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Cascade
County Regional Jail
Cascade County, Montana
Aramark
October 27, 2005 Great Falls Tribune
The kitchen supervisor at the Cascade County regional jail was arrested at the
correctional facility Tuesday for allegedly smuggling illegal drugs, tobacco and
smoking paraphernalia to inmates in exchange for a small fee. Kelly Jerad
McCann, 21, appeared in District Court Tuesday on charges of transferring of
illegal articles to inmates, a felony. McCann is an employee of ARAMARK Corp., a
national company the jail contracts with to supply meals at the facility.
Detention officers became suspicious when two inmates chosen at random tested
positive for marijuana.
Crossroads Correctional
Facility
Shelby, Montana
CCA/TransCor
February 15, 2006 KXLF
A private inmate transport van hit black ice and crashed on Homestake Pass
near Butte last night. No serious injuries were reported, but the eight
prisoners were taken to St. James Healthcare for examination. Montana State
Prison Warden Mike Mahoney said the inmates were not in the custody of the state
Corrections Department. The inmates were being transported by TransCor America.
Mahoney said the van was headed to Deer Lodge, where the inmates were to spend
the night -- some at the Powell County jail and some at the state prison intake
unit. Mahoney believes the inmates were being taken to Washington or Oregon.
January 20, 2006 AP and Great Falls Tribune
Putting the Department of Corrections in charge of transporting almost all
prisoners in the state drew mixed reaction from lawmakers Thursday. DOC Director
Bill Slaughter and other officials have been weighing the idea for some time,
but raised it again following last week's escape of accused murderer Dueston
Haggard near Helena. Currently, DOC transports about 47 percent of prison
inmates, with the U.S. Marshals Service, local law enforcement and private
contractors comprising the rest, department spokesman Bob Anez told the Law and
Justice Interim Committee. The department is considering taking over transports
for the Marshals Service and bearing more of the load for local law enforcement,
he said. DOC is already assuming control of services from private contractor
TransCor America when its contract with the state expires on June 30.
January 19, 2006 Helena Independent Record
Escape charges won’t be resubmitted against two men who broke out of a prison
transport van in Helena in 2004 because that might constitute “double jeopardy.”
Deputy Lewis and Clark County Attorney Carolyn Clemens said on Wednesday that
given past U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding double jeopardy — being tried
twice for the same crime — she believes any effort by her to refile the cases
against Brian Holliday and William Brown would be barred. Clemens said she was
disappointed by Helena District Court Judge Thomas Honzel’s decision to dismiss
the charges last week on the wording of jury instructions. But she added that
tacking more time onto the escapees’ existing life sentences was never her goal.
“Trying them for escape in the first place was not to give them more time, as
they are lifers anyway, but rather to let them and others know that we wouldn’t
just turn a deaf ear on escapes in Helena,” she said. Holliday, Brown, Russell
VanKirk and Jasper Phillips were charged with escape after they removed a screen
from the back window of a private TransCor van and jumped out as the vehicle was
parked outside Burger King on 11th Avenue while one of the guards made a dinner
run. The defense attorneys asserted that the specific wording of instructions
offered to the jury at trial — not challenged by prosecutors — indicated, in
their opinion that their clients couldn’t have escaped because they weren’t in
the custody of peace officers. A response brief filed by Deputy County Attorney
Lisa Leckie stated that the legal definition requires the placement of a person
in the legal custody of a governmental body as the result of the constraint or
in custody of the person in one of three ways — by a peace officer pursuant to
arrest, by transport, or by legal order.
January 13, 2006 Helena Independent Record
As law enforcement officers searched for an escaped murder suspect in Helena
Wednesday, a district court judge ruled that two men who bailed out of a
transport van at Burger King on 11th two years ago should have a new trial in
that case. Judge Thomas Honzel stated in his decision that prosecutors failed to
prove that Brian Holliday and William Brown were in the custody of peace
officers when they climbed out of a back window in the TransCor America van in
which they were riding en route to Montana State Prison in September 2004. Lewis
and Clark County Attorney Leo Gallagher said Thursday that he was disappointed
by the decision, but it didn’t come as much of a surprise given the judge’s
response to prosecutors’ arguments in the case at a hearing on the issue held
earlier this week.The defense attorneys asserted that the specific wording of
instructions offered to the jury at trial — not challenged by prosecutors —
indicated, in their opinion, that their clients couldn’t have escaped because
they weren’t in the custody of peace officers. TransCor is a private company
that was contracted to transport the prisoners.
January 11, 2006 Great Falls Tribune
The weekend fight at the Crossroads Correctional in Shelby that injured two
correctional guards comes after repeated complaints that the state's only
for-profit private prison is too crowded. Still, both the Legislature during its
regular session last year, and the Corrections Advisory Council more recently,
rejected plans to expand the prison. Two inmates reportedly received trivial
injuries, but Patricia Keatts, whose son, William, is in the prison, said
Tuesday that he called and told her he'd been stabbed in the neck and ribs and
had six stitches. Corrections Department spokesman Bob Anez said the agency
couldn't discuss inmates' medical conditions. Half the prison remains in
lockdown. Crossroads has 508 state and 38 federal inmates. In November, when the
Corrections Advisory Council met, it had 510 inmates, about 30 more than its
emergency limit, according to a Corrections Department assessment of prison
overcrowding. "The crowded conditions of these facilities, coupled with a
shortage of about 50 correctional officers, creates a dangerous environment for
both inmates and staff," the Corrections Department report said. Nonetheless,
the Advisory Council balked at expanding Crossroads by nearly 300 beds. "There's
a lack of work force up there. The population isn't there," said state Sen.
Trudi Schmidt, D-Great Falls, who also sits on the Advisory Council. When
Crossroads opened in 1999, local officials hailed it as a source of jobs. But
Steve Chand, of the Washington, D.C.-based Corrections and Criminal Justice
Coalition, said small rural communities often see that benefit dwindle over the
years because of the high turnover among corrections workers. "What happens with
that turnover rate is that the next thing you know, people are coming 20 miles
to work, then 30 and 40. It's a problem," he said.
January 10, 2006 Helena
Independent Record
District Court Judge Thomas Honzel didn't make a decision at a hearing
Monday regarding a new trial for two convicts who bailed out of a prison
transport van outside a Helena Burger King in 2004, but he certainly appeared to
be looking closely at the defense's arguments. Honzel called Deputy County
Attorney Lisa Leckie to a blackboard in the courtroom to explain her belief that
instructions given to the jury in the case of Brian Holliday and William Brown
would allow for the possibility that the men could be found guilty - on a
grammatical, and as a result, a legal level. In addition, he quizzed Leckie
intensely about why she didn't specify a certain sub-section of the law naming
transport personnel in those jury instructions, thus eliminating the basis for
defense tactics being pursued by public defenders Jeremy Gersovitz and Randi
Hood that their clients weren't in legal custody at the time of their escape.
Holliday, Brown, Russell VanKirk and Jasper Phillips were charged with escape
after they removed a screen from the back window of a transport van operated by
TransCor America as the vehicle was parked outside Burger King on 11th Avenue in
September 2004. Shortly after the men's conviction, Gersovitz and Hood
challenged that verdict on the basis that the specific wording of jury
instructions - not challenged at trial by prosecutors - indicated, in their
opinion, that the men could not have escaped because they weren't in the custody
of peace officers. A brief filed by Leckie at that time stated that the legal
definition requires the placement of a person in the legal custody of a
governmental body as the result of the constraint or custody of the person in
one of three ways - by a peace officer pursuant to arrest, by transport or by
legal order.
January 10, 2006 Great Falls
Tribune
A weekend fight between rival prison gangs at the private Crossroads
Correctional Center in Shelby sent one prison guard to the hospital in Great
Falls with a broken jaw. A second corrections officer, a woman, had some teeth
knocked out, according to state Corrections Department spokesman Bob Anez. A
third officer had superficial injuries, as did two inmates, who were among the
six prisoners involved in the brief Saturday morning fight, he said. "Suffice it
to say there were some homemade weapons involved," Anez said. Crossroads Warden
James MacDonald later said a single weapon, a sort of puncturing tool, was
recovered. The fight broke out in the dayroom, during the one hour a day that
inmates in that area are allowed access to it, he said. According to the tape
from the room's video cameras, it began at 10:36 a.m., and the dayroom was
cleared by 10:42 a.m. However, the actual fight only lasted a couple of minutes,
he said. As many as 26 inmates had permission to be in the dayroom at that time,
although Anez said it hadn't been determined exactly how many of them were
there.Three of the prison's six pods remained in lockdown Monday. About 250 of
the prison's 508 state and 38 federal inmates are housed in those pods, Anez
said.The Crossroads Correctional Center is the state's only for-profit private
prison, and is run by the Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America. Its last
lockdown was Nov. 18, because of a similar incident, Anez said.
January 8, 2006 Billings Gazette
The private prison here was put under lockdown after a fight Saturday morning
involving six to eight inmates, prison officials said. Three staff members and
two inmates at Crossroads Correctional Center were injured during the
altercation in a close custody housing unit. The situation was resolved within
six minutes, the prison said in a news release. Two inmates sustained injuries
that did not require outside medical attention. Three staff members were taken
to the local hospital for treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.
December 30, 2005 Billings Gazette
The last two of four prisoners who broke out of a prison transport van at a
fast-food restaurant here last year have been sentenced to more prison time for
the escape. District Court Judge Thomas Honzel tacked 10 years onto the end of
Russell R. VanKirk's murder sentence and added 20 years to William L. Brown's
earlier murder sentence. The two others involved in the escape, Jasper Phillips
and Brian Holliday, were sentenced earlier. In September 2004, the four broke a
screen of the private prison transport van when it stopped at a Burger King. The
prisoners were en route to Montana State Prison when the guards stopped to buy
dinner for the men. Phillips was caught by one of the guards before he could
make it out of the parking lot. The other three were caught within hours.
December 14, 2005 Independent Record
Last week, a Helena District Court judge tacked 10 years onto the 90-year
sentence already being served by a convicted murderer who escaped from a prison
transport van parked outside of a Helena Burger King in 2004. Judge Thomas
Honzel sentenced Brian Holliday to 10 years for the escape, six months in jail
for attempted theft, and another 10 years for being a persistent offender. The
sentences are to run concurrently to each other, and consecutive to his sentence
for murder. Two of Holliday's fellow escapees - William Brown and Russell
VanKirk - are scheduled to be sentenced for their involvement later this month.
The fourth member of the group, Jasper Phillips, pleaded guilty to the escape
charge shortly after the incident and received a five-year sentence to be served
consecutively to the sentence he was already serving at Montana State Prison.
Holliday, Brown, VanKirk and Phillips were charged with escape after they
removed a screen from the back window of a transport van operated by TransCor
America as the vehicle was parked outside Burger King on 11th Avenue in
September 2004. At trial, defense attorneys unsuccessfully argued that their
defendants couldn't legally be convicted of escape because they weren't in
official detention as defined by Montana law at the time they bailed out of the
transport van. Despite the jury's unwillingness to accept that argument, the
defense attorneys filed documents with the court last month requesting a new
trial for their clients on the basis that the TransCor guards aren't peace
officers as described in Montana code. Prosecutors discount that argument, and
the judge has not yet made a ruling in the case.
December 8, 2005 Independent Record
Lewis and Clark County prosecutors discount a recent argument by public
defenders that two men who bailed out of a prison transport van outside a Helena
Burger King last year should receive a new trial based on a legal technicality.
