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Connecticut
Department of Corrections
February 8, 2005 AP
State prison officials have dropped a plan to have a private company run a drug
treatment and vocational training facility for female inmates. The New
Jersey-based Education and Health Centers of America initially won the roughly
$2.2 million contract in 2003 to run the program at the women's prison in the
Niantic section of East Lyme. But Attorney General Richard Blumenthal forced
correction officials to withdraw the contract after concerns were raised. It was
learned that the company had hired a lobbyist close to former Gov. John G.
Rowland, contributed to Rowland's campaign and gave a free trip to state
officials. about the company's lobbying efforts. The
state's decision may have no effect on a plan to build one or more community
justice centers for male offenders that would be operated by a private company.
February 28, 2004
A private prison company from Tennessee has told the Department of Correction it
plans to bid on housing up to 2,500 prisoners in its facilities.
Connecticut must find a place to put 500 prisoners by October, after Virginia
officials canceled a contract to house the state's inmates this week.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America has submitted a letter
of intent to Connecticut, said company spokesman Steve Owen. He would not reveal
any proposed details. "We certainly are interested and will be
submitting a proposal," Owen said. The state Department of Correction
confirmed it received letters of intent but would not say which providers had
expressed interest. Private providers and states have until May 3 to submit
proposals. Corrections Corporation of America is the nation's largest
private prison operator, holding 55,000 inmates in 64 facilities in 20 states.
Company officials said last year their Youngstown, Ohio, facility would be ideal
for Connecticut inmates, but Owen said Friday they could be placed in any of the
company's 6,800 available beds. The company also has hired a former a
former chief of staff to Gov. John G. Rowland, David O'Leary, to lobby for the
company in Connecticut. Rowland is currently enmeshed in a federal investigation
into possible bid-rigging in the administration, and a House committee is
considering whether to recommend impeachment. "We are not
concerned," Owen said. "He is being retained because of his ability to
be kept up to speed with the decision making, like all of our lobbyists around
the states. That is why we retain the individual." Connecticut had
been looking for a private or other state provider since the legislature last
year authorized out-of-state placements for 2,500 prisoners. Virginia has
said it will not accept Connecticut prisoners past Oct. 22, but it will be
flexible in allowing Connecticut to get its inmates out of the state. Marc
Ryan, Rowland's budget chief, said the state would not discuss anything with
providers until after the closing date for the proposals. He also said the state
was not leaning toward any particular provider, and was considering entering
into multiple contracts. A preliminary survey of the private prison
industry showed Connecticut could get rates as low as $10 per prisoner per day,
Ryan said. In Connecticut, it costs roughly $80 a day to house prisoners, he
said. The Virginia contract's demise is giving some lawmakers that prison
crowding reforms will move through the legislature. The proposals include
building up community based programs and releasing prisoners more quickly when
they become eligible for parole. They would also fund the state's jail
re-interview program, which assesses whether inmates awaiting sentencing can be
released into the community. "We need a long-term solution to this
problem, and it's got to be a Connecticut solution. Not one that's going to be
canceled with six months' notice," said Rep. Mike Lawlor, D-East Haven,
chair of the legislature's Judiciary Committee. The proposed reforms do
not eliminate the state's ability to send inmates to other states. But backers
argue that the reforms will reduce the population enough so that it won't even
be a discussion. "I don't think it's a problem at all creating that
room in our system, so we can accept people coming back," said Rep. William
Dyson, D-New Haven. Barbara Fair, an activist with People Against
Injustice and the mother of an inmate who was sent to Virginia, said she doubted
there would be any substantial change. "As long as they're trying to
fill up cells somewhere else, that's what they're going to do," she said.
(AP)
February 23, 2004
The next batch of inmates that Connecticut prison officials send
out of state is likely to end up in a private prison in Ohio. Correction
Commissioner Theresa Lantz told legislators this week that her department has
issued a request for proposals seeking a provider with enough beds to hold all
the inmates -which could number more than 2,000. But she said Corrections Corp.
of America, which operates the Ohio facility, might be the only provider able to
accommodate that many. Lantz assured lawmakers that like Connecticut, many
other states are turning to private prisons to address their overcrowding
issues. "Thirty-one states contract with private prisons, so it is
not a unique phenomenon," said Lantz. "And I'm not saying that because
I am trying to sell you on private prisons." She told members of the
legislature's judiciary and appropriations committees during a joint hearing
that she needs to find housing for inmates because the state's contract to house
inmates in Virginia expires in 2005. She said the state's prison system does not
have the capacity to absorb the 500 inmates currently housed there, even though
the state's inmate population has significantly dropped since last year.
