Abraxas I Youth and Family Services Center, Marienville, Pennsylvania
February 22, 2008 The Derrick
Two Philadelphia men were charged for their actions during separate riots that broke out this week at Cornell Abraxas I in Marienville. State police said Joseph Clark, 18, and Lenny Scott Cabrera, 18, were involved in both riots that occurred at the facility Monday and Tuesday. Clark was charged with one count of aggravated assault and two counts of riot, police said. They said Cabrera was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of riot. Both men were arraigned before District Judge George F. Gregory in Tionesta. They were placed in the Warren County jail on $25,000 bail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Tuesday. Police said three juveniles involved in both riots and five other involved in the Monday riot will face similar charges.

January 11, 2007 The Courier Express
In a last-ditch effort to forestall a strike, representatives of Abraxas I and members of PSSU Local 668 have agreed to meet Friday, according to a press release issued by Abraxas Wednesday. Abraxas I is planning to operate through any strike with qualified employees from other facilities and all employees who want to continue to work, according to the press release. "Any employee who wishes to work may do so at the current wages, benefits and other terms or conditions of employment," the release said. "Abraxas I will not implement its final offer until an agreement is reached." Abraxas I has informed its client-referring agencies about the strike and the company's plans to operate in the interim. It has also decided to stop admitting new residents and plans to accelerate the discharge of residents who are approved for discharge by the courts, said the press release. On Jan. 3, Abraxas Youth and Family Services received notification that the members of SEIU Local 668 rejected the company's offer of Dec. 21. Local 668 also issued a 10-day strike notice, which indicates it plans to strike at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. James Newsome, program director at Abraxas I, said, "We are very disappointed that the union and its members rejected this offer. It was a very fair offer given the economic realities of the Youth and Family Services business. "Our most recent offer includes wage increases ranging from 8.5 percent to 12.25 percent over the proposed three-year agreement," he said. "While we propose increases in employee contributions for medical benefits, our wage proposal also ensures that all employees would receive a real wage increase to offset the increased employee medical contribution. Our request for increased employee medical contributions is consistent with what many unions and employers have agreed to in the face of rising costs of health care." Abraxas I proposes maintaining an HMO medical plan for current employees, but employees hired after ratification would only be able to participate in a PPO plan. Newsome said the HMO plan is a very expensive benefit. "The only way we can continue to afford to provide the HMO is to make it available for current employees only," he said. "The union recognized the fairness of our economic proposals, because they told us that if we were willing to agree to a union shop or fair share - union security - they would recommend ratification. We refused to agree to a union shop or fair share because we believe employees should have a right to decide for themselves whether they wish to belong to the union and pay union dues, not be forced to do so," Newsome said. Abraxas I houses approximately 274 adolescents and provides drug and alcohol counseling, as well as operating a private school, for its residents.

Abraxas Center, Forest, Pennsylvania
 July 8, 2004 Morning Call
A Tamaqua 16-year-old, who was committed to a juvenile center after being charged with shooting a friend in the face with a gun he stole from a borough pawn shop, escaped after attending a funeral Wednesday, police said.  Duane R. Allen II was court-ordered to attend the funeral and told two workers taking him back to the Cornell Abraxas center in Marienville, Forest County, that he was sick, state police at Hazleton said.  The workers stopped about 2:30 p.m. at Pilot Truck Stop in Sugarloaf Township, Luzerne County, where Allen fled from the worker accompanying him to the restroom, police said. 

Abraxas Ohio, Shelby, Ohio
August 4, 2010 Mansfield News Journal
A judge modified bond Tuesday for a former youth counselor at a Shelby residential treatment center who is accused of raping a 16-year-old girl. Randy Scott, 35, of Mifflin Township, had been held on a $500,000 cash bond after his May arrest. Last week, Richland County Common Pleas Judge James Henson granted a defense request to reduce the bond to $10,000 with 10 percent posting allowed. The state objected and requested Tuesday's hearing. Following testimony from two witnesses, Henson rescinded the previous bond. The new terms are $100,000 with 10 percent posting. If Scott posts bond, he will be monitored electronically and cannot have contact with the alleged victim. Scott is charged with four counts of rape, four counts of sexual battery, four counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of kidnapping with a sexual motivation specification. The alleged victim was not a resident at Abraxas, a residential program for males ages 12 to 18. Assistant Prosecutor Bambi Couch-Page wanted Henson to reconsider his previous decision to reduce Scott's bond. "The defendant cannot control himself sexually around minors," she said. Couch-Page called sheriff's deputy Pat Smith as a witness. Smith said there are two pending investigations against Scott. The more recent case involved alleged sexual conduct between Scott and a 16-year-old Abraxas boy. Scott has been fired, said Charles Seigel, a vice president for Cornell Companies, which operates Abraxas. The older case involved Scott's alleged sexual conduct with three females -- ages 13, 14 and 18 -- while he worked at Foundations for Living, a residential treatment facility on Ohio 39 South.

May 11, 2010 Mansfield News Journal
A youth counselor at a Shelby residential treatment center was arrested and charged with the rape of a 16-year-old, officials said Monday. Randy Lamont Scott, 35, of Mifflin Township, is incarcerated at the Richland County Jail on $500,000 bond after pleading not guilty Friday morning to a single count of rape, a first-degree felony. A spokesman for Abraxas, the Shelby youth rehab center where Scott worked, said he was placed on nonadministrative, unpaid leave last week. The child, who is not part of the Abraxas program, has received a medical exam and counseling, according to Carl Hunnell, a Children Services spokesman. "We were notified on May 5, at 5:34 p.m., on the allegations," Hunnell said. "We're working with the sheriff's department on the investigation of the victim due to the age." Richland County Sheriff's Deputy Pat Smith declined to say much about Scott, citing the ongoing investigation, but alluded to a "period of abuse." Scott was a "life skills worker" at Abraxas and was responsible for leading group sessions and supervising group activities on weekends, said Charles Seigel, a vice president for Cornell Companies, which operates Abraxas. Scott had worked at the facility for less than two years and passed a background check and drug tests, which Seigel said were routine for incoming employees. While he has not been fired, Seigel said the company likely wouldn't wait for the legal case to be resolved. "Anything that would be a felony would be pretty much automatic," Seigel said. "We'll take a look at the situation." The Shelby facility's 108-bed residential program, "incorporates an intensive group curriculum focusing on decision-making, goal-setting, self-esteem, sex education and relapse process/prevention," according to the company's website.

Alaska Legislature
January 29, 2011 Anchorage Daily News
Former Alaska halfway house mogul Bill Weimar, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and financial wrongdoing in Alaska's political corruption scandal, is being sought by Florida authorities on a charge of child sexual battery. According to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, an arrest warrant was issued for Weimar, 70, on Monday. The alleged victim was under 12 years old, according to warrant information posted on the sheriff's website. The sheriff's office gave Weimar's last known address as a boat slip at the prestigious Marina Jack's in Sarasota harbor. A spokesman for the Sarasota Police Department, Capt. Paul Sutton, said Friday that reports of Weimar living on a boat in a marina turned out to not be true. A man answering the phone at the dockmaster's office at Marina Jack's said a cabin cruiser was docked at the slip referred to in the warrant but that it wasn't a residence. "We don't allow live-aboards here," he said. He said he didn't know whether Weimar was renting the slip. The website of Crimestoppers of Sarasota County posted a wanted picture of Weimar and gave his date of birth as identical to the former Alaskan's. Sutton said the case against Weimar was being investigated by a detective in the sheriff's office. Reached after work on her cell phone, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said she couldn't get any information about the case after hours. A friend of Weimar in Alaska, attorney Jon Buchholdt, said Weimar lived on the west coast of Florida but he didn't know the town. Buchholdt said he knew nothing about the accusations and hadn't spoken to Weimar recently. The Seattle attorney who represented Weimar in his federal criminal case in Alaska, David Bukey, said he also knew nothing about the Sarasota allegations. Weimar was once the principal owner of the Allvest Corp., which had a chain of halfway houses around Alaska that contracted with the Alaska Department of Corrections to house state prisoners, usually six months before their terms were up. Allvest also had a drug and alcohol testing facility. He sold the halfway house business to the national private prison company Cornell Corrections Inc. He later partnered with Cornell and the oil-field service company Veco in an effort to persuade the Legislature and some Alaska communities to build a large private prison in Alaska. But that effort was mingled with corruption. A legislative candidate's complaint to the FBI that Weimar tried to hand him an envelope stuffed with cash became one of the impetuses in 2004 for "Polar Pen," the investigation that eventually resulted in indictments or guilty pleas of six legislators and U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. One case is still pending. The rest were convicted, though Stevens' case was later thrown out over prosecutorial misconduct.

November 10, 2008 Anchorage Daily News
Bill Weimar, who once ran a lucrative Alaska halfway house business and is now retired and living in Montana, will face a federal judge Wednesday morning for sentencing on two felonies. Weimar pleaded guilty in August to a role in a scheme to illegally funnel $20,000 in 2004 to a political consultant for an Alaska legislative candidate, knowing that if the candidate won, he would back a private prison long sought by Weimar. Prosecutors want Weimar, 68, to serve a year. Weimar's lawyer says a sentence of five months' incarceration and five months of home detention, as proposed by the federal probation office, would be fair. But Weimar asks that he be allowed to do five months of community service rather than home detention.

August 12, 2008 Anchorage Daily News
Bill Weimar, who made his fortune off private halfway houses in Alaska, pleaded guilty Monday to two federal felonies in U.S. District Court in Anchorage. He admitted his role in a conspiracy to secretly funnel money to a political consultant for an unnamed state Senate candidate, knowing the candidate would back a private prison if he won. Weimar had a long-standing relationship with the candidate running in the 2004 primary, a charging document filed Monday said. Weimar held a "contingent interest" in a private prison project worth $5.5 million, but only if the project was completed, the charges say. He faces prison time in the plea deal and may have to forfeit "certain property." Prosecutors estimate a sentence of 10 to 16 months. U.S. District Judge John Sedwick isn't bound to that. He set sentencing for Oct. 29. Weimar, who owned Allvest Inc., becomes the 11th person charged in the broad, ongoing investigation by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice into political corruption in Alaska. Weimar, 68, now lives in Big Arm, Mont. At the brief hearing on Monday, Weimar answered the judge's routine questions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini outlined the two charges: conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, and illegally manipulating currency transactions to avoid reporting them to the Treasury Department. Weimar has admitted paying the consultant a total of $20,000 during the primary in August 2004 to cover expenses for the candidate, without reporting the payments and without routing them through the campaign. How do you plead? Sedwick asked. "Guilty," Weimar answered, to each charge. LAWMAKER NOT NAMED -- For years, Weimar pushed plans for a private prison in Alaska, but the project was always controversial and no prison was ever built. A Democratic activist in the 1970s, Weimar later became close to the Republicans who controlled the Alaska Legislature. Neither the Senate candidate nor the consultant -- both accused of conspiring with Weimar -- is named in the charging document. Prosecutors declined to expand on it Monday. But the candidate described in the documents, and in court Monday, appears to be former state Sen. Jerry Ward. He didn't return phone calls or e-mail messages on Monday. Ward, a Republican elected from Anchorage in 1996 and the Kenai Peninsula in 2000, fervently pushed private prison projects as a legislator. The charging document says the candidate running in 2004 had a long relationship with Weimar, and held elected office part of that time. Ward and Weimar were "buddies," according to a statement that former lobbyist Bill Bobrick, who worked for Weimar, gave to the FBI in September 2006. Bobrick also has pleaded guilty in the corruption investigation. He declined to comment on Monday. In 1997, a plan for a private prison in South Anchorage with Allvest and Veco Corp. as partners crumbled under strong public opposition. As that project evaporated, Ward emerged as the lead architect of a new plan to build private prisons in the Mat-Su and Seward. "By God, this really solves the problem," Weimar was quoted as saying at the time. In 2001, Ward signed on as the only Senate sponsor of a House bill pushing a private prison on the Kenai. The charging document against Weimar doesn't say whether the candidate won in 2004 and does not call the person a legislator. Ward lost his seat in 2002 to Tom Wagoner. He was trying to regain it in 2004, but lost in the Republican primary to Wagoner. SEATTLE CONSULTANT -- In court Monday, Bottini told the judge the consultant was from Seattle. Some of Ward's biggest campaign expenses in 2004 were more than $43,000 in fees charged by Madison Communications, an advertising and public relations firm based in suburban Kirkland, Wash. Numerous calls left for Madison principal Brett Bader on Monday were not returned. The charges against Weimar and other court documents quote details of a number of telephone conversations he had with the consultant and the candidate from Aug. 17 to Aug. 23, 2004. In a telephone conversation on Aug. 17, 2004, the consultant told Weimar that the campaign was having money trouble, court documents say. "I'm worried we're reaching the limit now. I don't know where we find 10 grand unless (Candidate A) can get more in," the consultant said "There's no legal way to do that. At least not on that scale," Weimar responded. Later that day, Weimar arranged to cover the next advertising mailer for the candidate, and told the candidate so, the document says. On Aug. 20, 2004, Weimar told the candidate of an unpaid invoice of $20,000 with the consultant. The candidate's campaign funds were depleted, the charges say. The candidate said he had only $300 to $400 left in his account. On Aug. 23, 2004, Weimar made arrangements with the consultant to pay off the debt, the charges say. He then called the candidate and told him "he would not be receiving any further bills from Consultant A," the charging document says. Weimar sent the consulting company a $3,000 check on Aug. 23, 2004, then sent $8,500 in cash that same day by express mail, and another $8,500 cash the day after, the charges say. "WE'VE MOVED ON" -- The charges also do not name the private prison company, but Cornell Corrections Inc. tried to build a prison in various Alaska communities, including Delta Junction, Kenai and Whittier. The charging document describes the unnamed company's Alaska interests as halfway houses, a planned juvenile treatment center, and a private prison project, and that matches Cornell's interests. In 1998, in the midst of planning for a private prison in Delta Junction, Weimar sold five Alaska halfway houses to Cornell for $21 million. He also formed a partnership with Cornell to pursue the Delta prison and subsequent deals for a private facility. One goal of the conspiracy was to get the private prison company to give campaign contributions to the candidate to help win election, according to the charges. A spokesman for Cornell said the company was unaware of the charges but supports the prosecution. The executives now in charge of Cornell weren't there at the time of the events that involved Weimar, spokesman Charles Seigel said Monday. Company records don't show any evidence of wrongdoing, he added. "We've moved on and we are very different and have it behind us," Seigel said. Cornell also has not pursued a private prison in Alaska for years and is no longer interested in that, he said. "We're glad this investigation is going on but whatever was going on or may have been going on in the past, that is not the Cornell that exists now, both in the policy on the private prison as we've talked about and in general about the way we do business." By 2004, Veco was no longer involved in the prison project, Frank Prewitt, a former state corrections commissioner, Cornell consultant and FBI informant, has said. ANDERSON INVOLVED -- The failed private prison effort was also central in the government's case against former state Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, now in prison. At Anderson's corruption trial last summer, Prewitt was a key witness who testified at length about his undercover work to collect evidence against Anderson, and also about questionable acts in his own past. From the witness stand, Prewitt said that in 1994 -- when he was corrections commissioner and Weimar owned Allvest -- he accepted $30,000 from Weimar. Prewitt testified that he considered the money a loan, which he repaid the next year, after he left his state post, by working four months for Allvest for free. Weimar helped start Allvest in 1985, then bought out his partners and turned it into a multimillion dollar corporation with operations in Alaska and Washington state. Its government contracts were worth an estimated $10 million a year. Allvest also operated a lab that did contract urinalysis work, and used to run the city's Animal Control Center and the Community Service Patrol. In 2002, Allvest was forced into bankruptcy because of unpaid judgments in civil suits against the company. The bankruptcy case eventually was settled.

November 27, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
State Sen. Lesil McGuire was accused Tuesday of making veiled threats to dissuade a lobbyist from testifying in the corruption case against her husband, former state Rep. Tom Anderson. The surprising information came up during the sentencing hearing of Bill Bobrick, a once-prominent lobbyist who began cooperating in September 2006 with the FBI in its investigation of corruption in Alaska politics. In an interview after the hearing, McGuire denied making any threats and said Bobrick was deflecting attention from himself onto her "on the day of his reckoning with the public." Bobrick, 52, pleaded guilty in May to conspiring with Anderson to push the interests of a private prison firm in exchange for money. He funneled nearly $24,000 to Anderson, money put up by a prison consultant who was working undercover for the FBI. In all, Anderson received nearly $26,000. The prison company, Cornell Cos., didn't know about the scheme, federal officials have said. U.S. District Judge John Sedwick ordered Bobrick to serve five months in prison, followed by five months of house arrest on the felony conspiracy conviction. That's the minimum sentence under federal guidelines, which are advisory. It's far less than the two years to 30 months that Bobrick would have faced if he didn't cooperate. And it's much less than the five years that Sedwick sentenced Anderson to serve. The Republican who represented East Anchorage in the Legislature for two terms also initially cooperated with the FBI, then decided to fight the charges against him. He was indicted in December 2006 and a jury convicted him in July of seven felony counts including bribery and money laundering. Anderson reports to a federal prison on Monday in Oregon.

November 22, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
Once-prominent lobbyist Bill Bobrick almost surely is going to prison. But not for long. His sentencing on a single felony charge of conspiracy, part of an ongoing federal investigation of political corruption in Alaska, is set for Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge John Sedwick. Bobrick has been cooperating with the government, so will get much less time than the five years slapped on the only other defendant sentenced so far in the corruption probe, former state Rep. Tom Anderson. "I take full responsibility for my crime," Bobrick, 52, said in a brief telephone call on Wednesday. "I can never apologize too much to my fellow Alaskans for the damage I have done to our political system." Prosecutors are asking that he be sentenced to a year and a day, which triggers a rule that requires he do all the time in prison, less only good time. With good behavior, he could be out after about 10 1/2 months. They also want two years of probation, prosecutors wrote in a memo to the judge. The defense wants a sentence of less than a year and is asking that Bobrick be allowed to serve at least part of it under house arrest or in a halfway house. That would allow him to do community service as he's serving his time, which is what his attorney said he really wants. Federal prisoners don't get "good time" for sentences of less than a year. "Bobrick is not pleading for mercy," his attorney, Doug Pope, wrote in his sentencing memorandum. "He is requesting that the court credit him with providing substantial assistance to the government, and give him a chance to atone for his crime." If he hadn't cooperated, he'd be facing two years or longer for the conspiracy conviction under sentencing guidelines. Bobrick is married and has lived in Alaska for 32 years. His wife is in her third year of medical school. Pope filed in court more than 50 letters of support, many trying to convince the judge to fashion a sentence that puts Bobrick to work doing community service rather than serving time in prison. At least six former Anchorage Assembly members and several law enforcement representatives are among the dozens who wrote in. Bobrick's not the type to get in trouble again, his supporters said. Many mentioned good work he's done as a volunteer for years. They said he apologized to his friends, clients and colleagues one by one long before his case became public. "I believe that Bill Bobrick knows that his actions were wrong and that he is full of remorse about the choices he made," wrote Jane Angvik, a former Anchorage Assembly member. She met him in 1986 through political activity and has served on boards with him. She wrote that she's talked with him about the crime and he wept as he described his regret. "He said he had 'lost his way,' that he has changed, and that he is prepared to accept whatever punishment the court deems appropriate." Bobrick pleaded guilty in May to conspiring with Anderson to push the interests of a private prison firm in exchange for money. He became one of the main government witnesses against Anderson in a trial this summer. A consultant to Cornell Cos. funneled $24,000 to Bobrick in the scheme, and Bobrick eventually passed almost all of it on to Anderson. The consultant, former state Corrections Commissioner Frank Prewitt, was working undercover for the FBI and Cornell knew nothing of the bribes, officials have said. Until he was caught up in the ongoing, multipronged FBI investigation last year, Bobrick was a powerful player in the city. He didn't lobby the state Legislature but was active politically and served as executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party in the late 1980s. He then registered as a lobbyist in the municipality. For years, he had more clients than anyone with city business. He's lost all that now. The FBI confronted him in late September 2006 with secretly recorded telephone calls and meetings about the scheme with Anderson. He began cooperating on Sept. 28, 2006. The defense expects the government to agree that his help "has been as broad and as extensive as the government requested, that his assistance extended beyond the 'Cornell Corrections conspiracy' which was the subject of the Anderson indictment and trial, and involved actively assisting in collecting evidence, including recording conversations." Bobrick was vaguely threatened before the Anderson trial, according to Pope. He described it as "contacts implying threats of economic injury." "Those threats were credible," Pope wrote. "It is reasonable to conclude that they were an attempt to influence Bobrick's testimony or to dissuade him from testifying at all." Pope didn't provide details but indicated in his memo that more information was in another filing, which was not made public. The government is seeking a $5,000 fine. But Bobrick no longer can make a living and should not be fined, Pope wrote.

November 13, 2007 AP
A former Alaska lawmaker convicted of seven counts of conspiracy and bribery will begin his five-year federal prison sentence next month. Former Rep. Tom Anderson on Monday told Anchorage television station KTUU that he will report to a federal prison south of Portland, Ore., on Dec. 3. Anderson, 40, a two-term Republican from Anchorage who chose not to run for re-election in 2006, was convicted in July of taking nearly $24,000 he thought was coming from a private prison firm, Cornell Industries Inc., in exchange for his assistance on legislation. The money was supplied by the FBI through an informant under contract to Cornell, Frank Prewitt, a former Alaska Department of Corrections commissioner. Prewitt secretly recorded his conversations with Anderson and a co-conspirator, lobbyist Bill Bobrick, between July 2004 and March 2005. Cornell Industries was not aware of the bribery scheme or investigation. The 60-month sentence fell within the presentencing report guidelines of 51 to 63 months. Anderson was the first of four former Republican Alaska lawmakers arrested on federal corruption charges. Former House Speaker Pete Kott was convicted in October of conspiracy to solicit financial benefits, extortion and bribery. He will be sentenced Dec. 7. Former state Rep. Vic Kohring was convicted earlier this month of bribery, conspiracy to commit extortion and attempted interference with commerce by extortion. He was acquitted of another count of interference with commerce by extortion. Sentencing was set Feb. 6. The corruption trial of former state Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch has been delayed.

November 7, 2007 UPI
The Alaska Public Offices Commission is coordinating with the U.S. Justice Department to probe what Veco Corp. illegally did to benefit Alaska politicians. The commission, which investigates campaign-finance violations, is focusing on matters such as polls the oil-services company may have illegally bought for legislators, as well as illegal Veco campaign contributions, The Anchorage Daily News reported. The Justice Department, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are conducting a widespread investigation into alleged political corruption of lawmakers in the Alaska Legislature, focusing in particular on lawmakers' official actions in connection with the oil industry, fisheries and private corrections industry. Former Alaska lawmaker Pete Kott, accused of trading his legislative influence for bribes, was convicted of corruption charges in the scandal Sept. 27. Veco founder and Chief Executive Officer Bill Allen and Vice President for Community and Government Affairs Rick Smith pleaded guilty May 7 to charges of bribery and conspiracy. Because of the chances of overlap between the state and federal probes, the state commission is cooperating closely with the Justice Department, particularly on the issue of subpoenas, the newspaper said.

October 9, 2007 KTUU
For the first time since facing federal corruption charges, former Anchorage Representative Tom Anderson is publicly admitting he broke the law. Anderson was convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges in July. His admission comes about a week before his sentencing. In a memo filed with U.S. District Court yesterday (Monday), Anderson says "I accept full responsibility for the choices I've made and the damge I've done...." Anderson's lawyer says he is seeking leniency - specifically, no more than 33 months behind bars. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini says prosecutors will likely request a sentence of 5 to six years. Bottini says it's too late for Anderson to acknowledge he did wrong, since he could have pleaded guilty before the trial. Anderson was found guilty for taking money he thought was coming from a private prison company. The nearly $26,000 actually came from an FBI informant who secretly recorded conversations with Anderson and former municipal lobbyist Bill Bobrick.

September 19, 2007 KTUU
Cornell Cos. claims it will no longer attempt to sell projects here in Alaska. The company has made big headlines in Alaska over the last several months as the private prison firm used a decoy by government informant Frank Prewitt in crafting a bribery scheme with former Anchorage lobbyist Bill Bobrick and former Anchorage Rep. Tom Anderson. Both Anderson and Bobrick have been convicted of corruption and bribery in the scheme. Cornell has tried building a private prison in Alaska three times -- in Delta junction, Kenai and Whittier -- and has been unsuccessful in each instance. Now Cornell CEO James Hyman said he's done. "We understand how the [Department of Justice] had to use bait to get what they needed. We are a little chagrined to be that bait," Hyman said. Although the government successfully used Cornell as bait to take down Anderson and Bobrick, the company was not involved in the kickbacks and knew nothing of Prewitt's arrangement with federal agents. Instead, Cornell was simply part of an FBI cover in order to keep the bribery framework it was monitoring with Anderson and Bobrick believable. Unbeknownst to Cornell, Prewitt sought Anderson's help on matters key to the company's future plans, including muscling through the complex bureaucracy to prove to the state those projects were needed. During the Anderson trial, Prewitt told the court he made an illegal campaign contribution utilizing money from a former Cornell executive. After hearing that, Hyman said the company wanted to ensure its activities in Alaska had all been above board. Hyman said the company talked to current and ex-employees to try and discover any wrongdoing. He said he is confident there have been no issues since he took over in 2005 and said there's no evidence it happen in prior years either. Among the projects Cornell was pursuing in Alaska, and Prewitt was using to snare Anderson, was a new juvenile residential treatment facility for Anchorage. The project suffered from poor community support for the Downtown location it chose for a detention facility in addition to the paperwork and bureaucratic snags. Cornell currently operates six halfway houses across the state, including three here in Anchorage. A company executive announced that is where its focus will remain for the foreseeable future. "We are not interested in the juvenile sector here. We are not interested in building a private prison here or operating a private prison here. That is not where we are going to focus," Hyman said. Alaska Department of Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt said the department's relationship with Cornell is still strong. "Right now, they want to work with us instead of against us, and I think we have a pretty good partnership right now," Schmidt said. The possibility of constructing a private prison in Alaska was taken off the table three years ago when the state legislature passed a bill requiring any prison expansion in the state to be state-run and state-operated.

July 30, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
Federal law enforcement agents are currently searching the Girdwood home of Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, an FBI agent said. "All I can say is that agents from the FBI and IRS are currently conducting a search at that residence," said Dave Heller, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Anchorage office. The search began this afternoon, he said. It's the only such search warrant currently being served, he said. He directed other questions to the U.S. Justice Department's Public Integrity Section in Washington. A spokesman there had no comment. Federal investigators and a grand jury looking into public corruption in Alaska have been asking questions about a 2000 remodeling project at Stevens' home, particularly the involvement of the oil field services firm Veco. Three contractors who worked on the project told the Daily News that their records had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, and others connected with the work and with Stevens had been interviewed. One of the contractors who worked on the job said he was hired by Veco CEO Bill Allen for the job, and while his bills were paid by Stevens and his wife, Catherine, invoices were reviewed first by Veco. Allen and a Veco vice president pleaded guilty in May to bribery, extortion and other charges connected with paying off state legislators.

July 10, 2007 KTVA TV
Cornell Cos., whose lobbyist became the federal government's chief witness in the corruption case against former Anchorage Rep. Tom Anderson, wants it known it had nothing to with the bribery scheme. The Texas-based corrections company runs five halfway houses across the state. It hired lobbyist Frank Prewitt to help advance its interest in those and other areas, including developing a privately run prison in Alaska and a juvenile treatment facility in Anchorage. Cornell says while Prewitt may have told now-convicted co-conspirators Bill Bobrick and Anderson that the bribe money he had to offer was coming from Cornell, in reality, the company says they had no knowledge of what was going on. The company also claims it had no idea Prewitt was an FBI informant. However, Prewitt did admit under oath that he had been implicated but not yet charged in an illegal contribution scheme involving a Cornell Cos. executive in 2003. Prewitt testified he helped funnel $3,000 from that executive to an Alaska politician that same year. The FBI has acknowledged the money Prewitt used in the bribe scheme involving Anderson came from them and not Cornell. Cornell Cos. Consultant Charles Seigel said the company does not support bribery.

July 10, 2007 KTVA TV
Alaska Senator Ted Stevens says he's worried about how a corruption investigation could affect his run for re-election next year. The 83-year-old Republican has drawn Justice Department scrutiny over a renovation project in 2000, that more than doubled the size of his home in Girdwood. The remodeling was overseen by Bill Allen -- a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators. Allen is founder of VECO Corporation -- an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts. Allen is cooperating with the FBI. It appears investigators are looking at whether VECO got anything in return for the home improvement help. Alaska's senior senator is caught up in a larger probe that included FBI raids last summer at offices of six Alaska legislators. Those legislators include Stevens' son, Ben, who was then the president of the state Senate. Ted Stevens told The Associated Press recently that, "The worst thing about this investigation is that it does change your life in terms of employment potential... "It doesn't matter what anyone says, it does shake you up. If this is still hanging around a year from November, it could cause me some trouble." Monday, a federal jury convicted former state Representative Tom Anderson on all seven counts in a corruption trial in Anchorage. Anderson was charged with seven felonies, including conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and interfering with commerce, a charge connected to a demand for payments. Prosecutors said he conspired to take money he thought was coming from a private prison firm, Cornell Industries, Incorporated. The conspiracy called for Cornell to invest in a Web-based public affairs newsletter that Anderson would write for, something a private prison firm would not normally sponsor, as a way to pay off Anderson.

July 10, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
Federal jurors said they relied on former state Rep. Tom Anderson's own words to convict him Monday of conspiracy, bribery and other charges related to political corruption. Eleven jurors returned seven guilty verdicts around 1:30 p.m., finding Anderson, 39, guilty of all felony charges against him. Witnesses testified Anderson took money to do the bidding of a private prison firm. In all, Anderson received $25,838 in 2004 and 2005, witnesses said. The money was supplied by the FBI through Frank Prewitt, a consultant for Cornell Cos., who secretly recorded his conversations with Anderson and a co-conspirator, former lobbyist Bill Bobrick. Juror No. 9 was dismissed Monday after a closed hearing for reasons that weren't explained. Both sides agreed to go forward with fewer than 12. Jurors at first were split over whether Anderson had been entrapped by the government, said several reached after the verdict. Jury forewoman Wendy Gilbert of Valdez said the key evidence came from a July 28, 2004, recording of a conversation among Anderson, Prewitt and Bobrick -- the first after the conspiracy began, according to the government. Jurors asked for it to be replayed on Monday and found that Anderson had an idea of what was expected of him from the start. "They started talking about what he could do for Cornell," juror Travis Gardner of Chugiak said. And when Anderson was asked about his credentials, Gardner said, the first thing he said was that he's a legislator. It didn't matter if Anderson would have taken the same actions anyway, such as getting on key budget committees, because he accepted money for doing so, said Gardner, 23. Another juror said she felt prosecutors presented a "substantial amount of evidence." Asked what was key in their decision, juror Marie Gieryic of Eagle River replied in an e-mail: "the recorded conversations of Anderson and others." Those conversations, along with other evidence, showed "Anderson understood he was taking part in illegal activities," wrote Gieryic, a mother of three who works in a child care center. MESSAGE TO JUNEAU The verdict should help "reinject ethics" into the Legislature and send a message "that there is a significant price to pay for abusing the public's trust in this manner," she wrote. Legislators need to think twice before they sell out. Anderson and his attorney seemed stunned by the verdict. When the jury left the room, Anderson uttered a weary sigh. "I'm devastated," he said. He said he'd appeal. "The prosecution has criminalized being a legislator over this past year. And I think I fell victim to that," Anderson said. Anderson's attorney, Paul Stockler said Anderson will need to think over what to do next after consulting with his wife, state Sen. Lesil McGuire, and a circle of advisers. "I'm speechless right now," Stockler said. "But when you go up against the government, you risk losing." Anderson never tied the payment of money to any official acts as a legislator, Stockler said. "He was always willing to help, and it had nothing to do with money." For the reading of the verdict, the courtroom quickly filled with FBI agents, prosecutors and staff members. McGuire wasn't there. She and other friends and family came to the trial but couldn't get to the federal building in downtown Anchorage in time after jurors announced they had reached a verdict, Anderson said. McGuire was not accused of wrongdoing. In fact, prosecutors used the fact that Anderson hid the payments from her as further evidence of a shady deal. NO ENTRAPMENT With seven counts and an entrapment defense, the case was particularly complex, said Gilbert, the jury forewoman. "There's a lot on the line and a lot on your shoulders, and you want to make sure you do the right thing," said Gilbert, a pipeline lab technician and mother of three. A common thread for jurors was that none knew much about the case beforehand from news coverage. In the end, jurors concluded Anderson had not been lured to commit crimes by a government agent. He was not "entrapped." Juror Gardner, who works for a trucking company, said the case was a lesson in Alaska politics. "I didn't even know what lobbying was," he said. But it didn't make him cynical, he said. Businesses should have a way to get their interests heard -- just not by paying legislators, he said. The public corruption case against Anderson provided the first real test for the FBI and prosecutors in their ongoing investigation of Alaska state legislators. Three other politicians are awaiting trial, though the schemes alleged in those cases are different. Those cases involve allegations of bribes paid by executives with oil field services contractor Veco. Lawyers for indicted former Reps. Bruce Weyhrauch and Pete Kott, whose trial is set for Sept. 5, said the guilty verdict won't have any impact on their strategy because the facts are so different. State Rep. Vic Kohring, whose trial is set for Oct. 22 and who is stepping down from his post next week, said he was saddened for Anderson but that his own resolve to fight the charges against him had not waned. Nick Marsh and Joe Bottini prosecuted the case against Anderson. They didn't comment on the verdict, nor did the FBI in Alaska. The only government statement came out of Washington, D.C. "Anderson has been held accountable for his crimes thanks to the hard work of federal prosecutors and FBI agents, and the Department of Justice will continue its pursuit of public corruption at all levels of government," U.S. Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said in a written statement. KEY WITNESS One of the government's main witnesses was former lobbyist Bobrick. Gardner said jurors didn't find Bobrick that believable. Bobrick pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy in the scheme and agreed to cooperate with the government in the hope of getting a lighter sentence. Bobrick told jurors about a series of checks he wrote to Anderson or his consulting business that went far beyond the initial payments revealed before the trial: $3,000 on Feb. 14, 2005, $1,500 on Feb. 25, 2005, and more, on into June 2005. In all, Bobrick passed nearly $24,000 through to Anderson, and Prewitt gave him another $2,000 directly, according to their testimony. Bobrick testified he had an idea for a political Web site that he had hoped would become a real business with Anderson, but it never did. Anderson was paid "for being a legislator," Bobrick told jurors. But, as jurors indicated, Anderson's own words were most damaging. On a Nov. 16, 2004, recording of a meeting in his Anchorage legislative office, Anderson brought up money and told Prewitt he didn't want to split the next payment with Bobrick. Anderson served in the state House from 2003 to this year. He didn't run in 2006. U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick set sentencing for Oct. 2. Anderson faces certain prison time and significant fines.

