiley said he was subjected to repeated homosexual sexual harassment and
battery at the Diamondback Prison in Oklahoma. He said Corrections Corp. of
America did not respond to his complaints. CCA had a history of hiring predatory
homosexuals in order to control inmates, according to the lawsuit. The company
has been sued in several cases recently in which inmates beat other inmates.
March 6, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Monitoring reports by state prison officials describe gang
violence, drug dealing and other problems at the Diamondback Correctional
Facility in Oklahoma where hundreds of Hawai'i inmates are being held. The
situation was so bad that Department of Public Safety officials who visited the
privately run prison in September recommended that nearly 800 Hawai'i convicts
be removed unless conditions improve. State officials and representatives of
prison operator Corrections Corp. of America said last week the situation at
Diamondback has improved in recent months, but the critical monitoring reports
provide further evidence of troubles with Hawai'i's practice of shipping inmates
to Mainland facilities. Just last week, the head of the GRW Corp., which owns
the Brush Correctional Facility near Denver, Colo., appeared in Honolulu at the
request of state officials to explain sexual misconduct allegations made against
prison staff by two Hawai'i women and six other female inmates. The two Hawai'i
inmates have been returned to the Islands, and a corrections officers in
Colorado has been charged with a felony in the case. In Oklahoma, state
monitors' reports from 2003 and 2004 indicate increasing concern about
conditions at the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, including drug
dealing by gangs, inmate attacks on corrections officers and other inmates, and
rising tensions in the prison. The portions of the reports that were released
describe inexperienced line staff and supervisors struggling to cope with gang
members, including some whom the monitors' believed should have been transferred
to prisons designated for more dangerous inmates. The monitors also criticized
prolonged use of administrative segregation. The state's contract with CCA
requires that disciplinary segregation not exceed 60 days, but Shimoda said some
inmates were left in administrative segregation for a year or more. CCA
spokesman Steve Owen said the company did not receive copies of the Oct. 22
monitors' report until mid-December. He said the company provided a written
response to state officials on Jan. 20 that outlined what it is doing about the
problems. Owen declined to release the details of the CCA response, saying that
information should come from Hawai'i prison officials. The Department of Public
Safety did not answer an Advertiser request last week for a copy of the
company's Jan. 20 response. The monitors' reports from 2003 and 2004 show that
Hawai'i officials were alarmed about operations at the Oklahoma prison for at
least 18 months. Problems cited included alarm that female corrections officers
were "falling in love" with Hawai'i inmates, and smuggling drugs into
the prison for them. The chief of security at Diamondback told Hawai'i monitors
in June 2003 that prison staff believed 2 ounces of crystal methamphetamine were
being smuggled into the prison each week. In April 2003, more than one out of
every four inmates who underwent drug testing came up positive for drug use,
according to the Oct. 17, 2003, report. That same report said six corrections
workers had been fired for "inappropriate relationships" with inmates
and activity related to drug use within the prison. Monitors' reports also
indicated 30 to 40 Hawai'i inmates were involved in a disturbance in one of the
prison modules on July 20, 2003. A far more serious disturbance broke out last
May 14 when 500 inmates from Arizona rioted for several hours, demolishing
fences and battling one another with construction equipment and other improvised
weapons. About 100 inmates were injured. An investigation by Arizona corrections
officials found that inadequate staffing at Diamondback made it difficult to
prevent the disturbance, and Arizona reduced the number of its inmates there
from about 1,200 to about 750.
February 9, 2005 KOTV
Hawaii inmates at an Oklahoma prison plan will get to celebrate an ancient
Hawaiian festival this weekend. About 100 men at the Diamondback Correctional
Facility in Watonga plan to mark Makahiki with chanting, hula, a cleansing
ritual and a feast with laulau, fish and poi. Makahiki was an annual period of
peace celebrated in ancient Hawaii with sports and religious activities. The
festival also honors Lono, the Hawaiian god of agriculture, peace and
fertility.The Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the Oklahoma
prison, refused to allow the inmates to hold the event two years ago, but a 2003
lawsuit challenged that decision. Attorneys for all sides have met to discuss a
possible settlement.
Florence
Correctional Center
Florence, Arizona
CCA
July 11, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i inmates who worked in the kitchen of an Arizona prison have been
disciplined for allegedly smuggling methamphetamine and marijuana into the
facility. Shari Kimoto, administrator of the Mainland branch of the Hawai'i
Department of Public Safety, said prison operator Corrections Corp. of America
began investigating the alleged drug ring at the Florence Correctional Center
after a number of inmates tested positive for drug use. The kitchen supervisor
and several truck drivers with a food service company that makes deliveries to
the prison in Florence, Ariz., were fired in connection with the case, and one
or two corrections officers also may have been involved, Kimoto said. She said
she expects to learn more when CCA officials file additional reports about the
investigation.
April 17, 2003
The family of a Hawaii inmate who died in an Arizona prison alleges in a lawsuit
that he died after packets of drugs he was smuggling for a prison gang burst in
his stomach. According to the suit filed yesterday in Circuit Court, Iulai
Amani, then 24, died of a heart attack on April 15, 2001, at the Florence
Correctional Center in Florence, Ariz. The lawsuit attributes the heart
attack to "a drug overdose, the mechanism of which was inconsistent with
recreational use but consistent with drug smuggling under the direction" of
a Hawaii gang that controlled the prison. As a result of overcrowding in
its prisons, the state contracted with private mainland prisons to take
inmates. Hawaii contracted with the Florence facility, which is managed by
Corrections Corp. of America, a publicly traded prison company based in
Nashville, Tenn. The Florence prison is a medium-security facility with
about 1,600 beds which houses both men and women. As a private prison, it is not
subject to regulations governing other Arizona prisons. It also takes some of
the toughest and most violent Hawaii prisoners. Last week, another inmate,
Victoriano Ortiz, sued the state and CCA alleging failure to protect him from
being beaten up by USO members in a prison yard fight involving 23
inmates. (Star Bulletin)
April 15, 2003
Victoriano Ortiz was 24 years old when he beat his wife to death in the
abandoned bus the two shared as a home. He broke her jaw and several ribs
before he wrapped her body in a blanket, loaded it into a shopping cart and
dumped it into the stream next to River Street in downtown Honolulu. Last
week, Ortiz sued the state of Hawaii and the owners of the Arizona prison where
he was held, alleging failure to protect him from being beaten up by a gang of
Hawaii inmates that controlled the prison to the point that guards smuggled
drugs to gang members in return for protection. Ortiz's federal lawsuit
and other documents obtained by the Star-Bulletin give a glimpse into a rough
era in the recent history of the Florence Correctional Center, a privately run
prison in Florence, Ariz., managed by Corrections Corp. of America, a publicly
traded company based in Nashville, Tenn. Ortiz's suit, filed in U.S.
District Court in Arizona, names members of USO, the state of Hawaii, CCA and
others as defendants. He alleges reckless or gross negligence and "a
callous disregard" for his safety. Ortiz alleges in his complaint
that Pablo Sedillo, then warden of the Florence prison, "told the USOs that
they could do whatever they wanted as long as they don't hurt the guards."
Ortiz alleges that "in doing so Sedillo made the USOs ... managers of the
facility, jeopardizing the safety of all non-USO-affiliated
residents." (Star Bulletin)
April 14, 2003
The state of Hawaii is among the defendants in
a lawsuit filed by an inmate at Florence Correctional Center who claims he was
badly beaten by a prison gang that was given unprecedented privileges by the
warden and guards. In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court,
Victoriano Ortiz said correctional officers smuggled drugs to members of the
so-called United Samoan Organization and allowed them to assault nonmembers
without interference. Ortiz, who was convicted of second-degree murder 15
years ago, claims he was attacked by members of the gang in April 2001. The
Honolulu native alleges that the prison warden told members of the gang
"they could do whatever they wanted as long as they don't hurt the
guards." A spokesman for the Florence Correctional Center couldn't be
reached for comment. Ortiz's lawsuit names Corrections Corporation of
America, which operates the private facility, along with two alleged gang
leaders and the state of Hawaii, which has a contract to send inmates to the
prison. Ortiz requests damages for cruelty, negligence, failure to protect
and other civil rights violations. (AP)
March 21, 2003
A 74-year-old Gold Canyon man was killed yesterday in a one-vehicle accident on
Interstate 10. Layton Mowrey was driving a van for Correctional Services
Corp., eastbound on I-10 about two miles west of the Trico-Marana Road exit when
he lost control at 11:30 a.m., said officer David Kleinman of the Arizona
Department of Public Safety. CSC runs a prison for the state in Florence.
