New York Hall of Shame

Albany County Jail
Albany, New York
Prison Health Services
September 4, 2004
A Bronx woman who delivered a live baby in a jail toilet in 2001 after her premature labor allegedly was ignored for days has filed a federal civil rights claim blaming Albany County officials and a former jail nurse for her son's death. Ajadyan Venny was at least 5 months pregnant when she was jailed on a drug charge on Aug. 30, 2001, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court Thursday. The 30-page lawsuit alleges the following chain of events: The 22-year-old was given a cursory exam and pregnancy test and then left on her own as pain in her abdomen and back spiked over the next 10 days. A female jail nurse who is employed by Prison Health Services, Inc., told Venny repeatedly that the pain was a normal result of being pregnant in jail, which is a stressful environment. Venny was supposed to see an obstetrics consultant on Sept. 4, 2001, but her appointment was canceled. Five days later, on Sept. 9, her screams woke the dorm at 5 a.m. At 6:30 a.m., correction officers told Venny she couldn't get help until the 7 a.m. shift change. By then, she could no longer walk on her own. The nurse told guards she couldn't leave her post. A concerned correction officer finally radioed his sergeant, who ordered the nurse to see to Venny, who now was sitting on the toilet in her cell and bleeding profusely. But the nurse was ineffective, court papers said: "At approximately 7:15 a.m. nurse Hunt responded to the dorm, bringing with her only a blood pressure cuff to attend the plaintiff, who was in the end stage of labor." The nurse attempted to console Venny rather than render medical assistance. She told officers at 7:18 a.m. that Venny had miscarried in-utero and ordered an ambulance. It was only after a Colonie EMS workers asked if there was a baby that a guard went back to check the toilet "and found a sac containing a child who had been unattended for a substantial period of time." Correction officers freed the baby and cut his umbilical cord. After two days in Albany Medical Center Hospital's neonatal unit, the struggling newborn, Scott Mayo Jr., died at 3 a.m. on Sept. 11. "This was a full-grown, viable baby," attorney Kevin Luibrand said. "It was not a fetus. She was probably much further along than she thought." State correction officials later faulted Prison Health Services Inc. for their handling of the situation. The county did not renew its contract with the company in Feb. 2002, saying it would go with a less expensive provider. Officials at the jail declined to comment on the lawsuit. Richard Wright, president and CEO of Prison Health Services, also declined to comment. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company recently was dismissed from an eight-year contract with the Schenectady County Jail after the death of an inmate. (Times Union)

Brooklyn
Correctional Services Corporation
October 19, 2004 1010 WINS He's been convicted of theft, reviled by the press and pushed from office in a scandal that came to symbolize lax ethics in Albany . Roger Green is still feeling pretty good. Running all but unopposed for the state Assembly, he's poised to retake the Brooklyn seat he resigned in June after pleading guilty to stealing public money by submitting fake travel vouchers to the state. Green's legal troubles emerged from a probe of free transportation given to lawmakers by Sarasota, Fla.-based Correctional Services Corp. Albany County prosecutors charged Green with stealing from the state by submitting fake travel claims for expenses he never incurred when he was riding the CSC vans. Green filed bogus claims for about 30 trips between Albany and New York , prosecutors said. Green also was among a host of current and former state lawmakers who wrote to state officials supporting extensions of CSC's state contracts for halfway house services. CSC received $25.4 million from the state to provide such services between 1992 and 2000. Green was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines and restitution after admitting to two counts of petty larceny and one count of offering a false instrument. He acknowledges using the CSC vans but said he paid CSC for gas and asked for state reimbursement because he did not understand the state's vague guidelines. But good-government advocates say Green's ethical troubles and impending return to office show a pressing need for reform. "The system is broken," said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director for the League of Women Voters of New York State. "The system has not overseen itself at all."

November 17, 2003
ALBANY District Attorney Paul Clyne said yesterday he needs "a few more weeks" to decide if he's going to indict state lawmakers for stealing official travel reimbursements funds. Clyne told The Post he's still waiting to receive potentially critical documents from Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., the prison-services firm that provided free, roundtrip limo trips to and from the Capitol for lawmakers able to help the company win state contracts. Investigators believe several of those lawmakers, including Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Roger Green, then billed the state for thousands of dollars in travel reimbursements, even though they incurred no actual costs. The probe was triggered by former Bronx Democratic Assemblywoman Gloria Davis' guilty plea in January to taking bribes. She also admitted accepting free CSC-provided transportation in exchange for helping the company obtain contracts. "I would say we'll have the decision within weeks. There are certain records that we're waiting for from the company," Clyne told The Post. He said he would be able to reach a decision on indictments within 30 days. Clyne and the state Board of Elections, meanwhile, are also seeking to determine if several lawmakers, including Green, received illegal "in-kind" campaign contributions from CSC. CSC Vice President Jack Brown told the State Lobbying Commission earlier this year that his company regularly provided undisclosed campaign workers and transportation to Green and Brooklyn Assemblyman Daryl Towns during the 2000 campaign season. (New York Post)

September 15, 2003
THE potentially explosive criminal probe of phony travel vouchers filed by state lawmakers will wrap up in 30 days with a go-ahead for indictments - or the dismissal of the case, The Post has learned. "I anticipate we will make a decision within the next 30 days to either close the case or go forward with an expanded investigation," Albany County District Attorney Paul Clyne told The Post. "It's hardly a dead issue," continued Clyne, whose probe began after the corruption conviction earlier this year of former Bronx Democratic Assemblywoman Gloria Davis. Clyne convened a new grand jury on Wednesday that is expected to begin hearing testimony in the probe. Legislative sources predicted Clyne would bring several indictments. Clyne's probe focuses on expenditures by Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., a private prison-services provider, to allegedly influence several state lawmakers from New York City, including the repeated provision of free, chauffeur-driven travel to and from the state capital. Davis, who pleaded guilty to taking a bribe, said the free travel was part of CSC's effort to win her help in obtaining state contracts. Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Roger Green has also admitted receiving free travel. Investigators suspect several lawmakers - including Green - billed the state for thousands of dollars in travel mileage costs that were actually provided by CSC, an action Clyne has said would be criminal fraud. "We've been accumulating records, primarily from CSC, and we've been reviewing reimbursement records provided by the Legislature," said Clyne. Ominously for lawmakers, Clyne said he's obtained new information "that has not been made public." Clyne, meanwhile, is also seeking to determine if several lawmakers, including Green, received illegal "in-kind" campaign contributions from CSC in violation of state election law. CSC Vice President Jack Brown told the state Lobbying Commission earlier this year that his company regularly provided campaign workers and transportation to the 2000 re-election campaigns of Green and another Brooklyn assemblyman, Daryl Towns. Stay tuned. (New York Post)

May 21, 2003
One of the major behind-the-scenes players in the city's lucrative homeless-housing business is a director at a scandal-tainted prison-services firm under investigation for allegedly bribing state lawmakers to win contracts, The Post has learned. Shimmie Horn, a director of Correctional Services Corp., is a major investor in homeless hotels, interests that he inherited from his father, the late Morris Horn, who once ran one of the city's most notorious "welfare hotels" of the 1980s, the Brooklyn Arms. Horn's lawyer, Ron Torossian, said it's unfair to single out his client because of his role as a member of the board of directors at CSC. CSC is under investigation by the Albany County district attorney and three state agencies that are trying to determine if the private prison firm bribed elected officials to win their help in securing contracts. ( New York Post)

February 27, 2003
The state's Lobbying Commission fined a private prison company a record $300,000 today for failing to report free transportation, meals and other gifts it had given to legislators in an effort to keep millions of dollars in state contracts. Reams of documents and depositions released by the commission as it announced the fine today painted a picture of a company, Correctional Services Corporation, that did everything it could to curry favor with more than a dozen elected officials in Brooklyn and the Bronx as it won contracts to provide services to recently released prisoners. The $300,000 fine is the largest that the state has ever imposed on a single company for breaking its lobbying laws. David M. Grandeau, the executive director of the lobbying commission, said the size of the fine was intended to send a strong message. "This isn't a game," he said. "If you are going to lobby in this state, you have an obligation to follow the law." The company, Correction Services Corporation, based in Sarasota , Fla. , gained more than $22 million worth of state contracts in the 1990's, but no longer does any business with the state. The company's president, James F. Slattery, a former New Yorker, denied any wrongdoing, however. In a prepared statement, he said he took issue with the commission's conclusions but had agreed to the fine only to "avoid further expense and distraction." In depositions before the commission, Mr. Slattery and another company official, Jack A. Brown III, tried to cast blame for the unreported lobbying activities on a former company vice president, Franklin Chris Jackson, who left the company in 2000. Company expense reports made public today suggest that Mr. Jackson not only provided free transportation to some lawmakers but also wined and dined many others, especially in early 2000. None of these gifts were reported to the lobbying commission as required by law. At least six of the unreported gifts were worth more than the $75 limit that state law sets on perquisites lobbyists may give lawmakers, the commission found. For instance, Roberto Ramirez, a former Bronx assemblyman and county Democratic chairman, received a $113 fruit basket from the company in March 2000. In the same month, Larry B. Seabrook, a former Bronx assemblyman now in the City Council, got a $202 plane ticket from Washington to New York. Two other lawmakers, who were not named in the documents, received boxes of chocolates on Valentine's Day that year from the company worth more than $75. The lobbying activities of the company are under investigation by the district attorneys in Albany and Manhattan , who are looking at the possibility of bringing criminal charges against company officials and legislators. The lobbying commission has turned over the records it has collected to those investigators. The State Legislative Ethics Committee and the Board of Elections have also opened inquiries. In depositions, Mr. Slattery and Mr. Brown said the company rented minivans during the 2000 election and gave them to Assemblyman Roger Green of Brooklyn and other candidates for use in campaigns. The company's undisclosed influence peddling came to light after Assemblywoman Gloria Davis, a Bronx Democrat, pleaded guilty to bribery charges in connection with helping a construction company win a lucrative contract in her district. As part of a plea bargain, Ms. Davis admitted that she had accepted free rides to and from Albany in vans provided by Correction Services Corporation. She said she had in return helped the company continue to get state contracts. Former employees of the company say Mr. Green, an influential legislator who heads the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus in the Assembly, was also given free transportation in a minivan with tinted windows, as well as workers for his political campaigns, free meals and a cellular telephone. The depositions and documents released today, however, establish only that the company provided a rented van for Mr. Green sometime in December 2000. The two company officials maintained that the van was only provided on one day for election purposes. One of the company's records, however, refers to one of the rented vans as "Roger minivan" in Mr. Slattery's handwriting. Another expense report, from August 2000, lists a $30 expense that says: "Roger Green needed van." Gerald L. Shargel, a lawyer for Mr. Green, said the assemblyman denied the documents released today proved any wrongdoing. The man at the center of the case, Mr. Jackson, was not deposed because he is gravely ill, according to his lawyer, Gail E. Laser. Mr. Jackson's expense reports, however, suggest he spent a good deal of time dining with politicians. On Jan. 18, for instance, he reported having a $170 dinner with State Senator Ada Smith at a Queens restaurant. On Jan. 27, he spent $223 on dinner at a Bronx restaurant with Mr. Ramirez, the county Democratic leader. Mr. Jackson's tab also included a lunch at Sylvia's in Harlem with H. Carl McCall, the former state comptroller, for $50. Many of these meals were not necessarily illegal gifts under the state's $75 rule, but failure to report them violated the law. (New York Times)