Deputy County Attorney Lisa Leckie argued in a brief filed in Helena District
Court Tuesday that a Powell County jury that found William Brown and Brian
Holliday guilty of escape in October did not err in its decision, and the guilty
verdict should stand. "It's a matter of grammar," said Leckie
Wednesday, explaining that she disagrees with the interpretation outlined in a
recent brief by public defenders Randi Hood and Jeremy Gersovitz of what
conditions constitute "legal detention." Hood and Gersovitz asserted
in a document filed shortly after the completion of the trial that Brown and
Holliday could not have escaped from the transport van because they weren't in
official detention by Montana's legal definition. Holliday, Brown, Russell
VanKirk and Jasper Phillips were charged with escape after they removed a screen
from the back window of a transport van operated by TransCor America as the
vehicle was parked outside Burger King on 11th Avenue in September 2004. In
opposition to the defense's argument that the prosecution failed to prove at
trial that TransCor employees were "peace officers" as required by the
legal definition of "official detention" that was included in the jury
instructions, Leckie asserted that the criteria for detention is actually more
broad. Leckie's brief states that the definition requires the placement of a
person in the legal custody of a governmental body as the result of the
constraint or custody of the person in one of three ways - by a peace officer
pursuant to arrest, by transport or by court order. For that reason, she denies
that the defense has legal grounds to be granted a new trial by the judge in the
case.
December 2, 2005 Billings Gazette
The lawyers for two men who bailed out of a prison transport van outside a
Helena Burger King, sparking a manhunt in a neighborhood last year, are asking
the trial judge to set aside a guilty verdict recently handed down by a jury in
the case. Public defenders Randi Hood and Jeremy Gersovitz filed the motion this
week, arguing that prosecutors failed to present evidence at a trial last month
that would prove that employees for TransCor America fit the legal definition of
peace officers. The attorneys contend that their clients, William Brown and
Brian Holliday, couldn't have escaped from the transport van, considering they
weren't in official detention by Montana's legal definition. It took jurors in
Powell County 30 minutes after a two-day trial in Deer Lodge in October to
convict Holliday of escape and attempted theft and Brown of escape. Jasper
Phillips pleaded guilty to his involvement shortly after the incident and
received a five-year sentence to be served consecutively to the sentence he was
already serving in Montana State Prison. Russell VanKirk also pleaded guilty and
is awaiting sentencing. VanKirk, Brown and Phillips were charged with escape
after they peeled a screen off a back window of a transport van as the vehicle
was parked outside Burger King on 11th Avenue in September 2004. Holliday was
charged with escape as well, but prosecutors tacked on a charge of attempted
theft because he rushed up to a couple sitting in a pickup truck and attempted
to hijack their vehicle. On the day of the escape, one of the transport van
guards immediately apprehended Phillips in the parking lot at Burger King, and
Holliday was arrested in the area soon later. VanKirk and Brown eluded police
for a longer period. However, they were both arrested within hours of the
escape. Deputy County Attorney Carolyn Clemens said Thursday that she was in the
process of reviewing the motion and will file a written response with the court.
November 17, 2005 Independent Record
A proposal to expand a privately run prison in Shelby to relieve overcrowding
was panned Wednesday by a number of lawmakers who said they could not support
further privatization of the state's prison system. A similar idea was floated
during the 2005 Legislature as one of several options to deal with the state's
rapidly rising inmate population, but was passed over by a corrections
subcommittee. Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America, which runs the
512-bed Shelby prison, said it could complete the expansion in about a year,
although it would need a license from the state to fill the facility. No cost
has yet been calculated, said Tony Grande, vice president of state customer
relations. Several council members, who are appointed by the governor, said they
could not support such a proposal and advocated for expansion in other areas,
such as community corrections and minimum security facilities, to ease
overcrowding. ''I think we need to look at other options and where we want to
have more people and the fact that we have so many prisoners who are not violent
offenders,'' Rep. Gail Gutsche, D-Missoula, said. Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor,
said ''we need more less-secure facilities at a cheaper price'' and suggested
exploring development of a 36,000-acre ranch used by inmates at the prison in
Deer Lodge before expanding private operations.
November 4, 2005 Independent Record
Two of four inmates who escaped from a prison transport van in Helena last
year were found guilty in connection with the incident by a Powell County jury
this week. It took jurors 30 minutes following a two-day trial in Deer Lodge to
convict Brian Holliday of escape and attempted theft, and William Brown of
escape. Jasper Phillips pleaded guilty to his involvement shortly after the
incident and received a five-year sentence to be served consecutively to the
sentence he was already serving in Montana State Prison. Russell VanKirk - who
is serving a life sentence for the 1995 murder of Helena resident Tamara Pengra
- waited until last week to enter his guilty plea. On the day of the escape, one
of the transport van guards immediately apprehended Phillips in the parking lot
at Burger King, and Holliday was arrested in the area soon later. VanKirk and
Brown eluded police for a longer period of time. However, they were both
apprehended within hours of the escape. Public defenders for the men argued at
trial that their clients could not possibly have escaped given that they weren't
in "official detention" at the time of the incident. Attorneys
asserted that the guards who manned the transport van owned by a private company
- TransCor - didn't meet the legal definition of peace officers as is written in
the law. Following the escape, officials with the Montana Department of
Corrections reviewed the state's contract with the company, and agreed to keep
it as long as several policy changes were made. Among those changes was a rule
that prisoner transports stop only at secure facilities, and local authorities
be notified of gas stops. Sack lunches will be used. In addition, a chase car
will follow vanloads of the most dangerous convicts, prisoner data sheets and
photos will be carried in the vans, and the DOC will be e-mailed about such
transfers.
February 3, 2005 Shelby Promoter
The proposed 500-bed prison expansion at Crossroads Correctional Center may be
in trouble. A front page article in the Feb. 1 Great Falls Tribune reports,
"State Corrections officials Monday proposed a $7 million, 152-bed
expansion at the regional jail in Great Falls." It also described the plan
as the "favorite of five proposals now under consideration by the
Legislature." Shelby Mayor Larry
Bonderud pointed out, "Expansion has been a plan for the past eight years,
adopted by several administrations and several heads of Montana Department of
Corrections." Until recently, it was generally agreed there would be an
expansion of beds at CCC. "Now, for some reason, that philosophy has
changed, and the past eight years' proof that it has been cost-effective for
Montana taxpayers suddenly appears to be thrown out the window. It's a political
philosophy of not wanting to invest in the private sector," charged
Bonderud.
February 2, 2005 Montana Standard
Gov. Brian Schweitzer strongly hinted Tuesday he doesn't want to vastly
expand the state's private prison in Shelby. Schweitzer met with three officials
from Corrections Corporation of America, the Tennessee company that owns the
Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby, Montana's first and only private
prison. But Schweitzer pointed out that Montana already houses about 13 percent
of its inmates in a private prison, which is roughly twice the national average
of around 6 percent.
February 1, 2005 Great Falls
Tribune
State Corrections officials Monday proposed a $7 million, 152-bed expansion at
the regional jail in Great Falls. That would scrap an earlier plan to double the
size of the private prison in Shelby as a means of managing an ever-increasing
prisoner count. If the Legislature approves, it could signal a significant shift
in the way the state handles its felons. The plan, which is the favorite of five
proposals now under consideration by the Legislature, also calls for a 287-bed
expansion of the prerelease system and cancellation of federal contracts for
about 90 prisoners in Shelby. When it originally contracted with the Corrections
Corp. of America, which operates the private facility in Shelby, the state
reserved the right to occupy all the beds in the facility. It requires five
months notice to exercise that option. State Budget Director David Ewer, who
helped craft the new option, said it reflects the Schweitzer administration's
desire to move away from the private prison industry in Montana. It
"gives a good sense of where this admin is going philosophically,"
Ewer said. Sen. Trudi Schmidt, D-Great Falls, and Rep. Tim Callahan, D-Great
Falls, both of whom serve on the committee, are wary of more private prison
beds.
January 26, 2005 Shelby Promoter
The option of an expansion of the Crossroads Correctional Center (CCC) prison is
being hotly debated in the 2005 legislature. A conflict has arisen from comments
made by Senator Jim Shockley, of Victor, before a legislative budget panel on
Tuesday, Jan. 18. He believes there is no guarantee that $7 million paid to
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in per diem fees over the past five
years will not be lost if the state does not purchase the prison. "Before
we spent $13 million dollars we should have read the contract, and I'm the only
one who did," said Shockley. Shockley brought the contract, obtained from
the Toole County Clerk and Recorder's office, to an attorney who works for the
Montana Department of Justice for review. "We're not sure that we could get
a clear title, because it's part of a $715 million loan package, with 32 other
CCA facilities," stated Shockley. "We got out-lawyered. The contract
is slanted toward CCA. Their lawyers wrote it in their best interest and the
state's lawyers didn't catch it. The lawyers for the state who reviewed the
original contract did a very poor job. "The people running the Department
of Corrections now were not the ones there in 1998," added Shockley.
"They relied on CCA's good faith, using an informal agreement. There is no
unilateral agreement that they have to sell the prison to us if they don't want
to." The $9.14 per diem rate is paid to CCA toward the debt retirement of
the institution. The other per diem rate of $43.60 is a daily operational rate
per inmate.
January 20, 2005 AP
A Corrections Department plan for coping with the growing number of inmates hit
a snag Thursday when skeptical lawmakers questioned whether it was the best deal
for the state. The subcommittee working on the agency's budget balked at
approving the proposal and asked corrections officials to come up with
alternatives. They want scenarios that could include expanding the state prison
near Deer Lodge, enlarging regional prisons, adding cells at Shelby and greater
use of prerelease centers. "The long and short of it is there are so many
unknowns," Rep. John Witt, a Carter Republican and member of the
subcommittee. "Before we go out and say here's $13 million, we need to
understand what our options are. The
panel's delay in acting on this portion of the department's budget request did
not bother Director Bill Slaughter, who said an ultimate decision on where to
spend the money is critical. "There's a philosophical discussion going on.
Do we want to get deeper into the private prison business, get out or stay at
the level we're at?" Slaughter said. The subcommittee also has
questions about the contract the state has with Corrections Corp. of America,
which owns the Shelby prison, Witt said. Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor, has raised
concerns about provisions in the contract that require the state to pay $9.14
for each inmate per day as a credit toward Montana's possible purchase of the
facility. Since the state has not expressed an interest in buying the prison,
Shockley has wondered why the state agreed to pay the money, which so far has
amounted to $7 million. In
a meeting with Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Thursday, Shockley urged consideration
of less-expensive options to erecting more pricey cellblocks at the state prison
or buying more space at Shelby. "We could do it cheaper in the long
run if we build minimum security," Shockley told Schweitzer. "My idea
is to keep the cost down."
January 19, 2005 Great Falls Tribune
A state senator Tuesday raised questions about Montana's contract with the
company owning the 560-bed private prison in Shelby — and whether it's wise
for the state to finance another 500-bed expansion at the site. "I think we
could add (beds) at Deer Lodge and we would be better off," said Sen. Jim
Shockley, R-Victor. Shockley, a member of the Law and Justice Interim Committee
and a state corrections advisory council, said the current contract with
Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) doesn't guarantee the state gets credit for
nearly $7 million it's paid toward owning the private prison in Shelby. "Why
compound that?" he said. "We have a contract where we don't know what
it says, at best. There's a chance that all this money we paid them will go for
naught." Under the current contract, the state makes two payments to
CCA: $43.60 per inmate per day for operating the prison and another $9.14 toward
a possible purchase of the prison. Shockley said there's nothing in the contract
that guarantees the state can use the money accumulated from the second payment
toward buying the prison. The state also isn't earning any interest on that
money. "We may have been out-lawyered (on the contract)," he said.