(Tucson Citizen)
September 4, 2001
For years, Hawaii's prisons have been free of the violent gangs that plague many
Mainland facilities, but inmates returning from prisons on the Mainland are
showing more signs of gang involvement, according to the head of the state
prison system. Among the convicts returned to Hawaii to finish their
sentences, prison officials are seeing more gang tattoos, gang "code
words" and inmates who acknowledge other prisoners with gang affiliation as
leaders, said Ted Sakai, director of the state Department of Public
Safety. Prison officials earlier this year demanded that the Mainland
operators of the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona stage a crackdown on a
Hawaii prison gang. One Hawaii investigator said the gang is
"Hawaii's first bona fide prison gang." About 1,200 Hawaii
convicts are now held in prisons in Arizona and Oklahoma because there is no
room for them in facilities here. (The Honolulu
Advertiser)
September 3, 2001
In the business of privately operated prisons, some states are exporters, and
some are importers. That is, some states send their convicted criminals out of
state, while others bring them in. And some states, especially those on the
receiving end, are getting squeamish about the transfers. One after
another, states have imposed restrictions on the kinds of out-of-state inmates
that private prison operators can import. And states that don't limit the types
of inmates that can be imported worry that they will become "dumping
grounds" for the worst convicts from other states. The tighter laws
can be an easy sell politically because even some corrections experts question
the wisdom of importing particularly vicious convicts or sex offenders from
other states. As Terry L. Stewart, director of the ARIZONA Dept. of Corrections
put it, "We have our own maximum custody inmates. They are dangerous
inmates. Why in the world would we want maximum custody inmates from anywhere
else?" (State Net Capitol Journal)
August 7, 2001
About an hour's drive from Tucson sits a ticking time bomb waiting to go off - a
private prison in such chaos it has effectively been taken over by the
criminals. Gang members mixed booze-laced beverages in a five-gallon pail
in the prison kitchen at the Florence Correctional Facility. Inmates
wandered the corridors with little supervision and had sex with female
immigration detainees. One guard said he even resorted to bringing
marijuana to work to give to certain prisoners so that they would protect him
from other prisoners. Yet Arizona's state prison regulators can do nothing
about such problems. Unlike many other states, Arizona's Legislature has
given free reign to corporate operators of private prisons like the one in
Florence, allowing them to set up shop here with almost no rules in place to
monitor their operations. "Right now you can build a prison anywhere
in Arizona, and the only thing you have to meet is the local building
code," said Terry Stewart, director of the Arizona Department of
Corrections. It doesn't take a degree in corrections to know this is
absurd public policy. The Florence facility is run by Corrections
Corporation of America, or CCA, the largest private prison firm in the
nation. It's what is known in the industry as a "speculative"
prison - one built outside the purview of the normal regulatory system, with no
guarantee that there will be prisoners available to fill it. (Arizona
Daily Star)
August 5, 2001
The state's prison director wants lawmakers to give him more control over
private prisons following reports that a Hawaii gang had effectively taken over
a Florence prison. Hawaii auditors determined in late April that a gang
called United Samoan Organization was essentially running the Florence
Correctional Facility, which houses 550 of that state's inmates -- 300 of whom
are sex offenders. The prison, operated by the Nashville-based Corrections
Corporation of America -- or CCA -- is about an hour outside both Tucson and
Phoenix. After the deaths of two inmates, six inmate assaults and a riot
that left one officer with six stitches - all of which happened in April --
Hawaii dispatched four auditors to inspect the prison, which opened in
2000. Two female auditors were not allowed to tour the facility because of
fears for their safety. Auditors determined that gang members were having sex
with female Immigration and Naturalization Service inmates. Gang members were
using drugs and making an alcoholic drink called "swipe," which the
monitoring team found in a five-gallon bucket in the kitchen. Staff, who
reportedly had been calling the Hawaiians "beach niggas," were taking
cultural training. If Arizona cracks down, Hawaii officials have few
options. Their inmates were moved out of Texas because of tighter restrictions
there. Oklahoma does not accept sex offenders. California and many other states
don't allow any out-of-state prisoners. Red flags started waving for Sen.
Pete Rios, a Hayden Democrat, on primary election night last September. While he
was awaiting election returns in the Pinal County seat, police vehicles suddenly
blocked the major highways out of Florence. Someone at CCA's prison had called
911, saying there was a hostage situation, but, when law enforcement responded,
CCA refused to provide information. In the end, three guards were injured
after inmates smashed windows, computers, televisions and food carts during a
90-minute riot that started in a dispute over how rice was cooked. (The
Arizona Daily Star)
July 29, 2001
Hawaii may be forced to build a new prison because other states are imposing
restrictions on the kinds of out-of-state inmates they will accept, according to
state Public Safety director Ted Sakai. Officials in Arizona are
considering limiting the types of out-of-state inmates Arizona will
accept. They were prompted by escalating violence and gang activity by
Hawaii inmates serving time in one Arizona prison. Hawaii officials who
inspected the Florence prison reported that they found a "facility in
turmoil," with a gang of Hawaii inmates involved in drug smuggling and
assaults against prisoners and corrections officers. Terry L. Stewart,
director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, said he will ask the Arizona
Legislature for new authority over companies such as Corrections Corporation of
America. (AP)
July 21, 2001
Medical officials in Arizona say a prison inmate from Hawaii died in April from
an accidental overdose of methamphetamine and that another Hawaii inmate died a
few days later of natural causes. (AP)
July 1, 2001
A team sent to check on conditions at an Arizona prison that holds more than 560
Hawaii inmates conducted only a limited inspection because of the "hostile
environment," including the potential for violence, according to state
reports obtained by The Advertiser. The desert prison, where two Hawaii
inmates have died in recent months, was described in the April 30 report as
"a facility in turmoil," and officials described lax security
conditions, reports of widespread drug use and domination by members of a prison
gang. The reports by the monitoring team highlight problems with an
inexperienced prison staff and refer to "widespread" drug smuggling
into the facility by prison staff. One prison official admitted to the
Hawaii inspectors that he smuggled marijuana into the prison because he was
afraid of gang members incarcerated there, according to the reports. Sgt.
Patrick Kawai, a Hawaii gang intelligence officer who was sent to inspect the
Florence facility, reported in April that "I never once while at FCC
observed an officer frisk search or strip search an inmate. I never once
observed an officer go through any inmate's property, or search anything an
inmate was carrying." That lack of "simple security
measures" allows inmates to move weapons and other contraband, Kawai said
in his report. The Advertiser has been seeking reports about the Florence
inspections for some time but state officials have been reluctant to provide
them. When the April report was first released, most of it was blacked out
by officials citing security concerns. After further requests from the
newspaper and intervention by the governor's office, the reports were
released. The monitoring reports also reveal that a year after the Hawaii
prisoners were sent to Florence, the prison still does not offer educational and
rehabilitation programs to inmates that are required by CCA's contract with
state. When asked if CCA is now providing the programs required by the
contract, Sakai replied: "I don't think so, but again we understand it's
going to take some time. ...For example, they've committed to starting the
substance abuse treatment program. They're going to have to get the staff
together. I don't know if they have it yet, and then it takes time to
build these programs up." Inmates have complained about the lack of
educational, sex offender and drug treatment programs at Florence, in part
because parole often depends on whether inmates complete required
programs. Sakai acknowledged virtually no inmate programs were available
for the 100 inmates who were shipped to Florence about a year ago. The
June report also quotes a Florence prison official as admitting the prison
medical unit is "grossly understand." (The Honolulu Advertiser)
May 25, 2001
More than three dozen Hawaii inmates have been transferred from an Arizona
prison to one in New Mexico. State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said
at least some of the inmates who were transferred were part of a prison
gang. Last month the state sent an inspection team to review the
operations of Florence, and state officials expressed concerns about problems
there. CCA replaced the warden at Florence earlier this month, and asked
Hawaii officials if they could temporarily move about 40 disruptive inmates to a
New Mexico prison "to get Florence settled down," Sakai said.
