Lincoln County, Nevada
Western Correction
June
25, 2000 The Independent
The scramble in the US for the rich rewards to be made out of the private
prison sector is leaving a trail of individual investors feeling as if their
pockets have been picked. Many prisons stand empty, with private investors
holding worthless bonds - a salient warning for those on this side of the
Atlantic who are advocating greater involvement by the private sector in our
penal system. The scramble in the US for the rich rewards to be made out of the
private prison sector is leaving a trail of individual investors feeling as
if their pockets have been picked. Many prisons stand empty, with private
investors holding worthless bonds - a salient warning for those on this side
of the Atlantic who are advocating greater involvement by the private sector
in our penal system. The demand for more space is far outpacing the building
of new US jails, so a for-profit prison looked like a sure thing for many New
York investors. But, after similar scandals in Florida and Texas, the
problems of a small prison in Nevada are shaking investors' confidence and
raising questions about whether profit can be made from felons. The investors
eagerly snapped up the tax-free municipal bonds in the billion-dollar
rent-a-bed prison business that swept the tumbleweeds of rural America in the
1990s. Buoyed up with the initial excitement and 90 per cent returns offered
in the shady rent-a-bed prisons, Lincoln County in Nevada set to work on a
plan sold it by Western Correction, an Albuquerque, New Mexico, agent that
promotes the idea of private prisons. The plan had been proven, it heard, in
other states, and Lincoln County was eager to jump on the
prisoners-for-profit bandwagon. Building conglomerates grew up in the feeding
frenzy. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is developing some 82 jails
with 73,000 beds in the US, the UK and Canada, and has 55 per cent of the
global private prison market. But as new technology takes over real estate as
the stock of choice in the high stakes poker game on Wall Street, prison
privatisation is taking a drubbing. Last month CCA helped remove Robert
Crant, the CEO of Prison Realty Trust (PRT) - which CCA now controls - when
PRT stock dived and PRT stopped paying dividends. Lincoln County hired a
private equity company, Juran & Moody, to issue $3.5m in tax-free bonds
for a 64-bed jail. Investors were offered the security of the lease of the
land where the prison stood. Prisoners could be traded for $30 to $50 each
and if the experiment worked, it would be expanded using prisoners from other
parts of Nevada and eventually other US states. Charles Thomas, who developed
the University of Florida's Private Prisons Project, funded by corporate
donations from the private prison sector, said: "For whatever good, bad,
or indifferent reason, there've been other privately financed facilities that
couldn't make a go of it, and so some who've invested in [them] have lost
some significant money." In Lincoln the numbers looked great and the
county paid a hefty fee in tax dollars to Juran & Moody. At $40 a
prisoner the jail would turn over a $1m a year. For the small Nevada county
whose population of 5,000 is scattered over 10,000 square miles, including a
nuclear weapons testing range, this was a windfall - and it took the bait.
The then county commissioner Ed Wright told the town hall that the profits
would go to build new sewage plants and schools. They then set about spending
most of the bondholders' money paying Salt Lake City's Layton Construction,
the state's top engineer, to build it. The prison gates opened in 1994.
Today, six years later, it still lies empty, the wind whistling through the
razor wire, tumbleweed pinioned on the chain link fence. And in an ironic
twist of fate the new county commissioner, Floyd Lamb, a former state senator
who's spent time in a federal prison for blackmail, refused to send inmates
and defaulted on the lease. Local Sheriff Dahl Bradfield was installed in the
prison with his men but they promptly left the place empty. Bondholders were
told they could have the jail back. In private hands the prison was subject
to property taxes and the bondholders still hadn't seen any return on their
investment. A for-sale sign was hammered on the door. Juran & Moody
liquidated itself and the remains of the bond transaction lie hidden in a
trust set up before the company died. If the sale goes through, "The
bondholders would be able to offset their losses against gains they made in
private equities," says Ted Brownell, a manager with the firm that
acquired Juran & Moody's assets, including the prison. That's if they
have any equities. The bondholders had watched their 1992 investment shrink
to nothing today. And Lincoln County is paying to house prisoners in jails
across the state. "That's rural small-town politics," says a former
county commissioner. The bondholders have been given a reprieve until
September to come up with back taxes before forfeiture proceedings begin.
Spring Past, a California real estate investment firm specialising in distressed
properties, offered to take the facility off their hands for $500,000. That,
after the initial investment, missed interest payments and back taxes, would
have been 10 cents on the dollar for investors. That offer was withdrawn when
Spring Past couldn't find a private firm to operate the jail. For now,
bondholders, mostly individual investors from New York, are holding paper
that's never paid a penny. It seems their best hope is for the county to buy
the jail. The county commission has discussed offering £500,000, if it can
come up with the financing - now a mute point. Dissatisfaction with the
for-profit prison spread to neighbouring Phoenix, where the construction of a
private jail was cancelled this month after the local community's protests
reached federal government, which put a stop to the project. "When it
doesn't work, the core problem tends to be that the established for-profit
prison sector isn't involved at all and that those who are - investment
bankers, real estate developers - simply don't know much about jails,"
said Dr Thomas. A point worth thinking about, perhaps, for those desperate to
bring private equity into Britain's creaking prison service.
Nevada
Legislature
September
21, 2008 Las Vegas Sun
Some state lawmakers plan to push to end local governments’ hiring of
lobbyists to represent them at the Legislature, but the Clark County
Commission last week agreed to negotiate a contract with R&R Partners to
lobby on behalf of University Medical Center. Is there a particular lobbyist
who will be working on the UMC account? Yes, a former assemblyman, Jim
Spinello. He has a long history in state politics. The year after he lost a
bid for secretary of state in November 1990, he became assistant general manager
of the State Industrial Insurance System. Last year, he was appointed
chairman of a 60-member committee, Nevada Educators for Edwards, established
by then-presidential candidate John Edwards. Didn’t the county select someone
else for the lobbying job recently? The county’s choice of R&R represents
quite a change from its previous choice of J3, the lobbying firm of Robert
Uithoven, a longtime Republican who withdrew his name from consideration in
August. Democrats dominate the commission 5-2, with Rory Reid, son of the
U.S. Senate majority leader, serving as chairman. Uithoven’s being considered
for the job drew many questions. Not only has Uithoven worked on behalf of
Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons, he argued last summer that the casino industry
should be able to obtain refunds for up to $150 million in state taxes that
casinos paid on comped meals. How much is the R&R contract for? The
amount is to be negotiated before being brought to the commission for final
approval. Who else does R&R represent? Perhaps the better question is:
Who doesn’t it represent? During the 2007 session, lobbyists for the firm
represented myriad businesses and industries including the Andre Agassi
Foundation, the Corrections Corp. of America, the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute,
Medic West, Las Vegas Monorail, the Nevada Cancer Institute, the Nevada
Mining Association, the Nevada Resort Association, Opportunity Village,
Planned Parenthood, the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association and US
Airways.
Pahrump,
Nevada
CCA
December
21, 2011 Pahrump Valley Times
Nye County Public Works Director Dave Fanning expected to be able to go to
contract on repairing Blagg Road by the end of this year or the start of
2012; that date has now been extended to March 1, 2012. “We had a few things
to address legally with the utility company that have actually come to light.
We’ve done that,” Fanning told the Board of Road Commissioners Tuesday. The
road commission is made up of county commissioners. Fanning said he obtained
written permission in mid-November from a group that originally drew up plans
for that job site. Fanning told Commissioner Butch Borasky he hoped to go out
for bids the second or third week of January. It then has to go through the
district attorney’s office for review and go to the county purchasing
department. Commissioners approved a $25,000 work order with Pezonella
Associates Inc. Tuesday to perform geotechnical forensic testing of the sewer
line trench for the entire section installed by Corrections Corporation of
America along Mesquite Road, Blagg Road, Wilson Road and Big Five Road.
Pezonella Associates was already paid $125,000 by county commissioners to
prepare a report on who is at fault for the sinkholes that opened up on Blagg
Road after heavy rain last December and the collapse of two sewer lift
stations.
September
20, 2010 KLAS TV
There will be dozens more looking for work in North Las Vegas after the city
hands out layoff notices. Forty-two detention center employees and
corrections officers are being cut after the city lost a large contract. The
North Las Vegas Detention Center will see 300 of its 800 inmates transferred
to a brand new privately-run jail in Pahrump. The U.S. Marshals Service says
the Pahrump facility met their future expansion needs better, leaving North
Las Vegas without federal money to pay for local jobs. "The reduction in
population at the jail will result in about $9.7 million annually for that
facility," said North Las Vegas officer Chrissie Coon. "We're
actually looking at layoff notifications going out to 19 corrections officers
and 23 civilian personnel."
April
30, 2010 Pahrump Valley Times
While Corrections Corporation of America is close to opening an $80 million
federal detention center in Pahrump, the company chose an early termination
of their contract to operate the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center
in North Las Vegas in 2004 due to the high cost of medical care. The Nevada
Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, scheduled to begin accepting inmates in
October, is a male-only facility. CCA was awarded a 20-year contract by the
Office of the Federal Detention Trustee to build and operate the Pahrump
facility, which is up for renewal every five years. At a Jan. 28, 2004
meeting of the State Interim Finance Committee, the Nevada Department of Corrections
considered taking over inmate medical care at the women's prison from CCA
March 1 that year. But talk then expanded to the state taking over the
facility completely. Senate Bill 278, approved by the 1995 Nevada
Legislature, allocated $44 million to construct a new women's correctional
center in southern Nevada. CCA constructed a correctional facility for 550
inmates and began housing the female prisoners. The state purchased the land,
buildings and equipment from CCA on Oct. 3, 2001, with an operating contract
to remain in effect through June 30, 2015, according to minutes provided by
the research division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. CCA was given a per
diem rate of $40.03 per inmate, which was to increase by 3 percent per year.
By 2004 that rate increased to $47.79. The contract provided for automatic
renewals every three years, with a renewal scheduled Oct. 3, 2004. CCA and
the state DOC had been in discussions over the per diem rate and the
provision of health care to the facility for three years. Nevada DOC Medical
Administrator Chuck Schardin reported CCA health care costs increased 21
percent from $2.4 million in 2002 to almost $3 million in 2003. Off-site
expenses alone nearly doubled from $589,840 to $1.06 million. The minutes
show a dramatic reduction of inmates from projected numbers also caused
difficulties. While the women's correctional facility held 550 inmates at one
time, there was a population of only 445 inmates in early 2003. In spring
2002, CCA alleged inmates from honor camps with medical problems were being
dumped at the women's prison. In excerpts of the minutes from the Jan. 28,
2004, meeting, Tony Grande, CCA vice-president for state relations, said,
"Continuing the contract would be exceedingly difficult if CCA was not able
to remedy the costs related to medical services being provided at
SNWCF." Dr. Ted D'Amico, medical director for the state DOC, is quoted
in March 31, 2004, as saying: "CCA had struggled with the medical care
of inmates from the start because of their inability to hire good
administrators." The intake process at the correctional facility
required assistance from the Nevada DOC during a year in which the medical
director's budget absorbed nearly $300,000 of medical care costs, D'Amico
said. CCA had problems providing timely dental care to inmates, who had to be
incarcerated for six months before dental care was provided, D'Amico said.
The company provided a half-time dentist, he said. There were also concerns
about psychotropic medications and HIV program standards. John Tighe, CCA
vice president of health services, was quoted as saying bluntly,
"Operating an institution housing female inmates was not an easy
task." CCA was committed to providing quality care at the women's prison
and had to fill in employment gaps, flying in staff from other areas using
temporary and agency personnel, which wasn't cost effective, Tighe said.
State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, suggested the state assume operation of
the entire facility, instead of just the medical care. Following that
discussion, CCA provided a notice of contract termination Feb. 23, 2004,
effective Oct. 1, 2004. D'Amico "commended CCA's expertise and hard work
during the length of their contract with the state." The facility, now
under state management, is now known as the Florence McClure Women's
Correctional Center.
March
3, 2010 Pahrump Valley Times
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro Monday ordered federal judges in the
Nevada district to recuse themselves from hearing a case filed by Concerned
Citizens for a Safe Community against the Office of the Federal Detention
Trustee over the detention center in Pahrump. Attorney Nancy Lord filed a
motion for a change of venue on the grounds federal judges in Nevada were
kept posted on developments of the federal detention center being built by
Corrections Corporation of America. She wanted the case moved to U.S.
District Court in California. "How would that justify change of venue to
the Central District of California? Wouldn't the sensible resolution be to
assign a judge outside the district to hear the case?" Pro asked.
"We do this all the time when we have a conflict." Lord replied,
"I didn't know that could be done, that another judge could be brought
in." She said the entire federal bench in Nevada was poisoned by
receiving information on the detention center six months before the public
knew. She cited a comment by U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson, in a hearing
over her federal suit against CCA and Nye County, in which Dawson said the
community desperately needed this detention center. "The word poisoned
is too strong," Pro said. Pro said he would recuse all the federal
judges in the Nevada district and direct the clerk to refer the suit to a
visiting judge. But Pro said, "I'm not suggesting that the judges of the
District of Nevada should be viewed as holding any bias, or they were
somewhat individually or collectively contaminated by the knowledge and
placement of a facility."