Corrections officials consider the $9.14 per inmate per day payment as
"rent" rather than a down payment on the building, he said.
November 22, 2004 AP
Three maximum-security inmates pleaded not guilty Monday to escaping from a
prison transport van in a restaurant parking lot in September. A fourth inmate
plans to enter the same plea next month, prosecutors said. The inmates, several
of them convicted murderers, were among six being transported from the
Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby to the Montana State Prison at Deer
Lodge on Sept. 2 when the TransCor America van stopped at a Helena restaurant
for food. Four men broke out of the van through a window and two were nabbed
quickly. The other two were subjects of an intense manhunt for hours before
being arrested in a nearby residential neighborhood. The state immediately
suspended its $311,000 annual contract with TransCor following the escape and
demanded tighter security measures for movement of inmates. The company complied
and has since resumed work. TransCor was also asked to pay $23,516 to cover the
state and local government costs of recapture. Officials have refused to say how
the inmates were able to unlock their hand-cuffs and leg shackles without a key.
September 22, 2004 Billings
Gazette
The company responsible for four maximum-security inmates who escaped in
Helena earlier this month will be asked to pay $23,516 to cover the state and
local government costs of recapturing them. In a letter to TransCor America this
week, the state Department of Corrections submitted a bill for $21,708. That was
the expense incurred by the Helena Police Department, Lewis and Clark County
sheriff's office, Montana Highway Patrol, the state Criminal Investigation
Bureau, Lewis and Clark County Search and Rescue, and the American Red Cross.
Joe Williams, head of the centralized services for the department, said
Wednesday his agency will send a separate bill for $1,808 to the Nashville-based
company. The four inmates, three of them convicted murderers, were among six
being transported from the Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby to the
Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge when the TransCor van stopped at a Helena
restaurant for food. Four men broke out of the van and two were nabbed quickly.
The other two were captured within the next eight hours after an intensive
manhunt in a residential neighborhood. Officials have refused to say how the
inmates were able to unlock their handcuffs and leg shackles without a key.
September 14, 2004 Helena Independent Record
The company in charge of a transport van overwhelmed by convicts Sept. 2
will be back hauling prisoners today. Montana
Department of Corrections Director Bill Slaughter said TransCor agreed to make
changes. The company, a subsidiary of Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of
America, also agreed to pick up the tab for the search, which is estimated to be
at least $20,000.The convicts used some sort of tool to free themselves of
handcuffs, leg irons and waist restraints. They were being transported from the
CCA-run Crossroad Correctional Facility in Shelby to the maximum security
Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge, after their behaviour deteriorated and
officers found weapons and tools in their cells.
September 10, 2004 Helena Independent Record
Deep vibrations in the night awakened me. For a moment, looking out the
window was like watching some cop show on TV, where the choppers pin the
inner-city bad guys in blinding pillars of light as loudspeakers tell them to
“throw down your weapons.” The massive helicopter and the searchlight
sweeping the homes of sleeping residents fit the script exactly except for one
thing—this was Helena, not L.A. As it turned out, a lot more than the choppers
and searchlights fit the script for a Hollywood cop show. Four convicts, who
were being transported between Montana prisons, had just broken out of a van
while its driver ducked into Burger King for some fast food. One, a convicted
killer, was now loose within blocks of the home of his former victim’s
family—hence the choppers and searchlights in a city where sleep is rarely
disturbed by such events. But to make a short story long, the questions are now
pouring forth about how it was possible for four men, supposedly all chained at
ankle, wrist and waist, to break out of an armored prison van and flee into the
night. But at least part of the answer started a decade ago, when then-Gov. Marc
Racicot tossed hundreds of millions of tax dollars into an ambitious spending
plan that included, for the first time in Montana’s history, private prisons.
It would also be great if such a move had actually made Montana’s state
government “more efficient and more effective,” as Racicot promised. Neither
thing happened, however, as last weekend’s episode illustrates. The
privatization was just the latest domino to tumble in the national Republican
plan to turn the lucrative business of government over to the private sector.
Prisons—yeah, give ’em to contractors. Last weekend’s incident in Helena,
without question, is a direct outgrowth, since, as it turns out, TransCor
America, a division of Corrections Corporation of America, was recently
contracted by the state to transport prisoners. As it turns out, some of the
people who were around the Capitol when Racicot rammed through privatization are
still around. Jim Smith, for one, was and is the lobbyist for the Montana
Sheriffs’ and Peace Officers’ Association. He is also the current mayor of
Helena. According
to Smith, prisoner transportation duties had been previously undertaken by the
counties. Smith says: “We felt like we were performing a good service” and
“saving the state money.” The problem, it seems, was with legislative
approval for the funds to reimburse counties for their expenses. After
successive legislatures refused to make the appropriation, Smith says the
counties “gave notice in February that we were going to have to discontinue”
prisoner transportation. Then came a miracle of modern politics. Although
no money existed to reimburse county governments for their expenditures,
suddenly money was found to contract with a private company. The privatization
of prisons and prison services in Montana deserves a second hard look. One early
promise, that Montana would not serve as a dumping ground for out-of-state
prisoners, has already gone by the wayside. Now, dangerous prisoners roam
residential neighborhoods at night, having walked away from a supposedly
“armored” prison transport van.
September 10, 2004 Billings Gazette
On the day that four inmates escaped from a prison transport van parked at a
city Burger King, the transport service's parent company received an award as
"outstanding business of the year" from Gov. Judy Martz. Corrections
Corp. of America, the firm that runs Montana's private prison in Shelby, owns
TransCor and had received the Desiree Taggart Memorial Award on Sept. 2, hours
before four maximum security prisoners escaped custody of TransCor workers while
en route from Shelby to Deer Lodge. "It's unfortunate that the escape by
four prisoners occurred in Helena on the same day that CCA was being given this
award," said Chuck Butler, Martz's spokesman. "It is one of those
unfortunate coincidences. Certainly, CCA had earned the award." The award
was presented to company officials about a mile from the fast-food restaurant
where the inmates made their escape.
September 9, 2004 Montana Standard
The days of Burger King dinners may soon be over for Montana prisoners and the
private agents who transport them. State corrections officials handed a list of
demands on Wednesday to leaders of TransCor, the private prisoner transport
service from which four inmates escaped last Thursday, among them: No more
eating out. The
transport van was stopped at a mid-town Helena Burger King for dinner and a
trainee of the company was left in charge of six maximum security inmates while
her colleague — a fully-trained officer — went inside the restaurant.
September 9, 2004 Helena Independent Record
TransCor, the private prisoner transport service from whose custody four
inmates escaped here last week, offered a job to Corrections Director Bill
Slaughter several months before the state inked a deal with the Tennessee-based
company, records show. Slaughter
told legislative auditors in the spring that TransCor approached him to take a
job, a memo from the Legislative Audit Division shows. Slaughter told the
company he had no current plans to resign. Auditors, who were asked to
investigate the contract, concluded that Slaughter had broken no laws. The memo
was written on April 12, just days before TransCor's contract to transport
prisoners in Montana went into effect.
September 5, 2004 Helena Independent Record
Anyone living in Helena's Central neighborhood where two escaped murders
were hiding late Thursday night has to be thankful that local law enforcement
officers were so quick to react and so thorough in their search. A situation
with all the ingredients of a disaster was defused after an anxious night of
roadblocks and intensive neighborhood searches on the ground and from the air.
Either of the two convicts was capable of committing further hideous crimes,
including murder, taking hostages or taking on police in a standoff. Once
mobilized, law enforcement officials responded immediately and deserve
everyone's sincere thanks for an excellent job of keeping the escapees in a
controlled area. But those minutes and decisions made just before the escape
cause us to ask several questions. Most of them have to be directed to officials
at the Montana Department of Corrections, which only recently changed its method
of transferring prisoners. Earlier this summer it awarded the job to TransCor of
America, a division of Corrections Corporation of America. The firm also runs
the state's only private prison in Shelby. The six maximum security inmates (two
prisoners never left the van) were being transported from Shelby to Deer Lodge,
a routine transfer, according to Department of Corrections Director Bill
Slaughter. If the transfer was routine, we have to wonder if it also is a matter
of routine for guards escorting prisoners to stop at a fast food restaurant in
the middle of town for a quick burger? It's a long trip from Shelby to Deer
Lodge, but couldn't they pack a lunch? At least, couldn't they have used the
drive-through? We have to wonder if two guards are enough to handle six maximum
security inmates? Especially when one of the guards leaves the van and goes into
a restaurant? We have to wonder if the van, which apparently was peeled open
with the inmates' bare hands, was sufficiently armored to transport such deadly
cargo? We have to wonder if a transport van should even be allowed to stop in an
area so familiar to a convict, in this case VanKirk? And one especially
disturbing question came from members of the Pengra family, who wondered why
they weren't notified of the escape?
September 4, 2004 Montana Standard
Thursday's escape attempt wasn't the first for convicted murderers Russell
VanKirk and William Brown. In fact, both of the men attempted on separate
occasions to break out of the private prison in Shelby earlier this year,
according to officials with the Montana Department of Corrections. While
Public Information Specialist Sally Hilander could not provide details about the
efforts of the men to obtain their freedom, she said VanKirk was written up for
an escape attempt on June 1 this year, while Brown was written up for similar
activity on May 27. Before that, VanKirk attempted to break out of a Corrections
Corporation of America facility in Tennessee in January 1998. At that time,
Montana prisoners were being held there due to overcrowding in Deer Lodge. Brown
tried to make a break from the Anaconda-Deer Lodge Jail following his arrest for
deliberate homicide in May 2001. Brown was charged and convicted of that
first escape attempt, but not the most recent effort. VanKirk was not
formally charged with either of his previous escape attempts. Hilander said both
of the men were being moved to Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge Thursday night
because they had been reclassified as maximum security prisoners due to
disruptive conduct at the private prison in Shelby. The Shelby facility doesn't
have the proper accommodations for prisoners with that inmate status.
September 4, 2004 Billing Gazette
Two private inmate transport agents and their Tennessee employer have been
temporarily suspended from moving Montana prisoners as officials investigate the
Thursday escape of two convicted murderers from a transport van stopped here at
a Burger King. In all, four inmates escaped from the van , operated by
TransCor, a subsidiary of Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's
largest private corrections company. The breakout occurred Thursday evening as
the van was idling in a Burger King parking lot near the Capitol for a dinner
break. Two convicts were caught shortly after the escape. Two others, killers
Russell VanKirk and Leonard Brown, remained on the lam for hours prompting a
manhunt that lasted until after 1 a.m. Corrections Director Bill Slaughter
said he temporarily suspended TransCor's 4-month-old contract as his agency and
others try to answer some questions including: How did the inmates slip out of
their shackles and handcuffs before the breakout? How did the prisoners rip the
wire mesh covering the back windows of the van? Where was the guard who was
supposed to be watching the van as her partner went into Burger King? Why didn't
agents use the drive through? "I don't know that I've ever seen a
more potentially dangerous situation," Slaughter said. "We took this
deadly serious." The escapees were among six inmates being
transferred to the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge from the Crossroads
Correctional Facility in Shelby because they had recently been reclassified as
"maximum security," said Mike Mahoney, warden of the Montana State
Prison. The Shelby prison, run by CCA, the parent corporation of TransCor, has
no maximum security wing, Mahoney said. The only such wing is the one at Montana
State Prison. Mahoney said he wasn't exactly sure why the men were
reclassified to maximum security, but said they may have been too poorly behaved
to safely stay in Shelby. The six inmates were traveling in a 12-passenger
van, said Ashley Nimmo, director of marketing and communications for TransCor.
