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Alternative Youth Adventures
Montrose County, Colorado
Community Educational Centers
May 11, 2007 Denver Post
State health authorities have shut down a wilderness youth camp in Montrose
County after a 15-year-old Utah boy died there last week of an untreated staph
infection. The Colorado Department of Health and Human Services suspended the
license of Alternative Youth Adventures on Wednesday. The 26 at-risk youths in
the program were moved from the remote camp in Montrose County to corrections or
human service agencies in Grand Junction and Denver on Wednesday and Thursday.
"We believe we have reasonable grounds to believe the camp presents a
substantial danger to public health, safety and welfare," said Liz McDonough, a
spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. McDonough said she
did not know how Caleb Jensen contracted a methicillin- resistant staphylococcus
aureus infection. She said he reported symptoms to the adult camp leaders. "We
are at a loss to see how this was preventable. ... It was something the staff
just could not tell was there," said Bill Palatucci, a spokesman for Community
Education Centers Inc., the Roseland, N.J., company that operates the wilderness
camp and five other rehabilitation-type programs in Colorado as well as programs
in six other states. "From what we know, the staff acted appropriately, in line
with their track record." The type of bacterial staph infection Jen- sen died
from most commonly occurs in hospitals and usually affects the elderly and very
ill or others with compromised immune systems. It most commonly develops in an
open wound. In minor cases, the infection causes pimples or boils. In serious
cases, the infection can lead to fever, pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome and
death. Jensen died the afternoon of May 2 in a camp in a remote part of Montrose
County just over the Mesa County line. Counselors reportedly tried to revive the
boy, who had been at the camp for a month. He was placed in the program for two
months by the Utah Division of Juvenile Services. A website for Community
Education Centers describes the camp as incorporating "education, conservation
practices, work projects in national forests, rigorous physical activity,
substance abuse treatment and detailed aftercare planning." Dan Robinson,
director of the Grand Mesa Youth Services program in Grand Junction, said his
facility has used the camp for years and has not had problems with it. McDonough
said her department had previous issues with youths who suffered frostbite at
the camp. Last year, six youths walked away from Alternative Youth Adventure
camps in Montrose and San Miguel counties. All were eventually located.
May 3, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
A 15-year-old Utah boy died during a backcountry outing with a youth program on
the Uncompahgre Plateau of natural causes, authorities said today. The teenager,
whose name was not immediately released, was part of Alternative Youth
Adventures, a Montrose care facility that treats at- risk juveniles through
education, counseling and work projects in national forests. Dr. Rob Kurtzman,
chief deputy coroner in Mesa County, said he'll conduct further tests to
determine the precise cause of death. "It's sudden and tragic," said Bill
Palatucci, senior vice president of Community Education Centers, the parent
company of Alternative Youth Adventures. "It may have been a previously
undetected underlying medical condition." Palatucci said the boy had been
referred to the AYA program by the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services.
He declined to release the boy's name, citing federal privacy regulations. The
boy died Wednesday afternoon. Authorities received a 911 call about 3 p.m.
saying he was not breathing, but the boy was dead by the time rescue personnel
reached the remote site southwest of Grand Junction near the Mesa-Montrose
county line.
Antonito, Colorado
November 10, 2007 Pueblo Chieftain
State Rep. Rafael Gallegos plans to continue his push for a correctional
facility in the Antonito area, despite a recent Conejos County election that
showed residents are against the idea. The Antonito Democrat, in keeping with
his vow to bring economic development to the San Luis Valley, hopes to meet with
Gov. Bill Ritter before the next legislative session and ask for his support in
bringing a facility to the area. Earlier this week, Conejos County residents
weighed in on whether the town of Antonito should continue its attempts to lure
a private correctional facility to the area, with 941 votes against the idea and
437 in favor of it. The Antonito precinct also went against the measure with 94
voting against the idea and 69 for it. Gallegos, who served a stint as the mayor
of Antonito before getting elected to the state House in 2004, thinks voters did
not get the full picture. "There wasn't enough explanation given of the pros and
cons to the folks," Gallegos said. Gallegos said a prison would give the area an
economic boost. An 800-bed facility, for example, would bring 250 jobs with good
benefits, he said. Opponents of the measure argued before the election that a
prison would outstrip the area's services and would lower residential property
values near the prison. They also argued that high turnover of staff at private
prisons would make the industry unsustainable for the local community. Although
supporters of the idea crisscrossed the valley this summer and fall, asking for
communities to support a feasibility study for a correctional facility, Gallegos
said the projected demand for prison beds - an increase between 6,500 to 8,000
beds by 2011 - is high enough that a study wouldn't be needed. "But if (the
governor) wants to do a feasibility study that's fine with me," he said.
Although Gallegos will push forward, the other half of the San Luis Valley's
delegation at the state capitol, Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, said
she's not ready to follow suit. "I would not support him in this effort at this
time until I have more information," she said. "It's too soon for me to align
myself to that concept." She also cited the Conejos County vote totals as a
reason to hold off. "I've heard through this vote this is not what the community
wants," she said. "It's not my position to stand in the way of what the
community wants." Schwartz, instead, pointed to the start of an economic
development assessment for Conejos County that could lay out more options for
the area.
November 7, 2007 Alamosa News
Conejos County voted against the formation of a
weed control district, against pursuing a private prison in Antonito and against
the formation of a county recreation district. The county did vote to “de-Bruce”
the Conejos Water Conservancy District to allow for an increase in grant revenue
of up to $5 million. If the grant money is received it would go to construction,
maintenance and improvement of water facilities, to acquire water rights and
other interests in water supplies. Ballot Referendum A would have increased the
county mill levy by 2 percent in unincorporated areas of Conejos County to fund
a weed control district. The referendum was defeated by a vote of 427 against to
399 in favor. Referendum B, to “de-Bruce” the water conservancy district passed
by a vote of 638 in favor to 356 against. Referendum C passed with 122 votes in
favor to 81 votes against. However, the results were made moot because the
question would only be considered if Referendum A passed. Ref. C would have
dissolved the existing Conejos County pest control district. Ballot question A,
asking if county voters supported efforts by the town of Antonito to bring a
private prison to Conejos County brought a total of 941 votes against the plan
to 437 votes in favor. The vote has no force of law as it was taken to measure
county opinion on the matter.
Ault Correctional Facility
Ault, Colorado
GEO Group
May 9, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Plans for a private prison in Ault came to a halt recently when Colorado
Department of Corrections rescinded its offer to GEO Group. Ault Mayor Brad
Bayne said board members haven't discussed the prison for months. "Until there
was some sort of guarantee, we'd just rather not talk about it," he said. "There
is probably some disappointment from me and a few board members who believe we
still could have made it work for the town." Talk of the 1,500-bed
medium-security prison proposed last spring has bought some uproar in the town
of fewer than 1,500 residents. Some said a prison coming to town would boost the
town's economy, but others said it would be too dangerous because of its
proximity to the town. The plan was to build on 40 acres in the southeast part
of town. Last spring, the GEO Group entered into a tentative agreement with the
town -- which approved the prison in concept only -- so it could secure state
approval to build there. Months later, the town board passed an ordinance
requiring resident approval before any prison could be built. Town officials
haven't heard from a GEO Group representative since September, when GEO hosted a
public forum answering questions from residents, he said. But DOC Executive
Director Ari Zavaras put a stop to all discussions with the private prison
contractor. He sent a letter April 24 to representatives of GEO Group, stating
they would no longer discuss the plans for the Ault prison or GEO's request for
a guaranteed bed count. "We had continued to have a very open and productive
conversations with GEO," said Allison Morgan, spokesperson for the DOC. "But we
did not agree with a bed guarantee." GEO requested a guarantee on the number of
beds that would be filled by prisoners at any given time, since the state pays
private prison contractors a daily rate per inmate. Phillip Tidwell, a member of
the Citizens Against Ault Prison, said the decision to rescind the DOC offer to
GEO Group made him happy. "We're definitely feeling this is a responsible act
from both parties," Tidwell said. "The contract should have never been fulfilled
by the state because of GEO making the specifications with the state for a
guaranteed bed count." In the letter to rescind, Zavaras stated that in June
2006, the DOC offered a contract with GEO Group with the exception to GEO's
request for a bed guarantee. On July 7, the DOC asked for GEO group to sign and
complete the proposed implementation agreement. After a few meetings, GEO Group
still requested a bed guarantee, which the DOC could not grant. The two entities
have gone back and forth on the bed guarantee issue since August. According to
the letter, Zavaras gave GEO a new deadline of April 2 to sign the
Implementation Agreement or provide a reason for not signing in writing to the
DOC no later than that date. "It was apparent the Department and GEO could not
come to an agreement," Morgan said.
April 18, 2007 Colorado For Ethics
The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) responded to a March 5, 2007, open
records request by Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government (CCEG) that sought
documents relating to a private prison contract awarded by CDOC to The GEO
Group, Inc. The documents obtained by CCEG confirm that former Director of
Prisons Nolin Renfrow began working for The GEO Group while still on state
payroll, a blatant conflict of interest. In an email to Brian Burnett, the
deputy executive director of CDOC, Dave Schouweiler, DOC Manager of Purchasing,
stated that Renfrow was on state payroll until January 31, 2006 and acknowledged
the “impropriety of Mr. Renfrow’s involvement with the originating procurement.”