July 6, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
On June 13, 2005, an FBI agent left a message on then-state Rep. Tom Anderson's cell phone asking for his views on an upcoming federal appointment because he had been such a friend of law enforcement in the past. But when Anderson showed up at the FBI building in downtown Anchorage the next day, he discovered that was just a ploy. He was the target of an undercover FBI investigation. Huge blown-up pictures from a five-hour-long Prince William Sound sailing trip on the boat of Cornell Cos. consultant Frank Prewitt were on the wall. Agents played secretly made recordings of his conversations with Prewitt and lobbyist Bill Bobrick. The agents wanted to get Anderson to cooperate in its ongoing corruption investigation. And for a time he did, prosecutors said. The defense in Anderson's corruption trial wrapped up Thursday after five quick witnesses. The case is expected to go to the jury today after closing arguments. Anderson is charged with seven federal felonies, including bribery, extortion and money laundering. Defense lawyer Paul Stockler maintained that Anderson never took any legislative actions for money. He tried to portray Anderson as a man who had no inclination to do anything shady but was lured in to doing questionable things by the FBI. Anderson didn't take the stand. After court ended for the day on Thursday, Anderson said he trusted Stockler's judgment in directing his defense. With the case about to go to the jury, he said he felt anxious but didn't want to say much. Earlier in the trial, Bobrick testified that he created a business that was supposed to produce a Web site about Alaska politics. But he told jurors that it ultimately became a sham used to funnel illegal payments from Prewitt to Anderson. Prosecutors assert that the money was used to get the legislator to do Cornell's bidding on halfway houses, a juvenile treatment center and a private prison. Though Anderson was supposed to have produced material for the Web site, witnesses have testified that he never did. Bobrick has pleaded guilty and Prewitt worked undercover for the FBI, making recordings "as a cooperating witness."

July 4, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
On the stand for a second day in federal court Tuesday, former lobbyist Bill Bobrick told jurors that his idea for a political Web site started as a real business venture in 2004 with then-state Rep. Tom Anderson. It wasn't supposed to be a way "to bribe Tom Anderson or channel him funds. But it certainly ended up that way," Bobrick testified. Ultimately, its only real purpose was to disguise payments to Anderson, he told jurors. Anderson never did any real work for the Web site and received the money "for being a legislator," Bobrick said. The Web site never got off the ground. Prosecutors rested their corruption case against Anderson on Tuesday afternoon after calling eight witnesses over four days. The trial began June 25 with jury selection, which lasted 2 1/2 days. Prosecutors contend that Bobrick's Web site business was used to funnel payments from a Cornell Cos. consultant to Anderson so that he would do the company's bidding on halfway houses, a juvenile treatment center and a private prison. Anderson faces seven felony counts. Bobrick has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and said he is cooperating with the government in the hope of getting a lighter sentence. In all, Anderson received a total of $25,838, based on testimony about various checks. That's much more money than was previously disclosed. The charges list $12,838 in payments to Anderson. The FBI actually provided the money. Cornell was unaware of any scheme, the government has said.

July 2, 2007 AP
Government informer Frank Prewitt had plenty of chances to call off a scheme to funnel payments to former state Rep. Tom Anderson but did not, Anderson's attorney contended in federal court Monday. In a second day of questioning of the prosecution's star witness in the corruption case against Anderson, defense attorney Paul Stockler hammered away at conversations secretly recorded by Prewitt and his motives for doing so. Prewitt is a former Corrections Department commissioner and a consultant for a private prison company, Cornell Industries Inc. At least 10 times, Stockler said, Anderson or the man he's accused of conspiring with, Bill Bobrick, posed questions to Prewitt as to his comfort level with their plan to have Cornell spend money on their proposed Web-based public affairs newsletter. Prewitt, cooperating with an FBI investigation, acknowledged he did not halt their plan. "My role was not to advise them as to what was and wasn't illegal ... My role was to have conversations and see where they went," Prewitt said. Anderson was arrested Dec. 7 and charged with single counts of conspiracy and bribery, three counts of money laundering and two counts of interfering with commerce, a charge connected to a demand for payments. He's accused of conspiring with Bobrick, a former municipal lobbyist in Anchorage, to solicit and obtain money for Anderson's influence as a lawmaker. According to prosecutors, the newsletter company was a front for Cornell to pay Anderson money that could not be traced directly to Cornell. Prewitt testified that Cornell, whose entire business in Alaska comes through government contracts, had no use for advertising in a newsletter or sponsoring it. Bobrick in May pleaded guilty to bribing Anderson. Following testimony by Prewitt and former Corrections Commissioner Marc Antrim, Bobrick took the stand for the last half hour of proceedings Monday. Stockler contends Prewitt cooperated with investigators because Prewitt himself also was being investigated, and that Prewitt steered recorded conversations with Anderson to payoffs. In his cross examination of Prewitt, Stockler's questions followed several themes: — Prewitt never gave his opinion that Cornell's payments would be illegal or directly tied Anderson's help to them. — Even before the alleged conspiracy, Anderson supported Cornell's interests. — Anderson's interest in shielding his link to Cornell was connected to his re-election and not offending corrections constituents whose jobs could be threatened if Cornell's private prisons were built. Stockler also closely questioned Prewitt on his instructions for recording conversations from the FBI, and whether he was instructed to lie. Prewitt acknowledged one lie — his promise to run the newsletter and payment scheme "up the flagpole" to the principles at Cornell. He never did. "So that was a lie?" Stockler asked. "I guess that would be true," Prewitt said. But Prewitt kept his composure as he methodically responded to Stockler's other questions. He acknowledged that other lawmakers, including Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, had intervened for Cornell, even fielding "talking points" composed by Prewitt for making Cornell's case. The difference was, Hawker did not receive payments, Prewitt said. In some instances, Bobrick's concern that Prewitt might consider the arrangement over whether Prewitt considered the scheme a "bad idea" or "sleazy" was because Bobrick was afraid it would jeopardize his own $5,000 per month annual contract with Cornell, Prewitt said. In another, Bobrick expressed concern that Prewitt would experience "sticker shock" over the amount of money requested — three payments of $8,000. Under a questioning by Nicholas A. Marsh, a trial attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Prewitt said that acknowledging the illegality of the payments to Anderson or Bobrick would have defeated the purpose of the investigation. "That would have had an immediate chilling effect on the inquiry," Prewitt said. He denied that he was ever told by the FBI that he had to "bag a state legislator." Marsh asked whether Anderson had "many times" acknowledged that Cornell had no interest in the newsletter and knew it was a sham. "No question about it, the purpose of this arrangement was not the Web site?" Marsh asked. "No question," Prewitt replied. In the half hour he was on the stand, under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph W. Bottini, Bobrick had time only to lay out his background as a construction worker, union official, director of the Democratic party and legislative aide. Bobrick said he befriended Anderson in 2001 when Anderson was a member of the Anchorage School Board and they eventually discussed going into business. Anderson, a moderate Republican, would lobby in Juneau and Bobrick, then a Democrat, in Anchorage. Anderson approached him in early 2004 and told him he needed money. He asked Bobrick if he could find him contract work. "He was my friend and I wanted to help him out," Bobrick said. He is scheduled to continue testifying Tuesday.

July 1, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
A former deputy corrections commissioner whose name came up Friday in the Tom Anderson corruption trial was working as an informant for the FBI in 2004 when he asked a prison company consultant for money, an FBI spokesman said Saturday. Former Cornell Cos. consultant Frank Prewitt testified Friday that he worked with deputy commissioner Don Stolworthy that year to develop a compromise on competing bills to build a new prison. One measure could have led to a Cornell-run prison in Whittier. The other, supported by the Murkowski administration, pushed a state-run prison in the Valley. Prewitt, a state corrections commissioner in the 1990s, testified Stolworthy told him he was worried about losing his job because of union opposition to a private prison. Prewitt said he assured Stolworthy that “people would be there for him” if that happened. Prewitt told jurors that Stolworthy eventually began seeking money, as a sort of insurance policy, if he lost his job. But he only did that because the FBI asked him to, FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said Saturday. Stolworthy was working for the FBI as a “cooperating witness,” he said. “We approached him out of the blue,” Gonzalez said. “We asked for his help and he said he’d be glad to help us.” Stolworthy “was squeaky clean,” Gonzalez said. The fact that Stolworthy was working undercover for the FBI never came up during the trial on Friday. Prewitt testified that he was shocked that Stolworthy was asking for money and read him the ethics act. The FBI won’t discuss what evidence it may have collected on Prewitt through Stolworthy. But in his opening statement on Wednesday, federal prosecutor Joe Bottini said that Prewitt may have tried to improperly influence a state corrections official. The matter came up because Prewitt is the government’s star witness in the corruption case against Anderson, a former state representative. Defense attorney Paul Stockler cross-examined Prewitt on Friday about possible illegal activities in his background and pressed him on whether he was just testifying against Anderson to save himself. Efforts to reach Stolworthy Saturday were unsuccessful. When the state issued a statement announcing his resignation in January 2005, it said he accepted a job for the U.S. Justice Department as warden of a prison in Iraq. Anderson’s trial resumes Monday as Stockler’s cross-examination of Prewitt continues.

June 28, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
Prosecutors say Tom Anderson was a debt-ridden politician who sold his office for $12,838 and knew exactly what he was doing. The defense says the real culprit is former state corrections commissioner Frank Prewitt, who was under investigation himself and exploited Anderson to save himself. Anderson was a hard-working legislator who never took any official actions in exchange for money, said defense attorney Paul Stockler. Jurors on Wednesday heard those contrasting views as the two sides gave opening statements in the public corruption trial of Anderson. The first witnesses will be called today. Anderson, a two-term state representative who didn't run again in 2006, is fighting seven felony charges including bribery, extortion and money laundering. A jury of eight women and four men, plus four alternatives, was seated Wednesday afternoon. They were picked from a pool of 102 after hours of questioning by U.S. District Judge John Sedwick and lawyers spread over three days. Some scribbled notes as the lawyers gave their opening statements. A small crowd of spectators came to hear. A friend of Anderson's who has been collecting money for his defense sat in, but Anderson's wife, state Sen. Lesil McGuire, didn't attend. Jurors will be asked to absorb complicated information over the next few days, prosecutor Joe Bottini told them. Neither of the central figures in the case against Anderson -- Prewitt and former lobbyist Bill Bobrick -- are "squeaky clean witnesses," Bottini acknowledged. Bobrick has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in the case and has agreed to testify against Anderson. Bobrick came up with a scheme to create a phony company and use it to funnel payments from the private prison firm Cornell Cos. to Anderson, prosecutors assert. Cornell didn't know about the scheme, and after the FBI got involved it provided the payments. PREWITT'S PAST: The other key witness will be Prewitt, whose own flaws the prosecutor discussed at length. Prewitt, who became a consultant to Cornell after leaving his state post, was being investigated for various actions when the FBI confronted him in April 2004, Bottini said. He agreed to help the FBI in its "broad public corruption investigation," the prosecutor said. Anderson is one of four legislators or former legislators indicted in the past seven months. Cornell had been trying for years to open a private prison in Alaska, and Prewitt may have tried to improperly influence a state corrections official regarding it, the prosecutor said. He also was being investigated for a practice in political campaigns known as "conduit contributions" in which someone gives money to other people to pass on to candidates. That is done to bypass campaign contribution limits. Bobrick also was involved in "conduit contributions," Bottini said. In addition, while Prewitt was state corrections commissioner, he accepted $30,000 from a friend who had business with the department, Bottini said. The government has no deal with Prewitt that he won't be charged with any crime in exchange for his help, but certainly he's hoping for a break, the prosecutor said.

June 22, 2007 Juneau Empire
Former state Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, goes on trial Monday in Anchorage, in a case which may be linked to the ongoing political corruption investigation involving VECO Corp. executives and other state legislators. Also involved, likely without her knowledge, may be Anderson's wife, Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage. Regardless of VECO's involvement, Anderson's attorney has already begun preparing for a trial under increased public scrutiny of political corruption cases. Paul Stockler, an Anchorage attorney representing Anderson, has already asked a federal judge for permission to question potential jurors about how much they know about "this and other well publicized cases." He also wants to be able to ask about what they know about Anderson "or the other well publicized witnesses." The FBI investigation in Alaska, led by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Public Integrity became publicly known in August of 2006. At that time FBI agents served search warrants on the offices of six members of the Alaska Legislature, though not Anderson, as well as VECO and other offices. Three of the six legislators and two top VECO executives have been indicted on corruption charges. The executives have pleaded guilty, while the legislators have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. A series of indictments, guilty pleas and legal maneuverings have kept those VECO-related issues in the news for months. According to documents filed by U.S. attorneys to outline their case, the investigation had been in the works for more than two years before the raids. It was in the summer of 2004 that an unnamed lobbyist with ties to Anderson approached a confidential source working undercover for the FBI with a scheme to bribe Anderson, the documents say. The confidential source's "efforts at the time were directed to other, unrelated investigative matters," the DOJ documents said. It did not specify whether those matters involved VECO. The charges against Anderson accuse him of using his position as a legislator, including the chairmanship of the Administrative Regulations Review, to benefit Cornell Companies, a Texas-based firm which operates private prisons. In Alaska Cornell was seeking state approval to build a private prison and a juvenile psychiatric treatment facility, as well as regulatory changes to help its Alaska operations, which include a string of halfway houses around the state. The court documents allege that Anderson pressured state officials, such as former Department of Corrections Commissioner Mark Antrim, to benefit Cornell. He also advocated for Cornell at a public meeting in Anchorage, but said he was there not on the company's behalf but as chair of the regulatory review committee. Cornell is not accused of any wrongdoing, federal and Cornell officials have previously told the Empire. Prosecutors said they expect to take a week to present their case.

June 19, 2007 KTUU TV
New details are emerging in the government's corruption probe against former state Rep. Tom Anderson as attorneys prepare for his trial Monday. The government has filed a trial brief laying out who is involved, how the pitch was made and the meetings and actions it says Anderson took. Anderson's attorney wouldn't comment on the details, but said he is outraged at the inclusion of what appear to be references to Anderson's wife, Sen. Lesil McGuire. The brief also makes it clear that other, unrelated investigations were underway when the federal government's unnamed source was approached to participate in a bribery scheme. Based on court records and sources close to the investigation, Channel 2 News believes the confidential source who allegedly recorded every move is former lobbyist Frank Prewitt. Prewitt worked for Texas-based Cornell Companies, a private firm looking to open a private prison in Alaska and a juvenile treatment facility in Anchorage. The company also runs halfway houses throughout the state. Anderson is accused of taking money from the government source on behalf of Cornell in exchange for official acts. Another lobbyist, Bill Bobrick, has already entered a guilty plea in connection with the scheme. He is expected to testify at Anderson's trial. In the trial brief, prosecutors cite a recording in which Bobrick tries to convince the informant the scheme was worth the money, suggesting Cornell would have two legislators working for them in Juneau because of Anderson's romantic involvement with another lawmaker. "Cornell would get two legislators," Bobrick is quoted as saying. "You know, chair of labor and commerce, and chair of judiciary ... That's the minimum we're going to have next year." At the time, Anderson was dating Rep. Lesil McGuire, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee. The couple went on to wed during the summer of 2005. In its filing, the government goes on to cite a recorded conversation between an unnamed state representative and the Cornell lobbyist. In it, the representative talks about contacting a state commissioner overseeing regulations Cornell needed help with. "Tom called me on the phone and he said, ‘I don't care what you are doing, I need you to get on the phone right now ...'" states the brief. The representative said Anderson asked for calls to be placed to the lobbyist and the Cornell representative and goes on to say, "I was on the phone because of Tom." During late 2004 and early 2005, Anderson joined subcommittees key to Cornell's interests and, according to the government, pushed Cornell's agendas without disclosing he was being paid. Anderson's attorney, Paul Stockler, maintains Anderson's innocence and said they are ready to clear his name at trial. Stockler also added that no allegations have been made against Anchorage Sen. Lesil McGuire, and there is no indication she has done anything inappropriate. There has been no public link between the prison case and other corruption cases, including the VECO bribery claims. However, VECO Corp. and Cornell do have a relationship -- in 2003, VECO and Cornell Companies teamed up on trying to get a private prison built in Whittier.

June 19, 2007 AP
State Rep. Vic Kohring said today he will resign after nearly 13 years of public service so he can concentrate on defending himself against federal bribery and extortion charges. He told The Associated Press that he will leave office July 19. "I take the job as a legislator very seriously, but my life is on the line, so I have chosen to defend myself so I can prevail in court," Kohring said. "It's a very, very ugly decision to have to make, frankly." Kohring said he plans to disclose his decision during a luncheon at the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce later today, as he previously announced. "The easy route would be not face the people who supported me and not to face those people who oppose me," said Kohring, a Wasilla Republican. "I could just issue a press release and be done with it, but that’s not the right way to do it." Kohring and two former state lawmakers were indicted May 4 on bribery and extortion charges related to alleged dealings with Anchorage- based oil field services company Veco Corp. Also charged were former Republican Reps. Pete Kott and Bruce Weyhrauch. All have pleaded not guilty and have had their original July trial dates pushed back to the fall. Federal prosecutors accuse the lawmakers of selling their votes to Veco officials while they were considering a rewrite of the state’s petroleum production tax, which could have levied a 20 percent tax on profits and a 20 percent credit on capital investments.

June 17, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., heard evidence last month about the expansion of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' Girdwood home in 2000 and other matters connecting Stevens to the oil services company Veco Inc. As the far-reaching federal investigation into corruption in Alaska politics spreads to Washington, Stevens family friend and neighbor Bob Persons was ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington on May 25. The government directed him to produce documents related to the work on Stevens' Girdwood house, especially to work that might have been performed by Veco and contractors who were hired or supervised by Veco. Another close associate of Stevens, Anchorage businessman Bob Penney, testified two weeks ago before the federal grand jury in Anchorage that has been gathering evidence in the corruption cases. The house expansion project, first reported in the Daily News on May 29, more than doubled the size of the home. The Stevenses had asked Persons, who lives above the Double Musky restaurant he owns in Girdwood, to help them oversee the addition while they were in Washington. The existence of the Washington grand jury investigation is the strongest indication to date that Stevens himself has become a subject of the wide-ranging federal probe that surfaced with FBI raids on state legislative offices last August. Former State Sen. Ben Stevens, Ted Stevens' son, was among the legislators whose offices were searched. Ben Stevens has denied wrongdoing. The FBI said at the time that it also had executed a search warrant in Girdwood, among other places, although the location of that search has never been disclosed. VECO GUILTY PLEAS: The investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section has so far led to guilty pleas by former Veco chief executive Bill Allen, former Veco vice president Rick Smith and private-prison lobbyist Bill Bobrick. Four current or former state legislators have been indicted and are awaiting trial on corruption charges, three for taking bribes or attempting to take bribes from Veco, the other for taking bribes from the private prison interest. How the Girdwood home fits in with the broader investigation, or what possible crimes are being investigated, is not clear.

May 29, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
The FBI and a federal grand jury have been investigating an extensive remodeling project at U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' home in Girdwood that involved the top executive of Veco Corp. in the hiring of at least one of the key contractors. Three contractors who worked on the project said in recent interviews with the Daily News that the FBI asked them to turn over their records from the job. One said he was called to testify about the project before a federal grand jury in Anchorage in December. The remodeling work, which more than doubled the size of the house, occurred in the summer and fall of 2000. The four-bedroom home, about two blocks from the day lodge parking lot at the Alyeska ski resort, is Stevens' official residence in Alaska. An old friend of Stevens in Girdwood, longtime Double Musky restaurant owner Bob Persons, has been questioned by the FBI about the project. He monitored the remodeling for Stevens and his wife while they were in Washington, D.C. "I will be testifying. That's all I can tell you," Persons said in a brief interview last week. "It is an ongoing investigation that I'm not supposed to talk to or see anybody about it." Persons would not elaborate on whether he meant that he would testify before a grand jury, at a trial, or both, or for whom. He said he believed Stevens did nothing wrong. Ted Stevens and his wife, Catherine, declined to answer questions about the Girdwood house. In a prepared statement issued by his office, Stevens said: "While I understand the public's interest in the ongoing federal investigation, it has been my long-standing policy to not comment on such matters. Therefore, I will withhold comment at this time to avoid even the appearance that I might influence this investigation." The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, which are in the midst of a broad investigation of corruption in Alaska, would not comment. "This is a pending investigation and we're just not going to confirm or deny any aspect, any rumors, any allegations out there," said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez.

May 7, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
Bill Allen, a welder who took the Veco Corp. from a small Kenai oil-field company to a billion-dollar international contractor and a major political force, pleaded guilty Monday to bribing at least four Alaska legislators, including former Senate President Ben Stevens. In a plea bargain with the U.S.Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Allen and Rick Smith, Veco’s vice president for community and government affairs, each pleaded guilty to three identical felony charges — bribery and two counts of conspiracy. Both men accepted responsibility for making more than $400,000 in illegal payments and benefits to public officials or their families. More than half the money went to Stevens in the form of phony “consulting” fees, the government charged. Stevens, son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, has not been charged. He was named in the plea documents as “State Senator B,” but his identity was unmistakable. In return for special consideration at sentencing, Allen, 70, and Smith, 62, agreed to cooperate in the ongoing federal investigation. The government also promised to not seek charges against Allen’s son Mark, a Veco official, his daughter Tammy Kerrigan, or any other relative. The federal plea bargain doesn’t bar state prosecutors from seeking additional charges against Allen and Smith. Both men acknowledged violating state campaign finance laws in their plea. The plea deals were formalized in secret last week and opened in U.S. District Court Monday morning in unannounced back-to-back hearings before Judge John Sedwick, each lasting about 40 minutes.

May 6, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
The chairman of a key state House committee was deposed and Alaska's most important oil tax law fell under new scrutiny Saturday as lawmakers reacted to the arrest of one current and two former legislators on federal corruption charges. Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, will lose his chairmanship of the Special Committee on Oil and Gas, House leaders said. Kohring was charged with selling his vote on oil taxes last year to oil field services company Veco. The House committee had an important early role in shaping gas pipeline legislation this year. Republican majority leaders placed Kohring in charge of the committee this session, even though he was one of six legislators whose offices were raided by the FBI in a Veco-related probe last fall. Kohring appeared before a federal magistrate Friday in handcuffs to face charges of bribery, extortion and conspiracy. Also appearing were two Republican colleagues from last year's legislative session, Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau. All three pleaded not guilty. In detailed indictments, the three were charged with selling their votes and influence over other legislators for money and jobs during the 2006 legislative session. The legislation in question was an overhaul of the state's oil production tax, which pays for most of state government and adds to the Alaska Permanent Fund. Veco wanted to keep the oil tax low and also was pressing for construction of a gas pipeline from which it would profit, according to the indictment.

May 5, 2007 Alaska Daily News
Three more state legislators were arrested on federal corruption charges Friday, accused of selling their votes and influence to the oil field services company Veco Corp. and its chief executive, Bill Allen, during last year’s debate on oil taxes. Acting on felony indictments brought by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, federal agents arrested the three Republicans in Juneau — one a sitting legislator, Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla, and two others who left office in January, Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau. Each was brought in handcuffs before a federal magistrate judge, and each pleaded not guilty to bribery, extortion and conspiracy and was released on $20,000 bond. The charges carry penalties of between five and 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. The indictments, unsealed with the arrests, describe a conspiracy among the legislators, Veco, Allen and Veco's vice president for government affairs, Rick Smith, to steer an oil-production tax bill favored by the industry through the Legislature last year. The bill was seen as a prerequisite for the North Slope oil producers to agree to build a natural gas pipeline. Ultimately, Veco, Allen and Smith wanted to see a gas line built that would help the company through contracts with the oil companies, the indictments charged. Veco, Allen and Smith were neither charged nor directly named in the indictments. But “Company A,” “Company CEO” and “Company VP” are described in long passages in the indictments, and those descriptions point unmistakably to them. Veco’s attorney, Amy Menard, confirmed the identifications. Allen’s lawyer, Bob Bundy of Anchorage, wouldn’t comment on what might be in store for his client. “Veco and Bill have cooperated completely with the government’s investigation,” Bundy said. WADS OF CASH The charges describe the three lawmakers seeking money, jobs or both for themselves or family members, and Veco willing to oblige. Much of the activity described in the charges took place in Veco’s suite in Juneau’s Baranof Hotel, Room 604, during the 2006 legislative session. Direct quotes attributed in the indictments to the three legislators and to Allen and Smith suggest the FBI conducted some form of electronic surveillance in the room and perhaps on telephones as well. Kott’s lawyer, Jim Wendt, said the room contained a hidden camera. He learned about the surveillance when the prosecutors offered to make a deal with him. They revealed snippets of their evidence, including video from inside a Baranof room, Wendt said. FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez wouldn’t confirm whether agents used wiretaps or hidden cameras. A Baranof employee on Friday said the hotel would not discuss the use of the suite.

May 4, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
Former Alaska state legislators Pete Kott and Bruce Weyhrauch have been indicted by a federal grand jury on several counts of extortion, bribery, wire fraud and mail fraud. Kott was arrested at home in Juneau around 9 a.m. Friday, a spokesman for the FBI said. Weyhrauch was arrested later in the morning. Both are being held in the federal courthouse in Juneau. FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez would not say if additional arrests are coming. "It’s a continuing investigation," he said. Some of the charges against Kott and Weyhrauch involve the Legislature’s consideration last year of a natural gas pipeline and a petroleum production tax proposed by former Gov. Frank Murkowski. Kott, a former House speaker from Eagle River, is accused of seeking and accepting bribes to push positions favored by executives of a company that is not named in the indictment. Weyhrauch traded votes for the promise of a job, according to the charges. The company is referred to throughout the indictment as "Company A" and is described as a privately owned company that "provided services to the energy, resources and process industries" and "took an active interest" in the Legislature. The indictment also refers to a prison in Barbados the company was constructing. That description matches Veco Inc., a huge Anchorage-based oil-field services company that has been active in lobbying the Legislature for years. Kott lost his Eagle River seat in the state House in last year’s Republican primary. Weyhrauch, an attorney, did not seek re-election to his House seat representing Juneau. Both left office in January. Both were among the six lawmakers whose offices were raided by federal agents in August as part of an investigation into corruption. Kott was scheduled to be arraigned in Juneau at 1:30 p.m. today. The indictment covers a period from September 2005 until the end of August 2006. The Legislature considered the pipeline and oil tax proposals during regular and special sessions during that time. Lawmakers in both political parties reacted to the indictment today with disgust.

April 17, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
High up in City Hall on Friday, the Anchorage Assembly talked for hours about road projects and budgets and the kind of things you usually don't sit through unless you're paid to be there. Listening from the back of the room was lobbyist Bill Bobrick. Four months after Bobrick was linked to a federal bribery case that led to the indictment of Anchorage state Rep. Tom Anderson, he remains one of the busier lobbyists of the city. He's got to earn a living, he says to friends and acquaintances. He also tells them his role in the bribery case is about to get bigger. "My understanding, real clear, is that Bobrick's going to go in and plead guilty here real quick to a felony," said Assemblyman Dan Coffey. Coffey said Bobrick told him just that after a late March town hall meeting at a local school. Mayor Mark Begich, who was best man at Bobrick's wedding in 1998 and has known him for more than 20 years, said the longtime city lobbyist told him something less precise: "He told me he was going to plead. I don't know what that means. And honestly, I didn't dive into it. That's an issue that, again, doesn't relate to the city." Bobrick hasn't been charged with a crime. He fits the description of an unnamed conspirator described in the indictment of Anderson, who is accused of money laundering, bribery and extortion. Public records show Bobrick as owner of a company that federal prosecutors say was set up to funnel Anderson bribes. In exchange, Anderson helped promote in the Legislature a private prison and juvenile treatment facility, the indictment says. Anderson left office when his term expired in January. Bobrick declined to be interviewed for this story.

January 14, 2007 Juneau Empire
Federal prosecutors who accused Rep. Tom Anderson of bribery and other crimes say he also used another, unidentified legislator to carry out illegal acts. While Anderson was advocating for Cornell Companies, a Texas-based developer of private prisons, he also tried help Cornell win approval for a juvenile mental-health treatment center in Alaska. To do that, he got another legislator to try to pressure the state Department of Health and Social Services to grant a certificate of need for Cornell's project, according to the Anderson indictment. In competition with Cornell was North Star Behavioral Health Systems, an Alaska nonprofit that already had operations in Anchorage and Palmer. It was supported by a number of influential legislators, including Senate Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz, D-Anchorage, and Sen. Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, president-elect of the Senate. The indictment says Anderson, an Anchorage Republican, prevailed upon an "elected public official" to lobby for the certificate. Documents obtained by the Empire show that Kohring was the only legislator who wrote a letter in support of the certificate during the time frame described in the indictment. Kohring did not return repeated phone calls last week. In Kohring's letter to Health and Human Services officials, he wrote, "It has come to my attention" that Cornell was seeking a certificate of need for its project, but he didn't say how it had come to his attention. Anderson's attorney, Paul Stockler, denied that the unnamed elected official was Kohring. The only other letter to the state on behalf of the certificate was written by Rep. John Harris, now speaker of the House of Representatives. Harris said he did not recall how his letter came to be written. "I write letters for a lot of people," he said. Harris said he didn't recall talking with Anderson about the matter. "He and I were never close," Harris said. Prosecutors say in the indictment that they have tape recordings of Anderson and the "elected public official." In them, the official allegedly confirms that he contacted the department commissioner at Anderson's request. Anderson already had been pushing Cornell projects. Bringing in six-term representative Kohring or Harris, then the Finance Committee chairman, may have increased Cornell's chances. The company dropped the project, however.

January 9, 2007 Anchorage Daily News
Indicted state legislator Tom Anderson wants to delay the start of his trial so his lawyer can better prepare. In a court motion filed Friday, Anderson's attorney, Paul Stockler, wrote that he is still working his way through 20 discs "which contain hours of audio and video recordings involving the defendant taken over an extended period of time." The trial is now scheduled for Feb. 12, and Stockler said he wants to delay it until April 23. The three-page motion provides the first mention of video recordings in the FBI corruption investigation of Anderson and other legislators. Anderson was indicted by a federal grand jury in December on seven felony counts including money laundering, extortion and bribery. The indictment contains a number of references to recorded conversations between Anderson and two others: a local-government lobbyist for a private corrections company and a confidential source who had worked for the same company. The indictment doesn't specify whether any of the recordings were on video. The indictment describes a conspiracy that began in July 2004 in which the lobbyist set up a shell company that existed to launder money to Anderson. The FBI gave money to the informant, who passed it on to Anderson and the lobbyist in exchange for Anderson pushing the interests of the corrections company. Anderson received less than $13,000, according to the indictment. Anderson has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

December 25, 2006 Juneau Empire
In 2004, a privately owned Texas prison firm had a problem in Alaska. Its chain of halfway houses that took in prisoners under contract with the state Corrections Department was struggling. It had facilities in Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome and several Anchorage locations. Low occupancy rates were hurting profits, especially in Anchorage. Cornell Companies, the Houston-based owner of the facilities, also had some top lobbyists on their payroll, including a former commissioner of corrections for the state. Also on its payroll was a key state legislator, Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The lobbyists' affiliation was legal, but Anderson's wasn't, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court for Alaska earlier this month. Anderson was arrested Dec. 7 on charges of bribery, extortion and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty. If convicted on all counts, he faces a possible sentence of 20 years or more in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Anderson was unavailable for comment for this article. On federal wiretaps, two Cornell lobbyists were heard discussing efforts to bribe Anderson, who they said was willing to be "our boy in Juneau" in exchange for cash payments, according to the Department of Justice indictment. Cornell, whose stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, reported revenues of $346 million last year. It was not identified in the indictment. Company spokeswoman Christine Taylor confirmed the company had been notified of the Anderson investigation by the Department of Justice. "We've been notified of the indictment, but no wrongdoing has been alleged," she said. The indictment said the company was unaware of the actions of its lobbyists. A confidential FBI source had at various times been a lobbyist for the company. He used funds provided by the FBI, not the company, for the bribes. He didn't notify Cornell because of "the undercover nature of the operation," the Justice Department said. "The corrections company was not implicated in the corrupt activities that are alleged in the indictment," according to the Department of Justice press release announcing the arrest. Tom Anderson: Anderson worked unsuccessfully to help Cornell expand its private prison and juvenile detention operations into Alaska but was more successful helping out the company's halfway houses. That effort, not previously reported, is detailed in the indictment and in Alaska Department of Corrections documents obtained under the state Public Records Act. When Cornell's halfway houses were struggling, the company lobbyist approached Anderson, who allegedly agreed to try to influence the Department of Corrections. In exchange, Anderson apparently received thousands of dollars in cash from the lobbyist. On Oct. 20, 2004, Anderson wrote a letter to then-Corrections Commissioner Marc Antrim, urging more use of the halfway houses and requesting a personal meeting. "Since private contractors only get paid for occupied beds, severe underutilization creates serious budget challenges when beds are left empty," Anderson wrote to Antrim on legislative letterhead. In the letter, Anderson also noted that he was a member of the House Finance Committee's Corrections Subcommittee. The indictment alleges that a lobbyist wrote the letter for Anderson. On. Oct. 29, 2004, Antrim met with Anderson, Department of Corrections records show. What happened in the meeting? "I'm not able to comment on that," Antrim said in a phone call to his Juneau home. He is no longer with the department. Antrim declined to say why he could not comment. There are no indications that Antrim is under investigation. However, prosecutors sometimes ask potential witnesses not to speak publicly about matters that might come up in court. Federal investigators obtained bank records showing that a Cornell lobbyist on Oct. 21, 2004, wrote a check to Anderson's consulting business from Pacific Publishing, a company created by another Cornell lobbyist. The check was purportedly for writing public policy articles for a Pacific Publishing Web site. The indictment alleges that there was no web site and that the money was laundered through Pacific Publishing to deceive the Alaska Public Offices Commission. On the wiretaps, Anderson was overheard acknowledging to the lobbyist that that payment and others were "not really for your Web thing," the indictment states. The Department of Justice called Pacific Publishing a "sham corporation" formed for the sole purpose of disguising bribe money. In the 2004 fiscal year, Cornell received $12.1 million in state payments for its halfway houses, $12.3 in 2005 and $12.4 in 2006, according to Richard Schmitz, spokesman for the Department of Corrections. Alaska state law bars a legislator from accepting money in exchange for official acts, but courts have found the state Constitution's free speech provisions make prosecuting legislators for such actions difficult. Anderson has been charged under federal law, however. Federal investigators continued their investigation of Anderson for more than two years after the Cornell lobbyist investigation, during which time Anderson was re-elected to the House of Representatives. The U.S. Attorney for Alaska did not say why it took so long to indict Anderson. Anderson chose not to run for re-election this year and leaves office in January after serving two terms in the House.