(AP)
May 11, 2001
The Florence Correctional Center in Arizona, where two Hawaii inmates died last
month and three others were severely beaten, has named a new warden. Frank
Luna, 38, moves over from Corrections Corporation of America's Huerfano County
Correctional Center in Colorado where he had been warden of the medium-security
prison since August 1999. Louise Green, vice president of marketing and
communications for CCA, said the previous warden at Florence, Pablo Sedillo, is
on administrative leave. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
May 9, 2001
Complaints from Hawaii corrections officials have led to the replacement of the
warden at a privately run Arizona prison. The Hawaii officials said that
management problems at the facility were jeopardizing the safety of Hawaii
inmates serving time there. State Public Safety director Ted Sakai said
the warden of Florence Correctional Center was replaced late last week or early
this week. Incidents at Florence include inmate gangs, serious beatings of
several inmates, a riot last September and the death of a Hawaii inmate on April
16th from what prison officials suspect was a drug-induced heart attack.
CCA now holds about 1,100 male inmates from Hawaii, including about 550 at
Florence. The state will pay the company about $17 million this year to
house the 1,100 prisoners and provide educational and other programs.
(AP)
May 3, 2001
Two deaths in a private prison in Florence led to a lockdown and search for
contraband. In one instance, Steve Owen spokesperson for Corrections
Corporation of America said, Iulai Amani, 23, died April 16 while being taken to
a hospital after he began coughing up blood in his cell at the Florence
Correctional Center. Cause of death had yet to be determined Wednesday,
but officials said he may have overdosed on cocaine or methamphetamine.
Amani's knuckles reportedly were bloody at the time of his death, suggesting he
may have been in a fight. And on April 25, John Kia, an inmate with a
history of health problems died from a bacterial infection, Owen said.
(AP)
April 27, 2001
State corrections officials have sent a team to investigate the recent deaths of
two Hawaii inmates held at a private prison in Florence, Arizona.
"There's no evidence at all that there was any physical altercation that
led to the deaths, so that's been ruled out," Public Safety Director Ted
Sakai said Thursday. Sakai has been told John Kia, 41, died of a heart
attack Wednesday at the Florence Correctional Center, while Iulai Amani, 23,
died of either a heart attack or asphyxiation April 15. "We know that
two inmates died, and we also know that we had several (Hawaii) inmates who were
assaulted by other inmates at the same facility," Sakai said. "I
understand that there were a couple of inmates who were beaten up pretty bad,
bad enough that they had to be rushed to the emergency room." (AP)
Hawaii
Legislature
April 3, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers have tentatively approved a bill to audit a privately run
Arizona prison that holds more than 1,800 Hawai'i convicts. House Finance
Chairman Marcus Oshiro said state Auditor Marion Higa likely would need to
contract with a Mainland auditing firm to conduct the performance audit of
Saguaro Correctional Center, a new 1,896-bed prison in Eloy, Ariz., that houses
only male prisoners from Hawai'i. The audit is expected to cost $150,000 or
more, but Oshiro said it will be "money well spent" to scrutinize the Saguaro
operation and the state contract with Corrections Corporation of America.
Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to house more than 2,000 male and
female convicts from Hawai'i in private prisons in Arizona and Kentucky. Hawai'i
first began sending prisoners to the Mainland in 1995 as a temporary measure to
relieve in-state prison overcrowding. About half of the state's prison
population is now held in out-of-state facilities. According to Senate Bill
2342, "there has never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that
Hawai'i has contracted with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that
deaths and serious injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on
the Mainland." Oshiro said, "I think it's prudent to spend some monies for the
audit and review to make sure that we're getting the best services for our
money." The bill goes to the full House for a floor vote, and if approved will
be sent to a House-Senate conference committee to iron out differences between
the House and Senate versions of the bill. The Senate proposed auditing both
Saguaro and the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky, where about 175
Hawai'i inmates are being held. However, Oshiro said supporters of the bill told
him the Saguaro audit was more important because more inmates are there, so the
audit of Otter Creek was dropped from the House draft of the bill. Clayton
Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, has opposed the bill
because state prison officials already conduct quarterly audits of the Mainland
prisons that check up on programs, food service, medical service and security,
among other areas. "The department already has the expertise in place and is
currently providing a thorough and ongoing auditing process to ensure contract
compliance is being met," the department said in a written statement Monday. For
situations that require immediate attention, "we have dispatched appropriate
senior staff and Internal Affairs investigators to the facilities," the
statement said. The bill for an audit is advancing after recent Mainland media
reports cited a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce
misleading reports about incidents in CCA prisons. Time magazine interviewed
former CCA senior quality assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA
General Counsel Gus Puryear IV ordered staff to classify sometimes violent
incidents such as inmate disturbances or escapes as if they were less serious
events to make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones
alleged more detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for
internal CCA use, and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations,
which Time published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal
judge. Oshiro said he is aware of those reports. "There's questions being raised
right now, given what you read about nationally about the CCA organization maybe
having two sets of books, and I think it causes some concerns, especially since
we don't get to observe and watch or communicate with our inmates being that
they are way out there in the Mainland," Oshiro said. The statement Monday from
Department of Public Safety noted that the department "does not solely rely on
CCA reports or internal audits. As the customer, we feel it's not only our
right, but also our responsibility to Hawai'i offenders housed in CCA
facilities, to send our own staff to the Arizona and Kentucky facilities."
March 31, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
State lawmakers today will consider ordering an audit of two Corrections
Corporation of America facilities in the wake of national media accounts
alleging that the huge private prison company misrepresented statistical data to
make it appear that CCA facilities had fewer violent acts and other problems
than was actually the case. Hawai'i pays CCA more than $50 million a year to
house more than 2,000 men and women convicts in CCA prisons in Arizona and
Kentucky. Senate Bill 2342 calls for the State Auditor to conduct performance
audits of two of the three Mainland prisons that house Hawai'i inmates,
including reviews of the food, medical, drug treatment, vocational and other
services provided to Hawai'i inmates. The audit also would scrutinize the way
the state Department of Public Safety oversees the private prisons and enforces
the terms of the state's contracts with CCA. According to the bill, "there has
never been an audit of the private Mainland prisons that Hawai'i has contracted
with to house the state's inmates, despite the fact that deaths and serious
injuries have occurred at several of the contract prisons on the Mainland."
Clayton Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, testified
against the proposed audits in Senate hearings last month, calling the audits
"unnecessary and repetitive" because his department already conducts quarterly
audits to make sure CCA is complying with its contracts with the state. Frank
also suggested his department was being singled out, arguing that if lawmakers
want performance audits to provide more accountability and transparency to the
public, "then it should apply to all state contracts and not be limited to just
the Department of Public Safety." Critics of the Mainland prison contracts
contend the audits are needed because the private prisons are for-profit
ventures designed to keep costs as low as possible. During the decade that
Hawai'i has housed inmates on the Mainland, the state itself has criticized
private prison operators when the companies failed to provide Hawai'i inmates
with programs that were required under the contract. Now, supporters of the
audit bill say an independent review is necessary to scrutinize what is one of
the state's largest ongoing contracts of any kind with a private vendor. "Are we
getting what we pay for? We'd like to know," testified Jeanne Y. Ohta, executive
director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i. The audit would cover the
1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., which houses only male
prisoners from Hawai'i, and the 656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright, Ky., which holds about 175 Hawai'i women inmates. The House Finance
Committee hearing on the bill today comes in the wake of Mainland media reports
citing a former CCA manager who said he was required to produce misleading
reports about incidents in CCA prisons. The company operates about 65 prisons
with about 75,000 inmates. Time magazine interviewed former CCA senior quality
assurance manager Ronald T. Jones, who said CCA General Counsel Gus Puryear IV
ordered staff to classify sometimes violent incidents such as inmate
disturbances, escapes and sexual assaults as if they were less serious events to
make the company performance appear to be better than it was. Jones said more
detailed reports about the prison incidents were prepared for internal CCA use,
and were not released to clients. CCA denied the allegations, which Time
published as Puryear is being considered for a post as a federal judge. The
Private Corrections Institute Inc., an organization opposed to private prisons,
wrote to Hawai'i prison officials urging them to investigate CCA's reporting
procedures in the wake of the Time report. Alex Friedmann, vice president of the
institute, said most state monitors who are overseeing CCA prisons "largely rely
on information and data provided by CCA; further, the accuracy of incident
reports is entirely dependent on whether those incidents are documented by the
company's employees." Hawai'i Public Safety officials did not respond to
requests for comment on the allegations in the Time article.