December
9, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
The litany of lawsuits filed by the Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community
and Chairman Donna Cox could come with a hefty price tag. Corrections
Corporation of America and Nye County have both filed claims against CCSC for
court costs totaling over $7,500 in the wake of the unsuccessful federal suit
brought against them in an attempt to block the federal detention center
project. U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson dismissed the case Sept. 30. A suit
by CCSC against the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee is still
proceeding in U.S. District Court. There is also a newly-filed case in state
court against Nye County over alleged Open Meetings Act violations. CCA
submitted a bill for $4,446.66 that included $3,996 for printed transcripts
by the court reporter. Nye County submitted a bill of $3,098.65 for court
reporters for transcripts. Much of the transcript costs involved depositions
by Donna Cox, chairman of Concerned Citizens. The county bill also includes a
226-page deposition of Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo, for $650.15. The CCSC
attorney, Nancy Lord, filed a motion asking the court to review the request
for court costs as inappropriate. "The objection here is to the taxation
of these costs to these plaintiffs, who everyone involves known [sic] are
without funds, have paid their attorney by passing the hat at meetings,"
the motion reads. The motion adds: "CCA is a multi-million dollar
corporation who could afford to pay nearly $7 million for land before its
deal was final and Nye County is a county government. The $7,000 in costs
will mean little to either of them, but it [sic] the taxing of costs will
devastate plaintiff Cox." The motion claims the recovery of costs is an
attempt to frighten CCSC into giving up its case against the federal
detention trustee. "Donna Cox has neither income nor assets and both
defendants are well aware of this," the motion said. "She stated
that the organization keeps its money in a paper bag at the home of Ms. Stern
and that it is never more than $100. Counsel is paid her very discounted fees
by passing the hat at some of the meetings," Lord's motion said. There
is no mention of recovering legal fees. The motion claims that while the CCA
attorney was paid by the hour and Nye County legal counsel was on a salary,
Lord was working nearly pro bono, or for free. Lord makes mention of a 9th
Circuit Court case that district courts should consider the financial
resources of the plaintiffs in awarding fees to a prevailing defendant.
"In this case the costs are more than this plaintiff could ever hope to
pay and will only result in an uncollectible judgment on her credit report.
In contrast, the awards of a few thousand dollars will mean nothing to the
wealth of CCA and Nye County except a mean-spirited victory," the CCSC
motion said. In a letter to CCA attorneys, Lord said Cox lives on her
husband's disability which can't be the subject of a lien. Lord claims CCSC
members Christina Stern and Jeff Wiest weren't listed as plaintiffs during a
scheduling conference and shouldn't be subject to paying court costs. She
also attempts to resolve Judith Holmgren from paying court costs. CCSC
doesn't object to the fact the defendants spent those costs. But the motion
claims, "The costs incurred in this case were the direct result of
defendant CCA's deliberate efforts to increase the amount of time spent on
collateral matters, lengthy objections during plaintiff's deposition of
Sheriff DeMeo and the like." The motion criticizes CCA attorney Paul
Shpirt for running up the clock on the court reporters time during the
depositions. Costs for depositions should be split between both parties,
Lord's motion said, adding both Nye County and CCA could have shared copies
of depositions. CCSC held a good faith belief there was desert tortoise
habitat on the proposed site, the motion said, the basis for the federal
case, which alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act. The
suit wasn't frivolous, CCSC claims. If Nye County allowed the plaintiffs the
chance to redress their grievances against the detention center by public
objection, there would be no need for litigation. Lord refers to CCSC as
"a rag tag citizens' rights group." The motion also makes reference
to the request for a change of venue in the case against the Office of the
Federal Detention Trustee by CCSC, which claims the Nevada federal bench had
a great need for the federal detention center in Pahrump, which would no
longer require attorneys to travel as far as Safford, Ariz., to meet with
their clients. In their opposition, CCA attorneys said the time for the
concerned citizens group to file objections court costs lapsed Oct. 23. The
response by CCA said the concerned citizens group cited the court's
inefficiency as the reason costs had to be incurred as well as attacks
against the defendant's litigation strategies. But an objection to the costs
must be grounded on clerical or calculation error, CCA said. "Nowhere in
plaintiff's motion is there an argument that the costs are inaccurate or
miscalculated," CCA said. Nye County's opposing motion makes the same
point. Accusations the entire Nevada federal bench is biased, based on a
declaration by Frank Smith of the Private Corrections Institute, an
anti-prison privatization group, are baseless and have no factual support,
CCA claims. "Plaintiffs' argument appears to be that because this court
did not rule on plaintiff's numerous frivolous motions to correct a multitude
of mistakes made in their pleadings and complaints in an expedited fashion,
it contributed to the costs of the litigation," the CCA response said.
At the same time, CCA points out a contradiction by the Concerned Citizens
who go on to claim the depositions and discovery will aid them in their
subsequent case. Neither Cox nor CCSC filed for pauper status with the court,
CCA said. "In fact, in her deposition, Donna Cox testified she owned a
new truck and a large motor home." The company requests the court
disregard the claims by CCSC until a debtor's examination is scheduled by the
court, at which time assets owned or controlled by the plaintiffs can be
identified to satisfy the judgment. Lord threatened to seek sanctions against
the CCA attorney if there is a debtor's exam. Nye County claims Lord intended
to mislead the federal court by being intentionally ambiguous about whose
interests she represented. She asserted in a hearing on discovery that CCSC
had no members, the county said. "Nonetheless," the county said,
"several persons have put themselves out in the public as members of
this association and parties to this litigation on their own weekly
television show."
November
27, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community, or CCSC, has filed a motion for a
change of venue in U.S. District Court in their case against the Office of
the Federal Detention Trustee over the siting of the proposed federal
detention center in Pahrump. "The entire Nevada bench has a direct,
vested interest in the construction of this detention center," the
motion, filed by CCSC attorney Nancy Lord, said. The complaint said the
purpose of the detention center is to serve the federal courthouse in Las
Vegas, where the trial would be held. The motion alleges "the entire
scheme was hatched in secrecy within its walls." CCSC had filed a
lawsuit against Corrections Corporation of America and Nye County in an
attempt to halt the project, which was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Kent
Dawson Oct. 1. Dawson had dismissed a request by CCSC for a temporary
restraining order and later an injunction early this year. But a suit against
the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee, who issued a record of decision
to allow the detention center in Pahrump in May 2008, is still ongoing.
"Plaintiffs, and with deep regrets, must respectfully request that the
entire bench of the District of Nevada recuse themselves and the case be
transferred," the motion said. Lord suggested holding the trial in the
Central District of California in Los Angeles. Lord charged the Office of the
Federal Detention Trustee provided information to the federal bench that was
prejudicial. "Defendant OFDT and the U.S. Marshals have poisoned the
bench with information as to the need for the detention center that is at
issue and the progress of its plans," Lord said. She cited an April 30,
2008, e-mail obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from Federal
Detention Trustee Scott Stuermer to Gary Orton of the U.S. Marshal's Service
that noted, "Since the federal judges from Nevada have been closely
monitoring our progress, would they want to be formally briefed by our
contractor on the schedule?" The CCSC group claims there were violations
of the National Environmental Protection Act and administrative procedures in
approving the project. Lord claims the Office of the Federal Detention
Trustee held "secret scoping meetings with paltry and vague public
notice." U.S. District Chief Judge Roger L. Hunt received a briefing
after a "kickoff meeting" May 21, 2008, between the detention
trustee, the U.S. Marshal's Service and CCA, Lord said. Lord faults the
federal detention trustee for sending copies of the final environmental impact
statement to the Las Vegas federal bench but not some Pahrump churches,
physicians, only one Pahrump attorney, one Pahrump Realtor, not "The
Flagman" Ray "Mallow" Mielzynski nor former television talk
show host Harley Kulkin. Lord claims Nye County Commission Chairman Joni
Eastley remarked "it's a done deal" during a Sept. 16, 2008,
commission meeting in which a date was set for a public hearing on a
development agreement with Corrections Corporation of America. "Now,
with construction well under way, and the related case dismissed because this
one was filed, it was learned that there was regular communication between
OFDT, the U.S. Marshals and the Nevada bench during the planning of this
center," Lord's motion said. CCA officials last week said the federal detention
center is on schedule to be completed next August and accept its first inmate
Oct. 1, 2010. If a contract was rescinded between the federal detention
trustee and CCA to build the center, the federal courthouse will be lacking a
detention center until an alternate location is found, which could take
several years, the CCSC petition said. The group doesn't fault U.S. District
Judge Philip Pro, who was assigned the case against the Office of the Federal
Detention Trustee. Lord said Judge Pro "has timely and fairly ruled on
both of the motions placed before him" regarding the case. Lord cites as
precedent a previous case involving a plot to destroy the Dirksen Courthouse
in Chicago in which a circuit court granted motions to recuse judges from the
entire federal judicial district. When it comes to the Pahrump federal
detention center, Lord said, "Judge Dawson noted in open court that it
was needed because attorneys were traveling to Safford, Ariz., to see their
clients." Attorneys for the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee fly
in from Washington, D.C., and could just as easily fly into Los Angeles
International Airport for a hearing, Lord said.
October
21, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
A handful of union protesters picketed at each entrance to the federal detention
center job site this week, focusing on prevailing wage disputes and the
hiring of non-union labor. "They're just paying some standard wages for
the area. That's cut and dry," said Darrell Fagg, representative of Iron
Workers Local 433. "They're breaking down the standard of living for us
out here." Union picketers said fellow union workers installing rebar
walked off the job in sympathy Monday. They said a concrete pour had to be
stopped. But otherwise, construction seemed to be going full steam ahead as
tilt-up concrete walls were largely in place and a building was taking shape
in the rear of the property. Signs carried by picketers mentioned Blanchard
Hoffman Construction, a subcontractor hired by DCK Worldwide, the general
contractor, to supply and erect metal buildings on the site. "They're
non-union. We live here, we want to work here," said protestor Bryan
Rowe, a member of Iron Workers Local 433. "We spent $300 a week going
into Vegas, why not spend $300 a week here at the house?" Rowe said he
spent eight years commuting to Las Vegas, another union worker said he spent
15 years commuting. "They don't have union, structural iron workers
here. They have union rod busters, but non-union structural hands. All the
iron going up there is going up non-union," said Ed Williamson, a member
of the local. "These guys, most of their hands are from
out-of-state." "There's non-union pipe fitters in there too,"
Williamson said. "There's quite a few iron workers out of work, union
iron workers." A man with another group of protesters said a non-union
backhoe driver for a plumbing company was making $23.50 per hour with no
benefits. One protestor, bundled up wearing a hood against the early morning
cold Tuesday, said he underwent four years of training and has 12 years of
experience as an iron worker. "There's tons of guys out of work and we
don't really see anything coming up. That's the bad part," Williamson
said. Protestors said the federal detention center isn't considered a federal
job, which would require paying construction workers prevailing wage.
"If this was a federal job, we wouldn't be out here -- we'd be out here
working. Then they've got to pay prevailing wage to what we make
anyway," Williamson said. Other union representatives have weighed in
with their concerns over the project. While a carpenters union representative
said last week four companies they have under contract would have to pay a
$4.50 per hour differential for Las Vegas workers -- an incentive to hire
Pahrump workers -- Scott Wichael, business agent for the Operative Plasterers
and Cement Masons Local 797, said his union waived the differential for
concrete subcontractor Luccero Construction, who was merely asked to hire
local labor. But Wichael said Lucero is is actually only employing one member
of their union from Pahrump. Wichael also had a concern over two companies
working on the job he couldn't find on a list of companies licensed in the
state of Nevada. "It is not a federal project, there's not federal
dollars in the construction activity, therefore we're not governed by
prevailing wage." said Buddy Johns, senior director of project
development for Corrections Corporation of America. If it was a federal job,
Johns said companies wouldn't have to be licensed in Nevada but they would
have to pay prevailing wage.
October
14, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
The construction trailer sits near the entrance to the job site at the
federal detention center on East Mesquite Avenue, along with a water tank
advertising a local subcontractor, Wulfenstein Construction. The fact only
one subcontractor headquartered in Pahrump got a contract to help build the
federal detention center doesn't mean the $80 million project won't put to
work many local construction workers. "Right now on the job site, there's
approximately 105 employees of which 30 are Pahrump residents," said
Buddy Johns, Corrections Corporation of America senior director for project
development. "Overall, the project is going to have about 30 percent
local labor." CCA expects a maximum of 175 to 190 construction workers
at the peak. That would mean 52 to 57 local workers based on 30-70 ratio.
Wulfenstein Construction was the only subcontractor on the list headquartered
in Pahrump. Wulfenstein did the foundation work, the pad and the on-site
utilities. "When we investigated the local contractor pool, what we
found is they didn't have enough manpower or they didn't have enough
financial strength to back the project, meaning bonding, or they were not
going to be able to meet our schedule demands," Johns said.
September
11, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
Wulfenstein Construction Co. is the only Pahrump-based firm so far on a
list of subcontractors building the federal detention center supplied by
Corrections Corporation of America. Wulfenstein has been doing site work and
installing on-site utilities at the Nevada Southern Detention Center at 2250
E. Mesquite Ave. Construction crews are working on underground utilities and
pouring concrete footings, slabs and tiltwall, according to an update by
Chris Murphree, CCA director of construction management. Metal building
erection is scheduled to begin about the middle of this month, precast
housing units are supposed to begin arriving around Oct. 1, Murphree said.
CCA hopes to have the $80 million detention center completed by the end of
2010 for the housing of up to 1,072 inmates awaiting trial in the federal
courts or illegal aliens awaiting deportation. Company officials said the
detention center will provide 231 jobs with a $12 million to $15 million annual
payroll. Regarding the construction, Buddy Johns, CCA senior director of
project development, told an audience during a public hearing at the Bob Ruud
Community Center in August 2008, a general contractor from Pennyslvania would
be used for the project but as many local subcontractors will be hired as
possible. The subcontractor list released last week includes mostly firms
from the Las Vegas area. The project is taking place at a time when Las Vegas
shed 32,200 construction jobs from July 2008 to July 2009, the Las Vegas
Review-Journal reported. That's 25.7 percent of the construction industry
workforce.