December 9, 2006 Anchorage Daily News
State Rep. Tom Anderson pleaded not guilty Friday to a series of federal charges accusing him of selling his legislative office for $12,828 in bribes from a lobbyist representing private prison interests. Anderson, a 39-year-old Republican who has represented Muldoon's District 19 since he was elected in 2002, was ordered freed Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Roberts on an unsecured $10,000 bond after his arrest Thursday by FBI agents. Roberts said Anderson could travel to Mexico on a previously scheduled vacation next week with his wife, Republican state Rep. Lesil McGuire, who was elected to the state Senate in November, and their infant son. The 18-page indictment against Anderson said the lobbyist was secretly recorded July 21, 2004, boasting that for a price, Anderson would be "our boy in Juneau." A week later, the same lobbyist was recorded telling a confidential informant, "If I was a Soviet spy and I was looking for a legislator to recruit, (Anderson) would be the one I'd get." Anderson "needs the money," the lobbyist said. The government didn't charge the lobbyist. He is identified only by the letter "A," but the facts in the case point to Bill Bobrick of Anchorage, who represented Cornell Companies, a private prison firm Outside. Bobrick didn't return messages left on his home and cell phones Friday, and his business number wasn't working. On Thursday, before Anderson's arrest, Bobrick said in an interview that he was getting out of the lobbying business and was in the process of handing off his clients. He cited "health issues" as the reason. Anderson, who did not seek re-election this year and formally leaves office next month, is the first legislator charged with corruption in office since two state senators faced charges in the early 1980s. One, George Hohman, was convicted of bribery in 1981, while the other, Ed Dankworth, successfully appealed his 1982 conflict-of-interest charges and never faced trial. Anderson's seven-count indictment accuses him of going into league with Lobbyist A to promote a private prison somewhere in Alaska and a private juvenile treatment facility in Anchorage. In return for the money, it said Anderson got himself appointed to legislative committees with jurisdiction over prisons and treatment, lobbied other elected officials, agreed to align his votes with the correction company's interests, wrote letters and publicly spoke on behalf of company projects. Anderson disguised the source of the money in his reports to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, the indictment charged. A second private prison advocate secretly worked with the government to record conversations of the lobbyist and Anderson. The informant, identified only as "CS-1," used money provided by the FBI in the payoffs. The private prison company was identified only as "Corrections Company" in the charges, but the facts squarely match Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston, Texas, a publicly traded corporation with facilities in 17 states. Cornell operates six halfway houses in Alaska from its buyout of Anchorage-based Allvest Corp. With partners Veco and Allvest founder Bill Weimer, Cornell failed to win public support for private prison proposals in Anchorage, Delta Junction, Kenai and Whittier. The proposals were all highly controversial in the communities, though they often sailed through legislative committees. During a House Finance Committee hearing May 9, 2004, Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, said the effort was corrupting the state. "What I see, over and over, is repeated sole-source, pre-arranged, heavy-money deals that go to specific contractors. ... It's never been a clean, competitive proposal," Croft said at the time, the only member of the committee to object. "We are going to see somebody indicted and probably imprisoned over this series of proposals." A prepared statement from the Justice Department released Friday said the corrections company was never told about the payments to Anderson "due to the undercover nature of the operation." It said the company "was not implicated in the corrupt activities that are alleged in the indictment." Christine Parker, a spokeswoman for Cornell in Houston, said, "There's nothing that we knew of, or were aware of, until this indictment was issued." Anderson arrived for his arraignment in federal court Friday wearing a bright yellow jumpsuit with the word "PRISONER" across his back. His legs were shackled as he rose for the judge alongside his defense attorney, Jeffrey Feldman of Anchorage. The hearing lasted 19 minutes. His trial was set for Feb. 12. If the government was making a point to other potential defendants in its ongoing investigation into corruption, the message was tough. Nicholas Marsh, a trial attorney from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., told the court the charges carried penalties ranging from a maximum of five years and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy to a maximum of 20 years and $500,000 for each of three money laundering charges. Anderson was also accused of two counts of extortion (20 years and $250,000) and one count of bribery (10 years and $250,000). The activities alleged in the indictment took place long before the coordinated raids of Aug. 31, when the FBI searched the offices of 10 percent of the 60-member Legislature. Anderson's office wasn't among them, and it's unclear how his case is related. Marsh, assistant U.S. attorney Joseph Bottini and FBI agent Mary Beth Kepner, a leader of the corruption probe, left quickly after the arraignment and declined to answer questions. The conspiracy alleged in the indictment began in July 2004 and continued through the following March. It said that Lobbyist A set up a shell company called Pacific Publishing that existed solely to launder money to Anderson. The company would pay Anderson to write articles about politics that would be published on its Web site, but Anderson was paid without ever scribbling a line. CS-1 paid Lobbyist A $24,000 in three payments. The cover story was that the money was for advertising on the Web site, but they agreed the money was really for Anderson's pocket, with "A" taking a sizable cut. The indictment said CS-1 had worked for the corrections company as a lobbyist "at various times." The identity closely matches Frank Prewitt, a former Alaska corrections commissioner appointed by Gov. Wally Hickel and who later went to work for Cornell. In an e-mail exchange with the Daily News on Friday, Prewitt suggested he was the source, though he stopped short of confirming it. "At this time it is inappropriate for me to talk about the voluntary role that I and others may have played in the Anderson investigation," Prewitt wrote. "Over the next year I believe you will find that this was only the beginning of the end of a sad, but healthy chapter in Alaska history. My prayers are with Representative Anderson and his family during this difficult time for all." The first recorded conversation cited in the indictment occurred July 16, 2004, when the lobbyist suggested to the confidential source that they "try with (Cornell) to help out Tom Anderson." Five days later, the lobbyist told the source that Cornell should hire Anderson through him. Rather than report Cornell, with its interest in legislation and other government action, as the source of the money, Anderson said he was paid for writing for the Pacific Publishing Web site. Anderson himself was recorded Aug. 17, 2004, telling the confidential source: "APOC only needs to know (Bobrick) pays me and then we're all safe." The source paid the lobbyist the first $8,000 Aug. 19, 2004, the indictment charged. Out of that, Anderson received $3,328, which he deposited Aug. 23 into the account of his personal consulting firm, Alaska Strategic Consultants. In a recorded call Oct. 20, 2004, the source told Anderson he had prepared the next $8,000 payment and planned to pass it on to the lobbyist. "Awesome. Awesome. I appreciate it," Anderson is quoted as saying. Anderson received a $3,500 advance from that payment, the indictment charged. The source made his last $8,000 payment on Dec. 21, 2004. Anderson got $4,000. But late in the scheme, the indictment alleged, Anderson was showing signs of unhappiness over splitting the money with the lobbyist. According to excerpts of recordings, the confidential source appeared at first to encourage the disaffection, saying it wasn't the lobbyist who was speaking out and voting for Cornell, but rather Anderson. "I know," Anderson said. But then the source suggested the lobbyist might become "estranged" if he were cut out of the deal. The source thought that he could make a separate payment direct to Anderson. "If there's a way you can think of that, that would be nice," Anderson replied. The source obliged, handing Anderson a $2,000 check Dec. 21, 2004. The indictment said the check was made payable to Tom Anderson.

December 8, 2006 Anchorage Daily News
A federal grand jury has indicted an Alaska lawmaker on charges of extortion, conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering, federal officials said Friday. A seven-count indictment was returned against state Rep. Thomas T. Anderson, R-Anchorage, on Wednesday, assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said. Anderson was arrested Thursday, and was being held at the city jail. The indictment charges Anderson with two counts of extortion, one count of bribery, one count of conspiracy, and three counts of money laundering in connection with the use of a sham corporation to hide the identity of the bribery payments, Fisher said in a prepared statement. The indictment also alleges that Anderson solicited and received money from an FBI confidential source in exchange for Anderson's agreement to perform official acts to further a business interest represented by the confidential source. The indictment alleges from July 2004 to March 2005, Anderson and an individual described in only as "Lobbyist A" solicited and received $26,000 in payments from an FBI confidential source in exchange for Anderson's agreement to act on his behalf in the legislature, according to the statement released from the U.S. Department of Justice. Anderson and the unnamed lobbyist created a sham corporation to conceal the existence and origin of the payments, and used the corporation to funnel a portion of the $26,000 to Anderson, the indictment says. The FBI's source was a consultant for a private corrections company located outside the state of Alaska, and Anderson and the lobbyist initiated contact with that confidential source in order to solicit bribery payments, the indictment alleges. The source, however, never communicated any information to the corrections company due to the undercover nature of the operation. The corrections company was not implicated, federal officials said. If convicted, Anderson faces a maximum penalty of 20 years and a $250,000 fine on the extortion counts; a maximum penalty of 20 years and a $500,000 fine on each of the money laundering counts; a maximum penalty of 10 years and a $250,000 fine on the bribery count; and a maximum penalty of five years and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy count. Anderson was scheduled to be arraigned Friday, assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph W. Bottini said. It was not immediately known if he had hired a lawyer. Anderson is married to former state Rep. and now state Sen.-elect Lesil McGuire, who did not return messages left on her cells phones Friday. Anderson, who was elected to the state House four years ago, did not seek re-election. He leaves office this month.

October 9, 2006 Anchorage Daily News
When FBI agents searched the Wasilla office of Rep. Vic Kohring on Aug. 31, they weren't just looking for documents related to Veco Corp., its executives and ties to lawmakers. They also wanted information about developer Marc Marlow as well as the state Department of Corrections. That element of the ongoing FBI investigation emerged last week when Kohring's attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, provided a copy of the search warrant to the Daily News, along with the list of items taken. Those documents, though lacking detail or context, suggest that the probe is wide-ranging and not focused on any one company, issue or individual. No one has been charged in the investigation, and federal authorities have declined to discuss it except to say that it continues. The lead prosecutors are from the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., which often handles government corruption cases. In all, offices of six lawmakers have been searched, along with Veco offices and additional undisclosed locations. Other lawmakers whose offices weren't searched have said they were interviewed by the FBI. The warrant also sought all correspondence between Kohring and the Alaska Department of Corrections. Ross said Kohring was questioned by the FBI about efforts to build a private prison in Whittier. "He indicated it was a facility that Cornell was hoping to build in the past and that's apparently all they asked about that," Ross said. Cornell Cos. had teamed with Veco in the private prison endeavor, which ultimately died last year after the city of Whittier dropped its support. Along with those of Kohring and Stevens, FBI agents searched offices of Sen. John Cowdery, R-Anchorage; Sen. Donny Olson, D-Nome; Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River; and Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, R- Juneau. Messages left for them were not returned. Kohring is the only one of the six still facing an election battle in November. Kott lost in the primary, Stevens and Weyhrauch aren't running again and the others aren't up this year. What's known: • Dozens of FBI agents executed about two dozen search warrants Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, though in some cases individuals agreed to the search. • Six legislative offices were searched, and so was Veco Corp. Searches were conducted in Anchorage, Juneau, Eagle River, Wasilla, Willow and Girdwood. The office of Senate President Ben Stevens was then searched a second time, on Sept. 18. • One search warrant, provided by Sen. Donny Olson, said the FBI was looking for "any and all documents" related to Veco, four of its executives and two political pollsters, as well as information on Olson Air Service, among other matters. When agents searched Stevens' office, they seized materials related to controversial fisheries organizations. In the search of Rep. Vic Kohring's office, agents also sought information on developer Marc Marlow and on the state Department of Corrections. • The lead prosecutors on the case are from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., which handles public corruption cases. • No one has been charged. What's not known: • Perhaps the biggest of the many unanswered questions is this: Who or what is being targeted? • Authorities also won't say how many FBI agents or prosecutors are working on the investigation, when it began, when it might end or how they are proceeding.

September 24, 2006 Anchorage Daily News
Last month, state Rep. Tom Anderson testified before the Anchorage Assembly in favor of Wal-Mart's plan for two stores in his old neighborhood. Assembly chairman Dan Sullivan introduced him as Representative Anderson, but the lawmaker for Muldoon corrected him. He was there representing the home builders association, Anderson said. Anderson, who was a consultant before he was elected to the state House four years ago, has never stopped making money on the side as a paid adviser for clients who do business with state and local government. His dual role may have surprised the Assembly in August. But it would not have surprised some members of the Northeast Community Council, the neighborhood group that opposed the stores. They recall seeing Anderson at their meetings all though 2003. They assumed he was there as the local state legislator. But Anderson's state financial disclosure form, filed the following year, revealed he was also working as a $10,000 consultant on community councils and local government for the oil field services and construction company Veco. "We are all going, 'This is so bogus,' " said council president Peggy Robinson, who publicized Anderson's Veco connection in an unsuccessful bid to topple Anderson from his House seat in 2004. Now Anderson's role as a consultant to industry is coming under scrutiny again, following last month's FBI searches of six legislative offices seeking information on legislators' links to Veco. A rule insisting on proper qualifications would probably have done little to crimp Veco's employment of legislators. Stevens and Anderson were both consultants before they ran for office. Arrangements between Veco and two other lawmakers show up in state disclosure forms dating back to 2002. One was for a boat rental from a fisherman, one was for legal work from a lawyer. In 2002, Veco paid $17,600 to use a boat owned by Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer. The contract came in the summer before Seaton, a commercial fisherman who owns several boats, was first elected. He said his fish tender just happened to be available in upper Cook Inlet when Veco needed a standby safety vessel during a short oil rig construction job. The legal payments went to then-Sen. Robin Taylor, who got into a jam with critics in his home town of Wrangell over that work. Taylor, a lawyer and longtime chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reported being paid $15,700 for legal work by Veco in 2000, $19,300 in 2001 and $16,800 in 2002. He also served as city attorney for Wrangell during that period. Critics accused Taylor of hiding his Veco ties when the city council considered taking up a private prison project in 2001. Veco had been part of the consortium whose prison plan had just been turned down in Kenai. Taylor insisted he had disclosed his Veco ties on state forms and didn't need to announce them. Taylor retired from the Senate and his private legal practice in 2003 and is now head of the state marine highway system. He was among the current and former legislators known to have been interviewed by the FBI in the current investigation. Taylor said last week that he had never been lobbied by Veco over the prison. As far as he knew, he said, Veco wasn't interested in a Wrangell prison. "It's a breach of attorney-client privilege, but I can tell you up front: That client never talked to me once about that project," Taylor said.

September 7, 2006 Anchorage Daily News
For two decades, oil man and political financier Bill Allen has been a familiar presence in the halls of the Alaska Capitol. But toward the end of this year's regular legislative session, the Veco chief executive may have taken that familiarity a step too far. Allen was watching the state House debate oil taxes on the next-to-last night of business in May when he began passing notes to legislators across the railing of the small spectator gallery, according to Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage. Rules say the public can pass notes through the front door to be delivered by a page. Direct engagement from the visitor gallery is forbidden once the speaker's gavel sounds. Crawford said he saw Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, carry several notes from Allen to other legislators. Anderson has received Veco campaign contributions and has also reported $30,000 in consulting contracts with the company since 2003. Several other legislators say their staff observed similar goings-on. "He was definitely directing traffic back there," Crawford said of Allen. Veco's role in Alaska's political process is under intense scrutiny now. Last week the FBI served search warrants on legislative offices and others seeking a wide range of information related to Allen and other Veco executives, including gifts to public officials. But much of Veco's influence, dating from the early 1980s, comes from sources in plain sight. This includes close to $1 million in state and federal campaign contributions over the past decade as well as consulting contracts with individual legislators. Veco's presence in Juneau is distinctive not just for its role in helping finance many campaigns but for the personal role played by Allen and several other company executives. Veco has hired top-drawer professional lobbyists in the past, as it did while pushing for a private prison between 1996 and 2002. But Allen, 69, is known for taking a personal hand in promoting his priorities, in a manner often described as gentlemanly rather than bullying. In 1996, the Legislature added a new twist -- anyone registering as a lobbyist was barred from giving campaign contributions outside his or her home district. The idea was to prevent favor-seeking lobbyists from working a building full of people they'd given money to. Allen spent a lot of time in the Capitol in 2002, pressing the Legislature to pay for a private prison in Whittier (Veco was teamed with a national prison company, Cornell, to build the project) and to authorize a property tax break for construction of a North Slope natural gas pipeline. Allen was in the Capitol so much that APOC ordered him to register as a lobbyist. Allen protested, saying business owners looking out for their own interests should not be treated like professional lobbyists who represent a variety of clients. Allen eventually complied, registering for 2002 and 2003 and reporting his hourly wage as $156.25. That meant he had to forgo writing campaign checks in those years. (Not that candidates were starved for Veco money: Other company officials gave more than $200,000 to state candidates in 2002 alone.)

September 1, 2006 Alaska Report
The FBI served four more search warrants today in its investigation of the relationship between lawmakers and oilfield services company VECO Corporation, an Anchorage-based oil field services and construction company whose executives are major contributors to political campaigns. Bill Allen, owner of VECO, and his firm, were involved in a renovation of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens' chalet in Girdwood in the recent past. The Associated Press is reporting that the search warrants seek "from the period of October 2005 to the present, any and all documents concerning, reflecting or relating to proposed legislation in the state of Alaska involving either the creation of a natural gas pipeline or the petroleum production tax." An Anchorage FBI spokesman says that about two dozen search warrants have been executed so far, including three today in Anchorage and one in Willow. No arrests have been made as of yet. AlaskaReport has learned that a staffer in one of the offices raided has been providing information to federal authorities. In an interview with KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Wev Shea, a former U.S. attorney for Alaska says he knows who created the climate that he alleges allowed corruption to flourish. "The Republican Party is going to rue the day in this state for allowing Randy Ruedrich (chairman of the Republican Party of Alaska) to remain as a chair. He's bringing this party down and it's bad." KTUU also interviewed Rep. Eric Croft. He says he saw this coming two years ago, during a legislative committee meeting concerning VECO’s pitch for a sole-source contract award for a private prison. "I said at the time, in 2004, on the Whittier proposal, someone's going to jail over this 'cause I could see how corrupt the process was," said Croft, D-Anchorage.

August 31, 2006 Anchorage Daily News
Federal agents swarmed legislative offices around the state Thursday, executing search warrants in a coordinated series of raids that appeared to target the longstanding relationship between the oil-field service company Veco and leading lawmakers. Above Anchorage’s 4th Avenue, FBI agents spent most of the afternoon behind the closed doors and drawn blinds of the fifth-floor offices of Senate President Ben Stevens and Senate Rules Committee Chairman John Cowdery, both Anchorage Republicans. Through slits in the blinds, one agent in Stevens’ office, wearing rubber gloves, could be seen packing away evidence in a container. In Juneau, tourists and residents were greeted with the extraordinary sight of FBI agents hauling out files form the Alaska State Capitol after searching offices there. After the FBI searched his Wasilla office and questioned him, Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, the chairman of the House Special Committee on Oil & Gas, said the investigation was focused on Veco. Other legislative offices known to have been searched Thursday included those of Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau, and Sen. Donny Olson of Nome. Kott, a former House speaker, and Weyhrauch are Republicans. Olson is the only Democrat in the group. FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said federal agents executed about 20 search warrants Thursday, not all in legislative offices. The warrants were executed in Anchorage, Juneau, Wasilla, Eagle River and Girdwood, he said. Ray Metcalfe, a former legislator and the founder of the independent Republican Moderate Party, said he has been trying to get the authorities interested in what he described as the “corrupt” relationship between Veco and the Republican-lead legislature, principally Ben Stevens. “I put all the stuff in front of federal prosecutors a year and a half ago,” Metcalfe said Thursday, clearly relishing the turn of events. “I laid hundreds of pages of detailed information alleging bribery, and I distributed it to federal authorities, I distributed it to the U.S. Attorney’s office, I distributed it to the (state attorney general’s) Office of Special Prosecutions, and we held a demonstration in front of the attorney general’s office that hardly anyone showed up for.” Metcalfe attempted to initiate a recall campaign against Stevens, but his effort was rejected by Lt. Gov. Loren Leman on legal grounds. After first announcing he’d run for re-election in November, Stevens changed his mind in June and opted to retire.Tamara Cook, a lawyer who heads the nonpartisan legal services division of the Legislature, said Thursday evening that she reviewed a couple of the search warrants at the request of legislators or aides upon whom they were served. The search warrants allowed the FBI to search computers and office files including financial records, she said. The warrants named Veco Corp., she said, but could not say whether Veco was a target or whether the investigation concerned oil taxes, its failed push to build a private prison in Alaska or something else.

July 1, 2005
In the closing days of the regular legislative session, Republican Sen. Gene Therriault of North Pole amended an elections bill to allow big corporate money into Alaska politics. Undeterred by the fact there had been no public notice or public hearing, Senate Republicans approved the change. But the state House balked, and the amendment was removed. A triumph for democracy, right?  So what's Therriault really trying to do? Simple. Alaska law does not allow corporations to make political contributions to candidates or groups. Therriault wants to change that because the Republican Party would get more corporate money than other parties. This is about nothing more than fattening the Republican Party's bank accounts. Would it? You bet. How do we know? Well, a court ruling allowed corporate contributions for a brief period in 2001, and the Republican Party mistakenly reported some of what it got: $25,000 from Veco, $12,000 from Cornell Companies Inc., $10,000 from Gray Line of Alaska, $8,000 from Philip Morris USA, $7,500 from Holland America and so on. Selfless giving? Hardly. Veco and Cornell wanted a private prison; Gray Line and Holland America didn't want a cruise ship tax; Phillip Morris didn't want higher tobacco taxes. You get the picture. Alaskans don't want big money in their state's politics. They've said so at the polls. But Gene Therriault doesn't care about that. He wants the dough for his own partisan purposes. Better keep an eye on him.

October 16, 2004 Salon
In any other election year, Alaska's conservative electorate could be expected to chill Democratic hopes of taking over a United States Senate seat held by a Republican incumbent. Republicans hold every statewide elected office, enjoying a powerful base of support from the dominant energy, fishery and development industries, as well as an ideological advantage among the state's many gun-toting libertarians and fundamentalist Christians. But this year is not like any other election year in Alaska, principally because of what may well turn out to be a fateful mistake by Gov. Frank Murkowski when he ascended to his current office from the Senate two years ago. In an act of hubris that outraged critics across the political spectrum, the new governor appointed his daughter Lisa Murkoswki to succeed him in the Senate. In the Murkowski political clan, the father has become the daughter's weighty albatross, and vice versa. For the past several months, the governor and the senator have assiduously (and somewhat oddly) avoided public appearances together. For obvious reasons they would prefer not to remind anybody that they're related, at least not until after Election Day. Amazingly, the official biography on her Web site neglects to mention the existence of her father, the governor. But the most generous donors to Murkowski's Senate campaign seem well aware of her filial relationship to Alaska's most powerful public official. Major corporations and other special interests needing favors from the governor have poured money into his daughter's war chest. And perhaps not surprisingly, their generosity has coincided with favorable action by the governor. But for Lisa Murkowski, the truly big money has flowed in from Veco Corp., a major Anchorage construction firm. Veco is not only the largest single donor to the Republican senator but is regarded by many Alaskans as the most powerful company in their state. While its interests are broad and varied, from the oil industries to local construction, the Halliburton-like firm has an important potential stake in one of the state's most controversial projects: a private prison in the port town of Whittier that could ultimately cost the state more than $1 billion. Alaska currently rents space for more than 700 state prisoners at a privately run correctional facility in Arizona, under an arrangement that harms convicts' families, while draining money from the state. Pressure to ameliorate this situation has been growing. For several years, Cornell Companies of Texas, a major corporate prison operator, has proposed building a new privatized prison in Alaska. Their fortunes began to improve after they teamed up with Veco in 2002. Facing opposition from state correction officials, unions and local communities, Frank Murkowski declared his firm opposition to any private prison construction when he ran for governor in 2002. Since taking office, however, the senior Murkowski has gradually backed away from that position over the past year. Although Gov. Murkowski's aides said he still opposed the Veco-Cornell prison plan in the spring of 2003, he then turned around and told legislators that the issue still required "further study." This was a substantial victory for Veco and Cornell, whose executives insist their plan would be cheaper than building and operating new public prison space. By last April, Murkowski's aides were floating plans for a "compromise" that would allow construction of the privatized prison, financed by state bonds, if it met certain conditions imposed by state authorities. What caused the governor to change his strongly stated opposition to privatized prisons? He hasn't explained his shift yet. But in May 2003, a prominent Anchorage architect named Mark Pfeffer met with his aides to promote the Veco-Cornell prison project. Pfeffer had recently joined the prison consortium, and he had also signed on as treasurer for Lisa Murkowski's reelection campaign. Around that time, her father began to back away from his pledge to oppose private prisons, issuing a vague announcement that his administration would take a "fresh look" at the Veco-Cornell prison plan. Meanwhile, money from Veco and its lobbyists has flowed into Lisa Murkowski's campaign. The first $2,000 check from Veco chairman Bill Allen showed up on May 13, 2003, only days after the Anchorage Daily News reported the governor's shift on his project. Allen, who registered as a lobbyist in Anchorage to push the project, has given regularly and generously -- as have other Veco executives, whose total of $43,750 is Murkowski's largest single donation. Lobbyists from Patton Boggs, which represents Veco in promoting the prison deal, have given her an additional $12,000. The pattern appears plain enough. While the Murkowskis pretend not to know each other, the special interests that know them both have invested heavily in her campaign while awaiting his nod.

Alexander Youth Services Center, Alexander, Arkansas
(AKA Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center)
June 19, 2007 The Morning News
A new report identifying problems in the special education program at the former Alexander Youth Services Center -- some of which were previously identified in a 2005 study -- drew frustrated comments Monday from legislative panels that oversee the state's youth lockups. "It seems we're planning ourselves to death but we're not getting anything accomplished," said state Rep. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, during a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees on children and youth. In a report released this month, the state Education Department cites about 50 practices at the facility, now known as the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, that don't comply with state and federal regulations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The department has directed the Division of Youth Services to develop a plan of action for correcting the problems. Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, said that on visits to the facility in Saline County she has been "extremely unimpressed" with the educational practices she saw, which she said seemed to consist of youths playing on a computer. "Do we have any way of determining if they're really learning something, or if we're just letting a computer baby-sit them?" she asked. The House chairwoman, Rep. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said a lack of sufficient information gathering is one of the problems highlighted in the report. Chesterfield said scrutiny is needed for the educational services the state provides to all youth in custody, not only those in need of special education. Scott Tanner, ombudsman coordinator for the state Public Defender Commission, testified that the Division of Youth Services has had chronic problems with its education system at least since 2000, the year he became an ombudsman. Education services at the facility are provided by Group 4 Securicor, the private company that took over operation of the facility in January. The state fired the facility's previous operator, Cornell Companies, in November after a state investigation found evidence that psychotropic drugs may have been administered improperly to some youths as a restraint. The facility also was investigated in 2005, after 17-year-old Lakeisha Brown died from a blood clot in her lungs two days after complaining to staff that she felt ill. Cornell was ordered to revamp some of its policies as a result of that investigation. Madison asked Monday whether it would be more appropriate for the education of youth in custody to be undertaken by the state rather than a private company. Education Department attorney Scott Smith said he did not believe it would. Trying to incorporate students in custody into the state's public education system would require compliance with numerous state and federal mandates that currently are waived, he said. "The reason I ask is, there's something wrong with the picture in my mind when you have state agencies ..... firmly committed to a free public education, and then we turn around and hire a private company to deliver that," Madison said. "I just have a hard time thinking that that's a good idea." Steve Jones, a former state representative who recently became deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee the Division of Youth Services is working on a plan to correct the problems. Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-Hensley, noted that the division developed a plan of action previously, after a 2005 report cited problems with the facility's educational system. "It's time to quit putting plans of action on paper and time to bring something to the table, take some action, physical action, for improvement. These children are still here, and we're just letting them down continuously, year after year after year," she said. "It is children that the state Department of Education is all about, and it is children that DYS is all about," Chesterfield said. "Somewhere the bureaucratic -- we're not going to use the alliterative -- the bureaucratic stuff, if you will, has got to be overcome for the children." Jones assured the committees the division would achieve real results.

January 11, 2007 Arkansas News Bureau
The state Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to enter into a short-term contract with a company to operate the troubled Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility in Saline County, agency officials said Wednesday. The agency has signed a $4.5 million contract with G4S Youth Services in Richmond, Va., a division of the British-based Group 4 Securicor, for the company to operate the facility from Jan. 21 through June 30, DHHS spokeswoman Julie Munsell said. The contract is pending approval by the Department of Finance and Administration. At the end of the six-month period, the state will have the option of renewing the contract for an additional year, Munsell said. Munsell said no bids were taken because the agreement was reached under emergency procedures. The agency considered the situation an emergency because of safety and welfare concerns for the 143 youths at the facility, she said. The state fired Cornell Companies, the Pennsylvania-based company that previously ran the facility, in November after a state investigation indicated psychotropic drugs may have been administered improperly to some youths to restrain them. Munsell said Cornell is still at the site, but the state has been in charge since Nov. 3.

November 5, 2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
An advocacy group that has been monitoring Alexander Youth Services Center for months said Saturday that Arkansas isn’t meeting the mental health, education and special education needs of the children at the troubled facility as required by the U. S. Department of Justice and state law. Problems at the center are systemic, said Dana McClain, a senior attorney with the Disability Rights Center, a federally funded Little Rock nonprofit that assists disabled Arkansans. “We don’t think this is rehabilitation, and state law says it is supposed to be [for youthful offenders ]. I think it’s punishment,” she said. “I feel like these children are being set up to go to adult prison.” At some point, she said, the youthful offenders at the lockup will get out, “and you hope when they do they’ve got a better shot at being productive members of society.” A draft copy of the group’s lengthy report detailing “failures” at the center in Saline County was given to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Saturday — a day after the state unexpectedly ended its contract with Cornell Cos. Inc., a Houston company that ran the center for the past five years. An internal investigation found that employees were “inappropriately” drugging youthful offenders with psychotropic drugs to control bad behavior. The state was paying Cornell about $ 10 million annually. News about the forced medications, sometimes given without a doctor’s order, prompted some legislators and others to renew calls Friday to shut down the state’s largest lockup for youthful offenders. The Disability Rights Center report, which outlines about 50 problems, is expected to be released publicly later this week. McClain said her group will meet with the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday to discuss the findings. Monitors for Disability Rights have been making unannounced visits, as allowed by federal statute, to the center at least three times a month since March. “Under the contract these are things Cornell was responsible for providing,” McClain said. “I hope [Health and Human Services ] doesn’t just address that one issue [about the medication ]. This is a good time to do more because they are starting anew.” The agency has been responsive so far, McClain noted. Cornell, however, didn’t address some of the major concerns that Mc-Clain said she repeatedly talked to company employees about. Julie Munsell, Health and Human Services spokesman, said her agency has received a copy of the report but she declined to comment about the details until it is published and officials meet with the group’s representatives. Health and Human Services is the umbrella agency over the Youth Services Division, which now operates the youth lockup. In general, Munsell said, the state has made many strides since entering into a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice in March 2003 after a federal investigation found civil rights violations in the delivery of mental-health care, education, fire safety and freedom of religious expression at the center. Still, more work is needed, particularly with the center’s education system, she acknowledged. “We do still struggle with education issues at Alexander, and we’ve been working with the Department of Education to improve those issues,” she said. “We will always strive to get to an ideal setting, but it will take us time to get there.” The Justice Department hasn’t visited the center since January. Over the years, the youths at the Alexander center have complained that employees kicked, slapped and even threatened them with death. Others killed themselves. One boy, known for days to be suicidal, was able to hang himself a few years ago with a bedsheet. An investigation later found that his guard didn’t check on him. Another boy hanged himself in the same cell just a few months later — just as the state hired Cornell to take over the facility and fix its problems. And last year, a 17-year-old girl at the center died of blood clots in her lungs. She complained to nurses and supervisors that she was ill, but they didn’t believe her, even as she lay dying, according to a subsequent investigation. Munsell said her agency plans to work with the Disability Rights Center to address the group’s concerns. The Department of Justice couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday. During visits to the lockup, McClain said monitors found: Youths watching Harry Potter movies during science class on more than one occasion. A student sleeping on his keyboard, even though a teacher was sitting at a desk in the same classroom. No teacher-led reading program, even though at least 50 percent of the youthful offenders at the center have difficulties reading, and in some cases, can’t read at all. (An ombudsman who regularly visits the center said the youths are supposed to use a computer-based reading program at their own pace, but he has seen no evidence that such a system has.

November 4, 2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas terminated its contract with Cornell Cos. Inc. to run the troubled Alexander Youth Services Center on Friday after learning that employees were drugging youths to control unruly behavior — in many cases without doctors ’ orders, in violation of facility policy and against the children’s wills. A preliminary investigation found that from Sept. 1 to Oct. 15, nurses at the center gave 63 injections ofanti-psychotic drugs that have a sedative effect, including Thorazine, to 25 children in the center’s custody. “There is an appropriate circumstance under which you can give a chemical restraint,” said Julie Munsell, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services. “Our concern is that in many of these cases, they appear not to have been appropriate.” The internal investigation into the use of chemical restraints triggered a series of events: The Health and Human Services Department placed three Alexander employees on administrative leave, the state Board of Nursing was notified, and Gov. Mike Huckabee ordered a review of Cornell’s policies as well as an Arkansas State Police investigation into what happened. State police investigators are working through the weekend so that they can give Huckabee a preliminary report Monday. Munsell said her agency gave state police its investigative file, which is a foot thick. “Although we hired a nationally reputable contractor to provide services, this appears to be a second major breakdown in the facility’s medical system, and we are no longer confident in the management at the Alexander campus,” Health and Human Services Director John Selig said Friday afternoon. Last year, investigators with the Health and Human Services Department uncovered widespread problems with the medical system at Alexander after 17-year-old inmate Keisha Brown died from blood clots to her lungs. Brown had repeatedly complained that she was ill but some nurses and supervisors at the center did not believe her — even in the last minutes of her life. “Some of us have had concerns with the contract ever since the incident of Keisha Brown’s death,” said Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville. “We were concerned that her medical care was not what it should have been.” After Keisha’s death, Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, urged the Health and Human Services Department to end its contract with Cornell and blasted state officials for not better monitoring the for-profit company. Upon learning about the state’s decision Friday night, Smith said, “I told you so. “Apparently this company is not on top of things, and the state employees [who ] are over this are not on top of things. No one is checking on anybody, and this is what happened. It’s just terrible.” In a five-page summary, Health and Human Services Department internal investigators outlined several policy violations and other findings from the 45-day review: Evidence of “falsifying” doctors’ orders on at least two occasions to show that the child should receive injections “as needed.” The original orders did not include that option. Evidence from video surveillance tapes and interviews with the children that some of the inmates were given the injections against their will. Policy allows youths to refuse the injections so long as it is not an emergency situation in which the child may endanger himself or others. Physician order sheets for some of the children that did not include orders for the injections. Eleven incidents during which the doctor gave a verbal order to use the medication but never signed any documents, which is required. No evidence that orders for use of “PRN medications,” which means give as needed, were reviewed annually as required. No evidence that a second physician reviewed orders for forced injections as required. No evidence that an independent psychiatrist reviewed the orders for forced injections, as required to ensure the children’s right to due process. Evidence that employees did not properly document the use of the injections. The lack of documentation made it harder for investigators to piece together exactly what happened during those 45 days, Munsell said. Over the years, the inmates at Alexander have complained that employees kicked, slapped and even threatened them with death. Others killed themselves while there. One boy, known for days to be suicidal, was able to hang himself with a bed sheet because his guard didn’t check on him. Another boy hanged himself in the same cell just a few months later — just as the state hired Cornell Cos. Inc. to take over the facility and fix problems there. In 2002, the U. S. Department of Justice found that dozens of problems remained. Most have since been resolved. The center also is used as an intake facility for all children who come into the state detention system.

December 29, 2005 Benton Courier
A report on the escape of two 17-year-old prisoners in the state youth lockup at Alexander says guards sleeping on the job was one of the reasons the boys were able to break free. The report also says someone inside the facility may have known of the escape plans. Four staff members have been fired from the facility run by the private Cornell Companies. The 12-page report by the state Division of Youth Services says staff members lied about a head count and that a number of guards were asleep when the two escaped. In the short time before Bryant police caught Villegas and Lamberth, the two allegedly burglarized and vandalized Zion Lutheran Church in the Avilla community. The teenagers allegedly stole $140 and took off in the church's van. The report says one of the boys admitted taking a key from the staff desk and unlocking the door to their dorm a week before the escape. The report said the boys got over razor wire by putting a bath mat over it. State Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Julie Munsell said the agency is addressing the problems outlined in the report. "It does show them walking past the staff member who was not moving at the time which indicates perhaps that employee was asleep and, according to interviews with clients, that's what happened at the time," Munsell said. "We had multiple system failures; that's what we really want to address," Munsell said. Munsell said one worker falsified a log "because she did not know how long the youth had been gone. ... She was nervous about the outcome of that." "It is very disconcerting. I think that you have employees exhibiting gross negligence on the job, which is why the expectation is that you take aggressive action," Munsell said.

December 10, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Two 17-yearold boys face adult prison time, and a private corrections company suspended five employees without pay after an early Friday morning escape from the Alexander Youth Services Center near Bryant. Police said they tracked Benjamin Lamberth and Rusty Villegas as they attempted to flee toward Lamberth's home in Cherokee Village by intercepting cell phone calls, nabbing them about nine hours later in a stolen church van near Cave City. Lamberth and Villegas asked to go to the bathroom, then reportedly bolted through an emergency exit door at Alexander about 1 a. m. They scaled the perimeter fence, draping a shower mat over the razor wire, said Julie Munsell, spokesman for the Department of Human Services. The emergency exit door should have been locked, she said, guessing that the boys had a key. "This was not something spontaneous. They had been planning this for several weeks," she said. Apparently, the teenagers opened the doors without touching a bar that would have triggered a security alarm, she said. Bryant police were not notified until 4 a. m., when the boys were found missing during a routine check. The three hours it took for center officials to realize the boys had escaped will be the subject of an internal investigation. Several security checks should have been made during that period, Munsell said. The state reached a legal agreement with the U. S. Department of Justice in 2003 to eliminate deficits in training and unsafe conditions at the youth lockup. Some minor education and health record issues remain to be resolved before the state can be released from federal supervision, Munsell said Friday. In April 2005, 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown died of blood clots to her lungs while at the center. State and company investigations found lapses in care and violations of state and facility policy in her treatment. A programs supervisor and nursing manager resigned and three employees were disciplined.