The CORA request and responsive documents are available on CCEG’s website at
www.coloradoforethics.org. CCEG is posting these records as part of its
commitment to holding the government responsible for its actions.
March 6, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Saying GEO Group Inc. can't be trusted, a Pueblo lawmaker asked state officials
Monday to rescind a contract with the company to build a private prison in Ault.
Plans for the prison, which would house 1,500 inmates and would be built east of
the railroad tracks along U.S. 85, has stalled on two fronts. Ault leaders
decided they would not approve the facility until the public voted on it, and
GEO wants to change its contract to ensure payment for its beds. Rep. Liane "Buffie"
McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, a vocal critic of private prisons, said Monday that the
proposed change and other issues regarding GEO's integrity should negate the
Ault contract. “Anybody living in Ault should be concerned that a company that
would bid this way on a contract might have a business in their town," she said.
Philip Tidwell, spokesman for the town group Coalition Against Ault Prison, said
residents hope no one else bids on the Ault prison if GEO's contract is
rescinded. "We just do not want any private prison, whether it be GEO or Cornell
or anyone else," he said. A spokesman for GEO did not return calls seeking
comment. McFadyen said the company is attempting to do the same things in Ault
that derailed plans for a GEO facility in Pueblo. In 2003, GEO won a contract
for a 1,100-bed, pre-parole and parole revocation facility in Pueblo, and after
almost four years of delays, the state pulled the contract last fall. The
company never broke ground on the facility. "The state of Colorado was held
hostage for four years waiting for those beds," McFadyen said. The delays
included zoning issues in Pueblo and GEO's attempt to obtain guaranteed payments
on 90 percent of its beds, regardless of whether the beds were occupied. That is
something state leaders have opposed and which may even be impossible because of
state laws, McFadyen said. Now, GEO is trying for guaranteed bed payments in
Ault, she said. "You have to question the integrity of the 2006 bid," she said.
"If past performance is an indicator, I suspect we will be in the same place we
were in 2003 in Pueblo." McFadyen said Ari Zavaras, the new director of the
Department of Corrections, told her he is opposed to bed guarantees. Corrections
spokeswoman Alison Morgan told the Associated Press that Zavaras will review
McFadyen's request and decide how to respond. The story of Ault's possible
prison goes back to late 2005, when Nolin Renfrow, former director of prisons
for the Department of Corrections, started working with GEO on a bid for a
private prison. Renfrow is under investigation for using state sick leave to
obtain the Ault contract on behalf of GEO. On Monday, Colorado Citizens for
Ethics in Government, a watchdog group, filed an open records request about the
Ault bid. "We do not feel that the public's interest was put forth in the
procurement of this contract," said Chantelle Taylor, spokeswoman for the
watchdog group. A state audit found Renfrow's business activities "arguably
present a conflict of interest and result in a breach of ... the public trust."
That breach, coupled with GEO's attempt to change its Pueblo contract by adding
the bed-payment guarantee, should have prevented the company from getting the
Ault bid in the first place, McFadyen said. Tidwell agreed. "One thing the state
should recognize is (GEO) did not operate fairly," he said. "They hired an
insider knowing he worked for the state. In my mind, GEO has shown itself to be
not a company that operates fairly in the state of Colorado.
March 5, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and two reform groups today formally
requested the director of the Department of Corrections and the governor rescind
Geo Group’s bid to build a private prison in Ault. The reasons cited included
the company’s performance on a 2003 bid to build a private prison in Pueblo.
McFadyen said GEO Group lost its contract to build the Pueblo facility because
it delayed the start of construction, then tried to renegotiate its contract to
get a guarantee that it would be paid for 90 percent occupancy, even if beds
were not filled. "Basically, the state of Colorado was held hostage for four
years. They didn’t even break ground," McFadyen said. In her letter to Ari
Zavaras, executive director of DOC, she said, "It would appear that the state’s
best interests were not served by allowing GEO group to bid any contract with
the state because of its lack of performance on tis 2003 award." Officials with
Geo Group could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. Alison Morgan,
spokeswoman for the DOC, said Zavaras was aware of the letter being sent by
McFadyen, but had not seen it Monday. "Since he was not with the department
during the RFP (request for proposals) process, it is an issue that he is still
studying and is being briefed on," said Morgan. "Once he has all the
information, including McFadyen’s letter, he would welcome an opportunity to sit
down and talk to her."
January 31, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is taking over the probe of a retired state
prison official who stands to be paid $1 million for helping a private prison
company win a state bid. Nolin Renfrow, former state prisons director, openly
became a consultant to the Geo Group and helped it win a $14 million- per-year
deal to house 1,500 inmates in a private prison proposed in Ault. A state audit
said Renfrow began the work for Geo while still on the state payroll. It also
said that he is to collect a $1 million fee if the prison is built. State
employees are prohibited from providing paid assistance to anyone to win state
contracts or economic benefits. State law also prohibits activities that
constitute a conflict of interest. Ari Zavaras, who became prisons chief with
the new administration several weeks ago, said he asked the CBI to take over the
investigation to "overcome the perception that it won't be a thorough
investigation." Renfrow said Tuesday, "I understand why he would do that, and I
just hope it comes to quick resolution." The Department of Corrections had been
investigating. Its report was to have been given to prosecutors if warranted.
Zavaras said he is letting the CBI decide whether the probe will become a
criminal investigation.
December 26, 2006 Greeley Tribune
After the state Department of Corrections pulled its contract with the GEO Group
to build a prison in Pueblo, Ault residents wonder about GEO's proposed prison
plans in their backyard. While some speculate that the department's decision to
pull the contract will halt the company's plans for Ault, others say it has
changed nothing. For Phillip Tidwell, a member of the Citizens Against Ault
Prison, the Department of Correction's decision in Pueblo was good news for his
own fight. "We are elated ... finally someone will investigate them," he said.
"The board is not calling off anything, but to me, like the DOC, why hasn't Ault
pulled out on our contract with them? They're not truthful, not honest from the
beginning ... Now, we don't feel alone. We will continue our own fight, it just
feels like we're being assisted by the DOC." The contract was canceled for the
Pueblo prison after concern about Geo's lack of progress on the project. The
corrections department said that after four years, the company failed to respond
to inquiries from them and failed to break ground on the Pueblo facility. In
Ault, the state awarded the GEO Group the right to build a 1,500-bed medium
security men's prison on 40 acres in the southeast part of town. Despite the
initial discussions, there still are no final decisions on the Ault proposal.
Ault Mayor Brad Bayne said the department's decision about the Pueblo facility
won't change what's happening in Ault. "The town hasn't changed its views on
this," he said. He said for the prison to be built in the town, there has to be
a guarantee from the state, a negotiation between the town and the GEO Group
that makes sense and a vote of residents to approve the plans. Town officials
haven't heard from a GEO Group representative since September when GEO hosted a
public forum answering questions from residents, he said. "... We're in a
holding pattern until the state guarantees the matter," he added. The plan first
came to light at the end of May when the GEO Group gave a proposal to the Ault
Town Board. According to meeting minutes, representatives from GEO said the
project would be funded through a local government bond, where the state pays
the local government, which then pays GEO. They said the facility would house
1,500 beds, but the request for proposal on the project would allow up to 2,250
beds. To fight the project, Citizens Against Ault Prison demanded an injunction
on the town's code which will require a vote of residents to decide the fate of
the prison. The injunction, which was signed by 297 voters, was approved by
board members in November.
December 16, 2006 The Gazette
State prison officials have canceled a contract for a new private prison in
Pueblo, a move that casts doubt on how much Colorado will be able to rely on
private prisons while it copes with a crowding crisis. The GEO Group, which was
awarded a contract in 2003 to build the Pueblo pre-release prison, has also been
contracted to build and operate a prison in Ault, in northeastern Colorado. But
the same issue that doomed the Pueblo project — the company’s insistence it be
guaranteed nearly full occupancy — could derail the latter prison, because GEO
is making a similar demand. “If GEO’s going to demand a bed guarantee, they need
to leave the state,” said state Rep. Buffie McFadyen, a Pueblo Democrat and
leading critic of private prisons. “It is not the job of the Colorado taxpayers
to ensure profits for this corporation.” The Pueblo prison was delayed
repeatedly: by zoning issues, by a legal challenge from a prison-reform group
and by several revisions to the plan by GEO. But the final impasse began this
summer, when the company asked for a 90 percent minimum occupancy guarantee for
the prison, which wasn’t a condition of the original proposal and was opposed by
Department of Corrections officials. Private prisons are paid a daily rate per
inmate by the state, currently $52. Last month, the DOC denied a
contract-extension request, and on Thursday informed the company that it was
canceling the contract. “Ground has not broken, and GEO has given no indication
when, or even if, it plans to commence construction,” DOC executive director Joe
Ortiz wrote. “Our patience cannot be infinite.” The department is facing an
acute crowding problem. Years of canceled prison-construction projects and
steady growth in court caseloads have created a shortage of prison beds. The DOC
this week began shipping 720 inmates out of state, a temporary solution until
new beds become available. With only one state prison under construction,
Colorado State Penitentiary II in Cañon City, the DOC this year awarded
contracts to three companies to build prisons for 3,776 inmates. The GEO Group’s
proposed 1,500-bed prison in Ault is a major part of the plan. Alison Morgan,
head of private-prison monitoring for the DOC, said the department still expects
GEO to follow through on its proposal in Ault. “We are treating the Pueblo
facility and the Ault facility separately. We have from Day 1, and we will
continue to do so,” Morgan said Friday. However, GEO is making the same demand
for guaranteed occupancy for the Ault prison. Asked whether the DOC is still
opposed to a guarantee, she said, “It is a policy decision to be addressed by
the new administration (of Gov.-elect Bill Ritter) and the General Assembly.”