June
10, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
A notice of intent to recall Nye County District 4 Commissioner Butch
Borasky and town board members Nicole Shupp and Bill Dolan was filed with the
county clerk's office Friday. The notice was signed by Larky White, Geneil
White and Jack Jordan. Larky White ran unsuccessfully for the Pahrump Town
Board last year, finishing sixth in the August primary with 781 votes. The filing
gives recall supporters 90 days to produce petitions with 652 valid
signatures, 25 percent of the people in District 4 who voted in the 2006
election. That deadline falls on Sept. 2, according to the county clerk's
office. An effort to recall Borasky had been threatened for some months now,
since the signing of a development agreement between Nye County and
Corrections Corporation of America to build a federal detention center Dec.
16. "Under the NRS (Nevada Revised Statutes) law people have the right
to try to do a recall. I would not try to interfere in any way and respect
their right to do so. I have all the confidence in the world that the voters
who elected me to office to represent them will continue to support me in the
future," Borasky said. "It is sad that people who can't get elected
themselves will resort to a back door approach to recall someone who is
already doing a good job, to force another election with a cost to the
taxpayers of approximately $30,000," he said. Borasky confirmed he will
be a candidate for re-election in District 4 in the November 2010 election.
He accused Harley Kulkin of being behind the recall. A companion petition is
being circulated to nominate Donna Cox as the replacement candidate, if
Borasky's opponents collect enough valid signatures to call for a recall
election and he is voted out of office. Cox is the president of Concerned
Citizens for a Safe Community, the group fighting the proposed federal
detention center and the plaintiff on a suit seeking to stop it. So why is
Borasky being singled out? The county commission unanimously passed the
development agreement with CCA. "Because from what we could find out, he
was the main person behind pushing for the prison. His name is on all the
documents for the county that have anything to do with the prison and he's
the only one now that's eligible to be recalled," Cox said. Cox
predicted that as soon as Nye County District 3 Commissioner Gary Hollis and
Nye County District 2 Commissioner Joni Eastley are six months into their
current terms, recall petitions will be circulated against them. Cox said
Commissioner Fely Quitevis and Lorinda Wichman weren't in office at the time
the county approved agreements with the federal detention center, commonly
referred to as a prison. Quitevis is also an opponent of the project, she
said. Cox was optimistic the recall will pass. "People are really upset
over the prison. I think it's the biggest issue we've ever had," Cox
said.
January
23, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
A film crew from Dan Rather Reports, a program aired on HD Net, a
subscriber network available on high-definition TV, was on hand to tape about
80 opponents of the Corrections Corporation of America project crammed into a
strategy meeting in a back room at the Pahrump Community Library last
Thursday night. Cameraman Derek Reich is from Park City, Utah. Reporter Kim
Balin is based in New York. Balin said she didn't want to be quoted but said
for publication they were researching how prisons affect towns on a national
level. There is no guarantee the excerpt will be aired on Dan Rather's show,
she said. Opponents of the proposed 1,500-bed facility for inmates awaiting
trial in federal court or deportation, however, made their presence visible
during a hearing in federal court Wednesday and plan to bring the fight to
state district court and hearings before the Public Utilities Commission on
water and sewer service. "We're going to continue to fight this thing.
We're going to fight it in state court. We're going to fight it in the Public
Utilities Commission. It isn't a done deal. Don't get discouraged," Jeff
Wiest told the crowd at the library. Field organizer Frank Smith, from the
Private Corrections Institute, which opposes the privatization of prisons,
said Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada has yet to receive permission to annex
the site into their service area. Smith urged the crowd to "raise holy
heck" at PUC meetings. He suggested they find out the addresses of PUC
members and write letters to newspapers in their home towns. The PUC
"isn't four or five stiffs that live in Pahrump or Tonopah," he
said. Smith said each inmate needs 150 gallons of water per day. He appealed
to fears over the sinking water table adding, "CCA is going to be
sucking that with the biggest straw you've ever seen ... They've come here
and sold this proposal to a county commission that doesn't know any better,
that should know better. "They came to a little town like Pahrump and
they said, 'We're going to bring development to you, we're going to bring
jobs to you, money will rain from the sky.'" Smith said the plans were
originally for a facility with 350 beds, then 500 beds, then 1,072 beds, now
1,500 beds. He claimed CCA actually wants to house 3,000 prisoners here.
Smith also claimed there aren't enough federal prisoners from Nevada to fill
the detention center. He added, the purpose of the facility will change from
just housing federal inmates. Smith exhorted the crowd with an impassioned
speech. "They are going to fill this up with gangbangers from California
because California has three people to a cell. They have them sleeping in
gymnasiums. They don't know what to do with them all and CCA is looking at
that market. This federal detention center is just BS. It's a pretense. It's
a charade, and if the county commissioners didn't know that, they deserve to
be recalled for stupidity if nothing else." Smith repeated accusations
CCA will buy their products nationally, not from local vendors. When CCA
Marketing Manager Louise Grant told Storey County Commissioners in Virginia
City last week there were only a few residents in Pahrump opposed to their
project, Smith jokingly remarked she was using "new math." Smith
said 1,500 people signed a petition against the project in Pahrump. Smith
charged Pahrump residents were kept in the dark about the project until CCA
"had all their ducks in a row" with county commissioners, the
planning department and others in approval. In fact, discussions with CCA
were outlined in some detail in the PVT. Hector Velarde, one of four residents
who showed up to protest the rezoning of the East Mesquite Avenue property in
front of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission in July 2007, said he was
one of only two people who received notice of the proposed zone change.
January
14, 2009 Pahrump Valley Times
U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson issued a ruling Friday stating Concerned
Citizens for a Safe Community and its president, Donna Cox, failed to meet
the burden of proof necessary for the issuance of a temporary restraining
order against the proposed Pahrump federal detention center. While the
request for the temporary restraining order was thrown out, a hearing is
still pending at 9 a.m., Jan. 21, at federal court in Las Vegas on a request
for a preliminary injunction to stop the project. Nancy Lord, attorney for
CCSC, argued for the order in federal court Dec. 23 against Josh Aicklen,
attorney for Corrections Corporation of America, and Nye County Chief Civil
Deputy District Attorney Ron Kent. CCA was awarded a development agreement by
county commissioners Dec. 16, to build a federal detention center to house up
to 1,500 inmates awaiting trail in federal court or deportation at 2250 E.
Mesquite Ave. While CCSC cited the final environmental impact statement,
which states the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is concerned about the
potential impacts of the proposed project and the uncertainty of the water
supply, Dawson said the same EIS replies to those issues. He said the
development agreement addresses impacts of lighting, visibility, emergency
services, public safety and water and sewer requirements. Paul Burris,
regional manager of Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada, said last week no
agreement has yet been signed to provide water and sewer service to the
federal detention center and no hearings have been scheduled before the
Public Utilities Commission.
January
9, 2009 Pahrump Daily Times
Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community has asked the Nye County
commissioners for an appeal of the approval of the development agreement for
the federal detention center to be placed on the next agenda Jan. 20 "I
submitted a letter to each one of the commissioners yesterday in regard to
the reconsideration of the vote," said Donna Cox, president of Concerned
Citizens for a Safe Community Tuesday. "We did that based on all the
verbal changes to the agreement approved on Dec. 16." County
commissioners voted 5-0 on Dec. 16 to approve a 20-year development agreement
with CCA, the final approval to building the facility that will house up to
1,500 prisoners at 2250 E. Mesquite Ave. Committee member Judith Holmgren
said the group learned later this week they have to fill out a form to submit
a request for an agenda item. They were too late for the Jan. 20 agenda and
now may have to wait until the Feb. 17 meeting, Holmgren said. CCSC claims
the county commission hasn't followed Nye County Code 16.32.080, which
requires the scheduling of a public hearing within 120 days of a
"complete" application for a development agreement. A subsection
states the county commissioners may approve the development agreement if it
finds issues identified in the application relating to the project have been
adequately addressed. The agreement has to be in conformity with the public
convenience, general welfare and good land use practices; will not be
detrimental to public health, safety and general welfare; and will not
adversely affect the orderly development of property or the preservation of
property values. The six-page letter to the commission objects to removing a
restriction on accepting only federal detainees apprehended in Nevada. The
agreement doesn't address having to treat effluent at Utilities Inc. sewer
plant No. 3 at Willow Creek golf course, the group states. CCSC said the
agreement was also modified to ban lighting outside the detention center
perimeter.
December
19, 2008 Pahrump Valley Times
Nye County Commission Chairman Joni Eastley admonished Tuesday's crowd
with a seasonal greeting: "Peace on earth and good will toward
men." But the Christmas-time advice wasn't heeded by most speakers, who
had some harsh words, including a threat to recall commissioners who voted
for the project. "More lies and incompetent opinions have floated around
this issue than anything we have witnessed lately. For a well-respected
company with over 17,000 employees to be subjected to the kind of abuse that
has been proclaimed here cannot be ignored," said Mary Swadell, speaking
for her husband, Bob Swadell. Swadell asked for a show of hands of project proponents,
many wearing "yes" stickers sitting in the audience. She said 1,000
letters, e-mails and phone calls were turned in supporting the agreement.
"This project deserves your support. A small but noisy group tried to
sabotage it and the development agreement. Where were these people when the
issues were being discussed and approved?" Swadell asked. But critics of
the project conjured up a wide range of possible negative scenarios that
might arise. Mary Czajkowski said she used to live across the road from a
prison in Michigan City, Ind. "There was a prisoner that got out. He
went down the road to one of the farm houses, raped and murdered a woman and
her three daughters," Czajkowski said. "I don't want to see that
happen here, and I moved here to retire." Donna Como said she worked for
the Colorado and Montana Department of Corrections and CCA. "I was the
person who doctored the ACA accreditation reports for this company," she
said, referring to the American Correctional Association. Como said commissioners
need to investigate how many family members of inmates will come to Pahrump.
She added no amount of landscaping will hide a full-scale riot like the one
on July 20, 2004, at the Crowley County Correctional Facility, a CCA
institution 40 miles west of Pueblo, Colo. Julie Griffith presented
commissioners with a copy of an injunction filed to halt the project.
Assistant Sheriff Rick Marshall determined it wasn't an official service of a
lawsuit. Bob Howard was worried about the water and power use. He said the
detention center would require 230 acre feet of water rights. An acre-foot is
over 320,000 gallons, enough for two families of five for a year. J.D. Cox
asked about requirements to install a traffic light at Highway 160 and
Mesquite Avenue. Mike Darby, newly-elected to the Pahrump Town Board, wanted
the company to provide money for scholarships at Great Basin College in
general. The agreement provides for a $10,000 annual contribution if the
college has a criminal justice associate degree program. Katrice Romanoff
said she had concerns over the safety of children and the elderly. She said a
number of schools as well as the Evergreen at Pahrump Health and
Rehabilitation Center are within 9.5 miles of the detention center -- the
initial bufffer zone required from residences to a correctional center before
commissioners amended the county code last year. "Attention will have to
be given to building fences and locked gates. What about indemnification for
businesses and residents also in case of any mishaps?" Romanoff asked.
Tony Lloyd felt the county should determine the best route for transporting
inmates between the detention center and the federal courthouse in Las Vegas.
He felt a better route would be to go the northern route around the Spring Mountains,
via Highway 160 through Johnnie to Highway 95, then south to Las Vegas. Lloyd
added a new commissioner will take office in January representing that
district, who should have a vote on the agreement. He was referring to
Lorinda Wichman who replaces Roberta "Midge" Carver. "We're
doing a recall and it's not going to be just on you Mr. (Commissioner Butch)
Borasky, you guys in six months and some other elected officials," said
Don Cox, pointing his finger at the board. "We don't like being walked
on." An elected official has to serve six months in office before being
recalled, but it's unsure whether that time delay pertains to Commissioners
Gary Hollis and Eastley, who were re-elected. Nov. 4. Cox said commissioners
ignored 25 pages of comments from Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community.
Christina Stern said, "We do not want that prison over in the middle of
town. I have done extensive research on this corporation. I've seen what it's
done to other rural communities and small towns. It destroys the community we
were trying to build here." "We're all sitting here assuming there
will never be an incident. The assumption seems to be made. I have a problem
with the road access availability to our emergency vehicles that might be
needed in the event there is an unfortunate event," said Realtor Norma
Jean Opatik. Mike Scaccia charged the county's consultant on correctional
facilities, Ira Cotler, was a prison industry financier, not a lawyer.
"This alleged development agreement clearly is incomplete. It's friendly
to privatization," Scaccia said. "Water is not guaranteed. Sewer is
not guaranteed. The Fish and Wildlife final biological opinion is not
conferred." He added, "Airport park demands are not mentioned, and
only a few, at the most, if any of the 54 citizen amendments are mentioned in
the development agreement." But others came to the company's defense,
like Lucy Ivins, Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce executive director. She
said approving the development agreement will encourage businesses to come to
Nye County.
19,
2008 Pahrump Valley Times
The handshakes, pats on the back and hugs were abundant between some
local officials and Corrections Corporation of America executives after Nye
County commissioners voted 5-0 late Tuesday afternoon to approve a 20-year
development agreement for a federal detention center, culminating a
negotiating process that lasted almost two years. A few seconds passed when
Nye County Commission Chairman Joni Eastley asked for a motion, about 6:30
p.m., at the end of a public hearing that began just before 2 p.m.
Commissioner Gary Hollis made the motion. Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos, who
hasn't participated in any county commission meetings since his resignation
letter was read Nov. 24, didn't take part in the discussion but seconded the
motion as he voted from a remote, undisclosed location. Commissioner Butch
Borasky had some last-minute reservations about approving the agreement
before the town board had approved a memorandum of understanding with the
company for fire and ambulance service. Pahrump Town Manager Bill Kohbarger
said he supports the MOU along with Pahrump Fire Chief Scott Lewis. Lucibeth
Nave Mayberry, CCA vice president and deputy chief development officer, said
agreements with providers of emergency services are normally not approved
until a warden has been selected. She added, "We are contractually bound
by our contract with the federal government to enter into that." One
possible final obstacle is a hearing for a temporary restraining order
scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday in federal court in Las Vegas, requested by
attorney Nancy Lord on behalf of Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community.