October 26, 2005 Record Times
LaKeisha Brown likely had been suffering from blood clots in her lungs for at least two days and possibly as long as two weeks before she collapsed at the Alexander Youth Services Center and then died on April 9, the state medical examiner said Tuesday. A preliminary autopsy report released soon after 17-year-old "Keisha" died listed the cause of death as blood clots from her legs that traveled to her lungs. Last week, her mother, Juana Michelle Brown, gave the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette a copy of the final autopsy report, which she had just received. Autopsies are not public records in Arkansas. Dr. Charles Kokes, the state medical examiner, explained aspects of the final report in an interview Tuesday. "I think if she somehow had been diagnosed in the days prior to her death, it's possible she could have survived," Kokes said, but added that a pulmonary thromboembolism - the medical term for a blood clot in the lungs - can be difficult to detect. Keisha's medical records show that both nurses and some facility managers believed she was faking sickness for attention at the time of her death. An investigation this summer by the state Board of Nursing found that nurses at Alexander did not provide the teenage inmate with adequate medical care in the days before her death and violated facility policy and state nursing laws. Another investigation by the state Youth Services Division found that senior management "was negligent" because it did not ensure systems were in place to provide Keisha the medical care she needed. Because of Keisha's death, the Youth Services Division of the state Department of Health and Human Services uncovered widespread problems with the medical system at the state's largest lockup for youthful offenders, the head of the Youth Services Division told state legislators this summer. The problems, Kenneth Hales explained, have been or are being corrected. For one, the state, which has contracted with the private company Cornell Cos. Inc. to run Alexander, has begun auditing medical files of youths at the facility to ensure they are receiving proper care. Before Keisha's death, the state only audited the company to make sure it was meeting contractual obligations in operating the facility. This summer, Cornell fired two contract nurses, the center's nurse manager and its program supervisor, who also is the second-in-command at the Alexander center, Jane Miller, director of behavioral health services for Cornell, has said. Three other employees were disciplined, and more than a dozen quit. Cornell has apologized for Keisha's death but maintains it is not at fault.

October 22, 2005 Arkansas News
The company that operates Alexander Youth Services Center has revamped many of its medical policies in response to the death of a teenager at the center earlier this year, a company representative said Friday. Testifying before the Arkansas Legislative Council, the employee of Cornell Companies Inc. said more nurses were hired and "sick call" rules for youth housed at the facility were changed following the April death of 17-year-old Lakeisha Brown. A state investigation found nurses at the 349-bed juvenile detention center may not have immediately responded to Brown's health complaints. The cause of Brown's death was a blood clot in her lungs. An investigation by Cornell found no direct link between Brown's death and inaction by Cornell personnel. Four employees resigned and one was fired after the incident. According to Cornell's corrective action plan, no nurses employed at Alexander at the time of Brown's death are still working at the center.

August 11, 2005 AP
The death of a 17-year-old at the Alexander Youth Services Center in April, and the investigation that resulted, uncovered widespread problems at the facility, a state official says. Kenneth Hales, director of the Division of Youth Services in the state Department of Human Services, told state legislators Wednesday that "systematic weaknesses" turned up when officials took a close look at the circumstances of LaKeisha Brown's April 7 death, after she had collapsed at the youth lockup from a blood clot in her lungs. "It was not just LaKeisha," Hales said. Investigations showed that staff members violated the policies of the facility, operated under contract by Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston, as well as DHS regulations and state regulations for nurses. Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the agency, said DHS had regularly audited the Alexander center to confirm that Cornell was meeting its contractual obligations. But she said those auditors were not trained to evaluate the medical procedures and policies being used by the company. "That is something that we have had to ask for some additional assistance to evaluate, because our auditors are not clinicians," Munsell said. "The audit is just not designed to do that." Hales told the Legislature's Joint Performance Review Committee that a review of procedures showed that, when an inmate reported being sick, "it was difficult to tell what the response to that sick call was." "When the nurses examined a youth, you couldn't tell what they saw or what they concluded to do following that examination," he said. The investigations also found that nurses at the facility lacked supervision, were poorly trained and weren't given good instruction on what their supervisors expected of them, Hales said.

August 3, 2005 AP
Two top managers lost their jobs at a state youth lockup where a teenager died and three other employees received reprimands, according to the private firm that runs the facility. Houston-based Cornell Cos. Inc. also said Tuesday that, in response to the April death of 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown, it had put in place an action plan that includes better orientation and training procedures for all staff and an organizational chart with clearly defined lines of authority. DHS spokesman Julie Munsell said Tuesday evening that Cornell officials had informed the agency that program director Joann McCoy and nurse manager Polly King were no longer employed at the Alexander center. She said the officials did not say whether the two were fired or resigned. Additionally, three employees received written reprimands: licensed practical nurses Holly Clark and Kim Clough and an unnamed member of the facility's clerical staff, Munsell said. The company found more than a dozen problems with Brown's care. Among them were: The center's top managers did not adequately review Brown's care after her death and nurses inadequately responded to her when she collapsed repeatedly and complained of shortness of breath and exhaustion in the days and hours before her death.

July 28, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Disciplinary action expected against some employees at Alexander Youth Services Center for the way they handled 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown has been delayed, a spokesman for a private company that runs the youth lockup facility for the state said Wednesday. Cornell Cos. Inc. spokesman Lisa Tauser had said Tuesday that a team of company employees were meeting that night to implement personnel changes recommended after the Houston-based company investigated the April 9 death of "Keisha." In a report released Tuesday, a team of Cornell employees suggested the company suspend nurses who responded to or cared for Keisha when she collapsed repeatedly and complained of shortness of breath and exhaustion in the last days and hours of her life. A preliminary autopsy report shows that Keisha died of blood clots to the lungs. The team also said "senior management" should be held "strictly accountable" for failing to ensure the necessary systems were in place so that Keisha would receive the proper medical care. An unidentified clerical employee also should be "disciplined" and placed under stricter supervision for making a decision about Keisha's care without calling a doctor or nurse, the report shows. Cornell's investigation found more than a dozen problems with her care. The team noted that the facility's top managers did not adequately review Keisha's care after her death and that nurses "inadequately" addressed Keisha's medical concerns. Her records show that the nurses did not believe she was really sick and did not call a doctor until she was unconscious. Keisha had been at Alexander, the state's largest juvenile lockup, for nearly two years after being adjudicated for drug possession, rape and inciting a riot. Last week, the State Board of Nursing released a report saying that six nurses at the center violated state nursing regulations in the way they dealt with Keisha. The board now is conducting additional investigations to determine discipline for each nurse.

July 27, 2005 Arkansas Democrat
Senior management at Alexander Youth Services Center should be "held accountable" for failing to ensure 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown received the proper care before she died, and nurses there should be suspended for inadequately addressing her needs, a private company that runs the facility for the state has decided.  A clerical employee working in the facility's medical unit also should be "disciplined" and placed under stricter supervision for making a decision about the care Keisha received without consulting a doctor or nurse, according to a Cornell Cos. Inc. report released by the Department of Human Services on Tuesday evening.  Facility Director Bob McCracken, a Cornell employee, did not return a message for comment Tuesday.  The recommendation to dole out punishment is part of a twopage report detailing the investigation Cornell conducted last month of its own operations after Keisha died April 9 of a suspected blood clot to the lungs.  Cornell's investigation comes after critical investigations by the state Division of Youth Services and the Arkansas State Board of Nursing, both of which found that employees and nurses broke protocol in the way they handled Keisha.  Cornell's investigation, conducted by a team of employees of the Houston-based company, found more than a dozen problems with her care. The team noted that the facility's top managers did not adequately review Keisha's care after her death.  The Cornell investigation also found that nurses at the facility "inadequately" responded to Keisha's needs when she collapsed repeatedly and complained of shortness of breath and exhaustion in the days and hours before her death. Keisha's medical records show that the nurses did not believe she was really sick and did not call a doctor until she was unconscious.  Keisha had been at Alexander, the state's largest juvenile lock-up, for nearly two years after being adjudicated for drug possession, rape and inciting a riot.  The report also states that the facility's ability to handle medical emergencies at the time was "inadequate or nonexistent," that "senior management" was negligent when it failed to ensure all systems were in place to provide Keisha with the care she needed and that nurses were more focused on dealing with Keisha's complaints internally than evaluating her medical condition. The Nursing Board investigated the actions of nurses at the facility. Last week, the board released a report saying that six nurses at the center violated state nursing regulations in the way they dealt with Keisha.  The Nursing Board is now conducting additional investigations to determine what discipline each nurse will receive and whether they will be able to keep their licenses.  State legislators also have been critical of the company. In the past two months, they have called for additional investigations into Keisha's death, leading to the Nursing Board report. Other legislators suggested that the state find another company to oversee the Alexander center, but no such action has been taken.

July 25, 2005 Arkansas Democrat
Now that we know that workers at Alexander Youth Services Center broke the rules, what are we going to do about it?
Someone in a position of real power and authority ought to be asking this question, because breaking rules is serious business, you know. Break enough of them, or at least the wrong ones, and somebody could get hurt or even die.
Which, of course, somebody did. Her name was LaKeisha Brown. She was 17. The official cause was blood clots in her lungs, but just between us, I believe she was ignored to death.  The state Board of Nursing has completed its inquiry and found that a state law and several regulations were violated by some of Keisha's purported caretakers. Altogether, four staff nurses and two contract nurses were identified as being involved in one or more of the infractions.  In case you missed reporter Amy Upshaw's comprehensive report, found in Thursday's editions, here are the highlights of the board's inquiry.  No evidence has been found that the registered nurses on duty when Brown repeatedly collapsed before succumbing were supervising the licensed practical nurses on the scene.  Three of the workers who assessed Keisha's condition and made decisions about her (lack of) medical care were LPNs, not RNs as required.  Five workers knowingly or consistently failed to accurately or intelligibly report or document Keisha's condition. Five staffers failed to notify the designated physician of Keisha's worsening condition over the course of three days.  Now that this inquiry is over, what's next? According to Upshaw's report, the nursing board now plans to investigate each nurse's particular involvement in the case with an eye toward considering whether to take some action against them. Isn't that special?  OK, so due process is the path we follow in these parts, and it's better to take things one step at a time rather than jump the gun. But a 17-year-old girl is dead and someone needs to answer for that. Clearly, state law enforcement officials, who also investigated this "sudden" death that was several days in coming, have closed the books on it and no prosecutors have been heard from. Apparently, continued investigation by the nursing board is the only avenue still open.  State Sen. Shane Broadway, one of the handful of lawmakers who have expressed shock and outrage at Keisha's death, the details of which were first publicized by Upshaw, understands that there are two points of concern here. The first, obviously, is the death of one person. The second is the quality of the care given to others still in her circumstances, i.e., consigned against their will to the juvenile detention facility at Alexander.  "You're talking about a lot of children's lives," Broadway said last week. "The quality of care is very important. It's important that we treat each child even though they have many difficulties. They're still in state custody, and they are our responsibility." I suppose technically they are in state custody. Practically speaking, they are in the custody of people who work for a private company that operates Alexander under a contract with the state. And the private company, Cornell Companies Inc., of Houston, Texas, doesn't seem too exercised about the situation. Oh, they say that they're "very sorry" about Keisha's death, of course, and that "corrections and revisions" are being made to policies and procedures, but so far the company honchos have mad e no decisions concerning personnel.  I'm very sorry Keisha is dead, too. I'm very sorry every time someone confined at Alexander dies. What I want to know is when someone in authority is going to do something about it.  Apparently there is no such person at this time, so it's up to us, the voting public, to find someone. It'll take time-the next election is more than a year away-but if we start with the next prosecutorial, legislative or gubernatorial candidate we meet, if we ask that person what he or she intends to do to make Alexander fit for human habitation, and if we keep asking this of candidates, we'll get it cleaned up.  Frankly, I don't hold out much hope. I've been writing about that hell hole for almost a quarter-century, so my main consolation today is that I won't be around long enough to do it for a quarter-century more. But hope dies hard. There must be someone somewhere who expects more for tackling the Alexander problem than a cush ride on a fast track to higher office.

July 21, 2005 Arkansas Democrat
The state Board of Nursing has found that the way six nurses at the state's largest juvenile lockup handled 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown as she fell ill and died violated a state nursing law and several regulations, according to a report released Wednesday afternoon.  The Nursing Board, which was asked by state officials to investigate how the nurses dealt with Brown, now plans to investigate each nurse's involvement in her care at Alexander Youth Services Center and could discipline them or revoke their licenses, said Deborah Jones, assistant director of nursing practices for the state.
As of Wednesday evening, all six nurses still were working at the Alexander center, said Lisa Tauser, a spokesman for Cornell Cos. Inc., the Houston-based private company that runs the lockup as a contractor for the state. The company still is trying to decide whether any of the nurses or other employees should be punished regarding the April 9 death.  Meanwhile, the Arkansas Medical Society, which was asked to review pediatrician Robert Choate's involvement in Brown's care, said it was not "possible" to do so because the nurses failed to tell Choate about her worsening condition on April 7, 8 or 9. Choate could not be reached Wednesday for comment.  Among the Nursing Board's findings: There's no evidence that the registered nurses on duty when Brown repeatedly collapsed before her death "supervised" the licensed practical nurses, who have less training and are required by the Arkansas Nurse Practice Act to work under RNs, physicians or other more qualified medical professionals.  Five nurses violated facility policy and the Board of Nursing rules and regulations for "knowingly or consistently failing to accurately or intelligibly report or document a patient's symptoms, responses, progress, medications and/or treatment."  Five nurses violated center policy and Nursing Board rules and showed "unprofessional conduct" by failing to notify Choate of Brown's condition.  A Youth Services Division internal investigation into her death found evidence that facility employees violated several policies in the days and hours before her death. On the day Brown died, for example, a supervisor dismissed an employee's request to call an ambulance, and nurses did not call a doctor until Brown was unconscious.

June 18, 2005 AP
A Houston-based company responsible for managing the Alexander Youth Services Center has apologized for the death of a female teenage inmate who died while in Arkansas custody. "On behalf of my company and all of the employees at Alexander, we're sorry," said Jane Miller, director of behavioral health services for Cornell Cos. Inc. "There's nothing more horrible than a child dying in our care." LaKeisha Brown, 17, died from a blood clot that traveled to her lungs on April 9. The girl was to be released May 1. An internal investigation by the Arkansas Department of Human Service's youth division suggested that medical personnel and others at the center may not have responded properly to the girl's repeated complaints about her health condition.

June 16, 2005 AP
The state fired a prison guard for having sex with an inmate. Now, the man has been hired by state- and county-run youth lockups. John Berry, 40, monitors children part-time at the Alexander Youth Services Center, which the state runs through a private contractor, and full-time at the juvenile detention center in Pine Bluff, a Jefferson County facility. Berry has denied allegations from an internal affairs investigation that he had sex with an inmate at the Tucker maximum security prison. The 16-year Department of Correction employee rose to the rank of sergeant before he was fired in October 2002. Alexander Youth Services director Bob McCracken was surprised when asked Wednesday by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper about Berry's rehiring Wednesday. He said a criminal background check, a child-molestation registry check and reference checks were conducted on Berry and turned up nothing.

June 16, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
State legislators Wednesday were critical of Alexander Youth Services Center employees responsible for 17-year-old LaKeisha Brown on the day she died and said her death should be investigated further. "No one was satisfied with the results of the investigation so far," Sen. Sue Madison, D- Fayetteville, said of the Youth Services Division internal investigation into the case. "I think we are going to be monitoring Alexander a lot more closely." The Youth Services Division investigation found credible evidence that employees violated several policies in the days and hours before "Keisha" died. Specifically, the investigator found that a supervisor dismissed an employee's request to call an ambulance for Keisha and that nurses did not call a doctor for Keisha when they should have. But no one has been disciplined in connection with her death. The private company that runs the Alexander lockup, Cornell Cos. Inc., has been asked by the state to better train employees and to ensure that better documentation is kept in regard to medical concerns and treatment. "Why hasn't someone been terminated?" Madison asked after a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Children and Youth and the House interim Committee on Aging and Legislative Affairs. "The nurse just turned a deaf ear to this because she was tired of her." Madison said neither Cornell nor the Youth Services Division provided her with the internal investigation or detailed information about Keisha's death. Instead, she found details from reading the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Keisha, who had lived at the lockup for youthful offenders for nearly two years, collapsed at least three times and complained of tiredness during the two days before her April 9 death, records show. However, nurses said nothing was wrong with her. On the day she died, Keisha could barely walk or get out of bed, according to records. She had lost color in her lips and complained of being cold, having difficulty breathing and of being tired. Again, the nurse said everything was fine. A preliminary autopsy report shows that Keisha died of a blood clot in her lungs.As legislators peppered Hales and McCracken with questions, Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, interrupted the meeting so the two officials could speak to a committee down the hall that was reviewing Cornell's contract. "From one oil pan to another," Smith told Hales and McCracken. As he walked to the other meeting, Smith said he wants to end Cornell's contract with the state because of the way Keisha was treated. "What happened was totally unprofessional. They didn't follow their own protocols," he said. "[Keisha] wasn't sent down there with a death sentence. Madison also said Scott Tanner, a juvenile-services ombudsman with the state Public Defender Commission, could have done more to help Keisha. "It seems to me that your office was created to prevent this kind of incident," she said. "Something doesn't seem to be working here."

April 16, 2005 Arkansas Democrat Gazette
A day after Lakeisha Brown collapsed at the Alexander Youth Services Center and died, her mother, Juana, found a white envelope with penciled script on the dresser at the family’s home in Luxora. The return address: Keisha Brown, Alexander, Ark. Keisha, as she was known to her family, had written the letter to her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth "Granny Pooh" Brown, on Feb. 19. At the time, "Granny Pooh" clung to life on round-theclock oxygen in a hospital. So Juana kept the letter but didn’t open it, respecting the bond her mother and daughter shared. But now she had to know what her only daughter had written. "Hey Granny Pooh," Keisha begins, drawing a smiley face next to the salutation. Three lines in, the letter turns somber. "Things are getting a little shaky for me. I plan on hanging in there though.... I been sick a lot lately. These nurses suck here. My back hurts a lot. When I breathe a certain way it hurts in my left rib. They tell me I’m not hurting but I stay strong anyhow." Forty-nine days later, on April 9, 17-year-old Keisha Brown died at Southwest Regional Medical Center in Little Rock from a blood clot that traveled to her lungs, according to a preliminary cause of death released Friday by Pulaski County Coroner Mark Malcolm. Elizabeth and Juana Brown wonder whether Keisha received the medical care she needed during her two-year stint at Alexander, the state’s largest juvenile jail. Scott Tanner, a juvenile services ombudsman with the state Public Defender Commission, said Keisha complained to him within the last nine months that she wasn’t receiving proper treatment for the irregular periods. Nurses monitored Keisha, Tanner said, but it took two months to get center medical staff to send her to a gynecologist. The U.S. Department of Justice criticized the Alexander unit in a November 2002 report for violations of several civil rights, including the right to religious freedom, mental health treatment, educational services and a safe environment. State officials signed a settlement with the Justice Department in March 2003 agreeing to correct problems found. In addition, the Youth Services Division conducted an internal review Oct. 4 that found several problems, including a delay in responding to medical needs. The youth lockup is operated by a private company called Cornell Cos. Inc.

A counselor at a youth lockup who resigned after questions arose about her qualifications has been charged with making up credentials. Carolyn Skaggs was a counselor at the Alexander Youth Services Center, but resigned after officials found out she didn't have a counseling license, as she had claimed. Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston runs the youth lockup under a contract with the Youth Services Division of the state Department of Human Services. The Saline County prosecutor's office filed a misdemeanor charge against Skaggs last week. The Alexander lockup has been plagued by problems. The Justice Department is investigating the center after a series of problems in recent years, state officials said. (AP, November 23, 2002)

The Justice Department is investigating the state's Alexander Youth Services Center after a series of problems at the facility, a state official said Wednesday. Doyle Herndon, director of the Division of Youth Services of the state Department of Human Services, told a legislative committee Wednesday the agency is enacting new policies to quell concerns about the Alexander facility and to offer incarcerated youth more rehabilitative programs. Herndon said Justice Department officials began the investigation after visiting the Alexander facility in June. Justice Department spokesman Casey Stavropoulos said the investigation would fall under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act and is meant to "see if there's a pattern or practice of misconduct." In October, a state investigation concluded that Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston, which runs the Alexander center under a DYS contract, failed to supervise inmates at risk of suicide while the staff conducted a meeting. (Go Memphis, October 3, 2002)

A woman hired in July to supervise counseling at the state's largest youth lockup saw about 15 youths and testified in one court hearing before officials say they learned her credentials were fake. Carolyn Skaggs resigned Aug. 20 after an employee at Alexander Youth Services Center questioned whether she was licensed, as she claimed and even provided a wallet-sized license card as proof, said Bob McCracken, director of the facility. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 25, 2002)

In the suicide letter he left in a cell at Alexander Youth Services Center a little more than a year ago, 16-year-old James Baumbach Jr. said one last time what he felt the staff there refused to hear -- he needed help. The help didn't arrive in time to prevent him from hanging himself with a bed sheet tied to an overhead sprinkler cover. Officials acknowledge Baumbach, who was placed on suicide watch days before he carried out his threats, wasn't monitored as he should have been. State officials admitted at the time that the facility's suicide prevention plan hadn't been followed. A guard responsible for monitoring Baumbach eventually was convicted of falsifying logbooks and fired. But the admitted bungling did not bring measures to prevent another suicide, and neither did turning management of the facility over to a private company, Houston-based Cornell Inc. On Sept. 16, less than a month after Cornell took over from the Department of Human Services, 15-year-old Kenneth McClain II committed suicide by hanging himself in the same cell where Baumbach took his own life. Since Cornell took over in September, finding qualified workers has been difficult, company officials say. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 26, 2002)

Two teen-agers accused of escaping from a youth lockup last month will appear in court April 22 for a judge to consider transferring their cases to juvenile court. Stephen Andrew Menasco of Conway and Bennie David Guy of Marion are accused of breaking away from a group of inmates at Alexander Youth Services Center about 7:30 p.m. March 16. They were apprehended the next morning about 6:30 a.m. in Bryant. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 9, 2002)

A former Alexander Youth Services Center guard set to go to trial today on a charge he falsified logbooks instead pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and received a suspended sentence. Eugene Girley, 54, of Pine Bluff was arrested in July. He was accused of lying in documents to make it appear he monitored a 16-year-old who committed suicide in his cell at the youth lockup May 13. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 3, 2002)

The Saline County prosecuting attorney's office plans to treat two 16-year-olds accused of escaping from a youth lockup last week as adults, a spokesman for the office said Monday. Bennie David Guy and Stephen Andrew Menasco are accused of breaking away from a group of inmates at Alexander Youth Services Center about 7:30 p.m. March 16. Last week, Cornell officials and Youth Services Division Director Doyle Herndon also met with neighbors of the facility who complained they weren't contacted soon enough after the escapes. Some said they weren't contacted at all. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 28, 2002)

A Division of Youth Services guard accused of trying to hurl a juvenile inmate to the ground is charged with third-degree battery and terroristic threatening. The alleged incident at the Alexander Unit occurred last August, though Saline County authorities did not bring charges until Tuesday against Keith Kelley, 34, of North Little Rock. Authorities say a surveillance videotape shows Kelley lifting a 15-year-old boy over his head and trying to throw him. Court papers say Kelley administered body and head blows to the boy, twisted his genitals and told the youth, "I'm going to kill you." Several months before the Kelley incident, an inmate hanged himself inside the facility. A short time after Cornell took control, a second youth committed suicide in the same cell. Last week, two inmates escaped and were captured the next day. (AP, March 23, 2002)

The private company running Alexander Youth Services Center fired a youth services employee last week after he was accused of trying to sell drugs to a guard at the facility, officials there said. Chandler Armstrong, 22, of Benton was arrested and charged with possessing a controlled substance after security officers at the center alerted police. Scott Tanner, juvenile ombudsman coordinator for the Arkansas public defender's office, said Cornell handled the situation appropriately. However, he was concerned he hadn't heard about the incident until contacted by a reporter. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 13, 2002)

The state Department of Human Services could lose access to all state and federal education dollars if the agency does not quickly correct deficiencies in special education and mental health services for youths in state custody, legislators heard Thursday. State Department of Education monitors planned to inspect special education services at the Alexander unit Friday after giving youth services official 30 days on Jan. 28 to correct educational shortcomings that included $100,000 in missing textbook and educational equipment. "When our staff visited, we had children not in classes, no textbooks and limited numbers of teachers," Marcia Harding, the Education Department's special education director, told a joint meeting of legislative Joint Performance Review subcommittees. She said conditions are worse now than four years ago, when the DHS' Division of Youth Services began employing private contractors to provide education services at Alexander, the state's biggest juvenile facility. (AP, February 21, 2002)

Two guards at the Alexander Youth Services Center were suspended Friday pending an investigation into their conduct during a fight among detainees. Three boys beat up a fourth Wednesday night in the bathroom of the facility's serious offender unit -- called the Juvenile Upward Mobility Program -- while two of the facility's staff stood by, according to police reports. Joe Quinn, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said the allegation that guards failed to intervene is "a tremendously serious situation." (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 2, 2002)

A state investigation has concluded that the private firm that runs the juvenile lockup at Alexander failed to supervise inmates at risk of suicide while the staff conducted a meeting. A 15-year-old boy had hanged himself on Sept. 15. That death came after a 16-year-old died last May in the same cell and by the same method, while a guard was supposed to have been watching him. On Oct. 19, staff at the facility run by Houston-based Cornell Co. had a two-hour meeting, and left the at-risk youths without someone watching, according to a report by the Division of Youth Services, which is an arm of the state Department of Human Services. "We are tremendously frustrated that we are once again discussing an issue like this with Cornell," DHS spokesman Joe Quinn said Tuesday. (AP, October 31, 2001)

It was shocking enough to read about another suicide at the Alexander Youth Center. This was the third suicide at a state youth center since 1997, and these deaths are getting no easier to explain. In this case, according to the report from the private company that now runs the center, the details are nightmarish: A frenzy of other inmates shouting "Do it. Do it." Guards who called to the inmate but didn't bother to look in on him even when he failed to respond. Scheduled checks that weren't made. A staff new to their jobs and unprepared for their duties. Any suicide in detention is awful, but this one was worse than we thought. It was worse than we could have imagined. If its own report is accurate, the private outfit contracted to operate the youth center -- Cornell Companies Inc. -- has painted a damning picture of its own stewardship. What does the Huckabee administration have to say about all this? "We still are extremely troubled by the suicide," says Joe Quinn, who's become an expert by now at making apologies for the state's ironically named Department of Human Services. Anybody would be troubled by what has happened. The mystifying part of poor Joe Quinn's statement was the next sentence: "But we still have confidence in Cornell." Why, for the love of Heaven? No wonder Joe Quinn draws big bucks. Imagine being called on to express confidence in the company that presided over this macabre mess. Here's one question not addressed in Cornell's otherwise admirably candid report and painful recitation of one terrible mistake after another: Why should the people of Arkansas have confidence in an administration that contracts with such an outfit to guard its troubled young people? Confession is good for the soul, but it shouldn't guarantee a state contract. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 4, 2001)

A report on the apparent suicide of a 15-year-old boy at a juvenile lockup says the youth was taunted by other inmates but no one looked in on the boy for more than an hour. Kenneth McClain II heard calls of "Do it, do it," and "Kill yourself, kill yourself," prior to his death on Sept. 16, according to a report by Cornell Companies Inc. The private for-profit firm had just taken over management of the facility. The report says McClain, who had threatened to take his own life, covered his cell windows. Guards called to him but none looked inside despite policy that requires checks ever 15 minutes, the report said. (AP, October 2, 2001)

If a fire breaks out at the state's Alexander Youth Services Center, most of those detained there can't count on sprinklers to douse the flames. That's because most of the cells at the lockup for troubled youths don't have sprinklers -- a situation that concerns both the private company hired to run the facility and state officials responsible for monitoring construction by state agencies. The four detention buildings at Alexander were built years ago -- nobody with the state is quite sure when -- well before the fire code required sprinklers in such facilities. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 22, 2001)

The father of a 15-year-old boy who was found hanged at a juvenile lockup said officials refused to let him visit his son on the day the youth died. Kenneth McClain Sr. said Wednesday that staff at the Alexander Youth Services Center told him on Sunday that his son had been moved to a serious offender unit after being involved in an altercation. The visit was denied. Monday, the father was told his son, Kenneth McClain Jr., hanged himself with a bed sheet. (AP, September 20, 2001)

Arkansas' experiment with privatization of an adult prison facility was a bust. Now the state is going to have another go at it with a juvenile facility. Responsibility for the snake pit known as the Alexander Unit is about to be turned over to the third private owner-operator of correctional facilities in the nation, Cornell Companies Inc. of Houston, Texas. Under the initial two-year contract, the state will pay Cornell about $13 million to do a better job, presumably, than the state could do at almost twice the cost. Although no sound estimate of the projected cost-savings exists, since the state will continue to pick up the costs for medical insurance associated with Alexander's young inmates, DHS officials anticipate a minor windfall that they say they'll use to build still more juvenile detention facilities. Sen. Kevin Smith of Stuttgart, who has been in the Legislature since 1993, is one of the skeptics. The thought that a for-profit company can do much better for much less must boggle his mind. (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 17, 2001)

Baker Community Correctional Facility, San Bernardino, California
November 18, 2009 Desert Dispatch
The Baker Community Correctional Facility is being closed due to a statewide decrease in low-security inmates. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is opting out of its contract to house inmates at the facility with Cornell Companies, Inc., according to CDCR spokeswoman Terry Thornton. The CDCR has a $4.9 million contract with Cornell to house inmates at the Baker facility and roughly half of that will be lost due to the closure. The contract was set to expire in June, but will end on December 26. The CDCR’s decision comes as the state has seen a drop of around 2,500 low-security inmates from 2008 to 2009, according to Thornton. The Baker facility itself is built to hold 262 inmates living in a dorm setting, but only housed 180 inmates at the end of October. “We’re seeing a demographic shift in the inmate population,” Thornton said. “We are seeing that the trend is moving away from a need for low-security facilities. The state needs more beds for higher-level offenders. It doesn’t make sense to operate the facilities at low housing levels.” The remaining inmates in Baker will be transferred to other facilities in the state before the closure, according to Thornton. The Baker facility currently employs 80 people, according to Cornell spokesman Charles Seigel. Seigel said the employees may face layoffs, but Cornell is looking at other uses for the facility that would allow them to keep their jobs.

October 26, 2009 AP
California officials say a drop in the number of minimum-security inmates is allowing them to end contracts with the companies that operate three private prisons. The move will save the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation about $15 million a year. The private prisons in Baker, Bakersfield and McFarland once housed a total of 822 inmates. Department officials said today they may seek new proposals to use the prisons for female inmates. About 2,500 fewer minimum-security inmates are in prison than a year ago. The department credits a new policy that diverts many parole violators who commit relatively minor offenses to community programs instead of sending them back to prison.

July 4, 2008 The Sun
Two private correctional officers were hospitalized Friday after a fracas at the correctional facility here triggered by unruly inmates, officials said. About 1 p.m., a correctional officer attempted to handcuff an inmate who was being disruptive. The inmate resisted, and several other inmates came to his aid, resulting in a scuffle between the inmates and at least two correctional officers, said Charles Seigel, spokesman for Cornell Corrections, the company that operates the minimum-security Baker Community Correctional Facility. A sheriff's deputy assigned to the Baker station was called in to assist, and patrolled the perimeter of the prison for about an hour until the situation simmered down, sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said. Two correctional officers were taken to a hospital in Las Vegas for medical care. The severity of their injuries was unclear, although one appeared to be in need of more care than the other, Seigel said. The officer who suffered the more serious injuries was reportedly doing OK. "He's awake. He clearly has some injuries that need to be treated, but he's awake and OK," Seigel said. A lockdown was implemented after the fracas and an inventory taken of all inmates. All were accounted for, Seigel said. The Baker correctional facility, in a dusty outpost between Barstow and the state line, is a minimum-security facility where inmates are typically transferred from other prisons to carry out the last 18 months of their sentences before being paroled, Seigel said.

March 29, 2007 Contra Costa Times
A race-related fight broke out at a minimum-security community prison, sending four inmates to the hospital with minor injuries, state prison officials said. The fight at the Baker Community Correctional Facility in San Bernardino County occurred at 7 p.m. Wednesday and lasted a few minutes, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections. Twelve black and white inmates started brawling in the yard of the all-male prison and guards rushed to break up the melee. About 80 inmates were in the yard at the time. Four inmates were taken to the hospital with minor bumps and bruises. The cause of the fight was under investigation. "They started to fight. They were told to stop and they did," Thornton said Thursday. The 12 inmates were later transferred to state prisons, she said. Baker, with 250 inmates, is operated by Cornell Companies Inc., which provide services to state governments on a contract basis. The facility is 155 miles east of Los Angeles.

A prison riot that left 17 inmates injured at a private correctional facility in the Mojave Desert may have been triggered by the arrival of a jailhouse "snitch" just hours before, a transfer that countered normal safety protocols, a prison official said Wednesday. A preliminary investigation suggests the brawl between white inmates and Latino inmates, broke out after the informant -- who was white -- was attacked in the prison yard, said Marvin Wiebe, a senior vice president of Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc., which operates the prison. The disturbance escalated into a riot because of a policy that bars guards at privately owned prisons from using force to quell a violent uprising, said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections. (Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2003)

Autopsy planned in inmate's death Sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating the death of an inmate Sunday at Baker Community Correctional Facility, coroner's officials said Monday. Jamie Bengtson, 22, of Baker was found dead in his bunk about 7 a.m., the San Bernardino County Coroner's Department reported. The death was determined to be suspicious and the San Bernardino County sheriff's homicide detail was called to investigate. (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, CA, August 28, 2001 )

Ben Reid Community CF, Houston, Texas
November 16, 2010 Houston Press
The man charged with killing a Good Samaritan during a purse-snatching is the third person to escape the same state-contracted halfway house in the last 20 months. Anthony Ray Ferrell had fled a "halfway house in the 10900 block of Beaumont Highway" in October, according to the Houston Chronicle. The home in that block is the Ben A. Reid Community Correctional Facility, from which sex offender Bruce McCain escaped in October 2010 and Richard Williamson Griffin Jr. escaped in February 2009. (McCain was arrested in the Rio Grande Valley three weeks after his escape). The home was operated by private prison group Cornell Companies, which was bought by its main competitor, the Florida-based GEO Group, last April. The facility "provides temporary housing, monitoring and transitional services for 500 minimum-security adult male offenders," according to Cornell Companies literature. Its "security measures include 24-hour custodial supervision, 12-foot perimeter fence, outdoor lighting, close circuit cameras, secure entrances and frequent census checks." Cornell Companies/GEO also operate Houston's Leidel Comprehensive Sanctions Center. In 2005, before GEO bought Cornell, a Leidel resident who got a day-pass for church and never bothered to return; he fled to Fort Worth, where he killed three men. Ferrell is accused of murdering Sam Irick at a Meyerland convenience store last week. Irick tried to intervene as Ferrell allegedly was robbing a customer.