February 26, 2003
Correctional Services Corporation (Nasdaq:CSCQ - News; the "Company") announced today that it has entered into a final agreement with the New York State Temporary Commission on Lobbying (the "Commission") that concludes the Commission's review of the Company's semi-annual lobbying expenditure reports for the period January 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001. As part of the agreement, the Company has agreed to amend its semi-annual lobbying reports for the period of January 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001 in accordance with the Commission's views and to pay to the Commission a civil penalty for the 3 periods in question of $300,000.The Commission's investigation focused primarily upon alleged lobbying activities of certain former employees of the Company in New York. The Company cooperated fully with the Commission in the course of its investigation and voluntarily provided to the Commission numerous documents, records and testimony to assist the Commission in its investigation. (Yahoo Finance)

February 21, 2003
Correctional Services Corp. could face a criminal charge for exceeding campaign contribution limits in the 2002 elections, the second time the Florida-based prison services company violated New York 's election law, a state official said Thursday. Campaign filings for 2002 show CSC gave at least $8,150 to various campaigns, exceeding the $5,000 limit for corporations. The company may have also provided campaign help that could qualify as in-kind donations, which must also be reported. Documents and testimony provided by CSC to the Temporary State Commission on Lobbying show the company provided staff and vans to various campaigns. Daghlian said the board is investigating whether it should refer the company's excess contributions to a district attorney. CSC in 1997 also violated the campaign contribution limit, Daghlian said, handing out $6,000 to various candidates including $2,500 to Republican Gov. George Pataki and lesser amounts to several current and former New York City Democratic assemblymen. A second violation could qualify for a misdemeanor charge, Daghlian said. The company is also a subject of investigations by the lobbying commission and the Albany County and Manhattan district attorneys, which are looking into free rides and other perks the company provided to legislators. (Times Union)

February 21, 2003
The state Lobbying Commission has evidence that a private prison firm gave illegal gifts to state lawmakers, a top commission official said yesterday. After lengthy interviews with executives of Correctional Services Corp., Lobbying Commission Executive Director David Grandeau said the Florida-based firm also improperly filed lobbying reports with the state. "We feel there's sufficient evidence to bring an action against them for failing to properly report their lobbying expenditures, along with the fact that they made illegal gifts beyond the $75 limit to legislators," Grandeau said. CSC, which has been under investigation for giving free transportation to lawmakers, can settle the matter by amending its reports and paying a fine or going to a hearing, he said. The maximum fines are $50,000 per inaccurate report and $25,000 for each illegal lobbying expense. (New York Daily News)

February 18, 2003
A vehicle provided to Assemblyman Roger L. Green for his personal use was a gray Plymouth Voyager minivan with tinted windows, but the perks from a private prison company called Correctional Services Corporation did not end there, according to interviews and records from a federal investigation into the company's operations. Mr. Green, an influential state legislator in New York , received a driver, a young man named Jorge Avila-Parks, who on many mornings showed up at Mr. Green's home in Brooklyn . There was also the public relations aide for Mr. Green's office, workers for his political campaigns, free meals and a cellphone. All told, the federal investigative records indicate, the package was worth as much as $2,000 a month. When it came to courting the powerful as it won millions of dollars in state contracts, Correctional Services did not hold back. And now its political activities have provoked an array of inquiries. Company records have been turned over to state prosecutors in Albany and Manhattan , executives have been subpoenaed, and the state lobbying commission is determining whether favors for lawmakers were properly disclosed. Campaign Duty Company employees said that at election time, Correctional Services required many workers at its state and federally financed halfway houses in New York City to become foot soldiers in the campaigns of many politicians, from former Mayor David N. Dinkins to the Rev. Al Sharpton to lawmakers in Washington , Albany and the city. At one Correctional Services halfway house, 17 of the 22 workers were out on the trail early one November, according to federal records. It might have been familiar duty for some of them: Correctional Services had hired them because they were relatives or friends of United States Representative Edolphus Towns of Brooklyn , State Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo of the Bronx and numerous other officials. Sometimes, Correctional Services, its executives and its workers just donated directly to campaigns. They gave tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions to Democratic lawmakers from the city, and then, when it seemed that Gov. George E. Pataki might scale back the company's contracts because of a shrinking prison population, they turned their attention to him. "The higher-ups made it very known that if it wasn't for the political leaders and these political favors that we were doing for them — and if we don't keep them in office — then the company would cease to exist," recalled Richard Ruiz, who worked for the company as a case manager and facility manager from 1992 through 1995, just as it began winning state contracts. "They would say that all the time: that we had to look out for those people, for the politicians." The federal report includes testimony from workers that the company's president, Mr. Slattery, knew about the favors that Mr. Jackson was providing to politicians, but an Albany lawyer retained by the company, James Featherstonhaugh, said last week that those accounts were inaccurate. State lobbying commission officials said they have discussed seeking a record fine of more than $250,000 against the company for Mr. Jackson's activities. Mr. Ramos is quoted as saying that the use of company workers for political favors was covered up by creating what was called a "Community Assistance Project." "Ramos stated that these payments and benefits were provided to Green so that Esmor would retain the state contracts for halfway housing in New York ," the report says. State investigators say that among the issues they are exploring is whether Mr. Green and other lawmakers were reimbursed by the state for travel expenses while they were accepting free travel from Correctional Services. Mr. Jackson's success in building ties to Albany can be measured in letters that more than 25 Democratic state lawmakers sent to the Pataki administration in late 1997 and 1998, praising Correctional Services and requesting that the contracts be continued. Many of the letters, which were similarly worded, indicate that copies were sent to Mr. Jackson. Around the time that state lawmakers were writing the letters, the company, Mr. Slattery and its workers suddenly began donating heavily in support of Mr. Pataki, sending $12,500 to the Republican State Committee, $10,000 to the Conservative Party and more than $5,000 to the Pataki campaign. Among the contributions were a spate of small donations, ranging from $150 to $300, given in November 1998 in the names of company workers, several of whom said they had not given the money. "I'm not even politically affiliated," recalled Jose Moreno, a former worker who is listed as having donated $150. With Mr. Jackson largely out of politics and Correctional Services no longer in business with the state, the story of the company's ties to lawmakers might have faded away had it not been for an unrelated incident. A Bronx assemblywoman, Gloria Davis, who was so close to Mr. Jackson that he referred to her as "Mom," was charged last year in an unrelated bribery case. In the course of the inquiry, the Manhattan district attorney's office learned that she had repeatedly accepted free transportation from Correctional Services. Among her drivers was a midlevel Correctional Services personnel manager named Gilbert Jimenez, who said in a recent interview that he drove her between her district and Albany at least 30 times in 1999 alone. He described how he would be called on the telephone or beeped at all hours to pick up Ms. Davis in a Ford cargo van or a Dodge Caravan minivan used to shuttle prisoners. All the while, Ms. Davis was seeking reimbursement from the state for her travel costs, records show. Mr. Jimenez, who left the company over a dispute, later became a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the company. That suit was settled out of court. "Jackson and them — their common phrase was, `We're untouchable,' because of their political connections, because of who they knew," Mr. Jimenez said. (New York Times)

February 6, 2003
New York 's lobbying commission has determined from an initial review of a private prison company's records that company officials failed to disclose meals and other items used to cultivate ties to state lawmakers, officials said yesterday. As a result, the company is expected to face a sizable fine. The company, the Correctional Services Corporation, based in Sarasota , Fla. , turned over documents detailing the expenses of a former vice president to the lobbying commission yesterday afternoon. The commission's executive director, David M. Grandeau, said he had just begun examining the records, but it was apparent that there were numerous expenses, especially meals for lawmakers, that had not been reported to the commission. "There is lots of information, and it is going to take us quite a bit of time to go through it," Mr. Grandeau said. "But it's clear from a brief perusal that their filings in 2000 and 2001 were not accurate and need to be amended." Correctional Services sought the aid of state lawmakers in the late 1990's when Gov. George E. Pataki tried to cut its contracts to run halfway houses for recently released prison inmates, and the lawmakers were able to help restore the money. Under the law, companies are required to disclose their lobbying expenses regularly, but Correctional Services never told the commission about the lobbying practices of the former vice president, Franklin Chris Jackson. The company records show that Mr. Jackson treated several lawmakers to more than 100 meals, while also supplying them with transportation between New York City and Albany , according to people who have seen the records. Among those who received the favors were Assemblyman Roger L. Green of Brooklyn ; former State Senator Larry B. Seabrook of the Bronx , who is now a City Councilman; and former Assemblywoman Gloria Davis of the Bronx , who recently pleaded guilty to bribery in an unrelated case. In addition to transportation to Albany , Mr. Seabrook also received a $200 plane ticket to Washington, the records show. The lawmakers have declined to comment on Correctional Services. James D. Featherstonhaugh, a lawyer for Correctional Services, said it was cooperating with the commission, and believed that the documents were responsive to the commission's requests. Asked whether the documents were evidence that the company had violated lobbying laws, Mr. Featherstonhaugh would not comment. Mr. Jackson has declined to be interviewed by the commission, and it has threatened to subpoena him. His lawyer has told the commission that Mr. Jackson is terminally ill with cancer, and is not able to provide testimony. (New York Times)

