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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