September 9, 2004 Houston Chronicle
Drug use by employees at a privately run halfway house for paroled felons led to seven resignations this week after the facility's corporate owners called for staffwide drug tests. The departure of the seven workers — including administrators, security guards and caseworkers — was the latest problem at the Ben Reid Community Correctional Facility, which houses up to 500 felons in northeast Houston. The facility is operated by the Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. The seven employees who resigned did so after testing positive for drug use. In May, its director of employee training, Roy Thomas, 50, was arrested after a police officer, acting on a tip, searched his car and found 212 tablets of hydrocodone, an addictive painkiller, and 123 tablets of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, police said. Cornell fired the Ben Reid House's director and several high-level managers last year, citing poor management and violations of numerous company policies.

Big Spring Complex, Big Spring, Texas
November 9, 2010 NewsWest 9
An accidental shooting on Tuesday at the federal prison in Big Spring put an inmate in the hospital. The shooting happened right before noon at the Flight Line Prison, located at the airpark in Big Spring. According to medics, a Hispanic man was accidentally shot by a gun in the upper arm. The wound was not serious, but he was taken to Scenic Mountain Medical Center for a follow up. He was alert and conscious while being transported. We still don't know how the prisoner was shot. Details are limited at this time, but we've learned the shooting is under investigation. NewsWest 9 has contacted the Geo Group, which currently runs the prison, and they have not commented on the incident. NewsWest 9 will continue to follow this story and will bring you the very latest information when we get it.

September 14, 2008 Permian Basin 360
Questions remain unanswered concerning Friday night's prison riot in Big Spring. Fires reportedly broke out in several buildings at the Big Spring Correctional Center's FlightLine unit. Ambulances were seen leaving the scene. Cornell Companies currently operates the site. "All we do is establish a perimeter. That's all we do in these instances. They handle all the security inside the fence," said Sgt. Tony Everett of the Big Spring Police Department. The unit is specifically for prisoners who commit immigration violations. At this time, Cornell Companies has yet to respond to our calls.

September 13, 2008 NewsWest 9
Questions still remain unanswered after a prisoner fire and riot on Friday night. Facility officials are being very cautious of what information is being disclosed. Big Spring authorities rushed to the scene of a riot and fire from the Flightline Correctional Center near the Big Spring airport. The facility takes prisoners from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services, but since it is a privately owned facility the plan for police was to secure a perimeter. "The only reason we are here, our only purpose is if spills outside of the fenced facility," Sergeant Tony Everett, with the Big Spring Police Department, said. In total, about 15 police officers stayed outside managing traffic while Big Spring firefighters went inside. "My understating is that may be one or two buildings were on fire," Everett said. Several ambulances left the scene towards Scenic Mountain Medical Center where family members were advised not to disclose any information. But the mother of one of the injured employee was thankful to hear her son was doing better. "I feel a whole lot better, I feel relieved that he is O.K. Like I said earlier, I just left it in the hands of God and he is the one who pulled me through," Inez Heins, Mother of a facility Employee, said. NewsWest 9 also received a couple of calls from relatives who say that seven facility staff were injured and were treated for minor injuries. According to officials from the correctional center the riot never posed danger to the public.

September 13, 2008 KWES TV
State and local authorities have responded to a private prison near the airport in Big Spring after an apparent riot. Big Spring Police responded to the riot around 9:00p.m. Friday night, and quickly set up a perimeter around the prison. There have unconfirmed reports of injuries, but a mother of an injured guard tells NewsWest 9 that her son did sustain injuries to the face. We were also told that three ambulances also left the prison after the riot, which is run by Cornell Companies. Viewers also reported seeing smoke coming from the prison, but our crew did not see any smoke when they arrived to the scene. Sgt. Tony Everett with the Big Spring Police Department did confirm that a fire was started in the prison but it is now under control. Authorities tell NewsWest 9 that the situation has calmed down for the night. The prison handles INS cases for the federal government. There have been no reports of inmates escaping the prison at this time.

September 12, 2008 KOSA CBS 7
Emergency officials are currently responding to a fire at the Flightline Prison located at the Big Spring airport. CBS 7 News has confirmed that a riot broke out at the prison about 9:00 p.m. Several ambulances were seen leaving the prison. Fire crews confirm there are six to eight people who were injured and taken to the hospital. No word yet on the severity of the injuries. According to Big Spring Police spokesperson Tony Everett, the riot is under control and Big Spring police have set up a perimeter around the facility. CBS 7's Greg Sherman was the first reporter on the scene. He says thick black smoke was seen coming from the prison. The Flightline unit handles low-risk inmates who are primarily incarcerated for immigration violations.

August 16, 2005 AP
Investigators want to know what started an inmate disturbance at a privately run prison in West Texas that left five workers hurt. The assaults happened at the Flightline Unit of the Big Spring Correctional Center. Center spokeswoman Janice Bishop says one staffer required hospital treatment, while the other four suffered minor injuries. Bishop says the unit was slightly damaged in Saturday night's incident. No inmates were injured. Bishop today declined to release further information about the assaults. Big Spring police say the disturbance was contained inside the prison. Texas troopers and the Howard County sheriff's department also responded to the center run by the Houston-based Cornell Companies.

A Cornell Corrections inmate escaped over a fence late Sunday night but his freedom was short lived. The inmate, 29-year-old Ernesto Soto-Olivarez climbed over the fence at the Airpark unit around 9:30 p.m. Sunday and was spotted by correctional officers who took after him on foot. He lost the officers in the darkness. (Big Spring Herald, March 13, 2001)

Bernalillo County Detention Center, Bernalillo, New Mexico
April 8, 2009 KRQE
A 13-year-old lawsuit over jail conditions that has already cost Bernalillo County taxpayers millions of dollars may have to start over, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Martha Vasquez has thrown out a 2005 settlement in the case after lawyers for inmates claimed the county misled them. Prisoners sued Bernalillo County in 1995 over conditions at the jail, which at that time was located in downtown Albuquerque at 415 Roma NW. The prisoners cited inhumane conditions which included overcrowding and lack of access to health and psychiatric care. In 2005, two years after the Metropolitan Detention Center opened west of Albuquerque, the prisoners and the county negotiated a settlement. That deal required the county to meet 14 criteria including controlling overcrowding and providing better mental health and psychiatric care. The county reported it has since met 13 of those criteria leaving only psychiatric care still to work out. In a court filing the inmates' attorneys claimed they recently became aware that the county still plays a major role in the former downtown jail which it still owns. That jail now houses federal prisons through a contract with Cornell Corrections, a private company. Under that contract Cornell must provide monthly reports on jail operations to the county which include population numbers, inmate grievances and disciplinary action taken against inmates and staff. In her new ruling the judge ordered the county to provide the inmates' attorneys access to the downtown lockup. County Manager Thaddeus Lucero said the county objected at the hearing and will fight the ruling.

December 26, 2005 Albuquerque Journal
Bernalillo County still doesn't have a valid contract with the private company running the Downtown jail- even though it opened 11/2 years ago. New Mexico law requires that contracts with private jail companies be approved by the state Attorney General's Office before taking effect. The office has warned Bernalillo County, in a series of letters this year and last, that it hasn't approved the contract yet and still has a few concerns. For one, state lawyers say, the contract needs to address what would happen if the county must send local inmates to the Downtown jail. Right now, that lockup handles only federal and state inmates and is operated by Houston-based Cornell Companies. County inmates are housed at a new jail on the West Mesa, where the skyrocketing population has caused overcrowded conditions. The county's intention is to create a separate agreement if it ever needs to send local inmates Downtown, but that's "not acceptable," Assistant Attorney General Zachary Shandler told the county in a letter last year. "This is the time to work out the terms of the Management Agreement," Shandler said. The state had a host of other concerns, such as making it clear in the contract that the county has "ultimate say" over the jail, not Cornell. Shandler said his last letter to the county was in February and that he hadn't received a formal response. Shandler wouldn't discuss what action the state might take if Bernalillo County never gets the contract approved. Meanwhile, the county could face legal "exposure" because of the lack of approval, he said. "The problem generally is that if something went wrong contractually with their partner or some situation occurred in the inmate population, they would not have an effective contract ... that protects the state from certain liabilities," Shandler said.

October 15, 2003
The county refused to put the jail lease out to bid. Instead, it negotiated a five-year deal after Cornell responded to a request for information.  Although Gov. Bill Richardson expressed reservations about the no-bid process, Board of Finance Director Mark Valdes said the board did not have the authority to direct Bernalillo County to put the lease out for competitive bid.  He cited changes made in state procurement law during the last legislative session.  "The board does not have the authority to not approve the lease and direct the county to do competitive bids," Valdes said.  Board members did not question the role of Cornell's hired consultants, Albuquerque attorney Edmund "Joe" Lang and former Democratic Party National Committeeman Art Trujillo.  The two originally were hired to help Cornell get the lease on the Downtown jail. Lang was to be paid $2 a day per inmate and Trujillo 25 cents a day per inmate.  They potentially stood to make more than $2 million off the deal combined.  Cornell says those agreements are no longer in effect. The company says Lang's contract is now "dramatically different" and that Trujillo is no longer working on the project.  (ABQ Journal)

October 13, 2003
A private jail operator that has been awarded a controversial no-bid contract to operate the old Bernalillo County Detention Center at one point agreed to pay two politically connected consultants big dollars to help secure the deal.  Former state Sen. Edmund "Joe" Lang and former Santa Fe Mayor and Democratic Party figure Art Trujillo had the potential to receive nearly $2.5 million combined from Cornell Companies over a five-year period— an amount that would hinge on how many inmates were housed in the jail.  Cornell says the agreements are no longer in effect.  Lang, a Corrales Democrat and former Sandoval County commissioner, stood to earn the biggest payday.  Cornell, in a memorandum of understanding dated April 15, 2002, agreed to pay Lang $2 a day per inmate for the "consulting work that you will perform in conjunction with Cornell's attempt to lease or purchase ... the Bernalillo County Jail (Downtown Jail facility)."  Cornell had a similar agreement with Trujillo, a former Bernalillo County Democratic Party chairman who at the time was conducting what turned out to be a successful campaign for his party's nomination for state Land Commissioner.  Trujillo, however, was only to be paid 25 cents a day per inmate— a potential payout of about $273,000 over five years.  Trujillo has a history of friction with County Commission Chairman Tom Rutherford. Lang and Rutherford are longtime friends and colleagues.  The memorandums to both Lang and Trujillo said payments would commence only after the "complete execution" of a valid contract between Cornell and the county. Payments would begin "after the first full quarter of a fully executed contract and be issued quarterly thereafter for the original term of the contract."  Cornell estimated the capacity of the jail at 540 inmates after renovation. The county's estimate is about 600 inmates. Assuming the jail was full, that would translate into a potential fee of $1,080 to $1,200 a day for five years with a possible five-year renewal.  Five years of operation with 600 inmates would have meant a payment in excess of $2.1 million to Lang. Those estimates are based on a jail operating at full capacity, 365 days a year.  Paul Doucette, Cornell vice president for development and public affairs, said in a telephone interview Friday that both documents are out of date.  "Neither is in effect today," he said.  Doucette said Cornell's current agreement with Lang is "dramatically different" than the one outlined in the April 2002 memorandum.  Doucette would not, however, discuss specifics.  "We consider the details of that agreement proprietary," Doucette said. "We are still in a very competitive situation on this project, as the sending of these documents to the Journal illustrates. Someone is trying to manipulate the process."  He said Lang is a "very valuable consultant who knows New Mexico very well."  Doucette said, "We are no longer working with Art Trujillo on this project."  Trujillo believes his original contract with Cornell is still valid but says he has been cut out of any negotiations between Cornell and the county.  The contracts between Cornell and the consultants have not been discussed publicly in the talks leading up to county approval of the pact with Cornell.  Cornell's contract with Bernalillo County to operate the jail still faces the hurdle of approval by the state Board of Finance, which balked at approving the pact earlier this month.  Members of the Board of Finance, which is chaired by Gov. Bill Richardson, questioned how they could be sure the county was getting the best deal, since the contract never went out to bid.  The board asked for more information and is scheduled to take up the contract again on Tuesday.  Cornell negotiated a five-year lease with the county to renovate and house inmates at the now-vacant jail. The negotiations, including talks between Lang and then-County Manager Juan Vigil, were based on Cornell's reply to a Request for Information sent to private jail contractors. Under the contract approved on a 4-1 vote by the county commission in January, Cornell would pay the county about $1 million a year the first two years of operations with a gradual increase over the next three years.  The company originally offered to pay the county $5 a day per inmate with a ceiling of $1 million a year. In addition, Cornell would spend roughly $5 million to renovate the old jail Downtown.  The county sent out the request for information in 2001. It never issued a formal request for proposals that would state what the county wanted and how the proposals would be judged.  Cornell's competitors and one county commissioner criticized that decision.  All of the county commissioners contacted by the Journal said they were unaware of the terms of the consulting contracts.  "I wouldn't know about that," Rutherford said. "I do know that he (Lang) did a lot of work on this."  Commissioner Steve Gallegos said, "Wow. I've never been a lobbyist, so I don't know what they receive. I don't know if that's high. It doesn't sound right to me."  Commissioner Michael Brasher, who has been critical of the process and was the sole vote against the lease for Cornell, questioned the arrangement.  "I think we need to have full disclosure of situations like this. The entire deal has been very curious."  Corporate spokesmen from Wackenhut Corrections Corporation and Corrections Corporation of America declined comment for this story.  Commissioner Alan Armijo said he would like to see the (Cornell-Lang) agreement.  "Without looking at it and knowing all the details, I don't know if it bothers me or not ...," he said.  Commissioner Tim Cummins said, "Sounds like he's (Lang) a partner. Whatever arrangement they do is none of my business."  Consultant agreements Doucette, Cornell's vice president for development and public affairs, confirmed that Lang currently has a contract with Cornell and that Cornell does enter into contingency agreements like the one obtained by the Journal.  "Like everything else, we factored it into our costs," Doucette said. "Our proposal to lease and remodel the jail provides an outstanding value to the county."  But he would not discuss specifics of the consultant agreements.  Lang in a telephone interview said he wouldn't comment on his contract, also saying that it was "proprietary."  Doucette confirmed that Trujillo did work for Cornell on the jail contract early in the process, although Lang said he was unaware of Trujillo's involvement in the lease.  The body of the memos from Cornell to Lang and Trujillo are almost identical except for the amount to be paid. They have the same date and are signed by the same Cornell official.  The memoranda state that they are good for six months and could be renewed.  In a telephone interview, Trujillo said his contract is still valid, but no one the Journal interviewed in county government recalled Trujillo being involved.  "I told them (Cornell) how to get this project done ... but Lang has cut me off totally," Trujillo said.  Trujillo was defeated in November by Republican Patrick Lyons in the Land Commissioner race.  Lang is registered as a legislative lobbyist for Cornell and said that work is separate from his work on the county jail lease. State law prohibits legislative lobbyists from working on a contingency fee like the one outlined in the memorandum of understanding.  "I haven't talked to any legislators on Cornell's behalf," he said.  There is no state prohibition on contingency fees for lobbying local governments on jails.  Friendship is separate Lang and Rutherford acknowledge a longtime friendship.  They attended high school together and served in the state Senate at the same time. They are both lobbyists and sometimes work for the same clients.  Both said their friendship had nothing to do with the Downtown jail lease.  Rutherford said he is also friends with the lobbyists who represent Cornell's competitors— Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut. Those two companies asked the commission to put out a request for proposals.  There is a small group of people who do lobbying, and they all know one another. I sat on the Senate committee that approved Ed Mahr (lobbyist for Corrections Corporation of America) as Corrections secretary back in the 1970s. I served in the Senate and on the commission with Les Houston (lobbyist for Wackenhut Inc.) for years," Rutherford said.  "We're all friends," Lang said of his competing lobbyists.  "We (Cornell) gave the only responsive price which the county asked for in its request," Lang said. "Nobody has ever said they could beat our price."  Both men said the commissioner who pushed the jail privatization was Steve Gallegos, hoping to use the money generated by the lease to fund a psychiatric unit at the $90 million Metropolitan Detention Center on the West Side.  "This is simply a mechanism to get the psychiatric unit built at the new jail," Lang said.  That sentiment was echoed by Rutherford and Cummins, who said the building was essentially useless sitting empty.  Court and police officials have suggested using part of the facility as a Downtown holding and booking facility— an idea rejected by the county.  Gallegos said he is not a proponent of privatizing jails but believes the county had to come up with some way to build a psychiatric unit at the new jail.  "I pushed it as a public facility, and I don't believe in privately run jails," Gallegos said. "It was really out of frustration that I said let's try the private sector."  "I want that psych unit built," Gallegos said. "I know that inmates with mental health problems are abused in jail. I've had personal experience with family members with mental health problems and I know how important this unit is."  "What it really came down to was Cornell put numbers up and the others didn't," Gallegos said. "Why didn't the others? Are they serious or not?  "Later, the other guys come back and say we're playing an unfair game. But I think Cornell played it straight with us."  Gallegos said, "The problem in this state is that everyone's connected. Les Houston worked for Wackenhut. I know Ed Mahr with CCA very well. He's a friend. I've known Tom Rutherford for years and years. I don't know Joe Lang that well." How it all started  The county put out its request for information on renovating and privatizing the Downtown jail in October 2001.  At that time, commissioners expected the jail to be empty by the following summer when the new West Side jail was supposed to open. The idea was criticized by the union representing officers at the jail and seemed to die.  In January 2002, Gallegos began pushing the idea of the county running the Downtown jail as a facility to hold federal inmates. Any profits would go to building a psychiatric unit at the new jail.  Negotiations with the U.S. Marshals Service hit a stumbling block when federal officials said they could not guarantee a fixed number of inmates because that would violate federal policy. In April 2002, Cornell inked separate memorandums of understanding with Lang and Trujillo to act as consultants on securing a lease or purchase of the Downtown jail.  Talks between the county and the Marshals Service for federal funds to renovate the old jail broke down when the county failed to meet a key deadline for filing paperwork for federal renovation funds.  In the fall of 2002, the commission resurrected its discussion of a private jail operation.  The county had received general letters of interest from Wackenhut and Corrections Corporation of America.  Cornell was more specific. It gave the county a quote of $5 a day per inmate, with a ceiling of $1 million a year.  In January 2003, County Attorney Tito Chavez told commissioners they could negotiate a lease with Cornell because of its response. He advised that the county was not required to put out a Request for Proposals— citing a specific state law that allows local governments to negotiate jail agreements based on a simple request for information.  At the end of November 2002, the commission authorized Vigil to negotiate with Cornell.  The decision was unanimous. Then-Commissioner Les Houston, whose term expired in December, urged the county to put out a Request for Proposals but recused himself from voting because he represented Wackenhut.  "We felt there was a time crunch which in hindsight, because of the delay in opening the new jail, wasn't valid," said Cummins, who was chairman at the time.  "But at the time there was some feeling of urgency."  In January 2003, the commission approved a lease with Cornell for the old jail. The lease was amended in June 2003, when Cornell agreed to pay for the renovations.  There have been some technical changes in the lease after it was reviewed by the Board of Finance. Board members have asked the county for figures from similar types of jail deals.  "Comparisons from jail to jail are difficult," Brasher said. "That's the argument for going out to a Request for Proposals. That's how you find out what the value of that jail Downtown really is."  Rutherford said, "The Board of Finance is doing their duty to review this carefully."  (ABQ Journal)

June 11, 2003
Bernalillo County commissioners on Tuesday approved plans for a private company to renovate the Downtown jail and house federal inmates there. The commission voted 4-1 in favor of revising its lease agreement with Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. The earlier agreement had called for the federal government to pay for renovations. Under the new proposal, Cornell would pay for the renovations, which are expected to cost $5 million. The proposal still must go before the state Board of Finance. The approval came despite objections by Corrections Corporation of America, which said the county should allow other companies to compete for the jail. "Why not open it up and get the best deal you can?" asked Frank C. Salazar, an attorney for CCA.  (ABQ Journal)

June 11, 2003
When Bernalillo County signed a contract with Cornell Cos. in January to lease the City-County Jail building, it was riding on the hope the federal government would come up with a big chunk of the nearly $4 million needed to renovate the lockup.  That hope was a dim one, said the head of the U.S. Marshal's Service in Albuquerque.  The county was counting on getting a Marshal's Service grant to repair the Downtown jail and meet a major condition of its contract with Cornell, a private corrections company, county Public Safety Director John Dantis said Thursday.  However, the county missed its chance to receive a $3 million grant when the money was made available last year, said Gordon Eden, U.S. marshal for New Mexico.  "There is no extra money now," he said. "It could be several years until the Marshal's Service will be able to provide them with money for renovations."  Each year the Marshal's Service allocates grants to government agencies to upgrade jails to meet the agency's standards. Cornell would be contracting with government agencies to house federal prisoners in the jail.  The grant appropriation has been steeply declining over the past three years, Eden said. The amount available nationwide was $35 million in fiscal year 2001, $20 million in 2002 and $5 million in 2003, he said.  Now, the county and Cornell are in negotiations to figure out who will pay for the jail repairs.  A Cornell spokesman said the Houston company is willing to pay for the renovation but declined to comment on what it expects in return.  In June 2002, the county was made aware it would not receive the $3 million Marshal's Service grant because it had missed a May deadline to turn in paperwork, Eden said.  Dantis said the county had asked for an extension before the deadline in order for the County Commission to approve grant changes made by the Marshal's Service, but it was denied.  "When the Marshal's Service deemed the county unresponsive, they allocated that money to other government agencies who needed the money," Eden said.  The county contract with Cornell in January states the county would "use its best efforts" to secure a Marshal's Service grant.  "How can you obligate federal funds you don't have?" Eden said Thursday in reference to the contract.  County officials said at that time they were planning to apply for the Marshal's Service grant again.  In April, the county asked the Marshal's Service for funding, but it is not depending on that money, Dantis said.  "We're looking at a number of options to fund the renovations," he said. Under the contract, the county is responsible for electrical, plumbing, security and roof repairs and several other categories of renovations to the building.  The county has not looked into paying for the repairs using its own money, Dantis said, and referred inquiries to county financial officials.  County Manager Juan Vigil was out of town Thursday, a spokeswoman for the county said, and could not be reached for comment.  Under the terms of the contract, Cornell would pay $888,888 in rent during the first two years of the lease, with rent increasing to $1.2 million in the third year.  The county planned to use the revenue from the Cornell lease to add a mental health facility to the new Metropolitan Detention Center, a 2,100-bed facility on the West Side that is now in the process of being filled with inmates from the county's three jails.  Repairs to the Downtown jail cannot begin until the county moves all its inmates to the new lockup. The $86 million building became ready for occupancy two weeks ago, a year behind schedule.  Cornell spokesman David Monroe said his company needs to wait until the old jail is vacant and the renovations are complete before it can house its inmates. The company doesn't have a scheduled move-in date for inmates, he said.  "The county has taken a bit longer than we anticipated," Monroe said. "We want to do it as soon as possible but with the appropriate parameters."  Cornell already has signed contracts with government agencies to house inmates in the Albuquerque jail, Monroe said. He declined to give any details on those contracts.  Cornell's system includes about 70 detention facilities nationwide.  County Commissioner Michael Brasher said the county might have to solicit companies that want to use the Downtown jail and could get it up and running.  "If Cornell can't come up with the money," he said, "Maybe they (county officials) can find someone who can pay for the renovations."  (Albuquerque Journal)

January 15, 2003
Bernalillo County commissioners approved a proposal to rent the Downtown jail to a private corrections company Tuesday — despite a potential snag over funding for renovations.  Both the county and Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. can terminate the lease agreement if funding for the jail renovations doesn't come through.  As part of the proposal, federal inmates could end up at the Downtown jail. Commissioners directed county officials to try to work out agreements with the U.S. Marshals Service.  Commission Chairman Tom Rutherford said the lease is important because it will put the Downtown jail to "beneficial use" after inmates there are moved to the new Metropolitan Detention Center. The moving date is uncertain.  But Gorden Eden, U.S. marshal for the district of New Mexico, told the commission that federal money for the jail renovations isn't available now. He said he would work with the county to get funding but couldn't promise the money for renovations.  (ABQ Journal)

January 14, 2003
Two former city councilors set to join the County Commission today will have a chance to make a historic decision — whether to rent the Downtown jail to a private corrections company.  The proposed lease agreement would make the jail — for the first time — a privately run detention center.  As part of the proposal, the county would try to work out an agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal inmates there.  There are no plans to house city and county inmates there. The Downtown jail would be vacant after local inmates are moved to a new lockup on the West Mesa.  Bernalillo County didn't seek formal bids from companies interested in the project. Instead, officials began negotiating with Cornell after issuing a request-for-information.  (ABQ Journal)

November 27, 2002
Bernalillo County commissioners on Tuesday authorized further negotiations with a private company interested in running the Downtown jail as a holding center for federal inmates.  The commission's 4-0 vote allows County Manager Juan Vigil to continue negotiating a lease agreement with Cornell Companies Inc.  The county also will try to work out an agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service.  Anthony Marquez, president of the jail employees' union, spoke against bringing in a private company.  The country would have more oversight if it hired its own employees to run the Downtown jail, he said.  Private companies "are there to make a buck," Marquez said.  (ABQ journal)

October 9, 2001
Bernalillo County commissioners today are scheduled to consider taking the first step toward transforming the Downtown jail into a holding center for federal inmates.  The proposal, sponsored by Commission Chairman Steve Gallegos, would authorize the county to submit an application to the U.S. Marshals Service to launch the program and remodel the jail to meet federal standards.  Commissioner Les Houston said he is "philosophically opposed" to having Bernalillo County run a federal holding center. The county soon will be busy enough operating the 2,100-bed Metropolitan Detention Center under construction on the West Side, he said.  Houston suggests the county either lease the old jail or sell it.  "If we are going to operate a jail for profit ... then it should be operated by professionals, such as one of the national private operators," Houston said.  But Gallegos, who opposes having a private company run the holding center, said Houston should excuse himself from discussion of the application. Houston is a registered lobbyist for Wackenhut Corrections Corporation.  (Albuquerque Journal)

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.

California Legislature
January 15, 2006 Sacramento Bee
Driven by a rising inmate population, prison spending in California is scheduled to exceed $8 billion this year. But the real intrigue in the state's 2006-07 corrections budget is in what it's proposing for the near- and long-term future. Spelled out in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's summary on the spending plan is a proposal "to pursue authority to secure additional inmate capacity through contracts with other providers." The wording is fleshed out in the actual budget bill, which calls for a virtual doubling in the number of private prison beds in California, from the current 8,500 to an estimated 17,000 over the next two years. "I think this proposal means that the governor is taking a pretty courageous stand for good public policy," said Mark Nobili, a lobbyist for Cornell Companies, a private prison firm that currently operates two correctional facilities on contract with the state and is likely take up the administration's invitation to bid this year on some of the upcoming contracts. CCPOA President Mike Jimenez said it is "a pipe dream" for the state to think it can get by building only two new prisons over the next ten years. He said Schwarzenegger's jail-and-private prisons proposals are "payback to us" for taking him on during the special election last year. "Clearly this is a shot back at us for opposing him as well as his reforms that never materialized," Jimenez said.

Children's Advocacy Center, Erie, Pennsylvania
June 12, 2009 Erie Times-News
A Cornell Abraxas mental-health aide was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old resident at the center. Police said the girl, now 15, told a counselor at the Children's Advocacy Center that Kito Dixon, 29, made inappropriate comments to her and touched her breast April 11 as she was getting ready for bed at the residential rehabilitation center for troubled juveniles, at 429 W. Sixth St. Police said a security video from the hallway outside the girl's room showed Dixon standing at her doorway for several minutes. It also showed him entering the room but does not show what happened inside, according to a criminal complaint. The video was at the same time as when the girl said the incident occurred. Dixon was charged Tuesday with institutional sexual assault, indecent assault and corruption of minors. He has been released from the Erie County Prison on $7,500 bond. Messages left at Cornell Abraxas were not returned Thursday.

Cordova Center, Anchorage, Alaska
November 21, 2008 AP
A 21-year-old Anchorage man has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he escaped from Cornell Corrections of Alaska. Federal prosecutors say Jedediah Smith remains at-large since his Nov. 1 escape. Smith was first indicted last month on charges of a felon being in possession of a firearm. He was assigned to Cornell Corrections Oct. 14 by a federal magistrate judge. Prosecutors say Smith faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or both, if convicted.

November 10, 2004 KTUU
A shooting in an Airport Heights apartment building Tuesday night left one man dead, and his brother in custody. It was about 9:30 p.m. when police received a 911 call from a woman. Officers responded to an Airport Heights apartment complex on Columbine Court near DeBarr Road and found a man mortally wounded. The individuals turned out to be brothers. Police say 30-year-old Ralph Landry was shot at least once in the upper torso. He was rushed to Alaska Regional Hospital, where he died a short time later during surgery. Police say it was Landry's younger brother who pulled the trigger. “Through the investigation, we identified Calvin Landry, who's about 23 years old, as a suspect in the homicide,” said Lt. Kris Miller. Police actually had been looking for Calvin Landry long before Tuesday’s shooting. “He has an outstanding warrant for escape, basically walking away from a halfway house,” Miller said. Last July, Landry walked away from the Cordova Center, where he was serving out a sentence for drunken driving and theft. Now it appears he is in more serious trouble.

The man who managed an Anchorage halfway house is accused of sexually assaulting an inmate.  Charles Rubin, 41, was arrested last night at his home on Elmendorf Air Force Base. Rubin was the security manager at Cordova Center until last May, when, according to police, he lured a 23-year-old woman into an office and coerced her into having sex.  Police say the woman believed she would be sent back to Hiland Mountain Correctional Center if she resisted Rubin's advances.  The Cornell Company, a private firm that manages the Cordova Center, says it put Rubin on administrative leave the day after the assault was reported. It says Rubin was fired a month later.  (KTUU.com, August 4, 2004)

Cornell-Abraxas Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania
April 21, 2010 Erie Times-News
A former Cornell-Abraxas mental-health aide was sentenced this morning in Erie County Court to serve six to 20 months in the Erie County Prison for having indecent contact with a 14-year-old resident at the center. Kito Dixon, 30, must also serve also serve six years probation and pay court costs, Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr. said. The sentence in Erie County Court came after Dixon pleaded no contest in March to charges that he had indecent contact with a female resident at the center in April 2009, and, in a separate case, pleaded no contest to charges that he drove his car into a yard toward three people on June 12.

March 6, 2010 Erie Times-News
A former Cornell Abraxas mental-health aide pleaded no contest Friday in Erie County Court to charges that he had indecent contact with a 14-year-old resident at the center. Kito Dixon, 30, did not contest counts of indecent assault and corruption of minors. In exchange for his plea, the prosecution dropped a third-degree felony charge of institutional sexual assault. Cornell Abraxas is a licensed residential facility for children and youth located at 429 W. Sixth St. As a part of the plea, Dixon agreed to undergo an assessment by the Erie County Adult Probation sexual offender group. In a separate case, he also pleaded no contest to three counts of simple assault. He admitted he drove his car into a yard toward three people on June 12. The charges together carry a maximum possible penalty of up to 15 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. Erie County Judge John Garhart set sentencing for April 21. Police said a girl, now 15, told a counselor at the Children's Advocacy Center that Dixon made inappropriate comments to her and touched her breast April 11 as she was getting ready for bed at the residential rehabilitation center for troubled juveniles. Police said a security video from the hallway outside the girl's room showed Dixon standing at her doorway for several minutes. It also showed him entering the room but does not show what happened inside, according to a criminal complaint. The video was at the same time as when the girl said the incident occurred.

Cornell-Abraxas, Howe Township, Pennsylvania
July 7, 2008 Erie Times-News
Four 18-year-olds were jailed over the weekend, charged with causing a riot at a juvenile detention facility in Forest County. State police at Tionesta, along with units from Ridgway, Kane and Clarion, were called to the Cornell Abraxas facility in Howe Township on Saturday at about 10:30 p.m. Police said one juvenile and three staff members were assaulted, although none was seriously hurt. Three buildings were damaged and windows, desks, chairs and other furniture were vandalized, with damage totaling about $5,000, according to police. Derek Barnes, Richard Gale, Rasheed M. Seward, all of Philadelphia, and Vernon L. High, of Chester, were each charged with riot, institutional vandalism, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and corruption of minors, according to police. Police said the four 18-year-olds incited additional juveniles to participate in the riot. The four were arraigned and placed in Warren County Jail with bail set at $25,000 each.

June 11, 2006 The Derrick
A boy escaped from the Cornell Abraxas facility Sunday morning but was captured several hours later, said state police in Tionesta. The 17-year-old youth fled into nearby woods after leaving the juvenile drug and alcohol treatment facility in Howe Township, Forest County, police said. He was found Sunday morning by staff members not far from the facility at 59 Blue Jay Road, police said.

Cornell-Abraxas, Quincy Township, Pennsylvania
November 1, 2004 Public Opinion
A 17-year-old boy allegedly assaulted three Cornell Abraxas staff members at 9 p.m. Thursday at the treatment center in Quincy Township. The boy allegedly punched, kicked and head-butted Leslie Fitch, 27, Chambersburg, David Black, 46, Chambersburg, and Robert Reed, 31, Gettysburg, after they attempted to restrain him, according to police. All three staff members suffered minor injuries, police said.

Cornell Community Corrections Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
June 16, 2008 Deseret News
A federal judge has ordered the dismissal of a sexual misconduct charge against a former employee of a contracted federal halfway house, who was accused of having an affair with an inmate, becoming pregnant. In a ruling issued last Friday, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said federal prosecutors had insufficient evidence to show that Ashley Ford committed sexual misconduct when she had sexual relations with an inmate, because the sexual relations took place outside of the halfway house and while Ford was off duty. According to court documents, Ford was hired at the Cornell Community Corrections Center in Salt Lake City as a staff monitor in November 2006. The facility houses inmates who can leave the facility during the day to work and then return in the evening to sleep. About a month before she was hired, Ford met inmate Nathan Coccimiglio at a party and was later put in a supervisory position over Coccimiglio at CCC. Records also state that while working at CCC, Ford and Coccimiglio became sexually involved, but that the couple met at Ford's apartment while Coccimiglio was on work release and she was off duty. The record also states Ford became pregnant at the time. Ford argued that she did not have custodial, supervisory or disciplinary authority over Coccimiglio when they were engaged in intimate relations. "There is no evidence that Ms. Ford's conduct occurred 'in' the Cornell facility," Kimball wrote. While the court recognized that there were a variety of reasons to forbid a corrections officer from engaging in sexual conduct with someone in custody, the federal law simply does not prohibit the conduct which took place in Ford's apartment, Kimball added. Ford is one of three CCC employees who have been charged in the past year with alleged misconduct. Two male employees, William Lynn Appawora and Larry Lee Jensen, were both charged with misconduct and sentenced to terms in federal prison. Both men admitted to altering urine drug tests for inmates at the 99-bed facility. Jensen admitted to using his own urine for an inmate's test in exchange for $40. He would also provide advance notice of drug tests and outside visits in exchange for sexual favors from inmates. Appawora was sentenced to 21 months in prison. Jensen was sentenced to 27 months but appealed his sentence. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Jensen's claims and had upheld his sentence as appropriate.