October 17, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
State prison officials say it's possible all of Hawai'i's women inmates on the
Mainland — 175 convicts now held in a private prison in Kentucky — could be
brought back and housed at the Federal Detention Center on O'ahu. Tommy Johnson,
deputy director for corrections of the state Department of Public Safety, said
negotiations could begin with the federal Bureau of Prisons to house the women
at the federal center near the Honolulu airport, provided state lawmakers
approve extra money for their care. Housing the women in Hawai'i would double
the cost of holding them in Kentucky, Johnson said. There is no room at the
Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua for the Mainland inmates, but
the detention center may have room for all 175 inmates, he said. The decision to
house women inmates out of state has been sharply criticized by lawmakers and
prison reform advocates who say most of the women were convicted of nonviolent
crimes, and some are single mothers. Some of the women convicts were the sole
caregivers for their children before they were sent to prison, and lawmakers and
others have questioned the impact that long separations without visits may have
on the children and families back in Hawai'i. Both the House Public Safety and
Military Affairs Committee and the Senate Public Safety Committee passed bills
this year instructing the Department of Public Safety to draft plans to return
the women inmates to Hawai'i. The bills were not approved by the full
Legislature, but state lawmakers are expected to revisit the subject in the 2008
session. Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman Will Espero said he has heard
the state may rent an entire floor of the Federal Detention Center to house 120
of the women now on the Mainland. "If that's the case, then great. We'll be very
supportive of it, but of course we have to provide them the programming and
other services that the inmates will need," Espero said. NO ROOM IN HAWAI'I
Hawai'i holds a larger percentage of its prison population outside the state
than any other state in the nation. As of last week the state was holding 2,027
convicted felons in private prisons operated by Corrections Corporation of
America in Arizona and Kentucky, which is more than half the total state prison
population. Prison officials have said they would prefer to house those inmates
in Hawai'i correctional facilities, but there is no room here because Hawai'i
has not built a new prison in the past 20 years. State prison officials had
planned to move the women prisoners on the Mainland from the Otter Creek
Correctional Center in Wheelwright, Ky., to the new Saguaro Correctional Center
in Eloy, Ariz., this year, but that plan has been delayed, Johnson said. Now,
Hawai'i prison officials are negotiating a one-year extension of the Otter Creek
contract, and are considering moving the women to the federal lockup as "one
option," Johnson said. The state now pays about $54 per day per inmate to house
the women at Otter Creek, and that is expected to increase to about $56 per day
under the new contract being negotiated with CCA. The state pays $80.54 per
inmate per day to house about 150 prisoners in rented beds at the Federal
Detention Center, and Johnson said he expects the detention center would house
the women for a similar rate. However, the state would also have to put up money
to provide rehabilitative programming for the women that is now available at
Otter Creek, such as drug treatment and parenting classes. Those programs would
not be provided under a federal contract, which means the state would have to
establish those services at the detention center. 'IT'S ABSURD' Kat Brady,
coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, said many of the women now in
prison do not need to be held in secure settings such as Otter Creek, the
Federal Detention Center or the Women's Community Correctional Center. Brady
cited Department of Public Safety statistics that show 40 percent of Hawai'i's
sentenced women inmates in 2006 were classified as community custody, meaning
they were eligible for work furlough, extended furlough or residential
transitional living centers outside of the prison system. Additionally, about 21
percent of the women inmates were classified as minimum custody inmates.
According to the Department Public Safety, minimum security prisoners can be
placed in less restrictive minimum security prison settings, or can be
supervised in the community. "Instead of extending the contract for that coal
pit, why don't they instead get more transition beds in the community, and let
those women out who are community custody, who the department itself says can be
in the community with no supervision?" Brady said. "It's absurd that we keep
using the most expensive sanction to deal with people who are community custody.
It's absurd, it's immoral, it's expensive and it doesn't help anybody."
February 10, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser
House and Senate lawmakers who say it's time to rethink the state's practice
of sending Hawai'i inmates to the Mainland are advancing a bill aimed at
bringing 175 Hawai'i women prison inmates back from a privately run Kentucky
prison. The Senate Public Safety Committee approved a bill last week instructing
state corrections officials to develop a plan for returning the inmates by July
1, 2009. The House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee approved an
identical bill late last month. The proposal rekindles a debate about how best
to house Hawai'i's inmate population, with the chairs of both the Senate and
House public safety committees saying the Mainland option needs reviewing. "I
feel that looking at the re-entry and the reintegration of prisoners eventually
into our society, we need to have them close to their families here in Hawai'i,
where I think that they'd be better served," said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of
the Public Safety Committee. House Public Safety Chairwoman Cindy Evans said
some of the women were the sole caregivers for their children before they were
sent to prison, and it is important for the women to maintain their family ties.
"By removing her, that removes her access to the family, and we don't think
that's a good idea," Evans said. "We're also finding that most female prisoners
are not the real violent ... types; they're in there maybe for drug abuse, and
the types of crimes they committed were to feed their habits." "These women are
going to go back into our community and go back home, and we feel it's better to
have them here instead of on the Mainland," she said.
July 6, 2006 Honolulu Advertiser
The state is expected to spend more than $50 million annually to house prison
inmates on the Mainland, and will have an entire Arizona prison dedicated to
Hawai'i convicts under newly signed contracts with the Corrections Corp. of
America. The state has been paying $40 million annually for CCA to confine about
1,900 convicts on the Mainland because there is no room for them in Hawai'i
prisons. State lawmakers this year authorized corrections officials to boost
that total to more than 2,500 inmates. When the additional prisoners are sent to
the Mainland, Hawai'i will have more convicted felons serving their sentences on
the Mainland than in prisons here. Hawai'i already holds almost half of its
prison population out of state, a larger percentage than any other state. Shari
Kimoto, administrator of the Mainland Branch of the state Department of Public
Safety, said the 1,896-bed Saguaro Correctional Center under construction in
Eloy, Ariz., will house all of the women and most of the men Hawai'i holds in
other CCA prisons on the Mainland. Saguaro will be a "treatment-intensive"
prison with an array of drug treatment and other rehabilitation programs that
exceed anything available in Hawai'i prisons, Kimoto said. The state also plans
to rent nearly 500 beds in the new Red Rock Correctional Center next to the
Saguaro site. That will consolidate Hawai'i prisoners serving sentences in
Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Kat Brady, coordinator for the
Community Alliance on Prisons, said inmates have a better chance if they
maintain ties with families, and those bonds suffer when convicts are thousands
of miles away. "It's those kinds of connections and the connections with the
community ... that's going to keep people out of prison," she said. "The more we
banish people, the worse it gets."
October 13, 2005 Star Bulletin
HAWAII'S surging economy is resulting in a state budget surplus even larger than
expected, setting the scene for a tug-of-war among competing interests in the
next Legislature. Education and the prison system are most in need of increased
funding, but the budget is large enough to accommodate significant tax relief.
The state has experienced a shortage of prison space for years and now pays for
incarceration of more than 2,000 inmates in private mainland prisons. Ninety
percent of inmates held in those facilities go on to commit more crimes,
compared with a recidivism rate of 47 percent to 57 percent for those held in
island prisons. The budget surplus provides an opportunity to fight crime by
building new prisons in Hawaii.