January 31, 2003
A vice president of a private prison company that received millions of dollars in New York State contracts treated a group of legislators to more than 50 meals in recent years, according to people involved in inquiries into the company's activities in Albany. The company, Correctional Services Corporation, has been gathering documents related to the work of the vice president, Franklin Chris Jackson, who is no longer with the company, and has agreed to turn them over to the state lobbying commission. The commission is examining whether Mr. Jackson was essentially an unregulated lobbyist who wooed state lawmakers without disclosing his lobbying as the law requires law. Manhattan and Albany prosecutors are also conducting their own investigations. People involved in the inquiry said company records show that Mr. Jackson routinely took a handful of state lawmakers to meals in New York City. The expenses were never detailed in the company's lobbying reports. The names of the lawmakers could not be determined. Correctional Services sought the aid of Democratic lawmakers from the city in the late 1990's when Gov. George E. Pataki tried to cut its contracts, and the lawmakers successfully urged the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, to restore the money. One focus of the inquiries is the link between lawmakers' efforts on behalf of the company and any favors that the company bestowed. One lawmaker, Assemblywoman Gloria Davis of the Bronx, admitted in a Manhattan court that she accepted transportation from the company in the late 1990's in return for helping it retain state contracts. (New York Times)

January 28, 2003
The Albany County district attorney has begun a formal criminal inquiry into the dealings of a private prison company that gained millions in dollars in state work while extending favors to several state lawmakers. The district attorney Paul A. Clyne, said that his investigation of Correctional Services Corporation had just begun, and that it was impossible to predict its ultimate scope. "We are going to be looking primarily at C.S.C.; they are at the center of the wheel," Mr. Clyne said. The company provided a variety of services at halfway houses in the state for prisoners set to be released. "As far as I am concerned, my investigation could involve 100 legislators or it could involve none," Mr. Clyne said. (New York Times)

January 26, 2003
A private prison company at the center of state inquiries into influence peddling in Albany has a checkered history in metropolitan New York, having been the subject of two federal investigations. Prosecutors in Manhattan and the lobbying commission in Albany are looking into whether the company, Correctional Services Corporation, violated any laws in its effort to continue receiving state contracts to run halfway houses for people recently released from prison. The corporation, a national company started by welfare hotel operators in New York City more than a decade ago, garnered more than $22 million in state contracts from 1992 to 2001, but has seen its business with the state fall to nothing in the last two years. One lawmaker, Assemblywoman Gloria Davis of the Bronx, has admitted in a Manhattan court to accepting free transportation from the company in the late 1990's in return for helping it keep getting state contracts. After Ms. Davis's admission on Jan. 7, Assemblyman Roger L. Green of Brooklyn told reporters that he, too, had accepted rides to and from Albany in one of the company's vans. Another area of inquiry is whether the company also provided free cellphones to lawmakers, officials said. In addition, federal authorities say they have an open investigation into allegations the company's employees were forced to work on political campaigns of New York State and City lawmakers during the 1990's. Whatever the results of the inquiries, the company, formerly called Esmor Correctional Services, has had its share of problems during its decade of work in the state. In 1995, federal officials canceled its contract for the management of a detainment center in Elizabeth, N.J., after a melee broke out and it came to light that undocumented immigrants had been abused by poorly trained guards. Throughout the 1990's, federal Justice Department officials compiled evidence that the company's employees were forced to work on Democratic political campaigns in the city, including those of former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, former Mayor David N. Dinkins, Representative Gregory W. Meeks of Brooklyn and Mr. Green, who heads the black and Puerto Rican caucus in the Assembly. And in 2000, Mr. Jackson was arrested while on vacation in the Dominican Republic on pornography charges. He was later dismissed. Mr. Jackson, whose associates said he had not been seen in weeks, did not return calls for comment left at his last registered number. Throughout almost all their dealings, though, the company continued to gain work with the state, and it is clear it operated in Albany as many aggressive contractors do: its officials contributed to legislators, and when the money from the Pataki administration dried up, they enlisted the Assembly's Democratic majority to regain the funds. Esmor was formed in 1989 by Mr. Slattery and Morris Horn, who had previously been partners in one of the city's most notorious welfare hotels, the Brooklyn Arms. Though they had no experience in operating jails, Mr. Slattery and Mr. Horn won a federal contract to open a halfway house in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and helped win over angry residents and local politicians by hiring William Banks, a close associate of Representative Edolphus Towns, to lobby for them. Shortly after the fiasco at the Elizabeth detention center, however, Mr. Slattery and his partners changed the name of the corporation and moved its headquarters to Sarasota, Fla. Mr. Jackson remained in New York, overseeing the company's operations here. The company's lobbying efforts were successful throughout the 1990's. Pataki administration officials say the company received a total of $20.4 million in contracts from the Department of Correctional Services going back to 1992, when Mr. Cuomo was governor. Beginning in 1998, Gov. George E. Pataki began to cut funds for the halfway houses and then phased the money out entirely. That is when the Assembly's Democratic majority, led by Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan, came to the company's aid, providing $600,000 out of accounts the Assembly controls, known as member items, in 1998, 1999 and 2001. (The New York Times)

January 24, 2003
A bribery-linked Florida company has been offered a potentially explosive deal by state investigators that requires it to name the names of all lawmakers who received special favors, The Post has learned. Correctional Services Corp., which gave chauffeur-driven rides, donations and election assistance to numerous public officials, was told by the state Lobbying Commission this week that it could settle an ongoing probe of the allegedly illegal activities by naming the names, and paying a $150,000 fine, said a source familiar with the offer. The fine would cover three reporting periods when the prison company allegedly violated state law by failing to reveal it was providing chauffeur-driven rides to former Assemblywoman Gloria Davis of the Bronx. Davis Earlier this month pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe from CSC. It's also possible the commission will subpoena company officials and demand they name, under penalty of perjury, all state officials who received company gifts, the source said. "CSC has been told they could end the investigation if they completely and truthfully disclose the names of all those who received the gifts, what gifts were involved, how much they were worth, and when were they provided," said the source. The company did not return calls seeking comment. The Silver-sponsored money was earmarked for CSC' prison halfway houses in New York City, where the company also runs facilities for the federal Bureau of Prisons. (NY Post)

January 23, 2003
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver helped bribery-linked correctional-services company win nearly $2 million in special state funds, The Post learned yesterday. State budget officials said Silver's budget negotiators insisted on the last-minute addition of the funds - for Florida-based Correctional Services Corp. – to Gov. Pataki's budgets during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Fiscal years. The funds were provided to CSC at the same time former Bronx Democratic Assemblywoman Gloria Davis, once a powerful member of Silver's leadership, said she was being bribed by CSC with free, chauffeur-driven transportation. Brooklyn Assemblyman Roger Green, another Influential Democrat, has also admitted receiving free chauffeur-driven transportation from CSC but insisted it wasn't a bribe. The Silver-sponsored money was earmarked for CSC's prison halfway houses in New York City, where the company also runs facilities for the federal Bureau of Prisons. A secret federal report turned over to the Legislature's Ethics Committee last week alleges that CSC, which Has aggressively pursued state and federal contracts, regularly provided campaign workers and other assistance to New York politicians during the 1990s. The Post reported yesterday that a prominent New York City politician's brother has been on the CSC payroll. Bronx Democratic City Councilman Larry Seabrook said his brother Oliver has been working CSC but wouldn't say for how long. (NY Post)

January 22, 2003
Correctional Services Corp., which is ate the center of a mushrooming state probe into its aggressive lobbying tactics, is being sued by four inmates who claim one of its workers sexually assaulted them at a halfway house on Manhattan's East Side. In a lawsuit brought in Manhattan Federal Court, the women claim that a counselor at Le Marquis Community Correctional Center on E. 31st St. "Lured" them into his office on different occasions in late 1998 and assaulted them. (New York Daily News)

January 19, 2003
A secret federal report says a close ally of Brooklyn Assemblyman Roger Green steered a scandal-linked company's campaign help to prominent politicians, The Post has learned. The feds' explosive, 50-page report - some details of which were disclosed in yesterday's Post – quotes several company employees as saying Frank Chris Jackson, until 2000 a senior vice president with Florida-based Correctional Services Corp., ordered them to work on the campaigns of some of New York's best known politicians. Former Bronx Assemblywoman Gloria Davis pleaded guilty to bribery earlier this month and said free transportation she received from CSC - a national operator of private prisons and halfway houses which regularly seeks state and federal contracts - was given as a bribe. "Jackson was the key player and was always going to Albany, to political dinners, to events that were taking place," said a source familiar with the report. State lawmakers say Jaackson was a well known figure in Democratic political circles in the late 1990s and was active in events sponsored by the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus, which was once chaired by Davis and is now headed by Green. The report cites a memo from Jackson to James Slattery, CSC's president, saying that then-Assemblyman and now U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens) wanted the company to provide "security" at a meeting of the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus. Jackson's political activities, and his involvement with CSC, came to an abrupt end in 2000 when he was arrested and imprisoned in the Dominican Republic on charges of sexually abusing children, according to investigators and published accounts. A law enforcement source said Jackson's current whereabouts are unknown. The federal report describes the widespread provision of assistance - workers, vans, cars, and petition carriers by CSC and its predecessor company, Esmor Correctional Services, during the 1990s for the campaigns of such well known Democrats as then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, then-Mayor David Dinkins, the Rev. Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens and Green. The report quotes several company employees as saying they were told they would be fired if they didn't work in political campaigns. (NY Post)