September 20, 2007 Salt Lake City Tribune
The inmates at a halfway house in Salt Lake County knew that a sexual favor or a few dollars slipped to monitor Larry Lee Jensen could allow them to break the rules or keep them out of trouble if they had been drinking or using drugs. For $50, four inmates of Cornell Community Corrections Center were allowed to leave the facility one night to have sex, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stated. The Denver-based court also said another inmate got notice from Jensen of urinalysis test dates in exchange for naked pictures of her boyfriend. And those actions, along with numerous other incidents, supported an enhanced prison term of 27 months, the 10th Circuit said Tuesday in upholding Jensen's sentence for altering a record in a federal investigation. The punishment was imposed in April by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene, who determined that Jensen had enabled numerous residents at the halfway house to violate the institution's rules. Greene wrote that Jensen's willingness to give advance notice of urinalysis dates or provide them with his own urine samples "became known to every inmate in the place." Jensen, 38, had argued that his offense of falsifying a record and his other conduct did not call for the enhancement under federal sentencing guidelines. However, the 10th Circuit said Greene's "uncontroverted" finding of "extreme and repetitive conduct" showed that Jensen's crime was far from an isolated occurrence and upheld the enhancement. Cornell Community Corrections is a private company that contracts with the government to house inmates after their release from federal prisons. In 2006, the FBI began investigating allegations of illegal activities by employees in Salt Lake County. According to the 10th Circuit, Jensen admitted taking $40 on April 19, 2006, to urinate into a specimen cup and falsely writing in official paperwork that the inmate had provided the sample in his presence. The appeals court decision said Jensen also admitted in an interview with FBI agents to: * Allowing a male resident, in exchange for a sexual favor, to visit a female resident in violation of center rules. * Providing two residents with advance notice of pending urine submission dates in exchange for the pair agreeing to be photographed in the nude. * Failing to record positive breath tests for certain residents. * Allowing two male residents and two female residents, for $50, to leave the facility during the night so they could have sex. Under a plea deal, Jensen pleaded guilty to one count of falsification of a record in a federal investigation. Another monitor, William Lynn Appawora, admitted to damaging the seal on a urinalysis sample in exchange for $40 so it would not be tested. He was sentenced to 21 months behind bars and did not appeal.

April 6, 2007 Salt Lake City Tribune
A former worker at Cornell Community Corrections Center, a halfway house in Utah for federal inmates, has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for tampering with a urine-test record. Larry Lee Jensen, 38, admitted that he urinated into a specimen cup for a center resident and filled out paperwork saying he had witnessed the inmate providing the sample. The sentence was imposed March 28 by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene.

September 11, 2006 Deseret News
Two employees of a contract federal halfway house have been indicted in the destruction and falsification of urine records of federal inmates. According to federal prosecutors, Lynn Appawora, 37, and Larry Lee Jensen, 38, face up to 20 years in federal prison for destruction, alteration or falsification of a record in a federal investigation. Specifically, federal prosecutors say while the two worked as monitors for the Cornell Community Corrections Center in Salt Lake City they altered drug urine records for federal inmates. The center contracts with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

September 6, 2006 Salt Lake Tribune
An investigation into possible corruption at a Salt Lake City corrections center for federal inmates has resulted in an indictment against two employees there. William Lynn Appawora, 37, and Larry Lee Jensen, both of Salt Lake City, were indicted Friday on one count each of destruction, alteration or falsification of a record in a federal investigation. The two, who are accused of tampering with records of urine tests, face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, if convicted. The probe targeted Cornell Community Corrections Center, a private corporation that contracts to house inmates after they are released from federal prisons outside of Utah. The center also provides services for prisoners who are on federal probation or who have been released from custody pending trial on federal charges. The investigation, which began several months ago, is ongoing, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Cornell Companies, (bought byGEO Group) Houston, Texas
How The Recession Hurts Private Prisons Nancy Cook, Newsweek June 30, 2010

October 25, 2011 AP
The management company that formerly ran a Rhode Island prison is suing the facility's governing body, saying it is owed more than $671,000, according to a complaint filed in federal court. In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Providence, Cornell Corrections of Rhode Island, Inc. says the corporation running the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls still owes money it agreed to pay the firm in 2008. The prison is run by the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, a quasi-public agency. Cornell Corrections operated Wyatt from its opening in 1993 to July 31, 2007, when the corporation took over, according to a 2009 report on the facility. Cornell Corrections says it reached a deal in 2008 with the corporation over the amount of money it was owed under an earlier agreement. The lawsuit says Wyatt's governing board still hasn't paid. The suit seeks $671,808, plus interest, costs and attorneys' fees. The corporation stopped making full payments to Cornell Corrections in 2006, according to a report released last month by former R.I. Auditor General Ernest A. Almonte. As of August 2007, the corporation owed Cornell Corrections more than $3.9 million, Almonte's report found. The 776-bed facility houses medium- and maximum-security federal detainees awaiting trial or transfer to federal Bureau of Prisons facilities. It lost a contract to house federal immigration detainees after one died in its custody in 2008. The jail has been beset by financial problems in recent years, having lost $6.2 million and taken on $3.5 million in additional debt from 2007 to 2009, Almonte's report said. The city of Central Falls once banked on revenue from the prison, but hasn't been paid in three years. The city filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Attorneys for Cornell Corrections and the corporation did not immediately return messages on Tuesday.

September 1, 2010 Smart Money
Owners of municipal bonds issued to pay for jails might not get to pass Go--and could have trouble collecting interest payments as well. These tax free bonds don't have a monopoly on defaults, but they're well represented among failures and troubled issues among the more speculative classes of municipal bonds. Data from Municipal Market Advisors reveals a slew of tax-free bonds issued to fund construction of privately run prisons and detention facilities in states from Texas to Rhode Island to Montana. The most recent example is Littlefield, a West Texas town of about 6,500 people. Located between the New Mexico border and Buddy Holly's hometown of Lubbock, Littlefield had to dip into reserves to cover payments for about $1.2 in bonds and other debt used to finance the Bill Clayton Detention Center. The bonds were issued in 2000, but the expected revenue stream evaporated when, after a prisoner suicide in 2008, the 310-bed private prison lost its contract to house out-of-state inmates. In 2009, the Geo Group (GEO), formerly known as Wackenhut Security, ended its operating agreement with the detention center, leaving it unoccupied. In April, Fitch Ratings, which in 2009 lowered the bonds to BB from BBB, affirmed a negative rating outlook. Littlefield city manager Danny Davis says the city is scrambling to avoid default on the $780,000 worth of annual payments and plans to cut police and fire service while dramatically raising property taxes when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The property could be sold or could be taken over by the state, though neither option is certain. "It's going to be difficult," he says. "In the meantime, we're just trying to keep our heads above water until we get to a solution." Bob Libal is the Texas campaign coordinator for Grassroots Leadership, a lobbying group which opposes for-profit prisons, and the editor of the blog Texas Prison Bid'ness. He says many small towns agree to build "speculative prisons" to be run by private contractors using municipal bond financing but that many of these projects in a post-Sept. 11 boom have had trouble. Libal criticizes the development groups that get paid up front for building detention centers thus saddling the bond-issuers (usually special public facilities corporations created solely for those projects) with risky debt. "They go after a lot of towns without a lot of sophistication and resources to do the due diligence," Libal says. "If they let the bonds go under, it's very difficult for them to issue any more debt." Matt Fabian, director of research at Municipal Market Advisors, cites similar bond woes in Central Falls, R.I.; Hardin, Mont.; and Baker County, Fla., where about $105 million in total debt has run into trouble because the prison projects haven't worked out as expected. "The incarceration rates drives speculation," he says. "There's an idea that you can profit from this prison trend." Investors in these increasingly-insecure jail bonds have certainly had to assume more risk, even though they get higher yields. The $99 million Central Falls Detention Facility bond issue of 2005 entered technical default in 2009 when it drew on its reserves to make payments. The bonds, issued at par with a yield of 7.25%, last traded at the end of 2009 at 85.3 cents to the dollar, with a yield of 8.69%. Municipal revenue bonds issued in 2002 that funded the West Alabama Youth Services detention facility defaulted in 2005. The bonds last traded in February at 9 cents to the dollar with a yield of 73.6%. Fabian says some of the biggest private prison busts are unlikely to have simple resolutions. A shopping center is easy to repurpose; a detention center is not. "It's hard to restructure," he says. "Even the land underneath a prison isn't worth as much as it was." Even with a resurgent effort by the private prison industry to use their facilities to detain illegal immigrants and an attempt by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to overhaul detention procedures, problems persist. The Baker Correctional Development Corporation, created to finance a correctional facility and immigration detention center west of Jacksonville, Fla., dipped into reserves for its August payment to holders of bonds issued in 2008. With those bonds trading last at 71.25 cents to the dollar with a yield of 20.73%, investors looking to lock up their money should probably seek less risky types of municipal bonds.

August 17, 2010 Market Watch
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO 22.20, -0.17, -0.76%) ("GEO") announced today the final results of the elections made by former stockholders of Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE: CRN) ("Cornell") as to the form of merger consideration they wish to receive in connection with the acquisition of Cornell by GEO. GEO closed the acquisition on August 12, 2010, after Cornell stockholders approved the transaction at a special meeting and GEO shareholders approved the issuance of shares of GEO common stock issuable as merger consideration at a special meeting.

August 12, 2010 AP
Private prison operator Geo Group Inc. on Thursday disclosed preliminary results of a vote by shareholders of Cornell Companies Inc. on that company's proposed sale to Geo Group. In all, holders of some 15.2 million shares of Cornell common stock voted on Wednesday on how they would like to receive their payout once the company is sold. Holders of about 54.5 percent of the shares elected to receive Geo common stock; 21.5 percent want cash. Another 24 percent didn't make a valid election, Geo Group said. Under the terms of the deal, Cornell shareholders had two options: Receive 1.3 shares of Geo common stock for each Cornell share held, or cash equal to the market value of one Geo share plus $6 or the fair market value of 1.3 shares of Geo common stock, whichever is greater.

July 27, 2010 Charlton County Herald
For years Charlton County Schools got well over $1 million annually in state funds to make up for the county's low tax base. Those dollars have fallen dramatically this year, however to just $27,000. Superintendent Steve McQueen believes local system funding has changed because of errors in the county tax digest. Because of the drop, the Charlton County Board of Education voted unanimously last week to appeal the digest to the state auditor’s office. “Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is get the equalization board to exercise their discretion and adjust our funding,” explained BOE Attorney Kelly Brooks. “When the state auditor’s office receives our appeal, they will notify the state department of education to hold off on the final determination of our funding for 2011.” The lawyer says this will buy the school system 45 more days, time enough the school board hopes, for the Charlton County Tax Assessor’s office to come up with an accurate tax digest. “There have been substantial post-levy reductions in the digest through timber tax appeals and Cornell’s appeal [on the D. Ray James Prison valuation],” said Brooks. “Call me skeptical but for six years in a row the county’s certified digest has meant nothing.” Last year for example, Charlton County’s certified digest was $332 million but the county, school board and cities never collected taxes on that amount. After the state approved the digest, but before payments started coming in, the digest dropped by $16.5 million because of the prison appeal. That one reduction amounted to a loss in property tax revenues to the school system last year of $252,000.

June 22, 2010 DOJ Press Release
ROBERT B. SURLES, 64, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Clarence Cooper to federal prison on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud for his part in a scheme to defraud the operator of a California corrections facility of almost $13 million. United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “This defendant was part of an elaborate fraud scheme that ironically involved the construction of a prison. He will now experience how business is conducted inside a real prison.” SURLES was sentenced to 10 years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $5,417,500. SURLES was found guilty of one count of conspiracy and 15 counts of wire fraud by a federal jury at the conclusion of a two-week trial on February 19, 2010. SURLES’ co-defendants, EDGAR G. BEAUDREAULT, JR. and HOWARD A. SPERLING, were sentenced to federal prison terms on April 29, 2010, following their pleas of guilty. Both cooperated with the government and testified in SURLES’ trial. BEAUDREAULT is currently serving a prison sentence of three years, one month. SPERLING is currently serving a prison sentence of five years, 10 months. According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: From August 2003 through January 2004, BEAUDREAULT, SPERLING and SURLES conspired to defraud Cornell Corrections of California, Inc., a private company that operates corrections facilities for various governmental units. In June 2003, Cornell Corrections contracted to have a corrections facility built in Canon City, Colorado for $13 million. The $13 million purchase price was to be held in an escrow account until the facility was completed. In August 2003, the defendants induced Cornell Corrections to transfer its $13 million to an account in Atlanta, which they controlled, by falsely representing to Cornell that the account was an escrow account that was administered by a reputable bank. Upon receipt of Cornell Corrections’ $13 million, the defendants wire transferred the majority of Cornell’s $13 million to other accounts, to be used for their own purposes. Under the terms of their contract, the defendants were also to obtain a construction loan on behalf of “Western Comfort, Inc.” the general contractor who began construction of the facility. No loan was secured, making Western Comfort another victim of this scheme. This case was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Bernita B. Malloy and David E. McClernan prosecuted the case.

June 2, 2010 Yahoo Business Wire
The GEO Group (NYSE: GEO - News) and Cornell Companies (NYSE: CRN - News) announced today that the waiting-period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 with respect to the previously announced proposed merger of GEO and Cornell Companies (NYSE:CRN - News) has expired as of 11:59 pm on Tuesday, June 1, 2010, effectively clearing the transaction by the United States Federal Trade Commission and the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The closing of the transaction remains subject to GEO and Cornell stockholder approval, and other customary conditions to closing. GEO and Cornell continue to expect that the transaction will close in the third quarter of 2010.

April 29, 2010 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An Alpharetta man was sentenced Thursday to three years and five months in prison for bilking a Colorado corrections facility project out of nearly $13 million. Edgar J. Beaudreault Jr. pleaded guilty in December to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In 2003, Beaudreault, 61, and San Diego co-defendant Howard Sperling tricked Cornell Corrections of California Inc. into transferring $13 million into an Atlanta account that was supposed to be an escrow account for the purchase price of a Canon City, Colo., facility under construction, court authorities said. Rather than having the escrow administered by a reputable bank, Beaudreault and Sperling wired the money to other accounts for their own personal use. Under the same contract, the two men and another defendant also were supposed to obtain a construction loan on behalf of the general contractor on the project, but didn’t. “These defendants were part of an elaborate fraud scheme that ironically involved the construction of a prison,” U.S. attorney Sally Quillian Yates said. “They will now experience how business is conducted inside a real prison.” In addition to the federal prison sentence, Beaudreault is required to serve three years on supervised release and pay $5.4 million in restitution.

April 29, 2010 PR Log
An investor in CRN shares filed a lawsuit in Texas State Court on behalf of current investors in Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CRN) alleging breaches of fiduciary duty by the Cornell board of directors for selling Cornell Companies too cheaply to The GEO Group. If you currently hold shares of Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CRN), you have certain options and you should contact the Shareholders Foundation, Inc by email at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1 (858) 779 – 1554. Cornell Companies, Inc., located in Houston, Texas, is a provider of correctional, detention, educational, rehabilitation and treatment services outsourced by federal, state, county and local government agencies for adults and juveniles. On April 19, 2010, Cornell Companies (NYSE:CRN) and the GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) announced a merger agreement pursuant to which The GEO Group will acquire Cornell Companies for stock and/or cash at an estimated enterprise value of $685 million based on the closing prices of both companies' stocks on April 16, 2010, including the assumption of approximately $300 million in Cornell debt, excluding cash. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, stockholders of Cornell will a value of approximately $24.96 per Cornell (CRN) share. According to Cornell Companies the Boards of Directors have approved the merger agreement and the offer represents a 35 percent premium over the closing price of Cornell's stock (CRN) on April 16, 2010. Shares of Cornell Companies, Inc. (CRN) traded after the takeover announcement at $24.74 per share, and at $18.62 per share the trading day before the news. CRN shares were down from its 52weekHigh of $25.13 per share, and from $27.71 per share in 2008. At least one analyst set a price target for Cornell stock at $29.00 per share. On April 27, 2010, an investor filed a lawsuit against members of the board of directors, Cornell Companies Inc and The Geo Group over breaches of fiduciary duty arising out of the attempt to sell Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CRN) to the GEO Group. According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges, among other things, that the proposed acquisition is intended to take advantage of Cornell’s temporarily low current valuation and that the agreement contains certain provisions, like the $12million termination fee and “no shop” provision that unduly benefit GEO Group by making an alternative transaction either prohibitively expensive or otherwise impossible.

April 24, 2010 Grits For Breakfast
Texas Prison Bidness brings word that the Geo Group gobbled up yet another competitor, adding to its already enormous debt load and making it the second largest private prison company on the planet, behind Corrections Corporation of America. Reported the Financial Times: The Geo Group offered about $385m for Cornell Companies in a mixture of cash and stock, valuing the company at about $24.96 a share. The company will also take on about $300m of Cornell debt. The Geo Group's most recent 10K statement is really quite an amazing read, for anyone interested, particularly the lengthy section on risk factors, where the possibility is raised that a quarter-billion dollars in unsecured bonds issued privately last fall might be considered a "fraudulent conveyance" if the company defaults and a bankruptcy judge ever takes a close look at the deal. Facing a mountain of debt, mostly from acquiring competitors, this appears to be a pretty critical year for the Geo Group, with contracts up for renewal on almost one in five beds they operate. According to the 10-K: "As of January 3, 2010, eleven of our facility management contracts representing 10,407 beds are scheduled to expire on or before December 31, 2010, unless renewed by the customer at its sole option. These contracts represented 19.3% of our consolidated revenues for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2010." Other risks identified in Geo's 10-K include: •Our significant level of indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition and prevent us from fulfilling our debt service obligations. •A decrease in occupancy levels could cause a decrease in revenues and profitability. •State budgetary constraints may have a material adverse impact on us. •Public resistance to privatization of correctional and detention facilities could result in our inability to obtain new contracts or the loss of existing contracts, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. •Adverse publicity may negatively impact our ability to retain existing contracts and obtain new contracts. •We may face community opposition to facility location, which may adversely affect our ability to obtain new contracts. •We may not be able to obtain or maintain the insurance levels required by our government contracts.

April 19, 2010 Palm Beach Post
Private prison operator The GEO Group Inc. (NYSE: GEO, $18.91) has agreed to buy rival Cornell Cos. in a deal worth about $685 million, including the assumption of about $300 million of Cornell's debt. The merger is a move to expand to meet increasing demand for private correctional facilities and services, the companies said in a release.

February 26, 2010 AP
Cornell Cos. Inc.'s sales and profit will decline if the state of Arizona removes inmates from the company's Oklahoma prison, an analyst said as he downgraded the prison operator's shares. First Analysis Securities analyst Todd Van Fleet downgraded the Houston company to "equal weight" from "overweight." The January budget proposals from Arizona's governor and legislature would phase out the use of private out-of-state beds. Arizona is struggling to close budget shortfalls. Van Fleet said there was less than a 25 percent chance that Cornell would be able to persuade legislators to keep Arizona inmates in the company's Oklahoma prison. The loss of the Arizona prisoners which could cut into Cornell's annual earnings by 35 cents to 45 cents per share. Van Fleet cut his estimate for 2010 profit to $1.09 per share from $1.69 per share, and his 2010 sales estimate to $398 million from $440.6 million. On Wednesday, when it released fourth-quarter earnings, Cornell predicted it would make $1.31 to $1.41 per share in 2010. The guidance assumed that Cornell would continue to keep all its Arizona inmates for the rest of the year. The contract for the Arizona prisoners ends in mid-September, Van Fleet said. Cornell shares slipped 13 cents to $18.61 in midday trading. They have dropped about 25 percent since Arizona proposed its budget in mid-January.

February 23, 2010 Pueblo Chieftain
A Chicago man who pocketed $605,000 in construction funds during the building of a youth treatment facility here was convicted Friday of conspiracy and wire fraud. A federal jury in Atlanta found Robert B. Surles, 64, guilty of conspiracy and 15 counts of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to steal nearly $13 million from Cornell Co., which built the Southern Peaks Regional Treatment Center in 2003. From Aug. 2003 to Jan. 2004, Surles, along with Edgar Beaudreault, 60, of Georgia, and Howard Sperling, 45, of San Diego, conspired to defraud Cornell of construction funds. Surles was to obtain a $12 million construction loan, but he and his co-defendants never obtained financing for the project and instead led the contractor to believe they had. The trio falsely represented that the funds were in an escrow account, but instead the money was transferred to other accounts. Although some money was used to get the construction started, the majority of funds was taken by the trio for personal purposes. The evidence at trial showed Surles took $605,000 of the funds, according to Patrick Crosby, public affairs officer for the United States Attorney's office in Atlanta. "This defendant fraudulently induced a company to transfer approximately $13 million into an ‘escrow account’ that turned out to be nothing but a piggy bank for the defendant and his co-conspirators," said Sally Quillian Yates, acting U.S. Attorney in Atlanta. "A federal jury was not fooled by the story he told when he testified and convicted him on conspiracy and multiple counts of fraud." Both Beaudreault and Sperling pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and testified against Surles. All three are awaiting sentencing for the crime and Surles is slated to be sentenced April 27.

January 22, 2010 Times-Union
The Charlton County Commission, the county school system and Folkston are all hastily adjusting their budgets after a single successful appeal of a property assessment. Commissioners are expected to approve an "error and relief" agreement in February to reduce the assessed value of privately owned D. Ray James Prison from $97 million to $55 million. The successful appeal by Cornell Companies, owners and operators of the prison, will cost the city, county and school system at least $730,000 in anticipated tax revenue. County Manager Steve Nance said Cornell appealed the assessed value of the prison after it nearly doubled in 2009. Two new structures - an addition that will house 700 inmates this year and another facility for 300 prisoners from both Charlton County and the U.S. Marshals Service - were on the tax rolls for the first time this year, likely leading to the increase in value, Nance said. During the appeal, Cornell officials didn't dispute the accuracy of the appraisal of the facility. Instead, they argued it would be impossible to sell the sprawling prison complex for what the company invested because the structures are for very specialized purposes - to securely house inmates. They also claimed the original part of the prison, more than a decade old, had depreciated in value, Nance said. "They contended the value did not equal the cost," he said. The property appraiser who determined the appraised value never visited the prison until after Cornell filed an appeal, Nance said. Instead, the appraiser determined the value from manuals, he said. "She did not actually tour the facility until the appeal was made," he said. "After the tour, she agreed the value was too high. It was a lot more austere than she thought." Despite the hardship losing an estimated $334,000 in anticipated tax revenue, Nance said county officials have no plans to contest the ruling by the Board of Assessors. "It would be difficult for us to appeal our own valuation," he said. Also, there is no appeal process unless the complaint is taken to the Board of Equalization by the property owner, Nance said. "Is there any recourse [for Folkston and the school district]?" Nance asked. "I don't think they have the right to challenge this." Now, the already cash-strapped county will maintain a "continuous evaluation process" to cut spending to make up for the shortfall, Nance said. Folkston City Manager Pender Lloyd said the appeal will cost his city at least $108,000 in anticipated tax revenue - nearly a 5 percent cut to the city's $2.4 million budget. "We knew Cornell was probably going to appeal," Lloyd said. "We certainly had no idea it [the prison's value] would drop by $42 million." Lloyd criticized the timing, saying one appeal should not have so much impact to local governments. An appeal of the magnitude of Cornell's should have been resolved before the county digest was completed to give local governments an accurate estimate of how much revenue would be generated in taxes. The city will delay some projects planned this year, including construction of a new park, he said. Travel to conferences and training is also canceled, unless it is required by law, Lloyd said. "We have some revenues built up, so we can handle it," he said. "We're all affected and we've got to work through this thing. We've got to deal with it."

May 20, 2009 Yahoo.com
Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CRN) today announced that it has been informed by the Georgia Department of Corrections that the Department will not start using the Company's recently completed expansion at its D. Ray James Prison in Georgia. The Company's previous guidance, included in the first quarter earnings release, provided a base case that assumed that the 700-bed expansion at D. Ray James Prison would begin to ramp at the beginning of the third quarter of 2009, and an alternate case that, if the expansion was to remain empty for all of 2009, earnings for the full year would be reduced by up to approximately $0.08 per share. Today's updated guidance assumes that the expansion will remain empty for the remainder of the year. As a result, the Company now expects earnings per share for the full year of $1.62 to $1.70. The Company also reaffirmed the earnings guidance range for the second quarter of $0.42 to $0.46 per share.

December 17, 2008 AP
A Georgia businessman has admitted taking part in a scheme to defraud a California construction company of nearly $13 million. Edgar J. Beaudreault of Alpharetta pleaded guilty Wednesday in Atlanta to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Federal prosecutors say Beaudreault, 60, and two others conspired to defraud Cornell Corrections of California Inc., which operates private corrections facilities. In 2003, Cornell was hired to build a prison in Canon City, Colo., and the $13 million purchase price was to be placed in escrow until completion. Cornell was induced to transfer the money to an Atlanta account, and most of it was then diverted to other accounts. Beaudreault could receive up to 20 years in prison and be fined $250,000 at sentencing March 18.

August 26, 2008 Atlanta Business Chronicle
An Alpharetta, Ga., man is among a group indicted Tuesday on charges of fraud related to a prison-building contract in Colorado. Edgar J. Beaudreault Jr., 60, of Alpharetta, Howard A. Sperling, 43, of San Diego, and Robert B. Surles, 62, of Canon City, Colo., were indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple charges. The indictment alleges from August 2003 through January 2004, the men concocted a scheme to defraud Cornell Corrections of California Inc., a private company based in Ventura that operates corrections facilities for governmental units. In June 2003, Cornell Corrections contracted to have a corrections facility built in Canon City, Colo., for $13 million. The money was to be held in an escrow account until the facility was completed. But in August 2003, the men allegedly got Cornell Corrections to transfer the $13 million to an account in Atlanta controlled by Beaudreault, and allegedly told Cornell the account was an escrow account administered by a reputable bank. After the transfer was made into the Atlanta account, the indictment claims the men then transferred the $13 million to other accounts to be used for their own purposes. The indictment charges 20 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count.

August 12, 2008 Anchorage Daily News
Bill Weimar, who made his fortune off private halfway houses in Alaska, pleaded guilty Monday to two federal felonies in U.S. District Court in Anchorage. He admitted his role in a conspiracy to secretly funnel money to a political consultant for an unnamed state Senate candidate, knowing the candidate would back a private prison if he won. Weimar had a long-standing relationship with the candidate running in the 2004 primary, a charging document filed Monday said. Weimar held a "contingent interest" in a private prison project worth $5.5 million, but only if the project was completed, the charges say. He faces prison time in the plea deal and may have to forfeit "certain property." Prosecutors estimate a sentence of 10 to 16 months. U.S. District Judge John Sedwick isn't bound to that. He set sentencing for Oct. 29. Weimar, who owned Allvest Inc., becomes the 11th person charged in the broad, ongoing investigation by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice into political corruption in Alaska. Weimar, 68, now lives in Big Arm, Mont. At the brief hearing on Monday, Weimar answered the judge's routine questions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini outlined the two charges: conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, and illegally manipulating currency transactions to avoid reporting them to the Treasury Department. Weimar has admitted paying the consultant a total of $20,000 during the primary in August 2004 to cover expenses for the candidate, without reporting the payments and without routing them through the campaign. How do you plead? Sedwick asked. "Guilty," Weimar answered, to each charge. LAWMAKER NOT NAMED -- For years, Weimar pushed plans for a private prison in Alaska, but the project was always controversial and no prison was ever built. A Democratic activist in the 1970s, Weimar later became close to the Republicans who controlled the Alaska Legislature. Neither the Senate candidate nor the consultant -- both accused of conspiring with Weimar -- is named in the charging document. Prosecutors declined to expand on it Monday. But the candidate described in the documents, and in court Monday, appears to be former state Sen. Jerry Ward. He didn't return phone calls or e-mail messages on Monday. Ward, a Republican elected from Anchorage in 1996 and the Kenai Peninsula in 2000, fervently pushed private prison projects as a legislator. The charging document says the candidate running in 2004 had a long relationship with Weimar, and held elected office part of that time. Ward and Weimar were "buddies," according to a statement that former lobbyist Bill Bobrick, who worked for Weimar, gave to the FBI in September 2006. Bobrick also has pleaded guilty in the corruption investigation. He declined to comment on Monday. In 1997, a plan for a private prison in South Anchorage with Allvest and Veco Corp. as partners crumbled under strong public opposition. As that project evaporated, Ward emerged as the lead architect of a new plan to build private prisons in the Mat-Su and Seward. "By God, this really solves the problem," Weimar was quoted as saying at the time. In 2001, Ward signed on as the only Senate sponsor of a House bill pushing a private prison on the Kenai. The charging document against Weimar doesn't say whether the candidate won in 2004 and does not call the person a legislator. Ward lost his seat in 2002 to Tom Wagoner. He was trying to regain it in 2004, but lost in the Republican primary to Wagoner. SEATTLE CONSULTANT -- In court Monday, Bottini told the judge the consultant was from Seattle. Some of Ward's biggest campaign expenses in 2004 were more than $43,000 in fees charged by Madison Communications, an advertising and public relations firm based in suburban Kirkland, Wash. Numerous calls left for Madison principal Brett Bader on Monday were not returned. The charges against Weimar and other court documents quote details of a number of telephone conversations he had with the consultant and the candidate from Aug. 17 to Aug. 23, 2004. In a telephone conversation on Aug. 17, 2004, the consultant told Weimar that the campaign was having money trouble, court documents say. "I'm worried we're reaching the limit now. I don't know where we find 10 grand unless (Candidate A) can get more in," the consultant said "There's no legal way to do that. At least not on that scale," Weimar responded. Later that day, Weimar arranged to cover the next advertising mailer for the candidate, and told the candidate so, the document says. On Aug. 20, 2004, Weimar told the candidate of an unpaid invoice of $20,000 with the consultant. The candidate's campaign funds were depleted, the charges say. The candidate said he had only $300 to $400 left in his account. On Aug. 23, 2004, Weimar made arrangements with the consultant to pay off the debt, the charges say. He then called the candidate and told him "he would not be receiving any further bills from Consultant A," the charging document says. Weimar sent the consulting company a $3,000 check on Aug. 23, 2004, then sent $8,500 in cash that same day by express mail, and another $8,500 cash the day after, the charges say. "WE'VE MOVED ON" -- The charges also do not name the private prison company, but Cornell Corrections Inc. tried to build a prison in various Alaska communities, including Delta Junction, Kenai and Whittier. The charging document describes the unnamed company's Alaska interests as halfway houses, a planned juvenile treatment center, and a private prison project, and that matches Cornell's interests. In 1998, in the midst of planning for a private prison in Delta Junction, Weimar sold five Alaska halfway houses to Cornell for $21 million. He also formed a partnership with Cornell to pursue the Delta prison and subsequent deals for a private facility. One goal of the conspiracy was to get the private prison company to give campaign contributions to the candidate to help win election, according to the charges. A spokesman for Cornell said the company was unaware of the charges but supports the prosecution. The executives now in charge of Cornell weren't there at the time of the events that involved Weimar, spokesman Charles Seigel said Monday. Company records don't show any evidence of wrongdoing, he added. "We've moved on and we are very different and have it behind us," Seigel said. Cornell also has not pursued a private prison in Alaska for years and is no longer interested in that, he said. "We're glad this investigation is going on but whatever was going on or may have been going on in the past, that is not the Cornell that exists now, both in the policy on the private prison as we've talked about and in general about the way we do business." By 2004, Veco was no longer involved in the prison project, Frank Prewitt, a former state corrections commissioner, Cornell consultant and FBI informant, has said. ANDERSON INVOLVED -- The failed private prison effort was also central in the government's case against former state Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, now in prison. At Anderson's corruption trial last summer, Prewitt was a key witness who testified at length about his undercover work to collect evidence against Anderson, and also about questionable acts in his own past. From the witness stand, Prewitt said that in 1994 -- when he was corrections commissioner and Weimar owned Allvest -- he accepted $30,000 from Weimar. Prewitt testified that he considered the money a loan, which he repaid the next year, after he left his state post, by working four months for Allvest for free. Weimar helped start Allvest in 1985, then bought out his partners and turned it into a multimillion dollar corporation with operations in Alaska and Washington state. Its government contracts were worth an estimated $10 million a year. Allvest also operated a lab that did contract urinalysis work, and used to run the city's Animal Control Center and the Community Service Patrol. In 2002, Allvest was forced into bankruptcy because of unpaid judgments in civil suits against the company. The bankruptcy case eventually was settled.

July 15, 2008 The Daily Cougar
As Sen. Barack Obama wages his presidential campaign across the United States with political gusto, he's attracted names such as Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John Edwards. University of Houston Associate Professor of Law Tony Chase has also temporarily shifted his duties as a professor to become a member of the National Finance Committee of Obama's campaign. "I've known (Obama) for quite some time, and I was one of the people he asked whether if he should run," Chase said. "Because of that, this is very personal, and I genuinely believe he is best for this country." Aside from teaching, Chase is chairman and CEO of ChaseCom L.P. and Chase Radio Partners. He is also chairman and co-founder, together with SBC Communications Inc., of The Telecom Opportunity Institute, an organization that provides technical literacy training at no cost to at-risk communities. He serves as a director of Leap Wireless International Inc. and Cornell Companies Inc., and is chairman of the Houston Zoo Development Board. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a director of the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast and Houston Parks. Chase began teaching communications law and contracts at the UH Law Center in 1990 and received the Edith Baker Faculty Award in 1994. On July 8, he stepped down as the director of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank to dedicate more time to the campaign. "I can't pick out a certain experience, but teaching graduate law and undergraduate classes has been particularly helpful in preparing me, because students are the future and full of ideas that in turn help me think about today's issues," Chase said. "My experience at the University helps me by being part of the excitement and interest among young and potential voters." As for his motives, he believes that the nation, in its current state, needs Obama as president. "I've known Barack and Michelle for a long time, and based on that, I believe he is a transcendent political figure," Chase said. "I know him well and his integrity and how he responds to pressure, but also how he will be an excellent leader." As the member of the National Finance Committee for the campaign, he helps make decisions on how the campaign will utilize its funds and how the fundraising will be run. He also performs special projects such as arranging meetings with constituents and senior advisors. "The experience I gain from the campaign will only help the way I try to bring practical experience to the classroom, and this is actually quite relevant to what I teach at the University," Chase said. Chase will return to teach in the fall and resume his usual duties for his organizations. "I will still do what I can to accommodate my teaching responsibilities and campaign duties and continue to voice my support for Barack Obama," Chase said.

January 23, 2007 Market Watch
Cornell Companies, Inc. announced that, at a special meeting of its shareholders held earlier today, a proposal to merge with the Veritas Capital Fund III, L.P., was rejected. As a result of this vote by shareholders, Cornell will continue to operate as a stand-alone publicly-traded entity. Although the company has not yet announced the timing of its fourth quarter earnings conference call, management intends to use such forum to provide further commentary on the transaction, as well as to discuss any changes to the previously-released 2007 guidance that was made public as a result of the transaction process.

January 19, 2007 AP
Alpine Associates, a Cornell Cos. (CRN) shareholder, plans to vote against Cornell's plan to be acquired by Veritas Capital Fund for $18.25 a share. Alpine and related entities own 631,700 shares, representing a 4.49% stake. Thursday, shares of private-prison operator Cornell closed at $18.90, up 16 cents. Alpine said "the current transaction does not fairly value Cornell's shares." Other shareholders have expressed opposition to the deal.

October 9, 2006 Market Watch
Cornell Companies, Inc. (CRN : news, chart, profile ) announced today the execution of a definitive merger agreement with Veritas Capital, under which Veritas will acquire Cornell in a transaction valued at approximately $518.6 million, including the assumption or repayment of approximately $273.6 million in debt. Under the terms of the agreement, Cornell stockholders will receive $18.25 in cash for each share of common stock they hold. The Company's Board of Directors has unanimously approved the agreement and will recommend that Cornell's stockholders approve the merger. James E. Hyman, Cornell's chairman and chief executive officer, said, "The Board of Directors has completed a comprehensive review of the strategic alternatives available to the Company, the result of which we are pleased to announce today. The Board endorses this transaction and believes it to be in the best interest of Cornell's shareholders. Veritas Capital is a private equity investment firm headquartered in New York. Founded in 1992 by Robert B. McKeon, Veritas invests primarily in companies specializing in outsourcing services to the government, primarily in the areas of defense and aerospace, security and infrastructure. Veritas' portfolio of companies includes, or has included, DynCorp International, Integrated Defense Technologies, Vertex Aerospace, McNeil Technologies, The Wornick Company, and TRAK Communications, among others. Veritas is dedicated to providing the highest level of critical services and equipment to the defense and federal sectors around the world. For more information, please visit www.veritascapital.com.