Assistant Sheriff Rick Marshall said county officials weren't properly served
notice of the hearing at the commission meeting. Company and county officials
didn't seem concerned after the vote. Attorney Tom Driggs said CCA is
negotiating with Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada, which has put together an
annexation plan for the federal detention center which will be filed with the
Public Utilities Commission soon. Water rights have already been dedicated to
Utilities Inc. for its use as a water and sewer provider and will be assigned
to CCA, he said. "There is no additional draw from the Pahrump basin
that will be caused by that facility," Driggs said. Commissioner Roberta
"Midge" Carver thought the commissioners "may be putting the
cart before the horse," approving a development agreement before the
company has guaranteed water and sewer service. "If they cannot serve
you, will those water rights be returned?" Carver asked. "I think
those water rights would stay with Utilities Inc.," Driggs replied.
"Well, I guess I'm having some problems with that," Carver said.
Mayberry said a lot of issues like providing utilities were due diligence
items CCA looked at when they first picked the site. She said private
correctional companies like CCA were asked to submit a list of possible sites
for a detention center to the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee; the
federal government didn't pick them out. Problems providing utilities to the
site were a major factor, she said. "The timing of the signing of this
development agreement is absolutely crucial to the project going forward at
all," Mayberry said. "The project is being delayed past the
viability of the project. We don't want to risk the project on things that at
the end of the day are CCA's risk. We impress upon you the urgency of the
project." Brad Higgins, CCA director of site acquisition, said if
negotiations with Utilities Inc. fail, the company has a backup plan to build
on-site water and sewer facilities. Mayberry, at the start of the company's
presentation, said CCA will contribute, at a minimum, $1.2 million in grants
to the community the first year, then at least $860,000 in payments annually.
That will amount to $17.53 million in contributions over the 20-year life of
the federal contract, she said.
December
17, 2008 Pahrump Valley Times
Petitioners have applied for a temporary injunction to slow or possibly
halt progress toward a 20-year agreement between Corrections Corporation of
America and Nye County on development of a federal detention center at the
east end of Mesquite Avenue. The petition and supporting material was filed
Dec. 15-16 by Nancy Lord. A hearing has reportedly been scheduled in the
courtroom of Judge Kent J. Dawson in Las Vegas at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 23.
Lord is representing a group calling itself Concerned Citizens for a Safe
Community and Donna Cox, who has filed as an individual. The petition cites
the county, the county commissioners and Commissioners Butch Borasky, Gary
Hollis, Peter Liakopoulos and Midge Carver. At the same time, county
commissioners were conducting a lengthy hearing on the proposed development
agreement yesterday afternoon in Pahrump. Results were not available at press
time. The petitioners, according to Lord, all live near the proposed
detention center site, and they all "use nearby national forests for a
variety of purposes" and "derive recreational, spiritual,
professional, aesthetic, educational and other benefits and enjoyment from
these activities." They also, Lord wrote, "enjoy the benefits of
dark stars [sic] at night and a peaceful and safe rural community."
Lord's pleading outlines, in some detail, the history of the CCA's efforts to
come into Pahrump and build and operate a detention center for the federal
government. It also details CCA's alleged failures in some regards, such as
not informing the county commission whether it will drill a well or use
municipal water. "Pahrump is a country town," Lord wrote. "The
citizens enjoy the starlight and the moon rising." She said the
detention center, which she refers to as a "prison," "will be
seen by almost every home in the valley. And the lights at night will be
unbearable for residents and the stars will no longer by visible to area
residents." Lord also outlined safety concerns once a detention center
is in operation. "The area is close enough to local residences,"
she wrote, "and even a private airport, that it could facilitate the
escape of prisoners, allegedly detainees to be deported, with little
incentive to proceed through their deportation proceedings." CCA has
consistently noted the inmates will include both potential deportees as well
as federal suspects waiting to be taken to trial. Additionally, said Lord,
"There has been no public hearing for a Conditional Use Permit, There
has been no Conditional Use Permit issued." Lord said CCA should be held
to this requirement of the county code since the conditional use permit addresses,
in her words, "many more issues than are addressed in the Development
Agreement, especially in the areas of health, safety and welfare." Lord
asks for both a temporary and a permanent injunction against the agreement.
Her petition also refers, at some length, to county height restrictions and
notes that "it is not certain whether the CCA facility will be 40 feet
or higher." Zoning districts are established by structure height, she
wrote, and added that for sites of five or more acres, the code calls for
light fixtures no higher than 30 feet. "The Development Agreement calls
for lighting at 35 feet." In addition, she said, "The Nye County
Fire Department is not prepared to fight a fire in a 40' structure. They have
no equipment that will reach that high." The surrounding area includes,
said Lord, the county landfill, where it is possible spills of hazardous
material could occur. She said the operators have not been required to
acknowledge in writing the status of any hazardous spills prior to the
signing of the agreement "because it may affect the Development
Agreement and the construction schedule." Heavy equipment at the
landfill, she said, "could easily be stolen and driven into the prison
fences." Desert tortoises, burrowing owls and Yucca plants are also
issues that have not been properly addressed, Lord wrote. She also said the
county commission has ignored "considerable research of which it is
aware, that indicates that the presence of a prison in this rural area will
actually contribute to economic stagnation." Assumptions about
employment opportunities should have been better addressed by officials.
Prisoners could, Lord said, endanger residents "with chemicals and
equipment taken from the nearby town dump and even flying in aircraft stolen
from the airport that is also near the proposed facility."
December
12, 2008 Pahrump Valley News
Corrections Corporation of America officials hope Nye County
commissioners will approve a development agreement for the federal detention
center after a public hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, at the Bob
Ruud Community Center. "We have been very, very diligently working with
all of the parties in regard to the development agreement and certainly our
anticipation is that we will end the meeting with an approved development
agreement so we can move forward and relay that information to our customer,
who is eager as well to have that finalized," CCA Vice-President of
Marketing and Communications Louise Grant said. "That customer" is
the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee which has given CCA 18 months to
have the detention center constructed and ready to begin accepting inmates.
"We have been told time and again by our customer, the expectation is we
are still on the same time frame," Grant said. Natasha Metcalf, who manages
CCA contract negotiations, has been in frequent discussions with Nye County
representatives since the Sept. 16 tabling of the agreement, Grant said.
"We want it to be a positive win-win," she said. When asked whether
her company came to agreement on some points raised by Nye County consultant
Ira Cotler back in September, she said, "I believe there has been a lot
of resolution." Frank Smith, a field organizer for the Private
Corrections Institute, a group opposed to the privatization of correctional
facilities, said he will arrive in the area on Saturday. He has arranged to
have Donna Como visit Pahrump. She was in charge of determining American
Correctional Association accreditation for CCA when the company had a
contract to operate the state women's prison. During the 8:30 a.m. session
commissioners will consider approving 20 contracts totaling $2.9 million to
support the county Yucca Mountain oversight program, under the consent agenda
in which numerous items can be approved with one motion. A $42,950 change
order in the contract with Mills Construction for the abatement of asbestos
pipes in the demolition of the Calvada Eye building is up for approval and an
asbestos monitoring agreement with SCS Engineers. Owners of Paddy's Pub are
scheduled to reappear before the Nye County licensing and liquor board at 9
a.m. on a show cause hearing over their liquor license, in a case continued
from Feb. 5.
October
29, 2008 Pahrump Valley Times
United Holdings Corp. turned almost a $5.8 million profit on the sale of
land for the proposed federal detention center, county records show. United
Holdings, which lists an address of 5560 S. Fort Apache St. in Las Vegas,
purchased the 160-acre plot from David Patterson of San Juan Capistrano,
Calif. for $1.2 million on July 15, 2004, according to the county assessor's
office. The company then sold 120 acres of it to Corrections Corporation of
America Western Properties Inc. for $6.9 million on June 30, 2008. The
property is located at 2250 E. Mesquite Ave. on the corner of Powerline Road.
The registered agent for United Holdings is listed as Bill Blackwell. The
president, secretary and treasurer is John Hui. United Holdings Corp.
retained a 40-acre chunk of the 160 acres. The taxable value of the 160 acres
was $62,714 in the 1996-97 fiscal year, rising to $100,660 in the 2007-08
year. After the county commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the nonconforming
zone change from open use to the new community facilities zone for the
federal detention center effective July 18, 2007, the taxable value increased
to $18.2 million before the split into 120- and 40-acre parcels, according to
records at the Nye County recorder's office. That is an increase of roughly
180 times. Nye County commissioners voted on the zoning change without the minutes
of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission in their backup file, since the
application was on a fast track from the July 13 RPC meeting. The Mesquite
Avenue site was one of five non-conforming zone changes approved by county
commissioners at that July 18, 2007, meeting for potential federal detention
center sites. The 160 acres had been rezoned from open use to a combination
of general commercial, mixed-use and medium-density residential in the
comprehensive zoning map approved for the entire Pahrump Valley on June 20,
2007. The other four properties rezoned to the community facilities zone at
that meeting included a 40-acre town of Pahrump property at 630 E. Parque
Ave., rezoned from a rural homestead zone, and a 30-acre town property at
1690 E. Mike Road, rezoned from the village-residential zone. A 30-acre
parcel at 6871 N. Blagg Road belonging to Citizens for Affordable Housing
Inc. and a tract at 8500 E. Huxley Ave. / 8251 E. Panaca Ave., belonging to
the Roland Karl Wiley Trust, were both rezoned from village residential. Nye
County Commissioner Butch Borasky made the motion to approve the master plan
amendment and zoning change for the 160-acre property, overturning a
recommendation by the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission against it.
Commissioner Joni Eastley cast the sole vote against the zoning change,
citing the previous county commissioner's repeal of a county code requiring a
9.5-mile minimum distance to nearby residences from correctional facilities.
The RPC on July 13, 2007, had voted 4-2 to recommend denial of the rezoning
of the 160-acre site at 2250 E. Mesquite Ave. RPC member Nevada Tolladay made
the motion to deny the rezoning, stating it would be not be desirable given
the location of adjacent, developed commercial property, according to minutes
of the meeting. Pahrump Town Board representative Laurayne Murray joined RPC
member Bat Masterson in voting against the motion to deny the rezoning.
Masterson said some homes were in the area, but they weren't located right
next door and buffering could be required around the detention center. RPC
member Norma Jean Opatik felt the site wasn't far enough north. The RPC voted
unanimously to support the Parque Avenue location. Al Balloqui, the town of
Pahrump economic development director, argued so hard for the rezoning of the
town site on Parque Avenue he was chastised by Borasky, who said he was
displaying an unprofessional attitude in criticizing county staff. Balloqui
charged there was "serious inconsistency in the evaluations of the proposed
sites and they are tilted toward some sites over others." RPC Chairman
Mark Kimball was initially in favor of rezoning the 160 acres, but voted
against recommending approval in light of opposition voiced from four
neighbors at the public hearing: Hector Velarde, Luella Davis, Julius McKay
and James Davis. No phone number was listed in the Las Vegas telephone
directory for United Holdings Corp.
October
24, 2008 Pahrump Valley Times
Action on a proposed development agreement with Corrections Corporation of America
for a federal detention center was postponed another two months until Dec. 16
by Nye County commissioners Tuesday. A crowd of bystanders showed up anyway
to voice comments about the project, though it was reported there wouldn't be
any action taken. That delays a vote on the agreement until well after the
election. CCA Senior Director of Site Acquisition and Development Brad
Wiggins, said when the project was tabled last month commissioners made a
critical timeline even more critical. Consultant Ira Cotler, managing
director of Correctional Finance and Consulting Solutions, just gave his
comments on the development agreement back to CCA officials Monday. The two
sides are said to be far apart on the conditions. Cotler, who was given a
$50,000 contract by county commissioners to work on the development
agreement, said he drafted an outline with all the issues that were raised in
the past. "We've had two meetings with CCA, going through that outline
in very general terms, just to throw out the topics on the table,"
Cotler told commissioners. Cotler also gave his input to Mark White, the
attorney who represents Nye County on the drafting of development agreements,
for inclusion in the agreement. More meetings between Cotler and CCA were
scheduled Wednesday. "Our goal has been to expand the original
development agreement to more than just a development agreement to any other
style of project and address the thoughts and concerns associated with a
correctional facility," Cotler said. Nye County Commission Chairman Joni
Eastley said commissioners didn't have a copy of the revised development
agreement as CCA hasn't had time to reply to Cotler's remarks. She proposed
tabling the discussion until Dec. 16, as there will only be one regular
commission meeting in November due to the election and the Thanksgiving
holiday. Nye County Manager Rick Osborne asked about scheduling a special
meeting. Eastley said her schedule was totally booked the rest of this month
and the first week or two in November. She said a second public hearing would
have to be scheduled during a regular commission meeting with adequate public
notice. When Judith Holmgren asked for a copy of the revised development
agreement, Osborne replied, "It's all confidential negotiations at this
point until we get a draft that we feel is suitable to present to the board,
and at that point it becomes a public document." The crowd booed. Asked
for a comment after the delay was announced, Louise Grant, CCA's
vice-president of marketing, said, "CCA is disappointed that the
development agreement is not yet finalized. Assuredly, our government
partners are eager for us to have that last component of the plan final and
secure so we can move forward with this exciting project. We trust that the
commission will work to help us make final arrangements by the date they'd
just indicated. CCA will continue to operate in good faith to move forward
this very important agreement." Eastley ran a tightly-controlled public
comment period, with two minutes allowed for each speaker. They were
restricted to commenting on suggestions to be included in the development
agreement, not whether they liked the project or not. Eastley indicated her
exhaustion at being bombarded with comments about the detention center,
asking speakers not to talk about things like a "60 Minutes" news
special on CCA or similar topics. The crowd spilled into Room B, where a
television monitor was installed. Frank Smith, representing the Private
Corrections Institute, was cut short after two minutes. "Nobody did the
most basic research on this," Smith said. "The development
agreement is predicated on certain premises. One is that somehow this would
be an economic benefit to the community. We found no evidence the prison has
stimulated growth. In fact, we found evidence the prison has impeded economic
growth." County commission candidate Harley Kulkin wanted a public
hearing where the public isn't limited to two minutes. Jeff Wiiest asked
commissioners to table action until January, so the new board can take responsibility
for their actions. Numerous suggestions were made by Pahrump residents.