As of January 2004, the state's inmate population was 18,523, including 554
inmates being held for the federal authorities. Last year, the figure stood at
19,216, including 368 federal detainees. John Ferguson, Corrections Corp.
of America's chief executive, was quoted in the Tennessean newspaper in October
claiming that his company's dormant facility in Youngstown, Ohio, which has
2,016 empty beds, would be an ideal site for Connecticut inmates. The company
has roughly 6,800 empty beds in its 64 prisons around the country. His
comments were in response to the legislature's approval last year of the
governor's plan to send 2,000 more inmates out of state. Ferguson's firm
is being represented in Connecticut by Gov. John Rowland's former chief of staff
David O'Leary. The company has been paying O'Leary $4,500 a month plus expenses
since January of last year. Corrections Corp. is the only prison provider with a
lobbyist in the state. Officials with the company said they were looking
to break into the Connecticut market and approached O'Leary after learning that
he was one of the most effective lobbyists in the state, said Steve Owen, the
company's director of marketing and communications. "It is common for
[the company] to retain lobbyists in both states where we currently do business
and states where we may be able to do business," said Owen. "This
allows us to monitor ongoing public policy discussions in corrections.
Additionally, lobbyists provide an avenue by which the company can inform and
educate decision-makers on the merits of our industry generally and our company
specifically." Officials with the union that represents the state's
correction officers said signs that the state is leaning toward a private
provider concern them. They say the decision will eventually cost the state more
than it saves. They say instead of sending inmates out of state, the
legislature should be pursuing measures that reduce the state's prison
population. "Council 4 and the corrections employees we represent
have consistently and publicly supported viable alternatives to the management
of the inmate population, such as diversion for first-time drug offenders and
the mentally ill," said Thomas Sellas, a member of the union's executive
board. "We have also strongly advocated making better use of existing
Department of Correction resources. It makes no sense to send prisoners out of
state when there are open beds right here in Connecticut." (CTNow)
August 19, 2003
Following are highlights of three budget-related bills the Connecticut
General Assembly plans to vote on Saturday. The information is from drafts of
the bills. - Allow the Department of Correction to send an
2,000 more inmates to out-of-state public or private prisons. (AP)
Connecticut
Legislature
September 30, 2004 Fairfield Weekly
How much is the life of a troubled teenager worth? To the Tomasso family, it was
worth about $51.2 million. That's how much state money Tomasso companies made
from the suicide of 15-year-old Tabatha Ann Brendle, according to federal
prosecutors. A federal grand jury last week indicted Tomasso and the family's
inside man at the governor's office, Peter Ellef, accusing Ellef of handing
massive state contracts to Tomasso in exchange for elaborately disguised
payoffs. Amid all its legalese, the indictment stands as a powerful reminder
that the corruption scandal that brought down former Gov. John Rowland isn't
just about no-bid contracts and fishy credit card charges. It's about people's
lives--and deaths. And it's about the willingness of high-ranking government
officials and respected businessmen to profit from tragedy. The Rowland
administration handed Tomasso a blank check--first to renovate Long Lane, then
to build a replacement. And Tomasso got the multimillions without bidding
because the jobs were an "emergency." Never mind that the governor's
office had for years neglected countless emergencies at the Department of
Children and Families--the agency charged with preventing abuse and neglect, the
agency that ran Long Lane. We
do know, according to the indictment, that Tomasso companies paid $86,500 to a
dummy corporation that Ellef and his deputy, Lawrence Alibozek, set up.
That doesn't count the Tomasso-paid limousine rides to New York and Boston. Or
the gold, for that matter: Alibozek admitted receiving gold coins and generously
showed the feds where they were buried in his yard. Ellef also got gold from
Tomasso, the indictment charges.
May 11, 2004
Former Chief of Staff David O'Leary spoke on the third floor of the capitol late
Monday afternoon, questioned by an attorney for the House Committee of Inquiry
for a mere 15 minutes. The speech was a private deposition in the old
house judiciary room at the capitol. O'Leary served as Gov. Rowland's first
chief of staff after he was elected in 1994. The committee would not say why it
asked for O'Leary to appear or what he said in the deposition. O'Leary has
been a lobbyist for sometime. He is the president of his own company. Some of
his clients include Corrections Corporation of America, a company involved in
privatizing prisons. (WSFB Channel 3)
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
CCA
May 19, 2006 Yale Daily News
Farallon Capital Management, a hedge fund that invests a portion of Yale's
endowment, has sold all of its stock in a private prison company that has been
criticized for alleged human rights abuses, though such criticisms have not been
cited as a factor in the sale. The fund's May 12 filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission included no investment in the Corrections Corporation of
America, the target of a yearlong campaign for divestment by Yale's Graduate
Employees and Students Organization. But while GESO leaders said they believe
their campaign to have affected the move, members of the University's investment
ethics committee said they did not advise divestment before the hedge fund sold
its shares. At several rallies during the past year, GESO members criticized CCA
for alleged cases of prisoner abuse and for lobbying for harsher sentences. GESO
spokesman Evan Cobb GRD '07 said he believes Farallon's sale of CCA stock
demonstrated the impact of the organization's opposition to "insidious" private
prisons. "At this point, we're just very, very pleased," Cobb said. Farallon
sold two thirds of its then-$1.5 million share of CCA in March, prompting GESO
leaders to claim that their pressure on the University was working. But Yale's
Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility has maintained that CCA does not
merit divestment under the University's ethical policies, as private prisons are
a regulated industry. ACIR chair Geert Rouwenhorst has said that CCA does not
appear to cause "grave social injury," Yale's standard for divestment. That
policy is based on the 1972 book "The Ethical Investor," which was written by a
group of Yale professors and graduate students. "Divestment is an action of last
resort for the endowment," Rouwenhorst said at the last public ACIR meeting,
held in March. "We believe that selling the shares to someone who cares less
than us [does] not necessarily [make] a good world." Zachary Bagdon, who heads
the School of Management's International Center for Finance, said Farallon most
likely made its decision with profit in mind. If activism did a play a role, he
said, it was because fund managers thought public opposition would hamper the
stock's performance. "When people rally to get people to divest in something,
that puts downward pressure on the stock," Bagdon said. A Farallon spokesman
declined to comment. But Cobb said that since CCA's stock has been rising,
public opinion must have had more of an impact than a perceived lack of profit.