The local community isn’t even sure it wants a prison. Ault’s town board last
month passed an ordinance requiring voter approval for the prison. No election
date has been set. McFadyen said she doesn’t believe GEO ever intended to
complete the Pueblo prison, and she doubts the company’s ability and will to
follow through in Ault. “We’ve been set back three years in our planning,”
McFadyen said. “I think that kind of delay is unacceptable, and we’ll learn from
this experience and not allow another contract to drag on for three years.” A
call to a spokesman in the company’s Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters was not
returned Friday afternoon. An audit requested by Mc-Fadyen regarding the bidding
process for the Ault prison was released this week. It showed that a top DOC
official set up a consulting business to help GEO win the bid while he was
employed by the state. Because the DOC is based in Colorado Springs, the office
of 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome will receive the results of the
investigation and determine whether any law was broken. Morgan said the DOC will
issue a new request for proposals for a pre-release prison.
December 14, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A three-year effort to build a private prison facility at the Pueblo
Memorial Airport Industrial Park appears to be dead after the Colorado
Department of Corrections and the prison company reached an impasse over
guaranteed occupancies. On Tuesday, reports said that the DOC was working with
the attorney general's office to draft a letter to the GEO Group that
essentially kills the company's plans to build a 1,000-bed pre-parole and parole
revocation facility on 36 acres east of the city. GEO officials said Wednesday
they had not received any letter from the DOC, but also didn't express much
confidence a deal could be struck for the facility. "We have been in
negotiations with the Department of Corrections, but we don't have any contract
signed and at this time it does not appear there will be one," said Pablo Paez,
director of communications for the Florida-based company. Paez confirmed reports
from November that the company was asking for a minimum occupancy guarantee for
the facility and also confirmed that the company was planning to go to the city
of Pueblo for help to build the prison. ± PLEASE SEE PRISON, 2APRISON /
continued from page 1A ± "We needed the guarantee to secure the lowest capital
cost through tax-exempt bonds," Paez said Thursday. "We would get those through
the local municipality." State Rep. Liane "Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who
has been a vocal critic of the private prison industry, and state Rep. Abel
Tapia, D-Pueblo, wrote a letter to the city in May warning against using public
funds to build the facility. "I think it's very positive that the city of Pueblo
is not going to risk its credit rating on this project," McFadyen said
Wednesday. Officials from the DOC were not available Wednesday to comment on
whether the letter had to do with the occupancy guarantees, or the result of an
audit suggesting former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow may have broken the
law by helping GEO secure DOC approval to build a 1,500-bed facility in Weld
County, prior to his retirement in January. Paez said GEO had no contact with
Renfrow before March. Last month, DOC spokeswoman Kathy Church told The Pueblo
Chieftain that talks between the company and the DOC over Pueblo's facility had
stalled over the minimum occupancy guarantees and had reached a critical point.
"They need to either understand our position and accept it or back out
completely," Church said last month. Church told The Chieftain that the DOC
couldn't make any guarantees without knowing how much money it had to spend.
That money depends on what the joint budget committee decides. McFadyen wondered
Wednesday why those guarantees weren't part of the original agreement when DOC
solicited bids for the Pueblo project. "If the DOC negotiated additional terms
with GEO, they would be the only private prison company to receive such
treatment and that's wrong," McFadyen said Wednesday. "I think this goes to the
point of how committed they were to coming to Pueblo in the first place." The
plans to build the facility started in 2003 when GEO, then Wakenhut Corrections
Company, proposed building the prison on the West Side. Those plans eventually
shifted to the airport and the city approved a controversial agreement with GEO
to build a 500- to 1,000-bed facility. A year ago, GEO bought the property at
the airport from the city for $296,800. GEO's original plan was to build a
750-bed facility at the airport, but got Planning and Zoning Approval in May to
expand the facility to 1,000 beds.
December 14, 2006 Denver Post
Results of an investigation into former Colorado prisons director Nolin
Renfrow's conduct in office will be turned over to a district attorney early
next year, the Department of Corrections' inspector general said Wednesday.
Michael Rulo, who has been the agency's inspector general for seven years, said
his office has been cooperating with state auditors on the probe. On Tuesday,
the auditors announced that a "former senior- level official" of the Department
of Corrections launched a prison-consulting business in August 2005, five months
before he retired from the department Jan. 31, and helped a private company land
a state prison contract. State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who
requested the audit, identified the official as Renfrow. The auditors found that
while still employed by DOC, Renfrow began working to assist prospective bidders
in developing proposals to his department for a private prison. With his
assistance, a company identified as the GEO Group was awarded the contract for a
1,500-bed private prison at Ault. Auditors noted that state employees are barred
by law from outside employment that creates a conflict of interest, and from
helping people to win a contract with their agency for a fee. Renfrow couldn't
be reached for comment Wednesday. Rulo said the results of his office's
investigation will be turned over to El Paso County District Attorney John
Newsome, probably in January. The Department of Corrections is based in that
county. Rulo said a decision on whether to file charges will be a "collaborative
process" with prosecutors. Kristen Holtzman, spokeswoman for Colorado Attorney
General John Suthers, said that Renfrow never contacted the attorney general's
office to ask whether his consulting business while still a DOC employee
constituted a conflict of interest.
December 13, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A former top official for the Colorado Department of
Corrections may have broken the law when he helped a private prison company win
a state contract earlier this year, an audit revealed Tuesday. Though the report
conducted by the state auditor doesn't name him, the audit centered on Nolin
Renfrow, former director of prisons for DOC. It even calls on the department's
inspector general to further investigate the matter and, if warranted, refer it
for possible prosecution. The audit, which was requested by Rep. Buffie McFadyen,
D-Pueblo West, showed that before Renfrow retired in January, he had been
working with a Florida-based private prison company, GEO Group, to land a DOC
contract to build a 1,500-bed prison in Weld County. That project is expected to
cost an estimated $100 million, for which Renfrow was to get a 1 percent fee -
or $1 million - for helping Weld County get the contract, the audit said. In
2003, GEO, which is based in Baca Raton, Fla., was awarded a contract to build a
500-bed, prerelease prison near Pueblo Memorial Airport, which still hasn't been
built. Renfrow's replacement, Gary Golder, says the department currently is
working with the Attorney General's Office on a letter to GEO that effectively
would revoke the 2003 bid and end the Pueblo project. Though the audit did not
find any evidence that Renfrow disclosed confidential information to GEO to help
it win the Weld County bid, he may have violated state laws, personnel rules and
department regulations regarding outside employment, the audit said. Neither
Renfrow nor GEO officials were available for comment. The audit found that prior
to Renfrow's retirement on Jan. 31, he filed articles of incorporation for a
private prison consulting firm, Patriot Business Solutions, in August 2005.
"Public records and interviews indicate that the former employee began actively
working on behalf of his prison consulting business as of November 2005," the
audit said. "Neither the department nor the former employee provided
documentation showing that the employee requested or the department approved the
former employee's outside employment." The contract was awarded to GEO in June,
along with a separate contract to Corrections Corporation of America to expand
two of its existing private prisons - in Bent and Kit Carson counties - by 720
beds. DOC time sheets also showed that Renfrow "used a combination of annual,
sick and holiday leave" to remain on extended paid leave from November 2005
until his retirement date, the audit said. "Neither the department nor the
former employee provided evidence that (Renfrow) received the express consent of
his attending physician or appointing authority to engage in outside work
activities," the audit said. "As a result, we question the former employee's use
of about 240 hours of paid sick leave benefits valued at about $14,000."
McFadyen began to question Renfrow's involvement immediately after GEO won the
contract. The Pueblo West lawmaker, a longtime critic of private prisons,
questioned why such a company would be awarded a new bid before it had made any
progress on the Pueblo prison. McFadyen also questioned why the department was
even considering a GEO request, which was made after winning the bid, to give it
a written guarantee that the new beds would be filled, something the state has
never provided to any of the five other existing private prisons in the state.
"I am still questioning the Colorado Department of Corrections as to why GEO was
allowed to bid another (project) when they have not performed on the original
2003 project," McFadyen said. "GEO Corporation is demanding that the state issue
a mandatory guarantee of filling beds. It is not the responsibility of Colorado
taxpayers to ensure the profits of this corporation. "There's no question that
we're being held hostage by GEO Group when other (private prison) vendors
probably would like to come in and bid those contracts," she added.