One of the agents had worked with the company since April when TransCor inked
its contract with the state. The other was recently hired and was still
receiving on the job training after her graduation from the company's two-week
training program in July. The trainee was left in charge of the inmates as
the fully trained officer went into the Burger King restaurant, Nimmo said,
adding that such a situation does not violate TransCor safety policies.
September 3, 2004
Two convicted murderers escaped from a prison transport van while it was parked
a fast-food restaurant, but they didn't get very far. Five hours after
breaking the windows of the van to escape while one of the guards went into
Burger King on Thursday, Russell Rex VanKirk was arrested just blocks away, said
Helena Police Chief Troy McGee. William Leonard Brown was captured early Friday
sneaking through yards nearby, he said. VanKirk was taken to the hospital to be
treated for cuts. "He's being well guarded," McGee said. They were
among four men who escaped from the van at 6 p.m. The other two escapees were
immediately captured. (AP)
September 3, 2004
Two convicted murderers escaped from a prison transport van Thursday evening at
a fast-food restaurant here, Lewis and Clark County officials said.
Russell Rex VanKirk and William Leonard Brown were among four men who broke a
window out of the van at 6 p.m. VanKirk, Brown and two others escaped the van
after one of the two guards had gone into Burger King. One inmate was badly cut
by the glass and was treated at St. Peter's Community Hospital. Another was
quickly apprehended and two remained in the van, McGee said. Gov.
Judy Martz was trying to acquire helicopters and night vision equipment to aid
the search, Slaughter said. The men were being taken from the private
Crossroads Corrections Center in Shelby to the Montana State Prison in Deer
Lodge by TransCor, a company recently contracted by the state to transport
inmates. (AP)
June 22, 2004
The U.S. Marshals Service has agreed to pay a higher rate to hold federal
prisoners at the private prison in Shelby, gaining the state about $260,000 a
year, corrections officials said Monday. "We just sat down and
figured out what we were going to do with this issue," said state
Corrections Director Bill Slaughter. "We needed money, and (the U.S.
marshal) needed to keep the (prison) pod alive." For the past year,
the U.S. Marshals Service has been holding an average of 80 prisoners at the
Crossroads Correctional Center south of Shelby. The prison is run by Corrections
Corp. of America, but the state has final say over which prisoners are held at
the facility. A contract between the Marshals Service and the state expired last
month, but Slaughter said he was able to negotiate a new contract at a higher
price. The federal government also agreed to pay the higher rate
retroactively, he added. The federal government will pay $51 per day per inmate,
with $9 of that amount going to the state to help pay off the construction
cost of the prison. CCA built the prison several years ago and the state is in
the process of paying off the construction costs by buying the prison from CCA.
(Tribune Capitol Bureau)
September 21, 2003
The private prison near Shelby has been gaining inmates
and inching toward profitability this summer, but so far hasn't had to accept
inmates from outside Montana, the prison's warden says. "I
don't foresee the need for out-of-state (inmates) at this point in time,"
said Jim McDonald, warden of Crossroads Correctional Center just south of
Shelby. An increase in state inmates and a new
contract to house Montana prisoners in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service
have boosted the Shelby prison's inmate population. The
prison had reduced its staff 40 positions to a low of 115, but is now bringing
staff back on, McDonald said. "We're at
about 125 staffers and are seeking more to employ," he said. Crossroads
is owned and operated by Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), and money-saving
moves by the state last year had dropped the prison's population below the level
CCA considered profitable. That prompted CCA
and Shelby leaders to ask the 2003 Legislature to approve a bill allowing the
private prison to accept federal prisoners and inmates from outside Montana.
The Legislature approved the measure, but CCA has yet to
import inmates to its Shelby facility. "When
the bill passed, we were actively pursuing (out-of-state inmates),"
McDonald said. "Now, we've seen the needs right here in the state continue
to grow." The prison has a maximum
capacity of 512 inmates. Its population late last week stood at 395, including
53 prisoners from the Marshals Service in Montana. CCA
estimates the prison needs 425 inmates to turn a profit, McDonald said.
He said the prison can accept up to 85 prisoners from the
Marshals Service and is budgeted to hold 370 inmates from the state. Under state
law, the two different types of inmates must be kept separate from one another
at the prison. McDonald said there are two main
reasons Shelby is seeking more inmates: more methamphetamine-related arrests and
convictions and increased law enforcement efforts because of new homeland
security measures. "I feel we're going to
reach (the state maximum) in very short order," McDonald said. "It's
just a sad fact that we see that coming. We're here to provide the service for
the state." When prison and Shelby
officials pitched the bill allowing out-of-state inmates, they also said it
might be possible to house federal inmates who had been convicted in Montana and
are being held in federal prison somewhere else in the country. Many
of these federal inmates are from Montana's Indian reservations, and moving them
to Shelby would allow them to be closer to their relatives. But
McDonald said it's unlikely these transfers could happen any time soon.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons classifies its prisoners by
"risk level" rather than geography, and changes in federal law or
policy may be required to transfer inmates according to where they came from, he
said. "The subject hasn't even been
broached with the Bureau of Prisons yet," he said. While
out-of-state inmates aren't part of immediate plans for the Shelby facility,
local officials have talked about whether the prison could be expanded to house
up to 1,000 additional prisoners. The
Crossroads building and site were constructed to be able to expand to a facility
that could house up to 1,500 inmates. Toole
County Commissioner Allan Underdal said local officials have been investigating
what it would take to expand the prison and perhaps take in federal inmates on a
much larger scale. "That's a good
economic-development tool, because with the federal prisoners comes a better pay
scale for those who are working the federal end," he said. "It's
hard to turn down any sort of economic development, even if it's prisoners.
People aren't standing in line to get in Montana to provide jobs, so we have to
pursue them." However, Underdal emphasized
that any expansion would have to be approved by the state -- and any concrete
steps in that direction are in the distant future. "Our
first priority has been to fill the prison we have right now," he said.
"Timing is everything, and I'm not sure if the timing is right right now
(for expansion), or in a couple of years. ... We just like to plan ahead."
Joe Williams, head of the Corrections Department's
Centralized Services Division, points out that state law forbids any expansion
of the private prison without state approval. He
said expansion at the Shelby prison is part of the department's long-range plan,
if prison bed space is needed. "The
Legislature and we know as well ... that when we do expand, we'll be expanding
in Shelby," Williams said. (Great Falls Tribune)
September 2, 2003
A convict who was waiting to be sentenced for killing
another inmate was found hanged in his cell over the holiday weekend, prison
authorities said. Jon LeBeau, 32, was found
early Monday by prison guards during a routine check. Medical personnel were
unable to revive him, and the preliminary ruling was that LeBeau committed
suicide. LeBeau arrived at the Montana State
Prison in 1996, after being convicted of burglary and forgery in Missoula
County. LeBeau broke into the Christian Science Church and stole a boom box and
some checks, which he later forged for more than $800. Earlier
this year he was convicted of killing another inmate, Thomas Rose, 20, with a
12-pound slab of marble. The death of Rose was the first at the private
Crossroads Correctional Center at Shelby. (Great Falls Tribune)
June 4, 2003
Montana's only private prison in Shelby could
be accepting out-of-state prisoners this summer following changes the 2003
Legislature adopted. Crossroads Correctional Center Warden Jim MacDonald
said he hoped prisoners would begin arriving in Shelby by the end of July.
The 2003 Legislature repealed a ban on accepting out-of-state prisoners in an
effort to stop the flow of red ink at Crossroads. MacDonald said the facility
has been losing money since a state budget crisis forced the Department of
Corrections to pull hundreds of inmates out of the private prison.
Department spokesman Joe Williams said the revised rules governing out-of-state
inmates will be a part of a new, two-year contract with Crossroads currently
under negotiation. Williams expects those new rules to require Crossroads, owned
by the Corrections Corp. of America, to provide the department with a list of
inmates the prison wants to bring into the state. Montana officials could then
reject inmates they find unsuitable, because of gang connections or HIV/AIDS,
for example. Crossroads would not be allowed to bring in maximum-security
inmates and all out-of-state inmates would remain separate from Montana
prisoners. Also, Montana prisoners would still be given priority for available
beds in the facility. Williams said he didn't think out-of-state inmates would
cause any problems at Crossroads, which has had "an excellent record so
far." As part of the negotiations, Montana has agreed pay $52.74 a
day for each inmate housed at Crossroads, up from the $50.11 the state was
paying after cutting the daily rate last summer during the budget crunch.
(AP)
May 7, 2003
A District Court judge from Malta is expected to rule on whether to throw out
evidence in the deliberate homicide case against a Shelby inmate, officials
said. District Judge John McKeon heard arguments in a hearing in District
Court in Shelby Tuesday on disallow evidence defense attorneys for Jon LeBeau
argue was unlawfully obtained. LeBeau, 31, pleaded innocent to murdering
20-year-old Thomas Rose Jan. 9 with a leather anvil in the gymnasium at the
Crossroads Correctional Center. The death was the first fatal assault at
the private prison since it opened in September 1999. (Great Falls
Tribune)
April 23, 2003
Shelby's private prison could begin receiving at least a few federal prisoners
within a matter of weeks, but probably won't get enough state and federal
prisoners from outside of Montana to do much rehiring for a few months.
Shelby prison officials already have been working with the U.S. Marshal's office
to bring in one type of federal prison, those who have been convicted but are
awaiting their sentencing and permanent placement. With the bill signed
into law, MacDonald aid he and his parent company will begin seeking contracts
with other state's prison systems and the Bureau of Prisons, for federal
prisoners who have been sentenced. (Great Falls Tribune)
April 22, 2003
Bills allowing out-of-state prisoners at Shelby's private prison, outlining
development of state coal holdings and revising rules for citizen ballot
measures are among the bills Gov. Judy Martz has signed as the Legislature winds
down. The governor has signed 413 bills through April 18, including one to
protect the $25 million, 512-bed prison built in Shelby more than three years
ago by Corrections Corp. of America. Lawmakers and corrections officials
have insisted since the beginning of the session that the Crossroads
Correctional Center needs out-of-state inmates to stay in business. (Great
Falls Tribune)
April 10, 2003
A bill allowing Shelby's private prison to import
out-of-state prisoners was approved by the House in a preliminary vote
Wednesday, moving it one step closer to law. North central
Montana civic leaders and legislators say the change is needed so the prison can
remain open during what's expected to be a temporary lag in its use by state
prisoners. At the urging of sponsor Edith
Clark, R-Sweet Grass, the House voted 63-37 to accept the Senate version that
stripped off two House amendments that Shelby prison supporters disliked.
One stripped amendment would have imposed a three-year
"sunset" on the importing of prisoners. The other would have banned
the importing of federal prisoners. But Rep.
Kathleen Galvin-Halcro, D-Great Falls, said a sunset date would allow the
Legislature to check whether the program to import prisoners is working.
Rep. Steve Gallus, D-Butte, said private prison backers
broke their 1997 promise that Montana would not import prisoners. And
Rep. Paul Clark, D-Trout Creek, said with the expanding trend the Shelby
facility soon will be seeking "international terrorists" as inmates.
"I hope that everything that the supporters were
promising is true," said Scott Crichton, executive director of the Montana
American Civil Liberties Union. "But we still think it is a mistake to use
corrections for economic development, especially if it means expanding private
prisons.' (Tribune Capitol Bureau)
April 4, 2003
The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday approved a bill to let Shelby's private
prison import out-of-state prisoners, after removing House amendments that
prison supporters opposed. The committee voted 8-1 to move House Bill 451
to the Senate floor. "This bill will allow the Corrections
Corporation of America to keep the Shelby prison viable until the state sends
more prisoners there again in the next few years," said Rep. Edith Clark,
R-Sweet Grass, the bill's sponsor. It needs to be able to import out of
state prisoners temporarily because the state Correction Department drastically
cut the number of prisoners it sent to the Shelby prison starting last summer.