January 18, 2003
A secret federal report alleges that a half-dozen prominent New York Democrats – including Mario Cuomo, David Dinkins and the Rev. Al Sharpton -- received campaign help from a prison-services company at the center of a growing scandal, The Post has learned. The feds' bombshell 50-page probe has been turned over to the Legislature's Ethics Committee for further investigation, sources said. Prepared by investigators for the U.S. Justice Department with the help of the FBI, the report was handed over to the committee on Wednesday, two government sources said. That's the same day The Post disclosed that Brooklyn Assemblyman Roger Green admitted receiving gifts from a correctional-services company that former Bronx Assemblywoman Gloria Davis admitted had given her bribes. Davis resigned from the state Legislature earlier this month after pleading guilty to bribery. The still-secret federal report, completed in the late 1990s, focuses on the role of Florida-based Correctional Services Corp. (CSC) and its Long Island-based predecessor, Esmor Correctional Services, in allegedly providing campaign services to prominent politicians. Those cited in the report as benefiting from the company's help include Cuomo, Dinkins, Sharpton, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Brooklyn) and Green, sources familiar with the report said. The report says CSC and Esmor routinely provided politicians and their political organizations with dozens of campaign workers, petition carriers, vans, cars and other assistance over a period of years. The federal probe began after company employees complained that they were forced to work for the campaigns under threat of being fired, according to the sources. The report - which was described to The Post by two sources who said they had first-hand knowledge of its contents - contains the accounts of many company employees who charged they were forced to engage in conduct officials believe could be illegal under New York law. Employees told probers they were ordered to work on campaigns because the company wanted to retain state and federal contracts, the sources said. Repeated attempts to reach a CSC spokesman have been unsuccessful. (NY Post)

January 16, 2003
The state Board of Elections has joined the state Lobbying Commission in looking into the activities of a Florida-based company that has been courting New York state lawmakers, an official said yesterday. Spokesman Lee Daghlian said the board was looking into the apparent over-contribution last year by the Correctional Services Corp. to state legislative candidates. The company operates two halfway-house-type facilities in New York City, one in the Bronx and one in Brooklyn, for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Sarasota, Fla.-based company had already been under investigation by the state Lobbying Commission for allegedly giving free, round-trip van rides between the Bronx and Albany to Assemb. Gloria Davis. She resigned her Assembly seat and pleaded guilty last week in a bribery case. News of the election board action came as Assemb. Roger Green (D-Brooklyn) admitted that he also received free transportation from Correctional Services Corp. over several years. Board of Elections records show the company contributed $4,500 to Green's campaign committee as part of the $10,650 it gave to New York politicians last year. Legally, corporations can give only $5,000 annually to all candidates in New York. Daghlian said the company would be notified about the apparent violation, asked to get the excess contributions back and explain why it happened. The board spokesman said the company had been caught over-contributing in 1997. A telephone message to the company seeking comment was not returned yesterday. The company had contracts with New York's state prison system that between 1992 and 2000 brought it $25.4 million, according to the state comptroller's office. (News Day)

January 15, 2003
The State Lobbying Commission has launched a probe of a major national firm linked to the illegal conduct of just-resigned Bronx Assemblywoman Gloria Davis, The Post has learned. The still-secret probe focuses on two types of possible lawbreaking by Correctional Services Corp. (CSC) of Sarasota, Fla. - one of the nation's biggest providers of privately run prisons and correctional services - which provided free, chauffeur-driven transportation to Davis from her home in The Bronx to the state Capitol and back, a source familiar with the investigation said. The commission is also expected to seek to determine if other state lawmakers received similar favors from CSC, which could constitute illegal gifts. The commission is also investigating a powerful lobbying firm, Bolton St. John, which once represented CSC, to find out if it was aware of the free transportation given Davis, an official of the firm told The Post. Davis, long a powerful member of the Assembly's Democratic majority, resigned last week, a day before pleading guilty to taking $24,000 in bribes from a contractor seeking a state contract and to receiving free transportation from CSC over a four-year period, from mid-1998 to March 2002. Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said CSC gave Davis the free transportation - which a source said could have been worth tens of thousands of dollars - in exchange for her help in attempting to win state contracts. Three sets of lobbying reports detailing CSC's efforts to influence state government during 2000 and 2001 failed to disclose the transportation services provided Davis, a source said. "The company filed three lobbying statements in 2000 and 2001, and they did not include the expenses incurred for providing transportation to Davis," the source noted. "The company could be fined $50,000 for each of those omissions, as well as $25,000 for the illegal gifts, so the fines could total $225,000. "In addition, there could be a criminal charge against the company relating to the illegal gifts," the source continued. Repeated attempts to reach CSC for comment were unsuccessful. (New York Post)

January 15, 2003
A Brooklyn lawmaker has admitted to receiving free transportation fro the same company that allegedly provided similar services to former Assemblywoman Gloria Davis. Democratic Assemblyman Roger Green told the New York Post in Wednesday's editions that Correctional Services Corp., gave him rides to and from Albany over a period of several years. Prosecutors had accused Davis, a Bronx Democrat, of accepting free round-trip van rides from CSC in exchange for helping it unravel government red tape. Last week, Davis pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to steer deals to favored contractors, while prosecutors also accused her of taking additional bribes in exchange for favors. According to the Post, the company, in filings with the Lobbying Commission, said it lobbied both Green and Davis. CSC of Sarasota, Fla., contributed $4,500 to Green's campaign last year, the newspaper said. The Lobbying Commission is investigating CSC for possible illegal activities. (AP)

Broome County Jail
Broome, New York
Correctional Medical Services
October 27, 2003
A state report issued this month on two inmate suicides at the Broome County Jail last year found fault with medical procedures but said staff security and supervision were performed properly. The state Commission of Correction, the agency that oversees all of New York's jails, issued its report nearly a year after a 20-year-old asphyxiated himself Oct. 18, 2002, with a shoelace by wrapping it around a window frame in his cell and tying it around his neck. A murder suspect died in a similar manner on Christmas Eve by asphyxiating himself using a sheet. The two were the first suicides at the jail since it opened in 1996. Both men had medical issues when they were booked in, the report indicated. Scott Sickles suffered symptoms of heroin withdrawal, but did not receive standard treatment for drug withdrawal from medical staff, the report states. John Leonard, 37, accused in the mid-December death of his fiancée, took antidepressants to treat his depression. But in the six days between booking and his suicide, Leonard did not receive medication for his mental illness. Both men shared information about their problems with medical staff, the report indicates. Broome County contracts with Correctional Medical Services Inc. for inmate health care. Larry S. Fischer, the jail's administrator, declined to discuss specifics of the deaths. Both families have put the county on notice that they plan to sue the county and its officials. However, jail officials instituted changes recommended by the commission six months before the report was issued. Changes include the availability of temporary prescriptions for inmates with verified medication needs. CMS now has a contractual obligation to provide that service, Fischer said. In the past, inmates waited 24 hours while CMS obtained medication from a facility in Minnesota. (Press & Bulletin Sun)

Business Week
Cornell
November 24, 2005 New York Times
Federal prosecutors have charged a former securities broker, David Pajcin, with insider trading related to information the authorities said he gleaned by illegally obtaining advance copies of Business Week and buying stocks that the magazine was covering favorably. Pajcin apparently persuaded an unidentified worker at a printing plant near Milwaukee to steal a copy of Business Week before it was released to the public. The complaint said that Mr. Pajcin bought shares in at least 10 companies from November 2004 to early March; Business Week wrote positively about all of them. Mr. Pajcin bought shares or stock options in companies like TheStreet.com, Cornell Corrections, the SIPEX Corporation, the IMAX Corporation and Arbitron early on the same day that the companies appeared in the magazine's ''Inside Wall Street'' column.

Dutchess County Jail
New York, New York
Prison Health Services
July 19, 2004
New York state investigators have accused Prison Health Services, the company seeking to renew its contact at the Palm Beach County Jail, of causing the death of a Schenectady, N.Y., inmate suffering from Parkinson's disease. A scathing report issued last month by the New York Commission on Correction echoed criticism in Palm Beach County that Prison Health Services has withheld care to inmates for added profit. The company is one of five bidding on the county contract. The New York report details what led to inmate Brian Tetrault's brain basically shutting down after he was denied his prescribed medication for advanced Parkinson's disease by a Prison Health Services medical director at the Schenectady County Jail. In October 2002, the commission -- a three-member body that evaluates, investigates and oversees correctional facilities in New York -- issued a report on the death of Victoria Smith, who died of cardiac arrest at the Dutchess County Jail in southeast New York after complaining multiple times of chest pains. In the cases of both Tetrault and Smith, Prison Health Services' main reaction to the commission's inquiries was to get its lawyers involved, Lamy wrote to the company: "You and your colleagues are exclusively focused on protecting the business interests of PHS." The New York deaths evoke similar issues in Palm Beach County. Both inmates were denied medication. Prison Health Services staff concluded Tetrault was faking illness and labeled Smith a drug abuser. Company officials and doctors have cited malingering inmates and drug abuse as reasons for denying medication. (Palm Beach Post)

September 12, 2003
Some county lawmakers are urging jail officials to reconsider the county's affiliation with Prison Health Services after calling into question the objectivity of an auditing firm that supported the actions of the health care provider in a case that resulted in the death of an inmate at the jail. Jail officials commissioned the audit, which was conducted by Jacqueline Moore & Associates, after Dutchess County Legislator Mario Johnson questioned jail administrators about their decision to extend the contract with Prison Health Services despite a damning report issued by the state Commission of Correction following the Feb. 16, 2002, death of inmate Victoria Smith. The state Commission of Correction found the 35-year-old woman's death to be the result of gross negligence by the medical staff employed by the jail under a contract with the private health care provider. Smith died of heart failure while an inmate. She had complained to medical providers several times in the week prior to her death of chest pain and numbness in her left arm. On the day Smith died, a nurse dismissed Smith's complaints as "drug seeking." County officials were urged by the state to replace that firm, because, state officials said, the company was "holding itself out as a medical care provider while seeming bereft of any quality control." But auditors with Jacqueline Moore & Associates took strong exception to the state's findings and said the report was "filled with editorial comments and numerous findings that are irrelevant to the inmate's death" and disputed a finding by the state that Smith's death was the result of a systemic failure of the health care provider. "While it may be reasonable to question some aspects of the medical evaluation and treatment of Ms. Smith, the records reveal that Ms. Smith had timely access to care, that her medical complaints were objectively evaluated and that medical orders were performed as ordered. That the head of the auditing firm is a founder of Prison Health Services and the ex-wife of the director of the health care company made some lawmakers look at auditing firm's findings with trepidation. Legislator James Hammond, R-Poughkeepsie/Wappinger, said the relationship between the two companies "reduces my confidence in the objectivity of the report." He, along with Kristen Jemiolo, D-Poughkeepsie, suggested the county ask local hospitals to provide inmate medical care at the jail. "We did in the past ask St. Francis and Vassar (hospitals)," said Jail Administrator David Rugar. "None of them were interested. He said that Prison Health Services was the only company to respond to the county's most recent request for proposals to provide health care services at the jail. Rugar also said Jacqueline Moore & Associates was the only firm to respond to the county's request for proposals to conduct the audit. The company was paid $15,000 for the study. (Daily Freeman)