November 15, 2006 Greeley Tribune
The Ault Town Board eased many residents' minds Tuesday night and gave them
a stronger voice in the prison debate. Town residents have voiced strong
opinions against the proposed GEO correctional facility in Ault after initial
discussions last spring. Tuesday night, the town board voted 5-1 to accept an
ordinance that requires a town election about the location of any prison or
similar incarceration facility. An election date has not been set, but one will
be necessary when the GEO Group Inc. returns to the town to begin negotiating a
contract. GEO has proposed building a 1,500-bed medium security prison on about
40 acres in southeast Ault. The prison population would double the town's
population. Most recently, the GEO group sought assurances from the state
Department of Corrections for a guaranteed number of prisoners to house at the
prison, but DOC representatives said the state typically didn't provide such
guarantees. Residents recently signed a petition requesting an election about a
site before the town approved permits for such a building. Petitioners needed a
minimum of 40 valid signatures to take the request to the board. They submitted
297. Mary Schlack, 37, of Ault said she was part of the petition effort after
she went door-to-door and learned more people were opposed to the prison. She
said she expected more than 40 signatures because of her previous questions to
residents.
September 29, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Al Nickel was one of a few passionate people who attended a
question-and-answer session Thursday about a proposed private prison in his
town. He was more concerned about the possible safety risks of having a prison
nearby than the potential for increased revenue. "What are they going to do for
the town?" asked Nickel, a 21-year resident of the town 11 miles north of
Greeley on U.S. 85. "It's not like they can go downtown and buy 100 gallons of
milk or toilet paper. Their business has to go elsewhere." Representatives from
The GEO Group, Place Properties and Patriot Business Solutions met with about 20
residents Thursday afternoon at the Ault VFW post to discuss the plans of
bringing a prison to town. The group held a separate meeting Thursday night,
drawing about 40 people. Many people were curious about what the prison would
look like and had concerns about Ault being considered a prison town. Ken
Fortier, a spokesman for GEO Group, said he hoped to ease some concerns at the
sessions. "There's a lot of emotions when it comes to a project like this and
the perception of a correctional facility," he said. "We're not here to debate,
but to answer questions."
September 10, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Two months ago, the state awarded the Geo Group the right to build a
1,500-bed medium security men's prison in Ault, but so far, progress has been
slight. A town meeting in July lured about 300 in protest. Opponents worry about
prison breaks, the caliber of employees and the potential for a prison to
attract criminals. Proponents of the prison say their dying town needs
development, and a prison is a clean industry that would bring commerce and
jobs. The prison would be located on roughly 40 acres in the southeast part of
town, east of the railroad tracks parallel to U.S. 85. Since the initial
discussions, however, there are still no decisions. The Geo Group has not
presented the town with a potential contract, and the town board has yet to
decide if a contract with the private prison would have to be approved by the
board or the residents. Those involved, however, insist there is progress but
won't elaborate.
July 22, 2006 Greeley Tribune
It may be a month or more before residents know if the town of Ault will be
home to a 1,500-bed private prison. Ault Mayor James Fladung said the town board
has not decided if it will sign a binding contract with Geo Group Inc. or if it
will allow Ault residents to vote on the proposed medium-security prison for
men. Colorado's Department of Corrections recently granted Geo the rights to
build a prison in Ault in the next two years. But Geo cannot actually build the
facility until it gets approval from the town. The board is negotiating with Geo
over prices and fees on issues such as water and sewer. A final contract for the
prison still needs to be written. "There is quite a bit of distance to cover
yet," said Sharon Sullivan, Ault town clerk and treasurer. "It will continue to
be ongoing, but there is a long way to go." Fladung said it could possibly be a
month before any decision is made. The town board has the authority to approve a
contract without a vote from Ault residents because the land where the prison
would be located is zoned industrial, Fladung said. But the mayor said that
because of public sentiment the board will consider conducting a poll or even
allow a public vote on the issue. Nearly 300 people attended a public hearing
last Tuesday. The majority of those people opposed the prison. Fladung said he
thought it would be good to hold more public hearings before any contract is
signed. "We must listen to the people. They were the ones who elected us,"
Fladung said. In late June the town board unanimously passed a resolution
approving the concept of a private prison in Ault. Sullivan said that resolution
confused many people and led them to believe that the town board already signed
a contract with Geo. The logistics and time frame of a contract still aren't
clear, but Fladung said he can guarantee that the contract will not raise any
taxes or utility fees for Ault residents. "I'm standing pretty solid about the
people in Ault not paying them a penny more for them to come in," Fladung said.
July 19, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Debate over whether to allow a men's medium security prison to be built in Ault
has divided the normally quiet community. Almost 300 Ault residents overwhelmed
Tuesday night's town board meeting to discuss the pros and cons of allowing the
Florida-based company Geo Group Inc. to build a 1,500 bed private prison in
Ault. So many people showed up that the meeting had to be delayed half an hour
to move the meeting to the larger VFW building. The issue pitted neighbor
against neighbor with strong opinions and statements made by nearly 50 people on
both sides of the issue. "Geo is like Wal-Mart. They could care less about this
town," said John Jablonski of Ault. "They want to use us to make money." The
majority of the crowd was strongly against the prison but faced opposition from
a vocal minority of Ault's business owners. They believe the prison will be the
economic boost Ault's dwindling economy needs to survive. Sheila Kelsey, owner
of the House of Bargains, has lived in Ault for 34 years and said that during
all that time little economic growth has occurred. "The prison would be in my
front yard, but we desperately need the business," Kelsey said. "If we do not
get this business, this town will die. It will be a ghost town." Many of those
against the prison did not like its close proximity to town and called it a
safety hazard, a drain on resources such as water and an overall detriment to
the well-being of Ault. Amber Kauffman, who has lived in the town for five
years, said she is all for growth but not at the expense of having to live near
a prison. "We came here to live in a small town and a small community," Kauffman
said. "A prison would change the dynamics of this town." Her husband, Ty
Kauffman, said that if the prison does go in, the company wants to run water and
sewer lines across his fields which would hurt his annual hay crop. Ty Kauffman
said that if the prison does come to Ault, he will be out of town in two weeks.
"You do so much to your home to loose it all," he said. "It's a nightmare." Ken
Fortier, a representative from Geo, said the prison would bring jobs and
purchasing power to Ault. He said that Geo is the largest private corrections
facility company in the world and operates high and medium security prisons on
many continents including the world's largest private prison in South Africa and
a facility that is part of the Guantanamo Bay complex in Cuba. "Step away from
the emotions to the notion of what economically 300 jobs mean to the town of
Ault," Fortier said. There was still a lot of questions left in the air on
Tuesday. Board members did not tell the crowd when, or if, they would sign a
contract with the company.
July 18, 2006 Greeley Tribune
Controversy is brewing in Ault about the proposed men's prison expected to
be built southeast of town by the Florida-based Geo Group Inc. The Coalition
Against the Ault Prison, comprised of 10 residents, will attend tonight's Ault
town board meeting to oppose the 1,500-bed prison. The residents have passed out
fliers and petitions against Colorado's Department of Corrections late June
decision to grant Geo the rights to construct the prison there in the next two
years. If the town board signs a contract with the Geo Group, the number of
prisoners would more than double this town of roughly 1,400 people. Tasha
Greene, 35, an environmental health and safety officer in Ault began the
opposition group about a week ago and said the members extensively researched
the economic and social impacts a prison might have on a small town. Greene said
she collected 117 signatures of registered Ault voters who are opposed to the
prison. "There are a few people we talked to that want this prison 100 percent,
but the fast majority are dead set against it," Greene said. Though Ault
residents have an hour to present comments at tonight's meeting, Greene said she
is unsure if the board will take her group's concerns to heart. "We get a sense
that they will do what they want to do," Greene said. "Who cares about public
opinion?" The board in May passed a resolution agreeing with the prison in
concept. The resolution states that prior to the board executing a contract or
any financing agreements with the Geo Group, "the final forms of such documents
and/or agreement shall be submitted for approval to the town, and if
satisfactory to the town, their execution shall be authorized by resolution or
ordinance ..." If the board ignores their concerns, Greene said she plans to
pursue formal legal action against the prison's construction. Larry Hosier,
another member of the coalition, said he thinks the town board is completely out
of touch with the people of Ault and not smart enough to properly negotiate with
Geo's high-powered executives. "They don't even know the right questions to
ask," Hosier said. The group is concerned the prison will make the town unsafe,
overtax the already low water supply in the area, create light and air
pollution, lower property values, create a higher unemployment rate, bankrupt
small businesses and ruin the character and aesthetics of Ault. "Ault will no
longer be 'A Unique Little Town," one of the coalition's flyer's proclaims.
"Once a prison town always a prison town." Some residents are so concerned about
the negative effects they claim they will actually move out of Ault. "I had one
guy sign the petition. The next day his home went up for sale," Hosier said,
adding that and his wife may consider doing the same after living in town for
more than 30 years. Greene is equally convinced that Ault isn't big enough for
both her and the prison, and said she would find a new home for her nine horses.