September 29, 2006 New York Times
Pirate Capital, a $1.7 billion fund based in Norwalk, Conn., lost half its investment team this week, according to a letter from the founder and portfolio manager, Thomas Hudson. In addition, Pirate, an “activist” fund that pressures management to increase shareholder value, is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission on suspicion of failing to alert the commission when it was selling stock, according to one person briefed on the inquiry. Mr. Hudson’s letter, dated Sept. 28 and on stationery with a pirate ship logo, said that Pirate would close to new investors Sunday, to focus on delivering returns rather than collecting more money. “I’ve decided to return the firm to its roots,” Mr. Hudson wrote. “The goal is to focus on returns and not the size of the assets we manage.” Pirate Capital has had a difficult year: its flagship Jolly Roger Fund is up only 3.3 percent, while its activist fund is up 2.86 percent, according to materials sent to investors. Those returns are well below the average activist fund. Hedge Fund Research in Chicago tracks the returns of 44 funds that operate solely activist strategies; through August those funds have returned 10.39 percent. An S.E.C. spokesman, John Nester, declined to comment. Isa Bolotin, head of investor relations at Pirate Capital, did not return calls seeking comment. Pirate is known for its unusually brash tactics and unabashed style. A New York magazine cover article reported that Zachary George, 27, an analyst with the firm and former competitive snowboarder, told the chief executive of the Cornell Companies, a prison operator, that “You work for us,” and that Mr. George and Pirate wanted Cornell sold and the chief executive sacked. “Next year we’re going to be here, and you won’t,” Mr. George told the chief executive, according to the article. Mr. Hudson said two investment professionals, including Mr. George, resigned on Monday. On Wednesday, Carl Klein, a portfolio manager, resigned, and Mr. Hudson asked two more analysts to leave. Five people, including Mr. Hudson, remain. The S.E.C. is investigating whether Pirate was late in reporting to the commission material changes in its holdings. Investors with at least a 5 percent stake must report any changes to those holdings.

August 28, 2006 Yahoo.com
Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CRN - News) announced today that Mark S. Croft, the General Counsel and Secretary of the Company, resigned on Saturday, August 26, 2006, to attend to personal matters unrelated to his role as an officer of the Company. Patrick N. Perrin, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, has been appointed to the office of Secretary of the Company to succeed Mr. Croft.

June 5, 2006 Houston Business Journal
Cornell Companies Inc. on Monday afternoon said it has retained a financial advisor to assist the Houston operator of prisons in analyzing ways "to maximize shareholder value." The announcement, which came in a brief news release distributed Monday after the regular session of the stock market closed, essentially puts Cornell (NYSE: CRN - News) on the block as a candidate to be acquired. Beyond making the brief statement about hiring a financial advisor, Cornell in the Monday release said the prison operator does not intend to make further announcements on the matter until the NYSE-listed company "has made definitive decisions on its future strategic direction." No assurance can be given that any transaction will be pursued," according to the Cornell press release.

February 10, 2006 Yahoo
Cornell Companies, Inc. announced today the settlement of a securities class action lawsuit. In re Cornell Companies, Inc. Securities Litigation was originally filed by certain Cornell stockholders in March 2002 on behalf of all purchasers of Cornell's common stock from March 6, 2001 to March 5, 2002. The Company has agreed to settle this class action lawsuit for $7.0 million to avoid further protracted and expensive litigation. The settlement amount will be funded through the Company's directors' and officers' liability insurance and will have no impact on the Company's financial position, results of operations or cash flows. Under the terms of the settlement, Cornell has not admitted to any wrongdoing.

September 29, 2005 Star-Telegram
In a move denounced as a political witchhunt, Rep. Tom DeLay was indicted Wednesday with two associates on a felony charge of conspiring to circumvent Texas' prohibition of corporate campaign donations to secure the Republican takeover of the Texas House in 2002. Shortly after Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle announced the indictment, the Republican congressman from Sugar Land resigned his powerful majority leader post in Washington, at least temporarily. DeLay, 58, is accused of conspiring with two associates to convert $190,000 in donations from several corporations into campaign contributions on behalf of seven Republican candidates who were involved in what many had believed would be close contests for seats in the Texas House.

September 28, 2005 Bloomberg
U.S. Representative Tom DeLay, the No. 2 Republican in the House, was indicted by a Texas grand jury for criminal conspiracy in connection with illegal corporate political donations, prompting him to give up his leadership post. Two former campaign aides, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, were also charged with conspiracy by the state grand jury in Travis County, according to the single-count indictment. The charge stems from an investigation into alleged use of illegal corporate contributions by DeLay's political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, in the 2002 races for the state House of Representatives. The four-page indictment charges that DeLay conspired with Ellis and Colyandro to use donations from companies including Williams Companies Inc. and Sears, Roebuck and Co., now Sears Holdings Corp., to help finance the election campaigns of seven members of the Texas House in 2002. Under Texas law, corporations aren't permitted to donate to candidates. Other companies named, but like Williams and Sears, not charged in the indictment were Diversified Collections Services Inc., Cornell Companies Inc., Bacardi U.S.A. Inc. and Questerra Corp.

September 22, 2005 Texas Lawyer
A private corrections company seeks to hold Locke Liddell & Sapp liable for more than $5 million that's allegedly missing from an account set up for a land deal. Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. sued Locke Liddell and David Montgomery, a partner in the firm, alleging malpractice, among other things. The company filed Cornell Companies Inc. v. Locke Liddell & Sapp, et al. on Aug. 26 in Houston's 333rd District Court. In its petition, Cornell alleges that the defendants "dropped the ball" by failing to ensure that a proper escrow account was set up in 2003 to hold the company's funds. Those funds were intended to be used to buy land in Colorado on which to develop a regional correctional rehabilitation center. As alleged in the petition, the defendants gave Cornell the "green light" to wire almost $13 million into an account that was purported to be an escrow account. "There was no escrow agent; there was no escrow account," alleges Scott Hershman, one of the attorneys representing Cornell. The suit against Locke Liddell is related to a suit that a Cornell subsidiary filed last year in the Superior Court of Fulton County in Atlanta. Cornell alleged in its second amended complaint in Cornell Corrections of California Inc. v. Longboat Global Advisors, et al. that attorney Edgar J. Beaudreault of Roswell, Ga., a defendant in the suit, handled the construction loan transaction on behalf of Longboat, which was providing financing for the corrections facility project. Cornell Corrections alleged in the Georgia complaint that Beaudreault, who is also Longboat's vice president and managing director, arranged for the escrow account but it turned out to be a regular bank account. Cornell Corrections further alleged in the complaint that, although the company wired the funds to Bank of America in August 2003, it didn't learn until November of that year that the bank was not holding money in escrow and that a withdrawal never authorized by Cornell Corrections had been made. Hershman, a partner in Lackey Hershman in Dallas, says he doesn't expect Cornell Corrections will be able to collect the damages awarded in the Georgia case, because he thinks the money is gone. Michael Shaunessy, an Austin, Texas, attorney who represents plaintiffs in legal malpractice cases but is not involved in Cornell's suit against Locke Liddell, says the fact that a company hires lawyers to handle this type of transaction doesn't eliminate the company's responsibility to exercise due diligence in the matter. Shaunessy, a partner in Shaunessy & Burnett, says he expects Locke Liddell and Montgomery to raise a causation defense, arguing that those who took the money out of the account caused Cornell's loss. Cornell can argue that, if the defendants had set up the account so that the money couldn't be moved without the company's authorization, Cornell would not have suffered the loss, he says.

August 9, 2005 Houston Chronicle
A state district judge refused Tuesday to dismiss charges of money laundering and accepting illegal political contributions against two associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. Judge Bob Perkins denied arguments from John Colyandro and Jim Ellis that the charges were based on an unconstitutionally vague law and that the indictments were improperly worded. Lawyers for Colyandro, who worked for DeLay's fundraising committee Texans for a Republican Majority, and Jim Ellis, who worked for Americans for a Republican Majority, have said they will appeal, likely delaying any trial for at least several months. The charges stem from the 2002 Texas legislative elections. The money-laundering charges are based on $190,000 in corporate money that was sent to the Republican National State Elections Committee.

June 3, 2005 Houston Business Journal
Insurgent shareholder Pirate Capital LLC has captured the board of Cornell Cos. Inc. Pirate gained control of the Houston-based prison operator last month after setting sail on a proxy fight that originated a year earlier. Toting a treasure trove of Cornell common shares -- a 14.8 percent stake as of mid-May -- the Connecticut-based investment firm emerged with the right to put seven directors on Cornell's nine-member board. Cornell controls the remaining two seats on the board, which increased from seven to nine members as part of a new agreement with Pirate. "It appeared that (Cornell) had been heading for a distracting and costly proxy battle," notes Scott Schneeberger, a stock analyst at Lehman Brothers. Cornell also got Pirate to concede that the investment firm will not pursue a transaction to take the publicly traded Houston company private for at least the next two years. At the same time, Cornell Chairman James Hyman will no longer steer the board of directors after the end of this month. Despite 20 years of experience in operations, finance, process management, mergers and acquisitions, Hyman's name is conspicuously missing from the slate of nominees for the new board.

March 11, 2005 The Deal
True to its swashbuckling name, hedge fund Pirate Capital LLC is preparing to make a run at struggling Cornell Cos., a prison and juvenile-facilities operator. Since last year, Houston-based Cornell has been under pressure from Thomas R. Hudson Jr., portfolio manager at the 2-year-old Norwalk Conn.-based hedge fund, to seek a buyer. After a series of missteps by Cornell, Pirate's Jolly Roger Fund LP launched a proxy contest on Feb. 24 to take over all seven seats on Cornell's board at an annual meeting expected in June. "You can just see the shots being fired across the bow of Cornell," says Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners LLC in New York. Skolnick says a strategic acquirer would pay roughly $20.50 a share for the assets — $270 million in equity plus $112 million in debt. Cornell traded early last week at around $14.40 a share. Anton Hie, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Nashville, says a strategic acquirer would value Cornell at $16 to $18 a share, and would cut costs by eliminating overhead and other administrative expenses. A financial buyer could break up the company and sell various facilities "in pieces," Hie says. Skolnick, whose firm does not do work for Cornell, cites Nashville-based Correction Corp. of America and Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., the two largest private providers of adult-prison management services in the U.S., as likely buyers. Hie, whose firm does not own Cornell stock, says CCA and Geo might be more interested in Cornell's adult facilities, but he would not estimate a valuation on these assets. Privately held Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, could also be interested, Skolnick says. She and other analysts say the other major player in the industry, Sarasota, Fla.-based Corrections Services Corp., is smaller than Cornell and unlikely to make a bid. "These publicly traded companies are interested in growing, and acquiring Cornell would help them improve their bottom line," says a corrections consultant. Officials for CCA and Geo did not return calls seeking comment. Cornell posted a loss of $897,000 for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, the latest results available, compared with a profit of $1.4 million a year earlier, even as sales rose to $74.7 million from $68.6 million. The company has made some internal changes. In January it hired James Hyman to replace outgoing CEO Harry Phillips. Skolnick says Hyman has some real estate experience but "may not know what he's gotten himself into." Pirate Capital, which has a 14.8% Cornell stake, has yet to offer an opinion of Hyman. As part of a broad strategy to learn shareholder concerns, Hyman has met with numerous investors, including activist hedge fund managers, since he took over in January. He has also huddled with Pirate officials several times in the past month, and says he plans to do so again. "It's part of an ongoing process," Hyman says. "I asked [investors] to be very frank and tell me as straight as they can how they view Cornell." He says Cornell would consider any offer, but that the company is not seeking a buyer. Cornell also recently replaced director Marcus Watts with Isabella Cunningham, a communications professor at the University of Texas. That move, says a shareholder, suggests "creeping compliance" with Pirate's wishes. Shareholders had repeatedly asked the board to replace Watts, a partner at law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP, who they argued lacked sufficient independence. Locke Liddell & Sapp has a business relationship with Cornell. Cunningham, considered independent, developed a criminal-justice program at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. Skolnick says Hyman will have his work cut out for him. He acknowledges that Cornell has made some major mistakes lately. For example, it leased an abandoned jail in Bernalillo County, N.M., and announced in spring 2003 that the facility would house roughly 1,000 inmates by the end of that year and generate $25 million in annual revenue. But after lease problems and poor planning, Skolnick says, the facility held only 300 inmates by the end of 2004 and brought in significantly less revenue than promised. Cornell's acquisition of an abandoned training school in Plankinton, S.D., was another botched purchase. The company turned the school into a juvenile-detention center with an investment of $200,000. For the program to be profitable, Cornell needed the state to pay $175 a day per inmate. But the state agreed to pay only $125. After three months, Cornell closed the operation. "What this points out is how Cornell generally does not complete the necessary due diligence before going out and opening facilities," Skolnick says. "They do a terrible job of completing projects and ramping up occupancy in their facilities." On Feb. 1 Cornell announced plans to buy San Diego-based Correctional Systems Inc. for $10 million, an acquisition Hyman says is complementary. Other shareholders have risen to Pirate Capital's support. "We believe that the board's attempt to simultaneously replace the company's CEO and CFO without reaching out to Pirate Capital, its largest shareholder, represents another example of poor judgment," says Nelson Obus, president of New York hedge fund Wynnefield Capital LLC in a January Securities and Exchange Commission filing. People familiar with Pirate say its nominees have vastly more experience in corrections-facility management, restructuring and turnarounds than Cornell's current board. Pirate nominee Richard Crane, a corrections-project consultant, is a former general counsel to CCA, one of the companies that might consider acquiring Cornell. Then there's Sally Walker, president of Encourage Youth Corp., a consulting firm specializing in programs for juvenile offenders. Pirate is also nominating two people from within its own ranks: portfolio manager Hudson and investment analyst Zachary George. Says Skolnick: "Shareholders would be well-served to have a professional management team that is focused on returns instead of revenue growth."

March 10, 2005 Dow Jones
Cornell Cos.' (CRN) fourth-quarter loss ballooned as the company took a number of charges and announced that it will eliminate two layers of management and close underperforming programs. In a press release Thursday, the prison operator said that among the jobs eliminated was that of President and Chief Operating Officer Thomas R. Jenkins. Chief Executive James Hyman will assume the chief operating officer responsibilities. In a bid to improve its operations, Cornell said it was trimming its management, cutting Jenkins' job as well as a number of vice president and director-level positions that "interfered" between business unit managers and their programs. The shakeup is just the latest in a slew of management changes at Cornell. Hyman himself was named chief executive in January. John Nieser, the chief financial officer, was named in February. Meanwhile, a group of shareholders including Pirate Capital LLC, which hold about 15% of the company, have called for the entire board to step down. Apart from changes to its management, Cornell said Thursday it will close a number of its programs that consumed cash and managerial talent that could better be spent elsewhere. The programs, set to be shuttered in the first and second quarters, include the Joz-Arz program in the District of Columbia, the Residential School in Illinois, which is owned by the company, and behavioral health programs in Pennsylvania.

November 9, 2004 PRNews
Cornell Companies, a leading provider of privatized adult and juvenile correctional, treatment and educational services, announced today that the Company has commenced a search for a new chief executive officer.  Harry J. Phillips, Jr. will continue to serve as chief executive officer until a successor is named and, thereafter, will continue as chairman of the board of directors.

October 22, 2004 AP
Two associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay who have been indicted for alleged campaign finance violations will be allowed to put off answering a civil lawsuit until their criminal charges have been resolved.  State District Judge Joe Hart on Thursday postponed a civil lawsuit against John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, who were charged last month with laundering corporate donations during the 2002 elections.

September 22, 2004 AP
The money laundering allegation in a congressional ethics complaint filed against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay involves the same $190,000 in political contributions that led to indictments of the Texas congressman's aides on similar charges. DeLay is accused in an ethics complaint of misusing the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee to launder $190,000 in illegal corporate contributions through the Republican National Committee for use in Texas legislative races. On Tuesday, a grand jury in Texas indicted Jim Ellis, a paid consultant to Texans for a Republican Majority, and John Colyandro, former executive director of the Texas committee, on money laundering charges involving the same $190,000 check. A third aide was indicted on separate charges. The indictments allege that on Sept. 13, 2002, Ellis delivered a check for $190,000 to the Republican National Committee. The check was signed by Colyandro and made out to the Republican National State Elections Committee. Accompanying it was a list of several GOP Texas legislative candidates and the amount of money that each should get from the RNC, according to the indictment. The indictments said the $190,000 came from corporate contributions to Texans for A Republican Majority. Givers included Diversified Collection Services Inc., $50,000; Sears, Roebuck and Co., $25,000; Williams Companies Inc., $25,000; Cornell Companies, $10,000, Bacardi USA, $20,000 and Questerra Corp., $25,000, the indictments said. They did not account for the remaining contributions. The Republican National State Elections Committee subsequently wrote checks totaling $190,000 to seven Texas candidates, the indictment alleges. Texas law prohibits the use of corporate money for direct political purposes.

August 15, 2004 Houston Chronicle
Rarely does the siren of shareholder revolt sound as loudly as it has at Cornell Cos., a Houston-based operator of adult and juvenile corrections centers and treatment facilities. During a conference call last week, investors irate over the company's performance blasted Chairman Harry Phillips. "Our capital is being wasted here, and our company is being undermanaged," said Zachary George with Pirate Capital, a Connecticut hedge fund that owns 7.5 percent of Cornell's shares, making it one of the company's biggest investors. "We are not going to let you guys destroy this company. Your time at Cornell is limited." Pirate, which began buying Cornell shares in May, targets companies it believes are undervalued. It isn't alone in its displeasure: Thirty-five percent of the company's investors withheld their votes for directors at the last annual meeting, and that was without any organized effort. Investors have ample reason to be ticked off. Net income was almost $8 million in 2000, but the company hasn't seen a profit like that since. Last year, earnings were less than $4 million. Profit margins have been halved during the same period. Cornell's market value has tumbled to $166 million from $228 million in 2001. For Cornell's management, the hour of reckoning is nigh. Promises of a prosperous future will no longer quell the discontent. The sirens are sounding, and the message for management is clear: The future is now.

Cornell Interventions, Wauconda, Illinois
December 29, 2006 Lake County News-Sun
Two teenage girls who escaped from Cornell Interventions in unincorporated Wauconda shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday were both charged with possession of a stolen vehicle after attempting to elude police in a chase. Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies were dispatched to the at-risk youth facility to search the grounds for the two runaways, but found no leads at the time. The two females found an unattended 2001 maroon GMC Jimmy at Sweeney's gas station on Miller Road and Route 12 with the keys in the vehicle. "At approximately 1:50 a.m., the two juveniles were called in as runaways from the juvenile detention for at-risk youth," said sheriff's Sgt. Christopher Thompson. The owner of the GMC Jimmy was believed to be in the gas station making a purchase at the time of the vehicle theft and may have left the vehicle running. Lake Zurich police received a call shortly after 5 a.m. Thursday with a report from the driver that the vehicle was stolen. "A vehicle was reported stolen and our department was made aware of it and located the vehicle," said Lake Zurich Police Cmdr. Kevin Finlon. Police discovered the vehicle containing the 14- and 15-year-old females at the intersection of Route 12 and Wooded Ridge.

Cornell Oakland Center, Oakland, California
November 19, 2010 AP
A former correctional officer has pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a federal inmate at a privately run halfway house. Thirty-nine-year-old Basean George of San Leandro entered the plea Thursday to one count of sexual abuse of an inmate as part of a deal with prosecutors. George admitted to a month-long sexual relationship in 2008 with a female inmate under his watch at the Cornell Oakland Center. The center is a halfway house under contract with the government that houses federal inmates nearing the end of their sentences. George faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 when he's sentenced Feb. 2.

Danville Center for Adolescent Females, Danville, Texas
August 8, 2005 Danville News
Texas-based Cornell Abraxas will not renew its contract with the state to provide youth treatment services at the Danville Center for Adolescent Females. The company has run the facility since 1998, but has chosen not to continue its management, citing a lack of infrastructure support.

Delta Junction, Alaska
April 17, 2009 News Miner
•Seven years ago, the Legislature approved a plan by Rep. John Harris to give an interest-free $1 million loan to the city of Delta Junction to pay legal costs related to a settlement over the establishment of a private prison. The appropriation was contingent upon the city agreeing to give up $50,000 a year in municipal assistance for 20 years. "They are getting a better deal than they would at a bank. However, it is a loan that they have to repay,” Harris was quoted as saying at the time. The loan would be forgiven entirely, however, and be turned into a grant if Delta became part of a borough. But Gov. Tony Knowles vetoed the measure, saying it would set a bad precedent for the state to bail out a city over a lawsuit. Knowles relied on advice from the attorney general’s office, which said, “Use of state money to pay a litigation-based settlement, in which the state was not a party, raises significant legal questions as to whether the expenditure would be for a public purpose. The retirement of a preexisting debt confers no benefit on the public.” The idea that the loan would be forgiven with the formation of a borough was also of dubious legal merit, the AG said. In 2003, Gov. Frank Murkowski vetoed a $500,000 loan with the same forgiveness clauses because of similar legal doubts, but he changed his mind the next year when the Legislature approved a $1 million loan. He said he thought the area should form a borough and the forgiveness provision encouraged that step. The plan to create a borough was rejected by voters in 2007, but Delta Junction has never stopped trying to get the loan forgiven. Harris has made multiple attempts to redefine the loan as a grant. In early 2008, the city council met with Harris and Sen. Gene Therriault. The minutes of the meeting make reference to a comment by City Administrator Mike Tvenge: “He said the no-interest loan from the state was appreciated because it saved the City from technical bankruptcy but the city felt the state was part of the problem and they should eliminate the debt.” The debt was the result of an out-of-court settlement between the city and Allvest Inc., a private contractor that wanted to build a prison a decade ago and had signed a deal with the city. During a 2007 council meeting, according to the minutes, member Louis Heinbockel “said he felt the prison debt was a scam with the Knowles administration, the debt was assumed by the city because of default from the state of Alaska. The state was the prime mover on the prison and the city should not be spending $50,000 a year to cover that debt.” Pete Hallgren, former city administrator, said he agreed with Heinbockel. During the 2007 session, legislators approved language to forgive the debt. But Gov. Sarah Palin became the third governor to issue a veto on the topic after the attorney general’s office again raised constitutional concerns. “Removing the contingency language of borough formation and converting the loan to a municipal grant before a borough is formed may raise issues of public funds being used to pay a preexisting debt and thus run afoul of art. IX, sec. 6 of the Alaska” Constitution, said Attorney General Talis Colberg. Harris told the Delta City Council last fall that he planned to speak with Colberg about the prison loan. On Thursday, the latest attempt by Harris to get the loan forgiven surfaced in language inserted into a budget bill, Senate Bill 75, before the House Finance Committee. When asked for an explanation, John Bitney, an aide to Harris, told the committee: “This is structured such that the loan can basically be forgiven, if you will. The original language that appropriated had the contingency that the forgiveness would come only if the community incorporated as a borough. And as you can see that contingency is being removed with this language.” There was no discussion about the merits of changing the loan to a grant. In an e-mail today, Bitney said the language was offered by Harris at the request of the city.

August 12, 2008 Anchorage Daily News
Bill Weimar, who made his fortune off private halfway houses in Alaska, pleaded guilty Monday to two federal felonies in U.S. District Court in Anchorage. He admitted his role in a conspiracy to secretly funnel money to a political consultant for an unnamed state Senate candidate, knowing the candidate would back a private prison if he won. Weimar had a long-standing relationship with the candidate running in the 2004 primary, a charging document filed Monday said. Weimar held a "contingent interest" in a private prison project worth $5.5 million, but only if the project was completed, the charges say. He faces prison time in the plea deal and may have to forfeit "certain property." Prosecutors estimate a sentence of 10 to 16 months. U.S. District Judge John Sedwick isn't bound to that. He set sentencing for Oct. 29. Weimar, who owned Allvest Inc., becomes the 11th person charged in the broad, ongoing investigation by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice into political corruption in Alaska. Weimar, 68, now lives in Big Arm, Mont. At the brief hearing on Monday, Weimar answered the judge's routine questions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini outlined the two charges: conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, and illegally manipulating currency transactions to avoid reporting them to the Treasury Department. Weimar has admitted paying the consultant a total of $20,000 during the primary in August 2004 to cover expenses for the candidate, without reporting the payments and without routing them through the campaign. How do you plead? Sedwick asked. "Guilty," Weimar answered, to each charge. LAWMAKER NOT NAMED -- For years, Weimar pushed plans for a private prison in Alaska, but the project was always controversial and no prison was ever built. A Democratic activist in the 1970s, Weimar later became close to the Republicans who controlled the Alaska Legislature. Neither the Senate candidate nor the consultant -- both accused of conspiring with Weimar -- is named in the charging document. Prosecutors declined to expand on it Monday. But the candidate described in the documents, and in court Monday, appears to be former state Sen. Jerry Ward. He didn't return phone calls or e-mail messages on Monday. Ward, a Republican elected from Anchorage in 1996 and the Kenai Peninsula in 2000, fervently pushed private prison projects as a legislator. The charging document says the candidate running in 2004 had a long relationship with Weimar, and held elected office part of that time. Ward and Weimar were "buddies," according to a statement that former lobbyist Bill Bobrick, who worked for Weimar, gave to the FBI in September 2006. Bobrick also has pleaded guilty in the corruption investigation. He declined to comment on Monday. In 1997, a plan for a private prison in South Anchorage with Allvest and Veco Corp. as partners crumbled under strong public opposition. As that project evaporated, Ward emerged as the lead architect of a new plan to build private prisons in the Mat-Su and Seward. "By God, this really solves the problem," Weimar was quoted as saying at the time. In 2001, Ward signed on as the only Senate sponsor of a House bill pushing a private prison on the Kenai. The charging document against Weimar doesn't say whether the candidate won in 2004 and does not call the person a legislator. Ward lost his seat in 2002 to Tom Wagoner. He was trying to regain it in 2004, but lost in the Republican primary to Wagoner. SEATTLE CONSULTANT -- In court Monday, Bottini told the judge the consultant was from Seattle. Some of Ward's biggest campaign expenses in 2004 were more than $43,000 in fees charged by Madison Communications, an advertising and public relations firm based in suburban Kirkland, Wash. Numerous calls left for Madison principal Brett Bader on Monday were not returned. The charges against Weimar and other court documents quote details of a number of telephone conversations he had with the consultant and the candidate from Aug. 17 to Aug. 23, 2004. In a telephone conversation on Aug. 17, 2004, the consultant told Weimar that the campaign was having money trouble, court documents say. "I'm worried we're reaching the limit now. I don't know where we find 10 grand unless (Candidate A) can get more in," the consultant said "There's no legal way to do that. At least not on that scale," Weimar responded. Later that day, Weimar arranged to cover the next advertising mailer for the candidate, and told the candidate so, the document says. On Aug. 20, 2004, Weimar told the candidate of an unpaid invoice of $20,000 with the consultant. The candidate's campaign funds were depleted, the charges say. The candidate said he had only $300 to $400 left in his account. On Aug. 23, 2004, Weimar made arrangements with the consultant to pay off the debt, the charges say. He then called the candidate and told him "he would not be receiving any further bills from Consultant A," the charging document says. Weimar sent the consulting company a $3,000 check on Aug. 23, 2004, then sent $8,500 in cash that same day by express mail, and another $8,500 cash the day after, the charges say. "WE'VE MOVED ON" -- The charges also do not name the private prison company, but Cornell Corrections Inc. tried to build a prison in various Alaska communities, including Delta Junction, Kenai and Whittier. The charging document describes the unnamed company's Alaska interests as halfway houses, a planned juvenile treatment center, and a private prison project, and that matches Cornell's interests. In 1998, in the midst of planning for a private prison in Delta Junction, Weimar sold five Alaska halfway houses to Cornell for $21 million. He also formed a partnership with Cornell to pursue the Delta prison and subsequent deals for a private facility. One goal of the conspiracy was to get the private prison company to give campaign contributions to the candidate to help win election, according to the charges. A spokesman for Cornell said the company was unaware of the charges but supports the prosecution. The executives now in charge of Cornell weren't there at the time of the events that involved Weimar, spokesman Charles Seigel said Monday. Company records don't show any evidence of wrongdoing, he added. "We've moved on and we are very different and have it behind us," Seigel said. Cornell also has not pursued a private prison in Alaska for years and is no longer interested in that, he said. "We're glad this investigation is going on but whatever was going on or may have been going on in the past, that is not the Cornell that exists now, both in the policy on the private prison as we've talked about and in general about the way we do business." By 2004, Veco was no longer involved in the prison project, Frank Prewitt, a former state corrections commissioner, Cornell consultant and FBI informant, has said. ANDERSON INVOLVED -- The failed private prison effort was also central in the government's case against former state Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, now in prison. At Anderson's corruption trial last summer, Prewitt was a key witness who testified at length about his undercover work to collect evidence against Anderson, and also about questionable acts in his own past. From the witness stand, Prewitt said that in 1994 -- when he was corrections commissioner and Weimar owned Allvest -- he accepted $30,000 from Weimar. Prewitt testified that he considered the money a loan, which he repaid the next year, after he left his state post, by working four months for Allvest for free. Weimar helped start Allvest in 1985, then bought out his partners and turned it into a multimillion dollar corporation with operations in Alaska and Washington state. Its government contracts were worth an estimated $10 million a year. Allvest also operated a lab that did contract urinalysis work, and used to run the city's Animal Control Center and the Community Service Patrol. In 2002, Allvest was forced into bankruptcy because of unpaid judgments in civil suits against the company. The bankruptcy case eventually was settled.

June 30, 2007 Daily News-Miner
When the red ink dried on Gov. Sarah Palin’s line-item budget vetoes, the city of Delta Junction proved one of the big losers. “We came out with zero,” said City Administrator Pete Hallgren. Palin cut $15,000 slated for a motocross course, $45,000 for a youth activities facility, and $500,000 for street paving and lighting. She also blocked a legislative decision to relieve a $1 million debt stemming from a city settlement years ago with a company brought on to convert unused military buildings at Fort Greely to a private prison. The governor explained her vetoes by saying the first three projects were not state responsibilities and the fourth raised legal concerns.

June 1, 2007 Daily News-Miner
State lawmakers have approved funding in the state’s capital budget to pay off a debt of nearly $1 million owed by the city of Delta Junction. The debt comes from the city’s settlement years ago with a company brought on to convert unused military buildings at Fort Greely to a private prison. When the plan fell through, the company sued for breach of contract, City Administrator Pete Hallgren said. The city settled before the case went to trial. Delta paid off $100,000 of the $1.1 million settlement, then asked the state for a loan to pay the rest, he said. The state provided the loan, and the city has been paying it back at a rate of $50,000 a year. “This year we asked if the state could forgive the rest of the loan,” he said. Hallgren said he appreciated the loan forgiveness, which he said would make it easier for the city to provide public services.

The Interior city of Delta Junction will receive a $1.2 million no-interest loan from the state to pay off a lawsuit settlement, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Frank Murkowski.  The governor's action last week comes a year after he vetoed a similar proposal and two years after then-Gov. Tony Knowles did the same thing.  The loan will allow the city to finish paying its breach-of-contract settlement with Allvest Inc. and Delta Corrections Corp. stemming from a failed effort to build a private prison at Fort Greely.  In 1998, the city and Allvest reached a contract to build a private prison on Fort Greely, but the noncompetitively bid deal led to a public outcry.  The city then rescinded the contract in 1999, leading Allvest to file a breach-of-contract lawsuit that was ended by settlement. Delta Junction has paid $100,000 of the settlement and owes about $1.16 million.  But city officials have refused to keep making payments, arguing that the settlement deal was contingent on them getting money from the state.  That led to a second lawsuit, which was recently decided in Allvest's favor.  (AP, July 26, 2004)

D. Ray James Prison, Folkston, Georgia
July 27, 2010 Charlton County Herald
For years Charlton County Schools got well over $1 million annually in state funds to make up for the county's low tax base. Those dollars have fallen dramatically this year, however to just $27,000. Superintendent Steve McQueen believes local system funding has changed because of errors in the county tax digest. Because of the drop, the Charlton County Board of Education voted unanimously last week to appeal the digest to the state auditor’s office. “Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is get the equalization board to exercise their discretion and adjust our funding,” explained BOE Attorney Kelly Brooks. “When the state auditor’s office receives our appeal, they will notify the state department of education to hold off on the final determination of our funding for 2011.” The lawyer says this will buy the school system 45 more days, time enough the school board hopes, for the Charlton County Tax Assessor’s office to come up with an accurate tax digest. “There have been substantial post-levy reductions in the digest through timber tax appeals and Cornell’s appeal [on the D. Ray James Prison valuation],” said Brooks. “Call me skeptical but for six years in a row the county’s certified digest has meant nothing.” Last year for example, Charlton County’s certified digest was $332 million but the county, school board and cities never collected taxes on that amount. After the state approved the digest, but before payments started coming in, the digest dropped by $16.5 million because of the prison appeal. That one reduction amounted to a loss in property tax revenues to the school system last year of $252,000.

January 22, 2010 Times-Union
The Charlton County Commission, the county school system and Folkston are all hastily adjusting their budgets after a single successful appeal of a property assessment. Commissioners are expected to approve an "error and relief" agreement in February to reduce the assessed value of privately owned D. Ray James Prison from $97 million to $55 million. The successful appeal by Cornell Companies, owners and operators of the prison, will cost the city, county and school system at least $730,000 in anticipated tax revenue. County Manager Steve Nance said Cornell appealed the assessed value of the prison after it nearly doubled in 2009. Two new structures - an addition that will house 700 inmates this year and another facility for 300 prisoners from both Charlton County and the U.S. Marshals Service - were on the tax rolls for the first time this year, likely leading to the increase in value, Nance said. During the appeal, Cornell officials didn't dispute the accuracy of the appraisal of the facility. Instead, they argued it would be impossible to sell the sprawling prison complex for what the company invested because the structures are for very specialized purposes - to securely house inmates. They also claimed the original part of the prison, more than a decade old, had depreciated in value, Nance said. "They contended the value did not equal the cost," he said. The property appraiser who determined the appraised value never visited the prison until after Cornell filed an appeal, Nance said. Instead, the appraiser determined the value from manuals, he said. "She did not actually tour the facility until the appeal was made," he said. "After the tour, she agreed the value was too high. It was a lot more austere than she thought." Despite the hardship losing an estimated $334,000 in anticipated tax revenue, Nance said county officials have no plans to contest the ruling by the Board of Assessors. "It would be difficult for us to appeal our own valuation," he said. Also, there is no appeal process unless the complaint is taken to the Board of Equalization by the property owner, Nance said. "Is there any recourse [for Folkston and the school district]?" Nance asked. "I don't think they have the right to challenge this." Now, the already cash-strapped county will maintain a "continuous evaluation process" to cut spending to make up for the shortfall, Nance said. Folkston City Manager Pender Lloyd said the appeal will cost his city at least $108,000 in anticipated tax revenue - nearly a 5 percent cut to the city's $2.4 million budget. "We knew Cornell was probably going to appeal," Lloyd said. "We certainly had no idea it [the prison's value] would drop by $42 million." Lloyd criticized the timing, saying one appeal should not have so much impact to local governments. An appeal of the magnitude of Cornell's should have been resolved before the county digest was completed to give local governments an accurate estimate of how much revenue would be generated in taxes. The city will delay some projects planned this year, including construction of a new park, he said. Travel to conferences and training is also canceled, unless it is required by law, Lloyd said. "We have some revenues built up, so we can handle it," he said. "We're all affected and we've got to work through this thing. We've got to deal with it."

May 20, 2009 Yahoo.com
Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CRN) today announced that it has been informed by the Georgia Department of Corrections that the Department will not start using the Company's recently completed expansion at its D. Ray James Prison in Georgia. The Company's previous guidance, included in the first quarter earnings release, provided a base case that assumed that the 700-bed expansion at D. Ray James Prison would begin to ramp at the beginning of the third quarter of 2009, and an alternate case that, if the expansion was to remain empty for all of 2009, earnings for the full year would be reduced by up to approximately $0.08 per share. Today's updated guidance assumes that the expansion will remain empty for the remainder of the year. As a result, the Company now expects earnings per share for the full year of $1.62 to $1.70. The Company also reaffirmed the earnings guidance range for the second quarter of $0.42 to $0.46 per share.