October 3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
This tiny town has a slow feel to it. Some of that is a testament to southern
graciousness, when people make time for one another. Some of it is due to a
menacing apathy that festers when people are out on the street with nowhere to
go. This community in the North Delta region, described in federal reports as
one of the most depressed areas of the country, is where the Corrections Corp.
of America built the 1,104-bed Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in
2000. The prison holds more than 850 Hawai'i inmates. The 325 jobs at the prison
offer the best-paying work around, said chief of security Danny Dodd. CCA's
starting pay in Tutwiler is about $8.40 an hour, considerably less than the
$13.20 an hour for new corrections officers in Hawai'i, but Dodd said there is
no shortage of applicants. There is significant staff turnover, which means the
prison is often short-handed. Tutwiler resident Mary Meeks said her husband
pulls double shifts at the prison as often as twice a week because people quit
or don't show up for work. Some residents said they were led to believe the
Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility would hold only Mississippi
lawbreakers, and were alarmed to learn the company was importing prisoners.
Contract monitors last year described the Mississippi staff as young and
inexperienced, and said most had never worked in a prison before. CCA requires
five weeks of training, compared with eight weeks for Hawai'i corrections
officers. According to monitoring reports, in the first six months after the
Hawai'i inmates arrived, several employees were fired for smuggling cigarettes
into the prison and having inappropriate relationships with inmates - a problem
that has arisen at other Mainland prisons where Hawai'i prisoners have been
held. Inmates complain about the medical and dental services at Tallahatchie,
gripes that were confirmed last year when Hawai'i prison monitors warned CCA the
prison was failing to meet National Commission on Correctional Health Care
Standards because a doctor was there only eight hours a week to care for almost
1,000 convicts. In May, the monitors warned that dental services were
insufficient because a dentist was available only eight hours a week, but the
backlog of inmates waiting for dental care had been somewhat reduced when
inspectors returned last month. CCA does not attempt to separate gang-affiliated
prisoners, and inmates said keeping rival gang members in the same unit can be
dangerous when things go wrong. There has already been one disturbance in a unit
that houses gang members at Tallahatchie. On July 17, 20 cell doors in a SHIP
unit popped open unexpectedly at around 2:45 a.m., freeing inmates. Ronnie J.
Lonoaea, 32, of Hawai'i was severely beaten in his cell before guards released
tear gas and restored order about 90 minutes later. Scott Lee of Hawai'i, who
suffered a broken jaw in the incident, recalled how some prisoners in the unit
frantically tried to close their jammed cell doors because they feared an attack
by fellow inmates. A CCA investigation concluded the cell doors probably opened
because a corrections sergeant hit the wrong control button. Komori said the
sergeant and a captain who supervised the unit no longer work at the prison.
October 3, 2005 Honolulu
Advertiser
Monitoring reports and inmate accounts from the years Hawai'i has been sending
inmates to Mainland prisons reveal a long and continuing history of riots,
assaults, gang activity, drug trafficking and repeated contract violations for
failing to provide adequate healthcare and rehabilitative programs. Fires and
disturbances at the privately run prisons have caused substantial damage,
injuries and even death. Wardens have been fired or replaced, and federal civil
rights investigations launched. Inmates have been transferred from one prison to
another because of poor service. Kat Brady, coordinator of the Hawai'i-based
Community Alliance on Prisons, contends the state did not properly research the
privately run prisons before sending inmates to the facilities and doesn't
adequately monitor the operations. "I think it's outrageous, and the thing
that really concerns me is the state sends our people to places where they've
done no due diligence," said Brady, who is probably the most outspoken
critic of the Mainland placements. "They just seem to say, 'Well, it's
cheap, so let's turn our inmates over to the lowest bidder.' It seems that in
Hawai'i when we send our people away, it's almost 'out of sight, out of mind.'
" Nearly 1,830 Hawai'i inmates are being held in facilities run by the
Corrections Corporation of America. CCA is holding approximately 1,750 men from
Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi, and about 80 Hawai'i
women in a facility in Wheelwright, Ky. The company is the state's sole provider
of Mainland prison beds, with contracts worth about $36 million a year. Since
the first batch of 300 prisoners was shipped to two correctional centers in
Texas in 1995, there have been at least 11 riots involving Hawai'i inmates at
Mainland facilities. By contrast, veteran prison workers said they cannot recall
a single riot at Halawa Correctional Facility, the largest state-run prison,
during the past 10 years. One national study found that privately operated
prisons had 49 percent more inmate-on-staff assaults and 65 percent more
inmate-on-inmate assaults than government-run facilities. CCA argues on its Web
site it is a "myth" that private companies experience higher rates of
assaults and escapes, saying that "historical, statistical data for related
incidents actually reveal that public and private sector performances are
comparable." Howard Komori, supervisor of the Department of Public Safety
contract monitors who oversee conditions in the private prisons, said there may
have been a greater number of disturbances at the Mainland facilities because of
their more relaxed "campus atmosphere," and that Mainland corrections
officers often are less experienced than prison workers in Hawai'i. Former
prisons chief Keith Kaneshiro believes years in Mainland prisons have instilled
a dangerous gang culture in Hawai'i inmates that will present problems for
corrections officials for years to come. Kaneshiro, a former Honolulu prosecutor
who has no interest in coddling convicts, exported hundreds of inmates to the
Mainland to relieve crowding when he was public safety director from 1996 to
1998, but he is now counted among critics of the arrangement. He said the
inmates were supposed to be returned to Hawai'i as soon as a new prison opened,
but a new prison was never built. When the inmates realized they would be
serving long stretches out of state, they banded together to protect themselves
from rival gangs from other states, he said. State reports describe activity by
the Hawai'i gangs at CCA's Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Okla.,
and at Florence Correctional Center in Arizona. Suspected gang members also are
housed in special disciplinary units at Tallahatchie County Correctional
Facility in Tutwiler, Miss. Department of Public Safety officials say the
Mainland prison companies generally respond quickly when concerns are raised
about their operations, but the state has often had to prod them to deliver on
educational, job-training or drug-treatment programs that are required by
contract. This has been a particular problem for women inmates. The state
transferred its first group of female inmates to the Mainland in May 1997, when
64 prisoners were sent to Crystal City Correctional Center near San Antonio,
operated by the Bobby Ross Group. Concerns about sanitation and the contractor's
failure to deliver mental-health and other treatment programs led the state in
1998 to move the women from Texas to the Central Oklahoma Correctional Facility,
operated by the Correctional Services Corp., based in Sarasota, Fla. The prison
was taken over by Dominion Correctional Services and sold in 2003 to the state
of Oklahoma. When the Oklahoma prison failed to provide required drug treatment
and work opportunities, Hawai'i moved its women inmates in 2004 to GRW Corp.'s
250-bed facility in Brush, Colo. Then, early this year, Colorado authorities
announced a criminal investigation into allegations that prison staff had sexual
contact with eight inmates, including two women from Hawai'i. Two corrections
officers were charged with felony sexual misconduct with inmates. The warden
resigned, and was later indicted as an alleged accomplice in one of the cases.
All three men are awaiting trial. When the sexual misconduct allegations
surfaced in January, virtually all rehabilitative and educational programs were
shut down until early June, prison officials acknowledged, violating a contract
requirement that those services be provided. Gil Walker, president of GRW Corp.,
said the prison needed all of its resources to cope with security problems and
the sexual misconduct scandal, and didn't have staff to spare for programs. The
programs resumed when new staff was hired. But there were other problems with
contract compliance at Brush. For a period of months, inmates taught required
rehabilitation classes to other inmates. Colorado corrections officials who
regulate private prison operations repeatedly complained about the practice, and
Hawai'i contract monitors warned in February that it was a "serious
concern." Inmates and state monitors complained repeatedly that adequate
dental and medical care was lacking at Brush. GRW officials reported in May the
facility was visited by a doctor only once a month, and a contract monitor's
report called the staffing inadequate. Monitors warned the company in February
and again in May it was obliged to provide better access to dental care. A
Colorado audit released in June found the clinic at Brush was not licensed as
required under Colorado law, a lapse that also violated the Hawai'i contract.