Erie County Holding Center
Erie, New York
Community Based Corrections, LLC
March 5, 2005 WGRZ
Campaign finance reports for Legislature Chairman George Holt are prompting more questions about a $3 Million dollar contract proposal for a Louisiana based firm. The issue was first raised last week when Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples brought up the budget amendment resolution which was part of the December 8th budget. The Legislature was not able to come up with necessary votes to fund that budget. Naples says the measure called for a contract with Community Based Corrections, LLC of New Orleans which would provide an alternative incarceration program. The amendment and the company claims they can save millions of dollars for local government. It specifically said the money to fund the program would come from the budgets of the County Holding Center, Correctional Facility and Probation Department. But Naples says no one really knew much about the firm. Sheriff Patrick Gallivan, who has oversight for the holding center and correctional facility, says he was asked to evaluate the firm by Chairman George Holt but also knew little about it. Channel Two's Claudine Ewing asked Holt last week about the program. Ewing: "Do you have any ties ? Holt: No. Ewing: Do you know the people? Holt: Oh, of course." Ewing also asked: "So they never kicked in any money to pay for your campaign? Holt: My brother was instrumental in helping me at a fundraiser in the area but this company...no involvement at all." Channel Two obtained Holt's campaign disclosure forms from last year. There is a $500 contribution listed from Jimmie Woods at 2500 Joseph Street in Harvey, Louisiana which is a suburb of New Orleans. Channel 2 called the Woods' home in Louisiana. A woman told reporter Ron Plants that she was Jimmie Woods' wife. She also identified her husband as manager of Community Based Corrections and said her husband used 2500 Joseph Street as a business address. The woman said Woods was out for the evening and not available. The Louisiana Secretary of State's website also lists Jimmie M. Woods as the manager of Community Based Corrections LLC. Channel 2 repeatedly tried to reach Chairman Holts but he was not available to speak to us. Channel 2 did speak with campaign treasurer Tyrone Hargrove who said he knew nothing about the contribution and would try to contact Holt. Hargrove said Holt would be available on Thursday.

Lehman Brothers
Park Avenue, NY
April 9, 2002
Shareholders arriving Tuesday morning for Lehman Brothers' annual meeting at its new Park Avenue headquarters were greeted by a gaggle of angry protesters, who planted themselves in front of the building to voice opposition to Lehman's involvement in the financing of private prison companies. Protesters who claimed to represent Prison Moratorium, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and New York University, among other organizations, urged city officials to block Lehman from underwriting bond issues for any New York City agency--unless the firm abandons its role as an underwriter of financings for private prison companies. Shares of CCA and Cornell rose slightly following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as the market speculated that there might be an increase in government contracts for housing illegal immigrants, but have since declined to the trading levels of last summer. (Investment Dealers Digest)

Monroe County Jail
Monroe County, NY
Correctional Medical Service (formerly run by Prison Health Services)
August 23, 2007 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
A state commission has concluded that a private company gave inadequate mental health treatment to a teenager who hanged himself in Monroe County Jail. A report by the state Commission of Correction stopped short of saying that Correctional Medical Services Inc. of St. Louis, which contracts with the county to provide medical care to jail inmates, was responsible for the death of 16-year-old Javon Leggett on Aug. 29, 2004. But the report charged that: A Correctional Medical Services employee who wasn't trained to deal with high-risk inmates or depressed adolescents was assigned to Leggett after what might have been a previous suicide attempt six weeks before Leggett's death. Leggett wasn't referred for follow-up mental health care or medication even though he was interested in both, and was removed from suicide watch three days after the apparent suicide attempt. The company was at fault for failing to provide properly trained mental health providers and recommended that Monroe County review whether it should continue to retain the company. Despite the report, however, the county renewed its contract with Correctional Medical Services on Jan. 1. The one-year extension was for $7.5 million. The report marks the second time that a state investigation into an inmate death at the jail has sharply criticized private companies for inadequate medical or mental health care. In May 2002, the Commission of Correction said inmate Candace Brown died in September 2000 when she received "grossly and flagrantly inadequate care" from Prison Health Services Inc. after her opiate withdrawal was untreated. Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn., provided care in the jail from 2000 to 2004, when Correctional Medical Services replaced it with a three-year, $17.7 million contract approved by the County Legislature. Prison Health Services agreed to pay $450,000 to Brown's family to settle a lawsuit. The report on Leggett's death, issued in March 2005, was kept private until it was filed earlier this year as part of a lawsuit against the county and Correctional Medical Services by Leggett's mother, Loretta Leggett. Rochester lawyer Van Henri White, who represents Loretta Leggett, said the critical report has prompted him to seek a settlement with the county and the company. "They've refused to talk about settlement," he said. "I've tried everything to convince these people that this is a case that should be settled." A spokesman for the county declined to comment about the case because it involves pending litigation. A spokesman for Correctional Medical Services said he couldn't comment about the case because it involves confidential mental health records. Both the county and the company have filed legal papers seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that they acted properly. In its papers, Correctional Medical Services said its care to Leggett met or exceeded the standard of care and maintained that it's uncertain whether Leggett committed suicide or accidentally hanged himself while attempting to get transferred from the jail to Rochester Psychiatric Center. Leggett was charged in May 2004 with assault and robbery. He pleaded guilty on Aug. 20, 2004, and was expected to receive five years' probation and six months in jail. But a deputy found him dead in his cell, hanging from a sheet tied around his neck, on Aug. 29, 2004. Six weeks earlier — on July 16, 2004 — Leggett was found under his bunk in what was documented in medical records as an attempted hanging. Leggett, who had a sheet around his neck, said he was stressed out but denied a suicide attempt. Correctional Medical Services assigned an employee who had a master's degree in social work — but was unlicensed — to perform a "lethality assessment" of Leggett to determine whether Leggett was in danger of committing suicide. Leggett was watched constantly as a suicide risk until July 22, when the social worker decided Leggett was feeling better. After seeing the social worker again on July 26, Leggett had no more mental health follow-ups, the Commission of Correction said in its report. "Overall, the evolution and treatment afforded Leggett was inadequate," the report said. "There was no referral to a psychiatrist, psychologist and nurse practitioner to evaluate Leggett for medication. There was no treatment plan, no follow-up for release after constant supervision, no monitoring, no medication."

December 3, 2003
A proposed contract to hire Correctional Medical Services Inc. to provide health care at Monroe County jails was approved by a 6-to-1 vote Monday by the County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee. County Executive Jack Doyle asked legislators to approve a three-year contract for $17.7 million with Correctional Medical Services, which is based in St. Louis and operates in 28 states. Democratic legislators began Monday’s hearing by raising questions about the company’s record and the wisdom of continuing to put medical care for the jail in the hands of a private company. “I have some extremely grave concerns about this particular service,” said Legislator Carla Palumbo, D-Rochester. But after a 1½-hour presentation by county officials and representatives of Correctional Medical Services, Palumbo cast the only dissenting vote. The proposed contract is also scheduled to be reviewed by the legislature’s Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday and could be voted on by the full legislature next Tuesday. Maj. John Caceci of the Sheriff’s Office said that the level of care would be much higher than now provided. And Ann V. Mack, regional vice president for Correctional Medical Services, said that there would be an outside monitor to oversee the care provided. “The bottom line is that we’re going to get more mental health and health care,” said Legislator H. Todd Bullard, D-Rochester. Questions about Correctional Medical Services were recently raised by the state Commission of Correction, the state’s watchdog for jails and prisons. Frederick C. Lamy, chairman of the medical review board of the commission, faulted Correctional Medical Services for violations of nursing practice rules, severe understaffing, extraordinary high turnover rates and resistance to oversight scrutiny. Lamy also said that Correctional Medical Services and other for-profit companies doing similar work could be engaged in the unlawful corporate practice of medicine, nursing and pharmacy in the state. That’s because state law does not authorize such activities. The state Education Department, which licenses medical professionals, is looking into this matter. Karen Butler, a lawyer representing Correctional Medical Services, said at Monday’s hearing that the doctors hired by the company are similar to “independent contractors.” Correctional Medical Services would take the place of Prison Health Services, another private company that was criticized by the Commission of Correction for its care of an inmate who died in the Monroe County Correctional Facility in 2000 after her opiate withdrawal went untreated. Meanwhile, lawmakers continued to meet in their caucuses Monday as Republican legislators try to come up with a budget proposal for 2004. Legislators will resume meeting at 6:30 p.m. today. (Rochester)

November 22, 2003
The company that Monroe County government wants to hire to provide medical services in its jails has come under fire for inadequate care in connection with two inmate suicides in Broome County, says the state commission that oversees jails. County Executive Jack Doyle has recently asked the County Legislature to approve a three-year, $17.7 million contract with Correctional Medical Services Inc. Lawmakers could vote as early as next month. The concerns of the New York State Commission of Correction were spelled out in a Sept. 23 letter from Frederick C. Lamy, chairman of the commission’s seven-member Medical Review Board, to the state Education Department, which licenses nurses and doctors. The letter and the Commission of Correction’s two reports of inmate deaths were obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle under the state Freedom of Information Law. Lamy writes that the commission’s inquiry into “this corporation have revealed numerous and significant quality of care issues, including violations of nursing practice rules, severe understaffing … a resistance to oversight scrutiny and some severely problematic outcomes.” Lamy also said that Correctional Medical Services could be engaged in the unlawful corporate practice of medicine, nursing and pharmacy in New York. The commission questions whether Correctional Medical Services, and other for-profit companies doing similar work in jails and prisons, can hire licensed medical professionals to provide services to jail inmates because state law does not authorize such activities. Correctional Medical Services would be responsible for providing the care that another private company, Prison Health Services of Tennessee, has provided in Monroe County jails. However, Correctional Medical Services would be expected to provide the mental health care at the jails now done by the county. The care provided by Prison Health Services was sharply criticized by the Commission of Correction in 2001 in its review of the circumstances surrounding the death of inmate Candace Brown. Brown died in September 2000 at the county Correctional Facility after her opiate withdrawal went untreated. The commission blamed Brown’s death on “grossly and flagrantly inadequate” medical care. This past May, according to court records, a settlement was reached after Brown’s daughter sued Prison Health Services and Monroe County officials. Prison Health Services agreed to pay $450,000 to Brown’s family. (Democrat and Chronicle)