October
22, 2008 Pahrump Valley Times
A crowd of more than 50 people, energized by a "60 Minutes"
video blasting Corrections Corporation of America's operation of a private
prison in Youngstown, Ohio, had finished two hours of heated rhetoric against
the proposed federal detention center in Pahrump at the Hafen Elementary
School multipurpose room Saturday afternoon. It had escalated into an
atmosphere of cries to vote all the incumbent politicians out of office when
Nye County District 4 Commissioner Butch Borasky walked in. "I just
spent two and a half days with a couple of other folks in Eloy and
Florence," he said of two communities in Arizona where CCA runs prisons.
"We visited eight facilities. I talked to as many people as I could in
those communities. I'll tell you right now, I didn't get one negative comment
from anybody." That comment drew boos from the crowd. Former Nye County
sheriff's candidate Ted Holmes remarked about his fear gang members and
possible drug cartel members would be housed at the proposed center. Holmes
said he wouldn't have any concerns if the detention center was at Cold Creek,
where the present Indian Springs state prison is located, just over Wheeler
Pass from Pahrump. But he said with the proposed location on 2250 E. Mesquite
Ave., "the quickest house is less than six minutes walking
distance." Holmes then remarked he was so mad he wanted to punch a
politician about it. Borasky then walked up to Holmes, where they stood
nose-to-nose before Holmes backed down on his threat and Borasky walked out
of the room. It was probably the climax of a crescendo of angry comments
directed at the federal detention center by people who complained they
weren't aware of the project. Judith Holmgren read transcripts from a public
hearing on the detention center by the Office of the Federal Detention
Trustee in June 2007 in which Borasky, commenting as a private citizen, said
"I wholeheartedly support the idea of bringing the detention center
here." The 60 Minutes excerpt concerned a prison break in Youngstown
that the mayor said could've been the country's largest prison break. Show
co-host, the late Ed Bradley, announced hard-core inmates were transferred
from Washington, D.C., into what was supposed to be a medium-security prison.
Frank Smith, of the anti-privatization Private Corrections Institute, who
hosted the informational meeting, noted other prison breaks, including one in
Oklahoma that involved two elderly women hostages, invoking the worst case
nightmare. He told about prison riots, like one at the Crowley County
Correctional Facility in Olney Springs, Colo. Smith charged CCA would use
out-of-town labor to build the facility, as evidenced by his conversation with
roofers at a restaurant in Olney Springs, Colo., who admitted they had worked
on a detention center in California City, Calif. "No matter what the
chamber of commerce may want to believe, they don't leave money in town, they
don't leave a penny more than they have to," he said. Smith said the
presence of detention facilities, even where there are good paying jobs,
chases away other industries and residents. "They go to towns that are
desperate, that are easily convinced they are going to be some kind of godsend,
there's going to be money raining from the sky," Smith said. Steve
Holbo, a retired California correctional officer, said the majority of
correctional officers initially will probably be imported from other states
as a job promotion. "You cannot open your facility with 240 green people
trying to work at the facility. The probability of the fact is that the
Pahrump area is only going to see possibly 10 correctional officers hired
initially out of the valley during the first year of operation," Holbo said.
He said being this close to California could be a temptation for CCA to house
some of its 5,000 inmates in that state in the Nevada Southern Detention
Center. Kenny Bent said he was a general engineering contractor for over 21
years, putting in treatment plants and pump stations. He claimed the project,
which would use 130,000 gallons per day, would drop water levels in wells.
Pat Kerby said the development agreement should require CCA to dig wells
deeper, if it impacts the water supply. "We need to pressure the county
commission to alter this development agreement so it's more favorable to
Pahrump and make the decision before the election," Kerby said. An angry
Butch Clendenen, who recently bought a home on nearby Kitty Hawk Drive, went
a step further. "You can vote in this election, and the incumbents have
to be voted out now. That's the only way this agreement isn't going to
happen. Face it, they had 17 supposed meetings where they notified the public
that nobody knew about," Clendenen said. County commission candidate
Harley Kulkin said the development agreement was spearheaded by outgoing
County Manager Ron Williams behind closed doors. "We need to push so
that the public is part of this development agreement and then we need to
come up with some ideas of how we can make this development agreement fair to
protect a community, and then I believe CCA will back out of the agreement
and go somewhere else," Kulkin said. "They're only here for one
reason, they want to house prisoners and the cheapest place to do business,
and they found this is the most naive place and they'll get away with plenty
here." Town board candidate Mike Darby said he has a history in the
construction industry as a heavy equipment operator. "The agreements
that I've read that they have put out there, I would love to have that
agreement because it basically gives you a wide open contract to do anything
and everything you want," Darby said. Jeff Bobeck, who ran
unsuccessfully for Nye County Commission District 1, said he's a flight instructor
at Calvada Airpark, located near the detention center site. Bobeck said he
requested an opinion from the Federal Aviation Administration about including
the private airport in the development agreement. "If I were going to
try to escape from this prison -- and we have learned it is possible -- I
would be headed straight for there," Bobeck said. "Within 100 feet
of each airplane is the owner with keys who knows how to fly it and many of
them also have enough fuel to make it to Mexico." Robert Smith, no
relation to Frank Smith, asked for a recall "on all the corrupt
politicians in this town." Bent criticized an alleged e-mail from
Commissioner Joni Eastley in which he quoted the commissioner as saying,
"This is a done deal there's no turning back, there's nothing left but
signing the development agreement." "It could be easily stopped
right there, right now," Bent said. Robin Lloyd urged attendees to flood
commissioners with e-mails, phone calls and letters. She urged them to sign a
petition asking commissioners to reinstate the 9.5 mile minimum distance to
correctional facilities in the county code.
October
15, 2008 Pahrump Valley Times
Officials from Corrections Corporation of America don't plan to be in
attendance when the Private Corrections Institute hosts a meeting on the pros
and cons of a federal detention center in Pahrump at 3 p.m. Saturday at the
Hafen Elementary School Auditorium. Frank Smith, field organizer for the
Private Corrections Institute will be the featured speaker. He invited prominent
local opponents of the project to join him on a panel. A biography on the
Private Corrections Institute Web site states Smith has been a social justice
activist for four decades, involved in criminal justice research, worked on a
medical marijuana initiative in Alaska, labor organization, moratoriums on
prison construction, restoring civl rights, alternatives to incarceration and
programs offering substance abuse treatment. If his resume looks as if he's
committed to finding alternatives to incarceration, that's a correct
assumption. "That makes sense to the taxpayer," Smith said in a
telephone interview. "We have way too many people in jail for way too
long." During comments at the public hearing on the development
agreement for the federal detention center at the Nye County Commission
meeting Sept. 16, Smith said the new president inaugurated Jan. 20, 2009,
could change the country's immigration policy. The CCA facility would house
prisoners awaiting a hearing in federal court and illegal immigrants awaiting
deportation. "There will be an enormous surplus of beds which the
(private prison) industry tends to ignore," Smith predicted. Smith said
he has dealt with CCA, the nation's largest private prison operator, for 12
years and warned, "A deal is never a deal." "If you look at a
town like Shelby, Mont., you'll find out how many times a deal gets
negotiated in CCA's favor," he said at the public hearing. Smith said
CCA uses a central purchasing system, which means they don't spend as much
money in town. Smith and CCA Vice-President of Marketing and Communications
Louise Grant exchanged words at the conclusion of the public hearing. Grant
said the Private Corrections Institute was founded by the Florida Police
Benevolent Association, a union representing prison workers. "They're
completely opposed to privatization because unions are (opposed)," Grant
said. She charged the organization receives funding from the American
Federation of State, Federal, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
"They are paid or they volunteered to come into communities specifically
to go against privatization. That's their sole purpose," Grant said.
Smith, who is from Love City, Kan., denied Grant's accusations. He said the
Private Corrections Institute was formed by several people active in the area
of private prisons. He downplayed executive director Ken Kopczynski's role
with the Florida Police Benevolent Association, though his resume on the
institute's Web site states Kopczynski has been a legislative and political
affairs assistant for the FPBA since 1993, the largest collective bargaining
agent for law enforcement, correctional and probation officers in Florida.
"I can assure you that we won't be there," Grant said in a
telephone interview Tuesday. "We have stated publicly what the agenda of
the Private Corrections Institute is, and certainly our relationship is with
the county and we are continuing to very proactively work on the development
agreement. That's where our focus is today." Grant said the company has
held numerous public hearings, spoke at length at two recent town hall type
meetings, posted information on its Web site and had community officials
visit their facilities in other communities. Smith will provide extensive
data regarding the harmful consequences for host communities of detention
centers, the advertisement states. He will discuss media, political and legal
strategies to keep Pahrump from being victimized by CCA.
September
19, 2008 Pahrump Valley Times
When Nye County commissioners postponed consideration of a development
agreement for the proposed federal detention center until Oct. 21, they put
Corrections Corporation of America in a tight spot. County commissioners
heard almost two hours of testimony on the proposed development agreement
Tuesday, which mostly involved listening to the public air their opinions.
Commissioners didn't get into negotiating specific items of the agreement
with the company. "A critical time line has just become even more
critical," Brad Wiggins, CCA's site acquisition manager, said. The
development agreement was made a condition of the rezoning before CCA can
obtain the building permit to begin construction. The company also expects a
biological opinion today on what mitigation measures should be taken to
protect the desert tortoise, which isn't expected to be a deal-breaker. CCA
is expected to have the detention center ready within a number of months
after the biological opinion, Wiggins said. The record of decision issued in
May, identifying the site at 2250 E. Mesquite Ave. as the preferred location,
stated development of the proposed detention facility is expected to be
accomplished within approximately 12 to 15 months following the award of the
contract. Louise Grant, CCA vice-president of marketing and communications,
said, "The federal government has not changed its expectations for when
we would accept the first prisoners." Grant said the turnout and
reaction from many Pahrump residents was typical of the reaction in other
communities unfamiliar with private correctional facilities. Wiggins said
Pahrump opponents may think CCA isn't being honest. But Wiggins, a former
Federal Bureau of Prisons official, added, "They don't know after all
those hundreds of thousands of hours of working in those facilities, I have
to go to sleep at night knowing that I haven't said anything that's not
true." Grant said groups that oppose privatization of prisons in
general, like the Private Corrections Institute, had "their hired
guns" at the hearing. She said the corrections institute was founded by
prison union workers from Florida. Frank Smith, of Love City, Kan.,
representing the Private Corrections Institute, cautioned commissioners that
after 12 years of dealing with CCA, he has found that "a deal is never a
deal.' Steve Holbo, a retired lieutenant with the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation, said. "It's really difficult for me to
believe you have to accept the fact the federal government is going to put a
federal pen right in the middle of your town. This is just not happening in
California when we build state pens." Holbo said two prisons were built
20 miles outside of Blythe, Calif. He previously had promoted research
prepared by the American Correctional Officer Intelligence Network critical
of private prisons.
Southern Nevada
Womens Correctional Facility
North Las Vegas, Nevada
CCA
July 8, 2010 AP
A federal appeals court Thursday struck down a Nevada prison policy imposed
to crack down on sex between inmates and correctional officers at a women’s
prison that was described as an “uninhibited sexual environment.” The 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said requiring supervisory
positions be held only by female correctional officers discriminates against
male employees. “Precluding men from serving in supervisory positions in
women’s prisons is not a substitute for effective leadership and enforcement
of workplace rules,” Circuit Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote for the three-judge
panel. Howard Skolnik, director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, said
Thursday the policy no longer exists. “We have male lieutenants at that
facility,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s been like that since I’ve been
director.” Skolnik was appointed director in February 2007. The policy was
imposed at the Southern Nevada Women’s Correctional Facility after an inmate
was impregnated by a male guard in 2003. The prison at the time was run by a
private company, Corrections Corp. of America, which pulled out of its
contract after the scandal. An investigation by the inspector general
uncovered “widespread knowledge” that inmates traded sex with guards for
favors and privileges. The inspector general interviewed about 200 inmates
and noted “frequent instances of inappropriate staff/inmate interaction,” and
that in exchange for sex, prison staff “routinely” supplied inmates with
alcohol, drugs, cosmetics and jewelry, court documents said. Jackie Crawford,
former state corrections director, imposed the policy after the state took
back operation of the prison.
April
30, 2010 Pahrump Valley Times
While Corrections Corporation of America is close to opening an $80 million
federal detention center in Pahrump, the company chose an early termination
of their contract to operate the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center
in North Las Vegas in 2004 due to the high cost of medical care. The Nevada
Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, scheduled to begin accepting inmates in
October, is a male-only facility. CCA was awarded a 20-year contract by the
Office of the Federal Detention Trustee to build and operate the Pahrump
facility, which is up for renewal every five years. At a Jan. 28, 2004
meeting of the State Interim Finance Committee, the Nevada Department of
Corrections considered taking over inmate medical care at the women's prison
from CCA March 1 that year. But talk then expanded to the state taking over
the facility completely. Senate Bill 278, approved by the 1995 Nevada
Legislature, allocated $44 million to construct a new women's correctional
center in southern Nevada. CCA constructed a correctional facility for 550
inmates and began housing the female prisoners. The state purchased the land,
buildings and equipment from CCA on Oct. 3, 2001, with an operating contract
to remain in effect through June 30, 2015, according to minutes provided by
the research division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. CCA was given a per
diem rate of $40.03 per inmate, which was to increase by 3 percent per year.