Corrections released a few hundred prisoners early because of the state's budget
crunch, but Corrections Director Bill Slaughter expects the prison system to
start filling up again within a couple of years. He supports the bill,
saying if CCA closed the Shelby prison the state would have to pay to ship 300
inmates out of state. The Senate committee accepted two amendments offered by
Clark to reverse action taken by the House Judiciary Committee. They would end a
proposed three-year sunset on the importing of prisoners and a ban on importing
federal prisoners sentenced in other states. (Great Falls Tribune)
February 17, 2003
The private prison at Shelby would be allowed to take prisoners from other
states under legislation endorsed Saturday by the House. House Bill 451,
which lawmakers approved 81-18 in a preliminary vote, would overturn a ban on
out-of-state prisoners at privately owned prisons. Some lawmakers,
however, complained that the Shelby facility was approved on the condition that
it would not import prisoners, a prohibition put into law in 1999. "Here
are two sessions later, and all of the sudden they're changing the rules,"
said Rep. Paul Clark, D-Trout Creek. "It kind of undermines the integrity
of the process for me." (AP)
February 13, 2003
A split House Judiciary Committee voted 12-6 Wednesday to let the private prison
in Shelby bring in out-of-state prisoners to fill empty beds. Even some
supporters had strong reservations about changes in the measure, and the
committee added several tough amendments. The committee added amendments to
exclude bringing in federal prisoners convicted in other states and to require
that out-of-state prisoners be physically separated from Montana prisoners and
be returned to their home states at least three months before they are released.
Shelby officials said the change is needed to keep the Crossroads Correctional
Center open during what's expected to be a temporary drop in state prisoners.
Toole County officials say the $25 million, 512-bed facility has been an
economic boon to the area since Corrections Corporation of America opened it in
1999. Even some committee members who supported the measure expressed strong
reservations about changing policy that allowed private prisons, but banned them
from bringing in prisoners from other states. Rep. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, said
he dislikes private prisons and wishes the state never had gotten into them,
just as he wishes the state never allowed game farms. But, he said the state
needs to allow prison imports to shore up the prison temporarily because it made
a commitment to Toole County and to prison operator CCA. "I think this bill
stinks, but I will hold my nose and vote for it," he said. Committee
Chairman Jim Shockley, R-Victor, said the private prison was approved on the
condition that it not import prisoners. "We got screwed, we got lied to, we
got deceived," Shockley said, who nonetheless voted for the bill. Rep. Brad
Newman, D-Butte, said Montana would get "the worst of the worst"
prisoners. Newman, a prosecutor, said Montana itself "sent some bad
actors" to private prisons in Texas and Tennessee a few years ago. It
doesn't make sense for states to ship out first time offenders convicted of
minor charges who won't be imprisoned long, he added. Rep. Paul Clark, D-Trout
Creek, said the Legislature shouldn't break its commitment to the public to
avoid out-of-state prisoners. CCA took the risk of coming to Montana and
lawmakers shouldn't bail them out, he added. Rep. Steve Gallus, D-Butte, charged
that CCA is using the state's budget crisis, which caused the Corrections
Department to release some prisoners early and reduce the inmate population of
the Shelby prison, as an excuse to expand the Shelby by as many as 1,000 beds to
handle "federal thugs." (Great Falls Tribune)
February 5, 2003
The state's only private prison is losing money and needs to bring in
out-of-state inmates to make ends meet, Corrections Department and prison
officials told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. " Crossroads
Correctional Center is a business," said Allan Underdal, a Toole County
commissioner. "It is no less important to our town than Malmstrom is to
Great Falls or the universities in Missoula and Bozeman ." Rep. Edith
Clark, R-Sweetgrass, has proposed allowing the Shelby private prison to take
out-of-state convicts. Her House Bill 451 would reverse the section of Montana's
1999 private prison law - that Clark helped get on the books - that bars
out-of-state prisoners. "I'm unfortunately older now," said Clark .
"And I'm wiser." Clark and other state and local officials said the
private prison is a safe, important part of the Hi-Line economy and shouldn't be
jeopardized. The 512-bed private prison opened in 1999. At the time, Warden Jim
MacDonald said, the company didn't think it would need out-of-state inmates
because Montana 's prison system was growing fast. It appeared that the Shelby
prison would be full in a matter of months, he said. But last summer, as tough
economic times came to state government, the state started withdrawing prisoners
to cut expenses. Today, the prison has 324 inmates and is about 35 percent
vacant, MacDonald said. The prison is losing money and has had to lay off
employees, he said. "Reducing quality of service and reduced public safety
is not an option," MacDonald said Bill Slaughter, director of the state
Department of Corrections, said the state can't afford to lose the private
prison. Eventually, he said, Montana 's prison population will grow again, and
the state will need a place to house its offenders. Although the bill itself
doesn't mention it, Slaughter said any contract between the state and the
company would have certain safeguards. Montana would get first bids on all open
prison cells. Department officials would be able to screen incoming out-of-state
inmates to make sure they didn't have dangerous diseases or gang connections.
And no out-of-state inmates would be released into Shelby or any other community
in Montana. The prison had its first major problem earlier this month when a
20-year-old inmate serving time for bad checks was beaten to death in the prison
gymnasium by another inmate. Although only one person spoke against the bill, a
recent poll suggests that the overwhelming majority of Montanans do not support
the idea of allowing out-of-state inmates. A Gazette State Poll conducted in
mid-December by a Washington , D.C. , research firm showed that 72 percent of
Montanans rejected the idea. An unofficial poll of Toole County voters in
December showed that 78 percent of county residents support accepting
out-of-state inmates. Betty Whiting, a lobbyist for the Montana Association of
Churches, offered the lone voice of dissent. "We're opposed to private
prisons," she said. "We the people should be more responsible for our
prisoners." (Billings Gazette)
January 29, 2003
A man accused of killing a fellow inmate at the Shelby prison not guilty to
deliberate homicide Tuesday in Toole County District Court. Jon Beau, 31,
is charged with murdering 20-year old Thomas Rose Jan. 9 in the gymnasium at the
Crossroads Correctional Center. (The Tribune)
January 24, 2003
A
legislative budget panel Thursday recommended the state Corrections Department's
2004-05 budget stay as requested by Gov. Judy Martz, rejecting a
"rollback" to 2000 spending levels.
By choosing the budget requested by Martz, the panel's majority rejected
a "rollback" to 2000 spending levels that had been chosen as a
starting point by Republican leaders on the first day of the Legislature.
Going back to 2000 spending levels would mean higher caseloads for an
already overburdened parole officer staff, layoffs at the Montana State Prison,
and the closure of the private prison in Shelby, a Helena prerelease center and
a new treatment program for repeat drunken drivers, he said. (Great Falls
Tribune)
January 22, 2003
Authorities
on Friday released the name of the Crossroads Correctional Center inmate who was
killed in a fight with another prisoner.
The dead inmate was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Joseph Rose II, who
was serving concurrent five-year sentences for writing bad checks and escape,
officials at the private prison said.
Rose was sentenced in Sanders County in the summer of 2001 and had been
transferred to the Shelby prison from the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge on
Dec. 19. Crossroads Warden Jim MacDonald said the name of the second inmate
involved in the Thursday fight has not been released. An investigation into the
incident continues, and charges are pending, he said.
In a written statement, prison officials said Rose died of injuries
sustained in a fight in the prison's gymnasium Thursday afternoon.
State criminal investigators "have what they feel is the
weapon" that the alleged assailant used in the incident, said Cecily
Simons, Crossroads public information officer Friday afternoon.
"It's not a weapon that this inmate had been building or making over
a period of time," Simons noted.
Rose's mother, Penny Rose, of Big Timber told the Tribune Friday evening
that the investigating coroner indicated to her that her son was blindsided by
the other inmate with a board and died from brain damage.
"There was no fight - my son was hit in the back of the head with a
board," Penny Rose said, adding that she was told that her son didn't have
any bruising on his hands.
"Everything came from behind; he didn't get a chance," she said
from the home she shares with her son's father, Thomas Rose Jr., and their
younger daughter, Aleise Rose.
MacDonald said the death was the first fatal assault at the prison since
it opened in September 1999.
Staff at the facility was reduced beginning last fall when the state
started releasing inmates to help make up for a $9 million Corrections
Department budget deficit. The facility was designed for 512 prisoners but had
only 344 inmates Thursday night, the warden said.
Montana Department of Corrections authorities were notified immediately
of the incident and were on site at the Shelby prison Friday to assist the
Department of Justice Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Toole County
Sheriff's Department with the investigation, officials said.
Investigators are expected to release more information Monday.
"I imagine we'll have more stuff pouring in on Monday," Simons
said.
The prison remained in lockdown Friday, and officials said all
visitations and other activities through the weekend were canceled.
"We are allowing the inmates to be out in their day rooms to shower
and kind of move about a little bit but they will not be moving about the
building," Simons said.
Crossroads made more staff members available for the inmates to talk to
if they needed, Simons said.
"Everyone feels terrible that it happened but they, I guess, are processing
and doing their thing," she said. "We haven't had any major issues
come of it."
Described by his mother as being family-oriented and a "real
charmer", Rose enjoyed drawing, making tattoos, playing guitar and
listening to music.
He attended Thompson Falls High School for about two years and received
his GED in the 11th grade. After high school, he lived in various parts of
Montana, including Libby and Helena.
"Everybody who knew him, that really knew him, they really loved
him," Penny Rose said. "He was just a likeable guy. He'd do anything
for you."
Rose, who would have turned 21 Jan. 21, had two young children, Benjamin
Webber, 3, and Elizabeth Rose, 17 months. Whitted Funeral Chapel in Shelby is
handling his funeral arrangements. (Great Falls Tribune)
January 22, 2003
The state's private
prison is losing money every day and may close
if lawmakers don't let the facility take out-of-state inmates, Department of
Corrections officials told lawmakers Tuesday.
"They're hanging on to see what this Legislature does," said
Joe Williams, administrator of the agency's Centralized Services Division after
a hearing of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections and Public Safety.
"They're nip and tuck. This has little to do with keeping (the company)
afloat. But one of the ways they've done that, Williams said, is by pulling
people out of the state's private prison, the Crossroads Correctional Center in
Shelby, run by Corrections Corp. of America. The prison must have 430 inmates to
break even, Williams said. Montana has only 340 prisoners at the prison, and
state law forbids the company from bringing in inmates from out of state.
(Billings Gazette)
January 14, 2003
A man accused of
killing a fellow prison inmate was arraigned Monday in District Court here.
Jon LeBeau, 31, is charged with murdering Thomas Rose, 20, Thursday in
the gymnasium at Crossroads Correctional Center.
Rose "was struck in the head with a wood block," said
Crossroads Warden Jim MacDonald. (Great Falls Tribune)
January 10, 2002
An
inmate at the Crossroads Correctional Center died Thursday after a fight with
another inmate, officials said.
The fight happened at 4:25 p.m. in the gymnasium at the private prison.
Staff at the facility was reduced beginning last fall when the state
started releasing inmates to help make up for a $9 million Corrections
Department budget deficit.