March 30, 2001
Inmate Candace Brown's death has raised questions about the private company Monroe County lawmakers hired two years ago to run the jail's medical operation. In 1999, county lawmakers approved a three-year, $9 million contract that turned over the jail's medical services to Prison Health Services of Tennessee. Until then, county employees had provided most of the services. Sheriff Andrew Meloni had urged the contract even as jail medical personnel and union leaders warned that the company had a checkered past and would likely rely on less-experienced staff as a way to save money. A report released yesterday by the state Commission of Correction about Brown's death indicated that the county ought to reconsider whether the private company should continue running the jail's medical operation. One of the major concerns raised by the prison watchdog commission was that licensed practical nurses were on duty without oversight by registered nurses, who have more training and expertise in emergency situations. The commission cited the lack of expertise as a reason no one aided Brown who was suffering from heroin withdrawal. Those who spoke out against privatizing jail medical services two years ago, now say they warned of this possibility. " We said they would reduce the quality of care. We were concerned in a cost-cutting effort they would use only (licensed practical nurses)," said Florence Tripi, regional director of the Civil Service Employees Association, who was Monroe County's CSEA chief in 1999. Dr. William Morehouse, who had worked part time as a physician at the jail before the private company took over, had also cautioned the county to go slowly on the approval of the contract. " I thought that (the private company) had cut too much money out of the medical budget, " Morehouse recalled about his 1999 testimony to the County Legislature. County Legislator Stephanie Aldersley, D- Irondequoit, had called for tabling the contract to investigate the history of the company. But the Republican-controlled legislature approved the contract by a largely party line vote. " We thought it was a bad decision at the time and this, sadly, bears that out," Aldersley said yesterday. Still, the Commission of Correction said it was troubled by the company's inability to detect the questionable disciplinary record of a licensed practical nurse who was on duty. (Democrat and Chronicle)

Le Marquis Community Correctional Center
New York
Correctional Services Corporation
January 20, 2003
Dismissal denied private prison company in sexual abuse case Four former inmates of a halfway house operated by a private company under contract to the Federal Bureau of Prisons brought this action to recover for injuries after being sexually abused by a company employee. Background: In 1998, Susan Scainetti, Yvette Adorno, Stephanie Womble and Rosemarie Johnson were federal inmates at a community corrections facility In New York City, Le Marquis Community Correctional Center. The facility is owned, operated and maintained by Correctional Services Corporation, under contract with the BOP. Between Nov. 6 and Dec. 28, 1998, Miguel Carriera, an inmate counselor And CSC employee, allegedly lured the individual inmates individually into his office and sexually assaulted them. The assaults were facilitated by the fact that Carriera's office was at the end of a hallway and was isolated by double doors though which no sound could be heard. Within two years after the alleged sexual assaults, the inmates filed claims with the BOP for damages. When no settlement was offered, Scainetti filed suit, and CSC moved to dismiss. Company representatives said the claim was time-barred. Ruling: On its face, the three-year statue of limitations barred Scainetti's claims, since her complaint was filed three years and three days after the date of the alleged assault. However, after filing her complaint, Scainetti received BOP records under a Freedom of Information request that showed she originally complained about The incidents on Dec. 30, 1998. Scainetti had told investigators that Carriera had made numerous sexual advances toward her and others over a period several months. She said the sexual assaults occurred on at least four occasions, "from sometime in October through December 1998." Since the alleged assaults continued through December 1998, at least some - if not all - of the assaults were within the statute of limitations, the court said. The CSC's motion to dismiss was denied. Scainetti, et al., v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, et al., No. Civ. 9970(SHS) (S.D.N.Y. 12/18/02). (Corrections Professional)

December 26, 2002
FORMER INMATES of a community confinement center operated by a private company under contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons brought this action to recover his injuries they suffered when allegedly sexually abused by an employee of that company. The court rejected defendant Correctional Services Corp.'s motion to dismiss, holding that a corporation that runs a correctional center for the federal government cannot invoke the government contractor defense. The court noted that the Second Circuit found that the defense "only shields a government contractor from claims arising out of its actions where the government has exercised its discretion and judgment in approving precise specifications to which the contractor must adhere." The instant court added that a contractor can still be found liable where it exceeded authority given it by the federal government, or "where the federal government's authority was not validly conferred." (New York Law Journal)

New York Department of Education
May 11, 2005 New York Times
State officials have opened an investigation into whether the corporation that provides health care for more than 100,000 inmates each year in New York City jails is violating state law governing medical services. The State Department of Education, which regulates the practice of medicine, is examining the terms of the three-year, $300 million contract renewal the city signed in December with the corporation, Prison Health Services. The inquiry will determine whether the contract complies with a state requirement that for-profit corporations providing medical services be owned and controlled by doctors - a law intended to prevent business considerations, like maximizing profits, from influencing medical decisions. Prison Health executives and the city officials who oversee the company's work say they believe that the contract is in compliance. But state education officials say the matter of who is in charge is a serious one, with grave repercussions for the well-being and survival of inmates, as well as the public health. The investigation, in fact, marks a renewed effort by the Education Department, which first began to look into the Tennessee-based corporation in 2001, after several inmate deaths in upstate jails staffed by Prison Health began to draw stinging criticism from the State Commission of Correction, which monitors jail conditions. The department's investigators concluded then that Prison Health was violating the state law, saying that company executives were ultimately responsible for medical decisions and profiting from medical services. The two agencies asked the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, to halt the company's operations in New York, but Mr. Spitzer's office has declined to investigate. Now, however, education officials have decided to look into the company's largest contract of scores across the country, providing medical and mental health care at nine city jails on Rikers Island and a 10th in Lower Manhattan. On April 20, Education Department investigators met with three state assemblymen, city health officials and Richard Rifkin, a deputy to Mr. Spitzer, to discuss Prison Health's legal status. The Assembly members at the session were Richard N. Gottfried, chairman of the Assembly's Health Committee; Jeffrion L. Aubry, chairman of the Correction Committee; and Ron Canestrari, chairman of the Higher Education Committee. Assemblyman Canestrari said Prison Health appeared to be in violation of the state law governing for-profit medical services. "My understanding is their structure doesn't comply with the law," he said in an interview last week. "There have been attempts to meet the legal standard, but they have fallen short." But company officials insist doctors are in charge of medical decisions. In New York City, Prison Health says it provides only administrative services to a doctor-run corporation, P. H. S. Medical Services P. C., that directs all medical care at Rikers. But that corporation is run by Dr. Trevor Parks, who is a regional medical director for Prison Health. State education investigators have called Dr. Parks's corporation a sham, and said that when they questioned him, he had only a vague idea of his role in it. Several Prison Health employees at Rikers said in interviews that Dr. Parks recently gathered a group of supervising doctors there and informed them that they were employees of his corporation. Dr. Parks declined to comment yesterday.

New York Legislature
Wackenhut (Group 4)
July 24, 2007 The Chief-Leader
Governor Spitzer has signed into law a bill prohibiting the privatization of security posts in state jails. The measure, which was vetoed four times by former Governor Pataki, bars the state Department of Correctional Services from replacing Correctional Officers with private guards.

December 7, 2005 WWTI
Delays in issuing contracts for guard services continues to raise the security risks for state employees and people visiting state buildings while wasting taxpayer funds. That's according to state Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office. A state comptroller's audit conducted in 2001 and 2002 found that private security companies hired by the State's Office of General Services provided hundreds of unlicensed and unqualified guards to protect state buildings, universities and other facilities. In response, OGS awarded "emergency" contracts for guard services to Burns International Security Services and the Wackenhut Corporation in June 2002. OGS later agreed to rebid security contracts to find permanent security providers. So far, they have not, even as security remains a high-priority issue.

November 30, 2003
For the third straight year, Gov. George Pataki has vetoed a bill that would prohibit privatized prisons in New York state. While the governor said in a veto message issued Wednesday that "I strongly support" state and local government employees staffing prisons and jails, he argued that the bill has technical flaws and omissions that necessitated his veto. Among them was uncertainty whether the authors intended the measure to apply to the prison-like facilities for juveniles operated by the state Division for Youth, investigators employed by district attorney's offices or to cell block attendants employed by the city of Buffalo. Pataki said while the 2003 bill is an improvement over the measures he rejected in 2001 and 2002, "I am constrained to disapprove this bill because it fails to fully address the concerns raised in my prior veto messages." The bill might also "undermine" legislation Pataki recently signed to prevent privatization of New York City lockups, the governor said. The union representing most state prison guards, the state Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, criticized Pataki for again basing a veto on "legal glitches" he found in the bill. The measure had wide support in the Legislature again this year, the union noted. "Prison privatization is fraught with threats to public safety," the union said in a statement. (AP)

Rikers Island
New York, NY
Prison Health Services
February 29, 2008 New York Times
A substance abuse counselor assigned to a drug treatment unit at Rikers Island has been charged with selling $100 worth of cocaine to an undercover police officer. The counselor, identified in papers filed in Queens Criminal Court as Juan M. Delarosa, 56, was arrested on Jan. 6 at 19th Avenue and Hazen Street, less than a block from the bridge to the Rikers complex. Mr. Delarosa was pulled over by a detective who searched him and found two bundles labeled “Black Gold” in the pocket of his jacket, the court papers said. The two bundles contained 100 packets of heroin, the papers said. They said the detective also found five loose packets marked “Black Label” in Mr. Delarosa’s jacket and six packets in his wallet, as well as two plastic bags of cocaine in a pants pocket. The court papers said that he and an unidentified accomplice had sold an undercover detective $100 worth of cocaine and some pills in East Elmhurst last Oct. 4. The court papers did not explain why the undercover officer did not take Mr. Delarosa and the other person into custody then, nor did they explain how the initial sale came about. His arrest was reported on Wednesday on the Web site of The Village Voice, villagevoice.com. Mr. Delarosa is charged with two felony counts, criminal possession and criminal sale of a controlled substance. His lawyer, Scott Dufault, did not return a call seeking comment. Mr. Delarosa was employed by Prison Health Services, the Tennessee company that has been providing health care to Rikers inmates since 2001. John Van Mol, a spokesman for Prison Health, said the company has “a strict zero tolerance policy on drugs in the workplace.” He said that Mr. Delarosa had been fired and that Prison Health was cooperating with the authorities.