By 2004 that rate increased to $47.79. The contract provided for automatic
renewals every three years, with a renewal scheduled Oct. 3, 2004. CCA and
the state DOC had been in discussions over the per diem rate and the
provision of health care to the facility for three years. Nevada DOC Medical
Administrator Chuck Schardin reported CCA health care costs increased 21
percent from $2.4 million in 2002 to almost $3 million in 2003. Off-site
expenses alone nearly doubled from $589,840 to $1.06 million. The minutes
show a dramatic reduction of inmates from projected numbers also caused
difficulties. While the women's correctional facility held 550 inmates at one
time, there was a population of only 445 inmates in early 2003. In spring
2002, CCA alleged inmates from honor camps with medical problems were being
dumped at the women's prison. In excerpts of the minutes from the Jan. 28,
2004, meeting, Tony Grande, CCA vice-president for state relations, said,
"Continuing the contract would be exceedingly difficult if CCA was not
able to remedy the costs related to medical services being provided at SNWCF."
Dr. Ted D'Amico, medical director for the state DOC, is quoted in March 31,
2004, as saying: "CCA had struggled with the medical care of inmates
from the start because of their inability to hire good administrators."
The intake process at the correctional facility required assistance from the
Nevada DOC during a year in which the medical director's budget absorbed
nearly $300,000 of medical care costs, D'Amico said. CCA had problems
providing timely dental care to inmates, who had to be incarcerated for six
months before dental care was provided, D'Amico said. The company provided a
half-time dentist, he said. There were also concerns about psychotropic
medications and HIV program standards. John Tighe, CCA vice president of
health services, was quoted as saying bluntly, "Operating an institution
housing female inmates was not an easy task." CCA was committed to
providing quality care at the women's prison and had to fill in employment
gaps, flying in staff from other areas using temporary and agency personnel,
which wasn't cost effective, Tighe said. State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas,
suggested the state assume operation of the entire facility, instead of just
the medical care. Following that discussion, CCA provided a notice of
contract termination Feb. 23, 2004, effective Oct. 1, 2004. D'Amico
"commended CCA's expertise and hard work during the length of their
contract with the state." The facility, now under state management, is
now known as the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center.
July 12, 2005 Las Vegas Sun
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a suit against the Corrections
Corporation of America brought by a female inmate who had sex with a former
prison guard, according to attorneys on both sides of the case. The judge,
Robert Jones, also ordered that transcripts of Monday's hearing be sent to
the Nevada State Bar because the case against the corporation may have
violated rules on frivolous lawsuits, attorneys said. The original
suit, brought by Korinda Martin, alleged that the Corrections Corporation was
negligent and did not properly hire and train staff at Southern Nevada
Women's Facility, among other complaints. While serving time at the
facility, Martin had sex with a guard, Randy Easter, and was impregnated. She
later gave birth to a boy. Martin and Easter pleaded guilty to having
sexual relations, and a state judge sentenced them both to probation. He
stated during the sentencing that the sex between the two was
consensual. The judge essentially felt that Martin schemed to get
pregnant and then sue, lawyers said. They said that Jones believed Martin's
suit may have violated rules on frivolous lawsuits and rules dictating that
an attorney make accurate representation of a case as an officer of the court.
April
20, 2005 AP
A former Nevada state prison inmate and the former guard who fathered her
child have been sentenced to probation by a judge who decided the
relationship was consensual. Clark County District Court Judge Donald Mosley
said Tuesday that love notes and photos Korinda Martin, 25, gave to Randy
Easter, 46, showed she was not a victim. Martin maintains she was forced into
sex by Easter when she became pregnant in 2003 at the Southern Nevada Women's
Correctional Center in North Las Vegas. Easter pleaded guilty in January to voluntary
sexual conduct with a prisoner, a felony. Martin pleaded the equivalent of no
contest to conspiracy to commit a crime, a gross misdemeanor. The two had
been indicted on one count each of voluntary sexual conduct between an inmate
and another person. Martin has filed a federal lawsuit against Easter and
Corrections Corporation of America, which ran the women's prison until the
state took control last October. Martin's lawyer, Scott Olifant, said Tuesday
that Martin could not have consented to sex because of Easter's position of
authority.
August
2, 2004
Leaders of Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison operator
that built and has run the state women's prison in North Las Vegas since
1997, complain the company has unfairly criticized for its treatment of
inmates. John Tighe, vice president of health services for Corrections
Corporation of America, says the company has lost $1 million a year, mainly
from supplying quality health and mental health services to the 464 inmates
at the Southern Nevada Women's Correction Facility. Tighe and CCA
spokesman Steve Owens said they wanted to correct "inappropriate and
misinformed allegations" against the company. They said the company
deals humanely with the inmates and will continue to do so until Oct. 1, when
the state takes over the prison. Dr. Ted D'Amico, director of medical
services for the state Department of Corrections, said the company focused on
its profit margin and "the mental health and health care were not as
good as we thought it should be." (AP)
June
21, 2004
The Nevada Corrections Department says it could do a better job of running a
women's prison in North Las Vegas than a private company - but costs would go
up by at least $1 million a year. The department said it would have a better-qualified
staff and provide "superior programming" for the prison, which
houses about 460 inmates. "Under a private vendor, the women's
correctional system would continue to be fragmented from the rest of Nevada's
correctional operations and remain subject to the allegation that Nevada's
female offenders are denied equal protection or treated like
'second-class citizens,"' the department said. The prison has had
problems in the past year that included an inmate becoming pregnant. DNA
testing showed a guard was the father. In addition, inmates signed a petition
that complained of poor food quality and medical care, among other
things. Corrections Corporation of America, which built and has
operated the prison since 1997, is pulling out on Sept. 30 at the end of its
contract. (AP)
April 12, 2004
Nearly half of the 464 inmates at a privately run
state women's prison in North Las Vegas have signed a petition stating
conditions at the prison are unacceptable and the state should take over.
The 215 inmates are complaining about poor food and
medical care, staffers who aren't properly trained, inadequate grievance
procedure and missing personal items at the prison now run by Corrections
Corporation of America. The petition
was sent to Governor Guinn, members of the Legislature and the state
Department of Corrections. (krnv.com)
February 26, 2004
Gov. Kenny Guinn's administration is going to try to find another private
company to run the state women's prison in North Las Vegas, but the state may
eventually become the operator. Jackie Crawford, director of the state
Department of Corrections, said Tuesday she intends to compete with private
companies in the bidding process for control of the 550-bed Southern Nevada
Women's Facility. Crawford's proposal has the support of Assemblywoman Chris
Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, vice chairwoman of the Assembly Ways and Means
Committee, which helps shape the state's budget. Giunchigliani, a
supporter of state operation of the prison, said the Department of Corrections
should be allowed in the competition. Corrections Corporation of
America, the company that built and operated the prison since 1997, has given
notice it will not renew its contract effective Oct. 1. The company said it
is pulling out because it has lost money on the operation. Keith Munro,
Guinn's legal counsel and assistant chief of staff, said Tuesday the
administration would put out a request for proposals for a private company to
continue to operate the prison. He said the Legislature fashioned the
biennial budget to have a private company in charge. But Giunchigliani
said the state could take it over with approval of the Legislative Interim
Finance Committee, which meets several times before the Legislature opens in
February 2005. Munro said it "won't take long" to put
together a request for proposals and the evaluation process would require 90
to 120 days Corrections Corporation of America is the largest operator
of private prisons in the nation. Steve Owen, a company spokesman, said the
company would have an interest in submitting a bid to win back a new version
of the Nevada contract about he emphasized it would have to be a
"viable" contract to allow the company to earn a profit.
Crawford said any bid proposal should require a company to pay it worker as
much as the state would. She said that was "fair and
equitable." Crawford said the security and the rehabilitation
programs of CCA at the North Las Vegas prison were good. She said there were
no escapes and no major disturbances. Crawford said CCA was "very
cooperative" when she had to pare down her budget because of the tough
financial times being experienced by the state. Crawford said,
"I'm not blaming (CCA)" for canceling the contract. She said she
understood the company is out to make a profit. The only issue was
medical care for the women inmates, she said. CCA had complained that the
state would dump sick inmates from other prison conservation camps into the
North Las Vegas prison. The prison and CCA reached an agreement for the
state to assume the medical care for the inmates. Dr. Ted D'Amico, director
of the medical program for the prison, said he could provide better care for
the female inmates if the state assumed control of that phase. CCA
would have paid the state $14.71 per inmate each month this fiscal year and
$15.15 next fiscal year to cover the health care. That would have reduced the
state's payment per inmate to CCA to $33 per inmate a month this fiscal year
and $34.08 next fiscal year. The Legislative Interim Finance Committee,
however, balked at the suggestion and appointed a study committee headed by
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, to examine the deal.
Raggio, a strong proponent of private companies running prisons, said the
budget staff of the Legislature felt the prison would end up spending more
money on this medical care than CCA was allocating. Raggio, whose son
died in the last week, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The
state went out to bid in 2002 for other private companies to run the prison.
It was looking for a better and more economical deal than CCA of Tennessee.
CCA wound up being one of the five bidders. The others were Cornell Companies
of Houston, Texas; Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis, Mo.; Prison
Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn.; and Civigenics of Marlborough, Ma.
Munro said an evaluation showed the existing CCA contract was still the
best. Giunchigliani said legislators "always anticipate the state
running the prison." She said the state does the best job in this area.
"Hopefully Jackie (Crawford) will staff up and make a bid," she
said. Giunchigliani said, however, that she would like to see a
nonprofit company run the drug rehabilitation program at the women's prison.
And she wants to make sure the women are trained for jobs, not just for
cooking, sewing and housekeeping. The Oct. 1 pullout by CCA will give
the chance for the state corrections department to approach the Interim
Finance Committee for some extra money and then come to the session that starts
in February for a full budget presentation, said Giunchigliani.
Giunchigliani said she pushed for a new women's prison in 1991 but some
lawmakers wanted to put it in Lincoln County as a form of economic
development. She said she had to agree to allow a private company to operate
it so it could be built in Clark County where there are more services and the
inmates are closer to their families. The contract between the state
and CCA runs until June 2015 with an automatic renewal every three years. CCA
took the option of notifying the state now so it would have plenty of time to
find an alternative operator. CCA is the latest private company to pull
out of a contract with the state in a penal institution. The state ended its
contract with a private company to provide medical care at the state prison
in Ely last year. Munro said that contract lasted seven to eight years.
Summit View, the male juvenile detention center in North Las Vegas, was
operated by the private Correctional Services Corp. But there were problems
there including escapes and staff having sexual relations with the
inmates. Correctional Services ended its contract, claiming it could
not make money. State Human Resources Director Mike Willden blamed part
of the problem on the low pay at Summit View that attracted some unqualified
staff. Willden advocated and finally got approval for the state to re-open
the center with state employees. Willden argued that state operation of
the facility would allow for better control of security and better control of
the programs being offered to the inmates. Crawford said one of the
problems both she and CCA faced in Clark County was hiring employees. She
said Clark County pays higher wages and the state prison and the privately
owned prison lost workers to the county. She said the turnover rate of
correctional officers at the Southern Nevada Women's Facility was high.
CCA built the North Las Vegas prison but the state eventually bought the
buildings and the equipment from the private company. The most recent controversy
at the prison involved an inmate who became pregnant. DNA testing indicated
the father of the baby was a former guard at the prison, authorities
said. (Sun Capital Bureau)
February
4, 2004
An investigation and DNA testing have identified former prison guard Randy
Easter as the father of a baby boy born to Nevada prison inmate Korinda
Martin on Jan. 12, a state Department of Prisons official said Tuesday.
Assistant Director Glen Whorton added the department’s inspector general has
turned over its information on the case to the state attorney general’s
office for review. Criminal charges could be brought against Martin and
Easter for violating a law that prohibits sex in the prisons. The law
says a prisoner who voluntarily engages in sexual conduct with another person
is guilty of a felony. So is anyone else who has sex with a prisoner.