Hawai'i monitors complained last year that the prison was not conducting
required drug testing of inmates, and complained of the same deficiency in a May
report. Colorado authorities also discovered that background checks were never
completed on a number of Brush employees, including five convicted felons who
worked there and two others who had arrest records. Failure to complete
background checks was a breach of the Hawai'i contract. Last week, the women
inmates were moved from Brush to the 656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright, Ky. Hawai'i monitors also have noted problems with delivery of
required programs to male inmates. Their reports show that a year after the
first Hawai'i inmates were placed at the CCA's Florence prison in Arizona, the
facility still was not offering educational and rehabilitation programs required
by its contract. An October 2004 audit of the Lifeline substance-abuse treatment
program at Diamondback Correctional Facility in Oklahoma rated it as
"unsatisfactory," in part because there was no program director, and
counselor caseloads were triple the recommended levels. At the company's
Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, monitors concluded in May that dental
services for the inmates were insufficient, with a dentist or dental assistant
on site for only eight hours a week to serve the 700-plus Hawai'i inmates who
were there at the time. Tallahatchie also was not providing a cognitive skills
rehabilitation program required by the Hawai'i contract.
October 3, 2005 Honolulu
Advertiser
Starting pay for a corrections officer at CCA's Tallahatchie County Correctional
Facility in Mississippi is about $8.40 an hour, compared with $13.20 in Hawai'i.
The company operates prisons in high- unemployment areas that need jobs, which
helps reduce labor costs. Corrections Corp. of America, a pioneer in the private
prison industry, has control over nearly half of Hawai'i's prison population in
what may be the state's biggest venture into privatization. The company is
expected to collect $36 million from Island taxpayers in mostly nonbid contracts
this year. All but one of the prison contracts were awarded without formal
competitive bidding because, technically, they are government-to-government
agreements, which are exempt from state procurement rules. The contracts are
with governmental entities such as Pinal County in Arizona, the Watonga Economic
Development Authority in Oklahoma and the Tallahatchie County Correctional
Authority in Mississippi, which subcontract the work to CCA. The company has
been dogged by controversy over its financial stability and management, labor
practices, and safety problems that led to escapes and deadly violence. Some
critics argue it is wrong for a business to profit from the imprisonment of
human beings. The company's most notorious incidents occurred at Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center in Youngstown, which opened in 1997. During the first year
of operation, when the prison held 1,500 inmates from the District of Columbia,
there were 13 stabbings, including two fatalities. The prison was supposed to
hold only medium-security inmates, but more than 100 had to be moved after it
was discovered they actually had higher security classifications. The deaths of
several inmates while under prison medical care brought additional scrutiny, and
when a group of five murderers and another inmate escaped, Ohio Gov. George
Voinovich wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno in July 1998 saying
he wanted the prison closed. A lawsuit filed by inmates alleging unsafe
conditions at the Ohio prison resulted in a $1.65 million settlement with CCA.
The prison closed in 2001 when the District of Columbia withdrew its inmates,
but CCA reopened the facility last year to accommodate federal detainees. More
recent CCA troubles include a five-hour riot involving inmates from Washington,
Colorado and Wyoming at Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado in July
2004. Nineteen inmates were injured in that melee. A Colorado Department of
Corrections report found prison staff were inexperienced, undertrained and
spread too thin to control the inmates. The night of the riot, fewer than 35
corrections officers were on duty for more than 1,100 prisoners. There also have
been problems at CCA prisons holding Hawai'i inmates, including violence, drug
smuggling and contract violations. Still, state prison officials say CCA has
generally done a good job and has been quick to make changes when deficiencies
are pointed out. CCA's formula for success includes buying or building prisons
in rural or depressed communities such as Tutwiler, Miss., and Wheelwright, Ky.,
providing needed jobs in areas with high unemployment. That strategy helps CCA
keep its wages relatively low, which is critical because labor is the primary
cost in operating a prison. The starting pay for a CCA corrections officer at
the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler is about $8.40 an
hour, compared with $13.20 for a new guard in Hawai'i. Since CCA relies on
government contracts, it has not shied away from playing politics. The company
last year contributed $100,000 to the DeLay Foundation for Kids, a charity
established by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay. DeLay resigned as Republican majority leader
last week after he was indicted in connection with a Texas political fundraising
scandal. In Montana, which is a CCA client, the company donated $10,000 to help
finance an inauguration ball for Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer. In the state
of Washington, another client, CCA has made political contributions to
Republican and Democratic organizations and candidates. Hawai'i Gov. Linda
Lingle accepted a $6,000 corporate contribution from CCA in 2002, the maximum
allowed in a four-year campaign cycle, and an identical sum in February of this
year for her 2006 re-election race.
October 2, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
A decade ago, Hawai'i began exporting inmates to Mainland prisons in what was
supposed to be a temporary measure to save money and relieve overcrowding in
state prisons. Now, the state doesn't seem to be able to stop. With little
public debate or study, the practice of sending prisoners away has become a
predominant feature of Hawai'i's corrections policy, with nearly half of the
state's prison population - 1,828 inmates - held in privately operated
facilities in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona and Kentucky at a cost of $36
million this year. Hawai'i already leads all other states in holding the highest
percentage of its prison population in out-of-state correctional centers, and if
Hawai'i policymakers continue on their present course, by the end of 2006 there
likely will be more inmates housed in Mainland prisons than at home. Although
public safety officials say the private companies that house Hawai'i inmates
have generally done a good job, the history of Mainland prison placements is
pockmarked with reports of contract violations, riots, drug smuggling, and
allegations of sexual assaults of women inmates. Former prisons chief Keith
Kaneshiro says years in Mainland prisons have instilled a dangerous gang culture
in Hawai'i inmates that has spread back to the Islands and will present problems
for local corrections officials for years to come. There is also concern that
inmates who are incarcerated on the Mainland lose touch with their families,
increasing the likelihood they will return to crime once they are released.
Robert Perkinson, a University of Hawai'i assistant professor of American
studies, called the state's prison policy "completely backward."
"None of this makes sense if your goal is to make the citizens of Hawai'i
safer and use your tax dollars as effectively as you can to make the streets
safer, based on the best available research that we have," said Perkinson,
who is writing a book on the Texas prison system. Marilyn Brown, assistant
professor of sociology at UH-Hilo, said Hawai'i's out-of-state inmate transfers
are a strange throwback to corrections policies of two or three centuries ago,
when felons were banished to penal colonies in Australia or the New World. Most
of the $36 million being spent this year on out-of-state prison accommodations
will go to Corrections Corp. of America, a pioneer in the private corrections
industry. The company holds about 62,000 inmates nationwide, including about
1,750 men from Hawai'i in prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi. Last
week the state transferred 80 Hawai'i women inmates from a prison in Brush,
Colo., owned by GRW Corp. to Otter Creek Correctional Center, a CCA prison in
Wheelwright, Ky. Those selected for Mainland transfers generally are felons with
at least several years left on their sentences who have no major health problems
or pending court cases that would require their presence in Hawai'i. Private
prison contractors have the final say, and can reject troublesome inmates with a
history of misconduct. Ted Sakai, who ran the state prison system from 1998 to
2002, said it will always be cheaper to house inmates on the Mainland because of
labor costs, which are considerably lower in the rural communities where many
prisons are. But there are benefits to keeping prison jobs here, he said. In
2000, state House Republican leaders scolded then-Gov. Ben Cayetano for
proposing to lease more prison beds on the Mainland. House Minority Leader Galen
Fox said doing so would be bad for the state's economy and the inmates'
families. An Advertiser poll of Democrats and Republicans before the start of
the Legislature's 2003 session found a majority of state lawmakers opposed the
practice. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle also has said she is opposed to sending
more prisoners away. Yet spending on Mainland prisons has steadily increased
over the past 10 years, and politicians have failed to take action on
alternatives. The Cayetano administration explored several options for privately
built or privately operated facilities on the Big Island and O'ahu, but each
proposal was thwarted by political resistance or opposition from communities
near suggested prison sites. Lingle campaigned in 2002 on a promise to build two
500-bed secure "treatment facilities," but three years later, no
specifics have been provided on when or where the projects might be built. As
Hawai'i's policy of out-of-state incarceration becomes more entrenched, other
states are moving in the opposite direction. Connecticut and Wisconsin both
recently brought home almost all of their inmates who had been housed elsewhere,
and Indiana returned 600 convicts from out-of-state prisons. Alabama, meanwhile,
doubled the number of convicts on parole to allow inmates to return from a
Corrections Corp. of America-run prison in Tutwiler, Miss., last year. The
vacancies at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility were filled by more than
700 Hawai'i inmates. Wyoming plans to open a new prison in 2007 that would allow
the state to bring back 550 inmates now held out of state, and lawmakers in
Alaska last year authorized planning for a new prison of their own.