She said she is most concerned about safety and the possibility that escaped
convicts could put the community in danger. "I'd feel I'll need to put up really
tall fences and buy really big dogs and make myself a private arsenal," Greene
said.
Bent County
Correctional Facility
Bent County, Colorado
CCA
August 18, 2004
A former prison inmate in Las Animas alleged in a lawsuit Tuesday the prison
staff transported him on the floor of a van and did not give him prescribed pain
medication and proper care after surgery for a hernia. Cornelius Jackson sued
Corrections Corporation of America, the operator of the state prison, in U.S.
District Court for allegedly causing him severe pain and bleeding. Five staff
members of the private prison, the Bent County Correctional Facility, also are
defendants. Jackson said he was operated on at a Denver hospital on Oct. 8. He
claims the staff, contrary to his doctor's instructions, did not give him
prescribed pain medication for 13 hours after he was released from the hospital.
The lawsuit alleges that the staff disobeyed the doctor's instructions to take
Jackson to a Colorado Department of Corrections institution that had appropriate
medical facilities for post-operative care. The lawsuit claims
"cost-cutting in the medical department has recently been a central focus
and a major concern for CCA." (Pueblo Chieftain)
August 1, 1999
A 24-year-old inmate escaped from the private prison. Officials believe he may
have stowed away on a trash truck. He is still at large. Earlier in the month,
another inmate who was working at the regional recycling center escaped after
hot-wiring a prison van. (Denver Post)
Boulder County Jail
Boulder Colorado
January 13, 2006 Daily Camera
The Boulder County Jail continues to grapple with a nursing shortage, but it
won't hire an outside agency to provide medical care for inmates, the Sheriff's
Office announced Thursday. After struggling to retain and recruit nurses for the
past three years, jail officials proposed spending about $1.6 million for an
independent agency to take over health-care operations there. But that might
result in job losses, pay reductions or reduced retirement benefits for the
jail's 10 nurses, said Sheriff Joe Pelle, who announced Thursday that he'd
rather focus on improving the existing program. "We have good employees there.
Some of them have been there more than 20 years. They were extremely concerned
about this and losing their retirement," Pelle said. "So the human aspect played
a huge part in this decision." Jail Capt. Larry Hank said Boulder is one of only
two Front Range counties that doesn't contract with a private health care
company for its jail. But he said he would prefer the county continue providing
its own services as long as it can improve operations and attract more nurses.
"If they're our employees, they answer to us, they listen to us and they're
committed to us," he said. "An outside contractor is trying to make a profit."
Hiring an outside agency to provide health care wouldn't have solved all of
Boulder County's problems, said Christie Donner, executive director of the
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. Many private agencies don't provide
high-quality care, and many struggle to attract nurses, she said. "They don't
have a magic wand. There's a nursing crisis, and these companies don't come with
their own convoy of nurses," she said. "If it sounds too good to be true, it
generally is."
Brighton
Jail
Brighton, Colorado
Transcor
August 5, 2004
Police are searching for a man they say was being held on burglary charges who
escaped from a transport van in Brighton late Wednesday night. They say
Floyd W. Stolin Jr., 31, jumped out of a van at about 10:22 p.m. as the van
stopped on the off-ramp of Interstate 76 and Bromley Lane. The van,
operated by private prisoner transport service TransCor America, was bringing
Stolin to the Brighton jail. (Denver Post)
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.
September 26, 2006 Fort Morgan Times
Continuation of the public hearing for CentraCore’s special exception use
permit (SEUP) took the main stage Monday at the Brush City Council meeting as
concerned citizens, representatives of CentraCore, Cornell and GRW Corporation
spoke to the council about CentraCore’s SEUP application. Following comments
from council members, officials and citizens, Brush Assistant City Administrator
Karen Schminke and staff requested a few minor revisions to the SEUP, and
Councilman Harry Rieger moved that the public hearing be closed, and the council
review the revised SEUP during the next council meeting at 7 p.m. Oct. 9.
Recommended revisions include documentation of 1,800 beds as the original SEUP
application was for 2,250 combined beds at the two potential facilities, and
CentraCore — in light of water availability — revised its application for 450
fewer beds, bringing the total down to 1,800. Schminke stressed the difference
between the operator and the applicant for the SEUP in order to ensure both
parties adhere to the rules and regulations. Staff is also requiring rewording
of the 24-month sunset clause for both possible facilities. The application by
CentraCore and Cornell is to build and operate two prisons in the Brush
Industrial Park, directly behind the Brush Correctional Facility (BCF) which is
owned and operated by GRW Corp. Before beginning the public hearing, Councilman
Phillip Northcutt disclosed his employment at the BCF, and council member Chuck
Schonberger, disclosed his wife, Pat Schonberger’s, part-time employment at BCF.
The council granted both council members permission to continue in the hearing.
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.
May 12, 2006 Journal-Advocate
Some communities may quiver at the notion a state prison will be built in
their area. Some would think a prison would bring nothing but trouble and crime
would increase in their towns. From 1999 to the present, the city of Sterling
and Logan County have not seen a significant increase in crime, despite a
state-run correctional facility opening here in 1999, according to law
enforcement officials. The District Attorney's Office also stated the prison has
not impacted its caseload in a way that would require major adjustments on its
part. "In general, I can't say that the prison has made that much of an impact
on my office. Obviously, if we prosecute any prison case it would constitute an
increase on our normal caseload, but it is still a relatively small percentage,
and some of our higher-visibility cases have involved inmates," 13th Judicial
District Attorney Bob Watson said. Watson said private prisons - particularly
the Brush facility - had a more significant impact on his office for which they
are not receiving any reimbursement for the cases they prosecute. "We were
receiving no such reimbursement but that is supposed to be rectified now by
changed contracts between private facilities and the state of Colorado," Watson
said.
November 3, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
Hawai'i prison officials signed a new contract with a
private prison operator this week that for the first time allows the state to
financially penalize the company if the prison operator fails to deliver on
promised drug treatment or other programs for inmates held on the Mainland.
Frank Lopez, acting director of the state Department of Public Safety, said the
financial sanctions included in the new contract with Corrections Corp. of
America were prompted by problems the state had in Oklahoma, when required drug
treatment services for Hawai'i women inmates abruptly ended after the prison was
sold in 2003. Inmate programs were interrupted again for more than four months
this year at another privately operated women's prison in Brush, Colo., after
allegations of sexual misconduct by the staff surfaced, triggering staff
resignations, firings and an investigation by the Colorado Department of
Corrections. Lopez said that interruption in programs at Brush might have
triggered financial penalties if the new contract provisions had been in place
at the time. "Our problem before was that we weren't able to address the
(contractors') failure to deliver certain services in the past," Lopez
said. "It wasn't specific enough. Our contract wasn't tight enough."
Neither the Oklahoma nor the Colorado women's prison was operated by CCA, but
state monitors have complained in the past that CCA also failed to provide
inmate programs that were required by contract. The state prison system on
Tuesday transferred another 53 women inmates from the Women's Community
Correctional Center in Kailua to CCA's Otter Creek Correctional Center in
Wheelwright, Ky., bringing the number of women inmates on the Mainland to 120,
said Shari Kimoto, the department's Mainland branch administrator. In all,
Hawai'i houses about 1,850 men and women inmates in private prisons in Arizona,
Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky because there is no room for them in
state-run prisons in Hawai'i. About half of the state's prison population is
housed on the Mainland. The new contract covers only the 120 women inmates at
Otter Creek, but Lopez said he sees it as a model for new contracts the state
will negotiate with CCA next year covering male inmates held out of state.
October 13, 2005 Honolulu Advertiser
The former warden of a Colorado prison whose staff was accused of sexual
misconduct involving Hawai'i women inmates has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor
criminal charge in connection with one of the misconduct cases. Rick Soares
resigned as warden of the privately run Brush Correctional Facility in February
shortly before Colorado authorities announced they were investigating
allegations of sexual misconduct by staff involving eight women inmates from
Hawai'i, Colorado and Wyoming. Two corrections officers were later charged with
felony sexual conduct in a penal institution in connection with those
investigations. Colorado authorities said they could find no evidence the
inmates were coerced for sex, but even consensual sexual contact between an
inmate and a prison staff member is a felony in Colorado. Soares was later
charged as an accessory in one of the two cases for allegedly rendering
assistance to Corrections Officer Fredrick Woller "with intent to hinder,
delay or prevent" the prosecution of Woller, according to the charge filed
against Soares in Colorado's Morgan County District Court. Woller's case, which
involves alleged sexual misconduct with an inmate from Wyoming, has been
scheduled for trial on Feb. 5, Watson said. A second former corrections officer,
Russell Rollison, is scheduled to go to trial Jan. 5 on two similar counts.
Rollison is accused of sexual misconduct involving two women inmates from
Hawai'i. Both of the Hawai'i inmates were returned to the Women's Community
Correctional Center in Kailua. The rest of the Hawai'i women serving sentences
at Brush have been moved to the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright,
Ky.
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.
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.