The facility was designed for 500 prisoners but had only 344 inmates as
of Thursday night, the warden said. (Great Falls Tribune)
January 2, 2003
The companies that wanted private prisons in Montana now have exactly what they
wanted: Citizens of the state pitted against each other in a dispute over how we
can imprison even more people in Montana. That much was made clear this week
with release of a public opinion poll finding Montanans opposed, by a margin of
more than three to one, importing inmates from out of state at the private
prison in Shelby. This is directly opposite the findings in another, albeit less
scientific, survey of the Shelby-area's registered voters. In the past couple of
weeks, the 512-bed prison near Shelby housed 340 inmates, down more than 150
from its peak just five months ago. In the face of that, the CCC's corporate
owners have threatened to shut down the facility if they can't keep it closer to
capacity. Already they've laid off 22 of the facility's 140-odd workers and
demoted 12 others. Extortion? That's a little extreme, but we can't say it
wasn't predicted. This will be an all-Montana prison, we were told five years
ago. Hints that it might be something else resulted in a state law, passed in
1999, forbidding importation of prisoners. (Great Falls tribune)
December 30, 2002
Montana voters overwhelmingly reject the idea of bringing out-of-state convicts
to the state's only private prison in Shelby, a new Gazette State Poll shows. By
more than a 3-to-1 margin, a poll of 625 registered Montana voters said they
oppose the notion of bringing out-of-state prisoners to the Crossroads
Correctional Center just outside the Hi-line town of Shelby, seat of Toole
County. Overall, 72 percent of those polled said they opposed the idea, compared
with 21 percent who said they supported it and 7 percent who said they were not
sure. Women rejected the idea slightly more than men, with a full 75 percent
disapproving of out-of-state inmates, compared with 69 percent of men. The
telephone poll was conducted Dec. 17 through Dec. 19 by Mason-Dixon Polling
& Research Inc., a Washington, D.C., pollster. It has a margin of error of
plus or minus 4 percentage points. The statewide results are opposite of those
from an informal survey taken of only Toole County residents earlier in
December. (Billings Gazette)
December 19, 2002
Poll results show that 78 percent of registered voters in Toole county are
pulling for a change in state law that would allow Shelby's private prison to
house out-of-state inmates. The 1999 law forbidding out-of-state inmates
in Montana's private prisons was passed because residents living near the
state's first and only private prison, in Shelby, were uncomfortable with the
notion. With Crossroads Correctional Center struggling to fill its 512-bed
prisons and stay afloat financially some three years later, officials are
exploring options that would require a reversal of that law. "When we
first brought the prison into Toole county, it had been stated that we weren't
going to have out-of-state prisoners, and the law was changed, "Toole
County Commissioner Allan Underdal said Wednesday. With the residents'
approval in hand, local officials will visit with their legislators and work out
the language of the proposed bill. After hearing the results Wednesday,
Rep. Edith J. Clark, R-Sweet Grass, who sponsored the 1999 law, vowed to carry
the proposed legislation in the upcoming session. "We should step up
to the plate and be a partner with them and help them," Clark said.
CCA, Crossroads' out-of-state owner and operator, is a proven partner to the
state and the community and has received national accreditation, she said.
Contracts would require that Montana inmates have priority for bed space, he
said. "The idea is, if there's enough state prisoners and the state
needs the prison space, then the out-of-state prisoners would be shipped
back," Underdal said. The 512-bed prison currently holds 340 inmates,
compared to its peak of 496 in late-July. The subsequent loss of revenue
forced Crossroads to lay off 22 workers, demote 12 others and cut its $4 million
payroll by $500,000. (Great Falls Tribune)
November 27, 2002
Toole County
residents are being asked if they support a proposed change to state law that
would allow out-of-state prisoners to be housed in the private prison in Shelby.
The 1999 law forbids private prisons from doing so, mainly because
Shelby's residents weren't comfortable with the idea when it was proposed in
1998. Crossroads Correctional
Center is the state's first and only private prison. Owned and operated by
Corrections Corp. of America, at its peak there were 490 Montana inmates in the
512-bed prison. Monday, that number was 351.
Officials are looking for other ways to keeping the prison open.
In the first of two public meetings, about 15 prison, state, city and
county officials met with about 80 local residents Monday to discuss the prison.
Another public meeting will be held Tuesday, then Toole County registered
voters will receive a mail-in poll explaining the proposal and seeking their
opinion. The poll must be returned to the courthouse by Dec. 16.
Rep. Edith J. Clark, R-Sweet Grass, sponsored the 1999 law forbidding
out-of-state prisoners. Monday, she
told residents she will carry the proposed legislation if the change fits the
needs of the DOC, CCA and the community. Shelby
resident Ron Munson thanked the Crossroads staff, and said they've done a good
job when it comes to safety. "Nobody's come knocking at my door at three in
morning asking for my car keys," he said.
But Munson said he opposes bringing in out-of-state prisoners because it
would send the wrong message to potential criminals.
"I don't want to see out-of-staters," Munson said. "Then we'll have no room. Montana will be well-known for
no punishment for the crime." (Great Falls Tribune)
October 10, 2002
Officials at the Crossroad Correctional Center laid off 22 employees and demoted
12 others Wednesday to make up for lost revenue caused by the private prison's
declining state inmate population. The cuts represent about $500,000 of the
500-bed center's $4 million payroll budget, and brings the total number of
employees to 119, Warden Jim McDonald said. A $9 million Department of
Corrections budget shortfall is prompting the release of up to 400 low-risk
state inmates across Montana, as well as the elimination or reduction of prison
programs. The Shelby prison, owned and operated by Corrections Corp. of America,
is housing 380 inmates, about 40 fewer than last month, McDonald said. Shelby
officials said they are working hard to find ways to increase the inmate
population so they can bring some of the laid-off workers back. (Great Falls
Tribune)
September 28,
2002
The Martz administration is committed to keeping the private prison in Shelby
open, but the prison could face tough times in the coming months, including
layoffs, Corrections Director Bill Slaughter said Thursday. "That's just
the state we find ourselves in," he said, referring to the state's
withering budget. "(Shelby) is not going to be immune to that. But we do
need that prison available." The Corrections Department plans to cut costs
by releasing 400 convicts from prison within the next month, shifting them to
community-based programs, including parole. "The only way we cannot
(overspend our budget) is to control our contract beds," Slaughter said.
Shelby's Crossroads Correctional Center, which is owned and operated by
Corrections Corp. of America, has been housing about 420 inmates. It can hold as
many as 500. Last week, state corrections officials said they plan to draw down
the population at Shelby to save money. They said a "worst-case
scenario" could leave as few as 50 inmates at the Shelby prison. That
statement prompted CCA officials to say they might shut down the prison if the
population fell below a certain level. "We know and they know there are
going to be some tough times for them the next 24 to 36 months," he said.
However, Slaughter emphasized that the state considers the private prison to be
a key segment of the state's prison system. The state will need the beds in the
future, when it can afford to pay for them, and the Shelby prison has an
excellent record, he said. The state also will be considering other options that
could route more prisoners to Crossroads, such as allowing it to have in-state
inmates that normally would be held in county jails or out-of-state inmates.
(Great Falls Tribune)
September 26,
2002
The Martz administration promised Wednesday that it would do everything in its
power to prevent Shelby's privately owned prison from closing, Shelby Mayor
Larry Bonderud said. Bonderud and other northcentral Montana officials met for
90 minutes at the Capitol with Gov. Judy Martz and other administration
officials to discuss the future of the 500-bed Crossroads Correctional Center,
owned by Corrections Corp. of America. State corrections officials said earlier
this week that they planned to pull state inmates from the Shelby prison, as
part of plans to cut spending. CCA's president reacted by saying Crossroads
might be closed if the state reduces the inmate population much more at Shelby.
But Wednesday, state officials agreed to consider options to keep the Shelby
prison's inmate population at a level that would make it profitable for CCA,
Bonderud said. "They want to sit down with CCA and negotiate a bed number
that keeps (the prison) viable," Bonderud said. Bonderud said corrections
officials also agreed to hold public hearings in Shelby within the next 30 days
to discuss the future of the prison and the option of importing out-of-state
inmates. State officials had warned CCA that the count could reduced to as low
as 50, as the state shuffles inmate populations and releases some prisoners to
address a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. Bonderud said options mentioned
at Wednesday's meeting include: Transferring to Shelby state prison inmates who
are waiting in county jails for placement in the state prison system. The number
of these inmates ranges from 80 to 160 at any given time, Bonderud said.
Transferring to Shelby Montana inmates now being held in federal prisons.
Allowing the CCA-owned prison to accept prisoners from outside Montana, which
would require a change in state law. Bonderud noted that privately owned prisons
are the only prison facilities in the state that cannot accept inmates from
outside the state. Also at Wednesday's meeting were state Sens. Glenn Roush of
Cut Bank and Pete Ekegren of Choteau, state Rep. Edith Clark, R-Sweet Grass, and
Toole County Commissioner Allan Underdal. (Great Falls Tribune)
September 25,
2002
The company running the private prison at Shelby has warned it may have to close
its doors if too many inmates are removed, but state corrections officials said
Tuesday they have little choice in dealing with a money shortage.
"It's not out intent to empty Shelby," said Joe Williams, head of
centralized services for the Department of Corrections. However, he said,
the agency must take some of the 416 inmates from the Crossroads Correctional
Center as a part of its effort to reduce the number of prisoners behind bars and
save money. Room and board at the Shelby prison is more expensive than the
state can afford and inmates will be drawn from there as the department
continues with its plan to release about 400 inmates into community programs by
the end of October, Williams said. His comments came a day after John
Ferguson, president and chief executive officer for CCA, sounded alarms with
Gov. Judy Martz over the loss of more inmates from his company's prison.
The facility night have to close if the population drops below 380 inmates, he
told the governor in a meeting at the Capitol. Although the state has
never guaranteed how many inmates would be sent to the 500-bed prison, Ferguson
said, the company built it with an understanding the state would make greater
use of it than it has. "We're getting to the point where we have to
decide whether to mothball it," he said. Leslie Hafner, company
spokeswoman, said state corrections officials have warned the company that the
Shelby prison could end up with as few as 50 inmates. The population has
hovered around 420, although it was as high as 492 at one point, she said.
Martz said she shared Ferguson's concerns about the continued operation of the
prison. "We need to figure out some way to keep you viable," she
said. "We need to keep you here." Williams agreed and that
is why the administration is considering asking the 2003 Legislature for a law
change that would allow out-of-state inmates to be housed at Shelby so the
prison can operate in the black. Williams said about $6.7 million of the
department's money shortage is caused by having more inmates than was expected
when the budget was approved last year. Mike Mahoney, warden at the
Montana State Prison, said Corrections Corp. was told a worst-case scenario
would be only 50 inmates left at Crossroads. He said the state has
guaranteed to use half the capacity at the three regional prisons and has to
live up to that promise. But, he said, the state made no such guarantee to
CCA. (Great Falls Tribune)
September 13,
2002
Private prison bait-switch a sign of things to come? With legislators in
Helena for a few hours this afternoon, we'd like to call their attention to the
kind of issues they're going to be facing in four short months. This past
week, the head of the agency responsible for the state's prisoners announced
that he wants to import inmates form out of state to the private prison in
Shelby. Never mind that the 512-bed Crossroads Correctional Center in
Toole County, was allowed to open three years ago on condition that it not house
inmates at a private prison in Montana. Corrections officials say a bill
will be proposed in the 2003 legislative session to repeal the ban. We
hope legislators - and voters - remember what was promised at the outset of the
state's adventure in private penology. Now that the north central Montana
economy is hooked on having the private facility in operation, the time is ripe
for the old bait-and-switch. It's reality because the state's income is
lagging behind its outgo. That means turning loose about 450 inmates.