GESO has not decided whether it will continue to campaign for Yale to take a
public, policy-based stand against CCA, Cobb said. "It would obviously be nice
for the University to actually talk about this and weigh in on the issue," he
said. "In terms of where we go from here, I'm not really certain." When Yale
officially divested from companies tied to the Sudanese government in February,
it blacklisted several companies in which it did not hold stock but would
exclude from its portfolio in the future.
March 7, 2006 Yale Daily News
Farallon Capital Management, a hedge fund that invests
a portion of Yale's endowment, has sold about two thirds of its stock in a
private prison company that campus activists have criticized for alleged human
rights abuses. According to an analysis of public filings released Tuesday by
the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, Yale's indirect holdings in
Corrections Corporation of America decreased from $1.5 million to approximately
$500,000 in the fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31. GESO activists said their
on-campus campaign against CCA likely influenced the decision, but University
officials denied any change to their divestment policy. GESO chair Melissa Mason
GRD '08 characterized Farallon's move as a partial divestment that should be
followed up with a new formal policy. "It's clear that there has been a step in
a right direction, with Yale dropping two thirds of its share," Mason said. "Now
Yale needs to make an official statement to finish off the divestment.""I don't
think that this university should be investing in a corporation that is in the
business of incarceration, that sees an interest in seeing a greater number of
people being incarcerated in this country," she said. CCA representatives did
not return calls for comment on Tuesday.
December 2, 2005 Yale Daily News
Around 100 Yale students and faculty members gathered at Beinecke Plaza on
Thursday afternoon to hear faculty members denounce Yale's investment in the
Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison-operating company. The
demonstration, which was organized by the Graduate Employees and Students
Organization and featured four faculty speakers, was organized to protest Yale's
$1.5 million investment in CCA, the sixth-largest prison operator in the nation,
behind the federal government and four states. Protestors said they want the
University to divest from the company because there are a disproportionate
number of minorities incarcerated and inmates are allegedly inhumanely treated
in CCA prisons. Critics also accused CCA of lobbying for harsher sentencing in
order to generate more revenue. Yale invests in CCA through Farallon Capital
Management, which was founded by two Yale alumni. Farallon is a hedge fund that
controls almost $10 billion in assets and owns 5.5 percent of CCA. Yale alone
has around $500 million invested through Farallon, according to GESO.
December 2, 2005 Hartford Courant
A small part of Yale University's $15 billion endowment has been invested in the
largest private prison company in the country - a revelation that has led to
calls from some students and professors for Yale to divest for ethical reasons.
The United States puts more people behind bars than any other country in the
world, according to a report by Yale's unions. And more than ever, private
companies such as Corrections Corporation of America have been hired to run
public prisons to cut costs. The unions' recently published report revealed
Yale's tie to the company based in Nashville, Tenn. The report details several
inmate abuse scandals at that company's prisons and accuses the for-profit
company of advocating public policies that put more people away, for longer.
Several Yale professors demonstrated in front of Yale President Richard Levin's
office Thursday. Matt Jacobson, a history professor, drew heavy applause and a
catcall "Jacobson!" from the crowd. The afternoon rally started with
about 50 people but doubled in size as the impassioned rhetoric, heavy on its
critique of privatization, drew passersby. A Yale police officer wearing a neck
warmer and dark glasses stood at the steps of Woodbridge Hall that houses
Levin's office. A helmet hung from the handlebars of his mountain bike, as he
evaluated the scene without expression. Yale's investment in Corrections
Corporation came to light after the union that represents Yale graduate students
analyzed the university's most recent federal tax forms, which showed that as of
June 2004, Yale owned an 88 percent stake in a hedge fund called Farallon
Capital Institutional Partners II. The hedge fund, managed by Farallon Capital
Management LLC in San Francisco, in turn held 47,000 shares in CCA as of May
2005, according to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The union
estimates Yale has about $1.5 million invested in Corrections Corporation.
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