Colorado
Department of Corrections
October 15, 2007 Daily Sentinel
It has been months since Roger Peck has seen his son. A year ago, Peck and his
wife, Millicent, twice a month were driving more than 400 miles from Grand
Junction to see their son, 47-year-old Stephen Dallas Peck, at the Crowley
County Correctional Facility in Olney Springs. But when Peck and 479 other
inmates were relocated in December and January to the privately owned North Fork
Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla., those visits ended. “It’s almost
impossible for us to get to Oklahoma, and I’m sure we’re more capable than a lot
of people that have loved ones in prison,” Roger Peck said. The retired couple
said their contact with their son, who was sentenced in early 2004 to 18 years
in prison for felony theft and methamphetamine possession, has become relegated
to brief collect calls twice a month. The Colorado Department of Correction’s
decision to ship its healthiest and best behaved inmates more than 300 miles
southeast of Colorado’s closest prison in Trinidad, the Pecks said, is
“completely opposite” the state’s goal of promoting prisoner wellness and
reducing recidivism. “They skimmed the cream to start with. They took inmates
who were in relatively good health and have no violent history and were not in
there for violent crime,” Roger Peck said. “So they took the cream of the crop,
so to speak, and sent them to this facility whose sole purpose in life is making
money.” Without their support, the Pecks said, they fear how well their son will
cope with his methamphetamine addiction, which also landed him in prison in
1997. Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, said in an attempt to address some of
the Peck family’s concerns, he and Colorado Department of Corrections Director
Ari Zavaras are going to visit the North Fork Correctional Facility at the end
of this month. King said after he met the Peck family earlier this year, he
began to wonder if Colorado was abandoning its oversight responsibilities by
shipping felons out of state. “I had some real concerns about us giving up our
ability, in some ways, to have oversight of these people that are Colorado
citizens,” King said. “Granted they’re felons, but they’re our felons, and we
have a responsibility to make sure they’re doing their time in a safe
environment.” King said “outsourcing our felons” removes them from the support
network of friends and family they need to transition from their criminal
lifestyles and addictions back to living normal lives. Zavaras said from a
purely financial standpoint, private prisons — the six in Colorado and the North
Fork Correctional Facility — are a cost-effective way to deal with Colorado’s
exploding corrections population. According to Department of Corrections
statistics, Colorado’s inmate population has nearly doubled over the past
decade, from 13,242 inmates in 2006 to 22,424 inmates this year. Nearly 5,000 of
Colorado’s inmates reside in private prisons. Zavaras said sending prisoners
outside Colorado is neither ideal nor fair to the inmates, but it is necessary.
“Managing prisoners out of state, quite frankly, is very, very difficult for
us,” Zavaras said. “If we would have had in-state beds, we wouldn’t be out of
state. We’re only there as a last resort.” He said there are plans to expand two
existing private, in-state prisons. As soon as those expansions are completed,
he said, “We will bring them back.” Zavaras said he plans to scrutinize the
Sayre, Okla., prison during his and King’s Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 visits. He said
during that time he will not only speak with Colorado inmates but look into the
concerns of inmates’ families. Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, said that
ideally Colorado would pull out of private prisons, whose missions are directly
contrary to reducing recidivism. McFadyen, who has 12 state and federal prisons
in her southern Colorado House district, said private facilities have no reason
to attempt to reintegrate felons back into society. She said private facilities
see felons as possible repeat customers, so they have no incentive to decrease
recidivism. Removing inmates from Colorado, she said, is an even better way for
private prisons to maintain demand for their beds. “Sending an inmate out of
state is almost guaranteeing they’ll come back in the system because of the lack
of support,” McFadyen said. “I don’t know how an inmate succeeds when they have
no support from home.”
June 2007 Reason OnLine
After a crackdown on illegal immigration, farmers in the rural area outside
Pueblo, Colorado, found they lacked the labor to help them plant and harvest
crops. When the farmers pressed their case with state Rep. Dorothy Butcher
(D-Pueblo), she offered a proposal: Why not use prison inmates? In May a private
company, Colorado Correctional Industries, will launch a pilot project putting
one or two groups, totaling eight to 10 prisoners apiece, to work in Colorado
fields. It will be the latest of more than 30 work programs authorized by the
state’s corrections department, but the first to fill a need created by an
exodus of Mexican migrant workers. For $10 per inmate per hour, convicts will
till fields, plant seeds, and eventually pick crops. Not that the prisoners will
be raking in the lucre. According to Alison Morgan, the state’s private prisons
director, inmates will get 63 cents an hour for their labor, 20 percent of which
will be taken to pay for “restitution and child support.” The rest, she says,
they can use “to buy phone time, or other services, or they can use it when they
go home.”
April 18, 2007 Colorado For Ethics
The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) responded to a March 5, 2007, open
records request by Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government (CCEG) that sought
documents relating to a private prison contract awarded by CDOC to The GEO
Group, Inc. The documents obtained by CCEG confirm that former Director of
Prisons Nolin Renfrow began working for The GEO Group while still on state
payroll, a blatant conflict of interest. In an email to Brian Burnett, the
deputy executive director of CDOC, Dave Schouweiler, DOC Manager of Purchasing,
stated that Renfrow was on state payroll until January 31, 2006 and acknowledged
the “impropriety of Mr. Renfrow’s involvement with the originating procurement.”
The CORA request and responsive documents are available on CCEG’s website at
www.coloradoforethics.org. CCEG is posting these records as part of its
commitment to holding the government responsible for its actions.
April 1, 2007 Denver Post
If Joe Nacchio ends up in the slammer, he'd better hope it's not one run by
Corrections Corporation of America, though Qwest retirees just might feel
particular glee at the thought of his working most of a day to pay for a roll of
toilet paper. About 480 inmates from Colorado have been transferred to CCA's
North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla., since December, and they're
finding that hard time is a lot harder in a prison run for profit. The inmates,
all culled from state prisons based on their release dates, records for
compliance and nonviolent prison histories, have been rewarded for their good
behavior with lousy food, fewer visits from family members, limited access to
phones, delays in mail service, a lack of access to Colorado law books and
prices in the prison canteen that have been jacked up in some cases to three
times those in Colorado institutions. "It seems like minor stuff to people
outside of prison, but it's created a real powder keg," said Christie Donner,
executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. Parents of
inmates housed at Sayre have reported that a boycott of the commissary was
organized as a prison protest, and when a guard was perceived to be harassing an
inmate at lunch recently, the entire room stood in solidarity. They worry that
tensions could erupt into a riot similar to what happened at the CCA prison in
Crowley County in 2004. "The guys are really upset," said Tracy Masuga, whose
son was transferred to Sayre in December. Among the recent price hikes at the
canteen were: peanut butter that sold for $1.48 in January now going for $2.34,
AIM toothpaste jumping from $1.45 to $2.23, raisin bran going from $2.99 to
$4.75, and a 25-watt light bulb going from $1.20 to $3.69. In Colorado state
prisons, peanut butter is $1.80, AIM toothpaste 95 cents, and banana nut granola
(the closest thing to raisin bran on the commissary list) is $2.11. Toilet paper
sells for 70 cents a roll in Sayre compared with 44 cents at state-run prisons.
"This might not seem like much, but we're talking about people who make
literally a dollar a day," said Ann Aber, an attorney with the Colorado Public
Defender's office. "It's arbitrary and inexplicable exercises of power like this
that can create a really incendiary situation." Alison Morgan, chief of private
prisons for the Department of Corrections, said a team from Colorado visited the
Sayre facility this month and talked to about 200 inmates. Complaints about the
price hikes were rampant, she said, but she insisted that the prisoners'
concerns were being addressed. "The warden is looking at the commissary list and
has reduced prices for about 40 items, including the price of light bulbs," she
said. Steve Owen, spokesman for CCA, said that after a brief drop in purchases
from the canteen around March 9, sales have returned to normal. Gary Golder,
director of prisons for the DOC, said CDs of Colorado statutes are on order for
use in the Sayre prison library, but delivery by the vendor has been delayed.
Problems with phones, mail service and other issues will be resolved, Morgan
said. As for the food, which was described as inedible by inmates two months ago
and resulted in many of them reporting significant weight loss, Morgan describes
it now as "fabulous." "The previous food-service manager was fired." State Rep.
Buffie McFadyen said she has heard some of the complaints, and while she is
concerned, focusing on things like commissary prices and phone service ignores
the larger issue. "They shouldn't be there at all," said the Democrat from
Pueblo West. "Sending inmates out of state is almost guaranteeing a 100 percent
recidivism rate," said McFadyen, who has eight state prisons in her district.
"We're taking the inmates with the best track records within our system and
punishing them by sending them out of state away from their families. When
inmates don't have that support system in place to help them re-enter society,
it almost guarantees failure." McFadyen said this is all part of the
private-prison system's business plan. "High recidivism rates ensure profits for
their stockholders," she said. "There's no incentive to do what's best for
inmates. They profit by having them come back into the system." Owen called such
criticism "completely false." "We invest a great deal in innovative programs to
rehabilitate inmates," he said. "We consider ourselves professionals." CCA
receives $54 per day per Colorado inmate. The cost to keep comparable inmates in
state institutions is $77 per day, Morgan said. Even at 30 percent less per
inmate, CCA has delivered impressive profits to shareholders. The company racked
up $105.2 million in net income in 2006. How do they do it? "The private-prison
industry makes its money out of bodies and souls," McFadyen said.