June 25, 2003
Legislators passed bills this session
directing Gov. Linda Lingle to begin talks for a new correctional facility at
Halawa and study the possibility of a fixed-rail transit system on O'ahu.
But Lingle doesn't want lawmakers tying
her hands on either of the issues, vetoing both bills. House
Bill 298 would have directed the administration to develop a replacement
facility for O'ahu Community Correctional Center on a vacant portion of Halawa
Correctional Facility. "This
bill is objectionable because it prevents the consideration of alternative,
possibly more appropriate sites and because it requires expensive soil testing
and a feasibility and planning study without appropriating funds to do so,"
Lingle wrote in her veto message last week. If
the Halawa site is later determined to be the best site for an OCCC replacement,
Lingle said, "existing laws already allow the administration to take steps
necessary to pursue that option." Former
Gov. Ben Cayetano had begun negotiations with an unnamed contractor for an OCCC
replacement at Halawa, but, after failing to complete a deal before Lingle took
office in December, left it up to his successor to deal with the issue.
The administration has said it is looking
at various options for correctional facilities, including a treatment center on
the Big Island. (Honolulu Advertiser.com)
May 28, 2003
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle wants to build three
new correctional facilities in an effort to kill a plan for a new private prison
in Hawaii, which she opposed during her recent campaign. Interim Public
Safety Director James Propotnick said the administration plans to build a
secured treatment facility, a detention center to replace Oahu Community Correctional Center, and a transition center for inmates leaving the
prison system. He urged legislators to stall action on a bill that
requires the administration to negotiate a privately-built prison in Halawa.
The outgoing governor had tried to secure the private project before leaving
office. (Corrections Professional)
May 20, 2003
The cost of running the state's
correctional system and sending inmates to Mainland prisons is steadily rising
as officials work on long-range plans that will likely involve building new
facilities. In the meantime,
a nascent policy shift to emphasize drug and alcohol abuse treatment programs is
slowly building momentum, despite limited financial support. There
are more than 5,000 inmates in Hawai'i's correctional system, including about
1,350 in private Mainland prisons. All the state's jails and prisons are at or
over capacity. The state has
been spending more than $25 million per year on the Mainland prisoners alone,
including transportation and medical expenses. And
those costs will almost certainly rise this year because state contracts with
the Corrections Corporation of America will soon expire. The department's budget
for the coming year includes $28.3 million for Mainland prisoner transfers.
Former Gov. Ben Cayetano had considered a
plan to replace OCCC by leasing space in a new jail that private developers
would build beside the Halawa prison. But
the plan stalled after the proposal exceeded the state's $130 million estimate.
Gov. Linda Lingle also asked that the plan be shelved so her administration
could weigh more comprehensive and long-term plans for the entire correctional
system. (Honolulu Advertiser)
February 2, 2003
Plans for three separate new prisons are under way at the state Department of
Public Safety, but it is too early to say when, where or how these facilities
will be built. Lt. Gov. James
"Duke" Aiona is spearheading a public-private prison deal to help
Hawaii
inmates on the mainland who need substance-abuse treatment rather than
incarceration. But that is just one
of the three new facilities envisioned by state Public Safety Director James
Propotnick: a new secure drug treatment facility, a transition center for
inmates nearing scheduled release and a prison to replace the
Oahu
Community
Correctional
Center
. Lawmakers also questioned
Propotnick about the 90 percent recidivism rate of
Hawaii
parolees who served their time in mainland prisons. He said most of those
parolees returned to jail for technical violations, such as testing positive on
drug tests that are part of their probation. He believes these inmates would
have a better chance if there were treatment facilities locally to help them
with their substance abuse problems. (Star Bulletin)
January 22, 2003
Most
of the Hawaii inmates serving time at mainland prisons have violated parole and
are now back in custody, says interim state Public Safety Director James
Propotnick.
As a result, there is a 90 percent recidivism rate for Hawaii parolees
from mainland prisons, compared with a rate of between 47 percent and 57 percent
for Hawaii parolees incarcerated locally. (Star Bulletin)
January 13, 2003
A majority of
legislators oppose sending more Hawai'i inmates to Mainland
prison facilities, and favor instead building a prison here and
expanding community-based drug treatment programs to help reduce prison
crowding. But it remains to
be seen whether hurdles that continue to block movement on the prison issue —
such as cost and location —
can be overcome in this year's Legislature, which
opens on Wednesday. The issue of
what to do about Hawai'i's crowded prisons has been hotly debated since the
state began paying to board inmates in Mainland facilities in 1995. The
Legislature authorized the governor several years ago to negotiate with
developers directly for a new correctional facility, but former Gov. Ben
Cayetano abandoned negotiations on a jail days before his term ended in
December. Gov. Linda Lingle, who
opposes sending inmates to the Mainland, promised voters during the campaign
that she would build two privately financed, 500-bed drug treatment correctional
facilities in Hawai'i. Many lawmakers — most of them Democrats — declined to
indicate whether they supported such a proposal. (The Honolulu
Advertiser.com)
November 26, 2002
Gov. Ben Cayetano's efforts to cut a deal for construction of a new 1,100-bed
jail in Halawa before he leaves office next week are going down the
drain-literally. An unexpected $7 million to $8 million added cost to
upgrade the sewage system at the proposed Halawa prison complex has hindered
closing the deal with the unidentified developer, Cayetano told reported
Monday. "I told Governor (Linda) Lingle I'm handing it off to
her," Cayetano said after meeting with the governor-elect Monday
evening. "I gave her our perspective and I think that in the end
it'll be up to the new administration as to what is to be done. Two weeks
ago, Lingle said a proposed private prison on Hawaiian Homes land on the Big
Island prompted her to ask Cayetano to discontinue negotiations for the Halawa
facility. (AP)
November 25, 2002
Politics, little money and a "not in my backyard" attitude stopped
efforts to build a new correctional facility in Hawai'i despite years of debate
and an inmate population that nearly doubled in the past eight years. Gov.
Ben Cayetano said the argument is over cost, location and what type of facility
have managed to kill proposals during his tenure. "Nobody wanted it
in their backyard. And we had a tough time with the unions because they
oppose privatization." Gov.-elect Linda Lingle has asked Cayetano to
drop negotiations and wants to explore options. Until a new facility is
built, Cayetano said he believes the only solution is to continue shipping
inmates to Mainland prisons, a situation which Lingle said she is opposed
to. The state began dealing with prison crowding in 1995 by paying to
board inmates in Mainland prisons. There are 1,294 Hawai'i inmates in
three correctional facilities in Oklahoma and Arizona. (The Honolulu
Advertiser.com)
November 13, 2002
A proposal for a new
private prison on Hawaiian Home Lands prompted
Gov.-elect Linda Lingle to ask the Cayetano administration to halt
prison facilities on other islands also should be considered, she
said.
continue
negotiations with a private vendor despite her
objections.
Earlier
this week, Lingle and Lt. Gov.-elect James Aiona publicly asked
Cayetano and Attorney General Earl Anzai to refrain from committing the
state to
a multimillion dollar prison construction contract before he leaves office.
Lingle
said she wants her administration to be able to consider other
options. Both she and Aiona support rehabilitation programs for offenders.
Lingle
said she supports the idea of a privately operated prison, but
said
any new facility should work in conjunction with the planned University of
Hawaii medical school to rehabilitate offenders and provide drug and alcohol
treatment where needed. (AP)
November 13,
2002
Governor-elect Linda
Lingle is asking Gov. Ben Cayetano not to sign a
multimillion-dollar contract
to build a new prison before he leaves office.
"If
the contract you are considering is a good one, it will also be a
good one three weeks from
now when our administration will have an opportunity to review it,"
Lingle said in a letter faxed
yesterday to Cayetano and state Attorney General Earl Anzai.
Cayetano
has been negotiating with a private developer over a $100
million contract to build a
1,100-bed prison in Halawa Valley.
The
governor said he will not issue a formal response to Lingle's
letter until he sees it, said
spokesman Cedric Yamanaka.
"He
also says we've come a long way up to this point and will continue
to negotiate," Yamanaka
said.