September 6, 2008 Savanna Now
A Savannah man serving a life sentence for a 1984 slaying recently helped save a prison counselor being assaulted by another inmate. Arthur Lee "Leechain" Scott, an inmate at D Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston, rushed to the aid of a female mental health counselor on Aug. 24, officials said. Another inmate who had been working with the woman in a one-on-one session had her in a choke hold, said Charles Seigel, spokesman for Cornell Companies Inc., a private corporation in Houston that operates the medium-security prison for the state. Seigel said Scott got there first and "really helped." "He and others reacted well, and he was very gallant and deserves praise for what he did," Seigel said. The unidentified counselor was taken to a hospital but suffered no serious physical injuries, Seigel said. The attacking inmate has been transferred to another facility, he said. The incident remains under investigation.

March 24, 2008 News 4 Jax
Federal prisoners at the D. Ray James Prison near Folkston, Ga., were locked down on Monday after prisoners resisted orders to return to their cells, Channel 4 learned. Prison officials said there were no injuries. The Charlton County Sheriff's Office said the prison did not request assistance. A spokesman for Cornell Companies, the private firm that runs the prison, said the lockdown is only in a newly opened pod that houses federal prisoners and does not affect the entire prison. Only 50 to 60 inmates of the prison's capacity of 1,640 were involved. Since the prison opened in 1998, it has expanded to become the largest privately run prison in Georgia.

Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility, Eagle Mountain, California
March 21, 2007 The Press-Enterprise
Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, reiterated her opposition Wednesday to reopening a private prison at Eagle Mountain, a remote community in Riverside County. The 500-bed facility closed in 2003 shortly after a riot that killed two inmates and injured dozens. This week, Senate Republicans proposed reopening the prison as part of their plan this week to reduce prison crowding. Garcia, whose district includes Eagle Mountain, said she will only support using the prison as a minimum-security facility staffed by state correctional officers. "I want to be clear and direct -- I am adamantly opposed and will fight any effort to reopen a private prison at Eagle Mountain under any conditions," Garcia wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary James Tilton.

September 14, 2006 The Press-Enterprise
A Houston-based corrections company hopes to reopen a 500-bed lockup in Eagle Mountain, three years after lawmakers closed the privately operated prison. Riverside County officials confirmed Thursday that they've received a proposal from Cornell Cos. for a 150,000-square-foot correctional facility in the remote community near Joshua Tree National Park. Cornell Cos. officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment this week. The company's Web site says it operates 79 correctional facilities in 17 states, including California. Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the state has asked contractors to submit their plans for operating 8,500 prison beds for men and women. Information about the bidders and their proposals is confidential until the state awards the contracts Nov. 17, Thornton said. Plans submitted to Riverside County call for $27 million in new construction at the Eagle Mountain site and say the project would create 150 jobs. County Supervisor Roy Wilson, whose district includes Eagle Mountain, said officials have promised to fast-track Cornell's proposal to help it meet strict state deadlines, if the company receives the contract. But Wilson said he expects the project to be vetted before the county Planning Commission before coming to the Board of Supervisors for consideration. "They need some kind of economic development out there," Wilson said. "It's a ghost town. It's in dire straits." Five people live in Eagle Mountain. Mary Zeiler, resident of Eagle Mountain for 36 years, said she was sorry to see the minimum-security prison closed in 2003 when state lawmakers cut funding for the prison run by Utah-based Management & Training Corp. Two months before its closure, the prison, a converted supermarket, fell under scrutiny when two inmates were killed and seven inmates were injured in a riot. Kay Hazen, spokeswoman for Kaiser Ventures, said she had not seen Cornell's proposal but that Kaiser welcomes any opportunity to use the prison as a solution to the state's shortage of prison beds. Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, said she would like to see the state house inmates there but not under a private contractor. "I am not supportive of any private prisons," Garcia said.

Grantsville, Utah
Legislators have endorsed a $1.5 million settlement to avoid being sued by a private corrections company over the state's abandonment of plans for a private prison in Tooele County. "We warned lawmakers, " said Steve Erickson, co-founder of Utah Citizens Education Project. "Heading down the private prison path was buying a pig in a poke. Turns out it was all pig and no pokey." The $1.5 million figure is roughly $2 million less than Cornell and its subcontractors, VCBO Architects and Hogan Construction, said they were owed. (AP, June 21, 2001)

Great Plains Correctional Facility, Hinton, Oklahoma
August 11, 2010 Tulsa World
Arizona is pulling more than 1,700 of its inmates from the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton. Arizona has recently added 4,000 beds to its existing prisons to increase capacity, Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson said Tuesday. In addition, the state's contract for space at Great Plains is nearing an end, he said. The Great Plains private prison is owned by the Hinton Economic Development Authority and operated by Houston-based Cornell Cos. Cornell Cos. was previously in the process of merging with GEO, based in Boca Raton, Fla. GEO operates the Lawton Correctional Facility. The Arizona inmates are expected to be removed in the coming months, said Charles Seigel, Cornell Cos. spokesman. The company has known for several months that Arizona was considering the move, he said. The Great Plains Correctional Facility has 272 employees with an annual payroll of $9.1 million. "We are going to be without inmates for the moment," Seigel said. "We are working to try to find another customer to use it." Until then, employees will be laid off, he said. Hinton has a population of just under 3,000, said Dave Flezickey, a Hinton Economic Development Authority spokesman. The prison is one of the town's largest employers. Cornell and Corrections Corporation of America have told the Federal Bureau of Prisons that they are interested in housing criminal illegal aliens at Great Plains and three other private prisons in the state. The inmates would be low-security males who are predominantly Mexican citizens with one year or less left to serve. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections does not have the funds to contract to house state inmates at the two Oklahoma private prisons from which Arizona has removed inmates, said DOC Director Justin Jones. Arizona also removed inmates from Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga this spring. "Obviously, I would not rule it out, but that decision will have to be made through the legislative process," Jones said. He said the private prison industry is a speculative market. "It is not immune to recession and trends in sentencing and crime," Jones said. "A lot of states have gone back and applied research to their sentencing practices, which results in sentences that are more evidence-based, and that obviously affects a market that relies upon incarceration."

August 6, 2010 Market Watch
Cornell Companies, Inc. announced today that it has received notification from the Arizona Department of Corrections of its election not to renew its contract at Cornell's 2,048 bed Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton, Oklahoma, which is scheduled to expire on September 12, 2010. The Company will be working with Arizona in the coming days to determine the schedule for the transfer of inmates, which the Company expects to complete in 2010. As a result of this notification, Cornell intends to continue marketing the facility to other customers. Cornell's previous 2010 guidance assumed that the Arizona DOC would maintain its use of the Great Plains facility at its present level through the end of the year. In May 2010, Cornell reported that the ultimate resolution of Arizona's usage of the facility would likely depend on the timing of Arizona's budget process and may not occur until the third quarter of 2010. In light of the contract termination, Cornell is withdrawing its prior annual financial guidance.

February 26, 2010 AP
Cornell Cos. Inc.'s sales and profit will decline if the state of Arizona removes inmates from the company's Oklahoma prison, an analyst said as he downgraded the prison operator's shares. First Analysis Securities analyst Todd Van Fleet downgraded the Houston company to "equal weight" from "overweight." The January budget proposals from Arizona's governor and legislature would phase out the use of private out-of-state beds. Arizona is struggling to close budget shortfalls. Van Fleet said there was less than a 25 percent chance that Cornell would be able to persuade legislators to keep Arizona inmates in the company's Oklahoma prison. The loss of the Arizona prisoners which could cut into Cornell's annual earnings by 35 cents to 45 cents per share. Van Fleet cut his estimate for 2010 profit to $1.09 per share from $1.69 per share, and his 2010 sales estimate to $398 million from $440.6 million. On Wednesday, when it released fourth-quarter earnings, Cornell predicted it would make $1.31 to $1.41 per share in 2010. The guidance assumed that Cornell would continue to keep all its Arizona inmates for the rest of the year. The contract for the Arizona prisoners ends in mid-September, Van Fleet said. Cornell shares slipped 13 cents to $18.61 in midday trading. They have dropped about 25 percent since Arizona proposed its budget in mid-January.

October 9, 2007 The Oklahoman
A convicted murderer who kidnapped and assaulted two woman after his January escape from a private prison told investigators he has been rattling the prison fences for five years to see whether any guards would respond. None ever did, convicted murderer Charles McDaniels told investigators, according to a report by the state Department of Corrections' Office of Internal Affairs. McDaniels and another inmate, Tony Ellison, cut through a Great Plains Correctional Facility fence with wire cutters on Jan. 22, kidnapped a Hinton woman and then an Oklahoma City woman, tying both up in the second woman's Oklahoma City home. The escapees also are accused of committing a rash of home invasions in the Tulsa area before they were captured 36 hours after their escape. McDaniels later told investigators the prison tower was usually unmanned and that razor wire surrounding the perimeter fence was insufficient, according to the Internal Affairs report. On Nov. 15, two months before the escape, prison officials received a security audit from state officials that criticized such areas as "inmate count procedures, perimeter fencing, camera placement, and perimeter security,” according to an April 6 letter to prison officials from Ed Evans, associate director of field operations for the corrections department. The letter also noted that on Jan. 18, the state agency determined "additional corrective action was needed due to the prison's inadequate responses regarding the perimeter fencing.” McDaniels and Ellison escaped four days later. Ellison was found hanged in a Tulsa County jail cell after his capture. State officials assessed the prison damages of $60,625 for non-performance between Nov. 15, and Feb. 19, when the prison's second plan of action was accepted by the agency. "I'm not sure we really had enough time to fix all the deficiencies before the escapes,” said Charles Siegel, a spokesman for Cornell Cos. Inc., which operates the medium-security prison for the Hinton Economic Development Authority. "But I know we fixed most of them.” Cornell paid the state agency the damage assessment, Siegel said. Eldon McCumber, the Hinton authority's chairman, called the fines "extreme.” "To me, it looked like one employee didn't do their job,” McCumber said. "It was a human error.” McDaniels told investigators he and Ellison began cutting the fence at 12:30 p.m. during a recreation break. When the period was over, they entered the prison and came out with another group on recreation break. McDaniels said he was surprised that the perimeter officer was not more observant, according to the Office of Internal Affairs report. "If they had just been driving around, they would have seen us,” he told investigators. McDaniels said he and Ellison went back and forth through the cut fence about three times before taking off and stopping at the first available house just east of the prison. The report also said a 4 p.m. inmate count revealed two missing prisoners, but two more counts were taken before the prison's emergency response team was deployed at 5:30 p.m. At the time of the escape, McDaniels was serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of a Tulsa taxi driver. Ellison was serving time for burglary, motor vehicle theft and escape convictions. Authorities eventually cornered and arrested the two inmates in Tulsa, but not until after 36-hour crime spree that included the kidnapping of Hinton resident June Heldermon, 71, and Oklahoma City resident Teresa Mannix, 74. The women were left alive and bound in Mannix's home. They struggled to free themselves and then called police. McDaniels is serving a second life sentence at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester because of the kidnappings. He still faces charges for the Tulsa burglaries. Back in business -- The Hinton prison closed in April after a contract dispute with the Department of Corrections. It recently reopened. The prison houses 225 inmates and is receiving about 80 more each week from Arizona, Siegel said. The prison is expected to return to its 900-inmate capacity by late November, he said. Siegel said Cornell has spent more than $600,000 on "state-of-the-art” security, including additional perimeter fencing and sensor devices. Siegel declined to be more specific for security reasons. Vonda Weathers, Heldermon's daughter, isn't buying Cornell's new security pitch. "I'm still scared,” said Weathers, who can see the prison's lights from her home seven miles away. "I work at a restaurant in downtown Hinton, and I won't feel any safer. They said they had good security back then.”

April 7, 2007 The Oklahoman
The last of the Great Plains Correctional Facility's nearly 200 employees clocked out of work Friday, leaving the 9-year-old prison empty and a Caddo County town of 1,400 people wondering what will happen next. "This is devastating,” said Eldon McCumber, chairman of the Hinton Economic Development Authority (HEDA) board. "This is going to have a big impact on the community, especially HEDA. ..... "But we're working daily to get an inmate contract. Employees, meanwhile, shared their frustrations with each other Thursday at a farewell barbeque. No one in attendance would speak publicly about being laid off. "I think they're afraid they won't be hired back when the prison reopens,” said Linda Maize, whose husband, Michael, is the prison's hospital administrator. Maize and her husband expressed concern over employees who are already experiencing hardships, especially couples where both spouses were employed at the prison. "You always hear about how most of us are just one paycheck away from being homeless,” Linda Maize said. "Well, we just got our last paycheck.” Skeleton crew remains: By Friday, only a skeleton crew of 10 employees remained to man the prison and its surrounding grounds. "It's a pretty sad deal,” said Michael Maize, who has worked at the prison for four years. "There was a group of people who clung on, hoping something would happen. There was a family-type atmosphere there because we all watched each other's backs ..... "The hardest part was watching your friends lose their jobs one-by-one, and wondering when your number was going to come up. That was tough because we all knew it was coming.” The Hinton authority, which financed the $37.2 million prison a decade ago, leases the facility to Houston-based Cornell Companies for $100,000 annually and receives an additional $25,000 per month from inmate per diems. Cornell purchased the prison in 1998, and then deeded the property back to the Hinton authority under the present lease agreement. Since then McCumber said the authority has used revenue from the prison to build the Sugar Creek Canyon Golf Course, spruce up local school properties, and leverage other business projects. But those days suddenly seem like a distant memory. "Dollar-wise, we're pretty much down to nothing,” McCumber said. "We're cash-strapped, although we still have a lot of money invested in properties.”

April 4, 2007 AP
A convicted killer who allegedly escaped from a private prison and abducted a Caddo County woman will stand trial. Special District Judge David Stephens made his decision yesterday at the end of Charles McDaniels' preliminary hearing. The 35-year-old McDaniels is accused of fleeing the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton on January 22nd with another inmate. The pair allegedly broke into 71-year-old June Heldermon's home and drove her and her vehicle into Oklahoma City. It's there where authorities allege McDaniels and fellow escapee Tony Ellison broke into the home of 74-year-old Teresa Mannix, tied up her and Heldermon and left in Mannix's vehicle. The men were captured in Tulsa after a 36-hour manhunt. Ellison later hanged himself in his Tulsa jail cell.

March 20, 2007 Oklahoman
The Great Plains Correctional Facility will close indefinitely "the first week of April,” leaving some 190 employees at the private prison without work, a company spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. "The decision to close came down to contract negotiations with DOC (state Department of Corrections),” said Christine Parker, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. Only 290 state inmates remain at the private prison from a population that was once 800 as recent as October. State corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said the remaining inmates are scheduled to be moved no later than April 6. State guards began relocating inmates after prison officials announced they would not renew their state contract in October. Parker said the decision came after months of negotiations. The bulk of Hinton's inmates were sent to the Lawton Correctional Facility, a private prison that recently underwent a $23 million, 600-bed expansion. "Basically, they (prison official) were telling us they were losing money,” Massie said. "We were paying other private prisons in the state anywhere from $40 to $45 a day per bed. They were getting around $47 a day per bed. "So they were getting more than anyone else.” In January, the private prison came under scrutiny when a convicted murderer and another fugitive escaped and kidnapped two elderly women. Authorities arrested both fugitives in Tulsa County, but only after a 36-hour manhunt that stretched 150 miles. Both women lived to tell their frightful story. At the time, a contract extension with the state was being discussed. Massie later said the extension wasn't necessary. "The closure has nothing to do with the escapes,” Parker said. "We had already decided not to renew our contract with DOC by then.”

February 11, 2007 AP
More than two-thirds of convicted killers in Oklahoma are not incarcerated at the state's most secure prisons, but instead are housed in state-run and private medium-security facilities, according to a published report. Fewer than 400 first-degree murderers, including the men on death row, are at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, according to records for Jan. 23. Another 117 are at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, a women's prison, The Sunday Oklahoman reported. ``Inmates can earn their way down,'' Corrections Department Director Justin Jones said. ``I think it's OK. ... For us, medium security is considered high security.'' The issue arose after convicted killer Charles McDaniels and fellow inmate Tony Ellison escaped from the Great Plains Correctional Facility after cutting holes in fences. The pair abducted a woman, drove her and her vehicle to Oklahoma City and assaulted and robbed another woman before taking off in her vehicle. They eventually were apprehended in Tulsa, where Ellison hanged himself at the jail, authorities said. McDaniels and 65 others with first-degree murder convictions were held at the medium-security private prison in Hinton. ``I had been told that they didn't have murderers there ... that it was just for burglary and assault and so forth,'' said June Heldermon, 71, who lived near the prison and was kidnapped Jan. 22, allegedly by the escapees. Heldermon is seeing a counselor over her ordeal and is staying with her daughter. ``I've got to get rid of that house,'' she said. ``I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm just not about to go back up there and live. ... No way! One time's enough for me.''

January 29, 2007 The Oklahoman
A private prison that recently ended its contract with the state has notified nearly 200 employees that the prison may close. The Great Plains Correctional Facility sent notices to its employees last week telling them their jobs could be terminated within 60 days. Warden Sam Calbone said the prison is required by law to notify employees of a possible termination in advance but hopes the prison won't have to close. "We're hopefully optimistic right now that it won't come to that,” Calbone said. Prison officials and the state Corrections Department in July were in disagreement over how much the state should pay to keep inmates there. In October, the prison told state officials they had 180 days to relocate about 800 inmates being held at the prison. At the time of the announcement, company officials said they were pursuing a contract with other, undisclosed agencies for the use of the prison space. State corrections officials learned in October the prison was negotiating with other states, possibly California, which recently agreed to pay private prisons in Watonga and Sayre $63 per day to house about 500 California inmates. Oklahoma pays the Hinton prison about $47 per day per inmate.

January 25, 2007 KTUL
About 150 employees at the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton have been told the prison will be closing in March. A spokeswoman for Cornell Corrections says workers were given a 60-day notice of the closure last Friday. Spokeswoman Christine Parker says the contract between the state of Oklahoma and Cornell expired in July, and the two parties couldn't reach a new contract. She says the 530 inmates housed there are being transferred to other facilities. The facility has operated in Hinton since 1998. The closing is not connected to the escape of two inmates on Monday. The two men are accused of embarking on a crime spree before they were captured Wednesday in Tulsa. One of the two escapees killed himself this morning in a Tulsa jail.

January 25, 2007 AP
One of two men who escaped from a prison and was suspected of going on a crime spree before being recaptured hanged himself in jail Thursday and apparently had a suicide pact with the other escaped inmate, sheriff's officials said. Tony Ellison, 23, was found hanging from a bed sheet tied to a light fixture at 8:35 a.m., 20 minutes after a routine check of his cell, the Tulsa County sheriff's office said. Ellison and the other escaped inmate, Charles McDaniels, discussed their plans to kill themselves in letters found in their cells, Undersheriff Brian Edwards said. McDaniels, 35, was immediately placed on a suicide watch. "We were very surprised when we uncovered this plot between the two of them," Edwards said, adding that Ellison had not seemed despondent and had not been on a suicide watch. "If a person is very determined, it is very difficult to keep them from hurting themselves," Edwards said.

January 24, 2007 Texarkana Gazette
Authorities captured two escaped inmates, including a convicted killer, Wednesday morning after a nearly 40-hour search. Capt. Chris West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Charles McDaniels, 35, and Tony Ellison, 23, were captured in a central Tulsa neighborhood at about 3 a.m. The men led authorities on a short car chase after investigators closed in on the home where they were hiding, West said. The men crashed the car and then fled on foot before they were arrested. There were no injuries. "We feel very satisfied that it ended like it did tonight," West said. McDaniels and Ellison escaped from the medium-security Great Plains Correctional Center in Hinton, 50 miles west of Oklahoma City, on Monday by cutting through a fence in a recreation yard, said Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Massie said he wasn't sure how they could have done this without guards seeing them. He said there are no towers at the prison, but guards would monitor the perimeter of the facility. No cutting implement had been found Tuesday, Massie said. Houston-based Cornell Cos., the private operator of the prison, offered a $25,000 reward Tuesday for information leading to the capture of the inmates, who are believed to have escaped at 3:24 p.m. Monday when an electronic perimeter system sounded a series of alarms at the prison's control room. Officials confirmed the prisoners were missing during a 4 p.m. head count and placed the facility on lockdown. Authorities believe the pair broke into a Hinton residence, abducted a woman and drove her and her vehicle into Oklahoma City, where they broke into a northwest-side home. Oklahoma City police Capt. Steve McCool said the men then tied up the women. He said the women were somehow able to call police for help, but he didn't have exact details. One of the women was punched and may have a broken nose, McCool said. The escapees were able to get in the house by asking to use a telephone. They pushed their way in when the woman tried to hand a phone to them. The two women were identified by police Tuesday as Wanza "June" Heldermon of Hinton, and Teresa Mannix of Oklahoma City. McCool said Heldermon may have been abducted to buy the men some time. "They probably did it in an effort to give themselves a head start from law enforcement," he said. "Then they tie them up, all in an effort to give them a head start." McDaniels had been at Great Plains since 2001, and Ellison had been there since October, Massie said. The facility holds 531 men, and the Department of Corrections had been lowering the population because the contract with Cornell was not renewed and is set to expire in April, Massie said. In a statement, Cornell said all prison personnel were at their assigned posts and all security systems were functioning properly. The company said it does not know what type of tool was used to cut through two security fences topped with razor wire, but all prison tools and equipment were accounted for. The prison also has two rows of razor wire between the fences, which are monitored by an electronic system.

January 23, 2007 Tulsa World
Two men, including one who was a teenager when he killed a Tulsa cab driver, escaped from a southwestern Oklahoma private prison Monday and allegedly abducted one woman and broke into the home of another, authorities said. Officials at the Great Plains Correctional Center in Hinton noticed that Charles Marcel McDaniels, 35, and Tony L. Ellison, 23, were missing after a 4 p.m. head count, according to a statement from the prison's parent company, Cornell Cos. Authorities think the pair broke into a Hinton residence, abducted a woman and drove her in her vehicle to Oklahoma City, where they broke into another home, Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Keith Vance said. "They took the first victim into the house, left her there along with the second victim, but stole her (the latter victim's) car," he said. Vance did not release the victims' names. He said the condition of the Oklahoma City woman, who was seen in television footage being carried from the house on a stretcher, wasn't immediately known. The other woman has returned to Hinton, he said. The prison was locked down while the escape is investigated, Great Plains officials said.

October 24, 2006 Enid News
The old saying, “crime doesn’t pay,” might apply to criminals, but not to operators of private prisons. Officials at Hinton’s Great Plains Correctional Facility recently announced they would evict 800 state inmates housed there under contract with Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections. Cornell Cos. Inc., the Houston company that has owned the medium-security prison since 1998, is evicting the DOC prisoners, according to a spokeswoman, to consider “other business opportunities.” In other words, there are entities that will pay Cornell Cos. Inc. more per head for housing prisoners than the Oklahoma DOC can presently afford. State Corrections Director Justin Jones said the Hinton prison had been negotiating a better deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who are offering a better rate. California, which has declared an emergency due to prison overcrowding, reportedly is prepared to pay between $71 and $80 per day per prisoner to house the Golden State’s bad guys in private prisons. The state of Oklahoma, which will pay just more than $45 per day per inmate, can’t compete. You can’t blame Cornell Cos. Inc. They are a private business and, as such, are entitled to charge whatever they chooses for their services. The problem is, the state doesn’t have much room to house the 800 inmates Cornell is booting from its cells. The state has just 180 days to find someplace to put the evicted prisoners, but the state’s prisons are 98 percent full, meaning there’s little or no room for inmates at the inn. Even many county jails, which currently house more than 1,350 DOC prisoners, are at or near capacity. Such is the case with Garfield County Detention Center. So what is Oklahoma to do? Spend more money. The state either needs more prison beds, or must boost its per-diem rate for housing prisoners, or both. The DOC already has asked for a $193 million bond issue to help pay for a new 1,400-bed medium-security prison, 750 maximum security beds and other renovations. Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, thinks the state should pay for new prison space with money from the state “rainy day” fund, which he said currently contains nearly $500 million. Whether from a bond issue or from rainy day funds, the state must spend money to tackle this problem. Our police and courts are doing a good job of catching and convicting criminals, our prison system must make provisions to house them. This incident clearly illustrates the point DOC can’t count on private prisons to help solve the prison overcrowding problem.

October 12, 2006  The Oklahoman
About 800 Oklahoma inmates will be kicked out of the private prison that houses them, state Corrections Department officials learned Wednesday. The state received notice Wednesday from Cornell Corrections, the private company that runs the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton, corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said. The state will have 180 days to find new housing for about 800 inmates who currently are incarcerated in Hinton. The state has relied on the private prison for more than six years to handle part of its growing problem with prison overcrowding. State-owned prisons are essentially full, running about 98 percent of capacity. Before Wednesday's development, all public and private prisons in the state were projected to be out of space by next year. "This is just going to make a bad situation worse," Massie said. Cornell's contract with the state expired in July, and both parties weren't able to agree on terms for a new contract, leaving the company open to seek a new tenant, said Christine Parker, spokeswoman for Cornell. "We are in the process of considering other business opportunities," Parker said. State Corrections Director Justin Jones said last week the Hinton prison had been negotiating a better deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who offered a better rate. "You're dealing with a private business here, and they are in it to make money and answer to shareholders," Jones said. "Our mission is public safety, and the ideologies don't always line up."

October 6, 2006 The Oklahoman
The state Corrections Department might lose its contract with a private prison that houses 800 inmates, the agency's director said. Federal immigration officials have been negotiating a contract with the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton that would offer more favorable terms than those offered by the state, which pays $44 per day for each inmate housed there, state Corrections Director Justin Jones said. Officials for Cornell Corrections, the company that runs the prison, did not respond to inquiries Thursday from The Oklahoman. Carl Rusnok, regional spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said only that "we contract with a number of facilities around the country." U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, R-Tulsa, who has called for an increased presence by the federal agency in Oklahoma, said the agency is looking to better serve Oklahoma's immigration enforcement needs. "Any increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in Oklahoma is a positive step for our state," Sullivan said in a statement. Jones said his agency already has executed its option to renew the contract. Leasing that space to anyone else should not be allowed under the contract, he said. Jones said corrections officials will challenge any contract with the prison that undercuts the department's holdings there.

July 24, 2006 Oklahoman
All five inmates who were hospitalized after an altercation Friday in a Caddo County prison have been treated and returned to jail, according to a statement from Cornell Companies Inc., the prison's private owner. Shortly before 7 p.m. Friday, between 25 and 30 inmates started a disturbance at the Great Plaines Correctional Facility that resulted in the injuries, the statement says. Five inmates were injured and taken to area hospitals in the incident, according to the statement. Earlier reports indicated seven inmates were injured and four hospitalized. All injuries were minor, the statement notes. The prison remained on lockdown Saturday. The medium security prison for men can house 766 inmates, according to the Web site of the prison's Houston-based owner. In 2005, the prison was the site of a prisoner fight that ended in the death of an inmate. And in 2000, the prison's owner was fined $304,000 for alleged security breaches that led to an inmate's escape.

July 21, 2006 KOCO 5
A disturbance was reported Friday among inmates at a private prison in Caddo County. A fight broke out among a group of inmates about 6:30 p.m. at the Great Plains Correctional Facility at Hinton, Caddo County Sheriff Gene Cain said. Cain said six or seven inmates were transported by ambulance to a hospital in El Reno. The severity of the injuries was not immediately known but they did not appear to be life threatening, Cain said. The sheriff said authorities do not know what started the fight. Capt. Stuart Meyer of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said troopers were notified of a disturbance at the private prison but that details - including how many inmates were involved and whether anyone was hurt - were not immediately known. "We've been told there was a disturbance there. But they have not requested any assistance from the highway patrol," Meyer said. Jerry Massie, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said a fight was reported in one housing unit at the prison, which houses about 250 minimum and medium security inmates. But Massie did not know the severity of the incident. A spokesman for the Hinton Police Department who asked not to be identified said the prison was in lockdown at 10 p.m. and that all inmates were back in their cells. Prison authorities refused to release any information. An unidentified operator who answered the telephone at the prison told an Associated Press reporter to call back during normal business hours and talk to someone else. The disturbance is not the first at the facility. Inmate Pedro Posadas, 32, was killed on March 4, 2005, in a fight with another inmate at the private prison. The prison, owned by Cornell Corrections Inc. of Houston, was fined by the Department of Corrections in May 2000 for alleged security breaches that allowed an inmate to escape the month before. The $304,000 penalty was at the time the largest ever assessed against an Oklahoma private prison.

November 15, 2005 AP
Members of a public trust at Hinton were duped by a Georgia man into spending more than $7.5 million on a cocoa butter plant that was doomed from the start, state Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan said Tuesday. According to a special audit by McMahan's office, members of the Hinton Economic Development Authority were not informed about patent problems tied to a method of extracting cocoa butter utilizing liquefied gas. McMahan said a conflict of interest appears to exist because several members of the trust authority that approved the project also became minority owners of the cocoa butter extracting plant. Ken Doughty, vice chairman, lost $1.8 million in the deal, auditors said. They said the other board members got a share of ownership through promissory notes. Trust members were led to believe that Hinton streets would "be paved with gold" from profits on the plant, McMahan said. "Basically, the authority's board members were duped into believing in an individual, who in my opinion, deliberately made - and received payments on - promises he knew would not be kept," the state official said, identifying the developer as Donald R. Hall of Savannah, Ga. McMahan said Hall apparently contacted Hinton officials after they advertised on the Internet, seeking economic development opportunities for the town in western Oklahoma. He said the trust backed the project with part of an $18 million windfall from the sale of a private prison.

An appeals court Tuesday agreed with two Oklahoma private prison inmates, who served as their own attorneys, that prison officials erred in disciplining them.  The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that prison officials, who revoked 365 days of earned credits from Timothy Gamble and 180 days of earned credits from Kenneth Popejoy, must restore the credits.  Gamble and Popejoy were inmates at Great Plains Correctional Facility. Officials there, who ruled the inmates violated the law that governs inmates' use of their own funds to pay for photocopying, misinterpreted the law, the judges concluded.  (News Ok, July 14, 2004)

Hector Garza Juvenile Detention Center, San Antonio, Texas
June 15, 2008 San Antonio Express-News
Sergio Fernández would rather not sound conspiratorial, but he has a hard time explaining why, despite an existing agreement, the federal government no longer sends detained immigrants to his San Antonio youth center. Though it's open for business, the four-story, 12-acre Hector Garza Residential Treatment Center near U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 on the North Side sits empty. Its last two residents left nearly two weeks ago. He hasn't been given an official explanation, but Fernández, the center's director, surmised it may have something to do with a lawsuit filed against him, his staff and his corporate parent by eight minors formerly housed at the center who claimed they suffered physical abuse and neglect. The center is privately owned and operated by Abraxas Youth and Family Services, the juvenile division of Houston-based corrections giant Cornell. The 121-bed center, a former psychiatric hospital, houses youths under state and federal contracts. The agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is to temporarily oversee as many as 30 unauthorized immigrant minors pending their release or deportation. A spokesman for the federal agency did not return messages for comment on why immigrant youths — whose average stay is two to three months — are no longer sent to the center. The agency has also failed to respond to repeated requests in the past three months for tours and access to staff and residents of Hector Garza and other centers in the San Antonio area. Unlike other HHS-contracted “shelters” or dormitory-style campuses, the Hector Garza center is designated “staff secure” because it's a more restrictive setting meant to handle problematic youngsters. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Antonio in April, came as a result of a brawl between center residents and staff in February. Staffers called police to help quell the mayhem, which concluded with four minors under arrest. According to the suit, filed by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, excessive violence used by staff and police symbolized incessant abuse that minors reported to supervisors to no avail. State and federal officials are accused of covering up abuse reports. Fernández said the allegations are ludicrous and malicious — legal and political maneuvering meant to buy minors more time for their immigration cases while making a for-profit juvenile detention business look bad. “They don't have one shred of evidence,” Fernández said Thursday while giving a reporter a tour of the center. “We're looking forward to seeing this through to be fully vindicated.” Though he couldn't discuss details of the February fracas for legal reasons, he already claimed victory after a state investigation cleared the center of abuse or neglect. The report from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services faulted staffers for failing to remove one minor checking out the fight — a citation Fernández is appealing — but found no other violations. Pointing to cameras and microphones in the ceiling in the hallway where the clash took place, Fernández remained confident he'll win the suit because the fight was recorded. The three residential floors are split into two wings to separate resident populations — immigrant youngsters cannot have contact with youths housed under other contracts. Rooms have two single beds and a bathroom, and doors must remain open except during the day, when staff lock them while minors attend classes taught by the John H. Wood Jr. Charter School. Residential wings have classrooms, lounges with seascapes painted by the youngsters and laundry rooms — residents are encouraged, though not obliged, to wash their own clothes, Fernández said. The first floor has an intake area and cafeteria, while outside are picnic tables, a pool, a small soccer field and a 12-foot steel “no-climb” fence that replaced another barrier over which five minors had jumped to flee — three were caught. Fernández said overzealous lawyers preyed on minors' survival instincts, prompting them to sue the center. Staff and residents had cordial and even amiable relations before lawyers began showing up, he lamented. “Sometimes we feel like a pawn in a bigger issue,” he said. “But we're not about whether government policies are right or wrong. We're about providing a safe environment for the kids — that's it.”

May 16, 2008 CBS News
A new lawsuit filed against a private contractor who runs an immigrant child detention center claims nine teenagers were beaten and abused by employees who work for Cornell Companies. The company has been cited by immigration officials for safety problems in the past. The Hector Garza facility in San Antonio handles young immigrant “males with serious behavioral and psychological impairments”. “I think the general American has no idea these kids even exist,” said Susan Watson, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid attorney for the nine plaintiffs, “When our own government treats them this way, they deserve their day in court,” she said. The plaintiffs claim they notified authorities of multiple beatings but no action was taken. One of the plaintiffs is described in court documents as a 16-year-old Honduran male identified as C.C. Arriving at the border alone, C.C. was put into custody for a week by Border Patrol agents. He was later transferred to the Hector Garza Center, where court filings claim a teacher “severely battered C.C. punching and kicking him, then beating him with a chair as he lay on the floor.” Lawsuit filings claim C.C. conveyed this to the authorities but nothing was done. A week later, court documents indicate C.C. came to the defense of another child who was being beaten. C.C. was hit again, this time losing consciousness and ended up in the hospital, according to the civil complaint. A spokesperson for Cornell Companies, Charles Seigel, says the company strongly denies any abuse, “Every complaint has been investigated by the company as well as by the state…and none of these have ever found any evidence of anything that can back up the charges.” Seigel said there was a time when one of the teenagers went to the hospital but said it was due to injuries from a fight between the detainees, not from an abusive teacher. This is not the first time Cornell Companies has been accused of safety problems. In September, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency pulled all 600 detainees from an Albuquerque jail run by Cornell. ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the agency, “had great concern over the health, safety and security of our detainees in the facility” but would not provide any more detail. News reports at the time described a dirty, crowded facility with excessive heat and poor medical conditions. Nantel said the agency terminated its memorandum of understanding with the company this winter. The Hector Garza San Antonio facility that contracted with the federal Office of Refugee and Resettlement (ORR) opened one month after ICE pulled their detainees from Cornell Companies’ care. The Office of Refugee Resettlement declined all comment citing the pending litigation. Cornell Companies is just one of the companies that manages 36 ORR facilities nationwide. Documentation of care for immigrant detainee children in these detention centers across the country is poor according to a March, 2008 report from the Inspector General for Health and Human Services. The report found, based on a sampling of case files, that more than half lacked one or more required assessments for the children. Half did not contain education records and more than half did not include notes from counseling sessions. Auditors say this left it unclear whether children were receiving services at all.