We won't even get into the propriety of privatizing basic state functions such
as corrections. That argument was lost about five years ago. The
larger point today is that this is just one problem in one department.
(Great Falls Tribune)
July 10, 2002
Squeezed between a swell of new prisoners and a shrinking budget, the state
Department of Corrections estimates it will have to release more than one
prisoner a day- or not imprison new inmates- over the next year to stay within
its budget. This spring as the state faced down a multimillion dollar
budget shortfall, the department, along with other state agencies, voluntarily
cut about 3 percent of its budget. Those cuts went into effect last week
and included shaving $2.63 per prisoner, per day from the fee the department
pays to the state's private prison in Shelby. (Billings Gazette)
June 13, 2002
The state Corrections Department is lowering the daily reimbursement to regional
and private prisons for housing state inmates, which will mean fewer
rehabilitation and education programs for some inmates. The state also is
reducing payments to the privately owned and operated Crossroads Correctional
Center in Shelby, which houses nearly 500 inmates. Jim MacDonald,
Crossroads warden, said it will be easier for the Shelby prison to absorb the
cuts because it has 500 inmates instead of the 150 housed at a regional jail.
The Shelby prison will continue to meet its contractual obligations to provide
certain education and treatment programs for inmates, he said. (Billings
Gazette)
June 11, 2002
The Corrections Department is cutting payments to regional and private prisons
that house state inmates, and that means fewer programs for some inmates, law
and correctional officials said Monday. The state is also reducing
payments to the privately owned and operated Crossroads Correctional Center in
Shelby. It houses nearly 500 inmates. Corrections officials said the
payment cuts should save the state about $878,000 over the next year. Jim
MacDonald, Crossroads warden, said it will be easier for his prison to absorb
the cut in state payments because it has 500 inmates instead of the 150 housed
at the regional jail. The Shelby prison will continue to meet its
contractual obligations to provide certain education and treatment programs for
inmates, he said Monday. It won't offer an education class it had been
trying to fill, but otherwise won't reduce programs for inmates, MacDonald said.
(Great Fall Tribune)
March 12, 2002
Sixty-five Montana convicts have sued the state over its prison system, charging
that it's illegal to hold them in regional and private prisons and demanding
that they be returned to the main state prison in Deer Lodge to serve their
time. The inmates say that at regional prisons and a private facility,
they don't get adequate required treatment, training or medical care - programs
long established at the Deer Lodge facility. (Gazette State Bureau)
November 30, 1999
A dispute over prison policies regarding televisions escalated into a riot
involving 49 inmates. The incident was brought under control quickly with the
use of tear gas. Damages were limited.
Montana Legislature
February 13, 2008 Billings Gazette
As told by state and Hardin officials Tuesday, the history behind Hardin's
empty, 464-bed prison hinges on one enormous - and expensive - misunderstanding.
Officials from the south-central Montana town and its economic development arm,
Two Rivers Authority, told the state Corrections Advisory Council that they had
a gentlemen's agreement with Montana to house state inmates at the privately run
prison. But Bill Slaughter, former state corrections director, current agency
officials and lawmakers on the council said they never had such an agreement and
never envisioned the prison as part of the state's correctional system. "We
didn't sign any contracts with this group; there are no e-mails or promises,"
Slaughter said. "I don't know what to tell you. I was actually surprised they
were under construction." The council, headed by Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger and
composed of lawmakers and others with interests in Montana's criminal justice
system, acts only as an advisory group to the Department of Corrections. The
committee does not have the authority to change state law or approve prison
contracts with Two Rivers. Hardin city officials worked with a Texas consortium
to build and finance the $27 million prison. It was completed this summer and
promoted as a way to bring 100 new jobs to the economically depressed town at
the edge of the Crow Indian Reservation. The prison needs about 250 inmates to
make enough money to open its doors and begin to repay the millions needed to
build it, Hardin officials said. Michael Harling, one of the Texas financers of
the project, said in an interview after the meeting that the financing package
includes enough money for the prison to sit empty until May 2009. After that,
the prison would be nearing a financial crisis. But by not repaying its bonds
until then, the prison would technically be in default on its debt. State and
federal officials have said they don't need any of the prison's 464 beds, and
state law forbids the prison from housing out-of-state prisoners, according to a
recent opinion by Attorney General Mike McGrath. The Two Rivers Authority and
the city of Hardin have since sued the state, asking a Helena judge to throw out
McGrath's opinion. The city-owned prison was built without a single contract,
Hardin City Attorney Rebecca Convery told the committee, because they were told
the state wouldn't enter into contracts with a prison that wasn't yet built.
Paul Green, a Hardin businessman who worked at the city's economic development
branch several years ago when the prison was in the planning stage, said he met
with Slaughter then and walked away feeling that the state would fill the prison
if the city built it. "While there is a need, (Slaughter) said they can't sign a
contract with a facility that isn't built yet," Green said. But Slaughter and
Diane Koch, a Corrections Department lawyer, said the only way the state ever
contemplated using the prison was to temporarily house local felons after they'd
been convicted and were on their way to other state facilities. The state has
contracts with every county jail in Montana to hold felons until the state has
room for them elsewhere. "It would be maybe five or 10 inmates," Koch said, "not
enough to fill a 464-bed facility." Sen. Trudi Schmidt, D-Great Falls, a member
of the advisory council, sits on the eight-member panel that helps draft the
Department of Corrections budget. She asked Two Rivers and Hardin officials why
they didn't come to the panel's meetings in 2005 when lawmakers were crafting
the agency's two-year budget. "I guess I'm wondering why the city of Hardin
never knew what was going on in the Legislature," she said. Schmidt and others
also questioned just what kind of detention center the Hardin prison is. Montana
has one private prison in Shelby that houses mostly state inmates, under a
contract with the state. The state also has contracts to house inmates at
regional prisons in Glendive and Great Falls. Those prisons were built and owned
by the counties and function as county jails. The Hardin prison is not a purely
private prison like the Shelby facility, nor is it the Big Horn County jail,
said Greg Smith, executive director of the Two Rivers Authority. The county does
not support the prison, he said in an interview after the meeting. Convery told
the panel that the prison is city-owned but will be privately run by a
for-profit company for at least the next two years. That would make it the only
entity of its kind in the state. The authority sought out-of-state inmates after
state and federal officials said they didn't need the space.
December 4, 2007 Billings Gazette
The attorney general's opinion issued Monday may leave Hardin prison investors
empty-handed, but a loss won't happen overnight, the lead investment banker on
the project said. The $27 million that paid for the construction and startup
costs of the facility was issued in revenue bonds. The bond holders, or owners,
are some of the largest institutional bond funds in the U.S. that manage
billions of dollars, said Michael Harling, executive vice president of Municipal
Capital Markets group Inc., the Texas firm that underwrote the project. The
investment firm set up the transaction to secure the private activity bonds. The
bonds are tax-free because the issuer is a governmental entity - Two Rivers
Authority, the economic development arm of the city of Hardin. And because they
are repaid through revenue generated by the project, the bond holders are the
ones on the hook if no money comes in. Regardless of whether the prison ever
opens, the next interest payment, of $960,012, is due May 1. The first principal
payment of $615,000 and an interest payment of $960,012 are due Nov. 1, 2008.
Nearly $2 million in interest has already been paid on the bonds. A debt service
reserve fund - about $2.6 million - was set aside from the original funding.
That money can be used if the facility doesn't have revenue to makes payments.
However, using the fund causes difficulties. "The problem is, once that reserve
fund is tapped, it becomes an event of default," Harling said. "(A default)
casts a sort of pallor over it in the financial world. That isn't great, and we
don't want that." The funding includes about $19 million for construction that
has been paid to the designer and builder, Hale-Mills Construction of Houston.
Harling figures the facility would have to open with about 250 prisoners by
around March to have revenue flowing in time for the May 1 payment. Two Rivers
Authority has one contract in the works with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but
it is still being completed. The contract isn't for enough prisoners to make
opening the facility feasible. In the bond project's official statement,
potential owners were warned of the risk of funding the Hardin project without
contracts that secured revenue. According to the feasibility study commissioned
by the underwriters and released in January 2006, Two Rivers had no assurance
that it would get enough contracts, or a guaranteed number of inmates, to make
its payments on the bonds. Also, the "primary market focus" was the Montana
Department of Corrections and was based on the assumption that Two Rivers would
be awarded at least one publicly bid contract, according to the study. Harling
said it was a reasonable risk because studies showed that state and federal
agencies needed prison space and the Corrections Department "indicated but
didn't guarantee it would utilize the facility," he said. That indication
apparently changed between 2005 development meetings, which Harling said
Corrections officials attended, the April 2006 issuance of bonds, groundbreaking
that June and construction completion this summer. He blames the problem on the
state of Montana and the Corrections Department. The state's refusal to allow
Two Rivers to contract with other states, specifically Wyoming, to take
prisoners led to Hardin's asking for an attorney general's opinion. That opinion
was issued Monday and affirmed that the facility can't take out-of-state
inmates. "We bought into the risk of there's sufficient inmates, because they
are out here," Harling said. "But for somebody to, as far as I'm concerned,
change the rules once we get open, is just wrong. "Or, somebody should have said
in 2005, 'By the way, it's not legal to do what you want to do,' " he said. "You
can't just stick your head in the sand after you said, 'We really like the idea
and it's a good project,' and then two years later say, 'We say it's not legal
any more.' " The two attorneys listed in the bond project's official statement
were not available for comment. Investment was a risk, study reported -- Bond
holders took a risk by funding the Hardin prison project without contracts that
secured revenue, according to a feasibility study commissioned by the
underwriters. The study by Howard Geisler, of GSA, Ltd. based in North Carolina
was completed in January 2006. Here are some of the project's "potential
obstacles to project success," from the study: • No assurances that Two Rivers
Authority would enter contracts or that any contract would yield enough money to
meet financial obligations; • TRA had no contractual guarantee that any specific
number of detainees would be held for any defined period; • TRA had no
contractual guarantee that Montana Department of Corrections would not build
more space or that other detention facilities would not be built to "service the
target market," and that the state of Montana was the primary market focus,
based on the assumption that TRA would be awarded one more publicly bid
contracts. It further states that future economic conditions, legislative change
and government policy could change the numbers of persons for which the state is
responsible or has the fiscal resources to house," the study states. "Several
federal agencies are viewed as potential users and their use level will be
dictated by government policy and budget allocations." "The factors listed above
define potentially significant risks to potential purchasers of the bonds, and
the vast majority of them are linked to influences over which the Authority (TRA)
has no meaningful degree of control," the study states. Here are the "factors
mitigating the potential obstacles" listed in the study: • The U.S. Marshals
Service uses local detention facilities across the country to house prisoners
and the Montana District needed beds. • The DOC had publicly stated that it
might need to send prisoners out-of-state because of the space crunch and was
looking for non- profit groups to build and operate specialized treatment
facilities. The total contracted bed capacity at the time was 376. • The center
is located near Billings, where the Marshals Service holds people who are
appearing in federal court. "In addition, the population concentration in the
Billings area produces a significant impact on the (DOC) with a large number of
individuals in its custody being from the area," the study states. Also, the DOC
was soliciting offers to build a methamphetamine treatment center. "The Billings
area, and particularly the nearby reservations represent a significant source of
individuals charged with offenses related to possession of this drug," it
states. • There are seven Indian reservations in Montana "Nationally, tribal
jails are in general in deplorable conditions and are typically overcrowded,"
the study states. "Native Americans also represent a significant percentage of
the (DOC) population while many Native Americans convicted of federal crimes are
housed in Federal facilities throughout the United States. To that end the
proposed center offers a resource to relieve pressures on the tribes and (DOC)
as well as to return incarcerated individuals nearing completion of their
sentences to a location nearer their home where visitations by family are
possible."