Martin said she was impregnated by Easter at the women’s prison in North Las
Vegas. The prison is run by Corrections Corp. of America. The baby was
born after Martin was transferred from the prison system’s regional medical
center in Carson City to Carson-Tahoe Hospital. In a lawsuit she filed,
Martin named Easter as the father and sued him, Corrections Corp. of America,
the Department of Corrections and Gov. Kenny Guinn. (Reno
Gazette-Journal)
January 31, 2004
The private company that has a state contract to run the women's prison in
North Las Vegas wants to jettison the expensive part of its job. The
Corrections Corporation of America has asked the state to take over medical
care of the inmates at the 550-bed prison. In exchange, it has proposed that
its per-inmate rate of pay be lowered by $14 -- from $47 a day to $33. This
sounds like a fabulous deal -- for the private company. Even Senate
Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, a supporter of privatization, seemed to
be thinking the same thing when he blocked the offer this week after it came
before the Legislative Interim Finance Committee. Intuition alone tells us
that $14 a day per inmate -- $7,700 a day if the prison was full -- would not
likely cover the medical costs the state would be assuming. Just one major
medical procedure, let alone the actual number that might occur every day
among more than 500 inmates, could top that amount. Although a CCA
representative said the deal would be a "wash," the committee was
right to order a thorough financial analysis of the proposal -- even though
there is an urgent aspect to this issue. Dr. Ted D'Amico, medical director
for the state's prison system, was not considering finances when he urged the
committee to approve the proposal. His issue was the quality of care the
women are receiving. The care is "not up to standard," he said,
adding that "it's dangerous to wait." In our view, this statement
alone should be enough for the state to end its experiment with privatization
of vital services. The profit motive, so productive in private industry, is
simply not compatible with the mission of government, which is to provide
efficient, quality service in all of its areas of responsibility. The state
should cancel its contract with this private company and assume its proper
role in running the prison. (Las Vegas Sun)
January 30, 2004
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, on Wednesday blocked a state
takeover of the medical care of female inmates at the state's women's prison
in North Las Vegas because, he said, he wanted to make sure the state didn't
shortchange taxpayers. Raggio convinced other members of the
Legislative Interim Finance Committee to appoint a subcommittee to determine
how much it will cost the state to assume responsibility for the health of
the inmates. The Corrections Corporation of America runs the prison
under contract with the state and is paid $47 per day per inmate in the
550-bed prison. Under the proposal, CCA would reduce its per diem rate by $14
with the state taking over health care. Raggio said the fiscal staff of
the Legislature believes it is going to cost the state more than $14 per
prisoner per day. Dr. Ted D'Amico, medical director for the prison
system, urged the committee to approve the contract revision. He said the
medical care at the North Las Vegas prison was "not up to
standard." He said his state staff has "better
capability" than CCA. "It is dangerous to wait," he said. The
takeover was scheduled for March 1. Raggio said he wanted more time to
study the deal. He said CCA was getting rid of the troublesome program and
keeping the easier one -- security at the prison. But John Tighe, vice
president for health care of CCA, said security "is not
easy." (Sun Capital Bureau)
January 29, 2004
A legislative panel delayed action Wednesday on a plan to have the state take
over medical care of inmates at a women's prison in North Las
Vegas. Instead, the lawmakers'Interim Finance Committee formed a
subcommittee to meet with officials from Corrections Corporation of America
and the Department of Corrections to discuss the state's proposed takeover of
the medical care from CCA. Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno,
pressed for the delay, despite a plea from Dr. Ted D'Amico, medical director
for the Department of Corrections, to approve a shift in medical care by
March 1. The subcommittee will report back to IFC in March. The state has
been paying CCA, which operates the women's prison, $47.79 per day per
inmate. The prison currently has 452 inmates. Under the proposed contract
change, the cost would drop to $33.08 per day, with the state assuming the
medical care. D'Amico said the difference in payments would more than
cover the state's costs for providing medical and mental health care for the
inmates. He also said the women inmates at the North Las Vegas prison get
substandard care and could sue if the care doesn't improve. CCA officials
said they wanted out of the prison contract unless the state takes over the
medical care because they've been losing money running the women's
prison. (AP)
January 9, 2004
A Nevada
inmate who became pregnant at a women's prison in North Las Vegas has sued a
guard who allegedly impregnated her, the state Corrections Department, Gov.
Kenny Guinn and Correction Corp. of America which runs the prison.
The U.S.
District Court suit filed by Korina Martin, due to deliver her baby in late
January, names Randy Easter as the father. Easter was fired from the prison
after the pregnancy was discovered. According to
the lawsuit, filed by Las Vegas attorney Scott Olifant, sex between Martin
and Easter took place at the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility. The
state pays CCA to run the prison. The suit says guards hired by that
company are less qualified and get less training than guards at state
prisons, and the lack of training led to violations of Martin's
constitutional rights. Howard Skolnik, assistant director
of the department of corrections who oversees the women's prison, said
Thursday training for guards at the women's prison equals that of guards at
the state prisons, except for firearms instruction. Besides asking
for unspecified general, special and special damages, the suit also seeks to
require the state to provide medical care to Martin and her child until the
youngster is 18 years old. The suit also calls for an
injunction to prevent the prison from removing the baby from Martin when it
is born. The state has a policy of separating a newborn child from an
incarcerated mother soon after birth, Olifant said. "We are
not equipped to keep infants in the institution," Skolnik said. "We
can't raise children in prison." After the
pregnancy was discovered, Martin was transferred to a prison in Carson City
where she now confined. Prison officials said a DNA test
will be conducted when the baby is born to determine the father, and criminal
charges may be filed because it's a felony for a prison staffer to have sex
with an inmate. Easter couldn't be reached
immediately for comment. Donna Nolan, a spokeswoman for Corrections
Corporation of America, said the company had no comment on the matter.
Attorney
General Brian Sandoval's office is representing the prison department and
Guinn. A spokesman for Sandoval said the lawsuit will be opposed and the
state would soon file an answer. Martin was convicted of robbery and
coercion in Clark County and was sentenced in September 2001 to two to 10
years for robbery and consecutive one to four for coercion. (AP)
September 19, 2003
A yearlong drug smuggling operation at the Southern Nevada Women's Prison in
North Las Vegas has been broken up with the arrest of a guard and another
woman, the state Department of Public Safety said Wednesday. The
department said it arrested Constance Edwards, 33, a correctional officer at
the prison, as she was trying to bring two balloons of heroin into the
center, which is managed by the private Corrections Corp. of America.
This was the second time in recent months a corrections officer at the prison
has been under suspicion. A female prison inmate became pregnant during the
summer and identified a corrections officer as the father. The case is still
under investigation and no charges have been filed. The staff member
resigned. In the drug smuggling case, Corrections Corp. officials
notified the state Department of Corrections, which began looking into the
allegation with the state Division of Investigations a month ago. The department
said inmate Valerie Moore was receiving heroin and cocaine from Edwards, who
was getting the drugs from former inmate Karen Matthews. According to
investigators, Matthews arranged to supply the drugs to Edwards, who would
then get them into the prison and provide them to Moore. Howard Skolnik,
assistant director of the state Department of Corrections, said the
investigation is continuing whether Moore distributed the drugs to other
inmates. The department said Edwards, a prison employee for about two
years, received between $50 and $200 per delivery and she was involved in the
operation for a year. After the arrest, investigators gained a search
warrant for the home of Matthews, who also used the name Karen Davis, on
Jennydiane Drive near Lamb Boulevard and Vegas Valley Drive, and they said
they discovered evidence of the conspiracy. Edwards and Matthews were
charged with introducing a controlled substance into a correctional center
and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Edwards was also charged
with possession of a controlled substance. Moore will face disciplinary
charges at the prison for her alleged part in the operation. Moore, 44, is
serving a life term with the possibility of parole for a conviction of
second-degree murder. She has been in prison since June 1996 and is eligible
for parole in June 2005. Lt. Matthew Alberto of the state
Investigations Division is continuing to try to determine whether other
people in the prison were involved in the smuggling. So far, he said,
there is no evidence that money was paid by inmates inside the prison to
finance the drug trafficking. He said Matthews "had another source of
income to purchase the drugs for the prison and for herself."
Matthews has an extensive criminal background and was a cellmate of Moore
before Matthews was released. Alberto said Matthews was in prison the last
time for a drug offense. Evidence seized at Matthews' residence
included drug paraphernalia and documents showing when the correctional
officer got paid, Alberto said. Skolnik said this was the first case in
a number of years of a correctional officer in Southern Nevada being arrested
for smuggling drugs into the prison. He said there have been more of these
incidents in Northern Nevada than in Clark County. (Las Vegas Sun)
September 4, 2003
No more pregnancies were discovered among 535 female inmates in the state
prison who were tested for pregnancy after one convict reported that a prison
employee impregnated her, the state Department of Corrections announced
Tuesday. The inspector general's office is continuing its investigation
of possible sex between prisoners and staff throughout the system. The
testing began after an inmate at the women's prison in North Las Vegas was
found to be pregnant and she identified a correctional officer as the
father. The inmate, whose baby is due in January, was moved to the
prison medical center in Carson City. DNA testing will be done after the
birth to determine who the father is. The prison is operated by
Corrections Corp. of America, a private company under contract with the
state. Howard Skolnik, assistant director of the department, said
Corrections Corp. fully cooperated in the testing. Sex between an
inmate and a staff member is a felony. The staff member accused of having sex
with the inmate at the North Las Vegas prison has resigned. About 750
women prisoners were given blood tests; those of child-bearing age who had
not had hysterectomies were tested. Scott Olifant, the attorney for the
inmate who became pregnant, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He has
said that a lawsuit will be filed. The inmate pregnancy was the first
in the state since 1975, Skolnik said. (Las Vegas Sun)
January 30, 2003
A new inmate transitional center, a programming division and staff cuts were
outlined Wednesday as lawmakers reviewed the Nevada Department of
Correction's $431 million budget. One of those shifts coincides with
the opening of the Casa Grande transitional center in Las Vegas.
The facility, being constructed and operated by a not-for-profit
organization, would open this fall with 200 beds. Guinn budgeted more
than $2 million to pay for the contract. Another issue is the possible
expiration of a state contract with Corrections Corporation of America to run
the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center. Senate Majority Leader
Bill Raggio, R-Reno, asked what would happen if the company declined to renew
its contract in the fall of 2004. "We are very capable of moving
in and taking over that facility immediately," Crawford responded.
(AP)
September 30, 2002
The Southern Nevada Women's Prison has
been run by Corrections Corp. of America since opening in 1997.
But now the state, hoping to save money, is looking for a better
deal. Darrel J. Rexwinkel, deputy director in charge of finances for
the Department of Corrections, said the state now
pays $46.60 a day per inmate but wants a lower rate.
Renny Ashleman, an attorney for
Corrections Corp., has said his company has lost
money on the current deal - but intends to submit a new bid.
The women's prison is the only
full-service prison operated by a private company in Nevada. The
contract for Corrections Corporation expires in October 2004.
(AP)
January
2, 2002
Financial trouble has developed at the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional
Facility, which is run by a private company whose contract doesn't expire
until 2004. The state Department of Corrections has a three-year
contract with Corrections Corporation of America, which says it's losing
money on the prison in North Las Vegas that houses more than 500
inmates. Renny Ashleman, a Las Vegas lawyer representing CCA, said CCA
welcomes the state's move to look for additional operators, as it will
probably confirm that it costs more to run the prison than the state is now
paying. News accounts say CCA may have lost about $1.5 million on
medical treatment alone. The state had a lease-option to buy the prison
after 20 years, but it purchased the center in August for $24.1
million. Because of IRS rules, the CCA contract had to be trimmed after
the purchase from 20 years to three years, with an automatic renewal if both
sides agree. (AP)
Storey County, Nevada
CCA
January 8, 2009 Nevada Appeal
An industrial park in Storey County is preparing land and paperwork for a
private prison. The Tahoe Reno Industrial Center will seek a zoning change on
about 550 acres of the park, according to its broker, Lance Gilman.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, the largest
private prison company in the country, has said the 107,000-acre industrial
park that takes up over half of Storey County is one the places it is
considering for a new private prison. It would hold up to 3,000 inmates and
employ about 600 workers, according to the company. The Storey County
Planning Commission will not consider a permit for a private prison at its
Jan. 15 meeting as was tentatively scheduled, according to the planning
department. The item was taken off the agenda because an application for the
permit was not finished. Gilman said the industrial park is a great place for
a private prison. It is home to large distribution centers for Walmart and
others and has an open 160 square miles. “Don’t you think I can find a really
nice canyon or meadow that won’t interfere with anyone?” he said. “Hell, yes,
I can.” Gilman said he can’t say anything about Corrections Corp. under an
agreement with the company, but the industrial park will be ready for a
private prison as soon as possible. The Corrections Corp. prison would be
built in two phases on the southeast side of the industrial park near the
corner of Portofino and Malta drives, according to paperwork filed with
Storey County by the industrial park. The buildings will be less than 35 feet
tall and “similar in scale and appearance to a light industrial park or
secondary school,” according to the county records. A minimum 100-foot buffer
zone would surround the patrolled prison along with double 12-foot security
fences, records say. Corrections Corp. would get inmates through a state or
federal contract, said Louise Grant, a company representative. The company
has no contract and no definite schedule to start building the prison,
however, she said. Corrections Corp. managed the Southern Nevada Women’s
Correctional Facility in North Las Vegas from 1997 to 2004. It was the first
private company to manage a Nevada prison. The company did not renew a
contract to continue managing the prison, saying medical care and other costs
made it too expensive. Nye County in December approved a federal detention
center that the company will build and run in Pahrump. Some residents and the
Florida-based Private Corrections Institute criticized the plan during the
company’s two-year negotiations with the county. Frank Smith of the institute
said in an e-mail that the detention center will lack oversight and hurt Nye
County. But the project is supported by the county government and the “vast
majority” of residents, according to Grant. She said the institute rallied a
few people to spread “misinformation” about the company.
Summit View Youth
Correctional Facility
Las Vegas, Nevada
Correctional Services Corporation
January 27, 2004
A youth corrections facility where inmates staged a rooftop revolt two years
ago when the place was privately run was expected to reopen today under state
control, officials said. Summit View Youth Correctional Center closed
in March 2002 after numerous complaints about suicide attempts, escapes,
unchecked drug use and sexual and physical abuse of inmates by guards. Those
problems came to light after 20 inmates, fed up with the prison conditions,
took to the rooftop of the facility and had a 90-minute standoff with
police. Now under the control of the state, Summit View will become a
place where the young prisoners can be properly rehabilitated because the
facility has better staff that is prepared to deal with their charges, newly
appointed Summit View Superintendent Robert McLellan said. (Las Vegas
Sun)
January 23, 2004
Pizza parties. Movie nights. Staff who smoke weed with inmates and ignore
tips about riots. And blow jobs. Blow jobs! What disrespecting, young
male scofflaw wouldn't beat down a warden's door to serve time in this
teenage Club Fed? Juxtaposed against Summit View Youth Correctional
Center's ascetic veneer—a fortress of steel and thick brick circled by barbed
wire; to the north lies restricted Nellis Air Force Base land—is the reality
of its past: Inmates, with the help of complicit staff, ran the asylum. And
not just any inmates—Nevada's most violent and dangerous male juveniles.