January 19, 2008 El Diario
David Mercado, a confused and distant seventeen year old, should have been placed under special watch as a potential suicide risk when he was sent to Rikers Island to await trial. Queens Criminal Court Judge Gene López ordered that the teenager be treated as a potential danger to himself, as had been recommended by Mercado’s lawyers. Instead, last month, Mercado was placed with 50 other inmates and had access to sheets and other items that someone labeled a potential suicide risk should not have been exposed to. Less than 24 hours later, Mercado was found dead. He hung himself with a bed sheet. Apparently, the judge’s order and that of Mercado’s attorney did not carry enough weight with the New York City Department of Correction. The Department responds that it had its own medical and psychiatric evaluation performed of Mercado and that he was placed in an appropriate unit. The willful disregard of court warnings by Correction bureaucrats is outrageous. That specially designed sheets to prevent inmates from killing themselves could have, should have, been given to Mercado makes his death more tragic. His death also raises serious questions yet again about the competency of the company contracted by the city to administer medical services to inmates, Prison Health Services (PHS). In 2005, PHS was the subject of an investigative series by the New York Times that found repeated instances of medical care that was flawed or negligent. Mercado’s death is under investigation. Arrested for having sex with a 14-year-old girl, he should have had his day in court, and the red flags that were raised about his mental health should have been heeded. Instead, uncaring treatment by a deaf bureaucracy helped to turn his punishment into a death sentence.

June 27, 2007 North Country Gazette
New York City could better manage its $359.4 million contract with Prison Health Services (PHS) by implementing a number of recommendations made in an audit released by the State Comptroller’s office. PHS is in the final year of a three-year contract to provide medical, dental, mental health, and pharmaceutical services at 10 of the city’s 11 jails, which have an average daily population of about 14,000 inmates. Although the New York City Department of Correction operates the facilities, including nine at Rikers Island, the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) oversees the PHS contract. DOHMH reviews inmate medical files daily to determine whether PHS is delivering services as stipulated in the contract, and reports on PHS’s performance on a quarterly basis. If PHS fails to meet performance benchmarks outlined in the contract, DOHMH can require PHS to put corrective action plans in place and levy fines under the contract’s liquidated damages provisions. In 2005, for example, DOHMH levied fines totaling $250,000, which is about five percent of PHS’s $4.75 million administrative fee for that year. Auditors found that more than 25 percent (10 out of 39 in two quarters, and 12 out of 39 in one quarter) of PHS’s performance benchmarks for delivery of care were not met in consecutive evaluation periods. PHS failed to meet benchmark standards in areas including intake medical history and physical exams, dental services, and provision of some HIV-related services for new inmates. Auditors noted specific problems in the following areas: Performance Evaluation. In a review of the process by which DOHMH evaluates PHS’s performance, auditors found that the agency was accurately assessing the contractor’s work. In about half of the areas where corrective action was needed, auditors found that PHS performance had improved and did meet performance standards. But it sometimes took at least two quarters — six months — for services to improve to the contract benchmark levels. Mental Health Documentation. An initial corrective action plan noted the need for more clinical supervisors, especially on weekends. But performance still did not meet benchmarks and a second corrective action plan noted the same staff needs. Intake History and Physical Examination. After failing to meet performance benchmarks in these areas in the first quarter of 2005, a corrective action plan was put in place. But rather than improving, contract compliance fell in the two subsequent quarters. Quarterly Reports. Auditors pointed out that DOHMH’s quarterly reports on contract compliance are not required to be issued within a specific timeframe, and are usually disseminated two to three months after the end of the quarter. Therefore, there is often a one-quarter delay in identifying where corrective action plans are needed and putting them in place. Auditors recommended that DOHMH take action to expedite issuance of the quarterly reports. Corrective Action Plans. In some cases, corrective action plans may be needed even when benchmarks are met. For instance, in the Medical Follow-up Timeliness area, a compliance rate of 93 percent met the terms of the contract, but auditors noted that rate still meant that the contract requirement was not met in 5,600 instances in a nine-month period. Auditors outlined a number of strategies to improve the overall effectiveness of the contract with PHS, including a review of indicators used and acceptable compliance rates, and working more closely with the Department of Correction on specific details of the contract. The audit made several recommendations that, if implemented, would help the City get better value out of the contract through greater compliance by PHS. These improvements could occur through the balance of this contract, and during subsequent agreements with PHS or other vendors. Among the recommendations: expedite efforts to develop electronic medical records; periodically validate a sample of the Service Delivery Assessment Unit’s daily findings; expedite the development and implementation of corrective action plans; and develop an ongoing process for monitoring the effectiveness of corrective action plans. With an extended or new contract required after Dec. 31, 2007, OSC auditors note that the City should consider negotiating stronger liquidated damages provisions. The audit notes that existing penalties — which accounted for only about 5 percent of PHS’ 2005 administrative fee — may be insufficient as compliance incentives. In its response to the audit, DOHMH agreed with some of the auditors’ findings. DOHMH officials noted that the agency used other standards beyond performance indicators to monitor contract compliance, and that a failure by PHS to meet benchmarks is not an indication that medical care was substandard or that inmates lacked medical services. The complete response is included in the audit

November 8, 2006 New York Post
A dozen HIV counselors at Rikers Island got pink slips yesterday - drawing outrage from union officials. Prison Health Services - the for-profit firm that provides inmate health services for the city - said it was eliminating the positions as part of a restructuring involving the city Department of Health. "Eliminating counselors is tantamount to a death sentence for these inmates," said Jennifer Cunningham, vice president of Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers. The DOH confirmed the job cuts but insisted HIV-related services for inmates will not decline. DOH said 25 other staff members, including doctors, will continue to provide testing and counseling. "While the number of HIV counselors has fallen in the past two years, HIV testing, always with informed consent, has more than doubled," the department said.

January 31, 2006 New York Times
The deputy commissioner responsible for the city health department's Medicaid and jail health care programs resigned last Friday after only seven months on the job. His resignation is the latest of several recent departures and reassignments of doctors and administrators who supervised jail medical and mental health services, including the resignation this month of the assistant commissioner who oversaw the jail health program's daily operation. The deputy commissioner, Dr. Arthur N. Gualtieri, 65, left for "undisclosed personal reasons," and did not want to be interviewed, said Sandra Mullin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He is being replaced by an associate commissioner, Louise Cohen, in charge of a departmental program to improve cancer and H.I.V. screening in city hospitals, Ms. Mullin said. But the relatively sudden departure of Dr. Gualtieri — a well-regarded physician and administrator who gave up his $168,774-a-year city post with less than two weeks' notice — has created the perception among inmate advocates and jail clinicians that inmate health services, a complex array of programs that Dr. Frieden has called a priority, are suffering from a lack of leadership. Managing a jail health care program as complex as New York City's is a daunting task for any administrator, one that the city's Tennessee-based medical contractor, Prison Health Services, has often made more difficult, city officials say, since taking over the contract in 2001. With varying degrees of success, city health officials have repeatedly prodded the company to improve its care, particularly for mentally ill and suicidal inmates, six of whom hung themselves during a six-month period in 2003. At the moment, only one of the top two jobs in charge of the health department's jail health care program is filled, and not by a doctor, leaving no one with much experience dealing with inmates' medical problems to monitor Prison Health Services. Recent turnover further down the ranks of the correctional health services unit has only deepened a sense that something is amiss, jail workers say. For instance, Dr. Maria Gbur, the medical director, was hired two months ago, after her predecessor, Dr. Donald Kern, left the job last June after only a year. And the psychiatrist who now runs the unit's mental health program, a crucial post in a city bureaucracy responsible for thousands of mentally ill inmates, was hired just three months ago.

January 27, 2006 New York Times
The Tennessee company that provides health care to city inmates failed to meet one-fourth of its contractual performance standards for a third consecutive quarter last year, city records show. The latest review, completed this month, prompted city health officials to withhold $71,000 in payments to the company, the largest quarterly penalty for poor jail care since 2001. In the third quarter of 2005, the company, Prison Health Services, did not meet medical or mental health standards in 10 of 39 areas, including those covering H.I.V. treatment, mental health care and suicide watch, records show. Six of the 10 clinical standards that the company failed to meet, such as quickly administering drugs to H.I.V.-positive inmates and completing evaluations of mentally ill inmates, have been graded as failing by health department monitors for three consecutive quarters, records show. In response to the continual failing marks, the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which awarded the company a new $300 million, three-year contract in January 2005, raised the financial penalties it imposed on Prison Health by about a third compared with the first and second quarters of 2005. The company was fined $55,000 the first quarter and $52,500 the second. The city's quarterly measurement system has been criticized by some experts in performance measurements who have said it is flawed and unusually lenient.