December 3, 2007 AP
The Montana attorney general issued an opinion Monday saying county jails can’t
sign contracts to house out-of-state prisoners, dealing a heavy blow to a new
$20 million detention facility in Hardin. In an opinion issued Monday, Mike
McGrath said the Legislature never envisioned that county detention centers
would be used for the long-term confinement of out-of-state or federal felons.
McGrath said such a move would transform county jails, feasibly filling them
with out-of-state inmates so they are no longer available for placement of
Montana offenders, McGrath’s opinion said. The opinion was requested by the city
of Hardin, which is operating the 464-bed Two Rivers Detention Center with the
city of Lodge Grass. The new detention center, completed this summer, has been
unable to open because it does not have contracts for the 250 inmates needed to
make opening the jail economically feasible. Studies as late as November 2005
showed that such a detention facility could easily be filled with state and
federal prisoners, said James Klessens, director of Two Rivers Authority, which
is Hardin’s economic development arm. But since then, state prison overcrowding
has subsided because some inmates are being diverted to prerelease centers and
addiction treatment and the U.S. Marshal’s Service has contracted with
Crossroads Correctional Facility in Shelby to add beds there. It had sought to
contract with the Office of Federal Detention Trustee in Washington, D.C., which
oversees contracts and funding for all federal prisoners, and the Wyoming
Marshal’s Service, Klessens said. McGrath’s opinion has the force of law unless
a court overturns it or the Legislature modifies the laws involved. CiviGenics,
a private company based in Massachusetts has contracted to operate the jail for
two years. Payments on $27 million in revenue bonds sold for the project are to
begin next year.
October 13, 2007 Billings Gazette
Forty percent of the money raised this year by Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer
for his 2008 re-election campaign came from non-Montanans, including slightly
more than half of the $175,700 he raised in the past three months, an analysis
by the state Republican Party shows. Schweitzer's sizeable chunk of cash from
out-of-state donors this year - $281,000 of the approximately $684,000 he has
received from all contributors - prompted criticism from the GOP on Friday. "The
governor has spent the last three years courting wealthy Democrat elites from
all around the country," said Erik Iverson, chairman of the state Republican
Party. "We've got a governor who puts self-promotion and campaign fundraising
ahead of doing what's right for Montana." A spokesman for the state Democratic
Party said the GOP analysis conveniently omitted some key facts: That Schweitzer
had 1,333 in-state donors the past three months, or more than in any other
quarter this year, and that he has taken no money from political-action
committees. "These are small-dollar donors from all across the state who
recognize that Montana is on the move," said Harper Lawson. "They want to make
sure it stays that way. Their backing is a sign of enormous grass-roots support
for Governor Schweitzer." Lawson noted that 84 percent of the donors to the
governor's campaign are Montanans. Schweitzer, who's running for a second
four-year term as governor next year, has no opponent so far, from any political
party. He has been raising money for his re-election campaign since last year.
Nonresidents contributing to statewide campaigns in Montana is not unusual,
particularly when it involves candidates for Congress. Relatively large amounts
of out-of-state money going to gubernatorial candidates, however, is not as
common. Schweitzer has traveled out of state many times during his nearly three
years as governor, to attend political events, fundraisers, conferences and
speaking engagements. He's also the finance chairman of the Democratic Governors
Association, a job that has taken him out of state for fundraising and political
strategizing events. He went to the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Ky., this
spring for a Democratic Governors Association meeting. Here's a summary of
information from the GOP analysis of Schweitzer's fundraising: • Of Schweitzer's
$684,000 raised this year, about 59 percent came from Montanans, while the
remainder came from nonresidents. • Nonresident donors tended to give larger
amounts, averaging $420 per donation. The maximum allowed gift from any one
donor is $500 per election cycle. Money from Montana residents averaged $118 per
donation. • About one of every six donations, or 16 percent, came from a
nonresident. • In the past three months, Schweitzer had donors from 26 states
other than Montana. Behind Montana, the states providing the most money for his
campaign were California, Washington, Colorado, Tennessee and Texas. The
Republican Party also provided a list of the more than 200 nonresident
individuals who donated to Schweitzer in the past three months, culled from
campaign finance records. They include utility executives, health insurance
executives, radio personality Casey Kasem of Los Angeles, college professors,
executives from Qwest and Verizon telephone companies, physicians, numerous
attorneys and several executives from Corrections Corp. of America, the
Tennessee private-prison firm that owns a facility near Shelby.
October 5, 2007 AP
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, so far unopposed for re-election, continues to sock away
campaign money in case a challenger steps forward. Schweitzer reported raising
$175,000 this quarter, for a total of more than $750,000 this election cycle.
The Democrat reported having just over $452,000 in the bank. A Republican who
stepped into the race would start in a big campaign fundraising hole. The GOP
remains undaunted, however, saying a Republican candidate could catch up. The
governor says 84% of the campaign's more than 5,000 contributions came from
Montanans. The average donation was just over $140. A number of the largest
donations came from out-of-state donors in states ranging from New York to
California. Executives with companies such as Corrections Corporation of
America, which runs a private prison in Montana, and United Healthcare were
among the donors giving the maximum $500 allowed by Montana campaign finance
law. Schweitzer, a Democrat, has vowed he will not take money from political
action committees.
March 3, 2006 KPAX
Attorney General Mike McGrath says the state does not need to undergo
privatization review, before awarding a contract for a privately run
methamphetamine treatment prison. The M-E-A--M-F-T, a union representing many
state employees, argued the meth facility duplicates drug treatment programs
already administered by the state, and is subject to a review for privatizing
those services. The Department of Corrections argued the treatment prison is a
new program, was not replacing services already offered, and thus was not
subject to the review. Today's opinion by the attorney general supports that
view. Corrections spokesman Bob Anez says a privatization review would have set
back department plans to award a contract for the private treatment prison in
mid-March. He says the agency now remains on schedule to have it open next year.
November 17, 2005 Independent Record
A proposal to expand a privately run prison in Shelby to relieve overcrowding
was panned Wednesday by a number of lawmakers who said they could not support
further privatization of the state's prison system. A similar idea was floated
during the 2005 Legislature as one of several options to deal with the state's
rapidly rising inmate population, but was passed over by a corrections
subcommittee. Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America, which runs the
512-bed Shelby prison, said it could complete the expansion in about a year,
although it would need a license from the state to fill the facility. No cost
has yet been calculated, said Tony Grande, vice president of state customer
relations. Several council members, who are appointed by the governor, said they
could not support such a proposal and advocated for expansion in other areas,
such as community corrections and minimum security facilities, to ease
overcrowding. ''I think we need to look at other options and where we want to
have more people and the fact that we have so many prisoners who are not violent
offenders,'' Rep. Gail Gutsche, D-Missoula, said. Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor,
said ''we need more less-secure facilities at a cheaper price'' and suggested
exploring development of a 36,000-acre ranch used by inmates at the prison in
Deer Lodge before expanding private operations.
August 5, 2005 Billings Gazette
Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer's office ended up with about $96,000 left over
after paying bills from the winter ball celebrating his inauguration, according
to a report released Friday and promptly criticized by the Montana Republican
Party. Corporate donations provided most of the nearly $365,000 available for
the Helena ball, held Feb. 12 at a cost of some $268,000. At
the next level, $10,000, donors were Fast Enterprises, which sells computer
software to revenue departments; Washington Corps, the conglomerate with
Missoula industrialist Dennis Washington at the helm; the Missoula law firm of
Datsopoulous, MacDonald & Lind; energy companies NorthWestern and
Pennsylvania Power & Light; BNSF Railway; prison operator Corrections
Corporation of America; Plum Creek Marketing Inc., affiliated with Plum Creek
Timber Co.; petroleum company Encore Operating LP; Bresnan Communications; and
the Westmoreland and Kennecott coal companies.
April 17, 2003
Political promises never are ironclad - Thursday,
April 17, 2003 SUMMARY: No out-of-state
inmates? Well, they really meant it at the time. Now sitting on the
governor's desk is a bill that accomplishes two things, one of which is useful.
House Bill 451 will effectively repeal the law barring the private prison in
Shelby from filling its cells with inmates imported from other states. That's
not the useful part. Quite unintentionally, this bill also gives Montanans
a helpful way to know which promises politicians can be trusted to keep. That
part will come in handy. If you've followed this issue, you know that
out-of-state inmates were the make-or-break issue when the Legislature approved
construction of the state's first private, for-profit prison. Montanans weren't
altogether comfortable with the idea of prison as a business, but it was offered
as an economical way to expand prison capacity. Awful experiences at private
prisons elsewhere in the country had convinced Montanans that this should not
become the last, best dumping ground for other states' riffraff. So,
lawmakers approved the prison, but made a big deal about promising it would be
used exclusively for Montana inmates - no out-of-state criminals, ever. This was
fine with the company building the prison, Corrections Corp. of America; it said
it didn't need or want to import inmates. When questions arose later about the
strength of the prohibition written into the law, the Legislature rewrote the
inmate-import ban in 1999 to make it ironclad. Well, not really. In the
end, there's no such thing as an ironclad promise from a politician. For one
thing, politics is all about expediency. Think situational ethics on a massive
scale. For another, future Legislatures and governors aren't legally bound to
honor the promises of their predecessors. Today, it's convenient for the
state officials, who also once promised to crack down on crime, to set prison
inmates free. It's cheaper than keeping them locked up. Early release frees up
cells in Deer Lodge, meaning the state farms out fewer inmates to the private
prison in Shelby, cutting the private prison's revenues. Suddenly, the desire to
keep the private prison in business outweighs promises made to you. Never mind
the fact that the reason we went along with the private prison in the first
place is that we needed more cells in which to lock up the kind of criminals
we're now setting free. Of the very best, most honorable politicians, you
can trust that they believe what they say when they say it. But don't bank on
their promises in the long-run. HB451 is proof that you can't. (Missoulian)
September 20, 2002
About 60 convicts have left prison since July as part of a state Department of
Corrections plan to cut costs by releasing prisoners, a department official
said. The department hopes to free 150 convicts by the end of this month
and up to 400 by the end of October. (Gazette State Bureau)
September 9, 2002
Corrections officials said Monday they will ask the 2003 Legislature to allow
the state's only private prison near Shelby to take prisoners from other states
in order to remain profitable. The request would require lawmakers to repeal the
state's ban on housing out-of-state inmates at any private prison in Montana.
That restriction was a condition demanded by the previous administration when
the 1997 Legislature first authorized private prisons in the state. "It's
not something I want to see happen, but I think it's a reality," Bill
Slaughter, director of the Department of Corrections, told the Legislature's
Interim Law and Justice Committee. Corrections officials said the legislation
would be brought by either the department or requested on behalf of Corrections
Corp. of America, the company that operates the Crossroads Correctional Center
in Shelby. Some members of the committee seemed skeptical and surprised the
proposition. "I think people in north-central Montana will have a lot to
say about it," said Senate Minority Leader Steve Doherty, D-Great Falls.
"Did we tell CCA that we were going to ensure they remain profitable?"
But Slaughter warned that if Crossroads loses a significant number of state
prisoners, it would have trouble making a profit. "Can we afford to let a
private entity like CCA go belly-up, and then need them a few months down the
road?" Slaughter said. "I'm not doing it for CCA," Slaughter
said. "I'm doing it for Montana." Slaughter acknowledged the proposal
will be controversial. In 1999, the Legislature passed a bill closing what it
said was a loophole that would have allowed Crossroads to house federal
prisoners from other states. (AP)
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