Three years ago, 19 of them led a rooftop uprising that trained global
attention on the privately-run, 96-bed facility in a cul-de-sac in a desert
patch of northeast North Las Vegas. Months of feverish work by state
officials to close wide-ranging gaps in Youth Services International's
program, from tracking allegations of mistreatment to escape procedures to
staff training, the Florida-based company opted out of its $4.3 million
annual contract in September 2001, closing the facility and displacing an
already hard-to-place population. Two months later, before District
Judge Joseph Bonaventure, Gloria Kim—one of two female employees given
probation for performing oral sex on inmates—explained why so much went
unchecked at Summit View: "It was poorly run." On Monday, the
prison is slated to reopen. This time, under state rule (all state juvenile
correctional centers are under the auspices of the state Department of Human
Resources' Division of Child and Family Services). At the helm will be
Superintendent Robert McLellan, tapped from the Montana Department of
Corrections, who's indicated he'll not use the past as a guide. He neither
knows much about the riots and oral sex, nor does he care. "I'm not
familiar with what occurred down to the details," says McLellan. Prior
to becoming assistant superintendent at the Pine Hills Youth Correctional
Facility in Miles City, Montana, he worked in enforcement. "This is an
entire new operation. It'll be completely different." The first 24
inmates are scheduled to arrive on Monday, with the facility expected to be
fully operational, all 96 beds filled and 86 staffers hired, by year's
end. Big Difference No. 1 between YSI and McLellan: Under YSI,
employees routinely took on assignments without being properly trained.
McLellan's workforce will undergo 160 to 170 hours of instruction set to
American Correctional Association Standards. "You absolutely have to
screen and hire the best staff to supervise the youth." Big
Difference No. 2: Inmates' entire days will be structured, from wake-up to
bedtime, chow time to exercise—the facility's central portion has soccer
fields, volleyball and basketball courts and a gym. Also in place will
be a "cognitive behavioral restructuring model." It delineates
levels of behavior and rewards inmates for obeying rules. Via the Clark
County School District, inmates can take continuing education courses,
vocational and GED classes or, McLellan says, sign up for life-skills programs.
McLellan is in the process of identifying the inmates; there's no plan to
accept youth from other states. The typical stay will range from nine to 12
months. Given the caliber of his future clientele—chronic offenders (they've
committed large number of crimes), serious offenders convicted of assault,
weapons and drug-related crimes) and parole violators—McLellan doesn't expect
a trouble-free ride. "Every juvenile facility has the potential to
have problems. We have already planned for a variety of things," he
notes, neglecting to say if that includes weed-smoking parties between
inmates and staff and the occasional act of oral sex meant to deflate an
unruly prisoner. "We're prepared for problems if they do
happen." (Scope mag.com)
January 5, 2004
After being closed for nearly two years, the state-owned Summit View male
juvenile detention center in North Las Vegas will be reopened Jan. 26 and
will take in 24 boys the first week. "We intend to keep (the
inmates) engaged and busy," newly hired superintendent Robert W.
McLellan said. "There will be little unstructured time." From
6:15 a.m. until lights-out at 10 p.m. there will be schooling and a variety
of programs with only a minimum of free time, he said. Classes at the
facility will begin Jan. 29. The $14 million, 96-bed center originally
opened in June 2000 with Correctional Services Corp. hired by the state to
operate the facility. But there were problems, including escapes and sex
between female staff and inmates. The private company pulled out of the
contract in January 2002, complaining it could not make money. Except for a
maintenance staff, Summit View has been vacant since March 2002. The
2003 Legislature approved the recommendation of Gov. Kenny Guinn that Summit
View should be run by the state, rather than a private company. State
Human Resources Director Mike Willden said the first group of inmates will
come from county juvenile facilities, mostly in Clark County. He said Nevada
delinquents placed in out-of-state facilities would not be brought back
immediately unless their treatment programs are completed. McLellan,
who comes from Montana, has hired Audrey Fetters from Washington state as his
assistant superintendent. McLellan is a former chief of police in two
cities in Montana, a deputy sheriff in Colorado and was deputy director of
care and custody of Pine Hills Youth Correction Facility in Miles City,
Mont., before taking the Nevada job. Before coming to Nevada, Fetters
was juvenile court administrator and administrator of the juvenile detention
center in Yakima, Wash. She has a background in clinical social work.
The typical length of stay for a juvenile at the facility is expected to be
nine to 12 months, though chronic offenders may stay longer, McLellan said.
Inmates can be held at the facility until they turn 20. The center has
an authorized staff of 85 and McLellan said he will have 44 on board when it
opens next month. The staff will be augmented as more youths are
accepted. Willden said he intends to follow the guidelines of the
American Corrections Association, which call for one staff member for every
eight inmates during the day and a 1-16 ratio at night. The Clark
County School District will provide the schooling. Willden said the state has
hired nurses, mental health counselors, security staff, cooks and
others. Reveille is planned for 6:15 a.m. for the inmates, who will do
calisthenics, shower and clean their individual rooms before going to
breakfast. School starts at 8:50 a.m. and goes until 11:30 a.m. when there is
a break for lunch. The boys are back in class from 12:30 to 3:10 p.m.
After school there will be group sessions aimed at changing the behavior of
the inmates and recreation. McLellan said there will be at least an hour of
"large muscle exercise" that will include such sports as football
and soccer. The inmates will use a gymnasium that has never been used.
It was completed after the private company pulled out and the center was put
in mothballs. There will be a new soccer field and weight room, Willden
said. After dinner the boys will have one to two hours of leisure time
to write letters, work on their school courses or do other activities. There
will also be mental health counseling. A "wrap-up" session will
follow to allow inmates to talk about the day's activities. At 7 p.m.
there are more group sessions for counseling on drug, alcohol and health
problems. And at 9 p.m. the juveniles are put in their rooms and the lights
are turned out at 10 p.m. Willden said the inmates will be serious
offenders, many of whom "flunked out of Elko and Caliente," the
other two state-operated training centers for delinquents. Willden said
Summit View "gives us another tool" in the placement of youngsters
but the state may still contract with private companies for some. After
closure in 2002, the state sent the youths to Rite of Passage in Northern
Nevada or to a facility in Tennessee. "This is high security --
high fences and razor wire. And there will be lockdown," he said.
Willden said he doesn't want to see the security lapses that plagued the
center when a private company operated it. The facility is scheduled to
be in full operation by August 2004. Its budget for next fiscal year is $5.2
million. (Sun Capital Bureau)
December 5, 2002
Gov. Kenny Guinn wants to reopen Summit
View Youth Correctional Center, the prison for serious juvenile
offenders in North Las Vegas, with the state -- instead of a private
company -- running it. Guinn said Tuesday he would include
money in his next budget to reopen the 96-bed center in July.
From the time Summit View opened in 2000
to its closure on Jan. 31, 2002, it was run by Correctional
Services Corp. But that private contractor pulled out,
complaining that the state never put enough inmates in the
facility to enable it to make a profit. The state had paid
Correctional Services $122 per day per inmate.
Guinn and state Human Resources Director
Mike Willden said the state can operate the center at a rate
competitive with private companies and would provide better
accountability. A state-run center would be a stable work
environment for employees, who must be trained to handle violent
youth, gang members and drug offenders, state officials said.
A number of problems were documented
when Correctional Services ran the center, including escapes and
sexual contact between female staff members and male inmates.
There also were allegations that Correctional Services didn't
hire qualified guards and didn't pay adequate wages, Willden
said. After Correctional Services announced it would pull out, Guinn
and Willden proposed the state reopen the facility. They
estimated the state could run the center for $155 per day per
inmate. But the Legislative Interim Finance Committee nixed that plan
and told the administration to find a private contractor. In the
meantime, the inmates were placed in other facilities at a cost of
$113 to $126 a day. Bids were solicited and Securicor New Century
of Richmond, Va., was selected as the operator. But before a contract
could be signed, the state's budget crisis worsened.
Instead of going with Securicor, the
state decided to ship the inmates to other places.
Willden said the bids from the two
private companies that sought the contract ranged from $149 to
$160 per day for each inmate. Guinn suggested the state's
initial $155 per inmate estimate could be knocked down to $145
or $150. (Las Vegas SUN)
August
19, 2002
The director of the state Department of
Human Resources says he wasn't aware of allegations that a
Georgia company that wants to operate the Summit View detention
center may have had past problems in running similar youth
programs in Florida. But that doesn't mean the company will
lose the contract, said Mike Willden, whose department oversees
Summit View near North Las Vegas.
Willden said Monday that an evaluation
committee in the state Purchasing Division, not his department,
issued the "intent to award" the contract to Securicor
New Century. Willden said he intends to meet this week with the evaluation
committee to talk about the allegations. He said, however, he
doesn't know if this will change the decision to go forward with
negotiations with Securicor.
The real issues, Willden said, are
whether the problem at three youth centers in Florida were
"pervasive and continuing" and if there were no
efforts to correct the deficiencies.
Willden said every company that runs
detention centers for hard-core juveniles has problems of
"uprisings, runaways and improper relations" between
staff and the inmates. Ernie Adler, attorney for Rite of Passage
of Minden, which came in second in the bidding for the state
contract, said the company would file an appeal in the next week.
Adler said many of the problems that
occurred in Florida were similar to the ones Summit View had
when it was operated by Correctional Services Corp., which ended
its contract in January. The $14 million Summit View, with 96
beds for serious male juvenile offenders, opened in 2000 and
closed on Jan. 31. Rite of Passage President Lawrence
Howell also complained that the company's parent is based in
Great Britain. William Florence, president of Diversified Business Vision of
Las Vegas, a third company that submitted a bid, said Monday he
was also concerned how the bid was awarded. State
Purchasing Officer Colleen Janes could not be reached for comment on whether
the evaluation team knew about the past problems of Securicor,
which runs three centers in Florida for the state.
Securicor President Gail Browne said
there has been one escape in the past year. That came at a center
where the least restrictive inmates are allowed to go into the
nearby town. She said in the three years Securicor has been operating in
Florida, there have been two incidents of improper sexual
relationships between staff and an inmate. In one case the
employee was fired within 24 hours and in the second, the worker
quit, Browne said. (The Las Vegas Sun)
June
20, 2002
Nevada is looking again at leasing the
mothballed state prison at Jean.
The state also has narrowed the list of
private bidders to reopen the Summit View juvenile detention
center in southern Nevada from three to two.
The $14 million center is a 96-bed
facility for serious male juvenile offenders. It opened in 2000
and was run under contract by Correctional Services Corp.
But after a number of problems,
including attempted escapes and sexual contact between female
staff and inmates, the private company ended its contract,
saying it was losing money. The facility closed earlier this
year. (Las Vegas Sun)
November 26, 2001
Lawmakers balked Monday at a Guinn
administration plan to have the state take over
Nevada's first privately run youth prison, where inmates took over a rooftop
last summer. The state Child and Family Services Division wanted a go-ahead
from the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee to run the
Summit View Youth Correctional Center, but failed to get a
majority of either the Assembly or Senate members of the
panel. The state decided to take over Summit View, subject
to IFC approval, after Florida-based YSI recently decided to end
its $4.3 million annual contract two years
early. Last summer, 20 inmates climbed onto a Summit View
rooftop and had an hours-long standoff with police - on the
first anniversary of the prison's opening. The inmates caused
more than $12,000 in damage before giving up.
In August, two former employees were
arrested on charges of having sex with two inmates,
ages 17 and 18. The women pleaded guilty and will likely receive
probation when they are sentenced next month, prosecutors said.
(AP)
October 11, 2001
Gov. Kenny Guinn says plans for the state to operate the troubled Summit View
Youth Correction Center in North Las Vegas are moving ahead. But Guinn
said the center's current private operator, Youth Services International,
will first have to make some repairs before it pulls out. "They've
got to clean up the place and leave it like it was," Guinn said.
"It has not been taken care of." YSI in September gave six
months' notice that it was pulling out of the operation, which has had a number
of problems. (AP)
September 24, 2001
The private company that operates the youth prison where inmates took over a
rooftop in June is pulling out of its contract with the state - two years
before it expires. Youth Services International, which operates Summit
View Youth Correctional center, notified the state earlier this month that it
wants out of its $4.3 million annual contract. YSI officials said the
company is pulling out of Nevada because the prison never reached 95 percent
capacity and administrators had trouble hiring staff in Las Vegas' highly
competitive market. The facility's problems were revealed after 20
inmates escaped onto a rooftop and had an hours-long standoff with police on
the first anniversary of the prison's opening. In August, two former
employees were arrested on charges of having sex with two inmates, age 17 and
18. The women pleaded guilty and will likely receive probation when
they are sentenced next month, prosecutors said. The company pulled out
of a similar contract in Florida after problems surfaced and has been under
fire in Maryland after a state audit found problems at two YSI facilities
there. (AP)
June 26, 2001
Two teen-agers accused of trying to escape during a detention center
disturbance have agreed to plea bargains. They were among 20 teen
inmates accused of climbing onto the roof of the state-owned and privately
run Summit View Youth Correctional Center on June 1. (AP)
June 02, 2001
The uprising ended peacefully after about three hours, with the last two of
about 20 inmates surrendering to authorities on the roof of the
facility. Earlier, aerial video footage from a local news helicopter
showed about 20 young men on the roof of one building at the facility, some
carrying large pieces of wood and metal parts from air conditioning
ducts. Police and prison guards surrounded them on the ground in the
104-degree heat. Military police from nearby Nellis Air Force Base were
also on the property, aiding local authorities. The 13-acre, 96-bed facility,
which opened one year ago today, houses male juvenile offenders aged
13-18. It's the state's first secure juvenile facility, built for
chronic offenders, many of whom have been convicted of felonies. The
center was paid for by the state of Nevada, but is operated by Youth Services
International, a private company based in Sarasota, Fla. (CNN.com)
June 01, 2001
Teen-age inmates surrendered Friday after a disturbance at a maximum security
youth correctional facility outside Las Vegas. Some of the inmates took
to a rooftop and could be seen brandishing sticks or clubs before the
standoff ended without further incident. The uprising by at least 15
teens came on the first anniversary of the opening of the Summit View Youth
Correctional Center, a privately managed 96-bed state prison for the most
serious teen-age offenders. (FOX News)