January 12, 2006 New York Times
The psychiatrist in charge of monitoring medical care in city jails is resigning next week, after only six months on the job. The psychiatrist, Dr. Bruce David, an assistant commissioner in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is leaving his $166,514-a-year job on Jan. 20 for one with the Nassau County Correctional Facility, where he will direct mental health services, said Sandra Mullin, a spokeswoman. Ms. Mullin said he took the new job because he missed working directly with patients. Dr. David joined the department in January 2004 as its director of jail mental health care, after five years at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, a maximum-security hospital on Wards Island, as director of clinical services. In June, Dr. David, 44, was made director of correctional health services, a unit with a staff of 200 responsible for monitoring the performance of the city jails' medical contractor, Prison Health Services Inc., in 9 jails on Rikers Island and a 10th jail in Lower Manhattan. In the past two years, the monitoring unit issued quarterly report cards that repeatedly gave Prison Health Services a failing grade in several areas including treating diabetes, mental illnesses and acute medical problems. But medical-audit experts also criticized the unit for being too lenient, for bending its own rules for measuring the company's performance and for forgiving clinical mistakes that did not cause significant harm to inmates. It is currently being audited by the state comptroller's office.

December 26, 2005 New York Times
During the five years that a profit-making company, Prison Health Services, has provided medical care in New York City's jails, city health officials have assured the public that they were closely monitoring its work. The centerpiece of that oversight is a quarterly report card that scores the company's performance on all manner of care, a level of scrutiny that the city says is unusually rigorous. And during those years, while state investigators have faulted Prison Health for a rash of inmate suicides in New York, as well as deaths in jails upstate, city health officials have regularly given the company failing grades in many areas, including critical matters like treating diabetes, mental illnesses and acute medical problems. Despite the disturbing reports, city officials say that they have seen improvement, and that they have made their standards even tougher. But a close examination of how the city evaluates Prison Health's work reveals a process that often appears to be slapdash, subjective and lenient. Several experts in health care auditing, as well as doctors and nurses who work in the jails for the city and the company, question whether the report cards provide anything approaching an accurate picture of the medical services that cost New York taxpayers more than $100 million a year. Officials of the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have repeatedly bent their own rules for measuring the company's performance, forgiving flaws that do not cause significant harm to inmates - and saving the company thousands of dollars in city penalties. The department bases its report card on a review of inmates' medical charts, but lets Prison Health pull the charts itself - a practice that has allowed company employees to fix errors or omissions before city auditors could see the files, said two Prison Health clinicians and three health department employees involved in the process. Now the monitors themselves are being monitored. The state comptroller is auditing how the health department renewed its contract with Prison Health and how it oversees the work, an official in the comptroller's office said this week. "The audit began because the quality of the care has been a source of concern for a number of years," the official said. It beefed up the quarterly report card, setting standards in 39 areas of care; if the company failed to meet any standard 95 percent of the time, it would pay a penalty - usually $2,500 to $5,000 for each failing score. Those penalties could double if the company failed to meet the same standard twice in a row. The two reports issued since then have given Prison Health a total of 22 failing grades, and penalized the company $107,000. Those reports, health officials say, are part of a comprehensive auditing effort that has six auditors in city jails every day reviewing inmates' medical charts. "If there's a core value to the health department currently," Dr. Frieden said during a public meeting in October, "it's that we base our decisions on data." But some of that data is meaningless, because Prison Health employees are able to review it and change it, said four people who work at Rikers - two Prison Health senior clinicians and two auditors who work for the health department's monitoring unit, Correctional Health Services. Those employees were granted anonymity because they said they would be punished for speaking to a reporter. Every day, the health department gives the company a list of patients' charts it wants to review, a common practice in health care auditing. But sometimes, one auditor said, company doctors and supervisors go through the charts, correcting errors and filling in missing information, before handing them over. The auditor said that in one jail, the only way she could keep a physician's assistant from altering charts was to arrive at work first, at 5:30 a.m. Some of the changes the company has made - like adding a signature or checking a box that had been overlooked - are minor, the city auditors said, though such omissions could lead to a failing grade. But sometimes, they said, company supervisors have filled in answers to important questions, like whether the inmate has H.I.V. or a mental illness. "They'll just sit there and check 'no' to everything," without knowing whether the answers are true, said one auditor. But one city auditor said that the alterations were common, and that this year, after a mentally ill inmate died in the prison ward at NYU Downtown Hospital, a Prison Health doctor and mental-health workers went through the inmate's medical records, checking for missing information to fill in. In another incident, in 2003, that auditor said, a Prison Health doctor used correction fluid - a conspicuous violation of basic medical procedure, because chart notes must be crossed out, never erased - to change the date when he reviewed an inmate's abnormal lab test result. The change made it seem as if he had done the review within 24 hours, as required, the auditor said. The auditor said that complaints to health department supervisors had no effect. "It's so totally frustrating how they bend the rules," she said. Even when all the numbers are in, and the audit is completed, the scores are open to revision. Prison Health is allowed to produce what is known as "loose paper," patient information that was missing from the charts during the audit, but later found. Some auditing experts say that is a generally accepted practice in health care reviews. But the two city auditors said that Prison Health had sometimes misrepresented its work by turning in documents that it created after the audit. The company denied this. And even after all that data is assembled and auditors determine the scores, the medical director of Correctional Health Services allows the company to argue in its defense, and sometimes changes the scores if Prison Health makes its case that a particular failing did not harm patients. At least 19 times since 2001, the medical director has excused enough deficiencies in Prison Health's work that a failing score became a passing one, documents show. For example, inmates are supposed to receive a physical examination within four hours after being admitted to Rikers; but the medical director has repeatedly decided to overlook the timing - the whole point of the standard. But one health department manager familiar with the auditing process said the agency was trying to make Prison Health Services look good, because it chose the company. "If P.H.S. looks bad," he said, "we look bad." Indeed, some serious medical lapses have occurred without the city detecting them, said one Prison Health doctor. In April, he said, nurses performed kidney dialysis on inmates for several weeks without a doctor present, as is required. The health department said it was aware of only one incident, in which a nurse dialyzed a patient with a doctor present but without a current order to do so. The nurse was disciplined, the department said. But the incident was not mentioned on the report card for that quarter, and Prison Health was not penalized.

November 22, 2005 New York Times
State officials have reached a preliminary conclusion that New York City's $300 million contract for medical care at Rikers Island is illegal because it violates a state law regulating profit-making medical companies, according to the State Commission of Correction. New York law requires that corporations providing medical services for profit be owned and controlled by doctors, to prevent business considerations from influencing medical decisions. Prison Health Services, the Tennessee company that has been delivering care since 2001 to the 100,000 inmates who pass through Rikers Island every year, is not run by doctors. Officials with the State Commission of Correction, which oversees health standards in New York's prisons and jails, said state investigators informed them in August that they had tentatively determined that the city's multimillion-dollar arrangement with Prison Health was improper. State officials familiar with the city's contract with Prison Health have said that it appeared to violate the state law because it makes doctors at Rikers answerable to Prison Health executives in Tennessee. Prison Health hires all doctors at Rikers. The implications for the city of any formal decision that Prison Health's contract violates the law remain unclear. Last year, the company was among four companies that bid for the city jail health care contract, and all four were profit-making corporations. Lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled State Assembly have said a finding of illegality would require the city to address the state's concerns. Though city health officials have always maintained that the contract is legal, the State Commission of Correction said that investigators with the Education Department informed city officials late last summer that the contract was not legal.

August 25, 2005 New York Daily News
The family of a suicidal man who hanged himself at Rikers Island is suing the city for $45 million, claiming officials ignored signs that he was suicidal. David Pennington, 27, was found July 18, 2004, dangling from a bedsheet tied to his cell-door window at Rikers, where he had been jailed on burglary charges. The suit also names Public Health Services, the Tennessee-based firm that provides health care at the prison. Pennington had a longtime mental illness when he entered Rikers in June 2004, according to the suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court this week. He spiraled into a new depression in Rikers and told a social worker that he had tried to kill himself in the past and that his dad had died by hanging himself in prison, the suit says. He saw staffers three more times over two days, but no one put him on suicide watch or moved him to special housing for mentally ill inmates. Instead, he was sent back to the general prison population, the suit says.

June 10, 2005 New York Times
A recent evaluation of the company in charge of inmate health care at Rikers Island, coming months after it was awarded a new $300 million contract, has found that it has failed to meet a number of the most basic treatment goals. City records showed that the company, Prison Health Services Inc., did not meet standards on practices ranging from H.I.V. and diabetes therapy to the timely distribution of medication to adequately conducting mental health evaluations. The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which oversees the company's work at Rikers Island and at a jail in Lower Manhattan, found that during the first quarter of 2005, Prison Health failed to earn a passing grade on 12 of 39 performance standards the city sets for treating jail inmates. Some of the problems, like incomplete medical records or slipshod evaluations of mentally ill inmates, have been evident since 2004 but have not been corrected, according to health department reports. Other problems identified in the department's review, involving things as serious as the oversight of inmates who have been placed on suicide watch, are more recent or had not been evaluated by city health auditors in the past. As a result, the city is withholding $55,000 in payments to the company, the largest penalty for poor performance it has incurred since 2001, the first year of its work in New York City adult jails.

May 11, 2005 New York Times
State officials have opened an investigation into whether the corporation that provides health care for more than 100,000 inmates each year in New York City jails is violating state law governing medical services. The State Department of Education, which regulates the practice of medicine, is examining the terms of the three-year, $300 million contract renewal the city signed in December with the corporation, Prison Health Services. The inquiry will determine whether the contract complies with a state requirement that for-profit corporations providing medical services be owned and controlled by doctors - a law intended to prevent business considerations, like maximizing profits, from influencing medical decisions. Prison Health executives and the city officials who oversee the company's work say they believe that the contract is in compliance. But state education officials say the matter of who is in charge is a serious one, with grave repercussions for the well-being and survival of inmates, as well as the public health. The investigation, in fact, marks a renewed effort by the Education Department, which first began to look into the Tennessee-based corporation in 2001, after several inmate deaths in upstate jails staffed by Prison Health began to draw stinging criticism from the State Commission of Correction, which monitors jail conditions. The department's investigators concluded then that Prison Health was violating the state law, saying that company executives were ultimately responsible for medical decisions and profiting from medical services. The two agencies asked the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, to halt the company's operations in New York, but Mr. Spitzer's office has declined to investigate. Now, however, education officials have decided to look into the company's largest contract of scores across the country, providing medical and mental health care at nine city jails on Rikers Island and a 10th in Lower Manhattan. On A