Lingle
also questioned why there was only one bid for the project and
after the initial bid was
rejected, why the project was not put out to bid again. "No information
has been released about
whether the Office of the Governor is negotiating with only one entity
or more than one, what the
financing arrangement is or whether the new prison includes substance
abuse treatment," Lingle
wrote.
"We
want the opportunity to make the final decision in light of what
envision for the
corrections system," said lieutenant governor-elect James Aiona, who
said he has been asked to
oversee prisons, the state's drug problem and other crime-related
issues in the Lingle
administration.
At
a news conference yesterday, Aiona said it would be a tragedy to
build another prison without
providing facilities for substance abuse treatment.
"We
have real people with real problems who need real solutions," he
said.
Aiona
is a former Family Court and Circuit Court judge who set up the
state's Drug Court
program.
Aiona
and Lingle learned of the governor's plans for the new prison
from the media. "We haven't
had direct contact from him," Aiona said.
He
also said he wants to split up the law enforcement and the
corrections functions of the Public
Safety Department.
The
corrections department deals more directly with inmates and
rehabilitation, and the sheriffs
are more concerned with law enforcement, such as issuing bench warrants
and protecting judges,
according to Aiona.
"The
head of public safety has to wear two hats and has conflicting
interests," he said. (Star-bulletin)
September 3,
2002
Police have arrested one of 10 girls who escaped on Saturday from the Hawaii
youth Correctional Facility in Kailua. Meanwhile, the search continues for
the other nine girls who escaped overpowering two workers at the Hoopipa Makai
cottage. Private and state employees plan to meet this week to "find
out what needs to be done to avoid this from happening again," said Bert
Matsuoka, executive director of the state Office of Youth Services.
"Obviously, there are some glitches. There are some bumps that need
to be worked out," Matsuoka said. According to Sgt. Wong, one of the
girls notified a female residential specialist that another girl was feeling ill
and needed medication. The residential specialist and a man, who was on
his first day of training as a staff member, were overpowered by the girls who
escaped from the cottage. (Star Bulletin)
September 2, 2002
One of the ten teenage girls who escaped from the Hawai'i Youth Correctional
Facility in Kailua Saturday was apprehended yesterday, police said. The
other nine remained at large last night. Officials said the girl escaped
at 12:33 p.m. Saturday after overpowering two guards and stealing an unmarked
white 1998 Ford Windstar van with license number GXT 744. (The Honolulu
Advertiser)
August 19, 2002
State public safety director Ted Sakai said he has strong reservations about
allowing a private company to operate a new jail planned for Halawa Valley, but
that the facility is sorely needed to replace the O'ahu Community Correctional
Center in Kalihi. Many mainland prisons are privately operated, but few
jails are because the inmate population is very different and requires different
skills to manage, he said. The new jail would be designed more securely,
be several stories tall, and less expensive to operate because fewer guards
would be needed, Sakia said. But the project's cost remains a sticking
point. The state on Monday rejected a proposal from a development group
led by Durrant-Media Five because the price was significantly more than the $130
million officials had estimated. Some GOP legislators yesterday said they
are concerned that only one group bid on the project, and they questioned that
state's plan to finance the jail with certificates of participation rather than
lest costly bonds. The method would increase the cost of bank rolling the
project by $1.6 million for every $100 million that's needed, and the cost would
be spread over 30 years, he said. But Tax Foundation of Hawai'i president
Lowell Kalapa said the estimate appears low and that the actual cost would
depend interest rates and the health of the economy. (The Honolulu
Advertiser)
August 14, 2002
The Cayetano administration should known within a month whether it can reach
agreement with a contractor over a new state prison to replace the overcrowded
Oahu Community Correctional Center. House republicans, however, want more
information about it before the deal is done. Gov. Ben Cayetano said
yesterday he hopes a deal will be struck with Durrant-Media Five within the four
months he has left as governor. Durrant is a design firm with Hawaii
offices and the only bidder on the project. The contract, Cayetano said,
would be to build and possibly operate a new 1,100-bed prison in Halawa
Valley. He said the state is negotiating the cost per inmate, the kind of
programs the facility would offer and other details. In January, Durrant
had proposed building a $116 million, 10-story, 1,1000-bed replacement for OCCC
in return for $4.8 million in annual lease payments from the state, with an
option to buy after 30 years. And the fact that there was only one bidder
does not trouble him, considering there are few companies nationwide that do
this kind of specialized work, he said. "Every time we try to find a
prison and put it someplace, there's nothing but opposition," Cayetano
said. "And this is an opportunity for us to do something.
That's why we're looking at it seriously. It's not a done deal yet because
the terms are subject to negotiation." House Republicans said they
have questions about the Durrant plan, in part because there has not been a lot
of public information about it. House Minority Leader Galen Fox (R,
Waikiki) said yesterday Halawa is as good a place as any to built a much-needed
new prison. But he said others have concerns because the negotiations over
the contract are being done outside the public arena. And there are
concerns because only one company submitted bids for it, he said. Charles
Djou (R,Kaneohe), House minority floor leader, said he is concerned about how
the state will finance the plan. According to Djou, the state proposal
calls for Durrant to build the prison and the state to pay a set fee for 20
years. If at any time the state government fails to make a payment, the
prison ownership would divert to Durrant, he said. Theoretically, if that
happens, Djou said the company would be able to import prisoners to Hawaii from
other states. (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
August 10, 2003
The state is moving rapidly to relieve crowded jails by building a new facility,
but the project is expensive and relies on a financing method that is more
costly than conventional schemes. The interest rate for such borrowing is
higher than that of general obligation bonds, which are more commonly used to
raise cash for government projects, so it will cost tax payers more to pay off
the debt. The financing plan would create a trust entity to own the
facility, sell the certificates of participation to investors and pay off the
debt with state lease payments over 30 years. With annual lease payments
of $8.4 million for 30 years, the total cost would be $252 million, according to
an outline of the plan. The group is headed by the Hawai'i branch of
Durrant, an architectural and construction management firm with offices in 10
states. The company has worked on jail and prison projects in Arizona,
Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. Alvin Bronstein, director
emeritus of the ACLU's National Prison Project, said building a new jail would
waste money and fail to alleviate capacity problems. "No state and no
country have ever built their way out of an overcrowding problem," he
said. "Courts, prosecutors and police don't look for less costly
alternatives when they've got prison beds. This new building will be a
Bain-Aid that will be overcrowded the moment it opens." A better
approach would be to invest in serious drug abuse treatment programs, an
expanded probation system and community half-way houses and job-training
programs, he said. Lowell Kalapa, head of the independent Hawai'i Tax
Foundation, questioned why officials had not sought bond financing from
lawmakers this year if the project was so vital. "Is this in the best
interest financially for the taxpayer, or are they trying to skirt legislative
debate?" he said. "I don't think this is accountable, because
the people have not voted on it through their representatives in the
Legislature." Miyahira said that although the project itself would
not require legislative approval, the lease payments to retire the debt would be
part of future operating budgets that go before lawmakers. Gov. Ben
Cayetano felt certificates of deposit would be a good way to finance the jail
because the Legislature has been reluctant to approve bonds for other projects,
including schools, his press secretary said. Certificates of deposit have
become a popular vehicle to pay for government projects in jurisdictions where
the debt capacity is limited by law or voter approval is needed for bonds,
financial experts say. And the approach is especially popular for prison
construction. Cayetano would prefer that a private company run the new
facility instead of the state, but that issue has yet to be decided. (The
Advertiser)
Halawa
Correctional Center
Durrant-Media Five,
Municipal Capital Markets Group
Inc.,
Foresite
Capital Facilities Corp. and Group M, LLC.
April 2, 2002
Fearing continued
prison overcrowding, state officials are exploring
building a new 1,100-bed
prison in Halawa Valley next to the existing 1,200-bed correctional
institution.
The
move comes after a private group pitched a plan in January to build
a prison without cost to
the state and lease it to the state.
Yesterday,
the state called for proposals to design and build a prison
at Halawa.
"What we are doing is asking for developers to front the money with the
state coming in later to
pay it off," Sakai said. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
January 17, 2002
The state is
reviewing "promising" proposals from private companies
wanting
to build and run prisons on O |