March 6, 2007 Greeley Tribune
Saying GEO Group Inc. can't be trusted, a Pueblo lawmaker asked state officials
Monday to rescind a contract with the company to build a private prison in Ault.
Plans for the prison, which would house 1,500 inmates and would be built east of
the railroad tracks along U.S. 85, has stalled on two fronts. Ault leaders
decided they would not approve the facility until the public voted on it, and
GEO wants to change its contract to ensure payment for its beds. Rep. Liane "Buffie"
McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, a vocal critic of private prisons, said Monday that the
proposed change and other issues regarding GEO's integrity should negate the
Ault contract. “Anybody living in Ault should be concerned that a company that
would bid this way on a contract might have a business in their town," she said.
Philip Tidwell, spokesman for the town group Coalition Against Ault Prison, said
residents hope no one else bids on the Ault prison if GEO's contract is
rescinded. "We just do not want any private prison, whether it be GEO or Cornell
or anyone else," he said. A spokesman for GEO did not return calls seeking
comment. McFadyen said the company is attempting to do the same things in Ault
that derailed plans for a GEO facility in Pueblo. In 2003, GEO won a contract
for a 1,100-bed, pre-parole and parole revocation facility in Pueblo, and after
almost four years of delays, the state pulled the contract last fall. The
company never broke ground on the facility. "The state of Colorado was held
hostage for four years waiting for those beds," McFadyen said. The delays
included zoning issues in Pueblo and GEO's attempt to obtain guaranteed payments
on 90 percent of its beds, regardless of whether the beds were occupied. That is
something state leaders have opposed and which may even be impossible because of
state laws, McFadyen said. Now, GEO is trying for guaranteed bed payments in
Ault, she said. "You have to question the integrity of the 2006 bid," she said.
"If past performance is an indicator, I suspect we will be in the same place we
were in 2003 in Pueblo." McFadyen said Ari Zavaras, the new director of the
Department of Corrections, told her he is opposed to bed guarantees. Corrections
spokeswoman Alison Morgan told the Associated Press that Zavaras will review
McFadyen's request and decide how to respond. The story of Ault's possible
prison goes back to late 2005, when Nolin Renfrow, former director of prisons
for the Department of Corrections, started working with GEO on a bid for a
private prison. Renfrow is under investigation for using state sick leave to
obtain the Ault contract on behalf of GEO. On Monday, Colorado Citizens for
Ethics in Government, a watchdog group, filed an open records request about the
Ault bid. "We do not feel that the public's interest was put forth in the
procurement of this contract," said Chantelle Taylor, spokeswoman for the
watchdog group. A state audit found Renfrow's business activities "arguably
present a conflict of interest and result in a breach of ... the public trust."
That breach, coupled with GEO's attempt to change its Pueblo contract by adding
the bed-payment guarantee, should have prevented the company from getting the
Ault bid in the first place, McFadyen said. Tidwell agreed. "One thing the state
should recognize is (GEO) did not operate fairly," he said. "They hired an
insider knowing he worked for the state. In my mind, GEO has shown itself to be
not a company that operates fairly in the state of Colorado.
March 5, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and two reform groups today formally
requested the director of the Department of Corrections and the governor rescind
Geo Group’s bid to build a private prison in Ault. The reasons cited included
the company’s performance on a 2003 bid to build a private prison in Pueblo.
McFadyen said GEO Group lost its contract to build the Pueblo facility because
it delayed the start of construction, then tried to renegotiate its contract to
get a guarantee that it would be paid for 90 percent occupancy, even if beds
were not filled. "Basically, the state of Colorado was held hostage for four
years. They didn’t even break ground," McFadyen said. In her letter to Ari
Zavaras, executive director of DOC, she said, "It would appear that the state’s
best interests were not served by allowing GEO group to bid any contract with
the state because of its lack of performance on tis 2003 award." Officials with
Geo Group could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. Alison Morgan,
spokeswoman for the DOC, said Zavaras was aware of the letter being sent by
McFadyen, but had not seen it Monday. "Since he was not with the department
during the RFP (request for proposals) process, it is an issue that he is still
studying and is being briefed on," said Morgan. "Once he has all the
information, including McFadyen’s letter, he would welcome an opportunity to sit
down and talk to her."
January 31, 2007 Rocky Mountain News
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is taking over the probe of a retired state
prison official who stands to be paid $1 million for helping a private prison
company win a state bid. Nolin Renfrow, former state prisons director, openly
became a consultant to the Geo Group and helped it win a $14 million- per-year
deal to house 1,500 inmates in a private prison proposed in Ault. A state audit
said Renfrow began the work for Geo while still on the state payroll. It also
said that he is to collect a $1 million fee if the prison is built. State
employees are prohibited from providing paid assistance to anyone to win state
contracts or economic benefits. State law also prohibits activities that
constitute a conflict of interest. Ari Zavaras, who became prisons chief with
the new administration several weeks ago, said he asked the CBI to take over the
investigation to "overcome the perception that it won't be a thorough
investigation." Renfrow said Tuesday, "I understand why he would do that, and I
just hope it comes to quick resolution." The Department of Corrections had been
investigating. Its report was to have been given to prosecutors if warranted.
Zavaras said he is letting the CBI decide whether the probe will become a
criminal investigation.
December 16, 2006 The Gazette
State prison officials have canceled a contract for a new private prison in
Pueblo, a move that casts doubt on how much Colorado will be able to rely on
private prisons while it copes with a crowding crisis. The GEO Group, which was
awarded a contract in 2003 to build the Pueblo pre-release prison, has also been
contracted to build and operate a prison in Ault, in northeastern Colorado. But
the same issue that doomed the Pueblo project — the company’s insistence it be
guaranteed nearly full occupancy — could derail the latter prison, because GEO
is making a similar demand. “If GEO’s going to demand a bed guarantee, they need
to leave the state,” said state Rep. Buffie McFadyen, a Pueblo Democrat and
leading critic of private prisons. “It is not the job of the Colorado taxpayers
to ensure profits for this corporation.” The Pueblo prison was delayed
repeatedly: by zoning issues, by a legal challenge from a prison-reform group
and by several revisions to the plan by GEO. But the final impasse began this
summer, when the company asked for a 90 percent minimum occupancy guarantee for
the prison, which wasn’t a condition of the original proposal and was opposed by
Department of Corrections officials. Private prisons are paid a daily rate per
inmate by the state, currently $52. Last month, the DOC denied a
contract-extension request, and on Thursday informed the company that it was
canceling the contract. “Ground has not broken, and GEO has given no indication
when, or even if, it plans to commence construction,” DOC executive director Joe
Ortiz wrote. “Our patience cannot be infinite.” The department is facing an
acute crowding problem. Years of canceled prison-construction projects and
steady growth in court caseloads have created a shortage of prison beds. The DOC
this week began shipping 720 inmates out of state, a temporary solution until
new beds become available. With only one state prison under construction,
Colorado State Penitentiary II in Cañon City, the DOC this year awarded
contracts to three companies to build prisons for 3,776 inmates. The GEO Group’s
proposed 1,500-bed prison in Ault is a major part of the plan. Alison Morgan,
head of private-prison monitoring for the DOC, said the department still expects
GEO to follow through on its proposal in Ault. “We are treating the Pueblo
facility and the Ault facility separately. We have from Day 1, and we will
continue to do so,” Morgan said Friday. However, GEO is making the same demand
for guaranteed occupancy for the Ault prison. Asked whether the DOC is still
opposed to a guarantee, she said, “It is a policy decision to be addressed by
the new administration (of Gov.-elect Bill Ritter) and the General Assembly.”
The local community isn’t even sure it wants a prison. Ault’s town board last
month passed an ordinance requiring voter approval for the prison. No election
date has been set. McFadyen said she doesn’t believe GEO ever intended to
complete the Pueblo prison, and she doubts the company’s ability and will to
follow through in Ault. “We’ve been set back three years in our planning,”
McFadyen said. “I think that kind of delay is unacceptable, and we’ll learn from
this experience and not allow another contract to drag on for three years.” A
call to a spokesman in the company’s Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters was not
returned Friday afternoon. An audit requested by Mc-Fadyen regarding the bidding
process for the Ault prison was released this week. It showed that a top DOC
official set up a consulting business to help GEO win the bid while he was
employed by the state. Because the DOC is based in Colorado Springs, the office
of 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome will receive the results of the
investigation and determine whether any law was broken. Morgan said the DOC will
issue a new request for proposals for a pre-release prison.
December 16, 2006 ABC 7 News
The state has cut off negotiations and rescinded a contract with developers
planning to build a private prison in Pueblo. Colorado Department of Corrections
executive director Joe Ortiz sent a letter Friday to the GEO Group, ending six
months of negotiations. The letter cites numerous delays and unresolved issues
and says the department has run out of patience with the developers. The
Florida-based GEO Group had been working for about four years to build the
1,000-bed prison near the Pueblo Memorial Airport industrial park. Construction
never got under way. The prison would have been for pre-parole prisoners and
prisoners who had seen their parole status revoked. GEO bought about 36 acres
for the facility last year, but negotiations with the state broke down over the
company's demand that the DOC guarantee 90 percent occupancy and grant a 30-year
contract. GEO operates private detention centers in 15 states and one Canadian
province as well as in South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom. The
Pueblo facility is one of two the company was planning in Colorado. The
company's Web site also indicates GEO in 2003 was awarded a contract to develop
a 1,000-bed immigration detention facility in the Denver suburb of Aurora. A DOC
spokeswoman says the department will put the Pueblo proposal back up for bid,
with no promise the facility will still be built in Pueblo.
December 14, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A three-year effort to build a private prison facility at the Pueblo
Memorial Airport Industrial Park appears to be dead after the Colorado
Department of Corrections and the prison company reached an impasse over
guaranteed occupancies. On Tuesday, reports said that the DOC was working with
the attorney general's office to draft a letter to the GEO Group that
essentially kills the company's plans to build a 1,000-bed pre-parole and parole
revocation facility on 36 acres east of the city. GEO officials said Wednesday
they had not received any letter from the DOC, but also didn't express much
confidence a deal could be struck for the facility. "We have been in
negotiations with the Department of Corrections, but we don't have any contract
signed and at this time it does not appear there will be one," said Pablo Paez,
director of communications for the Florida-based company. Paez confirmed reports
from November that the company was asking for a minimum occupancy guarantee for
the facility and also confirmed that the company was planning to go to the city
of Pueblo for help to build the prison. ± PLEASE SEE PRISON, 2APRISON /
continued from page 1A ± "We needed the guarantee to secure the lowest capital
cost through tax-exempt bonds," Paez said Thursday. "We would get those through
the local municipality." State Rep. Liane "Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who
has been a vocal critic of the private prison industry, and state Rep. Abel
Tapia, D-Pueblo, wrote a letter to the city in May warning against using public
funds to build the facility. "I think it's very positive that the city of Pueblo
is not going to risk its credit rating on this project," McFadyen said
Wednesday. Officials from the DOC were not available Wednesday to comment on
whether the letter had to do with the occupancy guarantees, or the result of an
audit suggesting former Director of Prisons Nolin Renfrow may have broken the
law by helping GEO secure DOC approval to build a 1,500-bed facility in Weld
County, prior to his retirement in January. Paez said GEO had no contact with
Renfrow before March. Last month, DOC spokeswoman Kathy Church told The Pueblo
Chieftain that talks between the company and the DOC over Pueblo's facility had
stalled over the minimum occupancy guarantees and had reached a critical point.
"They need to either understand our position and accept it or back out
completely," Church said last month. Church told The Chieftain that the DOC
couldn't make any guarantees without knowing how much money it had to spend.
That money depends on what the joint budget committee decides. McFadyen wondered
Wednesday why those guarantees weren't part of the original agreement when DOC
solicited bids for the Pueblo project. "If the DOC negotiated additional terms
with GEO, they would be the only private prison company to receive such
treatment and that's wrong," McFadyen said Wednesday. "I think this goes to the
point of how committed they were to coming to Pueblo in the first place." The
plans to build the facility started in 2003 when GEO, then Wakenhut Corrections
Company, proposed building the prison on the West Side. Those plans eventually
shifted to the airport and the city approved a controversial agreement with GEO
to build a 500- to 1,000-bed facility. A year ago, GEO bought the property at
the airport from the city for $296,800. GEO's original plan was to build a
750-bed facility at the airport, but got Planning and Zoning Approval in May to
expand the facility to 1,000 beds.
December 14, 2006 Denver Post
Results of an investigation into former Colorado prisons director Nolin
Renfrow's conduct in office will be turned over to a district attorney early
next year, the Department of Corrections' inspector general said Wednesday.
Michael Rulo, who has been the agency's inspector general for seven years, said
his office has been cooperating with state auditors on the probe. On Tuesday,
the auditors announced that a "former senior- level official" of the Department
of Corrections launched a prison-consulting business in August 2005, five months
before he retired from the department Jan. 31, and helped a private company land
a state prison contract. State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who
requested the audit, identified the official as Renfrow. The auditors found that
while still employed by DOC, Renfrow began working to assist prospective bidders
in developing proposals to his department for a private prison. With his
assistance, a company identified as the GEO Group was awarded the contract for a
1,500-bed private prison at Ault. Auditors noted that state employees are barred
by law from outside employment that creates a conflict of interest, and from
helping people to win a contract with their agency for a fee. Renfrow couldn't
be reached for comment Wednesday. Rulo said the results of his office's
investigation will be turned over to El Paso County District Attorney John
Newsome, probably in January. The Department of Corrections is based in that
county. Rulo said a decision on whether to file charges will be a "collaborative
process" with prosecutors. Kristen Holtzman, spokeswoman for Colorado Attorney
General John Suthers, said that Renfrow never contacted the attorney general's
office to ask whether his consulting business while still a DOC employee
constituted a conflict of interest.
December 13, 2006 Pueblo Chieftain
A former top official for the Colorado Department of
Corrections may have broken the law when he helped a private prison company win
a state contract earlier this year, an audit revealed Tuesday. Though the report
conducted by the state auditor doesn't name him, the audit centered on Nolin
Renfrow, former director of prisons for DOC. It even calls on the department's
inspector general to further investigate the matter and, if warranted, refer it
for possible prosecution. The audit, which was requested by Rep. Buffie McFadyen,
D-Pueblo West, showed that before Renfrow retired in January, he had been
working with a Florida-based private prison company, GEO Group, to land a DOC
contract to build a 1,500-bed prison in Weld County. That project is expected to
cost an estimated $100 million, for which Renfrow was to get a 1 percent fee -
or $1 million - for helping Weld County get the contract, the audit said. In
2003, GEO, which is based in Baca Raton, Fla., was awarded a contract to build a
500-bed, prerelease prison near Pueblo Memorial Airport, which still hasn't been
built. Renfrow's replacement, Gary Golder, says the department currently is
working with the Attorney General's Office on a letter to GEO that effectively
would revoke the 2003 bid and end the Pueblo project. Though the audit did not
find any evidence that Renfrow disclosed confidential information to GEO to help
it win the Weld County bid, he may have violated state laws, personnel rules and
department regulations regarding outside employment, the audit said. Neither
Renfrow nor GEO officials were available for comment. The audit found that prior
to Renfrow's retirement on Jan. 31, he filed articles of incorporation for a
private prison consulting firm, Patriot Business Solutions, in August 2005.
"Public records and interviews indicate that the former employee began actively
working on behalf of his prison consulting business as of November 2005," the
audit said. "Neither the department nor the former employee provided
documentation showing that the employee requested or the department approved the
former employee's outside employment." The contract was awarded to GEO in June,
along with a separate contract to Corrections Corporation of America to expand
two of its existing private prisons - in Bent and Kit Carson counties - by 720
beds. DOC time sheets also showed that Renfrow "used a combination of annual,
sick and holiday leave" to remain on extended paid leave from November 2005
until his retirement date, the audit said. "Neither the department nor the
former employee provided evidence that (Renfrow) received the express consent of
his attending physician or appointing authority to engage in outside work
activities," the audit said. "As a result, we question the former employee's use
of about 240 hours of paid sick leave benefits valued at about $14,000."
McFadyen began to question Renfrow's involvement immediately after GEO won the
contract. The Pueblo West lawmaker, a longtime critic of private prisons,
questioned why such a company would be awarded a new bid before it had made any
progress on the Pueblo prison. McFadyen also questioned why the department was
even considering a GEO request, which was made after winning the bid, to give it
a written guarantee that the new beds would be filled, something the state has
never provided to any of the five other existing private prisons in the state.
"I am still questioning the Colorado Department of Corrections as to why GEO was
allowed to bid another (project) when they have not performed on the original
2003 project," McFadyen said. "GEO Corporation is demanding that the state issue
a mandatory guarantee of filling beds. It is not the responsibility of Colorado
taxpayers to ensure the profits of this corporation. "There's no question that
we're being held hostage by GEO Group when other (private prison) vendors
probably would like to come in and bid those contracts," she added.
December 13, 2006 Rocky Mountain
News
A retired state prison official stands to be paid $1 million - and possibly
face criminal charges - for helping a private prison company win a state bid
while he was still working for the state. A state audit released Tuesday cited a
possible conflict of interest. The audit does not name the official, but the
audit was aimed at Nolin Renfrow, former state prisons director. And the
document describes work he openly undertook for the Geo Group. Renfrow helped
Geo win a $14 million-per-year deal to house 1,500 inmates in a private prison
it proposed building in Ault. Renfrow helped Geo write its bid and spoke with
Ault officials on Geo's behalf, said officials and Renfrow last spring. On
Tuesday, Renfrow did not return a call for comment. The audit said the official
may have violated two state laws. One prohibits state employees from providing
paid assistance to anyone to win state contracts or economic benefits. The other
prohibits activities that constitute a conflict of interest with their duties as
state employees. The audit cleared the official of using insider knowledge to
help Geo win the bid. But it said that if the prison is built, Geo will pay the
official a $1 million fee. The official started working as a consultant on the
deal before he retired this year, the audit said. During his final three months
on the job, the official used six |
